Kentucky Downs: 2023 surprise is back for opening day 2024

A year ago almost to the day, trainer Whit Beckman lit up the toteboard at Kentucky Downs when Harlan Estate won the Tapit Stakes at ridiculous odds of 37-1.

Beckman is hoping for a repeat Thursday on opening day of the 2024 Kentucky Downs meet. Harlan Estate is returning to the scene of his biggest win and the first career stakes win for Beckman when he defends his title in the listed, $500,000 Tapit Stakes.

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“Hopefully this is a place he wants to run well at,” Beckman said.

Harlan Estate, a 6-year-old gelding, is owned by Graham Grace Stables. Since upsetting the Tapit last year, he has gone winless in his last seven starts. He was second in his latest, beaten by two lengths in an allowance optional-claiming race July 20. 

In his career on grass, Harlan Estate is 21: 3-5-1.

“He has always been inconsistent,” Beckman said. “I wish we could say we have figured him out completely, but we haven’t gotten that far. He has run in spots. We are hoping he does it at Kentucky Downs.”

Harlan Estate is 10-1 on the morning line for the Tapit. Beckman is encouraged because of the life the gelding showed at Saratoga. That race came after a 79-day layoff. In the races before he got the time off, Harlan Estate lost three races by a combined 23 1/2 lengths.

“That was the kind of performance we were looking for,” Beckman said.

As far as last year’s upset goes, Beckman was not going to say he expected it as he revisited the 1 3/4-length Tapit win. 

“I mean it didn’t totally surprise me, because I would not have put him in if I didn’t feel he was capable,” Beckman said. “Right now he is 1-for-1 at Kentucky Downs. I don’t know if that is enough to establish a pattern, but I am going to go ahead and hope that there is going to be a pattern established.”

Hall of Fame rider Joel Rosario will be aboard for the ride.

Beckman said the field for this year’s Tapit is tougher than last year. He also has another horse running opening day who has had success at Kentucky Downs.

Sabalanka, a 4-year-old filly owned by DiRico Racing and Breeding, is entered to run in the fourth race Thursday, a $200,000 allowance optional-claiming test for fillies and mares 3 and up. She broke her maiden at Kentucky Downs in 2022 and was second in the Dueling Grounds Oaks last year. Sabalenka is 9-2 on the morning line and will be ridden by Tyler Gaffalione.

“I know she appreciates the layout of that place,” Beckman said.

Under accelerated post times in response to anticipated 96-degree heat, the Tapit Stakes is scheduled to be run at 5:41 p.m. EDT. The first post for opening day is at 1:25 p.m.

Ryan Walsh has a triple oddity

Trainers have won three races in one day. So have jockeys.

But a mare?

Trainer Ryan Walsh will give it a go Thursday, because the three horses he entered are from the same dam. Sweet Nkosi, who Walsh owns, will be the proud mama looking on. Sweet Bebsi, a 2-year-old filly; Sweet Lilibet, a 3-year-old filly; and Jill Jitterbug, a 4-year-old filly, run in the colors of Shagbark Farms, which is owned by Walsh’s mom Anne.

“This is pretty cool,” Ryan Walsh said. “To have three from the same mare at a meet that is fancy as that? We are going to roll the dice.”

All are long shots. Sweet Bebsi is 20-1 in the fifth race, a $170,000 maiden special weight. Sweet Lilibet is 50-1 in the sixth, an $80,000 allowance. Jill Jitterbug is 20-1 in the eighth, a $210,000 allowance optional-claiming race.

Walsh said he did not point these horses to Kentucky Downs just because of the mare. 

“It just kind of worked out that way,” he said.

Sweet Nkosi is 14, and Walsh said she is doing well.

If one of his horses is able to find the winner’s circle, it will be his first win at Kentucky Downs since Cast Ashore won a claiming race in 1995. That was when the track was called Dueling Grounds.