The Grade 1 Ashland Stakes will highlight the opening day of Keeneland’s spring meet this Friday, April 5. But the 1-1/16-mile test for 3-year-old fillies is only a part of the puzzle for those hoping to solve the 50-cent Late Pick 4. Here’s a look at the sequence with a suggested $72 play:
KEE 7th race (4:12 p.m. EST) -- LEGADEMA finished ‘willingly’ behind a pair of next-out, 6F stakes winners in an allowance sprint at Oaklawn Park when last seen two months ago. She breezed 5F in :59-4/5 to get ready for her fourth start at as many distances and adds blinkers for a barn in the midst of a 3-for-7 run with that angle. ROSWELL sprung an 11-1 debut upset in a race that produced two winners and four runners-up. She held up her end of the bargain in a 6-1/2F allowance sprint, with her stretch rally falling just short against pace setter Launch, a follow-up stakes winner.
KEE 8th race (4:44 p.m. EST) -- A full field of 12 is scheduled to go post-ward in the $400,000, Grade 3 Transylvania Stakes on the turf. CAN GROUP returns to the scene of a 27-1 upset in the Grade 2 Bourbon Stakes last year as a 2-year-old. He saved ground but trailed around both turns before launching a furious 7-wide rally to prevail at today’s distance. He closed fast in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, too, but finished fourth. He’s a must use in the Pick 4 at a generous 12-1 on the morning line, but the lack of pace and crowded field are a concern. FIRST WORLD WAR, freshened two months since winning the Grade 3 Kitten’s Joy Stakes on the Gulfstream Park lawn, looms the front-end danger with Tyler Gaffalione, last year’s top jockey at Keeneland. He raced wide most of the way from post 12 while stalking the pace as the beaten favorite against CAN GROUP in the Bourbon Stakes. He finished a half-length behind Vote No, a runaway stakes winner in his next start. If either CAN GROUP or FIRST WORLD WAR are scratched, add LORD BULLINGDON (#7) to the ticket.
KEE 9th race (5:16 p.m. EST) -- The top three finishers from the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies reunite in the Grade 1 Ashland. Champion 2-year-old JUST F Y I makes her seasonal debut after she developed a fever and scratched from her scheduled return in the Grade 2 Davona Dale at Gulfstream Park last month. The good news is that she is working bullets as she puts her unbeaten record on the line. She raced close up in the Breeders’ Cup and won in a three-horse photo finish over JODY’S PRIDE, who stretched out in distance and finished a half-length behind in her only setback to date, and CANDIED, who joined the photo-finish on the heels of a victory in the Grade 1 Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland at today’s distance. But this is by no means a three-horse race. In fact, IMPEL, who followed an easy first-out victory with a smashing allowance score at Oaklawn Park, is the morning-line favorite. She earned a 91 Beyer speed figure last out and did it while drawing away from the field “on her own courage.”
KEE 10th race (5:48 p.m. EST) -- With 14 sophomore fillies (12 betting interests) arriving from various venues, traveling 1-3/16 miles for the first time and a posting a combined 0-for-25 record if the rainy weather Wednesday and Thursday doesn’t force this Maiden Special Weight race off turf, take nothing to chance and hit the ‘ALL’ button in the final leg of the Pick 4.
Suggested 50-Cent Ticket
KEE 7th Race: 3, 10
KEE 8th Race: 6, 10
KEE 9th Race: 1, 6, 7
KEE 10th Race: ALL
Cost for 50-cent ticket: $72
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