LEXINGTON, Ky. – Positano Sunset’s first graded-stakes win came at the highest level. The 5-year-old mare, making her 16th start, burst between rivals in mid-stretch and captured the Grade 1, $650,000 Madison Stakes on Tuesday at Keeneland.
The victory was not widely anticipated. At 14-1, Positano Sunset was the second-longest price in a six-runner field. She paid $30.62 to win after running seven furlongs on a fast main track in 1:23.39, beating even-money favorite Emery by one length.
My Mane Squeeze gutted out a third-place finish in her first start after a winter break, finishing 1 1/4 lengths behind Emery and three-quarters of a length better than second-choice Mystic Lake, who checked in a tepid fourth, beating only 25-1 shot Dazzling Move and a dull Justique. Scylla, who might have vied for favoritism, ran a temperature after entries were taken for the Madison and had to be scratched by trainer Bill Mott.
“I wasn’t upset when she came out,” said Ian Wilkes, who trains Positano Sunset for Six Column Stable, Randall Bloch, John Seiler, and David Hall.
Positano Sunset, whose best races come at seven furlongs, won the $150,000 Audubon Oaks over that trip in August 2023 but suffered a hairline condylar fracture that kept her from racing again until the following April. She made seven starts without winning during 2024, though she did finish second behind Grade 1-winner Vahva (whom Positano long ago beat in a Keeneland allowance race) and in front of Grade 1-winner Society in the Grade 3 Chicago Stakes last summer.
“She ran good, but we couldn’t get her over the hump,” Wilkes said.
After a winter break, Positano Sunset won sharply in a handicap at Tampa Bay Downs on March 9. Wilkes called that an important performance for Positano Sunset, who started her campaign off the right way. The mare trained strongly out of her 2025 debut and moved forward Tuesday.
The Madison unfolded at a moderate tempo. Emery, who broke from an inside post, volleyed for the lead with outside-drawn Mystic Lake through splits of 22.68 and 45.65. Positano Sunset saved ground under Julien Leparoux, cruising around the turn, and came to the quarter pole full of run.
“I just asked her to catch up with them a little bit and she was just dragging me there,” Leparoux said. “I just needed a hole to open up.”
One did before the eighth pole, with Positano Sunset splitting Mystic Lake and My Mane Squeeze and pushing out to a career-defining victory.
Positano Sunset is by Goldencents out of Gigglin’ Gal, by Consolidator. That’s hardly a world-class pedigree, and Wilkes, in his typical patient fashion, has managed the mare to Grade 1 success. Her connections are after more, as Positano Sunset will run back in the $1 million Derby City Distaff over seven furlongs on May 3 at Churchill Downs.
The mare has matured. Her Keeneland upset might not be an outlier.
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