Dancing Rags, Sweet Loretta set to square off in Beaumont
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Two fillies who chased Champagne Room home in last year’s 14 Hands Winery Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) are poised to make their 2017 debuts Sunday in the 32nd running of the $150,000 Adena Springs Beaumont (G3).
Chadds Ford Stable’s Dancing Rags, who finished eighth in the Breeders’ Cup, returns to Keeneland, where she won last fall’s Darley Alcibiades (G1) for trainer Graham Motion.
St. Elias Stable’s Sweet Loretta, 11th in the Breeders’ Cup, will be making her Keeneland debut for trainer Todd Pletcher in the main track race over the Beard Course of 7 furlongs, 184 feet.
Both fillies were nominated to today’s Central Bank Ashland (G1) to be run at 1 1/16 miles.
“It’s her first start since November,” said Jane Buchanan, racing manager for Motion’s Herringswell Stables, of opting for the shorter race.
“It is her first race back since the Breeders’ Cup, and Todd didn’t want to go a mile and a sixteenth (in the Central Bank Ashland) to start back,” said Ginny DePasquale, the Pletcher assistant who is overseeing the trainer’s Keeneland string. “He was looking for something shorter to start the year.”
The Adena Springs Beaumont is the final race in Kentucky on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks (G1) with 17 points up for grabs on a 10-4-2-1 scale for the first- through fourth-place finishers. The Oaks is limited to the top 14 point earners that pass the entry box.
There are three Oaks prep races Saturday, each worth 170 points.
Dancing Rags had 10 points by virtue of her victory in the Darley Alcibiades. A win Sunday could put her in the Oaks mix.
“We may have to consider it,” Buchanan said of the Oaks. “But we will have to see how she comes out of the race and what happens today (in the other races).”
DEFENDING CHAMPION DA BIG HOSS TOPS NOMINATIONS
FOR DIXIANA ELKHORN
Skychai Racing’s Da Big Hoss, unraced since finishing 11th in the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1) that ended his four-race win streak, tops a roster of 27 runners nominated to the 32nd running of the $250,000 Dixiana Elkhorn (G2) scheduled for Saturday, April 22.
Trained by Mike Maker, Da Big Hoss won the Dixiana Elkhorn last year to start the win streak that included victories in the American St. Leger (G3) and Kentucky Turf Cup (G3).
Only three horses have posted victories in consecutive years in the race with the most recent being Musketier (GER) in 2010-2011.
The 1½-mile turf test for 4-year-olds and up drew another 12 graded stakes winners among the nominees, including last out San Luis Rey (G2) winner Itsinthepost (FR).
WEEP NO MORE HEADLINES
HILLIARD LYONS DOUBLEDOGDARE NOMINATIONS
Ashbrook Farm’s Weep No More, upset winner of last year’s Central Bank Ashland (G1) here, tops a roster of 20 fillies and mares nominated to the 23rd running of the $100,000 Hilliard Lyons Doubledogdare (G3) to be run Friday, April 21.
The Hilliard Lyons Doubledogdare is contested at 1 1/16 miles on the main track.
Trained by Rusty Arnold, a two-time winner of the race, Weep No More has not raced since a fourth-place finish behind champion Songbird in the Alabama (G1) at Saratoga in August.
Also including in the nominations is The Elkstone Group’s Lady Fog Horn. Trained by Anthony Granitz, the 5-year-old mare has not raced since winning the Falls City (G2) at Churchill Downs in November.
GALLOPING OUT
Trainer Steve Manley earned his first Keeneland victory when Mike Piazza’s Rhodium won the second race on Friday, opening day of Keeneland’s 2017 Spring Meet. Ridden by Rafael Hernandez, Rhodium won the 6½-furlong allowance race by 5¾ lengths as the 3-5 favorite. Her time was 1:17.92. Rhodium is a 7-year-old daughter of Flashy Bull…
Trainer Horacio DePaz won his Keeneland debut when he sent out Sagamore Farm’s homebred Chubby Star to win Friday’s sixth race. Ridden by Jose Ortiz, the 3-year-old Malibu Moon filly won the 1 1/8-mile allowance race by a half-length in 1:51.41. A former exercise rider for trainer Todd Pletcher, DePaz is in his third year as a trainer.
Source: Keeneland Association
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