Banishing winning the Jeff Hall Memorial. (Coady Media)
By Robert Yates
Oaklawn stakes winners Banishing and Asternia are now Ellis Park stakes winners.
Banishing snapped a four-race losing streak in Sunday’s $150,000 Jeff Hall Memorial for 3-year-olds and up at 6 ½ furlongs, while Asternia captured Monday’s six-furlong $150,000 Twin Bridges for fillies and mares.
Banishing, the odds-on favorite under Tyler Gaffalione, rallied on the outside through the stretch to nip front-running Booth by a nose for his third career stakes victory. Banishing ($3.74) ran 6 ½ furlongs over a fast track in 1:14.97. The versatile Banishing was among the best horses to compete at the 2024-2025 Oaklawn meeting, compiling a 3-2-0 record from five starts for co-owner/trainer David Jacobson.
Banishing beat millionaire multiple Oaklawn stakes winner Tejano Twist in a December allowance race and won the inaugural $145,000 Byerley Turk – the gelding’s stakes debut – by 7 ½ lengths in January. Both races were six furlongs.
Banishing then finished second, beaten a head, in the 8 ½-furlong $500,000 G3-Razorback Handicap Feb. 23. The Razorback, which Banishing nearly won in wire-to-wire fashion, was run in a meet-best 1:41.88. Banishing outdueled millionaire Grade 1 winner Saudi Crown to win the $500,000 G3-Oaklawn Mile for older horses March 29 before finishing second in the $1.25 million G2-Oaklawn Handicap at 1 1/8 miles April 19.
Banishing’s last four races have been in Kentucky. He dead-heated for second, beaten a neck, in the seven-furlong $1 million G1-Churchill Downs Stakes May 3 and ran second, beaten a neck, in the one-mile $300,000 Hanshin Stakes June 29 at Churchill Downs.
A 5-year-old son of 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper, Banishing has an 8-5-2 record from 22 lifetime starts and earnings of $1,308,709.
Banishing has flourished since co-owner Lawerence P. Roman purchased the gelding for $80,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s 2024 July Horses of Racing Age Sale. Banishing subsequently won two races last fall in Kentucky before shipping to Oaklawn.
Booth was a three-time stakes winner at the 2024-2025 Oaklawn meeting.
The Twin Bridges marked the second career stakes victory for Asternia, a 4-year-old daughter of Astern co-owned and trained by Oaklawn regular Randy Morse. Gaffalione guided Asternia ($7.24) to a one-length victory over Oaklawn-raced Mink’s Palace in the Twin Bridges, which was contested over a sloppy, sealed surface. The winning time for six furlongs was 1:10.26.
Asternia was a 5 ¼-length winner of the six-furlong $200,000 Purple Martin Stakes for 3-year-old fillies in March 2024 at Oaklawn. She was also an allowance winner at six furlongs Feb. 24 at Oaklawn.
Asternia has a 4-5-1 record from 17 lifetime starts and earnings of $593,427.
Finish Lines … … …….
Oaklawn-raced Mullikin finished second in the $400,000 G2-Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap Saturday at Saratoga. …
Oaklawn stakes winner Majestic Oops finished second in the $500,000 G3-Molly Pitcher Stakes Saturday at Monmouth Park. …
Millionaire Oaklawn maiden special weight graduate Sacred Wish finished second in the Monmouth Park’s $300,000 G3-Matchmaker Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on the turf Saturday. …
Oaklawn stakes winner Zeitlos finished second in the $175,000 G3-Caress Stakes for fillies and mares, 3 and up, at 5 ½ furlongs on the turf Saturday at Saratoga.
