Top three-year-olds to battle in Bluegrass Stakes

LEXINGTON, KY— Opening-week harness racing stakes action at The Red Mile will conclude on Saturday (Oct. 1) with a slew of eight sophomore splits of the Bluegrass Stakes the 13-race card.

Pacing glamour boys compete in two divisions of the $178,000 Captaintreacherous Bluegrass Stakes. The first division, carded as Race 2, pins Kentucky Championship runners-up Pebble Beach (Downbytheseaside) and Caviart Camden (Huntsville) in a rematch and against six other foes. Dexter Dunn pilots Caviart Camden for trainer Tony Alagna from post 3 while Todd McCarthy has the steer on Pebble Beach, winner of the 2022 Pepsi North America Cup, from post 4 for conditioner Noel Daley.

Division two, going as the last of the afternoon’s stakes in Race 12, oozes star power with the arrival of Beach Glass (Somebeachsomewhere) to the scene of his sire’s greatest achievement. Yannick Gingras drives the Brent MacGrath pupil from post 3 in a stacked field including Meadowlands Pace runner-up Mad Max Hanover (by Always B Miki, starting from post 4), Kentucky Championship winner I Did It Myway (Captaintreacherous,post 5) and Little Brown Jug runner-up Fourever Boy (Sweet Lou, post 6).

The trotting glamour boys begin their black-type tangos in Race 3 with the first of two divisions for the $237,000 Greenshoe Bluegrass Stakes. Hambletonian favorite Rebuff (Muscle Hill) draws post 1 as he tries to rebound from a second-place finish in the Kentucky Championship final. Tim Tetrick sits in the bike behind the Lucas Wallin trainee in a nine-horse field that includes another pair of Hambletonian finalists in Periculum (Muscle Hill, post 6) and Looks Like Moni (Muscle Hill, post 8).

Sophomore trotting colts and geldings return to the track in Race 8 with Marcus Melander pupil Temporal Hanover (Walner) to beat. Brian Sears sticks with the colt who finished third in the Hambletonian following a second-place finish in a final-quarter sprint in the $275,000 New Jersey Classic “A” division. He starts just outside of Ray Schnittker trainee King Of The North (Walner, post 1) and also encounters a late-developing prospect from the Lucas Wallin stable in Pennsylvania Sires Stakes Champion Pour Mea Double (Bar Hopping, post 7).

Marcus Melander also sends the morning-line favorite in the first of three divisions for the $242,300 Bar Hopping Bluegrass Stakes. Peyton Hanover (Muscle Hill) lands post 7 off a fourth-place finish in the Elegantimage final at Woodbine Mohawk Park and starts just inside of More Than Ever (Father Patrick), who just missed a sweep of the Kentucky Commonwealth Series when finishing second in the final by a nose. The first division also includes the quirky gaited Warrawee Xenia (Walner) as she attempts to make amends from the pylon post for a stretch-drive miscue in the Elegantimage.

Jiggy Jog S (Walner), one of two fillies to compete in this year’s Hambletonian, scores from post 6 in the second grouping for the Bar Hopping, carded as Race 7. Dexter Dunn has the reins on the Ake Svanstedt student off a second-place finish to Fashion Schooner in the $275,000 New Jersey Classic “A” division on Sept. 9 at The Meadowlands. She competes in a field which includes Red Mile lover Date Night (Bar Hopping, post 3), Hambletonian Oaks runner-up Pink Coco Chanel (Cantab Hall, post 7) and Mon Cheval (Father Patrick, post 8), the latter of all finished third in the Elegantimage.

Fillies finish their stakes contests in Race 11 with the final division of the Bar Hopping. All focus sits on Joviality S (Chapter Seven), the Marcus Melander-trained debutante who has only missed the winner’s circle twice in 11 starts. Brian Sears steers the Hambletonian runner-up from post 5 in an eight-horse affair that includes Red Mile speedster Selfie Queen (Muscle Hill, post 7), who most recently finished second in the Kentucky Championship final.

An overflow field aligns in Race 10 for the lone Bluegrass sophomore pacing filly dash – a $150,000 event monikered “The Papi Rob Hanover”. Last season’s sensation Niki Hill (Always B Miki) will try to rekindle her freshman-season magic as she makes her third start of the year, entering here off a second-place finish against older competition at The Meadowlands. Dexter Dunn drives the Chris Ryder trainee from post 7 in the 11-horse race that includes late-blooming sophomore Max Contract (Huntsville, post 1), New York Sires Stakes Champion Just Divine (Huntsville, post 2), Kentucky Championship winner Boudoir Hanover (Captaintreacherous, post 5) and Kentucky Commonwealth winner Queen Of Success (Captaintreacherous, post 8).

Every Bluegrass division on Saturday is sponsored in part by Hanover Shoe Farms. Each Bluegrass division for the respective sex and gait is sponsored in part by the stallion syndicate for which each is named.

First-race post time is 1 p.m. (EDT).

For complete race entries, click here.

by Ray Cotolo, for the Red Mile