Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G1)
Not every race review on this blog takes a long time to write and this is certainly going to be one of the shorter ones that I post this season. The reason for that is that the 2026 running of the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland was really all about one horse, FURTHER ADO. This was a first success at Grade 1 level for Brad Cox’s 3-year-old son of Gun Runner and on Saturday afternoon’s evidence, it is unlikely to be the last. Here’s a look at the data;
A winner of a maiden at Keeneland in October by 20 lengths, he did round off his 2-year-old season with victory in the G2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs in November. His seasonal return came in the Tampa Bay Derby in early March and the form of his 2nd placed finish behind The Puma was franked when the winner ran a fine race to fill the runner-up spot in the Florida Derby last weekend. Further Ado had a higher top speed figure (40.93 mph) than the winner that day and was probably a slightly unlucky loser to be run down inside the final furlong despite the fact that his closing split was within 0.05s of the winners. On the back of that effort he was sent off at a warm price for the Blue Grass Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland and his supporters rarely had a moment of doubt as he ran out a very comfortable winner.
A winning time of 1:49.58 made this the fastest winning time in the Blue Grass Stakes since Essential Quality in 2021 and Further Ado was 1.75s faster than the 2025 winner Burnham Square. Further Ado recorded a finishing speed of 97.6% and was helped to his fast time figure by a strong early pace with several of his rivals battling for the lead. The leaders covered the opening 5 furlongs in under a minute and having sat directly behind that pace, Irad Ortiz Jr. had Further Ado ideally placed, but as the leaders began to tire around the turn, Further Ado moved front and centre and began to power clear of the field. He closed with furlong splits of 12.35, 12.27 and 12.79s, each of which was the fastest split in the field as his stride frequency increased to an average of 2.31 per second in the penultimate furlong. That figure made him the only horse to record a stride frequency figure above his race average (2.27 per second) in the latter half of the race and helps to explain his dominant display in the latter stages. As might be expected, his late speed figure of 35.63 mph was a clear best (next best Ottinho 32.02 mph) and Further Ado was a class apart in this field.
Although you do have to go all the way back to 1991 to find the last winner of this race to go on to be successful in the Kentucky Derby, the fact that Further Ado recorded the biggest winning margin in the race for the last 20 years has at least booked his place in the first of the Triple Crown races, as well as giving him a solid chance of heading to stud for Spendthrift Farms when his racing duties are over. He may not have the services of Irad Ortiz Jr next month, as he is also the regular rider of Renegade, but he has form at the track and will head into the Kentucky Derby on the back of a wide margin victory in a Grade 1. It’s probably fair to point out that he was a class apart in this Blue Grass Stakes field, with none of the 7 runners recording an average stride length figure above 25 ft. There are certainly better rivals to face next time, but if he can be kept in touch with the early pace, Saturday’s evidence would suggest that Further Ado is a danger to all.