First Look: Keeneland, Oaklawn races top weekend stakes

The road to the Kentucky Derby reaches its end this weekend with the Grade 3 Lexington at Keeneland, but there is graded-stakes action aplenty in other divisions to help divert attention from the 3-year-olds. And you won’t even have to wait until Saturday to get the stakes party started.

With Keeneland’s spring meet up and running, handicappers can get the weekend started with a bang on Friday as two-time Breeders’ Cup champ Modern Games is expected to make his 2023 debut for British trainer Charlie Appleby against a short but talented cast in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile.

Saturday’s Lexington Stakes at Keeneland will keep Kentucky Derby appetites whetted, and the listed Federico Tesio at Laurel Park, a traditional prep for the Preakness, offers a look a bit farther down the Triple Crown path.

Saturday also will feature top turf talent in Keeneland’s Jenny Wiley (G1), which has attracted a solid lineup of fillies and mares headlined by the Chad Brown-trained In Italian and Godolphin’s With The Moonlight for Appleby.

Oaklawn enters its final month of racing with two of its signature races on Saturday: the Apple Blossom (G1), led by Secret Oath and Clairiere, and the Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3).

The Beaumont (G2), a seven-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies at Keeneland, will close out the weekend’s graded stakes action on Sunday.

Here is an early look at the likely fields.

Friday

Maker's Mark Mile (G1), Keeneland, one mile (turf), 4-year-olds and up.

Godolphin's homebred colt Modern Games, winner of the 2022 Eclipse Award as champion male turf horse, is expected to make his first start of 2023 against top competition, with Appleby no doubt swayed by the fact that the 4-year-old seemed to relish the Keeneland turf course in winning last year's Breeders' Cup Mile over the track. 

The Chad Brown-trained Dr. Zempf, clear winner of an allowance race in March in his first U.S. start after racing at 2 and 3 in Europe, and In Love, winner of the 2021 Keeneland Turf Mile (G1) over this track for trainer Paulo Lobo, are among the rivals looking to spoil Modern Games' 3-for-3 North American record.

2023 Maker's Mark Mile G1

Saturday

Lexington (G3), Keeneland, 1 1/16 miles , 3 year olds.

The last race of the year that offers qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby had only five horses listed as possible as of Sunday, but don't be surprised if the cast swells as other connections contend with raging cases of Derby fever.

The Keith Desormeaux-trained Confidence Game, last seen winning the Rebel (G2) at Oaklawn in February over a sloppy track, looms as the probable favorite. The son of Candy Ride already has 57 Derby points, good for 12th on the current leader board, but the other possible entrants will likely not make the cut even if they were to win and collect the winner's share of 20 points.

2023 Lexington G3

Jenny Wiley (G1), Keeneland, 1 1/16 miles (turf),  fillies and mares, 4-year-olds and up.  

With The Moonlight returns to the U.S., where she won the Saratoga Oaks Invitational (G3) and placed second in two other graded stakes last year after back-to-back Grade 2 scores in the U.A.E.

Among her more accomplished foes listed as probable is the multiple Grade 1-winning mare In Italian, who would make her first start since a runner-up effort in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Keeneland for trainer Chad Brown.

2023 Jenny Wiley G1

Count Fleet Sprint Handicap, Oaklawn, 6 furlongs, 4-year-olds and up

This dirt sprint named after the Triple Crown winner of 1943 drew a field of ten horses. Among those entrants, the leaders include Tejano Twist and Edge to Edge, who finished first and third in last month's Whitmore (G3) at Oaklawn. The Bill Mott-trained Candy Man Rocket, who won the Gulfstream Park Sprint in his last start, is another prominent horse in the field.

2023 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap G3

Apple Blossom Handicap (G1), Oaklawn, 1 1/16 miles, fillies and mares, 4-year-olds and up

The field for Oaklawn's marquee race for older fillies and mares was drawn Monday. Only four horses entered, though that field includes two of the leaders of the distaff division: Secret Oath, trained by D. Wayne Lukas, and the Steve Asmussen-conditioned Clairiere will renew a rivalry that dates to last year and extended through last month's Azeri Stakes, when they finished 1-2, with Secret Oath getting the upper hand.

2023 Apple Blossom Handicap G1

As of Sunday, three horses were listed as probable and three as possible entrants, including the solid mid-Atlantic stakes runner Coffeewithchris, second in the Private Terms Stakes at Laurel in his last start, and the former Bob Baffert trainee Fort Warren, now in the care of Brittany Russell. 

2023 Federico Tesio LS

Sunday

Beaumont (G2), Keeneland, seven furlongs, 3-year-old fillies

The field for the Beaumont, which will award a total of 20 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points to the top five finishers, stood at five possible starters as of Sunday. Graded stakes-placed Red Carpet Ready (third in the Davona Dale (G2) at Gulfstream Park in March) and Shoplifter (second to Fun and Feisty in last year's Pocahontas at Churchill Downs) were the most accomplished fillies on the short list.

Again, don't be surprised if the race's ranks swell by the time entries are drawn.

2023 Beaumont G2