No Hiding Place gets class relief in allowance sprint
No Hiding Place, who gave a creditable effort in his graded stakes debut last out, looks to get back to his winning ways – and help his rider do the same – in a third-level optional $80,000 claiming race at Keeneland on Wednesday. The six-furlong race is the seventh on an eight-race card that kicks off the final three days of the Lexington, Ky., track’s spring meet.
There is a pick six carryover of $12,032 into Wednesday.
No Hiding Place, a 4-year-old Munnings gelding trained by Wesley Ward for Coolmore’s Michael Tabor, won his first three starts by open lengths. He then finished fifth in the Grade 3 Commonwealth Stakes here during opening weekend, beaten less than a length for second in a blanket finish for the placings behind the winner, Ami’s Flatter. No Hiding Place earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 98.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 6 No Hiding Place. Trainer Wesley Ward is 14-7-1-2 with a $2.72 ROI over the past five years on dirt at Keeneland in the second start following a layoff of 45 days or more. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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No Hiding Place will have Joel Rosario aboard. Wednesday is Rosario’s first day back to the races since Feb. 20, when he broke his wrist in a spill in the Melody of Colors Stakes at Gulfstream Park. Rosario is named on one other mount Wednesday at Keeneland and two more on Thursday, all for Ward. With the exception of No Hiding Place, all are 2-year-olds, a sector where Ward dominates. All but one of the trainer’s wins at this meet have come with juveniles.
One of No Hiding Place’s main opponents Wednesday is the consistent gelding Grande Basin, who has won three straight races and four of his last five. Grande Basin was trained by Edward Johnston for those races, and Wednesday marks his first start for Dallas Stewart.
There are two allowance races for females on turf Wednesday, led by race 6, a second-level event at 1 1/16 miles. Heath, who makes her 2016 debut, is one of several in the race dropping out of stakes company. After winning a Keeneland allowance last spring, she was second by half a length to the unbeaten Lady Eli in the Wonder Again Stakes at Belmont, fourth in the Grade 2 Lake Placid Stakes at Saratoga behind Sentiero Italia and Miss Temple City, and third in the Dueling Grounds Oaks at Kentucky Downs.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 1 Brewing. Trainer D. Wayne Lukas is 24-1-4-2 with a $0.18 ROI over the past five years in dirt sprints at Keeneland. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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In the eighth race, a first-level allowance for 3-year-old fillies going 1 1/8 miles on turf, Miss Meteor gets back on turf after finishing fourth in the Grade 3 Bourbonette Oaks on Turfway’s Polytrack. Her only victory came on grass.
Miss Meteor faces Gone Away, who was third in the Grade 3 Herecomesthebride Stakes in February at Gulfstream Park. Shiawassee has won both of her starts, a maiden race and an optional claimer.