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.

New Kent, Va. (July 18, 2024) — A recent star of Colonial Downs’ Virginia-bred or -sired stakes days returns on Saturday as Determined Kingdom seeks his third straight $125,000 Punch Line Stakes, a 5½ -furlong turf sprint. Owned by Determined Stables and Kingdom Bloodstock Inc., trainer Phil Schoenthal will saddle the 5-year-old who was tabbed at 4-5, the shortest price morning-line favorite of the four stakes to be run on Saturday’s 11-race program.

“I think that he is obviously a deserving favorite and I wouldn’t want to trade spots with anyone else in the race,” Schoenthal said.

The reigning Punch Line champion will face six foes, including his stablemate, Haywood Hyman Jr. and Kingdom Bloodstock’s King Covee.

“Also, I’m a little bit excited to see my other horse run, who may be overlooked in the betting,” Schoenthal said. “We claimed him with the Colonial meet in mind.”

With a bankroll of $481,789, Determined Kingdom ranks third among the top horses trained by Schoenthal over his 22-year career. Since Colonial Downs reopened in 2019, the Laurel-based conditioner has won 11 turf sprints from 47 starters, an impressive 23% clip. Determined Kingdom accounts for four of those victories. Beginning with the 2021 Jamestown Stakes as a juvenile, each of the gelding’s local scores has been an added-money event.

“It’s really, really fun and neat for the horse’s sake,” Schoenthal said. “It’s extremely difficult to find a horse that is precocious and a stakes winner at two, and continues to win stakes at three, four and beyond. Not many are fast early and stay fast throughout their career. so he is kind of a unicorn in that regard.”

Having won each of the last two Punch Lines by more than five lengths, Determined Kingdom appears poised to do equivalent damage. Drawing the rail with six foes to his outside, Determined Kingdom will be guided by regular rider Victor Carrasco, who bagged the Boston Stakes aboard Fulmineo on opening weekend.

“I was disappointed to draw the rail,” Schoenthal said. “That’s going to be a big challenge for us with other speed drawing to our immediate outside. He’s probably going to have to send him and use him a little bit earlier than he wants to be, so that’s a concern for us. I think he is clearly the class of the race and is coming off a great performance in his return race off the layoff.”

One of Determined Kingdom’s main rivals is Larry Johnson and Bruce Quade’s Embolden, trained by Mike Trombetta. The 7-year-old horse ran second to Determined Kingdom in each of the last two editions.

“Honestly I think I’m maybe more concerned about Anthony Farrior’s horse (Ship the Goods) than Embolden,” Schoenthal said. “He’s got blazing speed and I think that horse is going to be very forwardly placed and probably will duel with us head-to-head. I think that If Determined Kingdom doesn’t run his normal race or come out on top early or doesn’t bring his typical ‘A’ game, it will be more a factor of being hounded and dogged early by (Ship the Goods) then it will be more than anything that Embolden does.”

Determined Kingdom exits an allowance win at Laurel Park where the son of Animal Kingdom earned a 92 Brisnet Speed figure, just one point shy of his top. A recent addition to the barn, King Covee shares the same sire but with just a maiden score on his resume, not the same credentials.

“His return race was horrendous; it was terrible,” Schoenthal said. “We had planned to compete in a turf race but couldn’t get a race to go so ended up running him on the dirt. It was a gross miscalculation on my part as to how fit he was. It’s a lot more demanding to run over dirt versus a hard and firm turf course. He ran half a mile, got tired and galloped home.”

King Covee has never run shorter than one mile.

“I told the owner let’s short breeze him Saturday and ask him for speed and see how much lick he actually has–to see if we think he could actually be a sprinter,” Schoenthal said. “I breezed him Saturday and he was wickedly fast. He showed a lot of speed that I wasn’t aware he had to be honest.”

Carded as Race 6, the Punch Line is the third leg in the All Stakes 50-cent Middle Pick 4, which also includes the $125,000 Brookmeade for fillies and mares at 1-1/16 miles, followed by the Edward P. Evans at one mile. The final leg is the $125,000 Tyson Gilpin/Glenn Petty, run at 5½ furlongs and restricted to distaffers. Saturday’s 11-race program kicks off at 1:35 p.m. ET.