Keeneland notes: Close Hatches, Don't Tell Sophia meet again in Spinster

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Close Hatches, unbeaten in four starts this year and a standout in the 2014 filly and mare handicap division, will be a huge favorite when the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes is run Sunday with a small field – but at least one person is hoping the Juddmonte Farms filly stubs her toe a little: Phil Sims, trainer and co-owner of Don’t Tell Sophia.

“Close Hatches is a hell of a horse,” said Sims, who has been based at Keeneland since 1980. “She beat us in the Azeri in Arkansas this winter, but we had a bar shoe on that day.”

Six-year-old Don’t Tell Sophia, a $1,000 yearling purchase, has won 10 of 21 starts and earned nearly $680,000. In her latest start, she won the Sept. 6 Locust Grove at Churchill in her first outing since being laid up with a persistent quarter crack following the March 15 Azeri at Oaklawn Park.

The Spinster and the Grade 3 Bourbon Stakes close out the nine-race Fall Stars Weekend stakes schedule Sunday.

Presque Isle trainers largely absent

The elimination of the Polytrack surface at Keeneland translated into “maybe a couple hundred more” stalls than normal being occupied in the stable area this fall, according to director of racing Rogers Beasley, but one faction of horsemen that had become mainstays at the fall meet is largely absent this year.

Most of the trainers and jockeys who typically have migrated here from Presque Isle Downs, the Pennsylvania track where the synthetic Tapeta is the only racing surface, have moved instead to Woodbine or ThistleDown.

◗ High-end allowance races at Keeneland frequently attract “name” horses with deep stakes experience – and the first such horse to surface at the fall meet is Bourbon Courage, who figures as a heavy favorite in the sixth race on the Friday opener, a $62,000, third-level allowance at 6 1/2 furlongs.

Trained by Kellyn Gorder, 5-year-old Bourbon Courage has earned nearly $940,000 while knocking heads with the likes of Shackleford, Will Take Charge, Game On Dude, and Lea during his 18-race career.