Juveniles stay in spotlight in pair of Churchill maidens
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The September and November meets at Churchill Downs have become hotbeds for showcasing later-developing 2-year-olds who want to run longer distances. Juveniles who ran at Churchill Downs last September include this year’s Kentucky Oaks winner Good Cheer; Grade 1 winners La Cara, Sandman, and World Beater; and Magnitude and Owen Almighty, both graded stakes winners this year.
Along with stakes action last weekend that included the first points races toward the 2026 Kentucky Derby and Oaks, maiden special weight and allowance races at this meet will unveil promising prospects – including a pair of $120,000 maiden special weights for 2-year-olds trying seven furlongs, a distance that starts to separate horses, on the Thursday and Friday cards.
In Friday’s fifth race, most eyes will certainly be on Tagermeen, one of the most expensive juveniles of this year. The $1.4 million purchase was named to be the flag-bearer for the eponymous Tagermeen Racing. That syndicate, which became a major player at the 2-year-old in training sales this spring, is made up of Libyan-based owners who intend to race both in the U.S. and at the lucrative Middle Eastern meets over the winter.
Tagermeen, by six-time leading sire Into Mischief, finished second in his debut at Saratoga for Steve Asmussen, then fourth after leading in an Aug. 2 maiden race won by Ted Noffey, who came back to dominate the Grade 1 Hopeful.
Debut starter Adir is by Essential Quality – a champion juvenile, but one who emerged in the latter half of the season as distances got longer and who repeated as champion at age 3 as a classic winner, in the Belmont Stakes. Essential Quality’s first-crop runners are just beginning to fire more strongly. Adir, trained by Mark Casse, is from the female family of another Belmont Stakes winner, Drosselmeyer, suggesting this distance is about as short as he’ll want to go.
White Tiger, trained by Brad Cox, is bred for juvenile success on both sides, by Constitution and out of Grade 2 Adirondack winner Pure Silver.
In the filly division of this race, carded as Thursday’s sixth, Asmussen has the favorite in Kenz, the only member of the field with multiple prior starts, including one at this distance. Second in her debut, the filly by McKinzie, one of last year’s top three freshman sires, was a close second, beaten a neck, going seven furlongs Aug. 10 at Ellis.
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