His connections naturally hoped that feat would come at the May 2 Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve, but just a few days after the Risen Star an ankle chip was discovered, requiring arthroscopic surgery and sidelining him along the Derby route.
Healthy and recovered, the three-year-old Not This Time colt eventually made his way to Churchill Downs, and on November 28 at the Louisville, Kentucky, track he had his moment under the Twin Spiers. Eerily past a stubborn frontrunner in Chunk of Gold, he withstood a late bid from Dubai World, sponsored by Emirates Airline winner Hit Show, who triumphed by half a length in the $595,000, Grade 2 Clark Stakes Presented by Norton Healthcare.
Magnitude clocked 1 1/8 miles on a fast track in 1:48.69 under jockey Jose Ortiz, who rode the winner for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen and owner Ron Winchell’s Winchell Thoroughbreds.
Magnitude became the first three-year-old to win the Clark since Winchell’s Asmussen-trained Gun Runner won it in 2016, ahead of his 2017 Horse of the Year campaign.
Ortiz said his horse “traveled great” throughout the race, including when the colt followed Chunk of Gold down the backstretch. Sent after that enemy halfway through the second turn, Magnitude took the lead, but without being able to gain much distance from that rival. He maintained a slim lead throughout the stretch and outlasted Hit Show, who rallied to take Chunk of Gold by a margin for second place.
The winner, who traded his lead in the last sixteen, returned $6.36 for a $2 win bet as a 2.18-1 favorite.
“He had to step in late to make ends meet, but he was very wild,” Ortiz said. “He has a lot of talent and I think he will improve next year.”
Hit Show, fifth in the 2024 Clark, fared better in the 2025 renewal.
“At the eighth pole I didn’t know he was going to be in contention,” said his trainer Brad Cox. “Then he really dug in to get it close.”
The win was Magnitude’s first at the rankings level since returning from injury. He had won the ungraded Iowa Derby on July 5 at Prairie Meadows, finished a solid third behind Sovereignty and Bracket Buster in the August 23 DraftKings Travers Stakes at Saratoga, and had finished second to Baeza in the September 20 Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing in his other post-Risen Star starts.
“We’ve been waiting all year for him to pull off a performance like this,” Winchell Thoroughbreds racing manager David Fiske said of the wait for a particular commitment. “The Risen Star was kind of a tip.”
Asmussen called Magnitude’s Clark the colt’s best performance in 11 starts – even superior to Risen Star. This was Magnitude’s third victory, but first without controlling the pace.
“You know, being an obvious handicapper, he won that day (the Risen Star) with a bias. He got some good horses off the ground,” he noted. “I think he beat a talented group of horses on the square today.”
Asmussen, North America’s all-time leading trainer but who had yet to win the Derby, was content to enjoy Friday’s win rather than think about what could have happened in the Run for the Roses.
“If the Derby doesn’t go your way, who knows?” he said. “We may have left it all there, but today I am very proud of him.”
Neither Asmussen nor Fiske were ready to commit to another race for Magnitude, although winning a Grade 1 would make the well-bred colt a valuable stud. The $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes on January 24 at Gulfstream Park appears an option, along with the $20 million Saudi Cup on February 14 or the $12 million Dubai World Cup on March 28 in the Middle East. Both the Pegasus World Cup and the Saudi Cup are at 1 1/8 miles, while the Dubai World Cup is at 1 ¼ miles, a distance over which Magnitude weakened in the Travers.
Regardless of his next race, Magnitude soon heads to Fair Grounds in New Orleans, where Asmussen stables his best horses during the winter. The $500,000 New Orleans Classic Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on March 21 is the richest race for older horses there in the first quarter of 2026.
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