Keeneland notes: Nellie Cashman headlines full field in Valley View

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Two of the 11 3-year-old fillies invited to run in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup were withheld from the Grade 1 race last weekend at Keeneland, leaving a field of nine.

Discretion proved the better part of valor in the case of the first of those defections, Discreet Marq, a New York-bred filly who won the $200,000 Pebbles Stakes on Monday at Belmont Park.

As for the other, Nellie Cashman, a verdict could be known when trainer Francis “Tres” Abbott III sends her out from the rail post as part of an oversubscribed field in the Grade 3, $150,000 Valley View Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile turf fixture carded as the ninth of 10 races Friday at Keeneland. Seventeen were entered, with 14 going on the program and only as many as 12 starting.

Nellie Cashman, a Pennsylvania-bred daughter of Mineshaft, has finished first in each of her last three races, although the last one, the Grade 2 Lake Placid at Saratoga, resulted in her disqualification to third for interference in deep stretch. Five weeks before that, the dark bay filly won the Grade 3 Virginia Oaks at Colonial Downs.

From the hedge, this is the body of the race for the 23rd Valley View: Nellie Cashman, She’s Popular, Summer of Fun, Stormin Elle, Yuzuru, Frivolous, Every Way, Overheard, Miss Lamour, Sustained, I O Ireland, and Unbelievable Dream. The two also-eligibles are Hedonemewrongsong and Sense to Compete.

Friday is College Scholarship Day, with a $1,000 scholarship being raffled off after every race. Contestants must be present to win. The popular bi-annual event is co-sponsored by Keeneland and the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association.

Arnold’s streak in jeopardy

Trainer Rusty Arnold and his obligatory asterisk have scarcely drawn mention thus far this meet, and that’s because Arnold went winless with his first 14 starters. The 58-year-old native of nearby Paris, Ky., has won a race at every Keeneland meet since the 1986 spring meet (except for one in the late 1980s when he had no starters, which is where the asterisk comes in).

“Am I worried?” Arnold asked rhetorically. “Heck, I worry on the first day they run here. I know how easily [going winless] could happen.”

Realistically, the odds favor Arnold keeping his streak alive. He has two horses in the Thursday entries – Southern Parkway in the second and Queen Daenerys in the fifth – and said he has “quite a few left to run” before the meet ends Oct. 26.

“Hopefully we’ll get lucky by then,” he said.

Fojan had enough

Yes, the 4-year-old maiden colt Iamdonewithmylawer was named out of exasperation.

Emilie Fojan, a longtime Lexington horsewoman, said she was upset with her legal representation in the aftermath of the Flight 5191 disaster in August 2006 in which her longtime partner, George Brunacini, was killed.

“It was five years of getting nothing done and I’d had enough,” she said.

Fojan, a trainer since 2002, gave her homebred colt to her longtime assistant, Luis Jurado, who has run Iamdonewithmylawer in six races, the most recent resulting in a fourth-place finish Saturday as the lukewarm favorite in a tough maiden special weight sprint.

Walsh’s first Keeneland winner

Brendan Walsh, who opened a public stable in the fall of 2011, had his first Keeneland winner Saturday when Broadway Missile led throughout in the first race.

Before going on his own, Walsh, a 40-year-old native of County Cork, Ireland, worked for four years as an assistant and exercise rider for Eddie Kenneally following a lengthy stint for the Godolphin Racing powerhouse in Dubai. He has about 12 horses in training at the Trackside training center in Louisville.