Keeneland notes: Ciao Bella Luna seeks rare double in Raven Run

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Ciao Bella Luna will attempt to duplicate what Gypsy Robin did last year, sweeping the Beaumont and Raven Run stakes, when she runs back Saturday at Keeneland for the first time since winning the Beaumont Stakes here in April.

Ciao Bella Luna is part of an oversubscribed field of 3-year-old fillies in the Grade 2, $250,000 Raven Run Stakes, the richest race remaining on Keeneland’s fall-meet stakes schedule. Only one other filly has won both the Beaumont and the Raven Run, and that was Gypsy Robin.

Ciao Bella Luna will be making her first start since being sold last summer and turned over to Wayne Catalano, who has been working her regularly since mid-August toward this seven-furlong Polytrack race. The Kentucky-bred filly was terrific in the Beaumont when rallying from well back to win going away.

“We’d just like for her to give the same kind of effort this time around,” Catalano said.

Like many stakes run at Keeneland this fall, the Raven Run came up extremely competitive, with the field including seven other stakes winners, most notably Lighthouse Bay, the winner of the Grade 1 Prioress at Saratoga in July.

Ciao Bella Luna will have Ricardo Santana Jr. aboard from post 9, while Lighthouse Bay will break from post 5 with Joe Rocco Jr. up.

Sixteen fillies are on the program for the Raven Run, the ninth of 10 Saturday races, but a maximum of 14 can start. One of the two also-eligibles is Madame Cactus, who won the rich Delta Princess last November and has raced just once since then for California-based trainer Peter Eurton, finishing second to Gypsy Robin in a restricted stakes last month at Del Mar.

One tough allowance Friday

Keeneland allowances can be hit-or-miss in terms of depth and intrigue. As for the seventh race Friday, a $64,000, classified allowance at a mile on turf, well, that’s definitely a hit.

Among those in an oversubscribed field are two horses who had a major impact on the 2011 Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs: Regally Ready, the winner of the Turf Sprint, and Turallure, beaten a nose in the Mile.

The race also drew Nates Mineshaft, whose form in early 2012 was among the best in America, and several others with solid form in recent stakes, such as Seruni, Trend, and Pure Tactics.

And then there’s Rogue Romance, who was a serious candidate for the 2011 Kentucky Derby before being sidelined with a foot ailment. Now 5, the horse has been transferred by owner and breeder Catesby Clay into the care of trainer Eric Reed and will be making his first start in 16 months.

“He had foot issues that cost him a year,” Reed said. “He’s been training very, very good on our farm [Mercury Equine Center], and I think he’s ready for a big race. Obviously, it’s a tough field, and we’ll see what happens. He’s as good as he can be right now.”

Pablo Del Monte eyes Jackpot

Wesley Ward has decided on the $1 million Delta Jackpot on Nov. 23 at Delta Downs as the next race for Pablo Del Monte, the exciting 2-year-old prospect who ran off to a 7 1/2-length victory Sunday in a 6 1/2-furlong Polytrack allowance.

“He doesn’t have enough experience to try to make the Breeders’ Cup, and I want to have more time between races with him anyway,” Ward said.

Pablo Del Monte, by Giant’s Causeway, is unbeaten in two starts. Ward bred and owns the colt.

Rice has shipper

It wouldn’t be all that surprising to see Linda Rice send a horse from her New York base for a stakes race at Keeneland. But a $10,000 claimer?

That’s what Rice has going Friday with Glamour Galore, the 3-1 program favorite in the 10th and last race, a seven-furlong Polytrack event for fillies and mares.

“She doesn’t seem to run nearly as well on dirt or turf as on the synthetic,” said Rice, a perennial top-five trainer on her home circuit. “The filly had been at Presque Isle with my brother [Wayne] for his last few races. We’re just trying to make the most of an opportunity.”

◗ Split divisions of a maiden special weight race for 2-year-olds will be run as the fifth and sixth races Friday at the Beard Course distance of seven furlongs and 184 feet. The Beard Course once was used quite frequently, but this marks the first time at the meet for any such races. Friday is the 10th of 17 fall dates. Keeneland racing secretary Ben Huffman said there was “no particular reason” that such races have not been carded. Seven furlongs has become a far more common distance.