Immersive Leads Spinaway Rematch in Alcibiades

Autumn has arrived in Kentucky, and there's no better sign of its arrival than a field of top-quality 2-year-old fillies racing for grade 1 glory on opening day of the Keeneland fall meet Oct. 4. They will be featured in the $600,000 Alcibiades Stakes (G1), a critical step on the path to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) as the winner earns an automatic, fees-paid berth to Del Mar Nov. 1 through the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series. Additionally, the top five finishers earn qualifying points to the 2025 Kentucky Oaks (G1) on a 10-5-3-2-1 scale. All eight fillies in the field will experience two turns for the first time as they navigate the 1 1/16-mile distance. Four of them exit the Aug. 31 Spinaway Stakes (G1) contested over seven furlongs on a muddy track at Saratoga Race Course. Godolphin homebred Immersive emerged victorious that rainy day by 1 1/4 lengths for trainer Brad Cox, maintaining a perfect record in two starts despite being double-digit odds both times. Breaking from the rail, the daughter of Nyquist saved ground with jockey Manny Franco through the opening stages before swinging wide on the far turn and grinding down favored Quietside, who was wide throughout, inside the final sixteenth. Franco retains the mount in the Alcibiades. This time, Immersive breaks from the far outside in post 8 while Shortleaf Stable's homebred Quietside breaks one spot to the inside for trainer John Ortiz and jockey Luis Saez. Both fillies seemed to enjoy the off track, but each broke her maiden earlier in Saratoga's meet over a fast track, which they are likely to see Friday. Also returning from the Spinaway is Bobby Flay, Jacquline Ventura's Rocky Top Stable, and James Ventura's Sherbini, who closed from 10th to finish third, beaten 5 1/4 lengths. The Mark Casse trainee was second to The Queens M G in the Schuylerville Stakes July 11. The Queens M G was also entered for the Alcibiades after finishing fifth over the off track in the Spinaway. However, the grade 3-winning daughter of Thousand Words was cross-entered for the $400,000 Frizette Stakes (G1), also a Breeders' Cup Challenge event, at Aqueduct Racetrack Oct. 5 where she will run, according to reports. New Shooters Storyteller Racing and Schroeck Racing's Liam in the Dust holds the distance edge. In her last start, she was narrowly defeated by three-quarters of a length while traveling a one-turn mile in the Pocahontas Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs Sept. 14. Patricia's Hope and Richard Ravin's Rich City Girl returns to the dirt following a half-length victory going 6 1/2 furlongs on turf in a Kentucky Downs allowance Aug. 29. In two previous dirt starts, she broke her maiden at Ellis Park by 3 1/4 lengths and was runner-up in the Ellis Park Debutante Stakes. Gregory Tramontin's Quickick broke her maiden at Saratoga Sept. 1 after running third to Pocahontas winner La Cara in her debut. Mineola Farm II, Silent Grove Farms, and James W. Hirschman III's Continuity is 2-for-2 and enters off a seven-length allowance victory at Colonial Downs Aug. 16. The Alcibiades is race 9 with post time at 5:16 p.m. ET.