Hard Not to Like Scratched from FM Turf, Remains in KEENOV

Speedway Stables LLC’s Hard Not to Like (Hard Spun) has been scratched from Saturday’s GI Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf owing to ground conditions that are not optimal. She remains catalogued as hip 79 as part of the Taylor Made consignment during Monday’s opening session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock sale in Lexington.

“She has been scratched because she hasn’t run well on softer ground,” said Taylor Made Sales’s Duncan Taylor speaking on behalf of the ownership group. “[Trainer] Christophe Clement walked the turf course this morning and he basically decided it would be better not to run. She’s in fantastic shape and she was sitting on a good race. She’s going to be pointed for the [GI] Matriarch [S., Del Mar Nov. 29].

Winner of the GI Jenny Wiley S. at Keeneland last season, the 6-year-old mare was purchased by Peter Fluor and K.C. Weiner’s for $1.5 million at last year’s Keeneland November sale and was turned over to Christophe Clement. It has been another successful year at the track for the gray mare, with wins in the GI Gamely S. and GI Diana S. She currently has eight wins from her 21 career starts and earnings of $1,261,921.