Risen Star Stakes (Grade 2) (KYD)- $400.000 Purse
FG- For Three Year Olds
One Mile and One Eighth on the Dirt
February 17, 2024

The Risen Star Stakes is the first 50-point KYD prep race on the schedule, but that didn’t stop Mother Nature from wanting to have her say on things. A steady rain all day at FG made the track muddy/soft. There were twelve horses scheduled to go in the Risen Star, but three of them would scratch out. Incidentally, two of them were by Fractious, who based on how hot he was in the other races, you have to wonder if one of them still would have pulled this race out! A horse that was not scratched was Walk Em Down, who was winless in two starts. Despite that, it didn’t really take a deep look at the horse to figure out he had plenty of potential and could still end up winning this. He was picked second in the preview but would have no one beat him on this day. His trainer, Mb Stables, is once again showing a pretty dominant hand in the amount of talented KYD hopefuls that he has as he now has four of the top seven in the point standings. This is his fourth year of winning the Risen Star, and with a dead heat, he actually has five winners. The winning rider is T Gaffalione, his first such win. Congratulations to them! The time of the win was 1:51.69, which we can’t compare to anything because the race had never been run at nine furlongs on a muddy surface previously. Let’s take a look at it!

(½ Mile- :47.85)- In a race where it didn’t look like there would be any horses eager to jump out to the front, it was interesting to see what would ultimately happen with the start. We would end up having two horses, Mb Stables’ Maple Mafia and South Shore Stables’ One Beer battling it out around the opening turn before Maple Mafia eventually emerged with a length lead after half a mile. The field is pretty close to being in single file order as we enter the backstretch, with Fun Runner running third for Asgar, ahead of Dmc Racing’s Fayette County. In the middle of the field, we have Complicated, for Waldo, and running to his inside is our eventual winner from Mb Stables, Walk Em Down. Next up is Doc Rivers (D J C Racing Stables), with the trailers being Looney Cracker (Martyparty) and Rotary State (Alydar Stables).

(3/4 Mile- 1;13.11)- Down the backstretch, and entering the turn, One Beer creeps closer to Maple Mafia again, and the two of them are heads apart early in the turn. The third place Fun Runner is looking to position himself for a three wide move at this point with Fayette County running steady in fourth. Meanwhile, Walk Em Down has left Complicated behind and will now hope to take advantage of plenty of running room along the rail within the turn. He was now about to complete the pass for Fayette County while having his sights set on the leaders. Further back, Complicated fell into the clutches of Doc Rivers, while further back, we had not seen much out of Looney Cracker or Rotary State yet.

(Top of The Stretch, 2F To Go)- Fun Runner would catch both One Beer and Maple Mafia towards the exit of the turn and was now running three wide with them. However, there was plenty of room that was left on the rail, and Walk Em Down was plenty willing to take advantage of that. He was now only a length back, and his stablemate, Maple Mafia, isn’t going to close that lane down on him. Fayette County was still running evenly with the leaders, but the time is now to show something to get by them if he can. Doc Rivers and Complicated were lacking response, but Looney Cracker was getting fired up for a run along the outside. Rotary State was still not showing anything.

(Finish- 1:51.69)- Mb Stables showed he has quite a good one here with Walk Em Down, as he pulled up along the outside, and passed two of them without much trouble. Fun Runner took a little more effort to run down, but Walk Em Down was a runner in the stretch and was able to win while pulling away, officially being scored a length winner. Running second is Fun Runner, and if it wasn’t for Walk Em Down, we’re talking about Fun Runner being a convincing winner, too, as the rest of the field was at least a length and a half behind him. Keep an eye on both of these as we march forward. A far outside run for Looney Cracker got him third, narrowly over Doc Rivers. One Beer dropped to fifth, then Fayette Country, and another one of the early runners, Maple Mafia. Rotary State never got involved here, and Complicated was soundly defeated.

About The Winner- Walk Em Down, trained by Mb Stables and ridden to victory by T Gaffalione, is a three-year-old colt by Rotarian and is out of Power Walk. He was bred in California as a third quarter two-year-old by Mb Stables, and they have been together throughout! Congratulations to the connections! In three starts, this was his first career win, and his earnings are now $260.000.

Track: Muddy
Time: :47⁴  1:13  1:39  1:51³

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 1 – 3 Paid 60.40
$1 Trifecta: 1 – 3 – 12 Paid 1,033.60

Scratched: Free Agent, Soho First, Master And Commander(L)

— NS

Categories: Grade II, STAKES ARTICLES