Get tied on, Keeneland meet is quick from the gate

There’s no ramp-up to the Keeneland fall meeting, which commences Friday and immediately plunges into a long weekend of stakes racing with championship implications.

The Friday and Saturday cards, the first two of 17 programs at this October meeting, were drawn Monday, and the five-stakes Saturday menu especially is loaded. Three of those five Saturday stakes – the First Lady, the Breeders’ Futurity, and the Turf Mile – are Grade 1s, the latter two part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge series along with the Thoroughbred Club of America.

Friday’s three stakes – the Phoenix, Jessamine, and Grade 1 Alcibiades – all are Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In races. So, too, are the Bourbon and the Grade 1 Spinster on Sunday.

Opening weekend, dubbed Fall Stars Weekend, includes 11 stakes worth $5.8 million, part of a 22-stakes fall schedule offering purses worth just less than $10 million.

Flavien Prat, Jose Ortiz, Luis Saez, Tyler Gaffalione, and Manny Franco all ride the Friday card. Prat is gone Saturday, but John Velazquez and Mike Smith have mounts.

Keeneland, flush with capital after their September yearling sale, clearly signed Mother Nature to a lucrative agreement this week: The Friday and Saturday forecasts call for sunshine and a high of about 80 degrees.

:: Get the Inside Track with the FREE DRF Morning Line Email Newsletter. Subscribe now.

The Alcibiades, a two-turn dirt test for 2-year-old fillies that headlines the Friday program, drew eight entrants, including the one-two finishers, Immersive and Quietside, from the Grade 1 Spinaway, a seven-furlong contest at Saratoga. Immersive, trained for Godolphin by Brad Cox, figures to be favored although she went off at 12-1 in the Spinaway, which had Quietside as a tepid favorite.

Cox might also saddle the Jessamine favorite, Destino d’Oro, with Prat riding the 2-year-old filly back in this turf route after piloting her to a decisive debut win at Kentucky Downs. May Day Ready, who captured the Juvenile Fillies at Kentucky Downs, also was entered in the Jessamine after the Miss Grillo this past Sunday at Aqueduct was rained out.

Nakatomi, second in the 2023 Phoenix Stakes, will be favored to win the same race Friday on the heels of his victory in the Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga. The Phoenix, a dirt sprint, also drew the admirable Nathan Hayden homebred Here Mi Song. The smallest of mom-and-pop owners, Hayden bought a mare named Mi Viera after she’d concluded a 0 for 17 career. Hayden paid a song for Mi Viera, bred her to Cross Traffic, and came up with Here Mi Song, who is on the cusp of $1 million in earnings.

Saturday’s Turf Mile stands as a major prep for the Breeders’ Cup Mile, and Chad Brown trains three of the nine entrants, including Carl Spackler, the likely favorite. Carl Spackler breaks from the far outside post while bidding for his second straight Grade 1 victory following the Fourstardave at Saratoga.

Two overseas entrants, Mountain Bear and Kikkuli, add intrigue, while trainer Todd Pletcher will land his third consecutive Turf Mile should Talk Radio prevail.

While Brown never has won the Turf Mile, he’s captured the last six renewals of the First Lady and stands to win another Saturday. Gina Romantica, Whitebeam, and Chili Flag comprise Brown’s formidable trio for the one-mile First Lady, which also drew the sharp California shipper Ag Bullet.

Ferocious, second as the odds-on favorite in the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga, tops 11 entrants in Saturday’s Breeders’ Futurity, a dirt-route prep for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Ferocious won his debut at Saratoga by a wide margin while earning a 96 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest this year by a 2-year-old. Debut winners Handsome Pants and East Avenue could have a say.

:: Bet with the Best! Get FREE All-Access PPs and Weekly Cashback when you wager on DRF Bets.

The Grade 2 Woodford, a turf sprint that includes 2023 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Nobals, and the Thoroughbred Club of America for older fillies and mares at six furlongs on dirt, kick off the Saturday stakes action.

On Sunday, Idiomatic should wind up a heavy favorite to win her second straight Spinster.

And then it is on to the remainder of Keeneland’s fall 2024 meeting – which will not be too shabby, either.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.