Magnitude looms large with Stephen Foster triumph

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A new horse from the class of 2023 now wears the crown, and while it was not an earthquake that brought him to the top, Magnitude, exponentially better this summer than last, has steadily risen to become a mountain of a racehorse.
On Saturday, at Churchill Downs, he took that crown from Sovereignty, easily defeating the 2025 Horse of the Year in the Grade 1, $2 million Stephen Foster Stakes. The two 4-year-olds had met once before, in the Travers last summer at Saratoga, where Sovereignty romped and Magnitude finished third, beaten 20 lengths.
On Saturday, the gap between them narrowed to 5 1/4 lengths, and this time it was Magnitude under the wire first.
Sovereignty in fact could not come close to holding second. His stablemate Baeza, last during the early stages, roared past at the furlong grounds, closing to within 1 1/4 lengths of Magnitude while four clear of Sovereignty.

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White Abarrio, the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner who had upset Sovereignty on April 16 in the Oaklawn Handicap, finished fourth, 4 1/2 lengths behind Sovereignty and well clear of rank outsider Willy D’s in a field reduced to five after the early scratches of Forged Steel and Navajo Warrior. Irad Ortiz, White Abarrio’s jockey, said he could feel White Abarrio struggling with a sloppy, sealed track even on the first turn.
Now it’s Magnitude on a course toward Horse of the Year. Vastly improved at the end of his 3-year-old campaign, he began a winning streak beating older rivals here in the Clark Stakes in November and now has won four in a row. 
Steve Asmussen, who trains Magnitude for Ron Winchell’s Winchell Thoroughbreds, brought Magnitude back to action this year with an easy win in the Razorback Handicap at Oaklawn on Feb. 28. 

Connections then sent the colt to Dubai, during a period when Iran periodically was launching missiles at the United Arab Emirates, and Magnitude led from start to finish in the $12 million Dubai World Cup, defeating last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, Forever Young.

Magnitude took his long journey well from start to finish and came back to Churchill shockingly fresh, according to his connections. He’d trained like a dream for this Foster – and then broke through the starting gate before the gate sprang. The assistant starter assigned to him managed to keep his hold on Magnitude, who didn’t have a chance to run off, but horses that break prematurely and then have to do it again rarely, rarely win. Asmussen has won more sanctioned Thoroughbred races in the Northern Hemisphere than any trainer.
“I have never won a race when a horse broke through the front - and for it to be a race that big,” Asmussen said. “Great horses overcome obstacles that lesser horses don’t.”
Magnitude, jockey Jose Ortiz said, seemed entirely unbothered by the false start. He loaded right back into the gate and broke running, going straight to the lead when the race’s other potential pace player, Willy D’s, was conservatively ridden from his rail draw. The first turn came up, and Magnitude already controlled the Foster.
White Abarrio pressed up two wide, and Sovereignty, who broke well, raced third, three paths off the rail with no cover, stalking what appeared to be a modest opening quarter-mile in 23.88. Tick, tick, tick, tick – Magnitude, well in hand, going smoothly under Ortiz, was like a metronome out there, 23.50 and 23.52 quarters following his first one. 

Sovereignty started struggling past the five-furlong marker, losing his position and briefly falling back to last, a half-length or so behind Baeza, and forcing Junior Alvarado to begin asking his mount.
“He said today those horses pulled away from him at the five-eighths, and then he started to niggle at him a little bit just to stay within range,” Sovereignty’s trainer Bill Mott said.
Sovereignty did respond, quickly gaining ground on the leaders while wide again on the turn, and going to the five-sixteenths it looked like he might make a race of it. Instead, Sovereignty started sputtering at the three-sixteenths as Magnitude got away.
The parallels between Magnitude and Gun Runner, the Asmussen-trained, Winchell-owned 2017 Horse of the Year, are striking, though Gun Runner finished third in the Derby and came to the fall of his 3-year-old season a more proven horse than Magnitude. Gun Runner also won the Clark, the Razorback, and finished second in Dubai before capturing the Foster. Asmussen said he’s never had a good horse change leads in the homestretch as much as Gun Runner did – until Magnitude came along. And it was when Magnitude executed the first of four lead changes through the homestretch, just before hitting the quarter pole, that Ortiz figured he had the Foster won.
“When I asked him at the quarter pole, he switched to the right lead early. He likes to do that. I knew he was going to fire,” Ortiz said.
Magnitude got his last furlong in a robust 12.66, faster than all save Baeza, who, once again, blew the break, spotting the field a few lengths.
“I thought he ran super,” jockey Flavien Prat said. “He jumped slow again -- I don’t know what’s the deal with that -- but after that I gave him a chance. He was traveling well on the backside and he made a good run.”
Prat said Baeza needs a stronger pace in front of him, and Mott echoed that, talking about Sovereignty.
“I thought he’d finish better than that. I always know there’s a possibility to get beat,” Mott said. “You know, the winner kind of went unscathed early in the race; he didn’t have anything to go with him.”
Mott expected more. So did the betting market, which made Sovereignty the 4-5 favorite. Sovereignty now has raced only twice since winning the Travers last August, finishing second and third.
Magnitude clocked 1:48.03 (114 Beyer Speed Figure) over a surface that had not produced fast times all afternoon. Second choice in the wagering, he paid $7.16. By Not This Time out of Rockadelic, by Bernardini, Magnitude was bred in Kentucky by Ron Stolich. His record now stands at 14-8-2-1 with earnings approaching $10 million. Magnitude, all being well, goes next in the Whitney on Aug. 8 at Saratoga, Asmussen said.
Ortiz? Often in the shadow of his brother, Irad, he is having a half-year beyond his wildest dreams. He won the Derby and the Belmont on Golden Tempo, now has added the Foster to his first Dubai World Cup. He also rides Englishman, the fastest 3-year-old sprinter in North America, for a major supporter, Cherie DeVaux, Golden Tempo’s trainer.
“It’s been an amazing year. You work so hard for the last 13, 14 years and I always ride very nice horses, but this year it has been all together,” Ortiz said. “Every year, I have one or two, three good horses.”
Until another older dirt route horse takes his crown, he has the very best of them this year - Magnitude.

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