Keeneland will contest 18 stakes races at its 2020 spring meeting worth a total of $4.8 million, a record for that meet, the Lexington, Ky., track announced Friday. The schedule is highlighted by the Grade 2, $1 million Blue Grass Stakes and the Grade 1, $500,000 Ashland Stakes, both major spring prep races for 3-year-olds. The races offer their winners 100 points toward a berth in the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks, respectively. Keeneland’s 16-day spring meeting runs from Thursday, April 2, through Friday, April 24. The track is dark Mondays and Tuesdays, as well as Easter Sunday, April 12. The first dark days of the meet, April 6 and 7, will be occupied by the Keeneland April sale of 2-year-olds in training and horses of racing age, as well as its preceding under-tack show on the dirt and turf tracks. The Blue Grass and Ashland anchor the first Saturday card of the meet, as Keeneland conducts nine stakes over its first four-day race week. The $100,000 Palisades Turf Sprint features on the opening Thursday card, with the Grade 3, $150,000 Transylvania Stakes on Friday, April 3. The Blue Grass and Ashland are joined on the Saturday card by the Grade 1, $300,000 Madison Stakes, Grade 2, $200,000 Shakertown Stakes, and Grade 3, $250,000 Commonwealth Stakes. Sunday’s card rounds out the action with the Grade 2, $200,000 Appalachian Stakes and Grade 3, $150,000 Beaumont Stakes. The second weekend of the meet opens with the Grade 1 Maker’s 46 Mile on the turf on Friday, April 10. The race gets a purse hike to $400,000 from $300,000 for 2020 and is joined on that card by the $100,000 Limestone Turf Sprint. The card for Saturday, April 11, features a quartet of stakes in the Grade 1, $350,000 Jenny Wiley Stakes, Grade 3, $200,000 Lexington Stakes, Grade 3, $200,000 Ben Ali Stakes, and $150,000 Giant’s Causeway Stakes. The Lexington and the Beaumont are lower-tier, “last chance” preps toward the Kentucky Derby and Oaks, offering the winners 20 and 10 points, respectively. The meet’s stakes schedule is rounded out by the Grade 3, $150,000 Doubledogdare Stakes on April 17, the Grade 2, $250,000 Elkhorn Stakes on April 18, and the Grade 3, $150,000 Bewitch Stakes on closing day, April 24. Both the Doubledogdare and Giant’s Causeway had $50,000 added to their purses from their 2019 levels.