Venetian Harbor, Four Graces using Raven Run to earn way into Breeders' Cup

LEXINGTON, Ky. – With three weeks until the Breeders’ Cup is run at Keeneland, most everything is coming into focus, particularly field composition.

Still, the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint – one of the 14 BC events to be run here Nov. 6-7 – figures to tack on an extra starter or two when the Grade 2, $200,000 Raven Run Stakes is run Saturday at Keeneland at seven furlongs. The most plausible additions are Venetian Harbor and Four Graces, although this is an especially deep renewal of a seven-furlong race that two years ago produced a surprise Breeders’ Cup winner.

Indeed, the blueprint laid out by Shamrock Rose with her back-to-back triumphs in the 2018 Raven Run and BC Filly-Mare Sprint is one that a solid lineup of 3-year-old fillies will be looking to emulate Saturday amid sunny skies and a high near 60. In all, 10 are entered, although Fair Maiden is a likely scratch.

Venetian Harbor, in from California for Richard Baltas, sports the best overall record and Beyer Speed Figures, but it’s been more than eight months since she last visited a winner’s circle.

“Let’s get through this first before we start talking Breeders’ Cup,” said Baltas.

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Venetian Harbor will have Manny Franco aboard when she breaks from post 5 in the 22nd Raven Run, the ninth of 10 races on a Saturday card that starts at 1:05 p.m. Eastern. After chasing the very best of the division when second to Swiss Skydiver in the Fantasy, Speech in the Ashland, and Gamine in the Test, Venetian Harbor should have a wide-open floor over which to make a compelling argument that she, too, remains among the elite of her class. The daughter of Munnings has been regrouped with six serious works back home since the Aug. 8 Test, the latest coming Monday at San Luis Rey Downs prior to her being flown here Tuesday via equine charter.

Four Graces (post 2, Julien Leparoux) will be looking to rebound off a runner-up finish as the heavy favorite in the Grade 2 Eight Belles on Sept. 4 at Churchill Downs. The Whitham Thoroughbreds homebred has won four of six overall starts, including back-to-back romps in the Grade 3 Dogwood at Churchill and Grade 3 Beaumont at Keeneland.

“We’d like to run back in the Breeders’ Cup, definitely,” said her trainer, Ian Wilkes. “I’m not blaming that last race on anyone but myself. I’d like to think I have the filly tighter this time around. Obviously it’s a very important race and we’d like to see her show her best.”

Given her inside post, Four Graces will be ridden by Leparoux “the way the race comes up,” said Wilkes.

“You don’t want to go too fast early, but you also don’t want to take away her speed,” he said. “That’s her most valuable weapon.”

Even beyond the two favorites, the Raven Run field is replete with winners. Finite (post 4, Ricardo Santana Jr.) and Tonalist’s Shape (post 7, Rafael Bejarano) both strung together five-race winning streaks at their peak, although both seem to have gone off form and will require a stark reversal to challenge here. Grand Cru Classe (post 9, Martin Garcia) is unbeaten in three career starts, but she’ll be undergoing a stern test here when she turns back from a two-turn ungraded stakes at Laurel Park.

Also, Secondary Market (post 3, Tyler Gaffalione) makes the third start of her form cycle for the ever-dangerous Chad Brown; Reagan’s Edge (post 6, Florent Geroux) enters off a sharp runner-up effort in the Grade 2 Prioress for Cherie Devaux; and Secret Keeper (post 10, Brian Hernandez Jr.) has done little wrong thus far in winning two of three starts out west for Cliff Sise.

Never Forget (post 1, Robby Albarado), third in the Eight Belles, helps round out the cast. Fair Maiden (post 8), a sharp last-out allowance winner at Churchill for Godolphin, most likely will scratch, according to Andy Hansen, assistant to trainer Eoin Harty.

The Raven Run, sponsored by Lexus since 2005, has been won by such standouts as Sightseek (2002), Informed Decision (2008), and Taris (2014) in its proud history. Shamrock Rose won the 2018 running at 18-1 before wheeling back to win the Filly-Mare Sprint at 25-1. The 2019 winner of the Raven Run was Bell’s the One, one of the early favorites for the 2020 Filly-Mare Sprint.

The Raven Run is the penultimate stakes on the Keeneland fall-meet schedule, with the Grade 3 Dowager on Sunday being the last one. No stakes will be run during the final four-day stretch (Oct. 21-24) of the 17-day fall meet. Churchill begins its fall meet Oct. 25.