Exotics Plays for the 2026 Appalachian Stakes

A very good cast of 11 three-year-old fillies, six of which have previously won a stakes race, will vie in the $500,000 Appalachian (G2) at Keeneland on Saturday. There are too many talented prospects in the field for me to land on a single, so I will include multiple fillies in the exciting event. 

Appalachian Stakes Exotics

• $2 Exacta: box 4,7,9,10 ($24)
• 50-cent Trifecta: 4,7 with 4,7,9,10 with all ($27)
• 10-cent Superfecta: 4 with 7,9,10 with 7,9,10 with all ($4.80)

The Rusty Arnold-trained #4 To a Flame (12-1) is a neck shy from being unbeaten in three career runs, and I liked her convincing allowance tally off the long absence at Gulfstream Park on March 7. The Justify filly was a first-out winner in a race that came off the grass at Ellis Park, and she capped her brief juvenile season with a close third in the $1 million Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies at Kentucky Downs in August. She has enough natural early foot to stay in range prior to unleashing her strong late run inside the final furlong. Axel Concepcion has the call.

Jimmy Durante (G3) heroine #7 Just Aloof (10-1) is perfect from a pair of lifetime runs to date and will make her 2026 debut for conditioner Chad Brown. Also by Justify, the Whisper Hill homebred is from a fine family of turf performers and figures to get better with experience and age. The bay has substantial tactical foot and will be well placed turning for home beneath Flavien Prat. 

#9 Sister Troienne (5-2) sports a 5-4-1-0 mark on the grass in her lifetime and has to be included with Irad inheriting the mount. The Munnings chestnut is the potential pace of the race and will be the one to run down late for trainer Brian Lynch. The Woodslane Racing homebred was a powerful allowance vixen on the course in October in her lone previous appearance at Keeneland, too. 

#10 Imaginationthelady (7-2) captured the Jessamine (G2) on this surface in October and capped her smart two-year-old season with a fine fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) at Del Mar. One of two in the field for Brendan Walsh, the Not This Time filly will have Tyler Gaffalione in the stirrups.