No one would bat an eye if Ragtime showed up in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. Three decisive wins from four starts, a winning race when she took her lone defeat in the Grade 1 Test.
But instead of racing Nov. 1 at Del Mar, Ragtime runs Saturday at Keeneland. She sticks with the 3-year-old filly set over the only distance she’s ever raced, seven furlongs, in the Grade 2, $400,000 Raven Run. Godolphin, the filly’s breeder, often keeps their older stakes horses in training. The Breeders’ Cup comes to Keeneland in 2026. Patience might as well be trainer Bill Mott’s middle name.
As good as the Mott-trained Ragtime has looked, she’s no cinch. The Raven Run, which can accommodate a dozen starters, drew an overflow field of 14, including a handful of real threats to the favorite. Ragtime, the mount of Junior Alvardo, could dip lower than her 3-1 morning line, though not by much.
Ragtime’s not the typical blue-blooded Godolphin homebred. Her sire, Union Rags, stands for an advertised fee of just $10,000, and Ragtime is the 12th named foal out of Burmilla, whose only other stakes-winning offspring, Snowbell, captured the Grade 3 Comely in 2014.
Mott worked Ragtime 23 times before she finally debuted June 6 at Saratoga. A 9-1 chance, Ragtime broke from the rail and raced nearer the back of the field than the front before launching a sharp move past the half-mile pole, drawing away to an easy win. No fluke, that. She came right back with a facile first-level allowance score, and at the eighth pole in the Test looked like a winner.
The Test, though, unfolded with a dramatic outside-closing flow, and Kilwin, who botched the break and was a mile back early, nailed Ragtime on the line. Maybe Ragtime didn’t see Kilwin coming, and when she showed up at Churchill Downs for the Dogwood Stakes last month, Ragtime raced for the first time without blinkers.
She broke slowly, settled near the field’s tail, and Alvarado, eschewing a wide turn run, waited along the fence before steering Ragtime outside for a stretch run. Strong State, who also runs Saturday, came with a looping move and drew abreast Ragtime at the eighth pole before Ragtime ran away from her. Ragtime’s Beyer Speed Figure dropped from a pair of 96s to an 86. Don’t let that put you off.
California-based trainer Bob Baffert, 1 for 11 at Keeneland since winning the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Classic with Authentic, sends Usha, 9-2 on the morning line. Usha went 0 for 4 as a 2-year-old, unable even to win a New York-bred maiden, but returned this summer a different horse.
She won a Del Mar maiden in July by more than 11 lengths and came right back with a five-length, first-level allowance score, geared down after opening an insurmountable lead. She drew well in post 8 for a pressing trip, though Usha doesn’t feel like great value.
While Delightful Claire should show speed from the rail, Maida’s the likely pacesetter. Trained in Maryland by Brittany Russell, Maida has won three starts by open lengths since Russell stopped racing the filly in blinkers following her first start. Who knows how good she is?
After bossing overmatched maidens and allowance foes, Maida took her game to a new level Sept. 20 in the Fire Plug at Laurel Park. Despite stumbling at the start, Maida zoomed to the lead, running the fastest first quarter, the fastest second quarter, easily the fastest fifth furlong, 11.79 seconds, and the fastest final furlong while being ridden out to win by eight lengths.
Quietside makes her first start since a sixth in the Kentucky Oaks, but it’s the horse Quietside beat March 29 in the Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn Park, Simply Joking, who intrigues in the Raven Run. Simply Joking, who might not even be a route horse, ran as well as Quietside in the 1 1/16-mile Fantasy, her first defeat after a debut victory in the Sugar Bowl Stakes and front-running two-turn score in the Silverbulletday, both at Fair Grounds. Her last-place finish in the Oaks is eminently forgivable.
Simply Joking makes her first start since joining the California string of trainer Michael McCarthy.
“She came to us, obviously, with a solid reputation. She came as advertised,” McCarthy said.
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Simply Joking trained like a top-level horse even before her debut and has continued working with verve. “Looks well” and “trains forwardly” were as much as McCarthy offered. One gets the sense he’s more enthused with Simply Joking’s breezes than that.
Video of recent Santa Anita workouts show why. Simply Joking’s Oct. 5 drill at Santa Anita turned almost into a race, with Simply Joking and her workmate hooking up with three others at the quarter pole. Simply Joking worked better than all of them.
“That kind of gave us the impetus to look for a race. Timing-wise, there was nothing really suitable for her in California,” McCarthy said. “This is good spacing to the La Brea.”
The La Brea is a seven-furlong Grade 1 in December. If Simply Joking’s good enough for that, she just might be ready for a Raven Run upset.
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