Keeneland: Stakes favorites find going tough

LEXINGTON, Ky. – If not for last-to-first rallies by My Conquestadory and Emollient, favorites would have been blanked in the nine graded stakes that comprised the FallStars events on opening weekend of the Keeneland fall meet.

My Conquestadory took the Darley Alcibiades on Friday at 6-5, while Emollient was 2-1 in winning the Juddmonte Spinster on Sunday. Favorites in the other seven stakes all went down to defeat, most notably 1-2 choices Wise Dan in the Shadwell Turf Mile and Groupie Doll in the Thoroughbred Club of America.

Overall, favorites went 1 for 10 Friday, 3 for 10 Saturday, and 7 for 9 Sunday, for a total of 11 for 29 (38 percent) for the weekend.

The combined ontrack attendance for the three-day weekend was 52,244. Weather was a major factor in keeping that number down: There was unseasonable heat Friday, followed by downpours Saturday, and a miserable rain fell almost all day Sunday, when a mere 9,034 turned out for what normally is a fan favorite, the Spinster.

Ken and Sarah Ramsey, seeking their seventh meet owner’s title in 2013, opened the meet 4 for 15, with their 9-1 upset by We Miss Artie in the Dixiana Breeders’ Futurity being easily their biggest win.

The Ramseys will be represented by the uncoupled homebred duo of Kitten’s Dumplings and Emotional Kitten when the biggest race of the coming weekend, the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, is run Saturday on turf as the highlight of the opening half of a Blue Grass sports doubleheader.

Emotional Kitten was a late invitee to the $400,000 QE II after the connections of Topaze Blanche and Wishing Gate declined invitations.

These are the 11 3-year-old fillies expected for the 1 1/8-mile QE II when entries are drawn Wednesday: Alterite, Caroline Thomas, Concise, Discreet Marq, Emotional Kitten, I’m Already Sexy, Kitten’s Dumplings, Leigh Court, Nellie Cashman, Sarach, and Say.

Say had not been confirmed Monday for the QE II by owner Coolmore and trainer Aidan O’Brien. The filly was no factor when sixth against older females Saturday in the Grade 1 First Lady, but her jockey, Joe Bravo, believed ominous weather conditions weighed heavily on the filly’s mind.

“I can honestly say that wasn’t her best effort with that storm that hit,” Bravo said via Twitter. “I don’t think Say knew what hit her.”

Two years ago, Coolmore and O’Brien won the QE II with Together, who had finished second in the First Lady the previous Saturday.

The 10-race Saturday card is expected to draw thousands of college football fans who, after taking in some Thoroughbred action, will make the short drive to Commonwealth Stadium to watch the University of Kentucky host the nation’s No. 1-ranked team, Alabama, for a 7 p.m. Eastern kickoff.

◗ Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez escaped serious injury after winning the first race Sunday when his mount, Ichiban Warrior, attempted to jump an outer rail toward the barn area on the gallop-out. The 2-year-old colt actually fell on Velazquez, who was fortunate to sustain only minor bruising in the incident.

Velazquez, who topped the jockeys’ standings with four wins through opening weekend, was able to ride the rest of the day, getting a maiden win on Super Sky and runner-up finishes on Bashart in the Bourbon Stakes and Summer Applause in the Spinster Stakes. He is named on three mounts Wednesday.

◗ The nine-race Wednesday card not only includes the Grade 3 Jessamine Stakes but three allowances on a terrific day of racing. Race 2 is a $58,000 Polytrack sprint with a well-matched field of six 3-year-olds and up; race 3 is a $58,000 turf mile with Queenie’s Song a lukewarm 3-1 favorite for Graham Motion among eight 2-year-old fillies; and race 7 is a $60,000 Polytrack sprint in which Gal About Town makes her first start for Charlie LoPresti and her first in almost nine months.

◗ The new Keeneland Library Lecture Series will present “Racecourse Architecture” by Paul Roberts on Wednesday evening in the Keeneland Library. The two-hour program starts at 7:30.