Breeders' Cup Looms as Keeneland Fall Meet Begins

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Photo: Keeneland Photo

Keeneland's Fall Meet opens Oct. 7 with the backdrop of the Breeders' Cup adding to the excitement and anticipation. Keeneland is hosting the Breeders' Cup Nov. 4-5.

Running until Oct. 29, the 17 days of racing includes 22 stakes—12 on grass and 10 on dirt. There will be 11 stakes races as part of the three-day Fall Stars Weekend, Oct. 7-9. Nine of those are "Win and You're In" races as part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series Presented by America's Best Racing.

"Everyone loves the Breeders' Cup and it's always nice to have it here in Kentucky and this year, I guess, especially this weekend coming up, you've got a lot of important preps for the Breeders' Cup so it makes it extra special," said trainer Brendan Walsh. "We're obviously looking forward to it. Keeneland itself is a magical place. Everybody wants to win and you know you get the best horses at the end of the year taking each other on. It's just a racing fan's dream really, isn't it?"

Breeders’ Cup announcement at Keeneland after the 2022 Fall Meet.
Photo: Keeneland Photo/Photos by Z

Walsh will be one of the busier trainers on opening day with five horses set to compete, including the 3-year-old Speightstown   filly Seabrook. The Godolphin homebred will be making her debut racing the about seven-furlong distance on the main track in the second race Friday.

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"I've got a first-time starter, which is always nice especially if you are running at Keeneland," Walsh said. "You wouldn't run them at Keeneland unless you thought pretty highly of them."

Friday's first slate includes 10 races featuring 107 entrants and nine also eligibles. Among the highlights of opening day is the JPMorgan Chase Jessamine Stakes (G2T). Typically run the first Wednesday of the meet, it's been moved to opening day.

"It's a great race and it's now four weeks out exactly from the Breeders' Cup race," said Keeneland vice president of racing Gatewood Bell. "We just like the balance of it. I think it just gets horsemen a little better spacing. People seem to like their spacing going into these races, especially these big races."

Gatewood Bell at Ashview Farm near Versailles, Ky.
Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
Gatewood Bell

One contender for that race is Augustin Stable's Delight . Of the 16 fillies and mares entered or also eligible for the Jessamine, Delight is the only one with experience on the Keeneland turf. She finished third in her debut, an April 29 maiden special weight. 

"We bought her in March and figured she would be a good, two-turn turf filly," trainer Jonathan Thomas said of the $400,000 daughter of Mendelssohn  . "The race here gave us the opportunity to get started."

Opening Day also offers the $350,000 Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix Stakes (G2). Mike Maker won last year's edition as trainer of Special Reserve , and the pair are back again looking for lightning to strike twice. Special Reserve is the 2-1 morning-line favorite.

Day 2 features three "Win and You're In" races, but the main attraction will be the $1 million Coolmore Turf Mile (G1T). The 12-horse field, along with four also eligibles, will feature Casa Creed , who enters off back-to-back grade 1 scores in the Fourstardave Handicap (G1T) and the Jaipur Stakes (G1T); Walsh trainee and Arlington Million Stakes (G1T) victor morning-line favorite Santin ; and the runner-up in the Arlington Million, the hard-knocking Smooth Like Strait 

#1 Casa Creed with jockey Luis Saez passed the field to win the 35th running of The Fourstardave at the Saratoga Race Course Saturday Aug. 13, 2022 in Saratoga Springs N.Y. Photo Special to the Times Union by Skip Dickstein
Photo: Skip Dickstein
Casa Creed wins the Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga Race Course

There is also the $500,000 Darley Alcibiades Stakes (G1) on the opening day, which features a very competitive field that includes Pocahontas Stakes (G3) winner Fun and Feisty  and Spinaway Stakes (G1) runner-up Wonder Wheel  in a deep field of 2-year-old fillies.

The turf sprinting sensation Golden Pal  heads into the $350,000 Woodford Stakes Presented by FanDuel (G2T) as the overwhelming favorite Oct. 8. Undefeated over the Keeneland lawn, the Wesley Ward trainee used the Woodford last year as a springboard to further glory in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) at Del Mar. He will seek to become a three-time Breeders' Cup winner should he take to the starting gate in the Nov. 5 Turf Sprint over his favorite turf course. The only hiccups the 4-year-old son of Uncle Mo   has had since breaking his maiden two years ago have come on foreign ground—in the Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes (G1) at York last year and the King's Stand Stakes (G1) at Ascot Racecourse June 14. 

There is also the one-mile, $750,000 First Lady Stakes Presented by UK Healthcare (G1T). The field of six older fillies and mares is headlined by three-time grade 1 captress Regal Glory  and pair of top-level imports—In Italian  and Technical Analysis . All three hail from the barn of Chad Brown. The 6-year-old Regal Glory owned by Peter Brant, whose connections have openly discussed tackling the boys in the FanDuel Breeders' Cup Mile Presented by PDJF (G1T), opted to take on her own sex opening weekend despite her valiant runner-up effort to Casa Creed in the Fourstardave at Saratoga. Her stablemate In Italian, also owned by Brant, won't let Regal Glory go down without a fight, as the Dubawi  filly makes her first start since a brilliant track-record-setting score in Saratoga's Diana Stakes (G1T).  

The $600,000 Claiborne Breeders' Futurity (G1) also has Breeders' Cup implications. Hopeful Stakes (G1) hero Forte  comes in as the narrow favorite just ahead of Loggins , Instant Coffee , and his Todd Pletcher barnmate Lost Ark . The two-turn Breeders' Futurity has always been a critical prep race for the TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile Presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (G1), and has produced two winners and two 2-year-old champions in Essential Quality   and Classic Empire   in the past six years. 

Saturday also features the $350,000 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes (G2) for older fillies and mares sprinting six furlongs on the main track. The New Mexico-bred sprinter Slammed , a filly with arguably one of the more interesting backgrounds running on opening weekend, will be eyeing her first graded stakes victory. 

Meanwhile, Fall Stars Weekend wraps up Oct. 9 with another full day of racing, including three stakes races that include the $600,000 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes (G1). The field is small—limited to just five horses—but the competition is big. Champion filly Malathaat , who enters off a decisive tally in the Personal Ensign Stakes (G1) over fellow Spinster entrant and defending race titleholder Letruska , will try to continue her momentum on Sunday. The Todd Pletcher pupil has been flawless in her career two starts at Keeneland, capturing the Central Bank Ashland Stakes (G1) over this strip as a 3-year-old and the Baird Doubledogdare Stakes (G3) here in her 2022 debut. 

Malathaat with John Velazquez win the 75th Running of The Personal Ensign (GI) at Saratoga on August 27, 2022. Photo By: Chad B. Harmon
Photo: Chad B. Harmon
Malathaat wins the Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga Race Course

"All the 2-year-old races are as deep as I can remember them, top to bottom," Bell said. "The Coolmore Turf Mile's got six grade 1 winners in it and six other graded stakes winners in it. Then you get Letruska and Malathaat. I was hoping we might get a couple more in that race, but all five of them can win the race. The First Lady even on Saturday, it's the one other short field that's got six but you're not singling anybody."

Irish import Love Reigns , who has not lost in two starts on U.S. soil, sets her sights on the $250,000 Indian Summer Stakes Presented by Keeneland Select, a "Win and You're In" for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1T). 

The $350,000 Castle & Key Bourbon Stakes (G2T) features three offspring of first-crop sire Oscar Performance  Deer District , Andthewinneris , and Oscar Award .

Beyond the quality of the racing, there is also enthusiasm for the meet purse, which stands at a record $8.9 million, up from $7.7 million last year. That total includes $1.3 million from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund. Opening weekend stakes races will have a combined purse of $5.45 million. 

Among the physical changes, Keeneland altered the paddock, updating the walking path for the horses. Bell said a tree was added all the while not taking away any of the footprint. The change was done to ensure safe passage for horses and people in the paddock since it will host a larger crowd than ever before.

"The idea basically takes what we used to do on the old kind of parade ring where the jockeys would get lined up and they would all circle in numeric order," explained Bell. "We kind of took that to envision taking that ring and doubling it in size and moving it into the current main paddock where the trees are. And so the horses will still get saddled back in the all-weather stalls and then they'll come out in numerical order and they'll circle in a bigger loop. That way all the fans will get to see them walk."

With the Breeders' Cup immediately following the meet, which is the opposite order of what usually happens, there are temporary structures for the event already in place and in use.

Bell said the saddling paddock chalet "is awesome because it has a great view overlooking the paddock" and features approximately 150 dining tables, providing a "really cool vantage point."

There are also temporary lodge boxes out in front of the current traditional boxes Bell mentioned that take up about half the imprint. This allows for about four or five more rows of temporary boxes out on the track apron that fans can purchase. These boxes are in addition to larger temporary structures constructed near the quarter pole but will not be available for use during the fall meet.