Jose Ortiz after Lagynos gave him a fourth win on Kentucky Downs’ opening card in the $500,000 Keeneland Sales Tapit Stakes. (Coady Media/Renee Torbit)
Kentucky Downs Release
FRANKLIN, Ky. — Think of Lagynos’ facile victory in the $500,000 Keeneland Sales Tapit Stakes as the first of what could be a couple of appearances at Kentucky Downs this season.
Lagynos settled into a stalking trip early, then scooted away under jockey Jose Ortiz to win the track’s opening day stake by 5 ¼ lengths. The victory for the 4-year-old Katharos colt owned by Prince Sultan Bin Mishal Al Saud was his first of the year, ending a five-race losing streak. Three of those losses came in graded stakes.
With a slew of solid stakes performances on his resume, Lagynos was the 3-2 favorite in the field of nine and he ran like it with a smart win, paying $5.00 in the fifth triumph of his 20-race career.
Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen said Lagynos might run back in the $2 million FanDuel TV Mint Millions on Sept. 6.
“That’s what I hope,” Asmussen said. “If they like the course, they like the course. We’ve got until next year to freshen him up. But I want to run him back, yes.”
Heading down the stretch. (Coady Media)
Asmussen made the same type of move last year when Tiztastic won a $250,000 Keeneland Sale allowance race on opening day and 10 days later won the $1 million Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile.
Starting from the outside post, Lagynos was never far from the lead established by Paros. Through a quarter-mile in :23.18, Lagynos was fourth, less than a length back. He was third, 2 ½ lengths behind through a half-mile in :45.37. Ortiz, up for the first time on Lagynos, said he was riding him with confidence and asked him for more approaching the quarter pole. Lagynos gave him everything he wanted and had a five-length lead early in the long stretch. Running alone, they completed the one mile and 70 yards race in 1:36.10. That would be a track record. However, with a new timing system, Kentucky Downs, at least for now, is considering 2025 a new baseline.
“He broke good. He put me in a great spot,” said Ortiz, who rode four winners. “And, honestly, when I asked him at the quarter pole, I was full of horse.”
Ohana Honor snagged the runner-up spot by a nose over Cameo Performance.
Lagynos earned $298,800 in the Tapit to become a millionaire with career earnings of $1,222,891.
“He’s a very nice horse,” Ortiz said. “I was expecting him to run a good race today. Steve was very happy with him coming into it. I think it was a nice race for him and a good prep for something bigger.”
Lagynos posted four-straight in-the-money finishes to start the year – three of them by less than a length. In his most recent start, he was seventh, beaten four lengths, in the G1 Fourstardave at Saratoga.
“I loved to see him have a win like that, because he deserves it so much,” Asmussen said. “He shows up. He’s danced every dance. He’s a very tough horse. What a nice win for him. Breaking his maiden here, you know he’s got a little bit of an affinity for course. Man, he carried himself beautifully in the middle of the race and accelerated home nicely.”
Ortiz said he had an ideal trip.
“I wanted to be right behind the speed, just depending how fast we were going uphill the first eight of a mile and how he was carrying me,” Ortiz said. “But he was carrying me uphill, too good to just pull him back. I let him be and let him take a position. It felt like, from that point on, I was on the best horse in the race, so I rode him like that.”
