On a sloppy, sealed track at Churchill Downs, Mindframe surged from off the pace to win the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes on the Kentucky Derby undercard, delivering a stirring neck victory in a final time of 1:22.64 for seven furlongs.

Trained by Todd Pletcher and ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., the 4-year-old colt launched a wide rally turning for home and drove past his rivals in the final yards to score his first top-level win.

“My horse was so game today,” said winning rider Irad Ortiz, Jr. “He had so many horses to the inside of him that he just had to keep fighting the entire way to the wire.” 

Mindframe is a son of Constitution out of Walk of Stars, a daughter of Street Sense, bred in Maryland by the late R. Larry Johnson—a culmination of decades of thoughtful breeding by Johnson’s operation. Purchased for $600,000 at auction, Mindframe now races for Repole Stable and St. Elias Stables, and has begun to fulfill the promise of his pedigree and price tag with this breakthrough win.

A winner of two straight to start his career, Mindframe then finished second in both the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes and Grade 1 Haskell last year at three. This year he kicked off his season with a win in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile.

“He’s such a versatile horse,” Pletcher said. “From just missing last year in the Belmont and now winning a Grade 1 going seven-eighths. It just shows how special of a horse he is.”

The stretch run produced high drama, as Banishing and Nysos dead-heated for second, both making strong late moves but coming up just short. Book’em Danno, a New Jersey-bred, gave a bold showing of his own—splitting foes to grab the lead in the stretch before finishing fourth, just a head behind the second and third horses.