Thirteen days after the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, a Grade 1 turf route for 3-year-old fillies, the Grade 2, $400,000 Valley View Stakes in the same division headlines the Friday card at Keeneland.
The junior varsity, it turns out, is pretty good and very plentiful.
A dozen can start in the 1 1/16-mile Valley View, and if any of those in the field’s main body come out, three also-eligibles stand poised to run. Just last weekend, Kappa Kappa drew into the Raven Run Stakes from the also-eligible list and won it.
One spot inside the also-eligibles, in post 12, we find May Day Ready, who, if she and new jockey Ben Curtis can work out a trip, would offer value at her 10-1 morning line.
“I guess somebody had to get it,” trainer Joe Lee said of May Day Ready’s tough draw.
Good things have happened for May Day Ready at Keeneland. Last fall, she came out on the right side of a photo finish and won the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes, and this past spring, Lee and owner KatieRich Stables had May Day Ready based at Keeneland.
“She did really, really well here in the spring,” Lee said. “Unfortunately, she came into heat, and that kind of turned us upside down in April and May.”
June, July, and September weren’t that great either. On June 7 at Saratoga, the Wonder Again was rained off the turf and onto a sloppy main track. May Day Ready paddled around there, a distant last of three.
She ran better, not her best, finishing fourth on July 5 after a bad start in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational. In August, May Day Ready, typically a closer, led on a slow pace and won the Lake Placid Stakes. In the Winter Memories last month at Aqueduct, she was ridden for some pace out of the gate after breaking from post 1 and decided to run off with her jockey. May Day Ready busted between horses, blew the first turn, pulled like crazy once she got back on track, and faded to seventh.
“All that took a lot out of her,” Lee said. “I hope she’ll just break and get in behind. I’ll be a little bit leery Friday that she’s going to get headstrong.”
May Day Ready’s listed odds are five times that of 2-1 morning-line favorite Play With Fire, who last raced in the Lake Placid, losing by a half-length to May Day Ready. Play With Fire’s only two wins, in fact, came in a maiden race and the Hilltop at Pimlico. She could work out a good trip from post 2 under Flavien Prat but would be an underlay at anything like the listed odds.
Classic Q, 7-2 on the morning line, defeated Play With Fire in the Wild Applause, then took a dirty beat at Saratoga when Daisy Flyer ran late to nip her in the Lake George Stakes. Classic Q likes to run in front, which she did in the Lake George before sticking her feet in the ground for the final half-furlong of that 1 1/16-mile contest.
Trainer Mark Casse, who also runs Vixen in the Valley View, cut Classic Q back to 6 1/2 furlongs for the Music City Stakes at Kentucky Downs. She ran okay, rallying mildly from eighth to finish fourth, but it’s the Music City’s third-place finisher, Tabiti, who holds more appeal.
Tabiti, a Juddmonte homebred, shipped from England for trainer Ralph Beckett to start in the Music City, which turned into a homestretch parade, with Shisospicy, Cloe, and Tabiti first, second, and third through the stretch run.
Tabiti could prove more miler than sprinter. It might seem like she didn’t quite stay one mile finishing third of 25 in the Sandringham Handicap at Royal Ascot, but Tabiti gave 13 and 16 pounds to the two fillies who beat her. She makes her first start for trainer Brad Cox, who makes an equipment change: blinkers off.
“She was awful keyed up in the paddock last time,” Cox said. “They had these huge blinkers on her. I thought, let’s just pull those off of her for now. She works well enough on the dirt.”
Somethinabouther might be in slightly too tough, but almost everything has gone right this Keeneland meet for her trainer, Brendan Walsh. His second Grade 1 winner of the month came with Lush Lips in the QE II.
Walsh won the varsity game. Maybe his JV team is competitive, too.
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