A great weekend of graded stakes action from coast to coast.
It’s October and that means that it’s time for the Keeneland Fall Meeting. With high purses and a plethora of chances for horses to earn black type, the Keeneland meet draws horses from all over.
Keeneland starts the graded stakes action on Friday with the Grade 1 $500,000 Darley Alcibiades Stakes for 2-year old fillies. Expected to vie for for the bettors dollars are Beautician, from the always dangerous Kenneth McPeak stable, and She Be Wild, undefeated in three starts over Arlington’s Polytrack surface.
The Saturday features at Keeneland starts off with the Grade 2 $300,000 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes where Informed Decision will go off less than even money to take the top prize. Female milers compete in the Grade 1 $400,000 First Lady Stakes featuring Forever Together, winner of the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. While not her best distance, the star filly seems to have this field overmatched a as she puts in her last tuneup in preparation for a repeated engagement in the Breeders’ Cup. The Grade 1 $600,000 Shadwell Turf Mile annually attracts some of the best turf milers in the world and a strong field of nine will face the starter including Justenuffhumor, who’s been the winner of his last six starts. The Grade 1 $500,000 Spinster Stakes rounds out the action featuring Icon Project and recent Ruffian winner Swift Temper. Finally, top 2-year olds will compete for the $500,000 purse in the Dixiana Breeders’ Futurity.
Belmont Park cards the top races for 2-year olds for it’s fall meeting, the Grade 1 $400,000 Champagne and Frizette Stakes. The Champagne has drawn Dublin, who won the Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga for D. Wayne Lukas, and Homeboykris, from the Richard Dutrow barn. The Frizette is expected to draw Awesome Maria, who will be among the favorites if she goes, as well as Franny Freud, Touching Beauty, and Devil May Care. Also on the card is the Grade 1 $300,000 Jamaica Handicap at a mile and one eighth on the grass expected to draw Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes winner Take The Points.
Oak Tree at Santa Anita has stacked it’s weekend with preps for the Breeders’ Cup as well. On Saturday Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird will take on his elders for the first time in the Grade 1 $500,000 Goodwood Stakes, a very strong field expected to include Pacific Classic winner Richard’s Kid, 2007 Goodwood winner Tiago, Informed, Parading, and Colonel John. Super filly Zenyatta puts her unbeaten string on the line as she seeks to repeat in the Grade 1 $300,000 Lady’s Secret Stakes against many of the same fillie’s she’s beaten many times before. She’ll be a very short price on the tote. Let’s hope jockey Mike Smith doesn’t take this field as lightly as he did in Zenyatta’s last race. Another heavy favorite figures to rule the Grade 1 $400,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes, that being Magical Fantasy.
Two more Grade 1 races are on the Sunday card at Oak Tree. The $350,000 Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Stakes has drawn 9, includng invader Presious Passion facing locals Artiste Royal, Spring House, and Medici Code (GB). Ten colts and geldings square off in the Grade 1 $200,000 Ancient Title Handicap. With pro-tem division leader Zensational not in the race it figures to be a wide open affair.