Rosario begins the meet with a winner

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Joel Rosario picked up right where he left off six days prior – winning on the Kentucky circuit.

Rosario, who rode five winners on Oct. 2 in his only appearance of the September meet at Churchill Downs, opened the 17-day Keeneland fall meet Friday with another confident ride that resulted in victory.

The New York-based Rosario began the Keeneland spring meet in April with a remarkable six stakes wins during the first two cards and also set several riding records at the Kentucky Downs meet last month. Amid warm and humid conditions Friday, he was aboard Sum Kinda Pretty, a 3-year-old Summer Front filly who rallied in the first of 10 opening-day races to prevail under the royal blue and aquamarine silks of Bal Mar Equine, the nom de course of retired Brown-Forman chief executive Paul Varga.

Sum Kinda Pretty paid $4.40 as favorite in a field of six going 1 1/16 miles on a fast main track.

“Another perfect ride from Rosario,” said Varga.

Al Stall Jr., who had trained Sum Kinda Pretty before she was claimed from the race for $20,000, was conspicuously absent from the winner’s circle because he was in his native New Orleans for the wedding of his niece. He missed a rare sight – a whole lot of fans representing LSU, his alma mater, roving the Keeneland campus attired in the purple-and-gold school colors. They were in town to root for their Bayou Bengals in an unfamiliar underdog role Saturday night versus an unbeaten Kentucky Wildcat squad in a pivotal SEC football game at nearby Kroger Field.

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“We’ve been looking forward to this weekend for a long time,” said a purple-clad Monti McNulty, a diehard LSU fan now living in Louisville. “A long time.”

Because of the ongoing pandemic, Keeneland is limiting ontrack attendance to about 20,000 every day, although neither masks nor proof of vaccination for COVID-19 are mandatory. General admission ($7, online purchase only) was sold out for the first two days. As of Friday, the only other sold-out card is next Saturday, Oct. 16.

◗ Dense fog that eventually burned away later in the morning precluded Keeneland clockers from recording workouts Friday during training hours.