The 2024 Keeneland Spring Meet is over. Here are the leading jockeys, trainers and owners.

Keeneland’s 16-day Spring Meet came to a close Friday.

Held from April 5-26, this year’s Spring Meet included a historic 100th edition of the meet’s signature race, the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes, as well as 19 stakes races in total that offered a combined, season-record purse of $8.6 million.

The meet also took place while an ongoing $93 million renovation project to the Lexington track occurred. The expansion project, which won’t be finished until the 2025 Fall Meet, includes a new paddock building, new permanent seating and dining areas, as well as a visitors center.

Over the course of the 16 days of racing at Keeneland, leading jockeys, trainers and owners emerged from the pack. Keeneland even played a prominent role in new Kentucky men’s basketball coach Mark Pope securing a commitment from a player in the NCAA transfer portal.

Here’s a look at the big winners from this year’s Spring Meet, along with wagering totals from the meet.

Irad Ortiz Jr. wins first Keeneland jockey title

Irad Ortiz Jr. won his first Keeneland title as the leading jockey for a meet at the track. Powered by three victories Friday, the final day of the meet, Ortiz finished the 2024 Spring Meet with 20 race wins.

This was five more than each of Tyler Gaffalione and Jose Ortiz, who tied for second place in the jockey standings with 15 wins. Irad and Jose are brothers.

Irad Ortiz claimed a trio of stakes wins en route to his meet title: The Grade 1 Central Bank Ashland (Leslie’s Rose), the Grade 2 Shakertown (Arzak) and the Grade 3 Giant’s Causeway (Roses for Debra).

The Ashland was the only Kentucky Oaks points qualifier run during the Spring Meet.

Gaffalione won the race with the biggest purse during the Spring Meet. He piloted Sierra Leone to an impressive come-from-behind win in the Grade 1, $1 million Toyota Blue Grass Stakes, a key Kentucky Derby prep race. Sierra Leone will be one of the favorites for Kentucky Derby 150 on May 4 at Churchill Downs in Louisville.

Sierra Leone is aiming to become the first Blue Grass winner to double up with the Derby since 1991 (Strike the Gold).

Wesley Ward wins another trainer title

Wesley Ward has made a habit of winning the leading trainer title at Keeneland.

That theme continued in the 2024 Spring Meet, as Ward recorded 12 race wins to earn his seventh consecutive and eighth overall Spring Meet leading trainer title. Overall, Ward has won 10 leading trainer titles at Keeneland.

In second place, both Chad Brown and Brad Cox had eight wins during the Spring Meet.

Brown trained Sierra Leone, the winner of the Blue Grass Stakes, and Cox won the Grade 3 Stonestreet Lexington Stakes (the other Kentucky Derby points qualifier run during the Spring Meet) with Encino.

Todd Pletcher trained Leslie’s Rose to her win in the Ashland.

Godolphin, Juddmonte tie for leading owner

The title of leading owner for the 2024 Keeneland Spring Meet was shared by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Godolphin and Fahad bin Khalid’s Juddmonte.

Both outfits had five wins each during the Spring Meet. Both Godolphin and Juddmonte have now won three Spring Meet owner titles.

Three of Godolphin’s wins this meet came in stakes races.

Wagering declines at Keeneland for 2024 Spring Meet

All-sources wagering for the 2024 Keeneland Spring Meet exceeded $218 million, which marked the third-highest handle in Keeneland history.

All-sources wagering (not including whole card simulcasting at Keeneland) was $218,741,501 for the Spring Meet. Despite this being a historically significant total, this still marked a decrease of 2.5% from last spring’s record handle, which was $224,348,745.

On-track wagering was also slightly down: That total was $15,831,087 for the 2024 Spring Meet, a 0.08% decrease compared to the $15,844,092 for the 2023 Spring Meet.

But, several individual wagering days at Keeneland stood out during this year’s Spring Meet.

On opening Saturday (April 6), the all-sources handle for the 11-race card that included five graded stakes (including the Blue Grass Stakes) was $29,261,346, which set a single-day wagering record.

Single race win/place/show wagering of $2,576,663 for this year’s Blue Grass Stakes easily surpassed the 2019 record of $2,068,406.

Furthermore, the All Stakes Pick 5 ending with the Blue Grass had a total handle of $1,696,981, which broke the 2022 record of $1,539,098.

This Spring, Keeneland reduced the takeout on a Daily Double wager from 22% to 15%. The Daily Double wager then established handle records twice during the Spring Meet: $329,433 on opening day (April 5) and $470,988 on April 13.

Both totals surpassed the previous record of $286,255 from April 23, 2022.

One horse death during Spring Meet

One horse death occurred during the 2024 Spring Meet as the result of a racing incident.

On April 19, 6-year-old February Son was euthanized after an incident during the fifth race of the day.

“Given the extent of the injury, it was determined that humane euthanasia was in the best interest of the horse,” read Keeneland’s equine safety report about the incident.

The deadly incident occurred during a 1-mile turf race. Trained by Anthony Granitz and owned by Captain Jack Racing Stable, February Son was making his 30th career start in that race.

Three horses died as the result of racing incidents during the 2023 Spring Meet, and one horse died as the result of racing incidents during the 2023 Fall Meet. The four total horse deaths at Keeneland in 2023 were the most at the Lexington track since nine died following racing incidents in 2019.

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