One of the deepest and most interesting stakes fields of the Keeneland Fall Meet has assembled for Saturday’s Grade 2 $400,000 Raven Run Stakes. Horses from nearly every major racing locale in the country and several regional influences as well all converge over 7 furlongs.
Let’s meet the contenders for the Raven Run (Race 9):
#1-DELIGHTFUL CLAIRE: Prioress runner-up and Dogwood Stakes third-place finisher looks to get over the top for her first stakes victory. Phil Bauer trainee has won 1 of 4, a Saratoga maiden score over the Raven Run’s 7-furlong distance. Joel Rosario rides.
#2-VIXEN: Mark Casse’s barn won Sunday’s Franklin Stakes at Keeneland looks to continue that success with this daughter of Vekoma. Vixen has been a turf standby in the stakes ranks all season, and like stablemate Nitrogen, is now getting a chance to try dirt at a high level. Her third behind Lush Lips in the Tepin at Churchill was flattered Saturday when that rival returned to add the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup. Casse won this race in 2018 with Shamrock Rose before she wheeled back to win the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Tyler Gaffalione’s 3 scores in the Raven Run include last year aboard Emery.
#3-STRONG STATE: $18,000 bargain has bagged just under $250,000 and exits a runner-up in the Dogwood at Churchill at 28-1 odds. Trainer Al Stall Jr. adds blinkers to this filly who has won 2 of 3 on a brief campaign and seeks her first stakes success. James Graham returns to the saddle aboard the daughter of Tom’s d’Etat who won Keeneland’s 2019 Fayette routing.
#4-VOLLEYBALLPRINCESS: Parx-based filly returns to Keeneland for Louis Linder Jr., having run a distant third here in the Beaumont during the Spring Meet. She’s won 2 of 9, topped by the Ruthless Stakes at Aqueduct. Jaime Torres takes the mount for the first time.
#5-OM N JOY: Red-hot Californian brings a 5-race winning streak to Keeneland, remarkable after beginning her career 0-for-7. Trainer Aggie Ordonez has orchestrated quite the turnaround with the 4-time stakes winner who notched Del Mar’s Torrey Pines against open company most recently. Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux ships for the mount; his last Keeneland win was Fall 2018 and last local stakes win the Spring 2018 Lexington Stakes aboard My Boy Jack.
#6-REPUTATION: Colonial Downs’ Gilpin Stakes winner exits a third-place run over her home track at Gulfstream Park in the Princess Rooney. Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Gustavo Delgado has had this Bolt d’Oro filly on the road much of summer-fall between Saratoga and Keeneland. Luan Machado, who rode her to an Ellis Park allowance win returns in the saddle.
#7-MAIDA: Laurel-based filly for top Maryland trainer Brittany Russell gets her class test after 3 straight wins, topped by the Weather Vane Stakes over 6 furlongs. This will be the Improbable filly’s first bid in graded stakes company and longest career race. Sheldon Russell, husband of the trainer, has his regular call on Saturday.
#8-USHA: After 4 maiden placings as a juvenile, this Tiz the Law filly returned after 9 months on the bench and has been in another league for Bob Baffert. She won by 11-1/2 lengths in her Del Mar graduation and then steamrolled allowance foes over that track by more than 5 lengths. $600,000 purchase makes her stakes debut with Irad Ortiz Jr. taking the mount for the first time. Baffert’s last Keeneland traditional Fall Meet stakes victory came with Midnight Lute in the 2006 Perryville in the Polytrack era.
#9-RAGTIME: Bill Mott-trained filly is a neck shy of a perfect record through 4 starts, winning the Dogwood at Churchill after her narrow second in the Test at Saratoga. The Godolphin-Mott-Junior Alvarado troika is riding high in 2025 with Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Travers winner Sovereignty, who continues to train toward a date in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Late-running Ragtime has run all 4 races at the Raven Run’s 7-furlong distance and is a daughter of Belmont winner Union Rags.
#10-SIMPLY JOKING: This spring’s Silverbulletday Stakes winner and Fantasy runner-up hasn’t appeared since a last-place disappointment in the May 2 Kentucky Oaks. Trainer Whit Beckman has been replaced by Michael McCarthy, whose ’25 highlights include a Preakness victory by Journalism. Frankie Dettori rides for the first time as he seeks a third graded-stakes win of the Fall Meet. He piloted turf victors in the Jessamine and Woodford during opening weekend.
#11-QUIETSIDE *pictured*: Oaklawn’s Honeybee and Fantasy winner from the spring hasn’t been active since her sixth-place run in the Kentucky Oaks. Trainer John Ortiz brings her back to Keeneland, where she was third last Fall in the Alcibiades. Jose Ortiz, her Arkansas guide, returns with the mount as this filly looks to surpass $1 million in earnings with a top-3 placing.
#12-VODKA WITH A TWIST: Busy filly makes her second start of the current Fall Meet following a fourth-place effort vs. elders in the Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes on Oct. 4. Consistent sort was runner-up in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and has placed in the Santa Anita Oaks and Charles Town Oaks this year. Phil D’Amato trains and Luis Saez, who guided her at Charles Town, is back in the saddle.
(AE) #13-KAPPA KAPPA: Parx-based daughter of Omaha Beach has won 2 of 3 races, including a daylight allowance score Sept. 19. Trainer Butch Reid gives her a first look in stakes company if she draws in with Parx-based rider Mychel Sanchez named.
(AE) #14-TALIESIN: Jacinto Solis trainee also hails from Parx. The $25,000 maiden claim in June has won 4 of her last 5 starts and has Parx local pilot Frankie Pennington named to ride.
(AE) #15-TETIAROA: Churchill debut winner on May 2 has not finished in the money in 2 allowance starts since and would be a rank outsider for Phil Bauer if she draws into the lineup.
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