In the years since she saddled her first winner in 2016, trainer Madison Meyers has built her Middleburg, Virginia-based operation step-by-step, win-by-win, from one win to three to six to eight. But 2025 has been even better, a breakout year that has brought new milestones, new stars, and new attention.

With career highs in both wins (18) and earnings of more than $940,000, Meyers is enjoying the kind of season that marks a turning point. And nowhere was that more evident than at Keeneland on October 10, when her 4-year-old Yoshida gelding Desvio stormed down the lane to capture the track’s Grade 2 Sycamore Stakes at a mile and a half on the turf — delivering the first graded stakes victory for both horse and trainer.

Desvio went off at 34-1, paying his relatively few backers $70.90. Meyers understood the odds, but…

“We wouldn’t have made the trip if we didn’t have any hope,” Meyers said on Off to the Races Radio Oct. 18. “I wasn’t super-surprised at what he went off at. It was a competitive field, and he hadn’t won in a year. I thought having [Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez] on him would shorten him up a bit, but it didn’t.”

Desvio, owned by Nina Bonnie’s Stonelea Stable LLC and Bonnie Rye Stable (the partnership of Robert Bonnie, Nina’s son, and his wife Julie Gomena), had hinted at his ability earlier in the season, finishing third in the Grade 3 Dinner Party Stakes at Pimlico and runner-up in the Colonial Cup. And last year he became a stakes winner in the listed, 11-furlong Kent at Delaware Park.

In the Sycamore, under Hall of Famer John Velazquez, he finally put it all together.

“At any point of the race, you were happy with where you were. It was the perfect ride for that horse, and the perfect trip for that distance,” Meyers said. “When Johnny tipped him out, you knew he was going to come and do something because that’s what he loves to do. It was a thrill.”

With turf season near an end in the East, there aren’t many options left for Desvio this year. Meyers has nominated him to the Grade 2 Red Smith at Aqueduct Nov. 2, and she said she might also take a look at the Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup Nov. 28 at Del Mar.

But there’s no rush. She could just as likely put Desvio away for the winter with an eye towards returning in the Grade 2 Elkhorn, a mile-and-a-half turf test during the Keeneland spring meet in April.

Desvio has demonstrated an affinity for the 12-furlong trip, and for the Keeneland course. That said, it’s no mean feat to prepare a horse to run that sort of marathon distance first time out.

“You’d almost like to work your way up into it, but he’s fairly easy to get fit,” she noted. “He does a lot in his morning work to kind of work himself into his own fitness, and that’s helpful.”

Meyers’ partnership with the Bonnie family has been a boon, and one of their homebreds looks like another to watch. Sun Above, a son of Optimizer out of Joyful Joyful (by Kitten’s Joy), made a memorable debut at Laurel Park Oct. 4 when he recovered from a disastrous start to circle the field and win going away.

“He’s been a really kind, easy horse — never gave us a reason to think he’d act up,” Meyers said with a laugh. “Then on race day he balked at the pony, started broncing, and I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, what an embarrassing debut.’ So they got the tack reset, and then when he almost just stood in the gate for a second, I thought, ‘I can’t believe this is happening.’”

Jockey Wes Hamilton didn’t panic, though, allowing Sun Above, last after a quarter mile and still seventh with a quarter to go, to find his footing. They came wide for the drive, and Sun Above powered past his rivals to win by 1 ¼ lengths.

“He ran a really nice number, and we’re pretty excited about him,” Meyers said. “He’s a second-generation homebred of theirs, which is cool.”

The two-year-old Sun Above might get one more start in before the end of the local turf season and then, Meyers hopes, return in the spring raring to go. Not unlike her turf-heavy barn, or Desvio, its star.

“We work really hard, and the Bonnies have been in this for a really long time,” Meyers said. “It’s just really cool for all of us, I think, to get rewarded for that.”