LRL: A full circle moment for Daniel McKenzie
Sunset Rising scores first-out upset
Frank Vespe
March 1, 2026
Daniel McKenzie arrived in the winner’s circle after Sunday’s first race at Laurel Park carrying his young daughter on his shoulders. She deserved the ride.
McKenzie, his daughter Lianna McKenzie, and Katy Voss co-bred Sunset Rising, who kicked the day off with a bang, posting a $40.40 upset in a $51,730 maiden special weight contest. It took her a while to get to the races, but the wait sure was worth it.
This article contains affiliate links. If you click and buy, we may earn a commission at no extra charge to you.
Pick up reliable and rewarding tickets for major events!
“I started getting discouraged when she was, like 25-1,” Daniel McKenzie said. “I was, like, ‘Man, they don’t know.’ It feels good: a lot of years, a lot of hard work.”
In fact, the tale begins not today, or when Sunset Rising came to the barn, or even back in the breeding shed when McKenzie bred Fearless Lassie, his young Jump Start mare, to Maryland sire Golden Lad.
It begins, instead, in 2021 when McKenzie reached in to claim Fearless Lassie for $16,000 out of a never-won-two claimer. Working for Voss at the time, he retained first Stephen Murdock, then Tony Aguirre to train her before landing on a bright idea: doing it himself.
“I said that I want to claim a horse and get my trainer’s license,” McKenzie remembered. “She’s like, ‘Man, you’re good in the barn. Bring the horse in here: you help me, and I’ll help you.’”
He did and she did, and in her first start with McKenzie as trainer of record, Fearless Lassie did, too, delivering McKenzie’s first training win.
It turned out to be her final win. After two more starts, McKenzie retired her and soon sent her to Golden Lad, a stallion in which Voss had a season she was not intending to use. The resulting filly was big and solid, but her path to the races was anything but straight.
“She came in, she had to straight go to surgery,” McKenzie said. “She started back, and it’s another issue, another issue.”
She arrived today with a consistent string of breezes starting in early January, and while none of them jumps off the page, McKenzie said he was happy with how she’d been working. He showed up to Laurel today with a confidence the betting public did not share.
Bettors instead put their focus on two other first-time starters in the field of seven: the Brittany Russell-trained Serenity Song, by Vekoma, who went off at even-money, and Grande Voix, a Yaupon filly for Mike Trombetta who was 2-1.
Grande Voix, with Mychel Sanchez in the irons, zipped directly to the front, leading the field through an opener in 23.87 seconds while taking outside pressure from 15-1 Nattie’s Boss. Jevian Toledo, meanwhile, had Sunset Rising in fifth but just three lengths behind the leader while two wide.
Grande Voix clung to the lead rounding the turn but gave way in upper stretch as the cavalry arrived on the scene. Cupid’s Choice, with Xavier Perez in the irons, was the first to flash by, opening a two-length advantage with a furlong to go.
But Toledo tipped Sunset Rising outside the leader and unleashed her run. Sunset Rising poked her head in front inside the sixteenth pole, but she had company in the late-on-the-scene Serenity Song, chopping into the lead with every stride despite running on her left lead.
Sunset Rising and Serenity Song crossed the finish line as one, but it was Sunset Rising’s nose that arrived first, spurring a whoop of celebration from the connections befitting the journey it took them to get there.
Running time for 5 ½ furlongs on a fast main track was 1:06.60.
Sunset Rising’s win was the 31st of McKenzie’s training career. He perhaps is best known for his work with Just a Fair Shake, who won at first asking at two and then, last year as a sopohomore, finished second in both the Federico Tesio Stakes and, on the Preakness undercard, the Sir Barton.
Now with another first-out winner in Sunset Rising, McKenzie has some racing to look forward to.
“She’s very smart, and she always tries. Her mother always, always tried,” McKenzie said before pausing and reflecting and adding, “It’s crazy.”
Pick up reliable and rewarding tickets for major events!
LATEST NEWS
