Streaking Lagynos gets one more start on favorite course in Wise Dan
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Lagynos came into the Churchill Downs spring-summer meet in hot form and has only continued his hot streak. He gets one more chance to run on a course he loves at this meet in Saturday’s Grade 2, $500,000 Wise Dan Stakes, looking to stretch his win streak to five against a few he has defeated already this year, plus a mighty new challenger in Grade 1 winner Fort Washington.
Mentally, Lagynos “always runs with so much confidence,” trainer Steve Asmussen said of the 5-year-old Kantharos horse he has trained throughout his career for Prince Sultan Bin Mishal Al Saud. “He expects to win . . . and is doing his best right now.”
Although Lagynos has indeed hit his best form this year, he has always been a consistent runner. A winner at 2, he was a Grade 3 winner on turf with four other stakes placings at age 3. Of note, he also won the off-the-turf Woodchopper on a sloppy Fair Grounds track that year. There is a strong possibility of rain in Louisville on both Friday and Saturday. Although Churchill’s turf course has handled precipitation well this spring, the possibility of some give in the course, or the more unlikely possibility of a graded stakes being rained off, must be considered. In addition to a sloppy-track win, Lagynos has multiple graded stakes placings on turf courses rated good, including a third in the Grade 2 American Turf at Churchill in his 3-year-old season.
Last year at age 4, Lagynos won the Tapit Stakes at Kentucky Downs and placed in four other stakes. This year, the consistent horse has gotten on a roll. After finishing second in the Colonel E.R. Bradley Stakes in January at Fair Grounds, he captured the Grade 3 Fair Grounds and Grade 2 Muniz Memorial Classic during that meet. Coming back to Churchill Downs – where he has only missed the top three once in 10 starts – Lagynos continued his win streak with a victory in the Opening Verse on April 30, besting Chasing the Crown, who he faces again Saturday. He added the Grade 3 Arlington on May 30, beating a solid field. His career record stands at 27-9-5-7, with earnings of more than $2.3 million.
“He’s been wonderful,” Asmussen said. “The horse is a barn favorite, always has been. . . . I think Jose [Ortiz, regular rider] just knows the horse extremely well.”
Churchill-loving Brilliant Berti, who has won 5 of 7 outings on this course, won the 2025 Wise Dan for Cherie DeVaux, with Lagynos third. However, Brilliant Berti is winless since and finished fourth behind Lagynos in the Arlington, the first time he has ever been worse than second here.
If millionaire Fort Washington follows the same path he took last year for Shug McGaughey, the Wise Dan may be a means to an end. Last year, he won the Grade 3 Dinner Party in Maryland – on a course rated good – and was fourth in the Wise Dan as a bridge to victory in the Grade 1 Arlington Million in August. Now 7, Fort Washington comes back to the Wise Dan off a repeat victory in the Dinner Party, his fifth career graded stakes win.
Mercante, most recently fifth in the Grade 1 Turf Classic on the Kentucky Derby undercard, has not won since taking the 2025 Arlington, with Brilliant Berti second and Lagynos third. He would likely handle some cut in the ground. Last year, he was a close second in the Turf Classic on a course officially rated good on a wet day beneath the Twin Spires; one race later, Sovereignty won the Kentucky Derby on a sloppy, sealed track.
Dresden Row has won three straight, starting with the Grade 3 Autumn Stakes on Woodbine’s synthetic course last November. He steps back into graded company off two allowance-level turf victories.
Flying Mohawk returns to stakes company off a pair of allowance-level wins with career-best Beyer Speed Figures. He won an allowance on yielding turf at Fair Grounds to start his season.
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