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Primetime Runner: Unbeaten Always a Runner Shines Under the Lights in Kentucky Oaks

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – On one of the morning works shows leading up to the GI Kentucky Oaks, trainer Chad Brown was asked if his unbeaten ‘TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard’ Always a Runner (Gun Runner) was, perhaps, flying into the race under the radar.

“When I work her tomorrow, they’ll be talking about her,” he said confidently.

Everybody will still be talking about her after the first Friday in May now, too.

Always a Runner made it a perfect three-for-three with a powerful, come-from-behind, 1 1/4-length victory in the first Kentucky Oaks held in primetime beneath the lights before a crowd of 103,290 at a chilly Churchill Downs. Meaning (Gun Runner) completed the exacta for her leading sire. Counting Stars (Honor A. P.) was third.

The Douglas Scharbauer and Three Chimneys Farm colorbearer, a last-out winner of Aqueduct’s GIII Gazelle S. at “70 percent, if I’m being generous,” per Brown, was off as the narrowest of third choices at odds of 5-1.

Always a Runner raced in a great spot in eighth beneath Jose Ortiz as ‘Rising Star’ Explora (Blame) showed the way through sharp fractions of :23.08 and :46.85. She began to launch with a flashy sweep approaching the quarter pole. The GII Santa Anita Oaks heroine Meaning gained a narrow advantage over GIII Honeybee S. winner Explora in the stretch, but Always a Runner was just getting going and came from over the top to win going away.

This is the first Kentucky Oaks victory for Brown and second for Ortiz, who scored in 2019 with Serengeti Empress.

“I’m so proud of this horse,” Brown said. “She’s overcome so much and to be able to be rewarded this way is unbelievable. She had a very serious case of pneumonia. When horses experience things like that, we just had to take things day by day. Her career was really up in the air. I never imagined she’d get to this day.”

Ortiz added, “Around the far turn, she really started coming with a big run. She had to really work hard to get by those fillies on the lead. It’s such an incredible experience to win the Oaks. It was a great day of racing and to cap it off in the Oaks, it was amazing.”

Brown will also saddle the two-for-two GII Louisiana Derby and ‘Rising Star’ Emerging Market (Candy Ride {Arg}) in Saturday’s GI Kentucky Derby.

Pedigree Notes:

The Three Chimneys Farm-bred Always a Runner, a $1.05-million Keeneland September yearling, becomes the 14th Grade I winner for the Three Chimneys leading sire Gun Runner. Gun Runner will also be well-represented by ‘Rising Star’ Further Ado in the Kentucky Derby.

Always a Runner is bred on the same Gun Runner x Malibu Moon cross as the Brown-trained GI Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and narrow GI Kentucky Derby runner-up Sierra Leone and MGISW Locked.

Always a Runner was produced by Three Chimneys homebred and ‘Rising Star’ Always Carina (Malibu Moon), a half-sister to GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Structor (Palace Malice).

Always Carina romped by 13 3/4 lengths in her first two career starts, then was a career-high second in the GII Mother Goose S. She is also responsible for a Gun Runner 2-year-old filly (RNA’d for $850,000 as a Keeneland September yearling) and a Gun Runner yearling colt.

ALWAYS A RUNNER wins the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks! #KyOaks pic.twitter.com/wlNKEACObs

— TDN (@theTDN) May 2, 2026

Friday, Churchill Downs
LONGINES KENTUCKY OAKS-GI, $1,500,000, Churchill Downs, 5-1, 3yo, f, 1 1/8m, 1:48.82, ft.
1–ALWAYS A RUNNER, 121, f, 3, by Gun Runner
      1st Dam: Always Carina (GSP, $218,800), by Malibu Moon
      2nd Dam: Miss Always Ready, by More Than Ready
      3rd Dam: Miss Seffens, by Dehere
1ST GRADE I WIN. ($1,050,000 Ylg ’24 KEESEP). ‘TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard’. O-Douglas Scharbauer and Three Chimneys Farm, LLC (Goncalo B. Torrealba); B-Three Chimneys Farm, LLC (KY); T-Chad C. Brown; J-Jose L. Ortiz. $855,600. Lifetime Record: 3-3-0-0, $984,800. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Meaning, 121, f, 3, by Gun Runner
      1st Dam: Figure of Speech (GISP), by Into Mischief
      2nd Dam: Starlight Lady, by Elusive Quality
      3rd Dam: Colcon, by Pleasant Colony
1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. ($440,000 Ylg ’24 KEESEP). O-Bridlewood Farm and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners; B-Stonehaven Steadings (KY); T-Michael W. McCarthy. $276,000.
3–Counting Stars, 121, f, 3, by Honor A. P.
      1st Dam: Paynterbynumbers, by Paynter
      2nd Dam: Ruth and Neva, by Cherokee Run
      3rd Dam: Tap for Gold, by Pleasant Tap
1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. ($13,000 Ylg ’24 KEESEP; $150,000 2yo ’25 OBSAPR). O-West Point Thoroughbreds; B-HRH Prince Sultan Bin Mishal Al Saud (KY); T-Mark E. Casse. $138,000.
Margins: 1 1/4, 1, NK. Odds: 5.52, 5.79, 6.57.
Also Ran: Explora, Prom Queen, Zany, Percy’s Bar, Dazzling Dame, Resist, Search Party, Pashmina, Lovely Grey, Brooklyn Blonde. Scratched: Bella Ballerina, Bottle of Rouge, My Miss Mo, Nycon.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

The post Primetime Runner: Unbeaten Always a Runner Shines Under the Lights in Kentucky Oaks appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Not This Time’s Imaginationthelady Takes Four-Way Edgewood Thriller

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Mark Dobbin’s Imaginationthelady (Not This Time) was pulled out to deliver her challenge entering the final furlong of Friday’s $600,000 GII Edgewood Stakes at Churchill Downs and came with a stinging rally three off the inside to prove best in a four-way photo.

Sent off the 12-5 favorite to improve for a narrow defeat at the hooves of the re-opposing Storm’s Wake (Oscar Performance) in Keeneland’s GII Appalachian Stakes at Keeneland Apr. 4, Imaginationthelady was taken in hand by Tyler Gaffalione and settled three back on the fence as Sanibel Island Stakes winner Tam Tam (Medaglia d’Oro) set modest fractions in advance of Lion Lake (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), beaten only a neck into third in the Appalachian. The well-bet Just Aloof (Justify), a neck behind Lion Lake at Keeneland four weeks ago, drafted in just behind the leading group.

Imaginationthelady continued to saved every inch at the rail, pinched good ground at the fence as they raced into the final 2 1/2 furlongs and was produced in the three path passing the midstretch marker, with Tam Tam and Lion Lake still trading punches up front. Gaffalione kept after Imaginationthelady and shoved her across the line first just ahead of Tam Tam. Lion Lake settled for third and Just Aloof, furthest away from the inside, finished fourth while not beaten far for all of it.

A maiden winner at first asking going a mile across the undulations at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 4, Imaginationthelady belied odds of 10-1 to take the Jessamine and was a sound fourth in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar Oct. 31. Drawn nine of 10 in the Appalachian, Imaginationthelady sat a wide trip and came running late, only to fall just short.

Pedigree Notes:

The Lyster Family’s Ashview Farm was the name on the docket when Romanticism, a daughter of seven-time Grade I winner Sightseek, sold for $280,000 in foal to Kantharos at the 2020 Keeneland November Sale. Their asset soon appreciated in value when the mare’s foal of 2019, Benissimo (Pioneerof the Nile), picked up black-type in the 2022 Riley Allison Derby, while Imaginationthelady’s year-younger half-brother Juris Doctor (Constitution) closed out 2025 with a runner-up effort in the Woodchopper Stakes at the Fair Grounds.

The dam of GSP Raison d’Etat (Distant View), Sightseek–winner of the 2003 GI Humana Distaff–is a half-sister to four other winners out of the French MSW & GSP Viviana, including dual elite-level scorer Tates Creek (Rahy), herself the dam of Australian MGSW Spirit Ridge (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}); Flourish (Distorted Humor), whose son Fulsome (Into Mischief) made this track’s GIII Matt Winn Stakes one of his four graded successes; and the dam of French Classic winner Special Duty (GB) (Hennessy).

Romanticism two most recent offspring are a 2-year-old colt by Liam’s Map and a filly by Muth foaled Mar. 10.

IMAGINATIONTHELADY and jockey @Tyler_Gaff weave through traffic to bring in the 42nd running of the G2 Edgewood Stakes for trainer @brenpwalsh!#TwinSpiresReplay pic.twitter.com/ZuF9Gs0rIx

— TwinSpires Racing (@TwinSpires) May 1, 2026

Friday, Churchill Downs
EDGEWOOD S. PRESENTED BY ACCENTURE-GII, $589,500, Churchill Downs, 5-1, 3yo, f, 1 1/16mT, 1:40.92, fm.
1–IMAGINATIONTHELADY, 120, f, 3, by Not This Time
                1st Dam: Romanticism, by War Front
                2nd Dam: Sightseek, by Distant View
                3rd Dam: Viviana, by Nureyev
($300,000 Ylg ’24 KEESEP). O-Mark Dobbin; B-Ashview Farm & Colts Neck Stables (KY); T-Brendan P. Walsh; J-Tyler Gaffalione. $355,120. Lifetime Record: 5-3-1-0, $830,270. Werk Nick Rating: A+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Tam Tam, 118, f, 3, Medaglia d’Oro–Princess Julia, by Distorted Humor. 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($975,000 Ylg ’24 FTSAUG). O-Rigney Racing LLC; B-Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC (KY); T-Philip A. Bauer. $115,200.
3–Lion Lake (Ire), 120, f, 3, Dark Angel (Ire)–Urjuwaan (GB), by Cape Cross (Ire). (€150,000 Ylg ’24 GOFORY). O-Emcee Stable LLC; B-Camas Park, Lynch Bages & Summerhill (IRE); T-Brendan P. Walsh. $47,600.
Margins: HD, HD, HD. Odds: 2.44, 20.36, 5.30.
Also Ran: Just Aloof, Storm’s Wake, Indigo Woods (Ire), Time to Dream, Dandona, Connect the Stars, Bohemian, To a Flame, Lorelei Lee, Taken by the Wind. Scratched: Lovely Grey.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

The post Not This Time’s Imaginationthelady Takes Four-Way Edgewood Thriller appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Primetime Runner: Unbeaten Always a Runner Shines Under the Lights in Kentucky Oaks

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – On one of the morning works shows leading up to the GI Kentucky Oaks, trainer Chad Brown was asked if his unbeaten ‘TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard’ Always a Runner (Gun Runner) was, perhaps, flying into the race under the radar.

“When I work her tomorrow, they’ll be talking about her,” he said confidently.

Everybody will still be talking about her after the first Friday in May now, too.

Always a Runner made it a perfect three-for-three with a powerful, come-from-behind, 1 1/4-length victory in the first Kentucky Oaks held in primetime beneath the lights before a crowd of 103,290 at a chilly Churchill Downs. Meaning (Gun Runner) completed the exacta for her leading sire. Counting Stars (Honor A. P.) was third.

The Douglas Scharbauer and Three Chimneys Farm colorbearer, a last-out winner of Aqueduct’s GIII Gazelle S. at “70 percent, if I’m being generous,” per Brown, was off as the narrowest of third choices at odds of 5-1.

Always a Runner raced in a great spot in eighth beneath Jose Ortiz as ‘Rising Star’ Explora (Blame) showed the way through sharp fractions of :23.08 and :46.85. She began to launch with a flashy sweep approaching the quarter pole. The GII Santa Anita Oaks heroine Meaning gained a narrow advantage over GIII Honeybee S. winner Explora in the stretch, but Always a Runner was just getting going and came from over the top to win going away.

This is the first Kentucky Oaks victory for Brown and second for Ortiz, who scored in 2019 with Serengeti Empress.

“I’m so proud of this horse,” Brown said. “She’s overcome so much and to be able to be rewarded this way is unbelievable. She had a very serious case of pneumonia. When horses experience things like that, we just had to take things day by day. Her career was really up in the air. I never imagined she’d get to this day.”

Ortiz added, “Around the far turn, she really started coming with a big run. She had to really work hard to get by those fillies on the lead. It’s such an incredible experience to win the Oaks. It was a great day of racing and to cap it off in the Oaks, it was amazing.”

Brown will also saddle the two-for-two GII Louisiana Derby and ‘Rising Star’ Emerging Market (Candy Ride {Arg}) in Saturday’s GI Kentucky Derby.

Pedigree Notes:

The Three Chimneys Farm-bred Always a Runner, a $1.05-million Keeneland September yearling, becomes the 14th Grade I winner for the Three Chimneys leading sire Gun Runner. Gun Runner will also be well-represented by ‘Rising Star’ Further Ado in the Kentucky Derby.

Always a Runner is bred on the same Gun Runner x Malibu Moon cross as the Brown-trained GI Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and narrow GI Kentucky Derby runner-up Sierra Leone and MGISW Locked.

Always a Runner was produced by Three Chimneys homebred and ‘Rising Star’ Always Carina (Malibu Moon), a half-sister to GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Structor (Palace Malice).

Always Carina romped by 13 3/4 lengths in her first two career starts, then was a career-high second in the GII Mother Goose S. She is also responsible for a Gun Runner 2-year-old filly (RNA’d for $850,000 as a Keeneland September yearling) and a Gun Runner yearling colt.

ALWAYS A RUNNER wins the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks! #KyOaks pic.twitter.com/wlNKEACObs

— TDN (@theTDN) May 2, 2026

Friday, Churchill Downs
LONGINES KENTUCKY OAKS-GI, $1,500,000, Churchill Downs, 5-1, 3yo, f, 1 1/8m, 1:48.82, ft.
1–ALWAYS A RUNNER, 121, f, 3, by Gun Runner
      1st Dam: Always Carina (GSP, $218,800), by Malibu Moon
      2nd Dam: Miss Always Ready, by More Than Ready
      3rd Dam: Miss Seffens, by Dehere
1ST GRADE I WIN. ($1,050,000 Ylg ’24 KEESEP). ‘TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard’. O-Douglas Scharbauer and Three Chimneys Farm, LLC (Goncalo B. Torrealba); B-Three Chimneys Farm, LLC (KY); T-Chad C. Brown; J-Jose L. Ortiz. $855,600. Lifetime Record: 3-3-0-0, $984,800. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Meaning, 121, f, 3, by Gun Runner
      1st Dam: Figure of Speech (GISP), by Into Mischief
      2nd Dam: Starlight Lady, by Elusive Quality
      3rd Dam: Colcon, by Pleasant Colony
1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. ($440,000 Ylg ’24 KEESEP). O-Bridlewood Farm and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners; B-Stonehaven Steadings (KY); T-Michael W. McCarthy. $276,000.
3–Counting Stars, 121, f, 3, by Honor A. P.
      1st Dam: Paynterbynumbers, by Paynter
      2nd Dam: Ruth and Neva, by Cherokee Run
      3rd Dam: Tap for Gold, by Pleasant Tap
1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. ($13,000 Ylg ’24 KEESEP; $150,000 2yo ’25 OBSAPR). O-West Point Thoroughbreds; B-HRH Prince Sultan Bin Mishal Al Saud (KY); T-Mark E. Casse. $138,000.
Margins: 1 1/4, 1, NK. Odds: 5.52, 5.79, 6.57.
Also Ran: Explora, Prom Queen, Zany, Percy’s Bar, Dazzling Dame, Resist, Search Party, Pashmina, Lovely Grey, Brooklyn Blonde. Scratched: Bella Ballerina, Bottle of Rouge, My Miss Mo, Nycon.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

The post Primetime Runner: Unbeaten Always a Runner Shines Under the Lights in Kentucky Oaks appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Not This Time’s Imaginationthelady Takes Four-Way Edgewood Thriller

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Mark Dobbin’s Imaginationthelady (Not This Time) was pulled out to deliver her challenge entering the final furlong of Friday’s $600,000 GII Edgewood Stakes at Churchill Downs and came with a stinging rally three off the inside to prove best in a four-way photo.

Sent off the 12-5 favorite to improve for a narrow defeat at the hooves of the re-opposing Storm’s Wake (Oscar Performance) in Keeneland’s GII Appalachian Stakes at Keeneland Apr. 4, Imaginationthelady was taken in hand by Tyler Gaffalione and settled three back on the fence as Sanibel Island Stakes winner Tam Tam (Medaglia d’Oro) set modest fractions in advance of Lion Lake (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), beaten only a neck into third in the Appalachian. The well-bet Just Aloof (Justify), a neck behind Lion Lake at Keeneland four weeks ago, drafted in just behind the leading group.

Imaginationthelady continued to saved every inch at the rail, pinched good ground at the fence as they raced into the final 2 1/2 furlongs and was produced in the three path passing the midstretch marker, with Tam Tam and Lion Lake still trading punches up front. Gaffalione kept after Imaginationthelady and shoved her across the line first just ahead of Tam Tam. Lion Lake settled for third and Just Aloof, furthest away from the inside, finished fourth while not beaten far for all of it.

A maiden winner at first asking going a mile across the undulations at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 4, Imaginationthelady belied odds of 10-1 to take the Jessamine and was a sound fourth in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar Oct. 31. Drawn nine of 10 in the Appalachian, Imaginationthelady sat a wide trip and came running late, only to fall just short.

Pedigree Notes:

The Lyster Family’s Ashview Farm was the name on the docket when Romanticism, a daughter of seven-time Grade I winner Sightseek, sold for $280,000 in foal to Kantharos at the 2020 Keeneland November Sale. Their asset soon appreciated in value when the mare’s foal of 2019, Benissimo (Pioneerof the Nile), picked up black-type in the 2022 Riley Allison Derby, while Imaginationthelady’s year-younger half-brother Juris Doctor (Constitution) closed out 2025 with a runner-up effort in the Woodchopper Stakes at the Fair Grounds.

The dam of GSP Raison d’Etat (Distant View), Sightseek–winner of the 2003 GI Humana Distaff–is a half-sister to four other winners out of the French MSW & GSP Viviana, including dual elite-level scorer Tates Creek (Rahy), herself the dam of Australian MGSW Spirit Ridge (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}); Flourish (Distorted Humor), whose son Fulsome (Into Mischief) made this track’s GIII Matt Winn Stakes one of his four graded successes; and the dam of French Classic winner Special Duty (GB) (Hennessy).

Romanticism two most recent offspring are a 2-year-old colt by Liam’s Map and a filly by Muth foaled Mar. 10.

IMAGINATIONTHELADY and jockey @Tyler_Gaff weave through traffic to bring in the 42nd running of the G2 Edgewood Stakes for trainer @brenpwalsh!#TwinSpiresReplay pic.twitter.com/ZuF9Gs0rIx

— TwinSpires Racing (@TwinSpires) May 1, 2026

Friday, Churchill Downs
EDGEWOOD S. PRESENTED BY ACCENTURE-GII, $589,500, Churchill Downs, 5-1, 3yo, f, 1 1/16mT, 1:40.92, fm.
1–IMAGINATIONTHELADY, 120, f, 3, by Not This Time
                1st Dam: Romanticism, by War Front
                2nd Dam: Sightseek, by Distant View
                3rd Dam: Viviana, by Nureyev
($300,000 Ylg ’24 KEESEP). O-Mark Dobbin; B-Ashview Farm & Colts Neck Stables (KY); T-Brendan P. Walsh; J-Tyler Gaffalione. $355,120. Lifetime Record: 5-3-1-0, $830,270. Werk Nick Rating: A+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Tam Tam, 118, f, 3, Medaglia d’Oro–Princess Julia, by Distorted Humor. 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($975,000 Ylg ’24 FTSAUG). O-Rigney Racing LLC; B-Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC (KY); T-Philip A. Bauer. $115,200.
3–Lion Lake (Ire), 120, f, 3, Dark Angel (Ire)–Urjuwaan (GB), by Cape Cross (Ire). (€150,000 Ylg ’24 GOFORY). O-Emcee Stable LLC; B-Camas Park, Lynch Bages & Summerhill (IRE); T-Brendan P. Walsh. $47,600.
Margins: HD, HD, HD. Odds: 2.44, 20.36, 5.30.
Also Ran: Just Aloof, Storm’s Wake, Indigo Woods (Ire), Time to Dream, Dandona, Connect the Stars, Bohemian, To a Flame, Lorelei Lee, Taken by the Wind. Scratched: Lovely Grey.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

The post Not This Time’s Imaginationthelady Takes Four-Way Edgewood Thriller appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.