After landing a pair of graded stakes against her generation this summer at Saratoga Race Course, Counting Stars is entered to face older fillies and mares for the first time in the $650,000 Spinster Stakes (G1) Oct. 4 at Keeneland.
West Point Thoroughbreds' Counting Stars moved into championship contention this summer by taking the Acorn Stakes (G1) in June at the Spa and following with a July victory there in the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1). The 3-year-old daughter of Honor A. P. captured those two top tests by a combined 8 lengths for trainer Mark Casse.
Counting Stars enters Sunday's 1 1/8-mile test off a third-place finish in the 1 1/4-mile Alabama Stakes (G1) Aug. 22 at Saratoga. Casse thinks she wasn't at her best that day and blames the four-week turnaround more than the stretch out in distance.
"It really was her first lackluster effort of the spring or summer. She finished third in the Kentucky Oaks, but ran a good race that day," Casse said. "She really put it all together at Saratoga and I'd say her accomplishments to date probably put her atop the division at this point.
"I think the four-week turnaround for the Alabama proved to be too much but she has more time for this race and has been working well in the mornings."
The Spinster is a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In race, awarding a fees-paid start in the Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1), which will be run on the same track and same distance Oct. 31, one day less than four weeks after Sunday's test.
"We like that she's getting a start at Keeneland ahead of Breeders' Cup but the four weeks is not ideal," Casse said. "But we'll worry about that as it comes. She's happy going into this one."
Awaiting Counting Stars, who will enjoy a 4-pound weight advantage as the lone 3-year-old entered, will be runaway Personal Ensign Stakes (G1) winner Fully Subscribed for owner Klaravich Stables. That 9 3/4-length victory Aug. 29 at Saratoga earned the 4-year-old daughter of Tiz the Law her first grade 1 score.
"She has always trained at a very high level and she's run very well in her races. She's very consistent, but it was very much a breakthrough performance for her," trainer Chad Brown said. "It was good to see. We always thought she was capable of that type of win."
Like Casse, Brown likes the timing of the Spinster, noting he considered the Beldame Stakes (G2) Sept. 25 at Belmont Park but opted for Sunday's race as it provides an extra week between races after her big effort in the Personal Ensign. Brown also likes that racing in the Spinster will give Fully Subscribed a run over the track ahead of the Breeders' Cup.
The lone runner in the Spinster field with a previous victory on the Keeneland dirt is Immersive, champion 2-year-old filly of 2024. In that championship season the daughter of Nyquist won the Alcibiades Stakes (G1) at Keeneland ahead of her 4 1/2-length romp in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Del Mar.
Trainer Brad Cox sends out Immersive, a homebred for Godolphin, off a third-place finish to Splendora in the Locust Grove Stakes (G2) Sept. 12 at Churchill Downs. In her race before that effort, Immersive captured the Fleur de Lis Stakes (G2) in June at Churchill.
Rounding out the expected field of five are Regaled, who finished second to Immersive in the Fleur de Lis; and Snowyte, who set the pace in the Personal Ensign before fading to fourth.
Keeneland, Sunday, October 4, 2026, Race 9Entries: Juddmonte Spinster S. (G1)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 Regaled (KY) Tyler Gaffalione 125 D. Whitworth Beckman - 2 Counting Stars (KY) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 121 Mark E. Casse - 3 Immersive (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 125 Brad H. Cox - 4 Fully Subscribed (KY) Flavien Prat 125 Chad C. Brown - 5 Snowyte (KY) Luis Saez 125 Danny Gargan -
