LEXINGTON, Ky. – Further Ado approached the sixteenth pole Saturday at Keeneland and spied the tracks left on the dirt track by the starting gate. The colt gave a little hop, and swapped over to his wrong lead. Possibly, Further Ado could have stopped, raked smooth those tracks, and still won the Blue Grass Stakes. This was not the 20-length win margin Further Ado put up here in October, but this also was not a maiden race of suspect quality. It was the Grade 1, $1.25 million Blue Grass, and Further Ado won it by 11 lengths, the widest margin of victory in this race since Sinister Minister scored by a dozen in 2006. Sinister Minister returned to finish 16th in the Kentucky Derby and never won again. Further Ado’s future surely looks brighter than that – particularly if they can find a race for him at Keeneland, this year’s Breeders’ Cup host. “We make plans for horses and most of the time they don’t work out,” said Brad Cox, who trains Further Ado for Spendthrift Farm. “Last fall, after the way he ran here, we thought we’d try to get him back in the Blue Grass and it worked out well.” :: KENTUCKY DERBY 2026: Top contenders, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more Further Ado wintered with Cox at Payson Park in Florida, making his first start since winning the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes last November in the March 7 Tampa Bay Derby. He ran well enough, second by three-quarters of a length to The Puma, in a race designed more than anything as a Blue Grass prep. “He kind of acted when he got up here this week like he was handling the track really well in his gallops,” Cox said. Indeed. The Blue Grass marked Cox’s third graded stakes win here Saturday following Saudi Crown in the Grade 3 Commonwealth and Eclatant in the Grade 1 Madison. Cox also has three horses qualified for the Kentucky Derby, Further Ado joining Commandment, the Florida Derby winner, and Fulleffort, hero of the Jeff Ruby Steaks. “I think those are three legitimate horses. I mean, they all won their prep,” Cox said. Irad Ortiz has ridden Further Ado in his last three starts. He might not ride him in the Derby. Ortiz and his agent, Steve Rushing, chose to ride Renegade, blowout winner of the Arkansas Derby, rather than Commandment on the same day. Ortiz also piloted Fulleffort in the Ruby. Who’s his Derby mount? “I don’t know. Ask Steve Rushing!” Ortiz said. Further Ado didn’t merely win by a wide margin – he ran pretty fast, too, clocking 1:49.58 for 1 1/8 miles over a fast track that did not produce quick times Saturday. Only two other horses among the last 10 Blue Grass winners cracked 1:50; the last one was Essential Quality, Cox’s other Blue Grass winner. Further Ado was assigned a Beyer Speed Figure of 106 for the victory. Further Ado could prove the only Derby runner coming out of the Blue Grass. Ottinho, who came from sixth to finish a distant second, earned 50 qualifying points toward the Derby. That total might prove sufficient to make the 20-runner field, but Ottinho’s lone win among four starts came by a nose in a maiden race, and trainer Chad Brown has been known to await the Preakness with horses of this ilk. Brown had Paladin as the Blue Grass favorite until an injury last weekend took the colt out of action. He also trains Louisiana Derby winner Emerging Market, whom Flavien Prat rode at Fair Grounds. Prat was booked to ride Paladin and wound up on Ottinho, beaten more than 11 lengths when third last out in the Withers. Ottinho, a scopey colt, lacked speed Saturday but made a steady run from sixth to finish 1 3/4 lengths ahead of third-place Talkin. “The first part I was right behind the [leading] group, and they just never slowed down,” Prat said. “Down the backside I gave him a chance, and turning for home I tipped him out and he gave me a good run.” Talkin broke from the rail and got stuck there much of the trip, putting in a little run from the quarter pole home. He earned 25 qualifying points toward the Derby, bringing his total to 35, but trainer Danny Gargan said he’s aiming Talkin to the Preakness, not the Derby. Fourth-place Creole Chrome’s 15 Derby points are the first he’s earned and won’t come close to making the race. Great White added 10 points to the 20 he got winning the Battaglia Memorial at Turfway Park, but it’s hard to imagine connections trying to get into the Derby off a 25-length defeat. Reagan’s Honor, second choice at 2-1, had a much tougher trip racing behind the leaders and among horses than he did in two front-running Fair Grounds victories. He never mustered a rally and beat only impossible longshot Moonstrosity. Ocelli and Class President were early scratches. Great White, somewhat surprisingly, set out for the lead under Alex Achard, going 23.60 and 47.71 while pressed down the backstretch by Creole Chrome. Six furlongs went in 1:11.80, and by that time Further Ado looked like a sure winner looming up in third – and felt like one for Ortiz. “We passed the half-mile pole, he kind of slowed down, so I started waking him up,” Ortiz said. “He kind of just started going forward, and I was like, ‘All right - here we go!' At the three-eighths going to the quarter pole I just let him do his thing. I didn’t want to be in his way. After that, he took off. I looked up at the board and I see I’m clear. I didn’t have to do much.” Further Ado, bred in Kentucky by John Oxley, is by Gun Runner and out of the Sky Mesa mare Sky Dreamer, whose top runner to date is Kimbear, a Group 2 dirt winner in Dubai. Cox liked the colt well enough to debut him at Saratoga. Further Ado ran all right in two sprints there before his Keeneland tour de force. He’s not a tall or imposing horse at all, but has a long stride, athletic and handy. “Just a really good mover. He skips over the ground,” Cox said. Cox wondered if Further Ado, who ran hard at Tampa Bay, had done too much to hit the mark in his target race. He’d done just enough. Two for two at Keeneland, he’s also 1 for 1 at Churchill, and Cox now has three for the Kentucky Derby. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.