Keeneland handicapping roundup: Week of Oct. 19

Two more Breeders’ Cup prospects for Ramseys

Although the bulk of the leading prep races for the Breeders’ Cup were run in late September and early October, at least a couple races at Keeneland last week generated some Breeders’ Cup starters, specifically for owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey.

The Ramseys won two graded stakes at Keeneland last week, first with Kitten Kaboodle in the Grade 3 Jessamine and later with Kitten’s Dumplings in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup. Both winners are homebreds by their stallion Kitten’s Joy.

Kitten Kaboodle’s victory – a 4 3/4-length romp – earned her a Win and You’re In expense-paid berth in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, while Kitten’s Dumplings’s neck triumph over favored Alterite vaulted her into the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

Her entrance in the Filly and Mare Turf won’t come with a free ride, as the QE II was not a Win and You’re In contest. Nevertheless, her performance, in which she earned a career-best 95 Beyer Speed Figure, was enough to convince the Ramseys to pursue the Breeder’s Cup with her.

With the addition of these two, the Ramseys now have seven horses likely for the Breeders’ Cup.

Of the pair at Keeneland last week, Kitten Kaboodle may stand the better chance in the Breeders’ Cup, if for no other reason that she gets to stay among her peers. Kitten’s Dumplings, by contrast, will have to face older females for the first time in the Breeders’ Cup.
The QE II, like all of Kitten’s Dumplings’s races this year, was restricted to 3-year-old fillies.

QE II runner-up Alterite, who was edged by a neck after breaking a little sluggishly and raced three wide for most of the race, merits watching next year at 4.

Stakes drought ends

In other stakes action from last week, though without Breeders’ Cup implications, 30-1 longshot Queen’s Award unleashed a powerful late surge to win last Friday’s Franklin County stakes on the turf under Kent Desormeaux.

Remarkably, the stakes win was the first for Desormeaux since September 2012, when he guided Politicallycorrect to victory in the Oklahoma Derby.

A Hall of Famer, Desormeaux has ridden sparingly at the Keeneland meet after experiencing somewhat of a resurgence at Arlington following a quiet winter and spring.

After Keeneland, he plans to ride at Churchill Downs, with Fair Grounds penciled in as a winter base.

As for Queen’s Award, she has a date in the Keeneland sales arena. She is cataloged in the Keeneland November breeding stock sale as a racing or broodmare prospect.

Ward colt sharp in return

Somewhat lost in all the stakes action was Sunday’s win by Pablo Del Monte, who rolled to a 7 1/2-length victory under Desormeaux in a first-level allowance that marked the colt’s first race since a victory in the spring meet.

Owned and trained by Wesley Ward, Pablo Del Monte blitzed 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:15.55. He is a 2-year-old by Giant’s Causeway out of the Ward-owned One Hot Wish, who set a 4 1/2-furlong world record of 48.87 seconds when she won her debut by 12 1/4 lengths at Keeneland on April 12, 2007.

Pablo Del Monte posted a 90 Beyer for his Sunday score.

Big crowds all weekend

Under perfect weather conditions and with attendance buoyed by a night-time University of Kentucky football game, Saturday’s attendance at Keeneland was a fall-meet record 32,717.

Saturday wasn’t a one-time deal. Along with Friday attendance of 22,807 and a Sunday crowd of 16,927, Keeneland’s combined three-day attendance was 72,451 – highest ever for a three-day period during a fall meet at the track.