MILLIONAIRE BE YOUR BEST HEADLINES GRADE 2 $500,000 BEVERLY D.

Photo caption: Duvet Day wins the G3 Cardinal at Churchill Downs on Nov. 28, 2024 at Churchill Downs. She will make her next start in the G2 $500,000 Beverly D. at  Colonial Downs.

Photo caption: Be Your Best, shown schooling in the paddock at Keeneland in 2022, is headed to Colonial Downs to start in the G2 $500,000 Beverly D.

NEW KENT, Va. (Aug. 2, 2025) – With more than $1 million in lifetime earnings, Michael J. Ryan’s Irish-bred Be Your Best headlines the 1 3/16 miles Grade 2 $500,000 Beverly D., one of three graded turf stakes slated for Colonial Downs’ Festival of Racing Day on August 9.

Carded as race 10, in between the one-mile Grade 2 $500,000 Secretariat Stakes for sophomores and the 1 ¼ miles Grade 1 Arlington Million, the Beverly D. is one of seven stakes on the program with purse money totaling $2.5 million.

Saturday’s Festival of Racing also includes the $100,000 Petramalo Mile, a one-mile dirt race for 3-year-olds and its sister race, the $100,000 Tyson Gilpin at seven furlongs; the $150,000 Van Clief for 3-year-olds & up at 5½ furlongs on the turf and its distaff companion event, the $150,000 Andy Guest. First post is 12 p.m. ET.

Since joining the barn of Saffie Joseph Jr., Be Your Best has won four of her six starts, all graded stakes, including last out taking the Gamely (G1) gate-to-wire at Santa Anita Park. She kicked off her 5-year-old campaign with an impressive “stalk and pounce” score in the Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf Invitational (G2) at Gulfstream Park. Tabbed as the 9-5 morning line favorite in a field of six, Be Your Best will be guided from post 2 by Tyler Gaffalione.

Chief among her competition is Jane Bacharach, William De Burgh, and Richard Schatz’s Duvet Day. The Irish-bred trained by Mike McCarthy concluded her 5-year-old campaign with a win in the Cardinal (G3) at Churchill Downs last November. After getting her 6-year-old campaign going in the Mint Julep (G3), Duvet Day ran a strong second to Pin Up Betty going nine furlongs in the Anchorage at Churchill Downs.

“She seems to be in the best form of her career, numbers-wise,” McCarthy said. “It’s a big ask to run in a prestigious race like (the Beverly D.), but it’s always nice to be able to participate in those kinds of races.”

Drawing post 6, Duvet Day will have Hall of Fame jockey john Velazquez in the irons.

Also exiting the Mint Julep and Anchorage, Domeyko Taylor’s Charlene’s Dream looms as a serious threat to win the Beverly D. Trained by Ed Moger Jr., Charlene’s Dream earned her fourth added-money score this spring at Pimlico in the Gallorette (G3) on the Preakness undercard. Javier Castellano takes the call aboard the 4-year-old who drew post 4.

Another logical contender is Cayton Park Stud’s South Africa-bred Beach Bomb, who ran second to She Feels Pretty last out in the New York Stakes (G1) at Saratoga for trainer Graham Motion.

Here is the complete field for the $500,000 Beverly D. (G2) from the rail out with jockey, trainer and morning line odds: Chick’s Shadow (Jose E. Lopez, Angel Rodriguez, 15-1); Be Your Best (Gaffalione, Joseph Jr., 9-5); Beach Bomb (Luis Saez, Motion, 4-1); Charlene’s Dream (Castellano, Moger Jr., 7-2); Spanish Eyes (Ben Curtis, Brendan Walsh, 9-2); and Duvet Day (Velazquez, McCarthy, 3-1).

Tickets for the Colonial Downs Festival of Racing can be purchased at www.colonialdowns.com.

Colonial’s races will be prominently featured on FanDuel TV all season long. Additionally, FanDuel TV will be on-site for coverage of the Festival of Racing on August 9.

Racing fans who can’t make it to Colonial can wager at any of the Rosie’s Gaming Emporiums throughout the state, The Rose Gaming Resort in Dumfries or VA-Horseplay locations in Chesapeake and Henrico. Bettors also can wager on racing from ColonialDowns via www.TwinSpires.com, the official advance-deposit wagering service for Churchill Downs Incorporated and its family of racetracks. TwinSpires.com boasts an improved wagering experience and mobile app combining the latest technology with the ability to wager on virtually every quarter, harness and thoroughbred horse race from venues around the globe. TwinSpires.com also offers access to unmatched insight and analysis from horse racing experts, handicappers, insiders, educators and Bloodstock Research Information Services (Brisnet).

About Colonial Downs
Colonial Downs Racetrack, in New Kent, Virginia, hosts live thoroughbred racing on two nationally renowned surfaces – the Secretariat Turf Course, the widest turf course in North America at 180 feet wide and on a 1 1/4-mile dirt track. The Colonial Downs Group, which is owned by Churchill Downs Incorporated (NASDAQ Global Select Market: CHDN), also operates Rosie’s Gaming Emporiums® throughout the commonwealth, which offer innovative historic horseracing (HHR) gaming and full card simulcasting as well as Rosie’s Game Room in Collinsville, and The Rose Gaming Resort® in Dumfries which offers 1,650 HHR gaming terminals, full-card simulcasting, eight bars and restaurants and more than 100 hotel rooms.