Ky. Downs roundup: Brilliant Berti joins big-money winners

Brilliant Berti picked up his fourth victory in six career starts with a one-length triumph Sunday in the $1.5 million Gun Runner Stakes at Kentucky Downs.

Four weeks after finishing second as the favorite in the Secretariat Stakes (G2) at Colonial Downs, Klein Racing’s homebred colt returned to his winning ways in the one-mile Gun Runner. He was well off the pace early, running comfortably under jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. and moved into contention between the half-mile pole and the quarter pole. The Noble Mission 3-year-old continued his drive through the stretch and edged Herchee. Neat was another three-quarters of a length back in third.

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Drunk on Sake led the way for the first six furlongs through fractions of 22.83 seconds, 44.85 and 1:08.94. Brillaint Berti, trained by Cherie DeVaux, reached the wire in 1:33.42 and paid $6.12.

“He handled it really well,” Hernandez said. “He didn’t break good, but he does that often. Going up the hill I wasn’t really, really worried about it. Typically if horses start traveling under you down the hill and start picking horses up, they tend to like this place. Once he did that, and we got into a nice cruising speed down the hill, I was like, OK, we can run them down from this point.

“He likes the competition. He ran by those horses pretty quickly, and once he made the lead, he had his ears up under the wire just looking around and cruising along. Once he got to the wire, and the horse to the inside took another shot at him, he jumped up and galloped out.”

Klein, of Klein Racing from Louisville, Ky., said it is the first time his family has won a $1 million race or had a horse who won $1 million. Brilliant Berti earned $882,800 on Sunday and has $1,2785,785 in earnings.

“Twenty-three years ago we won the Super Derby (then a Grade 1) with Outofthebox,” Klein said. “That was a half-million.”

On short rest, Tiztastic wins Juvenile Mile

Two-year-old colt Tiztastic won for the second time in 10 days at the meet when he captured the 13th running of the $1 million Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile. Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. rode the Kentucky-bred son of Tiz the Law to a victory by a neck over West Beach.

Tiztastic, who won an allowance on Aug. 29, went off at odds of 9-2 and gave Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen his second win of the afternoon. Asmussen has six wins at the meet and is tied with Joe Sharp for the training lead with the last day of races coming Wednesday.

Tiztastic is owned by Ron Winchell’s Winchell Thoroughbreds, Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith. This was Winchell’s second win on the Sunday card. He and partner Doug Branham won the second race with Black Iron. Asmussen also trained that one. Winchell is the co-managing partner of Kentucky Downs.

“We bought him thinking we were going to bring him here,” Winchell said of Tiztastic. “Steve obviously likes to run here with the 2-year-olds. It just happened to work out. Partnering with Coolmore and that group and the stuff we’ve done together with the stallions (Epicenter and Gunite), winning at your own track with big purses, it all made sense.”

Tiztastic made his move after going four wide off the turn by the quarter pole and then battling with West Beach, trained by Brendan Walsh and ridden by Frankie Dettori. They took over from pacesetting I’m Otter Here, who set early fractions of 22.72 and 44.72 and 1:08.77.

The two horses battled to the wire on even terms before Tiztastic got his head down at the wire to prevail. The final time for the mile was 1:34.53 and Tiztastic paid $11.26. He earned $558,300.

Asmusssen was not going to commit Tiztastic to anything right now.

“He ran twice in (10) days,” he said. “We’re going to get him back to Churchill and make sure we have the same horse we had when this thing started. He will get the next week off.”

May Day Ready prevails in Juvenile Fillies

May Day Ready, a 2-year-old filly ridden by Frankie Dettori, took command in deep stretch and won the 13th running of the $1 million Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies.

The daughter of Tapit beat Saffie Joseph Jr.-trained Bellavinino and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. to the finish line and won by 1 3/4 lengths.

May Day Ready is owned by KatieRich Stables, a breeding operation in Midway, Ky., run by Larry Doyle and his wife Karen. She won for the second time in as many starts. She broke her maiden at Saratoga on Aug. 4, winning by a nose at odds of 25-1 going 1 1/16 miles.

Lee, 62, wasn’t surprised when May Day Ready, a daughter of Tapit, won her debut. He certainly wasn’t going to be shocked if she won Sunday going off at 9-2.

“I loved her,” Lee said. “I’ve loved her since probably her fourth or so public work. I’ve been around some nice ones, and I just thought she was special.”

This was just the 19th starter for Lee’s modest stable this year. He has four wins, two of them by the promising May Day Ready.

Lee began his career working for future Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas after he graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1989. In 1993, he and another former Lukas assistant, Kiaran McLaughlin, went to work in Dubai, where he remained for seven years. After that, he was in Japan for nearly a dozen years. He worked for McLaughlin in New York before opening his own public stable in in 2020.

May Day Ready settled in mid-pack in the 12-horse field, content to let the Joe Sharp-trained Mean Eileen set fractions of 23.06, 45.20 and 1:09.51. May Day Ready swung out four wide leaving the turn and got to work under Dettori and was full of run to the wire. Her time was 1:35.36. She paid $11.16 and earned $588,300.

Kilwin rallies to finish 1st in Untapable

Kilwin rallied from far back and finished with resolve to win the $1 million Untapable Stakes by a half-length.

BBN Racing owns and Rusty Arnold trains the 2-year-old Twirling Candy filly, who is perfect after two career starts. She debuted at Ellis Park on July 27 with a stalking and pouncing approach in a 5 1/2-furlong maiden special weight race.

In Sunday’s 6 1/2-furlong race, Kilwin was 10th of 12, 6 3/4 lengths off the 22.10-second quarter-mile led by Shezafunkydrummer. After a half-mile that Shezafunskydrummer reached in 45.31 seconds, she was 11th, 7 1/4 lengths back.

With a wide move under José Lezcano, Kilwin began to move into contention and was 4 1/2 lengths behind entering the stretch and starting to zoom past the competition.

“I thought she’d be a little closer to the pace, laying right off of it, got farther back than I thought,” Arnold said. “But it worked out in the end. He said she didn’t break as sharp as we’d thought. Then she settled. This is a funny course, and some of them will do that. But the result was great.”

Shezafunskydrummer ran a bit greenly in the final eighth, survived an inquiry and finished second, a half-length in front of Abientot. Civetta was fourth. Kilwin, who reached the wire in 1:15.50, was sent off as the 5-2 favorite and paid $7.36 to win.