Rosario planning to ride five days Keeneland fall meet
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Fair warning to everyone – star jockey Joel Rosario is scheduled to ride five days of the Keeneland fall meet, starting with the Friday opener. Rosario has been sensational this year when leaving his New York base to ride in Kentucky, starting with the first two days of the Keeneland spring meet (April 2-3), when he won a remarkable six stakes.
Rosario also set a single-meet record at Kentucky Downs last month, riding 17 winners, including a pair of five-win days. He also had a five-win day in his only appearance of the September meet at Churchill Downs last Saturday while sweeping both stakes, the Lukas Classic and Ack Ack.
Rosario has a long history of success at Keeneland, where in 2013 he set a spring-meet record that still stands with 38 wins.
Meanwhile, Luis Saez, who earned his first-ever Keeneland riding title in April with 29 wins, will ride sparingly here this fall, according to agent Kiaran McLaughlin. In general, the top New York jockeys ride more frequently here in the spring than fall mostly because of the allure of the Belmont Park fall meet.
As of Wednesday, these are confirmed October dates when some of the top New York riders will be at Keeneland, according to their agents:
Rosario – Oct. 8, 13, 14, 15, 29
Saez – Oct. 10, 13
John Velazquez – Oct. 9, 15, 16, 23, 30
Irad Ortiz Jr. – Oct. 10, 13
Jose Ortiz – Oct. 8, 9, 16
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Big fields for Grade 1s
Lucky and good? Near-capacity fields of 13 have been entered in each of the three Grade 1 events that anchor a blockbuster 11-race card Saturday at Keeneland.
The highlights: Order of Australia will make his first North American start since upsetting the Breeders’ Cup Mile at 73-1 here last fall when he goes postward in the richest race of the meet, the $750,000 Keeneland Turf Mile (race 10); a well-matched group of 2-year-olds headed by Double Thunder and Classic Causeway will clash in the $500,000 Breeders’ Futurity (race 9); and Althiqa will try to edge another step closer to a divisional championship as a solid favorite in the $400,000 First Lady (race 8).
All three Grade 1s are Win and You’re In events toward the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 5-6 at Del Mar. So, too, is the Grade 2, $250,000 Thoroughbred Club of America (race 7), which drew six female sprinters, headed by Frank’s Rockette and a surprise entrant, Bell’s the One. The first of five straight Saturday stakes is the Grade 2, $200,000 Woodford (race 6), which drew a field of seven turf sprinters. The Woodford is the only one of 10 FallStars Weekend stakes here this weekend that is not a Win and You’re In.