Arklow picks up where he left off, wins the Louisville in 7-year-old debut

Arklow’s class prevailed on Saturday at Churchill Downs, as the veteran turf specialist made his 2021 debut a winning one with a stakes-record performance in the Grade 3, $150,000 Louisville Stakes.

The 7-year-old Arklow ($4.60), an Arch horse trained by Brad Cox for Donegal Racing and partners, was making his first start since just missing the course mark when winning the Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup last November at Del Mar. The Louisville was his sixth graded stakes score in a career highlighted by a victory in the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic in fall 2019 at Belmont. He has now earned more than $2.7 million.

“He’s such a professional,” Cox said. “We had this race in mind for a while to get his campaign started and he ran a great effort to start his year.”

Arklow, under regular rider Florent Geroux, was 10th of 14 early as Admiralty Pier took the field through a moderate opening half of 48.64 seconds on the firm turf course. He made a bold four-wide move around the far turn to reach contention and forged his way to the lead in upper stretch.

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Arklow repelled Red Knight through the final stages for a one-length victory. After Arklow and Red Knight, it was three-quarters of a length to Strong Tide in third.

Arklow finished the 1 1/2 miles in 2:27.13, a stakes record for the Louisville. The course record is 2:26.50, established by Tikkanen in 1994.