Saturday’s bet365 Kennedy Road Stakes at Woodbine drew a field of seven colts and geldings. The race is headlined by 2023 Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Nobals, who has won the Kennedy Road for the last two consecutive years. Nobals will try and join Pink Lloyd as the only horses in history to win the Kennedy Road three times, and if he does, the gelding would become the first to win it three consecutive times as Pink Lloyd won in 2017, 2019 and 2021. The Kennedy Road is contested at six furlongs on Woodbine’s all-weather track, and this year’s field brings a lot of early speed to the mix.

Analysis and Main Contenders:

Despite having Breeders’ Cup winner Nobals in the field, My Boy Prince is the class of this race as he will make his 17^th career graded stakes appearance for Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse. Six of his last seven starts were at the graded level, and My Boy Prince tops this field by average class with 110. In his 5-year-old campaign, My Boy Prince has posted three stakes wins, winning the Turf Dash Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, the Valvoline Global Shakertown Stakes at Keeneland and most recently the Van Clief Stakes at Colonial Downs in August, where he went from eighth to first in the final point of call and defeated stablemate Victory Achieved by a head. His highest Equibase Speed Figure for 2026 came when he finished fourth by only a half-length in the TwinSpires Turf Stakes Presented by Accenture at Churchill Downs back in May and earned a 112.

My Boy Prince returns to an all-weather track for the first time in more than two years, a surface he had success over at the beginning of his career. The gelding has five wins and two second-place finishes over Woodbine’s all-weather track from seven career starts. My Boy Prince has a big opportunity to build on that success when switching back from turf Saturday. A big advantage My Boy Prince has on this field, besides his class, is his running style and ability to close off a projected hot pace. Another meaningful positive is that My Boy Prince exits the Woodford Stakes Presented by FanDuel at Keeneland in early October (where he finished fifth by 3 ¼ lengths). Mark Casse has found much success with horses shipping from Keeneland to Woodbine. Over the last five years, Casse has won at 33% in all races at Woodbine with horses who made their most previous start at Keeneland (11-for-33). Victory Achieved is the 2-1 morning line favorite in the Kennedy Road, but 5-2 stablemate My Boy Prince gets the edge based on his class and affinity for Woodbine’s all-weather track.

Nobals is a gelding who simply thrives at Woodbine. Nobals is a career 3-for-4 over the all-weather main track with wins in the Woodstock Stakes in 2022 – when he set a six-furlong track record that still stands today – along with his Kennedy Road victories in 2024 and 2025. Despite winning the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, Nobals has more wins on all-weather (seven) than his wins on turf (6). Nobals has yet to find the winner’s circle as a 7-year-old, but has consistently given solid efforts with four top-three finishes this year, and he ranks first in average speed in this field with a 98 Equibase Speed Figure. Last year, Nobals lost both the Karl Boyes Stakes at Presque Isle Downs and the Grade 2 Nearctic Stakes Presented by TAA over Woodbine’s turf (second in both races) before winning the Kennedy Road, and the gelding has followed the same pattern this year, finishing sixth in the Karl Boyles and second to Victory Achieved in the Nearctic. While Nobals is certainly capable of a gate-to-wire performance, the Noble Mission gelding will most likely stalk the pace under Walter Rodriguez and make a similar bid like he did in last year’s edition. Trainer Larry Rivelli rarely ships his horses to Woodbine, but has found success here with a five-for-13 record in the last five years and top-three rate of 69%. A three-peat is no easy feat; however, Nobals should give a solid effort at this track he has been so fond of throughout his career and could complete the exacta at a solid price near his 6-1 morning-line odds.

Victory Achieved (Michael Burns/Woodbine)

Victory Achieved has really come into his own as a 5-year-old in 2026, winning two of five starts including a dominant three-length victory in the Nearctic Stakes last time out. Following a layoff of more than six months, he returned for his 5-year-old campaign in May as a first-time gelding and has delivered nothing but consistently solid efforts since. Victory Achieved won in his first start off the layoff at Gulfstream Park at the allowance optional claiming level before recording three consecutive runner-up finishes in listed stakes at Presque Isle, Colonial Downs, and Laurel Park. In October, Victory Achieved ran the best race of his career in the Nearctic, edging clear to win by three lengths over Nobals. Victory Achieved earned a career-best Equibase Speed Figure of 110 for his performance in the Nearctic, the highest last-out figure of any Kennedy Road contender. While he certainly passed the class test last time out, historically Victory Achieved has not been able to replicate a big performance in his subsequent starts. For example, he won an allowance optional claiming race in 2024 while earning a 111 Equibase figure, and then finished fifth in the Sunshine Turf Stakes. He also earned a 102 figure when winning the aforementioned allowance optional claiming race at Gulfstream in May but then finished second in the Karl Boyes at Presque Isle while regressing to an 83 figure. Regardless, this gelding has been consistently solid this year and will have a strong opportunity to become a two-time Grade 2 winner on Saturday.

The rest of the field with their best Equibase Speed Figures in similar races, is G T Five Hundred (114), Arbiter (95), War Strategy (109) and Ready to Collect (97).

Win Contenders in Preference Order:

My Boy Prince

Nobals

Victory Achieved