Blue Grass Stakes: Full Field Likely
A full gate of 14 three-year-olds likely will be the order of the day for the 89th running of the $750,000 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G1), the centerpiece of the 16-day spring meet, to be run Saturday, April 13.
With 170 points available in the Kentucky Derby Championship Series with 100 points going to the winner, the Toyota Blue Grass represents one of the final major steps toward the starting gate for the 139th running of the $2 million Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) on Saturday, May 4. Second place is worth 40 points, with 20 for third and 10 for fourth.
Tops among the three-year-olds considering the Toyota Blue Grass at 1 1/8 miles on the main track are Willis D. Horton’s Will Take Charge and John Oxley’s Uncaptured.
Trained by two-time Blue Grass winner D. Wayne Lukas, Will Take Charge broke his maiden at Keeneland last fall in his second start and this year has won the Smarty Jones and Rebel Stakes (G2) at Oaklawn Park. Will Take Charge has 60 Kentucky Derby points.
Uncaptured, winner of the Kentucky Jockey Club (G2) and Iroquois (G3) last fall at Churchill Downs, finished second in his 2013 debut on March 23 in the Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati Racing Spiral Stakes (G3) at Turfway Park. A winner of six of eight career starts, Uncaptured is trained by Mark Casse.
Other horses considered as probable by Keeneland Racing Secretary Ben Huffman for the Toyota Blue Grass are Charming Kitten, trained by Todd Pletcher, Dewey Square (Dale Romans), Dynamic Sky (Casse), Falling Sky (John Terranova), Fear the Kitten (Mike Maker), Footbridge (Eoin Harty), Java’s War (Ken McPeek), Noble Tune (Chad Brown), Reporting Star (Kathleen O’Connell), Rydilluc (Gary Contessa), Tesseron (Josie Carroll), Tiz a Minister (Paul Aguirre), Undrafted (Wesley Ward) and War Academy (Bob Baffert). Possibles for the race include Eton Blue (Nick Zito), Mudflats (Doug O’Neill) and Palace Malice (Pletcher).
Entries for the Toyota Blue Grass will be taken Wednesday, April 10.