Trainer Chad Brown, who has enjoyed much success at Keeneland over the years, is the all-time leader at the Lexington track by grade 1 wins. Brown enters opening weekend at Keeneland with four runners in grade 1 events, ready to add to the record 31 top-level victories.
Juddmonte's Segesta is one of the leading contenders in a wide-open field of 11 fillies and mares who will line up Oct. 3 for the $800,000 First Lady Stakes (G1T) at 1 mile. The 5-year-old daughter of Ghostzapper has shown an affinity for the Keeneland surface, breaking her maiden over the course and winning the Jenny Wiley Stakes (G1T) during the spring meet in a dead heat with Expensive Queen, whom she will meet again Saturday.
Segesta finished second by a neck to Simply in Front in last year's First Lady, in which the top five finishers were within a length of each other.
"I have found with Keeneland, it's not a requirement to run well, but it certainly helps you when you go back there and know they really like the turf course," Brown said. "With Segesta, she's already won and has already run well there several times, so that gives me a lot of confidence.
Segesta enters the race off a fifth-place finish in the Ballston Spa Stakes (G2T), where she was bumped at the start. Prior to that, she ran second in the Diana Stakes (G1T), just a half-length behind her stablemate Kathynmarissa, who is entered in Thursday's redrawn Flower Bowl Stakes (G2T) at Belmont Park.
Farfellow Farms' Expensive Queen will make her first return to the races since her dead-heat win in the Jenny Wiley April 11. She has been training steadily at Turfway Park for trainer Brendan Walsh alongside stablemate and last year's Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes (G1T) winner Lush Lips.
Lush Lips started her 2026 season with a win in the Honey Fox Stakes (G3T) at Gulfstream Park, and returned after a six-month layoff to finish second to Totally Justified in the Ellis Park Turf Stakes Aug. 23.
Trainer Mark Casse will enter two fillies—Ballston Spa Stakes winner And One More Time and Just a Game Stakes (G1T) winner Classic Q.
Live Oak Plantation's And One More Time ran a gutsy race on the front end in her last outing to take the Ballston Spa by a neck. This will be her first time over the Keeneland surface. Classic Q was last seen finishing third to the reopposing Bless the Broken in the Ladies Turf Stakes (G2T) at Kentucky Downs.
Trainer Francis-Henri Graffard will send out Mandanaba, who was second to Classic Q in the Just a Game June 6. Segesta was third, with And One More Time finishing fifth. The French-bred filly by Ghaiyyath returned to the races Sept. 6, finishing second in the Oettingen-Rennen (G2) in Germany.
Keeneland, Saturday, October 3, 2026, Race 8Entries: First Lady S. (G1T)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Pin Up Betty (KY) Ben Curtis 125 Michael J. Maker 20/1 2 2Lush Lips (GB) Tyler Gaffalione 125 Brendan P. Walsh 8/1 3 3Mandanaba (FR) Umberto Rispoli 125 Francis - Henri Graffard 7/2 4 4Expensive Queen (IRE) Luis Saez 125 Brendan P. Walsh 9/2 5 5And One More Time (KY) Javier Castellano 125 Mark E. Casse 10/1 6 6Deep Satin (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 125 Cherie DeVaux 8/1 7 7Love You Anyway (KY) Axel Concepcion 125 George R. Arnold II 30/1 8 8Segesta (KY) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 125 Chad C. Brown 3/1 9 9Classic Q (KY) John R. Velazquez 125 Mark E. Casse 10/1 10 10Bless the Broken (KY) Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr. 125 Brad H. Cox 12/1 11 11Vina Arana (IRE) Adam Beschizza 125 Jack Sisterson 20/1
