The May 2, 2026, Kentucky Derby (G1) at Churchill Downs is still 33 weeks away, but the Derby trail officially begins Sept. 13 beneath the twin spires. The $300,000 Iroquois Stakes (G3) for 2-year-olds kicks off the 2025-26 Road to the Kentucky Derby series, and the Road to the Kentucky Oaks similarly gets underway with the $300,000 Pocahontas Stakes (G3) for juvenile fillies.
The two races, respectively, provide qualifying points to the Derby and Oaks to their top five finishers on a 10-5-3-2-1 basis.
No Iroquois participant has yet won the Derby, though two of its runners from last year, Owen Almighty and Sandman, ended up competing in the Run for the Roses. Owen Almighty, second in the Iroquois, ran fifth in the Derby, and Sandman, fifth in the Iroquois, splashed home seventh in this year's off-track classic. Iroquois runners are 0-1-1 in 32 starts in the Derby going back to 1983.
Both the Iroquois and Pocahontas are one-turn mile races, providing a glimpse of their competitors' staying power—though less so than two-turn, 1 1/16-mile races scheduled across the country in the weeks ahead.
Joseph Sutton's Comport and Winchell Thoroughbreds' Spice Runner are the battle-tested stakes runners in Saturday's race, having run 1-2 in the seven-furlong Ellis Park Juvenile Stakes last month. They also met at Churchill Downs late in the spring meet when they were second and fifth, respectively, in the six-furlong Bashford Manor Stakes. Both were debut maiden winners at Churchill Downs before that.
Video: Ellis Park Juvenile S. (BT)
Sutton and trainer Eddie Kenneally ran second in the Iroquois six years ago with Scabbard, who would go on to finish fourth in the 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1).
Kenneally won the 2005 Iroquois with Thomas McCann's Catcominatcha back when the race was run in early November.
The Iroquois and the Pocahontas are part of the Breeders' Cup Dirt Dozen program, and will award $30,000 to the winner, $15,000 to the runner-up, and $7,500 to the third-place finisher to apply toward entry fees for the Juvenile and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1), respectively. Both races are Oct. 31 at Del Mar.
Comport is a chestnut son of Collected purchased for $135,000 from the 2024 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, while Spice Runner is a homebred for Winchell Thoroughbreds. The latter colt, trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, is a son of Gun Runner and a full brother to grade 1-winning sprinter and current Ashford Stud stallion Gunite .
Strong-finishing debut maiden winners Nothing Personal, Vost, and Nine Ball head the opposition in the 10-horse field.
Churchill Downs, Saturday, September 13, 2025, Race 8Entries: Iroquois S. (G3)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 Nothing Personal (KY) Jaime Rodriguez 122 Greg Compton - 2 Sometime (MD) Luan Machado 122 Mark Simms, Jr. - 3 No More Cents (OH) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 122 Kenneth G. McPeek - 4 So Special (KY) Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr. 122 Kenneth G. McPeek - 5 Spice Runner (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 122 Steven M. Asmussen - 6 Shake and Rattle (KY) James Graham 122 J. Keith Desormeaux - 7 Comport (KY) Tyler Gaffalione 122 Eddie Kenneally - 8 Vost (KY) Florent Geroux 122 William Walden - 9 Nine Ball (KY) Jaime A. Torres 122 Riley Mott - 10 Maximus Prime (KY) Luis Saez 122 Anthony Mitchell -
Sorority Winner Dazzling Dame Ships to Kentucky for Pocahontas
Seven fillies, led by Respect the Valleys' Sorority Stakes winner Dazzling Dame, compete in the Pocahontas, which goes as the sixth race, two races before the Iroquois. Dazzling Dame is unbeaten in two starts in the Northeast for Maryland-based trainer Brittany Russell.
Trainer Kenny McPeek, meanwhile, runs the debut-winning duo of Our Two Girls and Taken by the Wind. Shamrock Stables and MJM Racing campaign the former, while the latter races for Magdalena Racing, Graham Leveston, and current football broadcaster and retired Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw.
Churchill Downs, Saturday, September 13, 2025, Race 6Entries: Pocahontas S. (G3)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 Starlit Sky (KY) Tyler Gaffalione 122 George Weaver - 2 Miss Complicated (KY) Julien R. Leparoux 122 Ian R. Wilkes - 3 Taken by the Wind (FL) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 122 Kenneth G. McPeek - 4 Joke Maker (KY) Luan Machado 122 Rodolphe Brisset - 5 Our Two Girls (KY) Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr. 122 Kenneth G. McPeek - 6 Dazzling Dame (MD) Luis Saez 122 Brittany T. Russell - 7 Embrace the Moment (KY) Jaime Rodriguez 122 Greg Compton -
