First Resort flies through flurries to win Kentucky Jockey Club

Louisville, Ky.

The faces of the trainers and jockeys may change. So may the weather, which turned snowy Saturday night at Churchill Downs. But those Godolphin blue silks keep showing up in the winner’s circle.

First Resort (6-1), a maiden winner who has raced at four different tracks with four different riders on two different surfaces, lived up to the lofty expectations of his owner-breeder when he successfully stalked the slow, early pace on his way to a 2 1/4-length triumph in the 98th edition of the Grade 2, $381,250 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes for 2-year-olds.

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“We targeted this race since the summertime,” Godolphin bloodstock director Michael Banahan said. “We wanted to see if we had a horse that we could look at getting on the Derby trail, and I think he showed that today.”

The victory was worth 10 points toward qualifying for Kentucky Derby 2025. An hour earlier, undefeated Good Cheer got the same reward toward the Kentucky Oaks (G1) when she won the Golden Rod (G2) for 2-year-old fillies. Banahan is a common denominator for both Godolphin homebreds.

“Having a great day, yeah,” he said. “Having a super day.”

Make that a super five years, all of which have ended with Eclipse Awards as the top owner. That is presuming it happens again after 10 Grade 1 victories in 2024 that included a couple Breeders’ Cups.

First Resort was different, because he is not trained by the more prominent Brad Cox or Brendan Walsh but, instead, by Eoin Harty. The native of Ireland who turned 62 last week and works mostly in the Midwest these days had not won a graded stakes since Fair Maiden scored in the 2020 La Brea Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita. His most recent of three Derby starters was nearly 15 years ago. Colonel John was the best of them, finishing sixth in 2008.

His original plan for this Uncle Mo colt who was the first foal out of Street Boss maiden Fair Maiden was to go in the one-mile Iroquois (G3) over the same main track in September. Instead, Harty switched First Resort to the turf for a fourth-place finish in the Summer Stakes (G1) at Woodbine.

“I drew the rail (for the Iroquois), and I didn’t want to run from the rail the first time in a race like that,” Harty said. “It wasn’t going to teach him anything. I was going to teach him to settle, so the race in Canada was plan B. He actually ran very well there.”

A debut winner in the mud at Ellis Park who then was second in the Saratoga Special (G2), First Resort got a 2 1/2-month break from racing after his venture at Woodbine. Drawn into post 8 in the field of nine Saturday, he broke alertly and carried leading Churchill Downs rider Luis Sáez within a length of the early lead established by Dapper Moon (21-1) through slow early fractions of 24.56 and 49.30 seconds.

Lurking wide going into the second turn of the 1 1/16-mile race, Sáez called on First Resort to move to the lead, getting his head in front of fellow stalker Tiztastic (11-1) through three-quarters of a mile in 1:13.63.

“We have a lot of speed, but we were in a great spot,” said Sáez, who earlier rode Good Cheer’s win for Cox. “We didn’t want to go to the lead and get them chasing, so we were in a perfect spot. ... It was pretty slow. We know we went pretty slow. We were waiting for the moment when everybody made their move to get going, and everything came perfect.”

First Resort drew away to a three-length lead through a mile in 1:36.91. Post-time favorite Jonathan’s Way (4-5), who won the Iroquois and finished seventh nearly a month ago in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, made a late charge from mid-pack, but as track announcer Travis Stone said, he ran out of racetrack and finished second.

“We didn’t come out of there right away like I would have wanted,” jockey Joel Rosario said about Jonathan’s Way, who keenly raced into traffic up the backstretch. “But he ran a good race. The horse in front, he got away. Maybe it was a little slow, but he tried his best.”

The snow flurries were not sticking to the track, so it truly was fast as First Resort won with a time of 1:43.01. Despite the slow pace, it was the quickest time for a Kentucky Jockey Club since the 1:42.83 in 2009 for Super Saver, the last graduate of this race to win the Derby.

Jonathan’s Way added five points to bring his Derby qualifying total to 15. Third-place Tiztastic, who was another 1 3/4 lengths back, earned three points. Dapper Moon finished fourth and got two points. Render Judgment (8-1), got one point for coming in fifth.

Harty and Banahan did not say where First Resort might go next to try and earn more Derby points.

“I’m not going to make that decision on the spur of the moment,” Harty said. “I’ll speak with Michael over the next few days, and we’ll come up with a game plan.”