French expatriate jockeys left their mark on Kentucky Downs Preview Saturday at Ellis Park. Jockey Florent Geroux won the $200,000 Ladies Turf Sprint preview on Bay Storm, the $200,000 Dueling Grounds Derby preview on Wadsworth, and finished second by a half-length in the $200,000 Mint Millions Mile preview, which was won by Hozier, whose jockey, Alex Achard, and trainer, Rodolphe Brisset, like Geroux are natives of France.  All three stakes featured close finishes, none more so than the Dueling Grounds Derby preview, where odds-on favorite Wadsworth won a head bob over 14-1 shot Highway Robber. Highway Robber was finishing fastest after racing from the back of an 11-horse field, but just ran out of ground in his first stakes try and only his second start on grass. Brian Lynch trains Highway Robber as well as Anglophile, who came up the rail under Irish expat jockey Declan Cannon to finish third, a neck behind Highway Robber.   Anglophile bumped in upper stretch when squeezing between rivals, while fourth-place Desert Duke raced closer to a pace that collapsed than any of the three who beat him and was stymied behind horses in midstretch.  :: Bet the races with a $250 First Deposit Match + $10 Free Bet and FREE Formulator PPs! Join DRF Bets. While the second-, third-, and fourth-place finishers might have come back thinking they were just as good as the winner, Wadsworth ($3.76) got the trophy for Godolphin and trainer Brad Cox. Geroux had Wadsworth just in front of Highway Robber at the six-furlong marker but went for an earlier bid, picking up steam at the half-mile marker and moving wide around the far turn. Off quick fractions of 23.37 and 46.19, Wadsworth hit the front past the three-sixteenths pole and briefly threatened to go clear. Instead, he wavered, and in the end was saved by the wire, clocking a solid 1:46.30 for 1 1/8 miles over a firm course.   A homebred by Quality Road out of Dickinson, by Medaglia d’Oro, Wadsworth added Saturday’s win to his stakes score July 1 at Ellis in the American Derby.  Hozier ($10.76) was trained early in his career by Bob Baffert and came close to getting onto the Triple Crown trail in 2021. Turned over during his 3-year-old season to Brisset, Hozier during 2022 found a home on turf, though his first stakes win came last fall in the River City Handicap, which was carded for grass and rained onto dirt.   Hozier possesses pace but for whatever reason had fallen too far behind the earlier leaders in his two most recent starts. On Saturday, Achard kept him within a few lengths of a modest tempo. Trapped behind horses at the quarter pole, Achard found a seam in upper stretch and slipped outside, Hozier running down Geroux aboard a stubborn Fuerteventura to post a half-length win.  Fuerteventura stayed on stoutly between horses as did Big Dreaming, who raced nearest the rail and set the pace from the half-mile pole until the final furlong after his early front-end rival, Minnesota Ready, backed off the lead before the far turn. Big Dreaming finished a neck behind Fuerteventura, with 5-2 favorite Gray’s Fable closing strongly into slow fractions to finish an eye-catching fourth. Off splits of 24.60 and 48.39, Hozier was timed in 1:34.28 for the mile. By Pioneerof the Nile out of Merry Meadow, by Henny Hughes, Hozier campaigns for Storyteller Racing.  Bay Storm, another favorite, benefited from Geroux’s ride landing the Ladies Turf Sprint preview by a neck over Quaria Comet. Breaking from post 1, Bay Storm stalked the pace while glued to the fence, where Geroux stayed until pacesetting Love and Money drifted off the rail at the three-sixteenths pole. Bay Storm went willingly through the gap, saving all the ground as Quaria Comet rallied wide under Joe Talamo. The top two were much the best, pacepressing Goin Good third by 1 1/4 lengths.  Bay Storm, a 5-year-old mare by Kantharos out of Stormy Regatta, by Midshipman, ran 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:01.24 and paid $5.12 while winning for the fifth time in 16 starts. Bay Storm, owned by Bridlewood Farm and trained by Jonathan Thomas, came into the race on a six-race losing streak but had performed competitively in all those defeats. Saturday at Ellis, she found good fortune under the guiding hands of a Frenchman.  :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.