First Mission wins Lexington Stakes, but Disarm punches potential ticket to Kentucky Derby

Only one of the 10 horses in the field for this year’s Grade 3, $400,000 Stonestreet Lexington Stakes had the opportunity to race his way into the Kentucky Derby field.

Disarm — trained by Steve Asmussen and ridden by Jose Ortiz — entered Saturday’s race (which was the final Kentucky Derby qualifying points race) at Keeneland with 40 points, which most years would be good enough for a spot in the 20-horse Kentucky Derby field.

That’s not the case in 2023, though, and Disarm needed to finish in the money in the Stonestreet Lexington to secure a true chance at making the Derby.

He did just that but also came short of an outright win.

First Mission, trained by Brad Cox and ridden by Luis Saez, won the 41st running of the Stonestreet Lexington, with Arabian Lion in second and Disarm a distant third after traveling 1 1/16 miles on Keeneland’s fast dirt track.

The victory came in First Mission’s stakes racing debut.

It’s the third time that Cox has trained the winner of the Lexington Stakes: This includes last year, when the Cox-trained Tawny Port won before going on to finish seventh in the Kentucky Derby.

First Mission is slated to return to Cox’s main string at Churchill Downs on Monday, and is now lined up for a possible start in the Preakness Stakes in May.

The Stonestreet Lexington had 40 qualifying points on offer for the top-five finishers on a 20-8-6-4-2 scale.

Disarm entered the race with 40 points thanks to a runner-up finish in his last race, the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby last month. Saturday’s third-place finish moved Disarm to 46 qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby, which puts him in a tie for 17th on the Derby points leaderboard.

Entering Saturday, the cutoff was 45 points to make the Derby field.

The field is limited to the top 20 point earners and invitees that pass the entry box.

David Fisker, a longtime racing and bloodstock manager for Winchell Thoroughbreds (the owner of Disarm) said prior to the race that the connections wanted the option of being able to take Disarm to the Derby.

Now, they have it.

“He’s a big strong horse. He’s been sound. He can take a lot of training,” Fisker said. “Depending on how he runs on Saturday, I think there’s a possibility that he will come out of the race a fitter and better horse than he will be going into the race.

“I’m positive we haven’t seen his best race yet.”

After the race, Ron Winchell of Winchell Thoroughbreds confirmed that the connections will now assess whether or not to proceed with Disarm in the Kentucky Derby.

“It looks like he got enough points to go, so we have the option to go,” Winchell said. “We’ll see how he comes out of this race. We’ve always thought a mile and a quarter (the Kentucky Derby distance) would be fine for him.”

Something that also shouldn’t be forgotten?

Winchell is also the owner of last year’s beaten Derby favorite, Epicenter.

Disarm left for Churchill Downs early Sunday.

Arabian Lion, who finished second, is a son of Triple Crown winner Justify and is trained by Bob Baffert.

There’s still hope for the horses that currently find themselves just outside of the points cutoff to take part in the Run for the Roses.

Whether through decisions made by the horse’s connections or because of injury and illness, every year a couple horses inside the top 20 opt out of the Derby.

Last year, Rich Strike famously won the Derby despite being an also-eligible for the race. Rich Strike was 24th on the Derby qualifying points leaderboard.

Since First Mission won’t be running in the Kentucky Derby, Charismatic (1999) remains the last horse to win both the Lexington Stakes and the Kentucky Derby.

The Stonestreet Lexington was the ninth race of Saturday’s 11-race card at a sun-splashed Keeneland, and was preceded by the 26th running of the Giant’s Causeway (listed) and followed by the 35th running of the Grade 1, $600,000 Jenny Wiley on turf.

Twilight Gleaming takes the Giant’s Causeway

The first of Saturday’s stakes races at Keeneland was the Listed, $250,000 Giant’s Causeway for 3-year-old and up fillies and mares who traveled 5 1/2 furlongs on the firm turf course.

Twilight Gleaming, an Irish-bred, won the race in a stakes record time of 1:01.74. She went off as the race favorite at 5-2 odds.

Trained by Wesley Ward and ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., Twilight Gleaming gave Ward consecutive victories in the Giant’s Causeway: Ward won the race last year with another Irish-bred, Campanelle, and now has four victories in the Giant’s Causeway to his name.

Twilight Gleaming also won the Grade 2 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint in 2021.

Querobin Dourada, who closed at 87-1 odds, finished second by one-and-a-half lengths in the Giant’s Causeway.

In Italian captures the Jenny Wiley on turf

The richest stakes race of Saturday at Keeneland was the last one: the Grade 1, $600,000 Jenny Wiley for 4-year-old and up fillies and mares that covered 1 1/16 miles on the turf.

In Italian, bred in Great Britain, continued her strong Keeneland form with a comfortable wire-to-wire win by three lengths in the race, which also marked her 2023 debut. She has now finished first or second in all three of her Keeneland turf starts, which have also been her last three races overall.

Trained by Chad Brown and ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., In Italian also won last fall’s Grade 1 First Lady at Keeneland.

“She’s been a nice filly all the time. She broke quick out of the gate and then she relaxed,” Ortiz said after the race. “Her ears were up. She does that all the time. I was confident.”

Chad Brown is making a habit out of winning the Jenny Wiley as well: Brown has won five of the past six editions of the Jenny Wiley, and six editions of the race overall.

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