Unlike most United States racetracks, Keeneland Race Course’s grandstand faces west, appropriate for a Fall Stars weekend featuring so many winners looking ahead to Santa Anita Park and next month’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships.

Among them after Friday’s races is Candied, who made a sweeping four-wide move and powered away to win the $600,000 Darley Alcibiades Stakes for 2-year-old fillies by a length going two turns on the opening day of the fall meet.

As the Alcibiades heroine, Candied receives a Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series “Win and You’re In” berth to the $2 million NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Nov. 3 at Santa Anita.

The winner raced 1:44.17 for the 1 1/16 miles over a fast track under Luis Saez, prevailing despite still being green. She did not switch leads through the stretch.

“She’s a filly who keeps learning; she has a big future,” Saez said. “The first time I got on her in the morning, I knew she was pretty special, and she just won this big race.”

V V’s Dream was second, followed by Alys Beach in third in a field of eight.

Saez characterized the filly’s win as professional. “We knew the speed was going to go and that was the plan: to try to follow it and give them a surprise at the top of the stretch,” he said.

Saez comes back a winner. (Coady Photography)

The jockey made his first starts Friday since Aug. 23 at Saratoga Race Course, when he was injured. He picked up his first comeback win in the Grade 1 Alcibiades and also won the following race, the closing one on Keeneland’s opening-day card.

Candied, a 2-year-old daughter of Candy Ride, races for trainer Todd Pletcher and owners Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners.

Coming off just a single start, a maiden win at six furlongs at Saratoga Aug. 20, Candied paid $10.16 as the 4.08-1 third betting choice. Stakes winners V V’s Dream and Brightwork, who finished a tiring fifth, were the first two public choices.

Acknowledging Candied’s inexperience, Pletcher said: “I thought the filly had the talent to do it; I was just concerned about the seasoning. Several of the fillies in here that we had to beat today had good, solid campaigns, and she was just making her second start.”

In observing the training before her debut and afterward, Pletcher said he had been impressed by “the way she was finishing her breezes and the way she was galloping out. And she was indicating to us that she was looking for more and more distance.”

Five Alcibiades winners have repeated in the Juvenile Fillies: Eliza (1992), Countess Diana (1997), Silverbulletday (1998), British Idiom (2019) and Wonder Wheel  (2022).

Buchu Impressive in Jessamine Romp, Bound for Juvenile Fillies Turf

Buchu rolls in Jessamine. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Buchu, running just two weeks after her maiden win, ran a peach of a race in the $350,000 Jessamine Stakes Presented by Keeneland November earlier on the Oct. 5 card, kicking away to a 3 ¾-length victory that earned her a trip to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf via the “Win and You’re In” series.

The Justify filly, with Martin Garcia up, started from gate 10 in a field of 11 for the 1 1/16-mile test. Well back early, she rallied quickly turning into the stretch and cleared the field inside the sixteenth pole.

Pharoah’s Wine, Crown Imperial, Bella Haze, and Moonlight Gambler were the next four under the wire, bunched together in a race that looked wide open from a betting perspective. Buchu was clocked in 1:42.48 over turf rated good after light overnight rain.

Buchu, a homebred filly for Rigney Racing, is out of the Galileo mare Flowering Peach. Trainer Phil Bauer said Buchu is an ingredient in peach flavoring and added, “She’s a peach.”

Bauer said Buchu’s first two starts on the dirt, at Ellis Park and Saratoga, were the result of “Mother Nature getting in our way. Our main goal was to get her on the lawn. Her pedigree was always on that side.”

She finished third in both dirt starts, the second of which was rained off the turf, and then checked in sixth in her grass debut Aug. 20 at Saratoga after enduring a rough trip. Back at Churchill Downs Sept. 23, she rallied smartly from a pace-stalking trip to win a 1 1/16-mile turf race by 4 ¾ lengths, setting the table for the Jessamine.

“Sometimes the key in horse racing is to get them when they’re right,” Bauer said of the decision to run back so quickly. “Now I’m overwhelmed that we’re going to the Breeders’ Cup with a 2-year-old.”

Bauer said Buchu will stay in Kentucky for a few weeks before shipping to Santa Anita Park for her date on Breeders’ Cup’s “Future Stars” day Nov. 3 and won’t have a lot of work to do.

“With two races in 13 days, she’s as good as it gets,” he said.–Bob Kieckhefer

Hoist the Gold Breaks Through in Phoenix, Secures BC Sprint Spot

Hoist the Gold flies in the Phoenix. (Coady Photography)

The only thing missing was a stakes victory. Four-year-old Hoist the Gold had placed five times in his career in stakes and raced up and down the East Coast from Belmont Park to Del Mar. Despite only winning three times from 23 starts, the son of Mineshaft had amassed a bankroll of over $600,000.

That unlucky void was filled Oct. 6 when the tough campaigner stole the show in the $349,375 Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix Stakes, the first stakes scheduled on opening day at Keeneland.

“He’s a horse that’s knocked at the door,” trainer Dallas Stewart said of Hoist the Gold. “He’s remained healthy, he’s kept his weight good with all the traveling. He’s a good traveler. You could put him on a plane tonight and it wouldn’t do anything for him. He’s that easy of a keeper.”

Those attributes will only play into Hoist the Gold’s favor when he journeys out to Santa Anita Park for the $2 million Qatar Breeders’ Cup Sprint Nov. 4. The Dream Team One Racing Stable homebred secured his slot in the starting gate for the Sprint by virtue of his Phoenix triumph, which was a Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series “Win and You’re In” event.

“When you show up with a nice horse and a jock (John Velazquez) that’s won five Grade 1s for you, you got a lot of confidence,” Stewart said. “I didn’t worry about a thing down the backside. It played out perfect. He got him out. The horse loves this track. He came home good, so we know where we’re going Nov. 4.”

Velazquez settled Hoist the Gold in third behind a hot early pace set by Doctor Oscar and Sibelius, and when the leaders folded turning for home he angled his mount outside and found clear running room. The colt surged forward willingly, seizing a 1 ½-length advantage at the eighth pole and fending off late-closing betting favorite Nakatomi by three-quarters of a length at the wire.

Hoist the Gold, backed at 6.02-1 odds, stopped the timer in 1:09.13 for the six furlongs on Keeneland’s fast main track.

Fan favorite and 3.38-1 second choice Bango, a perennial leading sprinter on the Kentucky circuit, closed gamely but had to settle for third, a neck behind 2.58-1 Nakatomi.

“The horse did everything I asked him to. He ran as hard as he could – just weren’t able to get the money today,” jockey Tyler Gaffalione said of Bango.

Stewart said Hoist the Gold would train at Stewart’s Churchill Downs home base until shipping out to California.

“I think he’ll run well in the Breeders’ Cup,” Stewart said. “He’s so versatile and if there’s not much pace he’ll be there and if he’s got to get off the pace he’ll come from off the pace with a punching move.”–Molly Rollins