Buy TicketsThree Diamonds Farm’s Blast Furnace gave jockey Flavien Prat his fourth of five winners on the day with a victory in Wednesday’s featured $130,000 Woods Edge Purse at Keeneland.
Prat rode his five winners from five mounts, starting his day with a victory aboard Christy in the second. He rode four straight in the fourth on Smell the Lilies, fifth aboard Psalm Beauty, sixth on Blast Furnace and seventh aboard King of Ashes.
In the feature, Prat put Blast Furnace, a 5-year-old gelding by The Factor, on the lead from the inside post in the field of eight in the 1 1/16-mile allowance event on the turf. Blast Furnace vied with Sushi Man and Francisco Arrieta heading to the first turn and through the opening quarter-mile in :23.55. Blast Furnace stayed clear on the backstretch with Sushi Man and Joejoe Go.
Blast Furnace, the 6-5 favorite coming off an 8¼-length win in an Aug. 30 allowance race at Kentucky Downs, continued on the lead around the far turn and past 6 furlongs in 1:13.44.
Blast Furnace opened up in the stretch as Tough Little Nut and Danny Sheehy started to rally from the back of the field. Blast Furnace held off the late run from Tough Little Nut to win by 1½ lengths in 1:45.06 over the firm turf. Tough Little Nut finished 1½ lengths clear of Sushi Man for the place spot.
The winner of three of 18 starts with six other placings, Blast Furnace picked up $77,578 to boost his earnings to $367,303.
Blast Furnace returned $4.60, $2.78 and $2.26. Tough Little Nut paid $3.60 and $2.70. Sushi Man returned $4.50.
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Apprentice jockey Yomar Ortiz Jr. made his riding debut in Wednesday’s third race, finishing a rallying second aboard Eli’s Promise in the 6-furlong claiming event on the main track behind Lucky Shot. Ortiz, a 17-year-old native of Puerto Rico who grew up in Maryland, rode Eli’s Promise for trainer Joe Sharp.
Ortiz is named on two horses on Thursday’s program for Sharp: Motivated by Grace in the second and Salty Viking in the fifth.
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Thursday is the 10th day of Keeneland’s 17-day Fall Meet. The nine-race card begins at 1 p.m.
Tomorrow also marks Keeneland’s 90th anniversary. The track opened Oct. 15, 1936, for nine days of racing.