Linda gets class relief in Friday allowance

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Not even counting the featured Franklin County Stakes, the Friday card at Keeneland is a good one. Three straight allowances directly precede the Franklin County as races 6 through 8 on the 10-race program, starting with a $71,000 filly-and-mare turf route contested under a third-level condition.

Linda, the runner-up in the Grade 3 Valley View and the winner of the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere last fall for trainer Ian Wilkes, will make a rare foray outside of stakes company as a solid favorite in race 6. The two subsequent allowances both are $67,000 first-level races at seven furlongs, with race 7 for 2-year-olds and race 8 for fillies and mares.

McCraken on point for Fayette

McCraken was scheduled to breeze again Thursday at Churchill Downs for Wilkes as the standout 3-year-old continues to point to his first race against older horses in the Grade 2 Fayette Stakes on Oct. 28, closing day of this 17-day fall meet.

After a narrow defeat in the July 30 Haskell Invitational and a seventh-place finish in the Aug. 26 Travers, McCraken had had three breezes since mid-September leading into this latest work. In the Fayette, McCraken is expected to face Honorable Duty, the winner of the Sept. 30 Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs, with both expected to advance to the Grade 1 Clark on Nov. 24.

Star in the making

How good was the sixth race on Sept. 16 at Churchill, a maiden sprint for 2-year-old fillies? Not only did the winner, Princess Warrior, wheel back to run second as the favorite in the Grade 1 Alcibiades last Friday, but the runner-up, Mia Mischief, won a six-furlong maiden race here Sunday by 16 1/4 lengths.

Mia Mischief, by the red-hot sire Into Mischief, earned an 85 Beyer Speed Figure for owners Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt and trainer Steve Asmussen.

Grade 1 winner Grand Arch retired

Grand Arch, the winner of the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile here two years ago, has been retired to the Margaux Farm of owners Jim and Susan Hill because of a minor injury, according to trainer Brian Lynch.

An 8-year-old Arch gelding, Grand Arch earned nearly $1.9 million from 29 career starts. He started in the Shadwell three straight years, finishing second to Wise Dan in 2014, winning in 2015, and running ninth in 2016. He raced just once this year, finishing seventh in an ungraded turf stakes at Belmont in July.