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Bear River, with jockey James Graham aboard, led every step of the way to spring a 19-1 upset in the $2 million The Mint Kentucky Turf Sprint (G2) by a head Saturday at Kentucky Downs in Franklin. (COADY MEDIA)<\/p>\n$2M The Mint KY Turf Sprint: Bear River leads all the way<\/p>\n
Published 6:52 pm Saturday, August 30, 2025<\/p>\n
Bear River, with jockey James Graham aboard, led every step of the way to spring a 19-1 upset in the $2 million The Mint Kentucky Turf Sprint (G2) by a head Saturday at Kentucky Downs in Franklin. (COADY MEDIA)<\/p>\n
FRANKLIN \u2013 In a reverse of tactics that saw him win his prep 27 days earlier, Charles K. Marquis\u2019 Bear River led every step of the way and held off a furious late bid from favored Howard Wolowitz to spring a 19-1 upset in the $2 million The Mint Kentucky Turf Sprint (G2) by a half-length Saturday at Kentucky Downs.<\/p>\n
The six-furlong Turf Sprint for 3-year-olds and up was the third of five stakes, four graded, worth $10.5 million in purses, immediately preceding the richest of 12 races on the lucrative program, the $3.5 million Nashville Derby (G3).<\/p>\n
It was the first graded-stakes victory for Bear River and, as a \u201cWin and You\u2019re In\u201d qualifier for the Breeders\u2019 Cup, earned the 4-year-old Flameaway ridgling an all-fees-paid trip to Del Mar for the $1 million Turf Sprint (G1) Nov. 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe live in California and (winning trainer Keith Desormeaux) doesn\u2019t come out there anymore. We had to come here to see him, and I\u2019m sure glad we did,\u201d Marquis said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t breathe. I\u2019m glad (Bear River) could. He ran a great race. He runs up front, and front speed seems to be good here today. It\u2019s fabulous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Breaking from Post 5 in a field of 12, Bear River was hustled to the lead by jockey James Graham, who was also aboard in the Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Sprint on Aug. 3 at Ellis Park where they stalked the pace in the two path before prevailing by a neck over Coppola at odds of 17-1.<\/p>\n
Intent on the front end, Graham and Bear River sped through an opening quarter-mile in 22.42 seconds with outside pressure from 4-year-old Grade 2 winner Pipsy, the lone filly in the field. Nobals, the 2023 Breeders\u2019 Cup Turf Sprint winner, raced further out in third while Howard Wolowitz settled in fourth along the rail.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe broke, he was on the lead and he just powered home. He\u2019s just got this another dimension of speed and finishing power as a 4-year-old,\u201d Desormeaux said. \u201cMaybe I ran him too much as a 3-year-old. He ran hard as a 2-year-old. He ran hard as a 3-year-old. A month to six weeks I was spacing them (races), at the most. But he earned his way. He\u2019s a top-level horse. We gave him the time and he just came back a monster.\u201d<\/p>\n
The half-mile went in 44.69 seconds with the order unchanged and Bear River still comfortably in control, as Howard Wolowitz searched for room inside and European invader Khaadem \u2013 late-running runner-up to Cogburn in this race last year \u2013 began to rev up on the far outside.<\/p>\n
Irad Ortiz Jr. and Howard Wolowitz finally found a seam past Pipsy midway down the straight and set their sights on the leader, but a determined Bear River held firm up front and avenged a sixth-place finish here behind Saturday\u2019s even-money favorite in last year\u2019s Franklin-Simpson (G1). Khadeem held off fellow millionaire Arrest Me Red for third.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t\u00a0need to be on the lead. He proved that the last day,\u201d Graham said. \u201cMuch sharper today. Was sharp the first day, which I put down to being fresh.\u00a0\u00a0Was sharp the last day, and he got sharper again. He\u2019s grown in between the last two races, I feel like he\u2019s got bigger since his last run.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s always been quick. We\u2019re capitalizing on the speed now,\u201d he added. \u201cI wasn\u2019t really slowing down at the wire, I had somebody rushing at me, but as soon as he felt him, he grabbed me and went again. He got a little bit idle, but was always going to get there. Fantastic horse to ride and fantastic guy to ride for. I appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The winning time was 1:06.91 over a firm course. Bear River returned $40.30 to win.<\/p>\n
Though disappointed in the outcome trainer Jose D\u2019Angelo was pleased with the performance from Gold Square\u2019s Howard Wolowitz. The 4-year-old son of Munnings was making just his second start of the season and first in North America after finishing 10th\u00a0in the 1351 Turf Sprint (G2) on Feb. 22 at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe ran a huge race,\u201d he said. \u201cI think he was the best horse in the race, just unlucky with the post position because he\u2019s fast, but not fast enough to get around on these short races. You can see on the video he was checking, trying to get his position. He doesn\u2019t like too much to go inside horses. He ran huge after the layoff, so I\u2019m very happy and proud of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bred in Kentucky by Dreamfields Farm, Don Brady and Brendan Burke, Bear River registered his seventh win and fourth in a stakes from 22 starts. The winner\u2019s purse pushed him his career bankroll past the $1 million mark. Bear River fetched just $50,000 as 2-year-old in training at the June 2023 Ocala Breeders\u2019 Sales auction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that was a value purchase,\u201d Desormeaux said. \u201cI buy horses for value. I tell anyone who wants to invest with me that it doesn\u2019t matter what I pay. I buy good horses, and I know I can get you there. So to see that motto fulfilled in this performance, it\u2019s very rewarding. It\u2019s what I\u2019m in the business for, and just to see the system work, I can\u2019t say how rewarding it is. And for someone who has been with me for 10 years and stayed loyal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"$2M The Mint KY Turf Sprint: Bear River leads all the way Published 6:52 pm Saturday, August 30,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-104760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}