Keeneland kicks off fall meet with record purses

LEXINGTON, Ky. – After an unseasonably warm start to fall, a cool front was set to sweep into the area Friday – ushering in an October feel just in time for a beloved fall tradition in the Horse Capital of the World as Keeneland’s 17-day fall meet begins. After the three days of “Fall Stars” opening weekend, the meet runs on a Wednesday-through-Sunday schedule through Oct. 28, with first post each day 1 p.m.

Keeneland will card 22 stakes races worth a record $9.05 million this meet; that figure includes $1.3 million in purse bonuses for statebreds from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund. The schedule is front-loaded for Fall Stars weekend, which, four weeks before the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 3-4 at Santa Anita, is situated ideally for prep races. Of the 11 stakes races in these three days, eight are Win and You’re In automatic qualifiers for corresponding Breeders’ Cup races, including the richest race of the meet, the Grade 1, $1 million Coolmore Turf Mile on Saturday. Five of the nine Coolmore Turf Mile entrants, including defending winner Annapolis, are previous Grade 1 winners.

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After a 50 percent chance of showers through Friday morning, conditions will be ideal for racing for the rest of the stakes-loaded weekend, with sunshine and highs in the 60s.

Alongside the stakes, there are hefty purses for the bread-and-butter races of this meet. The condition book features $100,000 maiden special weights for juveniles. Allowance or allowance/optional-claiming races on opening weekend have purses ranging from $110,000 to $130,000, including KTDF funds. With those rich prizes, the average field size for the 31 races on opening weekend is 10.3, including several races that have oversubscribed.

Large fields provide more opportunities for bettors at Keeneland, which has reported records for all-sources handle for five consecutive meetings. In addition to multi-race wagers linking its own stakes, new this year is the Breeders’ Cup Pick 6 on Saturday. The wager features six Breeders’ Challenge races, three each from Keeneland and Santa Anita.

Also on the wagering menu are the Keeneland Turf Pick 3, offered on the final three turf races each day; the Super High Five, on the final race each day; and New York Racing Association’s Cross Country wager on Saturdays, including Keeneland.

The regular jockey colony is led by Tyler Gaffalione, on a tear in Kentucky this season, taking titles at the Keeneland spring meet and, in September, the meets at Kentucky Downs and Churchill Downs. Luis Saez, second in the Keeneland spring standings before winning the Churchill spring title, will be back in the irons Friday for his first races since fracturing his wrist and dislocating a collar bone in an Aug. 23 spill at Saratoga.

Trainers based at Keeneland year-round, including Wesley Ward – who has won or shared nine meet titles, including this past spring – compete against strings that have come in for multi-fronted operations. Todd Pletcher’s group at this meet will include Eclipse Award champion Nest, entered in Sunday’s Grade 1 Spinster. Chad Brown has been a dominant force in some of the meet’s Grade 1 turf races, winning the First Lady a record six times and the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup a record five. He will saddle last year’s winners of those races – In Italian and Gina Romantica, respectively – in Saturday’s First Lady.

There are no walk-up ticket sales for Keeneland meets, with tickets for all sections of the stands being sold in advance. Tailgating on the grounds, with wagering windows and screens to watch the races on the popular “Hill,” is mainly free and no-reservation. The tailgating sections are typically heavily populated by University of Kentucky students, who, on two of the three Saturdays of this meet, will be raucous for a local sports doubleheader, with home football games on Oct. 14 and 28.

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