Twilight Meteor upsets Marcavelly

Turf or dirt it apparently doesn't matter to Twilight Meteor, who rallied from off the pace of 3-5 favorite Marcavelly to register a 2 1/4-length victory in Friday's $125,000 Bourbon Stakes at soggy Keeneland. The 1 1/16-mile race for 2-year-olds was originally carded on the turf but was switched to the Polytrack after two days of steady rain.

Twilight Meteor, who had a win and a second from three previous starts, all on the grass, rated within easy striking distance of the pace-setting Marcavelly through early fractions of 24.01 seconds and 47.83. Jockey John Velazquez moved Twilight Meteor through between horses to launch his bid midway around the second turn, overtook Marcavelly near midstretch, and won going away.

Marcavelly, a stakes winner at Monmouth in August, had also made each of his three previous starts on grass. Marcavelly set an uncontested pace while well in hand under jockey Edgar Prado, and outlasted the wide-running Admiral Bird by a nose for second.

The Bourbon scratched down from seven to five starters after taken off the turf.

Twilight Meteor, a son of Smart Strike, is trained by Todd Pletcher for owner John Fort's Peachtree Stable. He paid $8.40 and ran the distance in 1:49.25 over a fast track.