Keeneland meet starts off with a bang
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Even with the young folk, it’s a local tradition far more palatable than, say, burning couches. Everybody gets all dressed up in their autumn finest to see and be seen at Keeneland, where a 17-day fall meet will get away to a flying start Friday.
A huge weekend that most of Lexington has had circled on their calendars for months begins Friday with a 10-race card highlighted by the Grade 1 Alcibiades and Grade 2 Phoenix, the first of 10 FallStars Weekend stakes and the first of 10 Win and You’re In races to be run toward the Nov. 5-6 Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar.
The action peaks Saturday with an 11-race card anchored by five graded stakes, including three Grade 1s – the Keeneland Turf Mile, Breeders’ Futurity, and First Lady. Much of the crowd will end up making the short trip afterward to nearby Kroger Field, where their beloved Kentucky Wildcats will try to stay unbeaten on the college football season when they face LSU. Last Saturday, Kentucky upset Florida, leading to more than a few scalawags in the local area engaging in the couch-burning ritual.
Anyway, celebrations of a more genteel kind can be expected here through an opening weekend that ends Sunday with the Grade 1 Spinster and two other stakes – and, in fact, throughout a front-loaded meet that ends Oct. 30. Fans will be present in larger numbers after three meets of pandemic-related restrictions, although a throng of 35,000 or so that might normally have turned out ahead of the LSU game won’t be happening Saturday. Through online ticketing, Keeneland is limiting crowds to a somewhat vague “20,000-plus,” a figure that will immediately be tested Friday and Saturday, given that general-admission sales for both days already have sold out.
Fortunately for those in attendance, the weather is supposed to be as good as the racing. Following Wednesday and Thursday rain, a local forecast of mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the high 70s is being predicted through Sunday.
Many of the top trainers on the continent will be represented throughout the meet. Todd Pletcher and Chad Brown have sent strings from New York, joining the likes of Brad Cox, Steve Asmussen, Mike Maker, Bill Mott, and many others. And although a number of big-name riders will be competing here periodically, the jockeys’ race surely will be decided among Tyler Gaffalione, Florent Geroux, and a handful of longtime regulars such as Julien Leparoux, Brian Hernandez Jr., and Corey Lanerie.
In all, there are 22 stakes on the fall schedule, including two new races, the Myrtlewood and Bowman Mill, and two revived ones, the Perryville and Bryan Station, all of them later in the meet. The sixth and last Grade 1 is the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on Oct. 16.
Stakes purses are projected at a record $6 million, while overnight purses also will be at an all-time high. Including bonuses for Kentucky-breds, maiden-specials will be worth as much as $84,000, while allowances start at $86,000.
NBCSN will provide select coverage from here the first four days of the meet, ending with the Grade 2 Jessamine on Wednesday.
First post daily is 1 p.m. Eastern. Mondays and Tuesdays are dark.