LEXINGTON, Ky. – Go Big Blue Nation is a natural fit at Keeneland, if only because of her name. All the Kentucky Wildcat garb on display every day at Keeneland surely is symbolic of the support the 5-year-old mare figures to garner as the probable favorite in the second of two allowances on a nine-race Thursday card. Making the synergy even more real is the race record of Go Big Blue Nation, who won the last two times she ran in allowance company. Now in the care of trainer Graham Motion after being sold at auction here in January, Go Big Blue Nation sure looks like the class of the field in the race-8 feature going 1 1/2 miles on the turf. :: Shop for Keeneland: Get DRF Past Performances, Picks, and more Bought by Motion’s daughter Jane on behalf of owner Larry Johnson, Go Big Blue Nation will have Tyler Gaffalione aboard when she makes her first start under new silks. Four of the last five starts for the chestnut mare came in stakes company, so the drop back into the allowance ranks should be to her liking. “She came to me after the sale,” Graham Motion said. After nine works since late February at his Fair Hill training base in northern Maryland, “she should be good to go,” he said. With the highest career earnings ($234,095) and Beyer Speed Figure (92) in a field of nine fillies and mares, Go Big Blue Nation will make her first start in more than five months. Her main rivals are Disappearing Act (post 2, Flavien Prat) and Flanigan’s Cove (post 4, Joel Rosario). The second-level allowance offers a maximum purse of $120,000, including $48,000 in bonuses for registered Kentucky-breds. First post is 1 p.m. Eastern, with the feature going at 4:44. The earlier allowance (race 4, 2:36), also scheduled for the grass at 5 1/2 furlongs, could have Lyrical Poet as the one to beat for trainer Wesley Ward and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. A 5-year-old gelding with a steady series of recent works under him, Lyrical Poet also is returning from a five-month layoff after having a productive 2021. Wet and unseasonably chilly weather have precluded the Keeneland turf from being rated firm throughout the 15-day spring meet, which began April 8 – and it looks like that trend could continue this week. The Thursday forecast calls for a 40 percent chance of rain and mid-60s temperatures. Earlier in the day, Ward holds a strong hand with the uncoupled duo of Hippie Trail and Dominicana in race 2, a 4 1/2-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies out of the Headley chute. With seven winners through the first seven cards at the meet, Ward began the five-day race week Wednesday with a slim lead atop the trainer standings over Brad Cox and Chad Brown (six wins each). ◗ Four stakes, all of them graded, remain on the spring schedule – the Grade 3 Doubledogdare on Friday, the Grade 2 Elkhorn and Grade 3 Ben Ali on Saturday, and the Grade 3 Bewitch on closing day (April 29).