Beauty Reigns can bounce back; McPeek and Hernandez part ways

Trainer Bill Mott has a major player in the featured eighth race Sunday at Churchill Downs, where Beauty Reigns faces nine older fillies and mares in a second-level allowance race carded for seven furlongs and open to $80,000 claimers.

Beauty Reigns and Irad Ortiz Jr. break from the far outside gate, which seems like a good spot for a horse whose best race probably comes with a clear, stalking trip. Beauty Reigns’s most recent race, on April 18 at Oaklawn, unfolded in an entirely different manner, with the filly pressing the pace and coming up empty in the final furlong. A bounce back to her best 2025 form, which included a third in the Grade 1 Test, probably would suffice to land Beauty Reigns a somewhat overdue third win.

Me and Molly McGee returned from a half-year layoff in February and finished second to Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Splendora in the Grade 2 D. Wayne Lukas Stakes on Feb. 7 at Santa Anita. She has not raced since while keeping to an active work pattern for trainer Peter Eurton, and her chances Sunday depend on how much pace pressure the speedy filly takes breaking from an inside post with other pace players drawn to her outside.

◗ Perusing the past performances at Churchill this month, you might have noticed that Brian Hernandez Jr. has not been riding horses trained by Kenny McPeek. From 2023 to 2025, McPeek and Hernandez teamed up to win 120 races, including 20 graded stakes. The peak of their partnership came with victories in the 2024 Kentucky Oaks with Thorpedo Anna and the Kentucky Derby with Mystik Dan.

Frank Bernis, the longtime agent for Hernandez, confirmed earlier this week that McPeek had decided to go in a different direction for now. The trainer said that he planned to name other riders on his horses and has recently given business to Manny Esquivel and a handful of other jockeys.