Timing is everything in horse racing, in which an entire season might be spent in pursuit of a specific target, and where the difference between victory and defeat might be measured in hundredths of a second. The second edition of Turfway Park’s Synthetic Championships on Saturday night provides more proof that time, and money, are everything. The Synthetic Championships were inaugurated last year, moving four existing stakes from the winter stand at Turfway to one card and giving them robust purse hikes in order to create an attractive card with advantageous timing on the circuit. The proof of success for the concept is in the fields that will line up under the lights in Florence, Ky. The four $250,000 stakes—the Prairie Bayou, Holiday Inaugural, My Charmer, and Holiday Cheer – have all drawn full fields and feature graded stakes winners, including the Turfway-loving Encino, who has competed in some of the track’s biggest events; Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Nobals; Grade 1 winner Howard Wolowitz, a defending winner on this program; and Canadian classic winner Caitlinhergrtness. “If you put the money up, people are going to come,” trainer Brendan Walsh, who has three horses entered on the stakes program, told track publicity. “The incentive isn’t there to get everything out of Kentucky anymore after Churchill Downs. With the purses, you have to take a good look at Turfway.” :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. As Walsh referenced, the Synthetic Championships are positioned to give Kentucky-based runners an additional major prize to target before heading to their winter bases, with many trainers’ top strings decamping for Florida, New Orleans, or Hot Springs. The opportunity to run one more time in the Bluegrass State is particularly lucrative for Kentucky-breds, as the stakes purses include $50,000 reserved for registered Kentucky-breds from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund. In addition to being a well-timed and lucrative card, the timing provides additional incentive for those considering retiring fillies and mares to broodmare duty for 2026. The two distaff events on the card, the My Charmer and Holiday Inaugural, are sponsored by Claiborne Farm and are part of the “Make Your Mare” series in partnership with Turfway. The top three finishers in each race will receive credits to use toward the stud fees of the farm’s stallions in either the 2026 or 2027 breeding seasons. “For the mares, it gives them one more shot at black type before the breeding shed,” said trainer Kelsey Danner, who has multi-time Turfway stakes winner Nice as Pie entered in the Holiday Inaugural. “This is her last race before being bred. Hopefully, she goes out with a bang.” Encino returns to Turfway, perhaps his favorite track, for the Prairie Bayou. Although the colt is a Grade 3 winner on dirt and a stakes winner on turf, he has been a cut above on the Tapeta. His performances at Turfway, where he has never been worse than second, include a win in the 2024 John Battaglia Memorial and a runner-up effort in the Grade 3 Kentucky Cup Classic this March behind Mercante, who continued on to display class this season. Encino earned a career-high 99 Beyer Speed Figure in that effort. Two starts back, Encino won the Presque Isle Mile on Tapeta in Pennsylvania, a race in which he had a tardy start and was taken out of his usual front-running game but prevailed to be much the best anyway. He subsequently finished ninth in the Grade 3 River City on the Churchill Downs turf. “We got him back up to Turfway the other week and he put in a solid work over the track,” said Trace Messina, trainer Brad Cox’s local assistant. “He’s obviously run well at Turfway in the past, and we’re really looking forward to getting him back over the surface for Saturday’s race.” Encino has drawn the outside post in the main body of the field of 12, with one also-eligible currently excluded. With a very short run into the first turn, Encino will need to break alertly and clear if he does not want to give up an extreme amount of ground – although he has shown he is good enough to adjust if dealt a less-than-ideal hand. Searching for the lead alongside Encino is likely to be Quatrocento, but Encino may have a surface edge, as Quatrocento has done his best work on turf. The forwardly placed Theismann is coming off back-to-back allowance-level wins on turf but doesn’t have the speed figures to match the other two pace horses. Dresden Row seems to have the tactical abilities to lay close to a tepid pace or to sit farther back and come with a run if they fly up front. The Woodbine-based colt has never finished outside of the top three and is coming off a victory in the Grade 3 Autumn Stakes. In his only prior trip to Turfway, he was second by a head in last year’s Prairie Bayou. The Holiday Cheer, at six furlongs, features a solid field with plenty of familiar names. Howard Wolowitz may be rounding into form as he cuts back to a preferred distance and comes back to a track on which he has performed well. Winner of the Grade 1 Franklin-Simpson in 2024 at Kentucky Downs, he went on to win the Holiday Cheer on the inaugural Synthetic Championships program. This year, Howard Wolowitz raced in Saudi Arabia, then returned from a six-month layoff to be a fine second by a half-length in the Grade 2 Turf Sprint at Kentucky Downs. He stretched out for the Grade 1 Coolmore Turf Mile at Keeneland and raced in contention before fading to seventh late. He has fired consecutive bullet works in preparation for his Turfway return. Although Nobals is best known for winning the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, trainer Larry Rivelli has opined that synthetic is the gelding’s preferred surface, and the statistics back him up. Nobals has been first or second in 11 of his 12 starts on synthetic. He comes back to Turfway off a repeat score in the Grade 2 Kennedy Road at Woodbine. When last seen at Turfway, he was second to Arrest Me Red – also a multiple graded stakes winner on turf – in the Big Daddy in March, after a near-racelong duel. The My Charmer drew Caitlinhergrtness, who won the Canadian classic King’s Plate on synthetic and was Grade 1-placed on turf at Keeneland in 2024. This year, she is a two-time graded stakes winner on Woodbine’s synthetic and is coming off a close second in the Grade 3 Bessarabian. Meanwhile, given a choice between the one-mile My Charmer and six-furlong Holiday Inaugural, Pondering, who defeated Caitlinhergrtness in the seven-furlong Bessarabian, has chosen to cut back for the Holiday Inaugural. She’s Lookin Lucky, who is Grade 3-placed on turf, comes into the My Charmer off a runner-up effort in an allowance to Proctor Street, who subsequently won the Grade 3 Cardinal at Churchill. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.