Keeneland Summer Meet closes with exciting finish in Transylvania and a major payout
A thrilling finish in the feature race highlighted the action during the final day of Keeneland’s unprecedented five-day Summer Meet on Sunday.
Field Pass, the slight 2-1 favorite, made his move late in the stretch and edged 13-1 shot Street Ready in a photo finish to win the $100,000, Grade III Transylvania Stakes.
Street Ready and Field Pass both held back along the rail as Juggernaut led the field through through 6 furlongs. Juggernaut maintained the lead into the top of the stretch, but inside the three-sixteenths pole Fancy Liquor, Street Ready and Field Pass overtook him and dueled to the wire three wide.
Street Ready led along the rail approaching the finish, then Field Pass and jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. surged at the wire to prevail by a nose. Fancy Liquor held on for third.
Trained by Michael Maker, Field Pass completed the trip in 1:42.56 and paid $6.40. It was the fourth stakes win of the season for the son of Lemon Drop Kid, who most recently won the Audubon Stakes at Churchill Downs on June 20.
Summer finale
There was a clear favorite in the final race of Keeneland’s Summer Meet and he proved bettors prescient. Breaking at 1-1 odds, Zulu Alpha stalked the pace and pulled clear late to win the $175,000, Grade II Elkhorn Stakes.
Postulation, a 35-1 shot, jumped out to an early advantage under Julien Leparoux and led for most of the 1 1/2-mile turf contest but couldn’t hold off Zulu Alpha, who was piloted masterfully by Tyler Gaffalione.
Zulu Alpha paid $4 for the win. Postulation returned $22 for second.
With the win, his seventh of the meet, Gaffalione wrapped up the Keeneland Summer Meet jockey title. Brian Hernandez Jr. finished second with six victories.
Hefty haul
The final day of Keeneland’s Summer Meet opened with a major payout. Three long shots hit the board in Sunday’s first race, a 5 1/2-furlong contest for 2-year-old fillies with a purse of $70,000.
Lilac Lace went off at odds of 19-1 and cruised to victory, paying $10 for the win. She was followed by 15-1 shot Superhelpful and third-place Queen of the Temple, whose 91-1 odds helped generate a tasty return on the exotic wagers.
A 50-cent trifecta paid $5,764.20. A 10-cent superfecta, which included fourth-place finisher and 95-1 shot Kitten Rocks, paid $19,330.37.
Big Blue Grass bucks
Apparently, a lack of spectators at the track because of COVID-19 did not have much of a negative effect on betting during Keeneland’s marquee showcase this weekend. Saturday saw the second-highest total mutuel handle ever produced on Blue Grass Stakes day.
A total of $23,834,972 was wagered on Saturday’s 10-race card, which included Art Collector’s big win in the Blue Grass. That’s less than $2 million short of the record-setting $25,809,200 bet on Blue Grass Stakes day at Keeneland during the 2019 Spring Meet.
On Blue Grass Stakes day in 2018, $22,634,861 was wagered.
