Will Blue Grass Be White Out?

[Chief Stipe]

Assuming a potential snowstorm Friday night doesn’t put a damper on things, a full field is set to go postward in Saturday’s GII Toyota Blue Grass S. The conversation about contenders must start with $1-million KEESEP yearling Good Magic (Curlin), who broke his maiden emphatically in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar en route to Eclipse Award honors. Heavily favored in the GII Xpressbet Fountain of Youth on seasonal debut at Gulfstream Mar. 3, he settled for a non-threatening third with no obvious excuse.

A pair of sophomores who were last seen at Tampa boast strong recent form and past success in Lexington. Quip (Distorted Humor) was named a ‘TDN Rising Star‘ for a second-out allowance romp stretching out over this strip in October. Seventh with trouble in an extremely productive running of the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. at Churchill Nov. 25, he added to that event’s productivity himself with a 19-1 upset in the Mar. 10 GII Tampa Bay Derby.

“It is a big advantage that he has spent so much time at Keeneland,” trainer Rodolphe Brisset said. “We know he likes the track. Since we came back, he knows he is in familiar surroundings… He is acting very good and we like how he is training.”

Flameaway (Scat Daddy), second in the Tampa Bay Derby after annexing the GIII Sam F. Davis S. there in February, took a rained-off renewal of the GIII Bourbon S. in the Keeneland slop last October.

Dale Romans boasts wins in the 2012 and 2016 Blue Grass, and saddles Free Drop Billy (Union Rags) for this one. The Albaugh Family Stables colorbearer will look to complete the same double his connections’ Brody’s Cause (Giant’s Causeway) completed when he took the 2015 GI Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity in the fall and following year’s Blue Grass.

Doug O’Neill played spoiler in last year’s Blue Grass with the star-crossed Irap (Tiznow), and has two chances for an upset this time around with GIII Jeff Ruby Steaks one-three finishers Blended Citizen (Proud Citizen) and Arawak (Uncle Mo).

 

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