Spendthrift Farm started the Keeneland fall meet the way it wrapped up the Saratoga Race Course summer season: by winning the two major grade 1 main track races for juveniles in the meet's opening two days, plus three other races Saturday at Keeneland, owning those horses either solely or in partnership.
Tommy Jo, who captured the Spinaway Stakes (G1) at Saratoga, took the Oct. 3 Alcibiades Stakes (G1) at Keeneland via disqualification. Then Oct. 4, Ted Noffey, a romping Hopeful Stakes (G1) winner at Saratoga, aced his first two-turn test in rolling to a 2 3/4-length victory over Blackout Time in the $642,594 Breeders' Futurity (G1) at Keeneland.
The Lexington-based farm tacked on additional wins elsewhere around the country Saturday, including with Tamara in the Chillingworth Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita Park.
But Ted Noffey—humorously named after a transposed social media post meant to describe Spendthrift Farm general manager Ned Toffey—was the star of the Spendthrift show. And in turn, so was Toffey, whose hands and back were repeatedly slapped in congratulations Saturday by friends and family.
"It's really the best part of it," Toffey said of sharing the experience.
Seemingly everyone felt good about Ted Noffey's performance, in which he pressed trainer Bob Baffert's California invader Litmus Test through easy fractions of :23.96, :48.23, and 1:12.62, before asserting his authority and repelling a stretch bid from stalker Blackout Time. The victorious gray and/or roan colt raced 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:43.98 under Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez, with a final sixteenth in :06.55.
"Once he opened up in the lane, he started easing up, waiting for the other horses, so I was kind of keeping him busy," said Velazquez, who won his third Breeders' Futurity.
Blackout Time, who raced in third place early, could not gain any ground on Ted Noffey through the lane. He finished 2 1/4 lengths clear of the show finisher, Litmus Test.
Diciassette, Spice Runner, and Big Dom completed the six-horse order of finish.
In improving to 3-for-3, Ted Noffey paid $3.84 to win as the favorite. Preceding his Hopeful win, he won a maiden race at Saratoga on debut.
As a dual grade 1-winning son of Spendthrift's six-time leading general sire Into Mischief , Ted Noffey has earned his place in the Spendthrift stallion barn upon his retirement from racing.
He gave Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher a fifth win in the Breeders' Futurity, a race he likes to garner two-turn experience ahead of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1).
"It's been a good prep for us. It's a significant race in its own right," he said.
As the only two-time grade 1-winning 2-year-old colt in the country, Ted Noffey is likely to be favored in the Oct. 31 Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) at Del Mar. He earned a paid, automatic berth in that race with the Breeders' Futurity being part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series.
Separately, Ted Noffey also earned 10 qualifying points toward the 2026 Kentucky Derby (G1) at Churchill Downs, and those running second through fifth earned points on a 5-3-2-1 basis.
Blackout Time's trainer, Kenny McPeek, suggested he may forgo the Juvenile with his colt, mentioning the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2) in late November at Churchill as a target before the Kentucky Derby preps of 2026.
Aaron and Marie Jones bred Ted Noffey in Kentucky out of the stakes-winning, graded-placed Old Fashioned mare Streak of Luck. Spendthrift Farm bought Ted Noffey for $650,000 from Taylor Made Sales Agency's consignment to the 2024 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
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