Spice Runner, a full brother to multiple Grade 1 winning sprinter Gunite, is the early points leader on the Road to the 2026 Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve. He picked up 10 points for running down favored Comport by a head to win the Grade 3 $299,400 Iroquois Stakes on Sept. 13 going a one-turn mile at Churchill Downs. The Iroquois was the kickoff race of the 2026 Road to the Kentucky Derby series.

Spice Runner is a Winchell Thoroughbreds homebred by the sire Gun Runner. When Winchell Thoroughbreds' Gunite raced as a juvenile four years ago, his speed and talent were unmistakable. He won the 2021 Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at seven furlongs as a 2-year-old and a couple of years later he again scored at the Grade 1 stakes level by taking another seven-furlong race at Saratoga Race Course, the 2023 Forego Stakes.

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A mile proved the limit of Gunite's effectiveness, but Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen is hoping the towering Spice Runner might take to routing and wants him to race a classic distance in a way his older brother never did.

"He's twice his size, so maybe he can go twice as far," Asmussen quipped when comparing the two.

How Spice Runner finished Saturday indicates he is effective at a middle distance. Rating kindly in sixth but less than two lengths off the pace down the backstretch under jockey Jose Ortiz, he steadily advanced and kicked on well through the stretch. Doggedly cutting into Comport's lead despite ducking in and out under riding-crop urging from Ortiz, Spice Runner wore down Comport on the wire when as the leader in the stretch weakened in the final sixteenth.

Spice Runner was timed in 1:36.59, following fractions of :22.69, :46.06, and 1:10.83. The winner returned $12.38 for a $2 wager.

Vost, Nothing Personal, and Maximus Prime rounded out the order of finish for the top five.

The Road to the Kentucky Derby series kicked off in the Iroquois, as did the Road to the Kentucky Oaks series earlier on Saturday with the Grade 3 Pocahontas Stakes. The two races respectively provided qualifying points to the Derby and Oaks to their top five finishers on a 10-5-3-2-1 basis. The Pocahontas was won by Taken by the Wind trained by Ken PcPeek.

No Iroquois participant has yet won the Derby, though two of its runners from last year, Owen Almighty and Sandman, ended up competing in the Run for the Roses. Owen Almighty, second in the Iroquois, ran fifth in the Derby, and Sandman, fifth in the Iroquois, splashed home seventh. Iroquois runners are 0-1-1 in 32 starts in the following spring's Kentucky Derby dating back to 1983.

With the Iroquois and the Pocahontas part of the Breeders' Cup Dirt Dozen program, the top three finishers from each race earned entry fees of $30,000, $15,000, and $7,500 toward participation in the FanDuel Breeders' Cup Juvenile presented by TAA and NetJets Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, respectively. Both races are scheduled Oct. 31 at Del Mar.