Keeneland: Restless Rider headlines overflow Alcibiades
Keeneland press release: Restless Rider Headlines Overflow Field
for Opening-Day Darley Alcibiades
(Photo: Restless Rider winning Churchill Downs’ Debutante under Brian Hernandez Jr. Coady Photography)
LEXINGTON, KY (Oct. 2, 2018) – Three Chimneys Farm and Fern Circle Stables’ Restless Rider, runner-up in the Spinaway (G1) in her most recent start, headlines a field of 14 2-year-old fillies plus two also-eligibles entered Tuesday for Friday’s 67th running of the $400,000 Darley Alcibiades at 1 1/16 miles on the main track.
The Darley Alcibiades serves as the centerpiece of the opening-day program for the 17-day Fall Meet that runs through Oct. 27. First post time Friday for the 10-race program is 1:05 p.m. ET.
Scheduled as the ninth race with a 5:30 p.m. post time, the Darley Alcibiades is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race with the winner earning a fees-paid berth into the $2 million Tito’s Handmade Vodka Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) to be run Nov. 2 at Churchill Downs.
Trained by Kenny McPeek, who has won this race three times, Restless Rider won her first two starts at Churchill Downs with one of those triumphs coming in the Debutante that she won by 11¼ lengths.
Brian Hernandez Jr. has the mount on Restless Rider, who will break from post position three.
Three other runners from the Spinaway are in the field: Bella Ciao (fourth), Reflect (sixth) and Catherinethegreat (ninth).
Trained by co-owner Antonio Sano, Bella Ciao was a maiden winner at Gulfstream before her Spinaway run at odds of 125-1. Luis Saez has the mount and will break from post position 14.
Impact Thoroughbreds and Madaket Stables’ Reflect, trained by Keith Desormeaux, won at first asking in June at Santa Anita and then chased West Coast star Bellafina when finishing fifth in the Sorrento (G2) at Del Mar. Reflect, who worked a best-of-33 five-eighths of a mile here Saturday in 1:00, will be ridden by James Graham and break from post position one.
John Oxley’s Catherinethegreat won the Schuylerville (G3) at Saratoga prior to her Spinaway start. Trained by three-time Darley Alcibiades winner Mark Casse, Catherinethegreat will be ridden by Julien Leparoux and break from post position nine.
Invading from the West Coast are two Peter Miller runners: Rockingham Ranch and David Bernsen’s Boujie Girl and Rockingham Ranch’s Kim K.
Boujie Girl finish third behind Bellafina in the Sorrento and most recently in the Del Mar Debutante (G1), Geovanni Franco has the mount and will break from post position seven. Kim K won the Barretts Debutante at Los Alamitos in her most recent and will be ridden by Heriberto Figueroa and break from post position five.
The field for the Darley Alcibiades, with jockeys, from the rail out is: Reflect (Graham), Meadow Dance (Florent Geroux), Restless Rider (Hernandez Jr.), My Wynter Rose (Cory Orm), Kim K (Figueroa), Into Trouble (Jose Ortiz), Boujie Girl (Franco), Lady T N T (Corey Lanerie), Catherinethegreat (Leparoux), Malocchio (John Velazquez), Somewhere (Tyler Gaffalione), Abbo (Jevian Toledo), Chocolate Kisses (Shaun Bridgmohan) and Bella Ciao (Saez). Also-eligibles: Champagne Anyone (Chris Landeros) and Khairiya (Jack Gilligan). All starters will carry 118 pounds.
