Final week of meet gets underway with competitive 2-year-old turf race
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The Keeneland track crew, led by superintendent Alfredo Laureano, has gotten positive reviews from horsemen for having the racetrack’s courses in good condition this meet, which followed a summer drought in Kentucky and has generally been run during a dry and warm October.
The crew has had to respond to just two days of heavy rain in Lexington this month. Following torrential downpours and flood warnings on Oct. 7, the crew had the dirt track fast and the turf course officially rated good – although likely on the softer end of good, judging by times – for the following day’s card.
This Sunday, it was rainy and windy with a crash to true fall temperatures. Other races on the Sunday card came off the turf in order to preserve the course for the Grade 3 Dowager, which remained on yielding grass. It will be sunny but in the 60s on Monday and Tuesday, so while the crew should have the dirt track fast, it remains to be seen how much the turf course will get a chance to dry by Wednesday’s eight-race card, which kicks off the final four days of this meet before the circuit moves to Churchill Downs starting Sunday.
There are co-featured allowances on both turf and dirt to anchor Wednesday. The seventh race is a 1 1/16-mile, $120,000 allowance for 2-year-old fillies, with several dropping out of stakes company. Red Beretta was second by just a head in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies before finishing ninth, fading after a promising middle move, in the Grade 2 Jessamine on opening day of this meet. Back Ring Buzz was ninth in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies after racing in contention early.
Memorized made her debut sprinting on dirt before winning her next outing at 1 1/16 miles on turf, coming on stoutly despite being squeezed after the break. The Tapit filly, who was a $900,000 yearling, is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Zandon. However, she is also from the immediate family of graded turf stakes winners Cairo Memories, Hay Dakota, and Significant Form, and turf stakes winners Bobrovsky, Cariba, and Opulent Restraint.
Our Two Girls, making her turf debut, won before finishing fifth in the Grade 3 Pocahontas. She is by the outstanding turf sprinter Caravaggio and gets stamina from her female line, as her dam is half-sibling to multi-surface graded stakes performer Good Samaritan.
One race prior, a number of 3-year-olds coming off layoffs and dropping in class figure prominently in a six-furlong, $130,000 allowance with an $80,000 optional claiming tag.
Keep It Easy, winner of the 2024 Ed Brown Stakes, is making his first start since May while dropping out of stakes company for the first time in more than a year. Tough Catch was second in the Bowman Mill at Keeneland and the Ed Brown before winning the Sugar Bowl last December. He is making his first start since finishing 13th in the Grade 3 Lecomte in January.
One True Shance has won 3 of 4 career starts, but he’s racing for the first time since a February win.
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