Willy D's keeps turning a profit with Fayette victory

There are good claims – and then there are Willy D’s level claims.

Claimed for $50,000 on March 23, 2025, by Paradise Farm and trainer Mike Maker, Willy D’s earned his new connections the better part of $400,000 last year – and was just getting started. This past March, Willy D’s won the $300,000 Kentucky Cup Classic. In May, he captured the $200,000 Lake Ouchita, and if one imagined Willy D’s couldn’t produce an encore after taking down the $1 million Charles Town Classic on Aug. 28, well, he went wire to wire Saturday at Keeneland and won the Grade 3, $350,000 Fayette Stakes.

Willy D’s earned Paradise and co-owner Case Chambers another $198,000 in the Fayette, and his bankroll in 2026 alone sits at about $1.16 million.

It did not come easily. Willy D’s had to fight tooth and nail through most of the homestretch to turn away a sustained bid from Stars and Stripes, who came abreast Willy D’s at the three-sixteenths marker and took a narrow lead at the eighth pole before falling a neck short.

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“He looked like he was passed in the stretch and he dug in to get the victory,” Maker said.

The top two were much the best in the Fayette, with third place This Is Uscar 3 3/4 lengths behind Stars and Stripes in third. Hit Show, trying for his third straight Fayette win, never mounted a rally and finished sixth, though he did better than 7-2 favorite Nevada Beach, who checked in 10th. Nevada Beach stumbled mildly out of the gate and wound up much farther off the pace than usual, getting shuffled all the way back to last into the far turn. Tumbarumba, a 5-1 chance making his first start since the Dubai World Cup, tracked the pace but faded to last of 12.

Willy D’s clocked 1:49.56 for 1 1/8 miles over a fast track and paid $18.02 to win. The 5-year-old gelding is by Lookin at Lucky out of Boston Mine, by Mineshaft.

So Sandy drew into the race from the also-eligible list after Geared Up was an early scratch – and a key scratch. Geared Up, if no one else, was going to the front, and Willy D’s does all his best running leading or pressing the pace. With Geared Up out, Nevada Beach stumbling, and no one else willing to push forward, Willy D’s set a comfortable tempo, going 24.25 and 48.61.

“Once he got to the lead, he put up his ears, and from then on, I was pretty confident,” Velazquez said. “Once you get to the three-eighths pole, you have to ride him. He’s not going to give you everything he has unless you ride him.”

Stars and Stripes, second to Forever Young last out in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, stalked the pace from fourth after encountering a touch of early trouble and looked like a certain winner in midstretch. Willy D’s, the one-time claimer, a great claim, was not having it, and won the Fayette on closing day at Keeneland.

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