A week after running second at 2 1\/16 miles for $1 million, Peachtree Stable\u2019s Tawny Port is set to run back at 1 1\/2 miles for $2.5 million. That\u2019s 3 9\/16 miles to run for $3.5 million \u2014 or just about $1 million per mile.<\/p>\n
Tawny Port finished second to German-based two-mile specialist Flatten the Curve in last Saturday\u2019s $1 million Mountain Dew Bowling Green Gold Cup. Two days later, the 6-year-old horse was doing so well after running 2 1\/16 miles that trainer Miguel Clement decided to enter him Monday for this Saturday\u2019s $2.5 million Grade 2 KTDF Kentucky Turf Cup, a 1 1\/2-mile race in which he was third last year, beaten a total of 1 1\/2 lengths behind victorious Grand Sonata.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the thinking process behind it is that he\u2019s had a couple of runs on the track, and he\u2019s run well both times,\u201d said Clement assistant trainer Lee Vickers. \u201cWanted to see how he came out of the race, and he came out of it pretty good. So we said, \u2018Why not stay and have a crack at the next big pot for the mile-and-a-half race?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were second to a very nice horse the other day. Again, it\u2019s going to be a very tough field. But there\u2019s a lot of money on offer, and he showed an affinity for the track. He\u2019s a healthy horse, pretty consistent on the whole, and he \u2018stays’ well. So why not give him another crack?\u2026. On firm turf, they get over it a bit easier, it doesn\u2019t take out so much energy as it would on dirt. And it\u2019s something that happens quite a lot in Europe. They\u2019ll run a horse at Royal Ascot the first day of the meet and run back the last day of the meet. It\u2019s not beyond the realm, and people are starting to take advantage of doing it now.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe veterinarians really check them over very well. We have a good look to make sure they\u2019ve come out of the race good, so why not go ahead? It\u2019s no shipping in between once they are here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trained at the time by Brad Cox, Tawny Port was second in the Jeff Ruby (G3) over Turfway Park\u2019s synthetic surface, then won Keeneland\u2019s Lexington (G3) on dirt to earn a shot at the Kentucky Derby, finishing seventh and subsequently winning the Ohio Derby (G3).<\/p>\n
Sent to Christophe Clement, Miguel\u2019s late father, Tawny Port became a long-distance turf specialist. Though he has yet to win a graded stakes on turf, the horse has three seconds and four thirds in grass stakes. Last year, Tawny Port went zero for seven, but a second and four thirds gave him purse earnings of $354,350. So far this year, Tawny Port has made $221,000, bringing his career bankroll to more than $1.5 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe majority of the time he runs solid races,\u201d Vickers said. \u201cHe\u2019s very consistent. Obviously, he was with the Cox barn prior, and he was on the Derby trail. He\u2019s always been a very nice horse, and we\u2019re very lucky to have him. We took him out on the grass a couple of years back now at Saratoga, and he really moved well on it. And he had shown a liking to Turfway on the Tapeta previously for Mr. Cox. So it was \u2018go for it!\u2019 And he\u2019s enjoying it and earning a few dollars in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tawny Port will be ridden by Manny Franco.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe does require a kind of aggressive rider,\u201d Vickers said. \u201cHe just saves a bit for himself. He needs someone to get hold of him and make him finish his work, and he does.\u201d<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Sep 2, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Paulick Report as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A week after running second at 2 1\/16 miles for $1 million, Peachtree Stable\u2019s Tawny Port is set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[16353,17399,53545,3004,101,53544,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-110799","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-brad-cox","9":"tag-christophe-clement","10":"tag-lee-vickers","11":"tag-racing","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tawny-port","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110799","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=110799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}