Keeneland: Eclipse Award winner Just F Y I leads Ashland
George Krikorian’s undefeated champion Just F Y I will make her 2024 debut Friday when she headlines a field of eight 3-year-old fillies entered Monday for the 87th running of the Grade 1, $600,000 Ashland going 1 1/16 miles on the main track.
Scheduled as the ninth race on Friday’s 10-race program with a 5:16 p.m. EDT post time, the Ashland is the first Grade 1 race of 2024 for the 3-year-old filly division. It offers 200 points on the road to the Kentucky Oaks, a $1.5 million race to be run May 3 at Churchill Downs.
Points will be awarded on a 100-50-25-15-10 scale to the first- through fifth-place finishers. The Kentucky Oaks is limited to the top 14 point earners.
Trained by Bill Mott, who won the Ashland in 2013 with Emollient, Just F Y I capped her 2023 campaign with a narrow victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita. Prior to that, she won the Frizette (G1).
Junior Alvarado, who has been aboard for all of Just F Y I’s starts, has the mount Friday coming out of post six.
Chief among Just F Y I’s rivals Friday are the 2-3 finishers from the Breeders’ Cup in Jody’s Pride and Candied. The undefeated Impel also stands to mount a challenge.
Trained by Jorge Abreu for Parkland Thoroughbreds and Sportsmen Stable, Jody’s Pride has won three of four starts with her lone defeat being a runner-up finish to Just F Y I in the Breeders’ Cup. In her lone start of 2024, Jody’s Pride won the Busher at Aqueduct going a mile on March 2. Flavien Prat has the mount from post eight.
Candied is trained by two-time Ashland winner Todd Pletcher for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners. Winner of the Darley Alcibiades (G1) here last fall prior to the Breeders’ Cup, Candied will be making her 2024 debut Friday and exit post one under Luis Saez. Pletcher won the race in 2021 with Malathaat and in 2022 with Nest.
Impel is trained by Brad Cox, who won the 2018 Central Bank Ashland with Monomoy Girl. Impel, who is owned by Juddmonte, made her debut on Jan. 1 with a 3 1/4-length victory going 6 furlongs at Fair Grounds. She followed that with an 8 1/2-length allowance victory going a mile and a sixteenth at Oaklawn Park on March 3. Florent Geroux has the mount from post seven.