Tawny Port did what he needed to do on Saturday at Keeneland.
The 40th running of the Grade 3, $400,000 Stonestreet Lexington Stakes represented the final qualifying points race toward reaching the Kentucky Derby.
There were 34 qualifying points up for grabs with 20 going to the winner.
Tawny Port woke up Saturday on the cusp of securing his Kentucky Derby starting spot, as the 20th horse on the Kentucky Derby points leaderboard.
The Derby features the top 20 points earners that pass the entry box on May 2.
Come Saturday night, Tawny Port and his connections will be able to sleep soundly.
Trained by Louisville’s Brad Cox and ridden by Florent Geroux, Tawny Port won the Stonestreet Lexington by a length to confirm his Derby starting spot.
Major General, ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr. and trained by Todd Pletcher, was second, with In Due Time finishing third.
Tawny Port’s victory gave the colt 60 total qualifying points for the Derby, jumping up nine spots on the leaderboard to 11th.
“Looks like the distance should be no problem,” Geroux said of Tawny Port’s showing in the 1 1/16 mile race. “I hope the connections will take a swing at (the Kentucky Derby).”
“We’ll see how he comes out of (Saturday’s race),” Cox said about future plans for Tawny Port in the Kentucky Derby.
Previously, Tawny Port ran second in the Jeff Ruby Steaks on April 2 at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky.
Tawny Port, the son of Pioneerof the Nile, registered his first career win on dirt Saturday.
He previously finished fifth in his only start on that surface at the Grade 2 Risen Star at Fair Grounds in New Orleans on Feb. 19
Several other horses in Saturday’s Stonestreet Lexington could have moved into the top 20 of the Kentucky Derby qualifying leaderboard with strong runs, but all of them — Call Me Midnight, Dash Attack, Major General (18 points — 27th), Ethereal Road (22 points — 23rd) and In Due Time (24 points — 22nd) — fell short.
“I still think he is a top horse,” said Kelly Breen, the trainer of In Due Time. “He was extremely sharp coming into the race … we will regroup and see what (the owners) say (about the Kentucky Derby).”
If horses are tied on the leaderboard, points tiebreakers are decided by earnings in non-restricted stakes races, followed by lifetime earnings.
The last time the winner of the Stonestreet Lexington won the Kentucky Derby was Charismatic in 1999.
Charismatic won both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in 1999 before finishing third in the Belmont Stakes while fracturing bones in his left front leg near the finish line.
The 2022 Kentucky Derby will be run May 7 at Churchill Downs in Louisville.
Giant’s Causeway
The first stakes race Saturday at Keeneland was the 25th running of the $200,000 Giant’s Causeway on turf.
It was won by Campanelle, with Star Devine second and Goin’ Good third.
The winning jockey was Irad Ortiz Jr. and the winning trainer was Wesley Ward.
Through two weekends of the Keeneland Spring Meet, Ortiz has nine wins, 13 second-place finishes and five third-place finishes.
Ward has seven wins, one second-place finish and four third-place finishes.
Jenny Wiley
The final stakes race Saturday at Keeneland was the 34th running of the Grade 1, $500,000 Jenny Wiley on turf.
It was won by Regal Glory, with Shantisara second and Lady Speightspeare third.
The winning jockey was Jose Ortiz and the winning trainer was Chad Brown.
This was Brown’s fifth win in the Jenny Wiley.
Through two weekends of the Keeneland Spring Meet, Brown has six wins, nine second-place finishes and one third-place finish.
All of Saturday’s racing took place on a good turf course and a fast main track at Keeneland, as pleasant temperatures and a lack of precipitation made for good racing conditions for both fans and horses.
This story was originally published April 16, 2022 7:49 PM.
Cameron Drummond works as a sports reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader with a focus on the University of Kentucky women’s basketball program, in addition to other college, high school and professional sports in the area. Drummond is a first-generation American who was born and raised in Texas, before graduating from Indiana University in 2020. He is a fluent Spanish speaker who previously worked as a community news reporter for the Austin American-Statesman newspaper in Austin, Texas.
