Burnham Square Dominates Elkhorn Stakes

Burnham Square crushed his competition and turned the Elkhorn Stakes (G2T) into a one-horse race April 18 at Keeneland. Under jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., he settled toward the back of the field in the opening stages while Utah Beach posted fractions of :24.49, :50.28, and 1:16.01. Burnham Square continued to race on the rail down the backstretch and, as the field hit the far turn, he began to creep closer to the leaders, picking off horses one by one. As the field hit the top of the stretch, he unleashed an explosive turn of foot and opened up under a hand ride, hitting the wire 9 3/4 lengths in front of second-place finisher Desvio. It was an Elkhorn Stakes record for margin of victory. "We didn't have the smoothest of trips," Hernandez said. "But from the quarter pole home, when I tipped him out, you could tell he was the best horse. I knew he was the best horse. When I tipped him outside of (jockey) Luis (Saez on Freedom's Way) there and asked him for his run, he shot off. For a horse to go a mile and a half and then shoot off the last quarter like he did, I knew it was going to take something really, really impressive to run him down, just because of how quickly he picked it up." The Ian Wilkes trainee clocked the 1 1/2 miles on the firm turf in 2:32.55 and paid $4.56 for the win as the post-time favorite. Longshot Navy Seal (IRE) finished third, three-quarters of a length behind Desvio. Grand Sonata, second choice in the betting pools, weakened on the turn for home and was eased in the stretch after stalking through the first mile. "(Burnham Square) gives you confidence," Wilkes said. "You come into the race just full of confidence with this horse. I knew how good he was, and I knew how good he was doing." Burnham Square is a homebred for Whitham Thoroughbreds and is out of the grade 2-winning Scat Daddy mare Linda. "(This performance) was very exciting," owner Clay Whitham said. "We knew the horse had run well on the turf in his two previous turf starts, and he was always coming on at the end. So we had a lot of confidence that he would run good, but when you're starting to root for them at the top of the stretch, and you say, 'Come on' and they go right by? That works." The 4-year-old son of Liam's Map has earned $1,988,645 with a 4-4-1 record in 12 starts and is now a graded stakes winner on turf and dirt. He won last year's Blue Grass Stakes (G1) and Holy Bull Stakes (G3) before wrapping up his 3-year-old season with a second in the Nashville Derby Invitational Stakes (G3T) to Wimbledon Hawkeye (GB) at Kentucky Downs. His first start of the year came Feb. 28 at Gulfstream Park, where he finished second in an allowance optional claiming race on the turf. Burnham Square is the second graded stakes winner of the year for Liam's Map, following Fulleffort's Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) victory. Liam's Map stands at Lane's End for a $50,000 fee in 2026.