Jockey Ben Curtis Positioned for Success at Colonial Downs

Kentucky Derby jockey to make Colonial Downs stakes debut aboard Tufani in the $125,000 Brookmeade

New Kent, Va (July 17, 2024) — More than halfway through his first year riding in the U.S., Irish-born jockey Ben Curtis’s accomplishments are stacking high. The 2021 British All-Weather Champion’s resume includes more than 1,000 wins in England and scores of victories around the world. Curtis’’s path now leads him to New Kent, Virginia, where he has joined the colony at Colonial Downs.

This Saturday in the $125,000 Brookmeade, Curtis will climb back aboard the filly who became his first U.S. stakes winner. Before riding Honor Marie in Kentucky Derby 150 there was Tufani. A Virgina-bred.

“She’s an absolute saint of a filly,” Curtis said. “This looks like a good spot for her. I think we’re all excited to get her back on the track and see what she can do. It’s been a while between drinks for her.”

With trainer-turned-jockey agent Ron Faucheux as his guide, Curtis racked up 43 wins over the winter at Fair Grounds, finishing fourth in the standings ahead of the likes of Florent Geroux, Brian Hernandez Jr., and Jamie Torres.

“Fair Grounds can be a tough place to break into, especially for a first-year jock,” Faucheux said. “It was incredible to be able to bring a top caliber rider over. The success he had really snowballed throughout the meet. You can’t find a better person on top of it.”

Having gained a reputation for offering difference-making rides on turf and dirt, Curtis earned a coveted mount in the Kentucky Derby aboard Honor Marie after piloting him to a second-place finish in the Louisiana Derby.

“For him to finish as strong as he did and get a Derby mount for a great young trainer like Whit Beckman, it was a very incredible experience for both of us,” Faucheux said.

On opening day, Curtis accomplished what every jockey wants to do at every track across the country on the first day of a meet. He won. Then he did it again. In Thursday’s finale, he came 3/4 lengths shy of riding a turf triple.

“Colonial has got some of the best turf I’ve ridden on since I’ve been over here,” Curtis said. “The track rides fantastic. It’s very fair. The bends ride lovely. They are very inviting. You can get a horse in a rhythm here. They really do get in a rhythm and ride around those turns lovely.”

Curtis’s first win at Colonial Downs came aboard My Sanctuary, breaking his maiden for trainer Mike Stidham.

“I watched a lot of My Sanctuary’s races and he had a few opportunities to win but he hadn’t,” Curtis said. “I was very cautious to keep him locked up until the last minute and try to just produce him on the line.”

Stidham has been central to Curtis’s successes in the U.S. thus far. The perennial title contender at Colonial Downs is also the conditioner who gave Curtis a leg up on Susan Moulton’s Tufani in December’s $100,000 Pago Hop at Fair Grounds, which the Distorted Humor filly won by over two lengths. Buried along the rail throughout, Curtis convinced the previously forward-minded filly to save her best for the end.

“I watched her races (beforehand) and had a chat with Mike (Stidham) and Hilary (Pridham) and we came to the conclusion that the only way we can step up to the stakes level is if she switches off in her races,” Curtis said. “A combination of that, her maturing a little bit more time, realizing that she doesn’t have to do it all in three furlongs culminated in her taking a step up in grade.”

Tabbed as the 6-5 favorite in the morning line for the Brookmeade, Tufani has not raced since running a solid 6th in the Tom Benson Memorial at Fair Grounds, just over three lengths behind the soon-to-be graded stakes winner Delahaye.

“I think she ran a very solid race to sign off her Fair Grounds campaign,” Curtis said. “We were all hopeful going into it, she was training fantastic, and I thought she ran an exceptional race on the day. But you have to take a race for what it is afterwards and sometimes they just turn up to be very good races. I do think she has relaxed a lot more (since then), she’s doing everything the right way.”

The Brookmeade is scheduled to go as race 4 and Irish-bred Ben Curtis will guide the Virgina-bred Tufani from the rail. Post time for Saturday’s 11-race program is 1:35 p.m. ET, which includes a quartet of Virginia-bred or -sired turf stakes, accounting for all legs of the All Stakes 50-cent Middle Pick 4.