Friday’s opening day card at Keeneland features at trio of stakes races at the historic Lexington venue. To assist your handicapping, selections provided by the 1/ST BET app measure each contender against the 10 leading factors for each race. The 1/ST BET app looks at 52 handicapping factors and more than 200,000 past races to determine its AI selections.
You can use the automated handicapping factors, or create your own factor filters to incorporate angles you prefer. Full-card selections can be found in the 1/ST BET app.
We’ve matched up the 1/ST BET AI picks with our resident handicapper Jeremy Plonk, who has been a public handicapper for Keeneland each of its last 30 meetings.
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Race 7 // 4:12 pm ET // Lafayette Stakes
1/ST BET AI: #1 Gulfport (30%)
Jeremy Plonk: #5 Corona Bolt
Notes: Gulfport returns to the races for the first time since October, making his 3-year-old debut for Steve Asmussen. He’s been favored in all 5 starts to date, but is third choice at 7-2 in the morning line Friday. Corona Bolt is the 5-2 second choice in the track morning line coming off a winter that including an eye-catching win in Fair Grounds’ Sugar Bowl Stakes and beating older horses last out in an Oaklawn allowance. Hejazi is the 8-5 morning line favorite in from California.
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Race 8 // 4:44 pm ET // Transylvania Stakes
1/ST BET AI: #2 Webslinger (25%)
Jeremy Plonk: #8 Candidate
Notes: The AI takes a 5-1 selection in Webslinger, runner-up in Gulfstream’s Colonel Liam most recently and a winner of Monmouth’s Nownownow Stakes last September. He was beaten 4 lengths in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf when last at Keeneland. Candidate is a juicy 10-1 in the morning line and was visually impressive all winter in Florida, winning twice and splitting decisions with top-class Major Dude, who would go on to run second in the Jeff Ruby and punch a ticket to the Kentucky Derby. The likely favorite here will be Carl Spackler, a spectacular maiden breaker last out at Gulfstream for Chad Brown, who will be tested for class.
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Race 9 // 5:16 pm ET // Ashland Stakes
1/ST BET AI: #5 Punchbowl (32%)
Jeremy Plonk: #5 Punchbowl
Notes: Agreement here for the class-rising Punchbowl, who makes her stakes debut after back-to-back wins to open her career at Oaklawn. The Brad Cox trainee, 2-1 second choice in the morning line, must answer the class call in a big way against Alcibiades and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Wonder Wheel (the 8-5 morning line favorite) as well as Demoiselle winner Julia Shining (3-1 ML), who will try to become Todd Pletcher’s third straight Ashland winner after Malathaat and Nest the past two years.
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