Don’t expect that kind of rising polling this weekend.
The Road to the Kentucky Derby series features just three small preps, spread around the world, before the competition gets much more serious next weekend with the Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) on Gulfstream Parkthe Gotham Stakes (G3). Aqueduct racecourseand the Rebel Deployment (G2) on Oaklawn Park. Still, the qualifying points on February 20 and 22 are spread across three continents, and for the participants these softer places offer opportunities.
In Northern Kentucky, it is owned by Churchill Downs Inc Turfway Park hosts a minor points race on Feb. 21 with the $175,000 John Battaglia Memorial Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on the Tapeta main track. The race is scored on a scale of 20-10-6-4-2 and serves as preparation for the $777,000 Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) on March 21. The Battaglia offers a deep, contentious field but, as is typical of an all-weather stakes race, many competitors arrive in turf form.
Surface preferences vary from horse to horse, but grass runners have historically adapted to all-weather surfaces more easily than established dirt specialists. That dynamic often determines the trajectory of Battaglia competitors, many of whom ultimately prove more effective on grass fields later in the season than at 1 1/4 miles on dirt roads. Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May. Rich strike was the obvious exception, when he finished fourth in the 2022 Battaglia and later third in the Jeff Ruby, before shocking at 80-1 odds in the Run for the Roses. Few saw that coming.
Competitors in the Jeff Ruby, a race superior to the John Battaglia, have done better in the Derby. Animal kingdom won the Jeff Ruby, then known as the Spiral Stakes, in 2011, and last year’s winner, Last Gambit was a late fourth-place finish in the first leg of the Triple Crown. Lil E. Tee won in 1992 when Turfway had a dirt track.
Midway Racing’s Street animal and Gold Squares Two out hero both winners of the stakes on artificial grass and previously competitive in grade 1 on that surface, are the established class of the Battaglia. Both have also won at Tapeta, with Street Beast defeating the returner of John Battaglia Full effort in the January 17 Leonatus Stakes at Turfway and Two Out Hero scored over on debut Woodbine‘s Tapeta surfaced last summer.
Ben Colebrook trains the track-drawn Street Beast, who also won the $1 million Juvenile Mile Stakes Kentucky downs in 2025, while Kevin Attard makes a comeback from Two Out Hero, which ships to Turfway this winter after training at the Palm Meadows Training Center in South Florida. The latter finished third last in the September 13 Summer Stakes (G1T) at Woodbine, which followed a second win in the Soaring Free Stakes, a turf sprint there. He is scheduled to start from post 12, putting him at risk of a wide trip.
None of the three-year-olds have raced further than a kilometer.
Together with Leonatus, number two Fulleffort, winners of the grass stakes Attfield And Aces honor Other threats include the Battaglia, which will be the ninth race at Turfway on Saturday at 9:55 PM ET.
Trainer Tom Morley said Attfield is ready to run after posting a 2-0-1 record in three starts on grass in New York last year.
“Do I think this is a Derby horse? No, I don’t think he’ll get ten furlongs, but that’s something to worry about,” Morley said in comments to Churchill Downs’ Derby Dispatch. “He’s ready to start his year.”
Trade Winds Farm Stop the car who won his first two races on dirt in Kentucky before disappointing with a seventh-place finish in the Jan. 17 Lecomte Stakes (G3) on Fair Grounds Race Courseis the only horse in the race with dirt success. The son of Maximum safety has been training rapidly in Louisiana for trainer Brendan Walsh since the Lecomte, suggesting a better effort could be on the way if he could handle all-weather conditions on the ground.
Stop the Car wins an optional claims race at Churchill Downs
“He always worked well on the Turfway track last year when he was training there and we’re hoping this might change things,” Walsh told the Derby Dispatch.
A day before the Battaglia, the Euro/Mideast leg of the Road to the Kentucky Derby Series continues Friday at Meydan Racecourse on dirt roads with the Dubai Road to the Kentucky Derby Stakes at 1,900 meters (approximately 1 3/16 miles). The race, also worth 20-10-6-4-2, takes place without the Bhupat Seemar-trained Six speeds the winner of the January 23 UAE Two Thousand Guineas (G3). His connections have opted to wait to field him in the March 28 UAE Derby (G2), a race whose points structure essentially guarantees a Kentucky Derby starting spot for the winner.
The 2-3 finishers of the Guineas will also pass in Friday’s race at Meydan.
Dubai-based Seemar, whose 2022 Kentucky Derby runner Summer is tomorrow sets the pace before fading to last, still has a strong hand in the multi-competitor race, led by Sallooma Machmer Hall-bred son of Authentic who delivered a decisive performance on his debut on a mile at the end of January for owners King Abdullah Bin Al Aziz and sons.
On Sunday, the Road to the Kentucky Derby makes a stop in Japan with the 1-mile Hyacinth Stakes at Tokyo Racecourse, where points will be split on a 30-15-9-6-3 basis among the top five finishers.
As in Dubai, the division’s biggest points earners bypass this edition, creating an opportunity for Koichi Nishikawa’s Arcadia cafe a son of In mischief trained by Noriyuki Hori. He has 3 points at the Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby, which puts him third in the Japanese standings, having earned those points when he finished third in the November 29 Cattleya Stakes at a mile. That followed a first victory at a mile in the slop and a second place on debut in a 7-furlong sprint. All his races took place at the Tokyo Racecourse last year.
Other Triple Crown-nominated 3-year-olds in the Hyacinth include Itterassai, Happy childAnd Seize the throne.
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