Bee Jersey tops Grade 1 winner Girvin in Steve Sexton Mile

By the time Girvin began his serious running in Sunday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Steve Sexton Mile, race favorite Bee Jersey had already started distancing himself from the rest. But the 1-2 finish at Lone Star Park should set both horses up for bigger targets later in their 4-year-old seasons.

Under jockey Ricardo Santana, and for trainer Steve Asmussen, who over the weekend became only the second North American trainer to reach 8,000 career wins, Bee Jersey finished in 1:36.78 with a front-running effort.

The son of Jersey Town was never threatened, heading to the front early and clicking off an opening half mile in 47.62 seconds.

“Today he broke so good," Santana said. "I took the lead pretty nice and comfortably. He’s a really amazing horse.”

Girvin, the lone Grade 1 winner in the field, rallied from last in the seven-horse field to nip Shotgun Kowboy for the place.

It’s possible Joe Sharp-trained Girvin advances to Churchill Downs’ Stephen Foster Handicap in June, when a “Win and You’re In” spot to the Breeders’ Cup Classic will be on the line. This marked the 2017 Haskell winner's first start since September.

Bee Jersey’s on an upward trajectory, too, having began his career 0-for-4 in Dubai. But since transferred to Asmussen, the Charles Fipke homebred has lost just once in five starts.

"The Fipke breeding program's success that it's had over the last few years -- this horse is just another example of it," Asmussen said. "By his (sire) Jersey Town, who was a really good Grade 1 miler, we feel this horse is possibly of that caliber as well."

Formerly known as the Texas Mile, the race first ran as the Steve Sexton Mile in 2017 to honor the memory of Lone Star Park’s former vice-president and general manager.