Keeneland unveils spring 2026 stakes schedule worth record $9.55 million
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Keeneland’s 15-day spring meet will offer 19 stakes worth a season-record $9.55 million in total, including a number of upgraded races, the track announced on Tuesday.
Those stakes purses include $2.25 million from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund, pending approval from the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation.
The meet runs from Friday, April 3, through Friday, April 24. Nine stakes on the first two days of the meet include its two richest races. The Grade 1, $750,000 Ashland Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on Friday, April 3, awards its top finishers points toward the Kentucky Oaks on a 100-50-25-15-10 scale. The Grade 1, $1.25 million Blue Grass Stakes for 3-year-olds the following day awards points toward the Kentucky Derby starting gate on the same scale.
The opening weekend of the meet typically runs three days, but Sunday, April 5, will be a dark day for Easter. The Grade 2, $400,000 Beaumont Stakes, which would typically be featured that Sunday, has been shifted to opening day as a result, with the listed $300,000 Palisades moved back to April 19.
Along with the Ashland and Blue Grass, the spring meet includes three other Grade 1 stakes – the $650,000 Madison for female sprinters on April 4, the $650,000 Maker's Mark Mile on the turf April 10, and the $650,000 Jenny Wiley for fillies and mares on the turf April 11.
The spring takes that were announced as upgraded by the American Graded Stakes Committee, therefore receiving $50,000 purse hikes each as a result, are the Grade 2, $400,000 Giant’s Causeway on April 12; the Grade 2, $400,000 Doubledogdare on April 17; and the Grade 3, $350,000 Limestone on April 10. Shisospicy won the 2025 Limestone as part of a campaign that ended with a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint and has made her a three-division Eclipse Award finalist.
The other stakes at the meet are the Grade 3, $600,000 Transylvania on April 3; the $400,000 Lafayette on April 3; the Grade 2, $500,000 Appalachian on April 4; the Grade 2, $400,000 Shakertown on April 4; the Grade 3, $400,000 Lexington on April 11; the Grade 2, $400,000 Elkhorn on April 18; the Grade 3, $350,000 Ben Ali on April 18; and the Grade 3, $350,000 Bewitch on closing day, April 24.
The closing-day card is immediately followed by Keeneland's April horses of racing age sale that evening.
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