In a display of sheer determination, a trait that earned him the 2025 Eclipse Award for champion turf male, Notable Speech returned to Woodbine Sept. 12 and won the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile Stakes for a second consecutive year.
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert believed that Salahudin, his favorite for the $300,000 Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes, would appreciate stretching out to a mile and every inch of the long Churchill Downs stretch. That statement turned out to be prophetic.
The bet365 Summer Stakes offers a “Win and You’re In” berth to the Brown Advisory Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, and it’s usually a good betting race that attracts promising 2-year-old turf runners from around North America and often from overseas.
Labor Day weekend delivered a major shakeup to the Equibase leaderboard, with the Saratoga Race Course and Del Mar summer meets ending along with the highly lucrative Kentucky Downs purse structure creating movement.
Welcome to the points chase for the 2027 Kentucky Derby. It may still be summer but spring will be in the air Saturday when the Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs kicks off the slate of points races to earn a spot in the starting gate for the opening leg of next year’s Triple Crown. While the winner will only receive 10 points, the one-turn mile could showcase a horse to watch in the upcoming months.
