Tepin all set for Jenny Wiley

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Tepin had her final work toward the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes when she breezed a half-mile Sunday at Churchill Downs in 48.40 seconds. “She worked extremely well, and all systems are go,” said trainer Mark Casse.

The Jenny Wiley is one of four stakes to be run here Saturday, along with the Lexington, Ben Ali, and Giant’s Causeway. Entries for Saturday will be drawn Wednesday, with Swipe, the runner-up to Nyquist in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile here last fall, the top name for the Lexington.

Other stakes here this week are the Appalachian on Thursday, the Maker’s 46 Mile on Friday, and the Beaumont on Sunday.

Saez red-hot over weekend

Luis Saez enjoyed a terrific opening weekend at Keeneland. Not only did the 23-year-old jockey win the $1 million Blue Grass Stakes aboard Brody’s Cause, but he won six other races to take an early lead atop the meet standings. That lead won’t stand, however, because he will return to New York after riding here this week through Sunday. The 16-day spring meet runs through April 29.

Saez rides primarily in New York and Florida and is the most accomplished of a family of jockeys from Panama. His younger brother Juan was the leading rider at the 2014 summer meet at Ellis Park but died at age 17 following a spill that October at Indiana Grand. Another younger brother, Sebastian, has won 10 races at the Oaklawn Park meet.

◗ All-sources handle Saturday narrowly eclipsed the Keeneland record for a non-Breeders’ Cup day. The total includes handle on imported simulcasts and the newly revived multitrack pick four, which included two stakes from Aqueduct.

Handle of $21,763,983 surpassed the previous record of $21,647,378 (also including simulcast imports) set on Blue Grass Day in 2012, when there was no multitrack wager. The Big Apple-Blue Grass pick four handled $423,679 on Saturday, with a 50-cent winning ticket worth $322.10.

◗ The local jockey colony will pick up another Frenchman when Flavien Prat makes his Keeneland debut aboard Pramedya in the fifth race Wednesday. Prat, 23, joins countrymen Julien Leparoux and Florent Geroux in riding here for the balance of the meet. Prat was second in wins and earnings behind Rafael Bejarano at the Santa Anita meet that ended Sunday. His agent is Derek Lawson.

◗ If you thought one-mile dirt races were just a one-shot deal last fall because the BC Dirt Mile was being run here, well, that would be wrong. The sixth race Wednesday, a $40,000 restricted claiming race with a field of seven, is the first such race at this meet.