Sparkle Blue flashed ability last year with consistent performances in stakes races around the country. After, perhaps, shaking some rust off last time out, she shines brightest in the lineup as the lone graded stakes winner in the field of 12 fillies and mares for the $225,000 Keertana, a 1 1/2-mile turf race that is the Saturday afternoon feature at Churchill Downs. Sparkle Blue, a winner at 2, truly came to hand as a 3-year-old last year for trainer Graham Motion. She first won the Christiana Stakes at Delaware, then finished second in the Virginia Oaks before winning the Grade 3 Valley View Stakes at Keeneland going 1 1/16 miles. She stretched out to 1 1/4 miles for the Grade 1 American Oaks in December at Santa Anita, and was making up ground late to finish third by three-quarters of a length. Sparkle Blue made her first start in more than four months in the Grade 3 Modesty Stakes on the Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill Downs. Under a snug hold while racing along the inside throughout, she leveled out late to finish sixth. She matched her career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 87 she earned in the American Oaks. :: Bet the races on DRF Bets! Sign up with code WINNING to get a $250 Deposit Match, $10 Free Bet, and FREE DRF Formulator.  Sparkle Blue has drawn post 10 of 12 for the Keertana under Vincent Cheminaud, giving her an ideal spot to find a more comfortable rhythm while in her preferred spot stalking the pace. That pace is likely to be provided by Sinfiltre, a front-running winner of a 1 1/2-mile Keeneland allowance last time out, and Exit Soul, who set the pace before finishing third, beaten a neck total, in the 1 1/2-mile Santa Barbara at Santa Anita. Sparkle Blue is adjustable enough to sit closer to or farther from those two, depending on their pace early. Miss Yearwood, third in the Grade 3 Jockey Club Oaks Invitational last year in New York, has also shown that she can overcome pace scenarios. She is coming off a Keeneland allowance win at this 1 1/2-mile distance in which she made a six-wide rally from last at the quarter pole despite a slow pace. Viburnum was aided by a strong pace when she closed to win the Via Borghese in December at Gulfstream, a race moved from turf to the all-weather. She was most recently seventh in the Grade 3 Orchid, a race in which Miss Yearwood was sixth. ◗ In the Saturday nightcap following the Keertana, a $120,000 maiden special weight, First Player will surely be a sentimental favorite. The gelding is, aptly, the first foal sired by The Player, a homebred for the Bradley family who has overcome a life-threatening injury to stand at stud. He will be the first starter in nearly a year for trainer Neil Howard, another well-liked horseman. The Player was bred by trainer William “Buff” Bradley, his late father Fred Bradley, and longtime partner Carl Hurst, and joined champion Groupie Doll and Grade 1 winner Brass Hat as standouts for the family. However, the multiple graded stakes winner broke down in the Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap in March 2018. He underwent successful surgery at LSU, and six months later, returned to Kentucky. He stands at Crestwood Farm, and has four starters to date from 14 foals of racing age. He recorded his first winner when Rosie’s Angus won a maiden claimer on May 18 at Evangeline. First Player, owned by Bradley – who retired from training in 2021 and now works with the Keeneland sales department – and Hurst, has been in a steady work pattern for Howard over the winter at Fair Grounds and now this spring at Churchill. Howard, best known for his exploits with Mineshaft and Summer Squall, last saddled a horse on June 22, 2022, when Bel Aria was fifth in a maiden-claimer at Churchill Downs. His lone winner from 10 starts last year came when Tonal Impact won a maiden-claimer on March 11 at Fair Grounds. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.