The 3-year-old filly Admit’s first start at Keeneland did not turn out so well. After a good winter at Turfway Park, Admit, her connections casting an eye toward the Kentucky Oaks, started in the Ashland Stakes in April and finished seventh, beaten more than 25 lengths. That dirt race in the spring looked nothing like Admit’s turf race Friday, and in her second Keeneland appearance Admit stormed down the center of the track to win the Grade 2, $400,000 Valley View Stakes.
Her jockey, John Velazquez, would have no trouble admitting he never saw this Keeneland meet coming. On the 11th and penultimate day of the roughly three-week stand, Velazquez booted home his seventh stakes winner, tying the meet record Pat Day set in 1998. Velazquez tipped his cap to his agent, Kiaran McLaughlin. At 53, Velazquez’s services still are in demand.
“Incredible meeting,” Velazquez said. “It’s nice to be wanted, to be given opportunities. You have to give it to the horses.”
Admit, rallying from seventh, won the Valley View, which is restricted to 3-year-old fillies, by 1 1/2 lengths over late-closing Classic Q. Usually a front-runner, Classic Q closed furiously from 11th and nipped third-place longshot Somethinabouther by a head.
Tabiti, favored at just under 2-1, flattened out late and checked in fifth. Play With Wire, the second choice at a little less than 5-2, finished eighth. Admit, the fifth choice, paid $20.60 and ran one mile over a firm turf course in 1:35.74.
Claiborne Farm owns Admit and bred her by mating their stallion, Blame, with the War Front mare, Profess. Claiborne president Walker Hancock said Admit is either the seventh or eighth generation of an old Claiborne family. Admit’s second dam, Preach, was a Grade 1 winner who produced multiple graded-stakes winner and the moderately successful stallion Pulpit. Claiborne’s last graded stakes win with a horse solely owned by the farm came in 2017.
Trainer Tommy Drury Jr. won the third graded stakes of his career. Drury said Hancock talked to him after Admit finished a competitive fourth in the Dueling Grounds Oaks at Kentucky Downs and suggested the Valley View as a target.
“Her last couple works have been fantastic,” Drury said. “We were cautiously optimistic.”
Velazquez sat on the fence into the first turn and down the backstretch, four horses behind him and seven ahead of him, as 129-1 shot Stormy Paradise launched to a big lead and went a fast half-mile in 46.54. Velazquez got off the rail before the far turn and got onto the tail of Somethinabouther at the three-furlong marker, coming outside his cover after turning for home while racing about six paths wide.
Admit, her ears up, kicked hard, took the lead at the eighth pole and briefly tried to duck in before Velazquez corrected her, the pair going straight to the wire, the jockey going straight into the Keeneland record books.
* Earlier Friday, Chunk of Gold, winner of the West Virginia Derby in August and second in the Louisiana Derby in March, notched an impressive front-running allowance score, going to the lead under Jose Ortiz and winning off by 8 1/4 lengths, stopping the timer in a good 1:50.21 for 1 1/8 miles.
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