Rushing Fall brings champion-level credentials to Appalachian

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Rushing Fall was so good last year that she nearly overcame decades-old convention. She won all three of her starts, all in turf races, making her a 2017 Eclipse Award finalist for top 2-year-old filly, but long-held standards led voters to bestow the top honor on Caledonia Road, whose body of work came over dirt.

No worries. With 2018 comes a clean slate, and Rushing Fall will be a huge favorite Sunday when she makes her 3-year-old debut in the 30th running of the Grade 2, $200,000 Appalachian at Keeneland.

“She’s had a good winter,” said Chad Brown, who trains Rushing Fall for the eFive Racing Thoroughbreds of the Edwards family. “We’ve had this race on her schedule for quite a while now. We’re very excited about getting her going again.”

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Rushing Fall, with Javier Castellano to ride, will break from post 2 in a field of 11 3-year-old fillies in the Appalachian, which anchors an excellent Sunday card as the eighth of nine races. The Appalachian is scheduled for a mile on turf, and in case inclement conditions force it to the main track, it will be run at the same distance (with a 70-yard run-up), with Rushing Fall almost sure to be withdrawn.

Rushing Fall, a Kentucky-bred by More Than Ready, came to prominence here last October with a 3 1/4-length triumph in the Grade 3 Jessamine, an effort that validated her winning debut the previous month at Belmont Park. In her third and most recent start, she rallied from well back to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 3 at Del Mar, and since then, she has had five workouts at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida.

“I missed one work with her after she kicked a wall, but she was over it pretty quickly,” said Brown. “Even a work short, I’d think she’s probably good enough to win Sunday.”

Probably the top threat to Rushing Fall’s perfect record is Thewayiam (post 9, Jose Ortiz), who emerged as the top 3-year-old turf filly at the recently ended championship meet at Gulfstream Park by virtue of consecutive wins in the Ginger Brew, Sweetest Chant, and Herecomesthebride. Trainer Graham Motion purposely skipped a fourth Gulfstream race, the March 31 Sanibel Island, to run here instead with the French-bred filly, who captured her North American debut in a turf allowance here last fall following three starts in her native country.

Other possibilities in a fine group include Daddy Is a Legend (post 1, Joe Bravo), a Scat Daddy filly who will get first-time Lasix and makes her first start since capturing the Grade 3 Jimmy Durante on the Del Mar turf last November for George Weaver; Dixie Moon (post 6, Mike Smith), a two-time stakes winner last year in Canada for Catherine Day-Phillips; and Goodthingstaketime (post 11, Joel Rosario), a just-miss runner-up last month in a contentious renewal of the Florida Oaks at Tampa Bay Downs for Jorge Abreu.

First post Sunday is 1:05 p.m. Eastern, with the Appalachian (4:57) directly preceded by another stakes for 3-year-old fillies, the Grade 3 Beaumont (race 7, 4:24) at the Beard Course distance of seven furlongs and 184 feet.

At 11:30 a.m., a one-hour jockey autograph event will be held in the paddock, with active and retired Hall of Fame riders such as Castellano, Smith, Pat Day, Chris McCarron, and many others available for signing in exchange for donations to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund.

After Sunday, Keeneland goes dark for two days before an eight-race Wednesday card kicks off the first five-day week of the meet.