Kilwin looked like she had a most impossible task ahead of her when the gates opened for the 100th running of the Aug. 2 Test Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course.
The daughter of Lane's End stallion Twirling Candy went to her knees with jockey Jose Ortiz aboard in the $500,000 Test and trailed the field by 11 3/4 lengths after the opening quarter-mile. The athleticism of both horse and rider enabled them to overcome that disastrous beginning and orchestrate a powerful finish in the stretch to register a neck win over Ragtime in the seven-furlong Test for 3-year-old fillies.
Beauty Reigns finished third, 3 3/4 lengths behind the runner-up. Kilwin's stablemate and the race's 3-5 favorite, Echo Sound, pressed the pace set by Me and Molly McGee through a half-mile in 46.12 before fading in the stretch and finishing sixth in the eight-horse field.
Me and Molly McGee was eased to the finish and then was pulled up after the wire. She was transported off the track on an equine ambulance and transferred to Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, according to track publicity. Co-owner Ryan Exline of Exline-Border Racing later posted on X that the filly sustained a nondisplaced facture to her left hind splint bone and a bad laceration, but that no surgery is needed at this time.
Kilwin races under the banner of BBN Racing for Braxton Lynch, Brian Klatsky, and Brendan O'Brien. Klatsky and O'Brien are friends who are also business partners at Gold Coast Wealth Management which has offices in Lexington, New Jersey, and New York.
Klatsky was wearing a button bearing Kilwin's name with the depiction of a horse with a twirling mane that is meant to signify fudge since the friends are big fans of Kilwins, the confectionery store which runs promotions in honor of the filly.
Both Klatsky and O'Brien weren't feeling the sweetness when the gates opened in the Test.
"We were like it is not going to be our day," Klatsky said.
O'Brien concurred, "We were thinking the worst."
Kilwin is trained by Rusty Arnold who won the Test in 2001 with Victory Ride. The Arnold-trained Echo Sound won the July 3 Victory Ride Stakes (G3) at Saratoga and that dominant victory led to her favoritism Saturday.
Kilwin returned $14.40 for a $2 win wager and completed the distance in 1:23.10 over a fast track.
It was the fourth win from seven starts for Kilwin, who also has two wins on the turf including last year's Untapable Stakes at Kentucky Downs. In her start prior to Saturday, she won the Leslie's Lady Overnight Stakes at Churchill Downs in her dirt debut. She became a millionaire in the Test and now sports earnings of $1,087,968.
Arnold said Kilwin will run next on the turf Sept. 6 in the $2 million Music City Stakes (G2T) at Kentucky Downs. "It is a good problem (to pick between dirt or turf) to have," Arnold said.
At the top of the stretch, Kilwin had made up ground to reach her rivals but still had a whole bunch to do to reach the winner's circle.
"She was moving very well and I thought I had a shot turning for home," Ortiz said. "Honestly, I was following the right horse and I knew Junior (Alvarado, on Ragtime) was traveling really nicely. I cut the corner and I was following him, then I came out and she gave me that extra kick that I needed inside the eighth pole."
BBN also had success with another daughter of Twirling Candy, the Arnold-trained Concrete Rose whom they co-owned with Ashbrook Farm, winner of the 2019 Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1T).
"We've had such great success with Twirling Candy; Concrete Rose was a Twirling Candy," Klatsky said. "We basically look at every Twirling Candy in every sale. (Kilwin) just stood out to us as a really nice athlete and we knew her family. The nice turf sprinter, One Timer, a (half sibling), we had run against."
BBN has been in existence for eight years, but both Klatsky and O'Brien owned horses on their own for about 25 years.
"We put BBN together because we don't like golf, we would rather be at the races with our friends," Klatsky said.
Bred by Gilder-Schwarz Farms in Kentucky, Kilwin is out of the Blame mare Spanish Star, who has produced four winners from four to race, including grade 2 winner One Timer and stakes winner Just Basking. In addition to Kilwin, Ag Bullet and Fionn have notched grade 1 wins this year for sire Twirling Candy, who stood the 2025 season for $60,000 at Lane's End.
