The Grade 2 $400,000 VisitLEX Elkhorn Stakes drew a full field of 12 contenders plus one also eligible for Saturday's race to be run at the distance of 1 ½ miles on the turf at Keeneland Race Course.

The Elkhorn field is led by Grand Sonata, who has earned more than $2.1 million in his career while finishing first or second in 11 of 25 turf races, including a win in the Grade 2 FanDuel TV Kentucky Turf Cup Stakes last September. Balnikhov is another millionaire with $1.1 million in career earnings whose most recent top effort in a similar race came when he was second in the Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup Stakes last November. Anglophile and Limited Liability – both of whom have competed primarily at the graded stakes level – would join the millionaire’s club with a win in this race. Limited Liability was beaten a nose and a neck at the finish in the similar Grade 2 William L. McKnight Stakes presented by Visit Lauderdale when last seen in January, while Anglophile earned his last win in the 2023 National Thoroughbred League Dueling Grounds Derby. Missed the Cut was second in last year’s Elkhorn Stakes and most recently sixth but was beaten by just 2 1/2 lengths in the Grade 2 Mac Diarmida Stakes presented by FanDuel TV, in which Grand Sonata was second. Starting Over won the 2024 Mac Diarmida Stakes and returns from a nine-month layoff in the barn of trainer Brittany Russell. Idratherbeblessed won the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial Classic Stakes presented by Horse Racing Nation four weeks ago at a shorter distance and when leading from start to finish. Verstappen won the 2023 Elkhorn Stakes and enters the race off a last-place finish in the Grade 3 TwinSpires Kentucky Cup Classic Stakes last month. Utah Beach finished third in the fall equivalent of this race at Keeneland, the Grade 3 Sycamore Stakes, and was recently fourth in the Kentucky Cup Classic. Rebel Red managed a third-place finish when a nose behind Limited Liability in the Grade 2 Red Smith Stakes last fall before a seventh-place effort in the Muniz Memorial. Dean Martini led from start to finish in the Japan Turf Cup Stakes at Laurel Park last September but has finished seventh and ninth in two races since then. Ole Crazy Bone finished third in the John B. Connally Stakes at this distance on grass in January and enters the race off a win in an allowance race. Native Shaman is the also-eligible entrant in the field and is stepping into stakes competition for the first time off a win at this distance on an all-weather surface in February.

Top Contenders:

Missed the Cut. (Casey Phillips/Eclipse Sportswire)

Missed the Cut has won seven of 18 races in his career, including five of 13 on grass. Last year as a 5-year-old, Missed the Cut had the best year of his career, winning two graded stakes and finishing second in another from three North American starts. His stakes wins in California earned him back-to-back 109 Equibase Speed Figures and now he returns to Kentucky, where he rallied nicely for second in last year’s Elkhorn with a 102 figure. After a poor effort when racing in England in June, Missed the Cut took some time off and returned on March 1 in the Mac Diarmida Stakes where he trailed in 11^th before launching a bid to pass five horses late. Although sixth, Missed the Cut was only 2 1/2 lengths behind the winner, earning a 101 figure. Making his second start following that long layoff and back at the 1 ½-mile distance of his victory in the 2024 San Luis Rey Stakes and runner-up effort in last year’s Elkhorn, Missed the Cut could improve markedly and earn his eighth career win with Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez in the saddle for the first time.

Grand Sonata has had a pretty illustrious career including wins in the Turf Cup Stakes last September with a 110 Equibase Speed Figure and a near miss in the 2024 United Nations Stakes, in which he earned a career-best 112 speed figure. Most recently, in a runner-up finish in the Mac Diarmida Stakes on March 1, Grand Sonata rallied valiantly in the last eighth of a mile when going from fourth to miss by just a head at the finish line. Stretching out another furlong for the Elkhorn could enable him to make up that narrow margin and win.

Balnikhov ships in from California for excellent trainer Phil D’Amato after putting in a very strong workout at his home base as well as one on the Keeneland turf. He ran at Keeneland much earlier in his career, winning the Bryan Station Stakes in the fall of 2022. Since then, he’s won two more graded stakes, including the Dinner Party Stakes last May in Maryland earning a career-best 115 Equibase Speed Figure. Last November, Balnikhov ran one of the best races of his career when rallying from last of nine to miss by a half-length in the Hollywood Turf Cup at the 1 ½-mile distance of the Elkhorn. There’s little doubt that effort, as well as his previous success at Keeneland, is what prompted trainer D’ Amato to ship the horse to Kentucky. If he repeats those best efforts, he could have a big say in the outcome.

Limited Liability. (Candice Chavez/Eclipse Sportswire)

As for morning-line favorite Limited Liability, I think he is vulnerable in this situation, and I am taking a stand against him as a win contender. He has never won at this 1 ½-mile distance and while he has won twice at Keeneland, those wins were at much shorter distances and in allowance races. Limited Liability won the Nashville Gold Cup Stakes last summer at the distance of 2 1/16 miles to earn a 111 Equibase Speed Figure, and he earned a 115 figure in third when last seen in the William L. McKnight Stakes in January. However, that win in the Nashville Gold Cup came when leading from the start, and there’s little chance he will get the lead early in this race as Dean Martini also races the same way, has a better position in the gate, and is faster in the early stages. This will force Limited Liability to race just off the pace from the start and perhaps run faster than average chasing Dean Martini, making him susceptible to being passed late by horses with a much bigger late kick.

The rest of the field (with best representative Equibase Speed Figure): Anglophile (104), Dean Martini (109), Idratherbeblessed (114), Native Shaman (108), Ole Crazy Bone (110), Rebel Red (111), Starting Over (110), Utah Beach (98) and Verstappen (111).

Win Contenders:

Missed the Cut

Grand Sonata

Balnikhov