Kehoe Beach last Sept. 8 made her first start in a one-turn turf race and won a first-level allowance by 8 1/2 lengths. She ran seven furlongs in 1:20.46, a Kentucky Downs course record. Four-year-old Kehoe Beach returns to Kentucky Downs on Saturday for the $2 million Ladies Turf Sprint. The forecast looks favorable, no rain, the course likely fast and firm, just the way Kehoe Beach likes it.
Cut back to one turn for the first time since Kentucky Downs in the seven-furlong Connaught Cup on July 20 at Woodbine, Kehoe Beach set the pace and faded to fourth over a course officially rated good. Jockey John Velazquez came back afterward, jumped off Kehoe Beach, and told trainer Wesley Ward the course rode more soft than good.
Velazquez rides Fierceness in the Pacific Classic on Saturday. Irad Ortiz Jr. takes the mount on Kehoe Beach, who drew favorably – post 11 – in the 6 1/2-furlong Ladies Turf Sprint.
“She set a track record over there, she’s got a great post, and we’ve got the hottest rider on the planet,” Ward said. “She’s doing really well. There shouldn’t be any excuses.”
Even sans excuses, even if she runs her very best race, runs back to last year’s Kentucky Downs form, Kehoe Beach stands a good chance of getting beat.
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Ag Bullet also set a Kentucky Downs course record last season when she ran 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:14.19, and that came not in some lower-level allowance, but in the Ladies Turf Sprint. She won by 5 1/2 lengths – and not merely because Ag Bullet took to the quirky Kentucky Downs course. In November, Ag Bullet lost the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, a five-furlong race, by a neck; in December, she finished a good third going a two-turn mile in the Grade 1 Matriarch.
Ag Bullet’s connections, trainer Richard Baltas and owners Calvin Nguyen and Joey Tran, brought the mare back for a 5-year-old campaign with three targets – the Grade 1 Jaipur in June at Saratoga, this race, and the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. A rough trip over a Churchill course she might not have liked produced a subpar comeback run in May, but Ag Bullet aced the Jaipur, winning by two lengths, then returned to Baltas’s base in Southern California and resumed working steadily on July 20. She has not missed a beat while breezing with aplomb over the Del Mar grass course.
“I think she likes it here,” Baltas said Wednesday, having already traveled to Kentucky. “She shipped in very well. She galloped over the track today and went well. And she’s been working well at Del Mar.”
Ag Bullet and Kehoe Beach head a field of 12 that’s strong even beyond the top two.
Zeitlos finished second July 19 in the Caress at Saratoga, beaten a half-length by the excellent Future Is Now, and she performed creditably in her lone Kentucky Downs start. Jody’s Pride, whose best Beyer Speed Figures put her in contention, has made only one turf start, that in a two-turn mile beyond her best distance, and she’s bred top and bottom for grass. Time to Dazzle was right behind Zeitlos in the Caress. Simply in Front won the age- and sex-restricted Franklin-Simpson going this distance at the 2024 Kentucky Downs meet.
Will Walden, trainer of Oujda, is bullish on his mare’s chances. Bred in France but based later last season in Ireland, Oujda, purchased by current connections at an overseas sale last December, skipped to a solid win Aug. 2 in the Sweet Briar Too, a six-furlong Woodbine turf sprint, her North American debut. Walden describes Oujda as a massive mare, standing more than 17 hands.
“I really think she can move forward off the last race, the way she trained out of it,” said Walden, who termed the Woodbine start a prep for this race. “She thrives on the work. As big as she is, I think she has put on weight.”
Kehoe Beach always goes to the lead, and there’s no reason to believe that changes Saturday, though Ward said he was leaving tactics to Ortiz. With her previous recent riders, Umberto Rispoli and John Velazquez, committed to the Pacific Classic on Saturday, Ag Bullet, who can lead or stalk, has a new jockey, Luis Saez.
“Let her do her thing, don’t send her, and she’ll probably put herself in the race,” Baltas said
Let her do her thing, and Ag Bullet probably wins again – even with a worthy rival, Kehoe Beach, lined up against her.
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