Knicks Go, Aloha West represent Maryland with Breeders' Cup victories

Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Knicks Go and Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Aloha West gave Maryland two Breeders’ Cup winners last week at Del Mar.

Aloha West captured the Sprint by a nose, a few hours before Knicks Go scored his second Breeders’ Cup win in the Classic. He won the Dirt Mile in 2020.

Knicks Go became the third Maryland-bred to win the Classic, joining Concern (1994) and the legendary Cigar (1995).

Overall, six Maryland-breds have now won Breeders’ Cup races, with the others being Safely Kept in the 1990 Sprint and Sharing in the 2019 Juvenile Fillies Turf.

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Knicks Go, a 5-year-old son of Kentucky stallion Paynter, was bred and raised at the Moore family’s Greenmount Farm in Glyndon, Md. The horse is out of the Outflanker mare Kosmo’s Buddy, who made four appearances on the Maryland Million program, winning the 2008 Maryland Million Turf Sprint Handicap.

Knicks Go’s breeder, Angie Moore, sold the colt for $40,000 as a weanling at the 2016 Keeneland November breeding stock sale. He was later purchased by the Korea Racing Authority for $87,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale.

Aloha West was bred by the late Robert Manfuso and partner Katy Voss, a Laurel Park-based trainer, at their Chanceland Farm in West Friendship, Md. The 4-year-old by Kentucky sire Hard Spun is out of the Speightstown mare Island Bound, a Grade 3 winner campaigned by Manfuso.

Aloha West sold for $160,000 to Gary and Mary West as a Keeneland September yearling, then was privately purchased by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners early in his career.