Jeff Ruby Steaks draws full field of 12

Hazit and Ride a Comet were installed as 5-1 co-favorites on the morning line when a full field of 12 3-year-olds was drawn Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Jeff Ruby Steaks, the signature race at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.

The Jeff Ruby (formerly called the Spiral, Jim Beam and other names over its 46 prior runnings), a 1 1/8-mile race on Polytrack, may carry less importance as a Kentucky Derby prep this year after having its Derby qualifying points and purse cut sharply. A $500,000 race that offered 50 qualifying points last year to victorious longshot Fast and Accurate, who ran 17th in the Derby, it now offers only 20.

Those changes did not seem to negatively impact the composition of Saturday’s field. As in years past, it drew mostly second-tier stakes 3-year-olds, but the race is deep and contentious.

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Both morning-line favorites are unraced on a synthetic surface but are by sires whose progeny have often succeeded on it. Hazit is by War Front, and Ride a Comet by Candy Ride.

Hazit’s claim to fame is having beaten 2017 juvenile champion Good Magic when both were unveiled at Saratoga on Aug. 26 last year. But while that race proved a stepping-stone for better things to come for Good Magic, the eventual Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, Hazit has gone winless since. He was unplaced in the Champagne and Breeder’s Cup Juvenile and then was upset when second in an allowance at Tampa Feb. 18 for Todd Pletcher in his seasonal debut.

Ride a Comet was slower to come around, losing his first three races before winning two straight at Fair Grounds when routing this winter for trainer Mark Casse. He took an off-the-turf maiden race in the slop Dec. 17 before rolling by 3 1/2 lengths in grass first-level allowance there Jan. 6.

Besides this duo, the Jeff Ruby includes the top three finishers from Turfway’s John Battaglia Stakes – Magicalmeister, Sky Promise, and Arawak – along with several others that have raced on other synthetic tracks across North America. Archaggelos won the Grade 3 Grey Stakes last fall over Polytrack at Woodbine, and Blended Citizen and Mugaritz were recently third and fourth in the El Camino Real Derby over the Tapeta surface at Golden Gate Fields on Feb. 17.

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From the rail, this is the Jeff Ruby lineup: Sky Promise, Cash Call Kitten, Archaggelos, Pony Up, Magicalmeister, Mugaritz, Hazit, Blended Citizen, Dreamer’s Point, Zanesville, Ride a Comet, and Arawak.

Up-and-coming young jockeys Drayden Van Dyke and Tyler Gaffalione are the most prominent of the out-of-town riders securing mounts in the Jeff Ruby, with the former on Hazit and the latter on Cash Call Kitten, a winner of his two starts in Florida this winter, both on grass.

Four stakes support the Jeff Ruby card on Saturday, up from two a year ago. In addition to the Grade 3, $100,000 Bourbonette and $75,000 Rushaway Stakes, staples of the day, the $75,000 Latonia (formerly the Wintergreen) was moved to Saturday and the Kentucky Cup Classic was revived with a $100,000 purse.

The Bourbonette, a qualifying race for the Kentucky Oaks, also had its points value reduced to 20 this year by Churchill Downs.

The Kentucky Cup Classic, last run in 2011, is headlined by synthetic specialist Royal Son, who ran a 105 Beyer Speed Figure in winning the Dec. 29 Prairie Bayou at Turfway.

First post Saturday is 1:10 p.m. Eastern, a deviation from Turfway’s customary evening programs, with the Jeff Ruby set for 6. The forecast calls for partly sunny skies Saturday afternoon with a high temperature expected to be in the low to mid 40s.