1972 Blue Grass winner Riva Ridge in the winner’s circle with owner Penny Chenery, trainer Lucien Laurin, and groom Eddie Sweat. A Triple Crown hopeful, Riva Ridge won the 1972 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes but could not take the Preakness on a…
Alydar, Jorge Velasquez up, before his definitive 13-length win over Raymond Earl in the 1978 Blue Grass Stakes. The future top sire in North America boasted a 14-9-1 career record from 26 starts and earnings in excess of $950,000.
Arts and Letters, Bill Shoemaker up, in a commanding 15-length Blue Grass victory. Campaigned by Rokeby Stables, Arts and Letters gave Shoemaker his fifth Blue Grass win. The Racing Hall of Fame jockey would claim a sixth victory in 1982 aboard…
Jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. celebrating his first Toyota Blue Grass Stakes win on Art Collector in 2020. Campaigned by Bruce Lunsford, Art Collector won multiple graded stakes before claiming the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes in 2023. He was…
Trained by Chad Brown, favored Good Magic came out strong to notch his 2018 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes victory on a cold April morning at Keeneland. The win was the colt’s first after an impressive run in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile that earned him…
Trained by Earl Sande (far left) and piloted by Jack Westrope, Fencing beat the odds to win the first Blue Grass Stakes run at Keeneland. The race, inaugurated in 1911 at the Kentucky Association racetrack near downtown Lexington, was revived at…
Northern Dancer, with Racing Hall of Fame trainer Horatio Luro, at Keeneland in April 1964.
Northern Dancer swept the 1964 Flamingo Stakes, Florida Derby, and Blue Grass Stakes en route to the Kentucky Derby. He won the 1964 Derby by a neck under…
This photograph captures the start of the 1976 Blue Grass Stakes. Honest Pleasure, driven by Braulio Baeza, would capture the victory and go on to a second place showing in the Kentucky Derby.