The eight-race Wednesday card at Keeneland, which opens the first full week of racing, is the first card of this meet that doesn’t have a stakes race – but that’s in name only.
A $150,000 turf allowance for older horses has attracted four graded stakes winners in the field of seven, including millionaire Integration, who is getting his season started in this potential stepping-stone to bigger things.
“Wish it was a little farther,” Terry Finley of West Point Thoroughbreds, which co-owns Integration with Woodford Racing, said of the 1 1/16-mile race. “But it’ll be perfect to set him up for the rest of the year going forward.”
Integration, who will have John Velazquez in the irons for Shug McGaughey, is a three-time graded stakes winner who has earned more than $1.7 million. He competed exclusively in Grade 1 stakes in 2025 and just missed a few times. After finishing second by a neck in the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park, he was second in the Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland, a race that shows he can be effective at shorter distances. He won his lone start at 1 1/6 miles in his 2023 debut.
After the Maker’s Mark, Integration was seventh in the Turf Classic on the Kentucky Derby undercard, beaten less than three lengths in a scramble after encountering traffic in deep stretch. He was then second by a head in the Manhattan and third in the Arlington Million last August, after which he got a deserved freshening.
“These kind of horses, they run hard, they’re honest, they try every time, and that’s what he did,” Finley said. “And it was time for him to take a break. Most of the time, the classy horses like this are the ones that really pay you back for the time and the effort that you put into them.”
Integration got a vacation at Eisaman Equine in Florida before returning to McGaughey at Gulfstream, getting back on the work tab in February. He recently fired a bullet half-mile work in preparation for his 6-year-old debut.
“Shug has been very, very happy with the progress that he’s made,” Finley said. “He’s a decent work horse on the dirt and looks fabulous.”
Along with Integration, who is multiple Grade 1-placed on the Keeneland turf, Andthewinneris has also shown an affinity for this course, winning the Grade 2 Bourbon here in 2022. The multiple graded stakes winner is making his second start off a layoff of well over a year, and second start back with original trainer Wayne Catalano after racing for Chad Brown in 2024.
Andthewinneris made his return in an allowance in February on Turfway Park’s Tapeta, finishing fifth. Not only is he likely to be tighter in his second outing off the long layoff, he is returning to his preferred surface.
Multiple graded stakes winner Dresden Row was most recently seen winning the Grade 3 Autumn in November on Woodbine’s synthetic track. He is also making a trainer change, moving to Todd Pletcher from Lorne Richards.
Idratherbeblessed was a graded stakes winner in early 2025. First Strike has won three straight races at Turfway but is jumping up in class.
The Wednesday card also includes a sister event in a $120,000 turf allowance for fillies and mares. The field of 11 includes Love You Anyway, Grade 3-placed last year, along with multiple stakes-placed Princess Attitude and stakes-placed Love and Poetry.
Wednesday’s action also includes a $130,000 allowance for fillies and mares, a $110,000 maiden special weight for 3-year-old fillies routing on the dirt, and a $90,000 maiden sprint for 2-year-olds, the second such race of the meet.
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