Lucrative allowance races highlight Wednesday card
FRANKLIN, Ky. – Three rich allowances anchor a 10-race card Wednesday at Kentucky Downs, where the familiar combination of fat purses, big fields, and ideal weather should make for another good day of racing at this turf-only track.
The nominal feature is the ninth, a $102,000, second-level allowance for fillies and mares. The six-furlong race drew a field of 11 and no clear-cut favorite, with a core of favorites likely to include Elusive Fate, Frabster, Senior Prom, Zubi Zubi Zu, and She’s On Parade.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 1 Elusive Fate. Trainer Rusty Arnold is 2 for 30 with a $0.39 ROI over the past five years moving horses from dirt to turf in sprints. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 11 She's On Parade. Trainer Wayne Catalano is 13 for 24 with a $4.20 ROI at Kentucky Downs over the past five years and 7 for 10 when teaming up with Channing Hill. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
The preceding allowances, both first-level races for 3-year-olds and up, carry $100,000 purses. Race 6 goes at six furlongs, while race 8 will be contested at the once-around distance of 1 5/16 miles. Trainer Graham Motion has a capable pair in the latter, most notably Alakazan Alakazan, most recently second at Saratoga for the same allowance condition.
:: KENTUCKY DOWNS: Watch Wednesday's card live
Half of the purses for all allowance and 2-year-old maiden special weight races is actually bonus money restricted to horses eligible to the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund.
First post for the second of three straight Wednesdays is 1:35 p.m. Central, with the ninth race set for 5:35. It is Ladies’ Day, with a host of activities on the schedule, including a prerace autograph session (noon to 1 p.m.) featuring leading jockey Rosie Napravnik. Charitable $10 donations will benefit the Old Friends facility for retired racehorses.
The forecast for Wednesday calls for sunny skies and a high of 75.
This is the penultimate card of the five-day Kentucky Downs meet, with closing day set for next Wednesday, Sept. 24. Two $200,000 stakes will be run on that program.
KEY CONTENDERS
Zubi Zubi Zu (Last 3 Beyers: 78-78-78)
◗ As one of a handful of 3-year-olds in the field, she has come around nicely since being given over to Mike Stidham last spring. She did all she could to hold off the cavalry charge in the first division of the Hatoof Stakes on the Arlington Million undercard and takes what amounts to a slight class drop today out of that ungraded stakes.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 7 Zubi Zubi Zu. Trainer Michael Stidham is 5 for 15 with a $2.96 ROI over the past two years shortening horses from routes to sprints on turf. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
Elusive Fate (Last 3 Beyers: 78-80-82)
◗ She’s on a 10-race losing streak, but the majority of those defeats have come with respectability, as she has more than paid her way. She figures to be sharp off the layoff, during which she breezed twice over the Saratoga turf. Trainer Rusty Arnold is no stranger to Kentucky Downs, having won 35 races here through the years.
Frabster (Last 3 Beyers: 77-79-79)
◗ Aside from her sharp recent form, this Chicago-based filly carries another noteworthy component into this: French jockey Florent Geroux won two rich stakes here Saturday, the Turf Cup and Ladies Turf, and said afterward he feels very comfortable riding here because the European-style course suits his background.