Futile Gesture zips to Nursery win
King’s River shocks Maryland Million Turf
Kerness K wins 11th consecutive race
LAUREL, MD—A dense mist rose from the infield lake at Laurel Park Saturday morning, blanketing the racetrack but not dampening anticipation for the 41st edition of the Jim McKay Maryland Million.
Affectionately and appropriately named “Maryland’s Day at the Races,” the afternoon showcased the state’s absolute best, whether as a breeder, jockey, owner, trainer, backstretch employee, or racehorse.
As proven again in the day’s main event, no locally based, Maryland-bred racehorse can surpass Barbadian Runner.
“Maryland’s Horse” successfully defended his crown in the $150,000 Brown Advisory Maryland Million Classic for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/8 miles, delighting a large crowd that came to cheer and bet on the popular 4-year-old gelding.
They knocked him down to 1-5 on the tote board, clapped with enthusiasm as he and his regular rider, Forest Boyce, passed by them in the post parade, then roared with joy as he surged past Wickedivine and Sacred Thunder with a quarter mile to go.
They rushed to surround the winner’s circle as Barbadian Runner’s veteran trainer, Henry Walters, humbly accepted the trophy.
The Cinderella story of the $5,000 yearling-turned-millionaire continues.
“We looked at several horses at that yearling sale,” Walters said in a video feature earlier this week. “We had about ten that we were really interested in. The ones before him, we didn’t get. We either changed our mind late or we got outbid. When his number came up, we had looked at him earlier on, and he looked like he’d fit in our program.”
Barbadian Runner always trained like a dependable horse.
“The more he ran, the more he blossomed,” Walters explained. “It was quite a surprise to me that he would go a route of ground because he was built like a sprinter, and trained like a sprinter. Once he had a half-dozen races in him, he showed that he wanted to go longer.”
Barbadian Runner is a very handy horse, meaning he can adapt to any race scenario. He broke very well under Boyce and settled in a pocket, just behind pacesetter Goodbye Note and outside the pace-presser Wickeddivine.
The fractions of 23.83 and 48.08 seconds were fair, and Wickeddivine, making his first start beyond six furlongs, moved into a short lead after six furlongs in 1:13.41. Barbadian Runner deftly eased off the inside to avoid a backpedaling Goodbye Note, then set his sights on Sacred Thunder.
There was little drama in the stretch as Barbadian Runner took the lead and strutted home by 4 ¾ lengths in 1:50.03 on a fast track. Sacred Thunder was second, 4 ¾ lengths ahead of Market Maven. Wickeddivine, Omar Comin, In the Dance, Davyjonz, and Goodbye Note completed the order of finish. Derbyness, Roll On Jesse, and Bill of Rights failed to escape the Also Eligible list.
Barbadian Runner paid $2.40 to win.
“We were unsure what kind of pace we were looking at today,” said Walters. “I [didn’t] give [Forest] any instructions. I said to play it by ear, and ride him like you usually do.”
Walters appreciated the fans’ support. “It’s great,” he said. “He’s got his own fan club.”
Boyce, perennially underrated yet consistently excellent, rode two winners on the card after Celtic Contender won the Sprint. Her mounts have earned $2,898,286 this year, her highest total since 2013, and she has earned at least $2 million every year but two since 2010. The Maryland Million Classic was her tenth stakes win this year, tying her career seasonal best.
“I loved that today he broke so sharp, which is where you needed to be,” Boyce said of Barbadian Runner. “I thought we might be a little bit further back, but he normally doesn’t break that sharp. In the last race, I was riding him to keep him in position. So when he did [break well], I thought ‘this is great’ because he put me where I needed to be.”
Bred by Shamrock Farm, Barbadian Runner is by Barbados and out of Quiet Run, by Northern Afleet. His dam is an unraced half-sister to Grade 3 winner It Happened Again.
In an era when top horses often have abbreviated careers, 4-year-old Barbadian Runner has 27 starts, including 11 wins, 8 seconds, and 4 thirds. He has won stakes races at Laurel, Monmouth, Charles Town, and Delaware, and has earned $1,183,635.
Walters was noncommittal about Barbadian Runner’s next race. He said Barbadian Runner may start again in 2026, but the long-term goal is to three-peat in the Classic next year.
*Futile Gesture zips to Nursery win
Futile Gesture, adding blinkers for the first time, showed surprising early speed under jockey Jorge Ruiz, withstood a strong turn challenge from favored Walt’s Notion, and drew away from the field to win the $100,000 Fasig-Tipton Maryland Million Nursery for 2-year-olds at six furlongs.
Trained by Michael Trombetta, Futile Gesture took a stride or two to find his best rhythm, then surged to the front, setting fractions of 22.18 and 45.12 seconds. Favored Walt’s Notion, the only two-time winner in the field and coming off a front-running score in the James F. Lewis III Stakes at Laurel on October 3, loomed boldly on the outside, but Futile Gesture shooed him away inside the quarter pole.
From there, the only question was the margin. Officially, it was eight lengths.
Walt’s Notion finished second, half a length ahead of Call It. Sip of Manhattan, Aruba Ariba, Derry Moon, Eclipseness, Uncle K O, and El Pantera followed. Monster Mitch was scratched at the gate, and Remembertheword and Metallican also withdrew.
Futile Gesture returned $23.40 as the distant third choice in the betting. He clocked 1:11.08 on the fast track.
Ruiz said he felt Walt’s Notion breathing down his neck and was surprised by his mount’s response. “I saw him. He put pressure on passing the quarter pole, and then I didn’t see him.”
“You usually don’t get that kind of a response out of a set of blinkers, but boy, I guess coming off those 5 ½ furlong races had him fairly sharp,” Trombetta said by telephone after the race. “I don’t know what to say. I’m just shocked he ran that good. To run against the favorite as well as he did, it was just a lot of fun to watch him. I couldn’t have expected that, to be honest. It gives me a whole new way of thinking of this horse now.”
A homebred owned by Stuart Grant’s The Elkstone Group, Futile Gesture is a gelding by Friesan Fire out of Singita Dreams (by First Samurai). His second dam, Sassy’s Dream, was stakes-placed at 1 1/16 miles on turf.
Futile Gesture was a precocious baby, winning his debut in a 4 ½-furlong maiden special weight race at Laurel on June 6.
“We always liked him, but he’s gotten better every day that we had him,” Trombetta said. “We gave him time after his first win. We turned him out for a month because there was nowhere else to go, and it seemed like it was a perfect plan for him.”
Trombetta opted to run Futile Gesture three times at Colonial Downs over the summer, and the chestnut hit the board in all three, including a runner-up finish in the restricted Jamestown Stakes on August 29.
Trombetta cited the restricted Juvenile Stakes at Laurel Park on December 26 as a possible goal for Futile Gesture.
*King’s River shocks Maryland Million Turf
While Barbadian Runner’s victory didn’t surprise anyone, King’s River shocked horseplayers with a $100.60 mutuel payoff in the $125,000 John Deere Maryland Million Turf for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/8 miles on turf.
Piloted by Kevin Gomez, King’s River is the first stakes winner trained by Jose Magana, who claimed King’s River for $7,500 following a third-place finish in a dirt sprint last year.
Breaking from post 11 in the 12-horse field, King’s River raced four paths wide into the first turn while War Humor and Wicked Prankster set fractions of 23.28 and 47.26 seconds.
Wicked Prankster, a two-time winner of this race, opened a 2 1/2-length lead after six furlongs in 1:12.67, but Gomez kept King’s River wide and moving. Losing ground can be costly, but in this race it was the right call, as several horses racing inside King’s River encountered heavy traffic.
Gomez switched King’s River to his right lead in the midstretch, and they snatched the lead from Wicked Prankster. Alakan rallied stoutly but fell a head short at 1:50.44.
Thundering, the odds-on favorite, finished third, two lengths behind Alakan. Zevon, Hanksdiviningrod, Wicked Prankster, Magical Mondays, and Majestic Blue followed. Pont Aven, Live Stream, Virginia Fitz, and War Humor were next. Crabs N Beer and Galatown Gal scratched. Hardspun Reason failed to make the race after being on the Also Eligible list.
“Nice win,” said Gomez, “I got the instructions to break and let him settle, and not send him out of the gate, and try to make one run. I started asking him from the three-eighths pole, then tried not to get in traffic, and that’s what we did. Luckily, we got a clean trip.”
Although Gomez had never ridden King’s River in a race, he was familiar with the horse. “I galloped him a couple of days ago, and then I knew how he likes to go around. Then I watched the replays from his previous races. That helped me a lot.”
Magana was understandably elated. “This is a special horse,” Magana said. “When we first claimed him and started training him, we saw the way he stretches out, so we said he’s got to go long on the turf.”
King’s River returned from a June 21 layoff three weeks ago, but the race was washed off the turf, and he finished sixth, beaten by 25 ¾ lengths. However, the race provided ample fitness for the 5-year-old, who finished second in a Maryland Million Starter Handicap on turf last year.
Bred by Bryan Blair Minnich, King’s River is a gelded son of Irish War Cry and is owned by Pepe Stable and J L M Jacona Stable. A $17,000 yearling buyback, he has won 8 of 40 races, earning $402,045.
*Kerness K wins 11th consecutive race
Kerness K ($3), the winningest horse in North America this year, captured his 11th consecutive start, besting a game Cap Com by 1 1/2 lengths in the $50,000 Willow Oaks Farm Maryland Million Starter Handicap for 3-year-olds and up who have started at a claiming price of $12,500 or less since October 11, 2025.
Trained by Jamie Ness, Kerness K ran closer to the pace than in his recent starts, attacked from the outside on the turn, and drove home under a whopping 129-lb. impost. Martin Chuan rode the winner for the fifth consecutive time. Kerness K, a 4-year-old gelding by Great Notion, covered seven furlongs in 1:23.25.
“My partner, Morris Kernan, and I were lucky to buy him at the sale as a yearling,” Ness said. “I went to look at a different horse, and somebody was showing him across the barn. I saw him and said, ‘Wow, that’s the best-looking horse at the sale.’ I called my partner and told him [we should buy this horse]. We paid more than we usually pay, $70,000. We lost him in the claiming ranks at $40,000, but we had a chance to get him back for $7,500, which we took. We won a two-way shake, so we got lucky in that regard. He’s been well-spotted. He shows up every time. I’ve been doing this a long time. It’s hard to win a race, it’s hard to win two, it’s hard to win three and four in a row. We’ve had over 20,000 starts, and it’s rare. It’s hard to keep that horse in that kind of form, and he has. All the credit to him. We spot him right, we space his races, and the results are the results.”
Ness plans to start Kerness K next in one of the Claiming Crown races at Churchill Downs on November 14.
*Around the track:
Trainer Jerry Robb, the winningest active trainer in Jim McKay Maryland Million history, won two more races, pairing with jockey Xavier Perez on Don’t Tell Deren ($24.60) and with Jose Vargas on Marriedtothegame ($9).
Jockey Paco Lopez rode two winners. He booted home Mopo ($5) for trainer Phil Capuano and Whenigettoheaven ($5.40) for trainer Nolan Ramsey.
Live racing resumes Sunday with a ten-race program. Gates open at 11 am ET, the first post time is 12:00 pm ET, and two “Value Pick 5” wagers feature a LOW 12% takeout.
The free “Laurel Park Handicapping Guide” is available on every race day. It features picks, analysis, trainer stats, trip notes, horses to watch, track bias information, and more from The Maryland Jockey Club’s handicapping team. The Sunday guide is available. Click here to view it.
Never miss a second of the action on the Laurel Park YouTube channel. Click here to watch full pan and head-on replays.
Watch “Today at the Races,” the Maryland Jockey Club’s morning handicapping show every racing day at 11 am ET on the Maryland Jockey Club’s X account. Click here to watch.