Pick 6 carryover for Friday reaches record $859,585

 Highclere Thoroughbred Racing’s Royal Patronage (FR) took the lead at the sixteenth pole and then held off a late bid from Commandeer by a neck to win Thursday’s featured $130,000 Ballyrankin Purse for 4-year-olds and up. (Click here for a video of the race.)

Trained by Graham Motion and ridden by Joel Rosario, Royal Patronage covered the 1 1/16 miles on a firm turf course in 1:40.36. The victory was the third of the afternoon for Rosario. 

A Group 2 winner in Europe, Royal Patronage is a 4-year-old son of Wootton Bassett out of the Dalakhani mare Shaloushka. Now with a record of 13-4-2-0, Royal Patronage added $49,895 to his bankroll that now totals $332,788. 

Sent off as the favorite in the field of 12, Royal Patronage returned $7.66, $4.82 and $3.78. Commandeer, ridden by Julien Leparoux, returned $19.58 and $12.68 with Tiberius Mercurius getting third under Irad Ortiz Jr., and paying $5.26 to show. 

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Racing continues Friday with a 10-race program that begins at 1 p.m. ET. The feature is the $300,000 Baird Doubledogdare (G3) for fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles on the main track. The afternoon’s ninth race, the Baird Doubledogdare has a 5:16 p.m. post time. 

Keeneland will offer a Pick 6 carryover of $859,584.52. The previous Pick 6 carryover was $375,412 from April 24, 2008.

Friday’s Pick Six sequence begins with the fifth race with a post time of 3:08 p.m.

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In Thursday’s second race, Stonestreet Stables’ homebred American Rascal, a 2-year-old colt by Curlin and the first foal of international superstar Lady Aurelia, and jockey Joel Rosario won by 10¼ lengths. Their time of :51.21 for 4½ furlongs was fastest of the meet at the distance.

American Rascal, the 1-2 favorite in his debut, is trained by Keeneland-based Wesley Ward, who said the colt will be considered for the June 22 Norfolk (G2) at Royal Ascot in England. Ward has 12 wins at Royal Ascot, including the Norfolk with No Nay Never (2013) and Shang Shang Shang (2018).

Ward sent out Lady Aurelia, by Scat Daddy, to win the 2016 Queen Mary (G2) and 2017 King’s Stand (G1) at Royal Ascot among her five wins in 10 starts. Lady Aurelia received the prestigious Cartier Racing Award as Europe’s 2-year-old filly of the year. 

Lady Aurelia also won her career debut at Keeneland’s Spring Meet.

American Rascal was one of Ward’s three winners on the card. The others were Ministerial (5-1) in the fourth race and Daring Do (3-1) in the fifth race.

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Thursday’s third race winner, Ocean City, who scored a 1¼-length victory in a 1-mile maiden special weight race on the turf, is cataloged to the April 30 Keeneland April Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale. The 3-year-old colt by American Pharoah, who is Hip 50, is a half-brother to champion Jackie’s Warrior. He is consigned by Highgate Sales, agent.