Stellify remains perfect at Ky Downs with Ladies Marathon repeat

May Day Ready earns first stakes triumph of the year in $500,000 One Dreamer match race

Stakes recaps by the Kentucky Downs publicity team (Coady Media/Yeruza Rodriguez photo of Stellify winning the Ladies Marathon under Flavien Prat)

FRANKLIN, KY (September 6, 2026) – The actual stall Stellify resides is located about 134 miles north of Franklin, Ky, specifically on the Churchill Downs backstretch in Barn 22 as part of trainer Brad Cox’s Louisville-based string.

For the second consecutive year and third time in her career, however, the daughter of 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify let it be known that, regardless of her mailing address, it is the European stylings of the Kentucky Downs course where she feels most at home.

An already stellar day for Cox and reigning Eclipse Award winning jockey Flavien Prat hit another high note as Elements Racing, George Messina, and Michael Lee’s Stellify defended her title and kept her perfect Kentucky Downs record intact with an easy-as-she pleased victory in the Grade 3, $1.5 million Global Tote Ladies Marathon Invitational for fillies and mares going 1 5/16 miles.

Of the five career wins Stellify has notched from her nine career starts, three of them have come over the undulating Kentucky Downs course that is notorious for throwing even accomplished runners for a loop. The 5-year-old mare won a second-level allowance optional claimer going 1 ½ miles over the track last August 28 and then came back just over one week later to notch a gate-to-wire score in the 2025 edition of the Ladies Turf Marathon by 2 ¾ lengths.

For those who missed it last September, this year’s version was even more eye-catching. Sent off as the 1-2 betting favorite in the nine-horse field, Stellify once again was able to take up her preferred position on the lead and had all but put the outcome to bed by the time she reached the final bend.

As she hit the wire 5 ½ lengths clear of her nearest rival runner-up Golden Sunshine, ears pricked as if out for a casual canter, Stellify gave Prat his fifth win on the card and Cox even more reason to celebrate as he had saddled The Good Life to victory in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga shortly before she put forth her one-horse showcase.

“She’s very steady and she likes to break and be close and there with that distance it just suits her really well,” Cox said of Stellify when reached by phone. “She’s a big, beautiful mare that just really gets into that big stride and rhythm and she can make that circuit around there (at Kentucky Downs) that can be demanding. She stays on so well. I wish they’d run the Breeders’ Cup there for her sake.”

Following her victorious run at Kentucky Downs last summer, Stellify headed to the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf where she never made the lead and finished seventh, beaten five lengths. An extended freshening followed and when she made her seasonal bow in the Grade 2 Beverly D. Stakes at Colonial Downs August 1, she put forth a respectable run to get fourth despite having to again shelve her preferred frontrunning ways.

“For sure I thought her last race was better than it looked off the layoff,” Cox said. “It was a big ask to run in a race like the Beverly D. off the freshening, but she had trained really good since. We had a lot of confidence we would get a good effort out of her today. Flavien did a good job of hustling to the lead, that’s where we wanted her.”

Breaking from post 8 on Sunday, Prat was indeed in the flow state as he hustled Stellify past Night of Rose who was keen to his inside and was able to grab the advantage around the first turn. As she clicked along unbothered through fractions of 25.10 and 48.80, Prat grew ever confident that his good day was about to get another highlight added to the reel.

“She felt very comfortable. She was traveling very well,” Prat said.

The happy ears Stellify displayed all down the backstretch didn’t budge as Night of Rose attempted to make a mild bid with about five-eighths of a mile to go. As she reached the top of the lane while the rest of her challengers bunched up behind her, the dark bay mare lengthened her stride and let Prat take in the view, hitting the wire in 2:09.54 over a course rated firm.

“Obviously we had the two wins there with her last year and we know she likes it,” Cox said of Kentucky Downs. “It is a little bit of a tricky course but in her case, that is a good thing.”

Golden Sunshine ran on from seventh to get place honors with Hey Jessie third, three-quarters of a length in front of Way to Be Marie. Dona Clota, Public Assembly, Night of Rose, Venencia, and Pin Up Betty completed the order of finish.

“My filly responded well,” said Jaime Torres, jockey of Golden Sunshine. “The favorite was a big favorite, she was on the lead pretty easily. I think some [extra pace] would have helped us.”

Bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm, Stellify paid $7.95 on a $5 wager.

With this year’s Breeders’ Cup being held in their virtual backyard at Keeneland in October, Cox is hopeful Stellify can make another appearance in the Filly and Mare Turf. There is little doubt, though, which track is her preferred venue.

“I think we will look at the Breeders’ Cup and see who shows up,” Cox said. “That will be one thing we’ll look at. We’ll weigh our options and she’ll have plenty of time before her next run. Excited about what she was able to get done today.”

***

In a shootout at the old dueling grounds, KatieRich Stables’ May Day Ready outdueled Repole Stable’s Miwa and edged clear late for a 4 1/2-length victory in the $500,000 One Dreamer on Sunday at Kentucky Downs, which was contested as a match race.

The One Dreamer, a 1 1/16-mile event restricted to fillies and mares who have not won a sweepstakes in 2026, had a field of six when it was drawn last Tuesday. However, there were four scratches from that lineup, most significantly morning-line favorite Hang the Moon, who was a vet scratch. Bourbon Memory, For Love and Honor, and Cheetah Lady also scratched, leaving a match race between morning-line second choice and post-time favorite Miwa, stakes-placed in Indiana in her most recent outing; and May Day Ready a graded stakes winner in 2024 and 2025 who had shown a past affinity for this course.

Both May Day Ready and Miwa tend to run from off the pace – although May Day Ready took advantage of getting away with a tepid tempo to a frontrunning win in the Grade 2 Lake Placid Stakes last year at Saratoga when no one took initiative. With all factors in mind, it figured to be a riders’ race, between two of the top jockeys at Kentucky Downs – or anywhere in the country, for that matter. Reigning Eclipse Award winner Flavien Prat won with his last mount of the day on Saturday at Saratoga, edging one win ahead of Jose Ortiz and Manny Franco, before heading to Kentucky Downs on Sunday and Monday. Essentially ceding the Saratoga title – Franco won four races on Sunday to lock it up – Prat got the rest of his weekend off to a hot start by winning three races on the undercard prior to the One Dreamer. Meanwhile, Ortiz, who was ahead in the Saratoga standings when he left to ride at Kentucky Downs, has ridden nine winners in the early days of this meet to lead the rider standings.

Prat’s job got more difficult out of the gate as May Day Ready broke inwardly, and although she quickly righted course, any thoughts of getting the early lead went by the wayside. Miwa was away keenly and Ortiz let her roll through a sharp opening quarter of 23.53 seconds, opening  three-length lead. She clicked off the half in 45.79 seconds.

“Honestly, I wanted to get the trip Jose had,” Prat said. “I wanted to break well and get myself going, but she broke sideways and she never got involved in the first part, so then I went to Plan B.”

As the two crested the hill and coasted downward into the sweeping far turn, Miwa maintained a 1 ½-length lead through six furlongs in 1:09.33, but it was clear that some starch had been taken out of the mare as the duo straightened away into the lane, and May Day Ready engaged in earnest on the outside. Miwa battled back gamely, but in the uphill climb in the last eighth of a mile, May Day Ready got her measure and stretched away to her final margin, with Ortiz not persisting vigorously with the runner-up, as there was no better placing to obtain.

“I never felt like I was traveling better than (Jose), but then we got to the quarter pole and I tipped her out and she kind of stuck her neck there and it felt like I could go by him, and she was brave enough to do it,” said Prat, who had then won four on the day and six at the meet overall to sit second to Ortiz in the standings

“Very thankful,” Prat added of the multi-win day. “I’ve been riding good horses and they’ve been running well. It’s always special when you come here. It’s big purse money and it’s always special.”

For his part, Ortiz offered no excuses.

“My horse broke better than the other horse and went to the lead, but the best horse won today,” he said. “It was a good trip around there. We weren’t going very fast, we weren’t going very slow. It was a good tempo, but the best horse won the race.”

The time for the 1 1/16 miles on turf rated firm, even after overnight rain, was 1:42.81. May Day Ready returned $8.45 on the $5 minimum win wager to her backers. With the scratches, there was no place, show, or exotic wagering.

May Day Ready, a 4-year-old daughter of Tapit, added to her lofty credentials, as she was already a millionaire entering the day. The filly had a productive 2-year-old campaign for trainer Joe Lee, including victories in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies and then the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland. After finishing second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, she was invited to participate in the Grade 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies in Japan, finishing 13th.

May Day Ready returned from a layoff after her international adventure to win once from five starts last year, that being the aforementioned Lake Placid. She had a change in barns and location this year, moving to California-based Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella. The filly was second, beaten half a length, in the Grade 3 Royal Heroine Stakes in April at Santa Anita in her first off the layoff. She was seventh in the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes in deeper waters, but then bounced back to finish third, beaten less than a length total, in the Osunitas Stakes last out on July 25.

Live racing resumes on Labor Day Monday with five stakes, including the Grade 3, $2 million Mint Millions Invitational, the Grade 2, $1.5 million The Mint Franklin-Simpson, the $1.75 million KTDF Gun Runner, the $750,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies, and the $250,000 Lucky Lantern.