Two Breeders’ Cup tickets punched on steamy opening day at Keeneland
Restless Rider has maybe given her trainer Kenny McPeek a few sleepless nights despite her three wins in four starts, but she came through Friday with a victory in Keeneland’s feature race, the $400,000 Darley Alcibiades Stakes.
“She’s really, really special,” the Lexington native McPeek said of the filly that gave him his fourth win in this race. “I love winning this race. I like winning here. We’ve got a program that sets fillies to go long, so it works out pretty well.”
A crowd of 15,334 took in opening day of Keeneland’s Fall Meet.
The Alcibiades was the first race the 2-year-old owned by Fern Circle Stables and Three Chimneys Farm has stretched out over two turns after finishing second in the 7-furlong Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga last month. She won Friday’s Grade 1 by 2½ lengths as a 6-5 favorite.
“This wasn’t as easy as maybe we portrayed it,” McPeek said. “She worked extremely fast a couple of weeks ago. It was an unbelievable breeze and the next day, she was coughing. We were worried — ‘OK, change in weather? We’d had rain and heat. It’s been real unpredictable.”
McPeek and his staff decided to hold off working her out until Monday to make sure she was “exactly right.”
“She had to bounce out of that well, and she did,” he said. “These good horses make us look good.”
Jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. settled Restless Rider just off the pace in third as he rounded the first turn, made his move as they rounded the turn home and pulled away down the stretch.
“Once we got in our position going around the first turn, I was pretty confident,” Hernandez said.
The win qualifies Restless Rider for next month’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies race at Churchill Downs. Her other two wins have come at Churchill over shorter distances.
It also gives McPeek a pair of 2-year-olds on win streaks. McPeek’s Cairo Cat won the Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes on Sept. 15 a month after getting his first win at Saratoga. McPeek said he’s not worried about increased expectations.
“It’s a lot of pressure, you know,” McPeek said, laughing. “No, I’ve always said pressure was 15 bad horses at Latonia in the dead of the winter and an owner that won’t pay ya.”
Restless Rider paid $4.60, $3.20 and $2.80. Reflect (11-1) paid $9.40 and $2.80 for second. Meadow Dance (13-1) paid $6.20 for third.
The Ogden Phoenix
After a disappointing run in the Kentucky Derby, Dale Romans’ Promises Fulfilled has begun living up to his name as a sprinter, capturing the Grade 2, $250,000 Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix for his third win in a row around one turn.
The victory qualifies the 3-year-old colt owned by David Jacobs for next month’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Romans’ home track.
“I’m sure we will. We still have to pay the supplement — he wasn’t nominated … We’ll talk about it,” Romans said when asked if the Breeders’ Cup World Championships is next. “We’re just happy to get this big win. This is a good enough win in its own right. Not worrying about the next one yet.”
Promises Fulfilled, who went off as a 3-5 favorite with Luis Saez up, led the six-horse field all of the 6 furlongs but had to deal with a strong challenge from Whitmore and a charge along the rail by Limousine Liberal. Those two were 5-2 co-second choices.
“When he broke from the gate, he did everything perfect,” Saez said. “He always fires. When he came to the straight, he didn’t let the other horse (Whitmore) pass. He always wants to win.”
He prevailed by a neck to pay $3.40, $2.40 and $2.10. Whitmore finished second for $2.60 and $2.10 with Limousine Liberal third at $2.10.
Hot day, hot handicapper
Summer intruded a bit on the first day of the Fall Meet at Keeneland on Friday with a first post temperature of about 82 degrees and a warm breeze helping make it feel more like 90, according to Accuweather. Luckily, the first 3,000 through the gates Friday got a free umbrella for some shade.
The only thing hotter might have been the opening picks by Tom Leach, the Keeneland expert handicapper better known as the voice of the Kentucky Wildcats.
Leach had to leave the track after Friday’s pre-race show to get on the way to College Station, Texas, for his other gig, so he couldn’t see his top picks for Races 1 and 2 come in. The first was a 15-1 shot. He was the only Keeneland featured handicapper to have the first two winners on his board.
“He’s on fire,” Keeneland host and fellow handicapper Jesse Ullery said.
Leach’s picks cooled as the day went on, but he acknowledged on his Keeneland handicapper bio this weekend that he probably won’t pick as many winners as some of the other experts.
“My strategy at such a competitive meet is to find overlooked horses that can pay good dividends so I won’t pick as many winners as others might but hopefully the ultimate return on investment will make the difference,” Leach wrote.
Leach has earned two Eclipse Awards for his radio coverage of horse racing and is a fixture in Keeneland’s meet coverage, conducting YouTube interviews with trainers and other connections and a weekly podcast at KeenelandSelect.com.
Big payday for long shot
One of the closest races of the day also had the biggest payout as She’s a Lucky One, who went off at 32-1, fended off a pack over 6 furlongs in the fourth race, a $23,000 claimer.
The lightly raced 3-year-old filly trained by Doug Anderson had a win and a place to its credit earlier this year, but finished well off the pace her last two times out.
She brought her fight Friday with Edgar Morales up, passing eight horses after she made the turn on the outside of a seven-wide charge for the wire. She caught Flash n’ Dance (6-1) and held off Mischievous Lass (5-1) in the final strides to win by half a length. Flash n’ Dance got the edge for second after a look at the photo finish.
She’s a Lucky One paid $67.20, $24.20 and 13.80; Flash n’ Dance paid $8.80 and $5.80; and Mischievious Lass paid $4 for third. A $2 exacta yielded a whopping $797.20, while the $2 trifecta netted $4,885.80. Anybody with a $2 superfecta would have been set with $11,759.80.
Soaked and slow
Lexington got a record rainfall Thursday with 3.42 inches coming down overnight. It was the wettest Oct. 4 recorded and second wettest October day ever, according to the National Weather Service.
Keeneland’s grounds crew’s efforts had the dirt track rated fast for opening day, but the turf course is a little tougher tackle and rated soft — apparently very soft.
The 1:47.25 in Race 1 on the turf was the “slowest on record for the 15 juvenile turf (maiden special weights) at 1 1/16 miles and more than 1.5 seconds slower than the average time,” Keeneland posted on Twitter.
Saturday’s huge card
The second day of Keeneland’s “Fall Stars Weekend” features five stakes races, including three Grade 1s and four “Win And You’re In” races for next month’s Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs.
The most lucrative is the Grade 1, $1 million Shadwell Turf Mile going to post at 5:49 p.m., featuring this year’s Maker’s 46 winner Heart to Heart, who is trying for a rare sweep of the two events in a single year.
The most interesting might be the Grade 1, $500,000 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity which will send its winner onto the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and perhaps jump start a number of hopefuls for next year’s Kentucky Derby.
This story was originally published October 5, 2018 at 7:28 PM.