The $350,000 Bewitch Stakes (G3T), won three times by multiple grade 1 winner War Like Goddess in 2021-23, marks the final graded stakes feature of the 15-day Keeneland spring meet.
While there's no War Like Goddess in this year's running, a competitive field of nine older fillies and mares are entered for the April 25 Keeneland closing day finale. Favoritism for the 1 1/2-mile turf route will likely fall on two mares exiting winter Florida campaigns, Immensitude and Forever After All. In their most recent effort, the pair chased home the victorious Beach Bomb in the 1 3/8-mile The Very One Stakes (G3T) March 1 at Gulfstream Park.
Wathnan Racing's Immensitude, a group 3 winner in France but winless in seven North American tries, closed to finish a hard-trying second by a length in The Very One. The effort was the first in nearly four months for the consistent daughter of Lawman, who has hit the board in her past four outings for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.
2024 Eclipse-winning jockey Flavien Prat takes over on Immensitude from Junior Alvarado, the mare's pilot in her past five starts.
Forever After All, a hard-luck fifth in the The Very One when beaten only 1 3/4 lengths, will look to gain the upper hand on Immensitude for trainer Brendan Walsh. There's no hotter barn at Keeneland right now, with the Walsh barn winning at a 50% strike rate in stakes races run over the last month at the Lexington oval. Walsh runners Gosger and Gin Gin captured the the April 12 Lexington (G3) and April 18 Doubledogdare (G3) stakes, respectively, while Kentucky Derby (G1) contender East Avenue dropped a nose decision in the Blue Grass Stakes (G1) April 8.
A homebred for Dixiana Farms, Forever After All will eye her second graded stakes win after rallying to defeat last year's absent Bewitch winner, Chop Chop, by a nose in the 1 1/2-mile La Prevoyante Stakes (G3T) to kick off her 6-year-old season.
With Tyler Gaffalione, her rider in her past three starts, sidelined with an ankle injury, Irad Ortiz Jr. gets the call on Forever After All.
Rodolphe Brisset-trained Dazzlin' Dictator, a possible pacesetter, may have the stamina to take them all the way in the Bewitch. Purchased for $360,000 in January 2024 at the Fasig-Tipton Digital Lothenbach Dispersal of Horses of Racing Age Sale, the American Pharoah filly was well beaten in the 1 1/16-mile Latonia Stakes in her previous start but dominated her rivals by 11 1/4 lengths in a Feb. 7 second-level allowance optional claimer going 1 1/4 miles at Turfway Park.
Keeneland, Friday, April 25, 2025, Race 8Entries: Bewitch S. Presented by Keeneland Sales (G3T)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Dazzlin' Dictator (KY) Luan Machado 118 Rodolphe Brisset 20/1 2 2Immensitude (FR) Flavien Prat 118 William I. Mott 5/2 3 3Forever After All (KY) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 120 Brendan P. Walsh 9/5 4 4Sand and Sea (IN) John R. Velazquez 118 Riley Mott 15/1 5 5Just Basking (KY) Chris Landeros 118 Ian R. Wilkes 12/1 6 6Sabalenka (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 118 Joe Sharp 20/1 7 7Eternal Silence (KY) Joel Rosario 118 Christophe Clement 4/1 8 8Strikingly Spun (KY) Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr. 118 Joe Sharp 8/1 9 9Youknownothing (MD) Florent Geroux 118 Christophe Clement 12/1
