Churchill Downs Saturday

Stephen Foster Stakes (Group 1)

AT this stage of the season last year, the Bill Mott-trained Sovereignty had added an impressive win in the Belmont Stakes to his Kentucky Derby success and many were hailing him as an outstanding colt. A year on, he has a lot to prove to get back to that status following his second defeat of his four-year-old campaign at Churchill Downs on Saturday.

There were excuses, off a long layoff for his Oaklawn defeat but there seems much less here. Rain made for a ‘sloppy’ track but he had not been inconvenienced by that in the Derby last year.

He broke well, settled off the pace but looked in trouble mid-way down the back. While he did move forward again with Baeza, the hope was short-lived and he could offer nothing in the straight, where he had been so impressive in his racing last season.

If Sovereignty took a big step back, Steve Asmussen’s Magnitude took a huge step forward. Some had questioned his Dubai World Cup defeat of Forever Young but this win puts him in the top rank following his wins in the February Grade 3 Razorback Handicap at Oaklawn Park, and last year’s Grade 2 Clark Stakes at Churchill Downs, to make it four wins in a row.

He broke out of the front of the stalls but once reloaded, he raced on the even pace, and found more in the straight as he crossed the wire a length and a quarter in front, with Sovereignty another four lengths back in third.

Stayed strong

The winner switched his leads late in the race, as he did in Dubai, but then stayed strong to the line.

White Abarrio never looked like adding to his Oaklawn win, racing third but not finding much in the final furlongs.

“What an amazing horse,” Asmussen said. “What a perfect story for all of us that know horses. He came through the programme, reaching the heights that he has, with him beating Forever Young last time, and then the field that he beat today. What a special day, what a special moment.”

Asmussen also trained Curlin and Gun Runner to be the Horse of the Year, the latter a much better four-year-old than he had been at three.

Asmussen won the Stephen Foster for a third time, following success with Curlin (2008) and Gun Runner (2017).

Curlin also captured the Dubai World Cup before the Stephen Foster, while Gun Runner was second in it.

Winchell Thoroughbreds’ Magnitude, a four-year-old son of Not This Time, out of a Bernardini mare, cost $450,000 from Gainesway at Keeneland in September 2023.

Baeza, now trained by Bill Mott after the death of former trainer John Sherriffs, was slowly away again and raced five lengths off the pace.

He made his ground coming to the turn but never looked like getting on terms with Magnitude, who added to a great year for Derby winning jockey Jose Ortiz.

Sovereignty’s trainer, Bill Mott said: “I thought he’d finish better than that,” and on Baeza, “I thought momentarily he might wind up running down the winner but, with him too, the pace was just a little bit soft for him.”

Exciting months

Future races, both for the other top older horse, Nysos as well as Baeza, Sovereignty, and top three-year-old Golden Tempo, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, make for exciting months ahead.

Ortiz, winning his fourth race of the day aboard Magnitude, is also the rider of Golden Tempo, and that colt’s achievements, as well as Magnitude’s, leave him as the front-runner to be champion jockey. “It’s been an amazing year,” he said.

Winning owner Ron Winchell of Winchell Thoroughbreds said Magnitude would likely follow a Gun Runner-like campaign over the rest of the year, likely Saratoga next (Whitney Stakes) with the obvious prize of the October 31st Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland in their sights.

Magnitude’s earnings grew to $9,782,365 from eight wins in 14 starts.

Lagynos makes it five wins in a row

Rest of the Card

IT was a good evening for Steve Asmussen who also won the $500,000 Grade 2 Wise Dan Stakes with Lagynos. The Kanthaos horse owned by Prince Sultan Bin Mishal Al Saud, was making it five wins in a row, winning by three quarters of a length.

Piloted by Jose Ortiz, Lagynos was fourth after the opening quarter of the mile, half a furlong turf race, before continuing to stalk the pace from third.

On the second turn, he quickly responded to his rider’s urging to take command in the straight and finish three-quarters of a length ahead of Mercante.

“They’re obviously doing everything right,” Asmussen said of horse and rider. “We’re unbelievably fortunate to have a horse like this with his consistency, and he came through for us today.”

Asmussen plans to take Lagynos to Saratoga for the Grade 1 Fourstardave Stakes, where he finished seventh last year.

Fillies’ thriller

The match-up of Grade 1 winning fillies Immersive and Shred The Gnar proved to be a thriller in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis Stakes.

The Grade 1 La Troienne Stakes winner Shred The Gnar was favourite and the two raced in their own match race for the majority of the nine-furlong contest, Immersive, under Irad Ortiz, showed the fight that made her the unbeaten champion two-year-old filly of 2024.

A three-quarter-length triumph over Regaled, who passed Shred The Gnar for second, was reward for Godolphin and trainer Brad Cox after the Nyquist filly’s three-year-old season had produced only one listed win in three outings.

Despite being over a length down turning for home, Immersive came back on the inside, retook command with a furlong to go and held off Regaled.

It would have been an easy decision to retire Immersive but Cox credited Godolphin for seeing there was still more to be gained by racing on.

“When she ran so well in the Seneca (her listed win), we started thinking we could have a good four-year-old year with her,” Godolphin USA’s director of bloodstock Michael Banahan said on Blood-Horse.

“It was great to get her off the mark for this season. We had a start, stop go with her last year, and we’re maybe back to where we were with her as a two-year-old.”

Golden Tempo’s delayed by illness until Travers

TRAINER Cherie DeVaux told FanDuel TV at the weekend that an illness had delayed training preparations for Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Golden Tempo and he will miss the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga. The colt will now train for the August 29th Travers Stakes.

“He’s fine, but the timeline just isn’t going to suit us to get there,” DeVaux said. “It’s the hand that we’ve been dealt, and we have all the confidence in Golden Tempo’s abilities, and it’s just up to us and our team to really get him there and have him ready to go.”

One more famed track closes

HOME to thoroughbred racing since 1894, Aqueduct racetrack had an emotional farewell as horses raced around the oval for the last time last Sunday.

Belmont Park reopens on September 18th and becomes the New York Racing Association’s only state track.

Disintegration

“When I first came here in 2004, this place was still happening. It’s been a shame to watch the disintegration. I hate that it takes closing weekend to get people back out here. Hopefully we can keep this momentum going as we move to Saratoga and the new building at Belmont,” trainer of Preakness Stakes winner Napoleon Solo, Chad Summers was among those quoted on the final day by Blood-Horse.