Without further ado, let’s get to the sequel, though the protagonist of this story is in fact named Further Ado.
Further Ado, solid if unspectacular in two Saratoga sprints, put on a show Oct. 10 at Keeneland. Going two turns over 1 1/16 miles, Further Ado tracked the pacesetter from second, took over on the far turn, and carried a 10-length lead to the stretch call.
Keeneland races at 1 1/16 miles end at the sixteenth pole, so there’s not a ton of real estate from the stretch call to the wire, yet Further Ado doubled his margin – a 20-length winner. Even as jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. eased up on his mount, Further Ado accelerated through his final half-furlong, running himself right into Saturday’s Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. Further Ado faces six foes, chief among them Soldier N Diplomat and Cherokee Nation.
“He’s a nice horse. And he keeps going,” trainer Brad Cox said.
A blowout maiden win does not a star make, and Further Ado, the likely favorite, has validating to do in the Grade 2, $400,000 Kentucky Jockey Club, an early stop on Churchill Downs’s Road to the Kentucky Derby. The first five home Saturday earn, respectively, 10, 5, 3, 2, and 1 qualifying points toward the 2026 Derby.
Cox said he took Further Ado to Saratoga for a reason: Namely, he thought the Gun Runner colt could run. His two sprints there, both in good company, yielded fifth- and third-place finishes, decent, but not quite what Cox hoped for based on morning training.
“He’s a good work horse. There’s no doubt about that,” Cox said.
The best part of Further Ado’s works come past the wire, galloping out around the clubhouse turn and onto the backstretch – you know, the way a true route horse would breeze. Further Ado, a long-striding colt of moderate size, has continued drilling like that since Keeneland, not even requiring a workmate to get what Cox wanted from his breezes.
“He’s a very kind, athletic horse. Good mover, light on his feet,” Cox said.
He also faces at least two horses who appear much better than anything behind him last month. In fact, Soldier N Diplomat won the same Saratoga maiden in which Further Ado finished fifth. Second out, connections threw Soldier N Diplomat into the Grade 1 Hopeful, where he set the pace and faded to fourth, but back in Kentucky about a month ago, Soldier N Diplomat won a one-turn Churchill mile, beating decent competition by nine lengths.
“Even though he won first out, I don’t think his first two races are what he’s capable of,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “He works like that horse we saw last time. I thought his last race was everything we were hoping to see.”
Purchased for $950,000 at a 2-year-old sale in March, Soldier N Diplomat started breezing for Asmussen in May; he’s a colt with a strong foundation now. By Army Mule out of Diplomatic Miss, Soldier N Diplomat has sprint bloodlines, but while his jockey geared him down not far past the wire last out, Soldier N Diplomat still galloped out with gusto.
“I watched the race between the eighth pole and sixteenth pole, and he wasn’t looking for the wire,” Asmussen said. “On pedigree, he’s a sprinter, but he doesn’t train like a sprinter.”
Asmussen also sends out Spice Runner, who won the Iroquois at Churchill in September and lost all chance when he stumbled badly at the start of the Breeders’ Futurity. Saturday’s start marks his sixth.
“He’s a big heavy horse that’s benefitting from racing,” Asmussen said.
Universe and Very Connected finished second and third Oct. 26 in the Street Sense, while Dr. Kapur should set the pace – unless Cherokee Nation, drawn just inside Dr. Kapur, goes for it.
A real beast of a 2-year-old, though a maiden after two starts, the Bob Baffert-trained Cherokee Nation probably never was suited for sprinting, but in any case was compromised by early trouble debuting at 5 1/2 furlongs. Stretched to a two-turn mile second out, Cherokee Nation set a contested pace, was passed in upper stretch by heavily favored Mr. A. P., but grittily dug in and nearly got back on even terms at the wire. Mr. A. P. on Oct. 31 finished a good second to division leader Ted Noffey in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
One might say there are no Ted Noffeys in the Kentucky Jockey Club – but perhaps there are.
Ed Brown Stakes
Trainer Bob Baffert sent an unraced horse named Barnes last November to Churchill Downs, his first runner at the track following a 2 1/2-year hiatus. Owner Amr Zedan had purchased Barnes for $3.2 million at auction. Barnes won a maiden race by a head at odds of 3-10.
Baffert’s first Churchill runner since June 1 comes Saturday in the $225,000 Ed Brown Stakes. Zedan spent a far lesser sum, $1.05 million at an auction in May, buying Boyd, though Boyd, like Barnes, could also go off an odds-on favorite.
But the 6 1/2-furlong Ed Brown is no maiden race. Only five others were entered, but Gallivant and Stradale could turn out every bit as good as Boyd, if not better.
Boyd, by Violence, has raced but once, bet down to 11-10 in a Sept. 7 Del Mar sprint maiden and making that price look fair. Leading on a strong pace, Boyd cruised home by almost six lengths. He did not, however, post his next timed workout until Oct. 12, and while Boyd looks physically advanced and, on video, appears to have breezed with aplomb, he’s out on the road, out to a longer distance, and in with a couple serious rivals.
Trainer Ben Colebrook has several talented 2-year-olds this season but said Gallivant stood out from the start. He debuted Oct. 4 at Keeneland, but while the 89 Beyer Speed Figure he earned that start comes close to Boyd’s 92, Gallivant finished third. After leading in the fastest 2-year-old maiden of that meet, Gallivant returned three weeks later, swooping from last of four to win the $242,000 Bowman Mill by six lengths. Jockey Luan Machado must work out a trip from his rail draw in the Ed Brown.
Bobrovsky went to Del Mar, his connections hoping the colt would draw into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. He didn’t, and Bobrovsky’s blowout dirt maiden score came in restricted competition. Neither Big Dom nor Ganaas stayed a route distance last out, and the cut back to sprinting helps both, but Stradale already got that cutback.
Stradale required four tries to clear the maiden ranks, but had trouble in his debut, ran into a very talented rival, Talkin, second out, and in this third race didn’t seem to handle a one-mile distance in the Grade 1 Champagne. Trainer Steve Asmussen went back to six-furlong racing in a Churchill maiden contest Oct. 26, and Stradale sparkled. Rallying from ninth, Stradale blitzed his final quarter-mile and won easily.
“His last race was awesome,” Asmussen said. “He’s a horse with a very, very good mind.”
And he’s a horse with a good chance to come out atop the Ed Brown.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.