Keeneland fall to offer 22 stakes; Coolmore sponsors Turf Mile, purse back to $1 million
Before Keeneland hosts the Breeders’ Cup World Championships for the third time, the track will offer 22 stakes worth a record $8.75 million during its fall meet, the track announced Thursday.
The 17-day season runs from Oct. 7-29, with the Breeders’ Cup following on Nov. 4-5.
Keeneland has adjusted some stakes on the schedule to attract horses prepping for the Breeders’ Cup, most notably moving the Grade 2 Jessamine to opening day after previously being contested the second week of the meet. The race for 2-year-old turf fillies thus becomes part of the opening FallStars Weekend, which will have 11 stakes, nine of them Win and You’re In events for the Breeders’ Cup.
In addition to the Jessamine, the Friday, Oct. 7 opening card will include the Grade 1 Alcibiades and the Grade 2 Phoenix.
The following day includes the season’s richest race, the Grade 1, $1 million Coolmore Turf Mile. In addition to this being Coolmore’s first year as title sponsor, the race is again worth seven figures – a status it held from 2014, when it was Keeneland’s first million-dollar race, through 2019.
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Purses for all stakes at the meet have been increased and several have doubled. The Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund is contributing $1.3 million to fall meet stakes purses, pending approval from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.
The Saturday card also includes the Grade 1, $600,000 Breeders’ Futurity, the Grade 1, $350,000 First Lady, the Grade 2, $350,000 Thoroughbred Club of America, and the Grade 2, $350,000 Woodford.
Sunday of Fall Stars Weekend has three stakes – the Grade 1, $600,000 Spinster, the Grade 2, $350,000 Bourbon, and the $250,000 Indian Summer.
Stakes on the second week of the meet begin Friday, Oct. 14, with the Grade 3, $300,000 Sycamore for older males racing 1 1/2 miles on turf. Keeneland moved the Sycamore a week earlier on the calendar to serve as an option for horses pointing at the Breeders’ Cup Turf at the same distance.
The following day, Saturday, Oct. 15, is the meet’s sixth Grade 1, the $600,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup. To mark the ongoing celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, Great British Racing International and QIPCO British Champions Series, on behalf of British racing, will present the winning owner of the QE II a specially designed strawberry dish to commemorate the Queen’s international impact on Thoroughbred racing.
The third stakes that weekend is the Grade 3, $300,000 Franklin County on Sunday, Oct. 16.
Stakes action resumes the following Saturday, Oct 22, with the Grade 2, $350,000 Raven Run and $250,000 Perryville. The following day is the Grade 3, $300,000 Dowager.
The meet will close with two multiple stakes days beginning with the Grade 3, $300,000 Valley View and $200,000 Myrtlewood on Friday, Oct. 28. Closing day will feature the Grade 2, $350,000 Fayette, the Grade 3, $300,000 Bryan Station, and the $200,000 Bowman Mill. The Bryan Station was upgraded to a Grade 3 event for 2022.
“The stakes schedule is designed to present our horsemen and fans with exceptional racing opportunities from opening day through the final card of the fall meet,” Keeneland vice president of racing Gatewood Bell said in a release.