Keeneland notes: Ramseys targeting their own fall-meet record

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Ken Ramsey wanted to know: What’s the record for the most wins by an owner at a fall meet at Keeneland?

“Whatever it is, we’re going to try to break it,” Ramsey said Wednesday from his Nicholasville, Ky., farm.

Well, the fall-meet record is 12, and it was set last fall by none other than Ramsey and his wife, Sarah. So, does anyone doubt that they will smash this one, too? After more than doubling the former Keeneland spring-meet mark with an incredible 25 winners in April, Ken Ramsey wants a matching 2013 bookend at the 17-day fall meet that runs Friday through Oct. 26.

“We’ve got a whole lot to run,” said Ramsey, who has six horses entered on the 10-race Friday opener. “We want to win here and then carry that into the Breeders’ Cup and the fall meet at Churchill.”

Ramsey, the 74-year-old self-made millionaire known for a savvy business acumen masked by his aw-shucks demeanor, already has a couple of confirmed Breeders’ Cup starters in Big Blue Kitten and Real Solution for the $3 million Turf. But he reeled off the names of another half-dozen horses who could advance to the Nov. 1-2 championships at Santa Anita if they run well enough in their final preps.

“In the next week or so, we’ve got We Miss Artie, Bobby’s Kitten, Granny Mac’s Kitten, Kitten Kaboodle, Lien On Kitten, and Coalport all running in preps,” he said. “We’d like to have Stephanie’s Kitten and Thank You Marylou, too, but they’re both done for the year.”

Coalport is among the opposition for 2012 Horse of the Year Wise Dan in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile on Saturday at Keeneland.

“Wise Dan is great, no doubt, but I never fear one horse,” Ramsey said. “They can be a late scratch or have an off day or whatever. I’ve seen 1-5 shots get beat plenty of times. Besides, I’ve never been one to shy away from a challenge.”

Leparoux at Keeneland part time

Julien Leparoux, who has won or tied for nine Keeneland riding titles since 2006, will not be riding here this fall on a regular basis, as he did in the spring. But he will be here Friday when riding the Arlington-Washington Lassie winner, She’s Offlee Good, for trainer Richie Scherer in the Alcibiades.

“Julien obviously knows Keeneland better than most, so we thought it’d be good to have him,” Scherer said this week from Hawthorne in Chicago.

She’s Offlee Good, one of four returnees from the Lassie, rallied from midpack under Eddie Castro to remain unbeaten in winning the one-mile Polytrack race by two lengths.

“She’s done everything right so far,” Scherer said. “She’s a versatile filly who can be near the lead or not, depending on how it unfolds. I’m putting all that in Julien’s hands.”

Leparoux also will ride Saturday at Keeneland before returning to ride Sunday at Santa Anita.

◗ Kent Desormeaux and Florent Geroux will ride the early races Saturday at Keeneland before boarding a charter plane at nearby Blue Grass Airport to ride the later stakes races at Hawthorne. Desormeaux, coming off his first full Arlington meet, has hired Lou Rivera as his new agent for the rest of the fall and into the Fair Grounds meet, where the Hall of Fame jockey will ride regularly for the first time this winter.

◗ As usually happens with graded stakes at Keeneland, a handful of undercard races Friday are named in recognition of the sponsoring entity. The Medaglia d’Oro, Hard Spun, Bernardini, and Animal Kingdom – races named for Darley stallions – all are being run Friday prior to the Darley Alcibiades.

◗ Friday marks the first day at work at Keeneland for Steve Buttleman, the longtime Churchill Downs bugler who is replacing Bucky Sallee. Keeneland has made quite a big deal about Sallee retiring after more than 50 years, giving him the title “bugler emeritus” and planning ceremonies for Friday to honor him.

◗ Equibase chart caller Steve Peery must be a candidate for combat pay. Peery worked the five-day Kentucky Downs meet, where fields averaged almost 10 horses per race, and now he’s back at Keeneland, where the opener consists entirely of big fields, too.

◗ If the name Barzini – a 4-year-old gelding entered in the seventh race Friday – sounds vaguely familiar to movie buffs, there’s a reason. Emilio Barzini was the mortal enemy of the Corleone family in the “Godfather” trilogy.