Bargain yearling Chunk of Gold headed for millionaire status in Lukas Classic
:quality(75))
A $2,500 yearling is about as low an auction price as you’ll see for a Thoroughbred. Yet Chunk of Gold, all $2,500 of him, will cross the $1 million mark in career earnings if he can finish third or better Saturday at Churchill Downs in the Lukas Classic.
That will not take much doing.
Chunk of Gold was one of seven entered in the Grade 2, $500,000 Lukas Classic, but Original Sin and McAfee, their trainers said, run instead in the Goodwood at Santa Anita. With no more than four foes, Chunk of Gold will go off shorter than his 2-1 morning line – and, with a $951,511 bankroll, most likely go over the $1 million mark.
“He’s already outrun his pedigree and his purchase price,” trainer Ethan West said. “He’s just a horse that never runs a bad race.”
Chunk of Gold, by Preservationist out of Play for Gold, by Cairo Prince, is 12-3-7-1, his lone off-the-board finish a ninth in the 2025 Kentucky Derby. Chris Melton purchased the horse as a bargain-basement yearling, selling a half-interest in the young horse to Terry Stephens for $67,500. Stephens paid Melton $100,000 after Chunk of Gold scored a debut win and has been the horse’s sole owner ever since.
In that debut, and through his first five starts, Chunk of Gold stalked and closed in his races, but when West fitted him with a set of blinkers last summer, Chunk of Gold went wire to wire in the West Virginia Derby. He’s been showing speed ever since.
In his first start back from a seven-month layoff, a June 26 Churchill allowance, Chunk of Gold came out running, tugging to the lead before the first turn – and never relenting. He fought his rider through very slow fractions, and between that battle and the long absence, Chunk of Gold came up empty in the final furlong.
Jaime Torres, who has a call for the 1 1/8-mile Lukas Classic, rode Chunk of Gold for the first time in the Philip Iselin on Aug. 15 at Monmouth Park, and Torres let his mount use his speed. Chunk of Gold set a relatively fast pace, was passed in upper stretch by Bishops Bay, but immediately counterpunched, missing by a neck to Bishops Bay. The stretch from 1 1/16 miles at short-stretch Monmouth to 1 1/8 miles at long-stretch Churchill seems like a plus.
“I think it’s his preferred distance,” said West, who likes Chunk of Gold’s outside draw. “As classy as he was last year, he was always immature, too. But race by race, he was kind of putting it together. I don’t think he needs the front end – he just wants to be left alone.”
As successful as Chunk of Gold has been, he’s only the third-highest earner in the field behind Tiztastic, who has banked nearly $1.8 million, and Banishing, nearly up to $3.3 million in purses.
Banishing, an iron horse by this era’s standards, made 12 starts during 2025, and his six races this year include two in the Middle East – an up-the-track finish in the $20 million Saudi Cup and six weeks later a win in the $1 million Godolphin Mile. Part owner and trainer David Jacobson ran Banishing back just five weeks after his Dubai start, and it did not go well: Banishing was eased in the Churchill Downs Stakes.
But he was far from done. On July 18, he won the Jeff Hall Memorial over 6 1/2 furlongs at Ellis Park, and Aug. 28 he finished second trying for a repeat victory in the $1 million Charles Town Classic. Banishing comes close to staying 1 1/8 miles over the five-furlong Charles Town oval but was a well-beaten third in this race last year and to date has not hit peak form going nine furlongs on a full-sized track.
Tiztastic ran nine furlongs Aug. 8 at Saratoga while facing the cream of the older-horse crop and finished a commendable fifth, beaten six lengths, in the Grade 1 Whitney. Last of seven at the three-furlong marker, Tiztastic made a rail bid that looked at the three-sixteenths marker like it might carry him somewhere.
“I don’t think he was on the right part of the racetrack at all,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “He had a lot of run; he chose to go inside, and all his momentum stopped as soon as he did.”
Tiztastic worked four times at Saratoga after the Whitney, then turned in a Sept. 20 drill at Churchill that caught the eye despite the horse merely working an easy half well off the rail.
“He’s light on his feet right now. He looks beautiful. We schooled him today, and he looked fantastic,” Asmussen said Wednesday.
Brian Hernandez Jr. picks up the mount, and despite the short field might find ample pace in front of his late-running mount. Dragoon Guard runs his best races from up close, as does Banishing.
This Is Uscar, unproven at a distance this far, will stalk the leaders. He came up the rail to beat Chunk of Gold in the June allowance. He probably won’t get him again in the Lukas Classic.
– additional reporting by David Grening
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.