The doors of Keeneland will swing open in less than a month to usher in patrons for this year’s Spring Meet. The highlight (at least for me and I hope for you, too) will be the same as always – the wonderful Two-Year-Olds! It will be over three months since we’ve had any baby racing here in North America and this meet kicks off the return of the juvies.
Plenty of Juvie Races Early in Keeneland Spring Meet
The Conditions Book shows that Keeneland plans to conduct 10 two-year-old Maiden Special Weight races in April. Five are scheduled as Open events and five are set to feature only the fillies. One race for each sex is set to be contested on the turf during the last week of the meet.
This year, Keeneland has bumped the purse for its exciting 2YO MSW events to $90,000, a $10,000 increase from the $80,000 purse that they offered in 2022, 2023, and 2024.
Taking a quick look at successful stallions over the past five Spring meets (which becomes a four-year lookback since this meet was canceled because of the Covid outbreak in 2020) yields a relatively small sample size of 42 races. There have only been two sires with more than one winner. Hootenanny put two victors in the Winner’s Circle back in 2023, but the ‘champ’ is Frosted who has sent out three winners, two in 2021 and one last year.
Bet on the horse racing action at Keeneland at Iron Bets. New players can earn up to a $300 first deposit bonus, great rewards, free past performances, daily promos and much more! The Horseplayer is Always First at Iron Bets! Sign up at Iron Bets today! Use the promo code 2YO Edge!
No Surprise, Ward the Trainer to Watch
Additionally, although I’m confident that this comes as no surprise to you, far and away the most successful trainer with the babies in the spring at Keeneland is Wesley Ward. ‘The Maestro’ has saddled an incredible 23 winnahs over the past four years. A distant second is a tie between Paul McEntee and John A. Hancock, both who have sent out three victors. And only two conditioners have had their picture taken twice at this level over the same period – Luis Mendez and John Ennis.
April 4 cannot come soon enough.
Handicapping Two-Year-Old Maidens can be extremely fun and profitable. As you probably have guessed by my pen name, it is my passion and sole focus. I look forward to providing you with additional information on this category of racing right here on Iron Bets Racing. In the mean time, if you’d like to learn more, please consider picking up a copy of my book, ‘Handicapping Two-Year-Old Thoroughbreds: Consistently Pick Winners in 2YO Maiden Special Weight Races’ on Amazon.
