Opening weekend weather cold, the racing hot at Keeneland
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Neither rain nor cold nor the gloomy end to the basketball season will prevent the Keeneland spring meet from opening this weekend to great enthusiasm here in the Bluegrass region and beyond.
“We all wish the forecast was better,” Gatewood Bell, now in his second year as vice president of racing at Keeneland, said early Monday, “but it won’t stop us from having a great start to the meet.”
The 15-day spring meet starts Friday, signaling a welcome end to a long winter that included the University of Kentucky Wildcats making a surprisingly early exit from the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Temperatures will only reach the mid-40s both Friday and Saturday, and there’s a 50 percent chance of rain both days.
Weather aside, the first of five Grade 1 races at the meet, the $600,000 Ashland Stakes, will anchor a 10-race Friday opener. The standout filly Nest, trained by Todd Pletcher, likely will be favored in the 1 1/16-mile Ashland, a 100-40-20-10 qualifier toward the Kentucky Oaks. The Grade 3 Transylvania and the Lafayette, both for 3-year-olds, also will be run Friday.
The meet highlight comes Saturday with the $1 million Blue Grass Stakes, which has been upgraded to a Grade 1 for its 98th running after five years as a Grade 2. At least 10 3-year-olds are expected for the Blue Grass, a Kentucky Derby qualifier (100-40-20-10) that figures to have Smile Happy, Zandon, Emmanuel, and Ethereal Road as top contenders.
The Blue Grass, as well as the Wood Memorial and Santa Anita Derby, will be run after Churchill Downs closes the fifth and final pool in the 2022 Kentucky Derby Future Wager late Saturday afternoon. The pool opens Thursday at noon Eastern. Churchill is trying something new after using a Friday-to-Sunday window for previous futures pools.
Four other graded races also will be run Saturday at Keeneland – the Grade 1 Madison, Grade 2 Appalachian, Grade 2 Shakertown, and Grade 3 Commonwealth.
The seven-furlong Madison already looks like a key race in the filly and mare sprint division, with Kimari likely to be favored over Bell’s the One, Center Aisle, and possibly Obligatory.
In recent years, the Ashland also had been run on Blue Grass Day, but a few scheduling tweaks have been made for this spring. Among the other notable changes is a later date for the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley, which also formerly had been on Blue Grass Day but now will be run one Saturday later (April 16) when grouped with the Lexington Stakes, a 20-8-4-2 qualifier for the Derby, and the Giant’s Causeway.
Nest, whose 3-for-4 record includes wins in the Demoiselle at Aqueduct and Suncoast at Tampa Bay Downs, will be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr. Ortiz and his brother, Jose, will be here periodically while otherwise competing in New York, while Joel Rosario, Luis Saez, and Flavien Prat are among the big names who will bolster a star-studded jockey colony by riding this circuit at least through the Kentucky Derby on May 7. They will join Tyler Gaffalione, Florent Geroux, and the familiar roster of Kentucky regulars.
Purses once again have been set at record levels, thanks in large part to year-round revenues accrued from the slots-like historical horse racing machines at the nearby Red Mile. Maiden-specials range from $80,000 to $100,000, while allowances start at $110,000 and will be worth as much as $140,000. Purses for those races include substantial bonuses restricted to horses registered to the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund.
The meet runs through April 29, when a revamped sale for horses of racing age will be held that evening. Dark days are Mondays, Tuesdays, and April 17 (Easter). First post daily is 1 p.m. Eastern, except for Saturday and April 29 (12:30).