Two years after Magic Cap Stables bought Fort Washington from the 2023 Fasig-Tipton July Horses of Racing Age Sale for $260,000, the horse has become a top-level stakes winner.
The 6-year-old War Front horse paid his largest dividend for his current connections Aug. 9 in outkicking Grand Sonata, Integration, and Mystik Dan to win the Arlington Million Stakes (G1T) at Colonial Downs. He earned $607,600 for winning the $1 million race.
Last of seven for the first mile of the historic grass race as longshot leader Time Song set moderate splits of :23.94, :48.36, 1:12.25, and 1:36, Fort Washington was tipped out wide in the stretch under Junior Alvarado and rallied past his rivals to complete 1 1/4 miles on firm turf in 1:59.58. He paid $13.40 to win.
"I wanted to make sure I saved enough ground so that I had a big punch at the end," Alvarado said. "When I swung out in the clearing, he finished up very strong. "
Grand Sonata, who closed up the inside to challenge, ran second, beaten a half-length and ahead by three-quarters of a length of the favored show finisher, Integration—Fort Washington's stablemate—in third. 2024 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mystik Dan ran competitively in his turf debut but came up empty in the final furlong to be fourth, beaten 3 1/2 lengths by Fort Washington.
Speaking of the 2024 Derby winner, Brian Hernandez Jr. noted his mount was in a good position and quickened, but "with grass horses like he ran against today, it's a different turn of foot. He handled the grass fine, but he just didn't travel in my hands like I'd like him to on the backside today."
Alvarado said it meant a lot to win the Arlington Million, noting "my career kind of started taking off" when he rode in Illinois at Arlington Park, where the Million was a longtime fixture and where Alvarado won the 2010 Beverly D. Stakes (G1T) aboard Eclair de Lune—his first upper-level stakes win.
Arlington was closed in 2021 by Churchill Downs Inc., which sold the property to the Chicago Bears of the National Football League. CDI ran the Million and Beverly D. at Churchill Downs in 2022 before moving those races and the Secretariat Stakes (G2T) to the CDI-owned Colonial Downs beginning in 2023.
Shug McGaughey trains the winner, who was produced out of the group 3-placed Turtle Bowl mare Azaelia. Joseph Allen and Peter Brant's White Birch Farm bred Fort Washington in Kentucky and initially raced him with McGaughey before Magic Cap Stables purchased him and kept him with the Hall-of-Fame conditioner.
As a 3-year-old, Fort Washington won the Tale of the Cat Stakes and placed in three other stakes events when racing for his breeders. He was then twice stakes-placed at age 4 before his sale.
He broke through at the graded level in winning the Monmouth Stakes (G3T) as a 5-year-old in 2024 for his current ownership before adding the Canadian Turf Stakes (G3T) and Dinner Party Stakes (G3T) this year. Those earlier graded victories in 2025 also came with Alvarado aboard.
A high-class turf stallion represented this year by graded winner Liguria and Fort Washington, War Front stood the 2025 breeding season for $75,000 at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky.
