Salvator Mile Stakes - Grade 3
Monmouth Park - 13th June 2026
EAST AVENUE was a Grade 1 winner as a Juvenile. On just his 2nd start, he won the G1 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity Stakes at Keeneland in October 2024 and appeared to have the world at his feet, so much so that he was sent off as the favourite for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile that year. He finished 2nd behind Burnham Square in the Blue Grass Stakes a few months later and wasn’t disgraced when 8th behind Sovereignty in the Kentucky Derby, but there was a slight sense of an anti-climax about his 3-year-old campaign, which ended when he was a beaten favourite in the West Virginia Derby in early August. He had taken his time to show his best form as a 4-year-old too but his trainer’s comments after the Salvator Mile Stakes that “It appears he might be back by the looks of that race” sum up a superb performance from the son of Medaglia D’Oro.
East Avenue certainly had to win this race the hard way. A winning time of 1:35.99 was the 3rd fastest winning time in this race in the last decade, with the best being set by Classy Class in 2017 (1:35.27) and with a finishing speed of 94.3% from the winner, it was a long way home from the bottom of the far turn for Tyler Gaffalione. Having been drawn widest of all, East Avenue got off to the worst possible start by being slightly slow to leave the gate, recording a time of 12.41s for the opening furlong (ranked 6th of 6). He was on the back foot from that point, forced to race slightly wide around the turn and then behind when the pace began to lift at the end of the back straight. However, East Avenue worked extremely hard to get himself on terms, eventually coming alongside the leaders as they straightened for the judge and from that point, his stamina kicked in and he recorded the longest average stride length figure in the field for each of the final 3 furlongs. In a race where the stride variance between the runners was minimal, East Avenue’s ability to gallop on was the key. He was the fastest horse in the field for furlongs 6 and 7, but he found more when asked to, recording the only increase in average stride frequency amongst the 6 runners when going into the final furlong. Last year’s winner Bishop’s Bay (Brad Cox) made him work extremely hard and appeared to be coming back at him in the final strides as he recorded the fastest final furlong time and run-out speeds in the field, but East Avenue had done just enough by that point to hold on, eventually crossing the line just 0.01s ahead of the runner-up. The big question for East Avenue now, is whether he will be able to repeat this performance?
After the race, East Avenue’s trainer Brendan Walsh said “He showed great heart today. He battled hard. He’s a very solid horse. I think this year he has finally been piecing it all together. I don’t think he learned a lot as a young horse because he was so good right away. He’s had some issues as well. I think he is finally piecing things together. He has shown a lot of fight this year, which is great to see. He’s a super-talented horse, obviously”. (source: The Paulick Report). There are some eye-catching statistics in this performance, most notably that his average speed figure of 37.5 mph made him the fastest horse to have run over the mile at Monmouth Park since the start of 2022. That’s not overly surprising given the Grade 1 quality that we know him to possess, but given the slow start and the way he had to work to win his race, it would suggest that East Avenue is close to the peak form that he showed in his earlier career. Bishop’s Bay is a proven performer at this level who has 9 wins on his CV, including 3 victories in Grade 3 company and a 4th placed finish in the Saudi Cup behind Forever Young earlier in the year. If we take his performance as the yardstick to measure East Avenue by, then this must be considered the best effort that Brendan Walsh’s charge has put in since the Blue Grass Stakes last year. If that is the case, then the possibility of him returning to his Grade 1 level of form must be in his connections minds after this win at Monmouth Park.