Henley's Joy back to turf, headlining Keeneland's Transylvania Stakes

Bloom Racing Stable’s Henley’s Joy tops a well-balanced field of 11 runners entered Tuesday for Friday’s 31st running of the Grade 3, $150,000 Kentucky Utilities Transylvania for 3-year-olds going  1 1/16 miles on the turf.

Post time for the Transylvania, the ninth race on the 10-race Friday program, is 5:30 p.m.

Trained by Mike Maker, Henley’s Joy was 10th last time in Fair Grounds' Risen Star (G2) on the dirt but has compiled a 6: 3-2-0 mark on the grass. In his lone Keeneland appearance, he finished second beaten a nose in last fall’s Dixiana Bourbon (G3).

Tyler Gaffalione has the mount on Henley’s Joy, who will break from post position 10.

Invading from Florida is Sandra New’s consistent Louder Than Bombs.

Trained by David Fawkes, Louder Than Bombs enters Friday’s race off a third-place finish in the Palm Beach (G3) at Gulfstream Park on March 2. Luis Saez has the mount and will break from post position seven.

“He is a high energy horse and full of life,” said Fawkes of the Violence colt, who was purchased at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $37,000. “We had a choice of the (Cutler Bay) stakes last Saturday at Gulfstream or here. He needs them to back up, and I thought there was a better chance of that here.”

Louder Than Bombs figures to stay in Kentucky after Friday’s race with the American Turf (G2) on Kentucky Derby day a possibility.

The field for the Kentucky Utilities Transylvania, with riders and weights, from the rail out is: The Black Album (FR) (Jose Ortiz, 120 pounds), Onthewaytonevrland (John Velazquez, 118), Go Away (Feargal Lynch, 118), Avie’s Flatter (Javier Castellano, 120), Weekly Call (Brian Hernandez Jr., 118), Dunph (Julien Leparoux, 118), Louder Than Bombs (Saez, 120), War Film (Florent Geroux, 118), Hawaiian Noises (Rafael Bejarano, 118), Henley’s Joy (Gaffalione, 120) and Life Mission (James Graham, 118).