Keeneland fall stakes worth a record $9.05 million
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Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, Ky., will offer a record $9.05 million in stakes purses during its fall meet this year, the track announced on Wednesday.
The purses, which include $1.3 million in money from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund only available to Kentucky-bred horses, will be distributed in 22 stakes over the 17-day meet. Twelve of the stakes races are scheduled to be held on the grass, while 10 are scheduled for the dirt. Seventeen of the 22 stakes are graded.
The meet is scheduled to run from Oct. 6 to Oct. 28. As per usual for the fall meet, the graded stakes are front-loaded on the meet’s opening weekend, to act as preps for the Nov. 3-4 Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita Park in Southern California.
Keeneland will run 11 stakes over the opening Oct. 6-8 weekend, including eight graded stakes races that are part of the “Win and You’re In” Challenge series for the Breeders’ Cup. Winners of the designated Challenge races receive fees-paid berths to one of the 14 races held over the two-day Breeders’ Cup event.
The Grade 1 Alcibiades Stakes, worth $600,000 after a $100,000 increase this year, will headline the Oct. 6 card, along with the Grade 2 Phoenix Stakes and the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes, both worth $350,000. All three are Breeders’ Cup Challenge races.
On Oct. 7, Keeneland will card five graded stakes: the $1 million, Grade 1 Turf Mile; the $750,000, Grade 1 First Lady; the $600,000, Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity; and two Grade 2 races both worth $350,000: the Thoroughbred Club of America and the Woodford. The Turf Mile, the Breeders Futurity, and the Thoroughbred Club of America are Breeders’ Cup challenge races.
The following day, Keeneland will run the $600,000, Grade 1 Spinster; the $350,000, Grade 2 Bourbon; and the $250,000 Indian Summer. The Spinster and Bourbon are Breeders’ Cup Challenge races.
Keeneland noted that for the first time at its fall meet, all of its Grade 1 races will be worth at least $600,000 and that all of its Grade 2 races will be worth at least $350,000, when including KTDF monies. All of its Grade 3 races will be worth at least $300,000, and all of its listed stakes will have a minimum purse of $250,000, also when including KTDF monies.
“We believe these purse levels will attract the best in the sport and make for an exciting fall season of racing,” said Gatewood Bell, Keeneland’s vice president of racing, in a release.
The $600,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Stakes, a Grade 1 race on the turf for 3-year-old fillies, is scheduled for Oct. 14, the lone stakes race on the card.
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