LOUISVILLE, Ky. – When trainer Chad Brown and jockey Jose Ortiz assessed the way the Modesty Stakes would unfold, one thing jumped out: A lack of pace. Brown, who had three runners in the race, figured Kathynmarissa would go forward and take up a pressing or stalking position behind the leader. Ortiz concurred. Then the starting gate opened. Kathynmarissa gave a little jink and jolt. The eight-runner field came past the wire for the first time and into the turn, and Kathynmarissa had no horses beat. “I expected her to run very, very well but I didn’t like her chances from there,” Brown said. “Last in this race into the first turn, I wouldn’t have thought she’d be effective from there.” She was brutally effective. Ortiz got onto the tail of the Brown-trained 4-5 favorite Gezora midway around the far turn. Gezora traveled strongly, picking up steam and picking off horses, nearly on top of the leaders after swinging into the homestretch. Ortiz shadowed the move, following Gezora past the quarter pole, then tipping outside. Kathynmarissa’s kick did not come instantly, and in fact, it took her a good 20 strides to really start motoring, but once she hit top gear, it was lights out. She whizzed past Gezora at the sixteenth pole, switched over to the wrong lead, but still drew away to win the Grade 3, $500,000 Modesty by 1 1/4 lengths. “It didn’t work out the way I wanted, but it worked out,” Ortiz said. :: KENTUCKY DERBY 2026: Top contenders, point standings, news, and more Kathynmarissa got hammered late in the betting, going off second choice ahead of Brown’s third horse, Whiskey Decision, and paying a depressed $8.58 to win. The money, it must be acknowledged, was spot on. Off tepid splits off 23.97, 48.49, 1:13.47, and 1:36.91, Kathynmarissa ran 1 1/8 miles over a firm grass course in 1:48.13. Since she hadn’t yet hit the front with a furlong remaining, Kathynmarissa probably shaded 11 seconds for her last eighth, and she definitely got her last three furlongs in 33 seconds and change. Brown said earlier this week that Kathynmarissa would become a major player in Grade 1 competition this year, and nothing about the Modesty contradicted that. “Off a slow pace, she still ran down the center of the track and won,” Brown said. Stylish Sue, the only real Modesty front-runner, went to the lead unchallenged, Dona Clota tugging in second, Ramsey Pond sitting in the pocket, Proctor Street behind her, then an unhurried Gezora, with Kathynmarissa and Queens Command at the back as the Modesty field – sans scratched horses Pin Up Betty and Adrasteia – traversed the backstretch. Before the three-furlong marker, midway around the turn, Flavien Prat asked Gezora to go, his mount immediately responding. Victories last year in the French Oaks and the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf made Gezora an odds-on favorite Friday in her first start for Brown, first start in a half a year. The French Oaks is run over 1 5/16 miles, and Gezora won the Breeders’ Cup at 1 3/8 miles. Ideally, the filly would race over a longer distance than nine furlongs, and Prat rode her accordingly. “I was trying to get her going at the three-eighths to make sure I was rolling turning for home, and she did that, but the other one just had a better turn of foot,” Prat said. Kathynmarissa doesn’t train like that kind of horse. Brown didn’t know she had this type of race in her. “She trains very well, but she trains steady and powerful,” Brown said. “I thought when she was picking up the bit she’d get a piece.” As for Gezora, Brown thought the filly did not show her best over a Churchill course she’d never encountered before Friday. “From the three-eighths marker on, I didn’t she her pushing quite as well as the winner was. I would venture to guess not only the layoff, but I think Gezora’s turn of foot was a little bit disarmed with the ground,” Brown said. His two horses will get a rematch, Brown said, going 1 3/16 miles in the $750,000 New York on June 5 at Saratoga. Kathynmarissa had run twice at Churchill, winning a first-level allowance race two years ago with Ortiz aboard. Second in the Grade 1 American Oaks at the end of her 3-year-old season, Kathynmarissa barely had a 2025 campaign. She made one start in March for her previous trainer, Rick Dutrow, and for owner Michael Dubb before being moved into Brown’s barn and adding a second owner, Michael Caruso. Brown brought the horse back at Saratoga and Kathynmarissa dazzled winning an Aug. 28 allowance race, then required more time off to get right. The winner, in fact, returned from a two-month longer layoff than Gezora – and returned as good as she’s ever been. It’s been a stop and start career for this talented mare, who’s by American Pharoah and out of the Chilean mare La Dalila, by a stallion named Milt’s Overture. She can win from close range, and she can win, it turns out, from far back. If Kathynmarissa can stay on the racecourse this year, expect her to win a major race. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.