LEXINGTON, Ky. – Although Keeneland will open for racing Sunday, there is no certainty that the $300,000 Palisades, now scheduled to be the first turf stakes of the meet, will remain on the grass. With multi-day storms placing Lexington under a flood watch from Wednesday through Sunday, the turf course will be waterlogged. In addition to safety, preserving the course for upcoming graded stakes at the meet will certainly be on the minds of officials. Keeneland-based trainer Wesley Ward is well-stocked for either surface in this 5 1/2-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds. His fillies Dreamaway and Long Neck Paula, who again face open company, have both shown main-track ability. Dreamaway won her debut on the Keeneland dirt last April, then went on to a good stakes campaign on turf, winning the Colleen at Monmouth and finishing third in the Speakeasy at Santa Anita. She is entered for her first start since the Speakeasy, six months ago. She signaled readiness to return to the races with a bullet work on the Keeneland main track in late March, followed by a maintenance move on this turf course. The front-running Dreamaway will remove blinkers for this race, which may serve her well in a field full of speed. She is sandwiched in the starting gate between Makeit to Cheyenne, coming off a speedy score on Gulfstream’s synthetic track, and Turbulent Force, adding blinkers just to her outside to sharpen his effort. Farther out in the gate, Brie’s in Town, Killjoy, and Warheart have all turned in good efforts on the lead. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Long Neck Paula has the ability to stalk and pounce but is disadvantageously drawn on the rail. The filly, third in the Schuylerville last summer at Saratoga, went on to impressively take the Prairie Meadows Debutante over a next-out winner, then outfoxed males to win the Bowman Mill by a half-length on the Keeneland dirt. In her first outing in five months, she was sixth in the Serena’s Song at Turfway. She wheels back roughly a week later after perhaps needing the race and not thriving on Tapeta. Out On Bail is a chief contender if the Palisades remains on turf after a strong juvenile sprint campaign for Mike Maker. The colt won the Skidmore at Saratoga, was second in the Rosie’s at Colonial, and missed by a neck in the Indian Summer at Keeneland after plenty of trouble, going wide and being bumped in the stretch. ◗ Ward’s entrant in a $90,000, 4 1/2-furlong maiden special weight is his homebred Munnings filly Daphne Blue. Her dam is One Hot Wish, who won by 12 1/4 lengths in her debut in April 2007 in a record 48.87 seconds on the Keeneland Polytrack. She is the dam of four winners from seven starters, including Pablo Del Monte, third for Ward in the 2014 Blue Grass. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.