Murrill kicks off Keeneland fall meet with a win

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Mitchell Murrill arrived plenty early for the Keeneland fall meet, and it seems to have paid off. Murrill was the first jockey among an ultra-deep riding colony to visit the winner’s circle, guiding Bordini from far back to win the meet opener Friday.

Murrill was here early Monday with agent Tim Hanisch, climbing aboard a few horses while looking to drum up business for a 17-day meet that runs through Oct. 26. Having spent the summer at Arlington Park, where he was the second-leading rider, Murrill teamed with another Chicago mainstay, trainer Cheryl Winebaugh, in winning with Bordini, who returned $29 after finishing the six-furlong starter allowance in 1:11.43.

Bordini led home a parade of longshots, with a 10-cent superfecta worth $2,385.51 for the 3-9-10-1 combination.

And so it went that three weeks of racing action got under way in central Kentucky, where everybody talks about the weather but only Keeneland actually does something about it. More than a month of drought and miserable heat had plagued this area, but, on cue, Friday dawned with a welcome mix of sun, breeze, and temperatures in the 70s.

“It’s always good to be back here,” said Julien Leparoux, who has won or shared 11 riding titles here since 2006. “I think Keeneland is the best track in America – the fans and everyone, it’s such a fun track to be around.”

Leparoux, ninth of 10 in the meet opener aboard Stay Home, noted that the track surface seemed a touch slower than at the recently ended meet at Churchill Downs in Louisville.

“It’s good, a little bit different than Churchill,” said Leparoux. “There wasn’t any rain at Churchill and it was pretty fast. This is maybe a little heavier, but very good.”

In the second race, Chad Brown got on the board with his first starter of the meet when Looking At Bikinis ($3.40), exiting an 11th-place finish in the Aug. 24 Travers, drew off with ease in a $77,000 allowance at seven furlongs. Javier Castellano was up.

Later in the day, the first stakes of the meet, the Grade 2 Phoenix and Grade 1 Alcibiades, were to serve as opening-day features.