Trace Messina News Today

Slip Mahoney recorded his first stakes victory, winning the Bourbon Trail Stakes at Churchill Downs on Saturday night.

Fans at Ellis Park were treated to a thriller on Saturday in the $200,000 KY Downs Preview Dueling Grounds Derby when favored Wadsworth overcame a troubled trip and held of late charges of Highway Robber and Anglophile to win his second consecutive stakes at 'the Pea Patch' in Henderson, Kentucky.

Overcoming trouble in the early going, Gary and Mary West’s homebred Salute the Stars rallied stoutly through the lane and overhauled favorite Kingsbarns in the closing strides to win the $150,000 Pegasus, a prep for the $1-million Haskell (G1), Saturday at Monmouth Park.

With less than two weeks to go in the 2022-'23 meet at Fair Grounds, there is a new leading trainer as Ron Faucheux has caught fire in the month of March.