Silver Dust Tops Field of Five for Ben Ali; Into Mystic Among 10 Entrants in Giant’s Causeway

LEXINGTON, KY – Tom Durant’s multiple Grade 3 winner Silver Dust tops a field of five older runners entered Wednesday for Saturday’s 90th running of the $150,000 Ben Ali going 1 1/8 miles on the main track.

The Ben Ali will go as the seventh race Saturday afternoon with a 4:24 PM post time.

Trained by Bret Calhoun, Silver Dust returns to the dirt after making his 2021 debut on the turf course at Fair Grounds. In November, he was 10th here in the Big Ass Fans Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1).

Regular rider Adam Beschizza has the mount and will break from post 5.

The field for the Ben Ali, with riders and weights from the rail, is: Beau Luminarie (Luis Saez, 118 pounds), Treasure Trove (Tyler Gaffalione, 118), Night Ops (Javier Castellano, 118), Sprawl (Brian Hernandez Jr., 118), and Silver Dust (Beschizza, 118).

Into Mystic Among 10 Entrants in Giant’s Causeway

G. Chris Coleman and Brad King’s ultra-consistent Into Mystic headlines a field of 10 fillies and mares entered Wednesday for Saturday’s 24th running of the $100,000 Giant’s Causeway going 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf.

The Giant’s Causeway will go as the eighth race Saturday afternoon with a 4:57 PM post time.

Trained by Brendan Walsh, Into Mystic came within a nose of upsetting multiple Grade 1 winner and millionaire Got Stormy in the 2020 Buffalo Trace Franklin County (G3), the Keeneland Fall Meet equivalent of the Giant’s Causeway. Following that effort, she set the pace before finishing 12th against males in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1) here.

Since the Breeders’ Cup, Into Mystic won the Nelson J. Menard Memorial at Fair Grounds and was runner-up twice to Saturday rival Elle Z in 2 stakes at the New Orleans track.

Irad Ortiz Jr. will be aboard Into Mystic for the first time Saturday and break from post 1.

The field for the Giant’s Causeway, with riders and weights from the inside, is: Into Mystic (Irad Ortiz Jr., 124 pounds), In Good Spirits (Miguel Mena, 122), Elle Z (Mitchell Murrill, 124), Dixieincandyland (Drayden Van Dyke, 122), Fashionable Lady (Rafael Bejarano, 122), A Bit of Both (Tyler Gaffalione, 122), Karak (John Velazquez, 122), Change of Control (Colby Hernandez, 122), Oooh Barracuda (James Graham, 122), and Jakarta (Luis Saez, 124).

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