Ubrute, fresh from a lifetime-best 1:49.4 victory in the Kentucky Championship Series final, will return to The Red Mile in the third of four $74,500+ USD divisions of the Bluegrass Stakes for two-year-old colt and gelding pacers on the Friday, Sept. 26 card.

Slated as the 6-5 morning line choice, the Ron Burke-trained Ubrute landed post eight in his first Grand Circuit stakes assignment, carded as race 10 and sponsored by Brittany Farms. Yannick Gingras will drive the Tall Dark Stranger colt out of the Sweet Lou dam Warrawee Ubeaut, who torched the Lexington track seven years ago to pace the fastest mile ever by a two-year-old pacing filly of 1:48.3; a mark coincidentally matched last season at The Red Mile by another Sweet Lou-sired Burke trainee, Looksgoodinloulou. He’ll spar with seven others including the Kentucky Commonwealth champ Captain Apple, who will leave from post four for trainer Chris Ryder and driver Dexter Dunn.

Burke and Gingras also earned top billing in the opening Bluegrass division for freshman pacing males, which is also sponsored by Brittany Farms and carded as race four. They team on 6-5 chalk Melillo, a homebred Sweet Lou colt out of the Foreclosure N mare Rosemary Rose, from post three following a runner-up finish in the The Elevation at Harrah’s Hoosier Park. Prior to that, the colt with just one win from eight starts finished third in the Pennsylvania Sires Stakes championship behind a pair of Burke pupils including eventual Metro Pace runner-up Frantic Hanover. Melillo will start from post three in the seven-horse contest.

The afternoon’s second division for freshman pacing males – slated as race six and sponsored by the Stay Hungry Syndicate and Hanover Shoe Farms – pins Brandon Blvd, thwarted only by Ubrute in his six pari-mutuel starts, against six others as the 3-5 morning line choice. Dexter Dunn will drive the son of Downbytheseaside-Alexis Faith for the ownership group of Bill Pollock, Bruce Areman and trainer Andrew Harris as the colt tries to resume his winning ways off a half-length defeat in the Kentucky Championship final. The field also drew Funky Buddha, winner of the Kentucky Sire Stakes Series at Oak Grove in July. Todd McCarthy will drive the Tony Dinges-trained Sweet Lou-The Double Deuce colt from post seven.

Freshman pacing males will wrap the afternoon stakes action in race 11, sponsored by the Stay Hungry Syndicate and Hanover Shoe Farms. Trainer Joe Holloway sends out Be Sting, a gelded progeny by his most recent star stallion Perfect Sting, from post three as the 9-5 morning line chalk. Dexter Dunn will drive the $621,622 yearling purchase out of the Sweet Lou mare Odds On St Lucie off a third-place effort to Ubrute and Brandon Blvd in the Kentucky Championship final. The seven-horse field also features the Tall Dark Stranger colt Drink To That, out of stakes-winning mare Tall Drink Hanover. Scott Zeron will steer that colt out of post six for trainer Tony Alagna.

The 13-race card on Friday also features four $94,500 USD divisions of the Bluegrass for two-year-old filly trotters with the first division – one of two splits of the Norman Woolworth Memorial – going as race two. Leading Lady, a homebred Walner-Muscle Dolly filly for trainer Nancy Takter, will leave from post five as the 9-5 morning line choice against competition including Out The Window, a Googoo Gaagaa-Sherry Lyns Lady filly for trainer Carter Pinske entering off a 1:54.2 win in the $50,000 Kentucky Goldenrod final, TheStable’s enigmatically fast Tactical Landing-Miss Don Fanucci S filly Jailbird Jog and Rani Hanover, a Walner filly out of 2020 Hambletonian winner Ramona Hill who sold last fall at the Lexington Select Sale for $1.25 million. Out The Window will compete from post four with Andrew McCarthy in the bike while James MacDonald will grab the reins on Jailbird Jog from post seven for trainer Eric Patalan. David Miller, meanwhile, will drive Rani Hanover from the pylon post for trainer Tony Alagna.

Trotting fillies will hit the track one race later for a deep matchup of bloodlines in the second Bluegrass division, which is sponsored by the International Moni Syndicate and Hanover Shoe Farms. Melvin Schmucker trainee Country Glide, entering from a 1:52.3 win in the Kentucky Championship final, will start from post seven as the 6-5 favourite flanked by a pair of fillies out of Black-Type mares. Inside of her from post six will be Next Big Think, a homebred Greenshoe filly out of stakes winner Iteration, with Dexter Dunn in the bike for trainer Marcus Melander, and outside of her from post eight will be the homebred Walner filly Pub Party, out of stakes winner Pub Crawl, with Tim Tetrick driving for trainer Ake Svanstedt.

Jim Oscarsson, who a decade ago developed eventual global trotting superstar Nuncio, sends out a budding Tactical Landing filly-Southwind Chai filly in Southwind Chaska from post seven in the third Bluegrass freshman filly trot division, which goes as race seven and is also the second division of the Norman Woolworth Memorial. Tim Tetrick will hold the lines as the filly ships west off a 1:54.4 win in a Kindergarten division at The Meadowlands. She will start inside of an unbeaten Ake Svanstedt pupil in Busy Miss Lissy S, a Calgary Games-Hills Angel S mare with James MacDonald in the bike, and a few slots wide of another Svanstedt trainee in Maya Patel Hanover, a Captain Corey-My First Lady filly listed as the 5-2 morning line favourite who is looking to break her maiden in her sixth try of the campaign. Svanstedt will drive Maya Patel Hanover from post four.

The final Bluegrass split for freshman trotting fillies will go as race nine and is sponsored by the International Moni Syndicate and Hanover Shoe Farms. The eight-horse field drew the Noel Daley-trained, Six Pack-Sleep Tight My Luv filly Naked And Famous in post eight off a third-place finish at 42-1 in the Kentucky Championship final. Todd McCarthy will drive the 5-2 morning line chalk in a field that also includes Lainey W, a Marcus Melander-trained daughter of Bar Hopping-The Black Beauty starting from post five following a runner-up effort in the Jim Doherty Memorial, and 44-1 New Jersey Classic winner Lipstick in post three for trainer Anette Lorentzon and driver David Miller.

The Friday program at The Red Mile begins at 1 p.m. Friday’s card includes a $7,500 USD guarantee on the Early Pick 4, which covers races six through nine. Every Pick 4 and the 50-cent Pick 5, which begins in race three, at The Red Mile features a low takeout of 12 per cent.

(With files from The Red Mile)