Plenty of potential on display in Beaumont Stakes
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Nickname is a Grade 1 winner. Kinsley Kisses is unbeaten in two races. And Lightstream earned an eye-popping 103 Beyer Speed Figure in her only start.
Those three fillies will clash Sunday at Keeneland in an intriguing 31st running of the $150,000 Beaumont Stakes, a Grade 3 fixture that represents the final points race toward the Kentucky Oaks – although it’s questionable whether the connections of the winner will even want to use those 10 qualifying points to face Songbird in the May 6 filly classic at Churchill Downs.
Nickname won the Grade 1 Frizette last fall in the Belmont Park slop but has lost her three subsequent starts, including a pair of odds-on defeats leading into the Beaumont, which is run at the Beard Course distance of seven furlongs and 184 feet. Javier Castellano will be aboard the Steve Asmussen-trained filly, and they break from post 5.
Kinsley Kisses (post 3, John Velazquez), trained by Todd Pletcher, will be making her stakes debut after prevailing as an odds-on favorite in a January maiden race at Gulfstream and a March allowance at Tampa Bay Downs.
Lightstream (post 1, Julien Leparoux) was sensational in her March 6 debut at seven furlongs at Gulfstream Park, rolling home at 7-1 after lagging early from the No. 1 hole.
Trainer Brian Lynch said Friday that Lightstream got loose on the track during Thursday training at Keeneland, “but she seems pretty fresh this morning, so we dodged a bullet.”
“We’re planning on running Sunday, and hopefully she’ll run well again,” he said. “We’ve had a good amount of time between races, and we should be all set.”
R Girls a Charmer and American Doll round out the Beaumont lineup.
The Beaumont resembles the Grade 1 Ashland last Saturday, with three obvious favorites in a field of just five 3-year-old fillies. Weep No More upset the Ashland at 30-1.
The Beaumont, the eighth of nine races, anchors a Sunday card that starts at 1:05 p.m. Eastern. Post time for the feature is 4:57. Three allowances (races 2, 7, and 9) are on the undercard, and more gorgeous weather is in the forecast.
After Sunday, Keeneland goes dark for two days before another five-day week commences Wednesday.
KEY CONTENDERS
Nickname, by Scat Daddy
Last 3 Beyers: 70-78-84
◗ Dark bay filly owned by LNJ Foxwoods comes favorably drawn in the outside post as she attempts to make up for losses at odds-on in her two starts this year.
Lightstream, by Harlan’s Holiday
Beyer: 103
◗ A $55,000 yearling purchase here in September 2014, she outran her Palm Meadows works when drawing off by 2 1/4 lengths in her only race.
Kinsley Kisses, by Congrats
Beyers: 74-86
◗ She was 1-10 in winning the Tampa allowance, which followed a debut triumph over Paola Queen, who has since won a maiden race and finished second in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Oaks.