Like the King gets started in high-class allowance

LEXINGTON, KY. – Following a long “weekend” with an extra dark day due to Easter, Keeneland eases back into action with an eight-race Wednesday card featuring some of the meet’s typical fare – a competitive allowance race and a 2-year-old maiden race.

The seventh race, a $130,000 third-level allowance on the turf, serves as the nominal feature. One storyline involves the meeting of former stablemates Like the King and Invader.

Like the King is making his first start since last October, and his first start for Mark Casse. He won the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby last year on Turfway’s synthetic for his former trainer Wesley Ward, earning his way into the Kentucky Derby, where he crossed the line 12th. He placed in three turf stakes after that, including a runner-up effort in the Bryan Station at Keeneland behind Camp Hope, whom he faces again here.

Like the King has turned in a steady series of works at the Casse Training Center in Florida, including a pair of bullets in the last month. Flavien Prat, riding strongly at Keeneland, has the mount.

Ward, the meet-leading trainer by wins entering this week, still has Invader, who was second by a neck in the 2020 Ruby. He has not won in six turf outings, but was second to a good foe in Fighting Seabee in a 2021 Keeneland allowance. Invader won his most recent outing, a Dec. 31 Turfway allowance.

Like the King has turned in a solid, front-running effort when second in the Grade 3 Kent last year, but prefers to rally from off the pace. That pace is likely to be made by Invader, attended by Camp Hope – unbeaten at Keeneland – and Dyn O Mite.

The field also includes graded stakes winners Fancy Liquor and Get Her Number, both trying to come back to form.

Earlier, in the fourth race, 2-year-olds sprint 4 1/2 furlongs in an $80,000 maiden. Ward, and to a lesser extent John Hancock, are known for dominating these races, and fans wager accordingly. However, from four juvenile races contested so far this meet, four different trainers have won – Hancock, Paul McEntee, Luis Mendez, and Ward – and only one favorite has won, with an average winning payout of $25.55.

This large field of 12, with three also-eligibles, marks the first starter for a new face in the training ranks, Will Walden, son of WinStar Farm executive and former classic-winning trainer Elliott Walden. Will Walden has a string entirely comprised of 2-year-olds, and he sends out Sergeant Countzler, coming off a bullet work at Keeneland and with Luis Saez in the irons. The colt is from the first crop of Grade 1-winning juvenile Bolt d’Oro, who has already recorded a winner, and whose offspring have been impressing at breeze shows for this spring’s sales.

McEntee saddles Baytown Get It On, who has a fitness edge as the only entrant with prior racing experience, finishing a rallying second in his debut opening day April 8. That could prove especially useful in this large field. The colt is by Uncle Mo’s graded-winning juvenile Mo Town, the sire of a winner, a second, and a third from three Keeneland starters already.

Ward will saddle Talkin Pharoah – from the immediate family of his two-time Breeders’ Cup winner Golden Pal - and Tastefor the King.

Magic Tap, a $450,000 yearling trained by Steve Asmussen, is a half-brother to Grade 1-winning sprinter American Gal.