Four stakes on rich closing-day card
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
The September gravy train reaches the end Saturday at Kentucky Downs, where the last four of 12 stakes are interspersed throughout a 13-race meet finale.
The turf-only track where purses are averaging roughly $1.5 million per program ends its five-day meet with the customary big fields and complex handicapping. Besides the Saturday stakes, which are worth a total of nearly $1 million, the card includes six other races with minimum purses of $120,000 apiece.
First post is 12:05 p.m. Central, with the 13th and last race to be run as the sun dips low in the western sky.
All non-claiming/starter races at Kentucky Downs, located along the Tennessee border in south-central Kentucky, include huge supplements restricted to horses eligible to the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund. Bonuses unused at this meet will revert to the 2016 purse account.
◗ $200,000 Dueling Grounds Oaks (race 11, post 5:05 Central)
Like so many others at this meet, this 1 5/16-mile (once-around) race is a real scramble on paper, with no clear-cut favorite and at least half the field having a legitimate right to win.
Calumet Farm has an uncoupled pair, Return to Grace and Miss Double d’Oro, drawn alongside each other in outside posts, and either could do just fine. Return to Grace, trained by Mark Casse, was beaten a nose in the Grade 3 Pucker Up, while Miss Double d’Oro was a last-out winner of an ungraded turf stakes on the Northern California fair circuit for Neil Drysdale.
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Other contenders include Dating Lady Luck, Heath, Walking the Kitten, and Queen of Scat. Dating Lady Luck, trained by Al Stall Jr., comes off back-to-back runner-up finishes in Saratoga allowances.
“We’re really looking forward to running her because we think she’ll stay the trip and we’ve got a big chance,” said Stall. “I actually thought we were pretty unlucky not to knock out our first allowance condition at Saratoga, but she seems to really come out of her races better than she goes in.”
◗ $300,000 Kentucky Downs Ladies Marathon (race 10, 4:35)
Some 2,000 miles east of where they last met, Honey Lake and Dido are being rematched. The 5-year-old mares were the respective one-two finishers in an ungraded Aug. 21 stakes on the Del Mar turf.
Honey Lake, trained by Vicki Oliver, and Dido, trained by Graham Motion, are among eight fillies and mares in this 1 5/16-mile race.
“We’ve got to run against Vicki’s horse again, but our mare is in good form,” said Motion.
One likely advantage for Honey Lake and Dido is that not much pace is signed on otherwise, which could allow their respective riders, Jon Court and Jimmy Graham, to be prominent from the start.
Other considerations are Courtesan, making her first start in 10 weeks for Christophe Clement, and Always Kitten, whose trainer, Mike Maker, held a 5-4 lead over Casse atop the trainer standings going into closing day.
◗ $300,000 Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf (race 7, 3:05)
I’m Already Sexy won this one-mile race last year as an even-money favorite, and although she won’t be backed quite as heavily this time, she still figures as the one to beat in an outstanding field of 11 fillies and mares.
Trained by Wayne Catalano, I’m Already Sexy comes off a runner-up finish in the Grade 3 Matchmaker at her summer home, Monmouth Park, and brings a field-high bankroll of $663,700 to these proceedings. Julien Leparoux has the call.
The track program lists Sunset Glow as a lukewarm morning-line favorite even though she’s a 3-year-old facing older horses for the first time and hasn’t won since capturing the Del Mar Debutante more than a year ago. Joel Rosario will be in from New York to ride Sunset Glow for trainer Wesley Ward.
Kiss Moon, who pulled a mild upset when narrowly defeating I’m Already Sexy in the June 6 Mint Julep at Churchill Downs, is among the balance of the field, along with Florida shipper Lori’s Store and the late-running Bitty Kitty.
◗ $150,000 One Dreamer (race 6, 2:35)
The first of the Saturday stakes might be the most confounding. Rusty Slipper, trained by Motion, was supposed to run here Sept. 10, when split divisions of the One Dreamer were canceled because of too-soft ground. The race was ultimately redrawn, getting 12 fillies and mares in the main body and four more on an also-eligible list.
“She’s coming all the way back there a second time, which could be a little hard on her,” said Motion, who is based at Fair Hill in northern Maryland. “But these conditions fit her very well.”
The One Dreamer, at a mile and 70 yards, is restricted to non-winners of a stakes in 2015. Rusty Slipper, with Graham to ride, has plenty of graded races on her past performances and is a logical player, along with Aguafria, Kitten’s Dumplings, Industrial Policy, A Little Bit Sassy, and Annulment.
Kitten’s Dumplings is seeking her first victory since taking the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland nearly two years ago.