A week of summer 2025 still remains when the Iroquois Stakes is run Saturday at Churchill Downs, yet the race asks us to look forward to mid-spring 2026.
The Iroquois, a one-turn mile for 2-year-olds, is the first race on Churchill Downs’s Road to the Kentucky Derby, with the first five finishers accumulating, respectively, 10, 5, 3, 2, and 1 qualifying points toward next year’s Derby.
Consider the Iroquois, a Grade 3 worth $300,000, a more ceremonial than practical start of the series. The race, inaugurated in 1982, never has come close to producing a Derby winner. Last year’s Iroquois winner, Jonathan’s Way, raced just twice afterward, and when West Saratoga, the 2023 Iroquois winner, finished 12th in the 2024 Derby, it marked the first Iroquois winner to make the race since Court Vision in 2008.
The question for 6-5 morning-line favorite Comport, one of a dozen entered, is less whether he can get 1 1/4 miles in May than whether he can get one mile on Saturday. Comport has done little wrong in his three-start career, and his trainer, Eddie Kenneally, said recently that he saw no reason Comport wouldn’t stay a one-turn mile. Comport won his debut at Churchill going 5 1/2 furlongs, and on June 29 finished a well-beaten second in the six-furlong Bashford Manor behind Romeo. For what it’s worth, Romeo returned with a non-competitive showing in the Grade 1 Hopeful, while Comport went on to win the seven-furlong Ellis Park Juvenile by two lengths.
One might have wanted to see Comport draw more readily clear at Ellis from Spice Runner, one of his rivals in the Iroquois and a colt of modest accomplishment going into the Ellis Park Juvenile. Comport came home more evenly than vigorously last out and is by Collected, who has proven a better sire of turf horses than dirt runners, and Comport does have a somewhat grassy action. Tyler Gaffalione rides and Comport drew well in post 7, but he still feels like a bad bet at the expected price.
In May, trainer Greg Compton won his first Churchill race of any sort since 2011, and Compton never has won a graded stakes, but Nothing Personal could contend in the Iroquois. Nothing Personal debuted Aug. 9 and won a seven-furlong Colonial Downs maiden race the right way, stalking the pace while racing in hand, moving steadily toward the leaders past the three-eighths marker and into the homestretch, and drawing clear to score by 8 3/4 lengths. Runner-up Antrax came back to win a Colonial maiden, while Nothing Personal went to Delaware Park, where he has worked steadily for the Iroquois. Post 1 is no bargain, but the 8-1 morning-line odds would be fair.
Trainer Kenny McPeek is saving his best Midwest 2-year-old, Blackout Time, for another race, and the two he entered in the Iroquois are far less capable. So Special is more appealing than No More Cents, however. So Special’s first two starts came on turf routes, but that likely had more to do with routing than turfing. So Special is by Vekoma, more of a dirt influence during his early days as a sire, and he can outperform his 40-something Beyer Speed Figures.
The Beyers don’t rate Vost a player, though he might well be. Vost, by Instagrand, has plenty of scope to him, far more so than his fellow Ellis debut winner and Iroquois foe Nine Ball. Vost broke slowly from the rail going seven furlongs on Aug. 11 and found himself last of 12 midway down the backstretch. Jockey Florent Geroux, aboard again Saturday, began guiding a willing Vost between rivals going into the turn, and Vost advanced steadily while racing wide. He nearly collared the leader at the head of the homestretch, wore that horse down, and upon fully straightening up, drew away for a two-length win, punctuated by a very live gallop-out. Vost got just a 52 Beyer, but may be better than his 12-1 morning-line odds.
Whoever prevails in the Iroquois will have pole position on the Road to the Kentucky Derby – just not for very long.
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