LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Now the curtain comes down on another eventful meet at Churchill Downs, albeit with a dozen more races to run. Big fields and even bigger purses that have characterized much of the 19-day fall meet are all set for Sunday, when Christmas tunes will be belted out by bugler Steve Buttleman between races as the track bids goodbye to fans ahead of a long winter. The Grade 3 Commonwealth Turf is the closing-day feature, and not unlike the rest of a card that starts at 1 p.m. Eastern, there’s a lot to choose from. Eleven 3-year-olds will go 1 1/16 miles on a turf course that has held up well while sparingly used since shortly after the meet began Oct. 30, with more than half of them sure to be given a solid chance by bettors to wind up in the winner’s circle. Barberini, in from northern Maryland, is one of those runners rating as good a chance as any. The Rhianon Farms homebred has won 5 of 8 starts since being gelded following a disappointing debut in July 2021, and trainer Arnaud Delacour is optimistic a fourth consecutive triumph is quite possible. “I actually like him quite a bit,” Delacour said. Barberini, with Vince Cheminaud riding, will break from the outside post in the $300,000 Commonwealth Turf, which will be run under the lights at 5:56 p.m. as the 11th of 12 races. A win in a $16,000 maiden-claiming race in October 2021 made Barberini eligible for a handful of starter allowances in which he developed an effective late kick, and after getting last summer off with what Delacour described as “just a little issue that needed time,” the Kentucky-bred son of Flintshire won back-to-back allowances this fall in Maryland with Beyer Speed Figures (81 and 84) that make him a major player here. “We kind of got a free pass to run him for the $16,000,” Delacour said. “He kept improving, and he came back with two very good races this fall. I do think he’s coming to himself.” Quite a few of his opponents deserve a similar dose of optimism from their respective connections. Chad Brown is represented by the uncoupled pair of Running Bee (post 3, Tyler Gaffalione), a runaway winner of a first-level allowance with a 90 Beyer last month over the Keeneland turf, and Portfolio Company (post 9, Florent Geroux), a belated fourth in the Grade 3 Bryan Station on closing day at Keeneland. :: DRF Black Friday Sale: Save 20% on DRF PPs, Clocker Reports, and other handicapping essentials Mike Maker also has two starters in Stolen Base (post 1, Luis Saez) and Fighter In the Win (post 8, Gerardo Corrales), while Brad Cox sends out Ready to Purrform (post 6, Ricardo Santana Jr.), winner of the Grade 2 Hall of Fame at Saratoga in August. Robbie Medina chimes in with Play Action Pass (post 4, Edgar Morales), a determined winner of the rich Gun Runner at Kentucky Downs in September. Two more with notable triumphs over dirt add another layer of complexity to this handicapping puzzle, those being Actuator (post 7, Martin Garcia), winner of the Indiana Derby in July, and Trademark (post 2, Rafael Bejarano), an eye-catching winner of a recent allowance at Keeneland. Trademark was scratched from the Grade 1 Clark on Friday. This is the 17th Commonwealth Turf, but the first since 2019 after going on hiatus in 2020, due to the pandemic, and 2021, when there was no turf racing. Three allowances (races 7, 9, 10), all of them with purses of at least $127,000, precede the feature. Race 10 is especially deep, with Ricochet, Strava, and Big Blue Line among a core of lukewarm favorites in an oversubscribed lineup going a one-turn mile out of the Longfield Avenue chute. All purses listed here include substantial bonuses restricted to registered Kentucky-breds. The Sunday card coincides with the 6 p.m. closing of Pool 2 of the 2023 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which began a four-day run Thursday. The Future Wager has been expanded to 40 betting interests for the first time this year. Turfway 2.0 all set Turfway Park in northern Kentucky starts four months of winter racing Wednesday evening with a brand-new racing plant that opened in September and a number of new stables enticed by record purses. Delacour, with a 10-horse string, is one of the newcomers joining the likes of Wesley Ward, Mike Maker, Brad Cox, and Steve Asmussen, all of whom will be leaving sizable numbers behind while otherwise migrating south. One notable development is that the Trackside training center in Louisville will be open throughout the winter “for the first time in probably 15 years,” said longtime Turfway racing secretary Tyler Picklesimer, helping to further expand the pool of horses from which he can fill races. Churchill Downs Inc., which purchased Turfway in October 2019, has spent a reported $145 million in a complete makeover of a facility dedicated primarily to the slots-like historical horse racing machines that fuel purses. Tapeta remains the lone racing surface. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.