Who Dey takes on familiar rival Governor's Buckeye Cup

Seven times Who Dey has shipped from Kentucky, where he trains, to Ohio, the state of his birth, and seven times he has gone home victorious. Undefeated, yes, but hardly unchallenged. Who Dey’s last two Ohio-bred stakes wins came by a head and a neck, and the horse who nearly took him down both times, Fair and Square, stands between Who Dey and his perfect Ohio record Saturday at Thistledown.

The two older horses clash in the Governor’s Buckeye Cup, one of five $100,000 stakes restricted to Ohio-breds on the Saturday card. The stakes come as the card’s first five races on a card that starts at 12:10 p.m. Eastern.

Based at Churchill Downs with trainer Tommy Drury, 5-year-old Who Dey, by rights, should boss his fellow Ohio-breds. Here stands a solid open stakes horse proven over more than two years, since his second in the Lafayette in April 2024 at Keeneland. Last fall, he was a creditable fourth in the Grade 2 Clark, and last out, on May 30, he checked in second, beaten a half-length in the Grade 3 Blame. Both those races came over 1 1/8 miles; Who Dey suits a one-turn mile sure, but seems to adequately stay a true route, so is it merely the 1 1/4-mile distance of these Ohio-bred stakes that brings him down to Fair and Square’s level? Or is Fair and Square just a specialist at the 10-furlong trip he runs in the Governor’s Buckeye?

When Who Dey beat Fair and Square a neck two Octobers ago in the Best of Ohio Endurance at Belterra Park, he was bumped hard just after the start, pushing him back to 10th in the early stages and forcing a wide middle move into a dawdling pace. No such trouble befell Who Dey in the same race last October, and Who Dey was life and death to get home by a head.

Fair and Square will go forward from his rail draw and enters on roughly the same pattern that won him this race – sans Who Dey – a year ago. This year and last, he returned in May from a seven-month layoff and lost an open one-mile allowance race by 14 1/2 lengths. Second time out both cycles he finished second in another one-mile allowance, improving his Beyer Speed Figure 30 points in 2025 and 21 this year.

Ekati’s Way should at least keep Fair and Square honest on the lead, and beat him three lengths on July 13. Who Dey never has gone off higher than 4-5 in his Ohio starts and has been as low as 1-20. Looks on paper like he should have his way with the Governor’s Buckeye Cup – but it has looked that way before, too.

Juvenile stakes

Trainer Brendan Walsh races under the brightest lights – Kentucky, New York, Breeders’ Cups. But the trainer of a capable Ohio-bred 2-year-old, no matter who he is, might well find oneself racing in Ohio, as Walsh does with the filly Panda Listen.

Panda Listen debuted July 17 at Belterra in the $75,000 Ta Dah Stakes and makes her second start Saturday at Thistledown as the likely favorite in the six-furlong Miss Ohio.

Panda Listen went off at 4-5 in the Ta Dah, and bettors might make too little of the fact she got beat on the square by Motownsnojoke, one of eight Saturday rivals.

Granted, Panda Listen gave up one race of experience to Motownsnojoke, but she had no answer when Motownsnojoke came to her past the quarter pole in the Ta Dah. Motownsnojoke looked like the stronger, more physically advanced filly July 17, and that might still be the case.

Box Office Hit had a slightly tricky trip in the Ta Dah and can do better than her fourth-place finish there. Michelle My Belle earned a lowly 31 Beyer winning her career debut but did so with a quick move past the three-furlong marker and has some upside in the Miss Ohio.

Motownsnojoke faced males in her debut and ran second behind Book Value, who came back to romp in the $75,000 Hoover at Belterra and stands as the most likely winner of the Cleveland Kindergarten on Saturday. He’s well drawn outside seven rivals in the six-furlong Kindergarten and has won his two races employing different styles while racing professionally both times.

Breakheart Pass, by hot first-crop Ohio stallion Event Driven, in his lone outing won an Ohio-bred maiden sprint by 18 1/4 lengths. Only one of the six horses he defeated has made more than that single start, but early returns suggest his competition was quite weak even for the class level. Nonetheless, the colt looked fairly physically advanced for a summer 2-year-old and probably is about as talented as his massive win margin suggests.

Battle Ready rates a look as a value play. He failed to change leads even while romping in his July 7 debut and only changed belatedly after pulling a somewhat difficult trip when a game second in the Hoover.

Honey Jay Stakes

Silent Rule, a 5-year-old mare who has raced 10 times and never lost, appears set to make her first start in almost a year this weekend, but it could come Sunday at Mountaineer Park rather than Saturday at Thistledown in the six-furlong Honey Jay.

Silent Rule hasn’t started since she beat males in the 2025 Honey Jay, and comments her trainer, Jay Bernardini, made to Horse Racing Nation earlier this week suggest she’s more likely to stay home at Mountaineer and face allowance company than jump into this stakes race straight off the bench.

Bernardini entered Silent Rule in the Honey Jay before Mountaineer drew its Sunday card and didn’t yet know if the race at Silent Rule’s home track would fill.

Silent Rule won her second and third starts by a combined one length but since has proven untouchable while sticking mainly to Ohio-bred competition. She drew post 3 in the Honey Jay and would be facing a pressured inside trip were she to return at Thistledown from her long injury layoff.

Superwolf, a 4-year-old gelding, has turned into a win machine himself, reeling off six straight, including three stakes, for trainer Robert Gorham but faces challenging race dynamics as a dedicated front-runner in a Honey Jay packed with early and middle speed. Empire’s Fire looks like the longer price who could capitalize on a pace meltdown.

◗ What would a Pay the Man Stakes be without Candlelight Hours?

Seven-year-old Candlelight Hours finished third in this 1 1/8-mile contest for older fillies and mares in 2022, won it in 2023, finished second in 2024, and won it again last summer, airing by more than six lengths.

But is she the same horse this year? Candlelight Hours didn’t stride like her usual self while finishing a well-beaten second as the 2-5 favorite in the Petro Memorial on May 7. A sprint allowance prep for the Pay the Man on July 14 looked better, and Candlelight Hours could get a favorable trip behind a quick, contested pace that could prove the undoing of morning-line favorite Silver Kiss.