McLaughlin Double Loaded in Raven Run with Takrees, Coniah

Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin has won six of his nine Keeneland stakes with horses owned by Shadwell Stable.

In Saturday’s seven-furlong Lexus Raven Run (G2), McLaughlin will send out Takrees for Shadwell and California import Coniah for owner-breeders Tammy and James McKenney.

“They contacted us and wanted to try this side of the country and run in the Prioress (G2) and that is how it happened,” said Steven Hampson, the assistant to McLaughlin who is overseeing the trainer’s Keeneland string. “We got her two weeks before the race.”

Grade 3-placed in her most recent California start, Coniah finished sixth in the Prioress on Sept. 4 at Saratoga behind Lucy N Ethel, whom she will meet again Saturday in the Lexus Raven Run.

“That was a tough race,” Hampson said of the six-furlong sprint. “She broke sharp but (jockey) Irad (Ortiz Jr.) saw he couldn’t keep up and he dropped back to make one run. But the winner (Lucy N Ethel) was so impressive that day, and her race was probably better than it looks on paper.”

Coniah came back 3½ weeks later with a wire-to-wire allowance win at 6½ furlongs on Sept. 29.

Takrees finished third in the Prioress, closing from far off the pace. The Lexus Raven Run will be her first start since the Prioress.

“Both of those fillies are very pleasant to be around,” Hampson said. “Takrees is a filly who will appreciate some pace and there should be some in there.”

CURLIN’S APPROVAL BRINGS HAPPY ALTER BACK TO KEENELAND: As one of the last sprint races restricted to 3-year-old fillies, Saturday’s $250,000 Lexus Raven Run (G2) has attracted horses from all over the country.

“It is a tough race,” Happy Alter said Friday morning at the Stakes Barn. “Whenever you run in a graded stakes, there is always going to be tough competition.”

Alter owns the only Florida invader in the Lexus Raven Run: his homebred Curlin’s Approval, a winner of three of four races this year at Gulfstream Park.

Marty Wolfson trains Curlin’s Approval for Alter, who during his training days saddled 10 starters at Keeneland. He won two races here with the most recent coming in 2001.

Alter trained No More Flowers, who finished 15^th in the 1987 Kentucky Derby (G1), and conditioned millionaire Jolie’s Halo to two of his three Grade 1 victories in the early 1990s.

In Curlin’s Approval, Alter has a filly who is ready for her graded stakes debut.

“She’s Kentucky-bred but she was raised at Bridlewood Farm (in Ocala, Fla.), where I have had horses for 30 years,” Alter said before the filly went out for light exercise on a sloppy main track.

Tyler Gaffalione will be aboard Curlin’s Approval on Saturday. He rode her to win her most recent race, the Added Elegance Stakes, on Aug. 28.

“She went 22 and change, 44 and change, 1:08 and 1:22,” Alter said of the 1½-length victory. “She beat older fillies in there, including Kiss to Remember, who’s a multiple stakes winner.”

Curlin’s Approval had her final work for Saturday’s race with a five-eighths work in :58.78 at Gulfstream last Friday.

“There were no races for her down there, so she has had a couple of strong breezes to make up for it,” Alter said of the filly, who also had a six-furlong work in 1:11.07 on Sept. 24. “In her last breeze she went :58 and out three-quarters in 1:11.”

WELL-TRAVELED SOPHIA’S SONG TAKES ON LEXUS RAVEN RUN: When Mathis Stable and Head of Plain Partners’ Sophia’s Song starts in Saturday’s Lexus Raven Run (G2), she will be making the seventh start of her career at the sixth track.

“She’s been everywhere. She adapts very easily,” Ginny DePasquale, assistant to trainer Todd Pletcher, said about the 3-year-old Bellamy Road filly who is out of full sister to two-time champion sprinter Housebuster.

Sophia’s Song, a Keeneland September Yearling Sale graduate, made the first two starts of her career on the all-weather track at Woodbine, running second in her debut and winning her next race. At Gulfstream Park, she won an allowance race last December.

She raced for the first time for Pletcher and her current owners at Laurel in March, winning the one-mile Caesar’s Wish Stakes. Five months later at Saratoga, Sophia’s Song was second in a 6½-furlong allowance race to Irish Jasper, who went on to win Keeneland’s Thoroughbred Club of America (G2) on Oct. 8.

Sophia’s Song last raced in the seven-furlong Charles Town Oaks (G3) and finished third behind Covey Trace, who also returns in the Lexus Raven Run.

Pletcher, who won the Lexus Raven Run in 2010 with Hilda’s Passion, will take the blinkers off Sophia’s Song for the race. She will be ridden by Robby Albarado, who won the race in 2007 on Jibboom.

Head of Plains Partners co-owns another Lexus Raven Run contender, Lightstream, with Up Hill Stable. She won Keeneland’s Adena Springs Beaumont (G3) in April.

LUCK TURNS IN VOSS’ FAVOR WITH RENOWN’S SYCAMORE VICTORY: The first time Elizabeth Voss started a horse at Keeneland the result was a heart-breaking defeat by a nose.

On Thursday, her fortunes changed as Merribelle Stable’s Renown (GB) took the Sycamore (G3) by a nose over Bigger Picture.

“I was here two years ago with Paris Vegas (for a one-mile turf allowance race) and lost the head bob,” Voss said. “This time we got it.”

The victory was the second for a Voss family member in the Sycamore as her late father, Tommy, won the race in 2008 with Always First (GB).

The Sycamore marked the first graded stakes victory for Renown, who began his career in Ireland. He came to the Voss barn in 2015 and after two off-the-board finishes at Delaware Park, he won back-to-back allowance races at Great Meadows in Virginia.

“That is where he finally started to win,” Voss said. “I am heading there Saturday where I have five horses in.”

Great Meadows is helping to fill the void in Virginia left by the closing of Colonial Downs and has a few select days of all flat racing to go with its steeplechase racing program.

In the Sycamore, Renown came from off the pace to join the leaders in the stretch before prevailing after a long drive.

“I wanted him to be up a little closer (early) and to stay off the rail,” Voss said. “After the first mile I was wondering what was going on, but (jockey) Angel (Cruz) knows him so well.”

While Voss headed back to Virginia, Renown traveled to nearby Versailles.

“The owner (John Moores) has a farm in Versailles and he’ll go there and be turned out with four buddies,” Voss said.

KEENELAND NOVEMBER SALE FEATURES PHIPPS STABLE REDUCTION: Highlighting Keeneland’s November Breeding Stock Sale, which begins Nov. 8, is the 11-horse reduction from Phipps Stable, which offers fillies and mares from some of racing’s most productive families.

Consigned by Claiborne Farm, agent, the reduction includes Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) winner Pleasant Home, in foal to Orb; Satisfaction, a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Dancing Forever and from the immediate family of champion Heavenly Prize, in foal to Point of Entry; graded stakes-placed Sea Island, a full sister to Grade 2 winner Sightseeing, in foal to Hard Spun; Secret Agenda, a 3-year-old daughter of Malibu Moon out of champion Smuggler; and Sound the Trumpets, a 3-year-old filly out of multiple Grade 1 winner My Flag and a half-sister to champion Storm Flag Flying.

Keeneland has cataloged 4,762 horses for its premier November Sale, which runs through Nov. 20.

Among the quality individuals cataloged are such Grade 1 winners as champion Stellar Wind, Celestine, Lady Eli, My Conquestadory (in foal to Tapit), Paola Queen, Peace and War (in foal to Tapit), Personal Diary and Street Fancy.  

Also cataloged are the dispersals of Ernie Semersky and Dory Newell’s Conquest Stables, for which Lane’s End will serve as agent; Marc Ferrell’s VinMar Farm (St. George Sales, agent); and Jim Eigel’s Rosemont Farm (Trackside Farm, agent).

Click here to visit the November Sale microsite for details about featured mares, notable weanlings, prominent broodmares and broodmare prospects and horses of racing age cataloged to the sale.

BREEDERS’ CUP CONTENDERS STABLED AT KEENELAND: Keeneland is home to several potential contenders during the Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Santa Anita on Nov. 4-5.

Pre-entries for the Breeders’ Cup will be announced Wednesday, Oct. 26.

*Runhappy is based at Keeneland’s The Thoroughbred Center, located nearly 12 miles northeast of the track. He worked at Keeneland on Aug. 25, Sept. 1, Sept. 8, Sept. 25, Oct. 12 and Oct. 19.

PROBABLE STARTERS FOR CLOSING-DAY HAGYARD FAYETTE

$200,000 HAGYARD FAYETTE (G2) (Entries taken Wednesday, race Saturday, Oct. 29) – Chocopologie (Pat Devereux Jr.), Divining Rod (Arnaud Delacour), Hawaakom (Wesley Hawley), Iron Fist (Steve Asmussen), Kasaqui (ARG) (Ignacio Correas IV), (Noble Bird (Mark Casse).

THIS DAY IN KEENELAND HISTORY: OCT. 21: Keeneland’s 2016 Fall Meet, which runs through Oct. 29, marks the track’s 80^th anniversary. To celebrate this milestone, Barn Notes throughout the Fall Meet will look back at memorable races and highlights from Keeneland’s rich history.

Here are a few noteworthy moments from Oct. 21:

1936: Greentree Stable’s Memory Book wins the Breeders’ Stakes. The $5,000-added race is the richest event of Keeneland’s inaugural season. John Gilbert rides the winner for trainer John M. Gaver. (The race is held only in 1936-1937.)

1960: Keeneland celebrates its 25th anniversary with a silver anniversary dinner and honors its all-time leading owner, trainer and jockey by wins. They are owner Hal Price Headley (104 wins), trainer V.R. Wright (87 wins) and jockey Steve Brooks (204 wins).

1966: Jockey Kenny Knapp wins five races.

1989: Wildenstein Stables’ Steinlen (GB) parlayed his head victory in the Keeneland Breeders’ Cup (G3) (now the Grade 1, $1 million Shadwell Turf Mile, won by Miss Temple City on Oct. 7) with a triumph in the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) to earn champion male turf horse honors for the season. Jose Santos rides Steinlen or trainer D. Wayne Lukas.

2011: Jockey Julien Leparoux wins five races.

2012: Keeneland sets a record attendance for a Sunday during the Fall Meet when 19,134 are at the track for Military Family Day and the Buffalo Trace Franklin County won by Nutmeg Stable’s Madame Giry.

FALL MEET LEADERS

Through Oct. 20 (10 days of racing)

Source: Keeneland