Grade 1 winner Percy's Bar brings a career-best recent win along with a long list of storylines into a primetime edition of the $1.5 million Kentucky Oaks (G1) May 1 at Churchill Downs.
Churchill Downs is trying something new this year with the Oaks, as the race is scheduled to start under the track's lights at about 8:40 p.m. ET. In moving the race to a later start time, Churchill officials hope for increased viewership and wagering.
Should Percy's Bar shine under those lights Friday, the daughter of Upstart would set off a number of celebrations. She is campaigned by about 25 partners in Hat Creek Racing, for which Gatewood Bell serves as managing partner. Bell also serves as vice president of racing at Keeneland.
The Oaks ties started from the start for Percy's Bar, as the daughter of Honestly Deb, by Super Saver, is bred by the late Brereton Jones, who has ties to three Kentucky Oaks (G1) winners with homebreds Believe You Can and Proud Spell as well as being the owner of Lovely Maria. Ties to a fourth Kentucky Oaks winner would only add to his immense legacy.
Percy's Bar, who finished third in last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1), also is the first grade 1-winning filly and second grade 1 winner overall for Upstart, who stands for $25,000 this season at Airdrie Stud, which was founded by Jones.
Beyond the human connections, Percy's Bar is named after the late Keeneland bartender Percy Pool, who for many years held court at the second floor mezzanine watering hole at Keeneland, as well as a bar at Churchill.
On the track Percy's Bar has made headlines to keep interest in those storylines. She reached the wire first in the Alcibiades Stakes (G1) last year at Keeneland before being demoted to second after that race. But she would not be denied grade 1 glory at Keeneland this spring as she scored in the April 3 Ashland Stakes (G1).
The 2 1/4-length victory April 3 in the Ashland marked a successful return to racing off of more than a five-month layoff. Now the challenge will be to keep that momentum going as she tries to win a second grade 1 when she stretches out from 1 1/16 miles to the 1 1/8-mile Kentucky Oaks off of a four-week break.
Trainer Ben Colebrook believes Percy's Bar, who has won or hit the board in all six of her starts, can take another step forward.
"I think she can improve. I mean, you have to worry a little bit about the bounce, but I think she'll be fine," Colebrook said after the Ashland. "She doesn't seem like a filly that's a bounce candidate because she's very consistent."
Percy's Bar defeated grade 2 winner Zany in the Ashland but that daughter of 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah is the 4-1 morning-line favorite in Friday's test. The prerace status traces to her three straight wins to start her career that included an 8 1/2-length romp in last year's Demoiselle Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct Racetrack and a 2 3/4-length victory in the Suncoast Stakes in February at Tampa Bay Downs.
The favorite status also likely is tied to her trainer, Todd Pletcher, a four-time Kentucky Oaks winner. He believes Zany can quickly return to her winning ways.
"In the Ashland I thought she ran OK. I'm not sure that she loved the Keeneland track, based on just watching her train there a few days before the race. I definitely don't think she appreciated the short run to the finish line," Pletcher said of the short stretch for 1 1/16-mile races at Keeneland. "But I think the race served its purpose of giving us a good outing four weeks before the Oaks.
"I like the way she's trained since then, and the way she's been training since she's been here at Churchill."
Zany is campaigned by Repole Stable, who will look to match last year's Oaks-Derby sweep by Godolphin as he also boasts the morning-line favorite in the Derby in Arkansas Derby (G1) winner Renegade (also 4-1).
Speaking of Godolphin, Sheikh Mohammed's powerful international stable will try to secure the Kentucky Oaks with a homebred for a third time in four years when trainer Brendan Walsh saddles two-time grade 2 winner Bella Ballerina. The daughter of 2007 Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense will try to follow in the footsteps of 2025 Kentucky Oaks winner Good Cheer and Walsh-trained 2023 winner Pretty Mischievous, who is a half sister to Bella Ballerina (out of Pretty City Dancer, by Tapit ).
"She's been nice from the get-go. She's been very nice," Walsh said of Bella Ballerina. "We've always liked her. She's always breezed very well. I mean, even before we ever raced her we thought she was pretty nice."
Bella Ballerina enters the Kentucky Oaks off a win in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes (G2) and runner-up finish in the Fair Grounds Oaks (G2). Pretty Mischievous recorded the same results in those two races going into the Kentucky Oaks.
"It's remarkable; they're very similar," Walsh said. "Hopefully it works out the same.
"She's had a great run-up to this race. She's trained great and she's been working great. So I couldn't be happier with her, really. I like our draw (post 12); it should set up for her."
West Point Thoroughbreds' Counting Stars enters off a 5 1/2-length win in the Fantasy Stakes (G2) at Oaklawn Park while Gary and Mary West homebred Prom Queen is entered off a clear victory in the Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2). Mark Casse trains Counting Stars and Brad Cox conditions Prom Queen.
Leading contenders from Southern California include grade 2 winner and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies runner-up Explora, from the barn of Bob Baffert; as well as recent Santa Anita Oaks (G2) winner Meaning for trainer Michael McCarthy.
"Her reputation was out in front of her. And she has lived up to that as she has trained wonderfully every day. With every work, she just seemed to get a bit more professional," McCarthy said of the daughter of Gun Runner who enters with three wins from four starts for owners Bridlewood Farm and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners. "Likewise, with every race, she's just gotten a little bit better mentally. She handles everything that's thrown at her. We'll see what happens here on Friday night under the lights."
McCarthy noted that each of the expected fillies will be facing a new challenge but he likes that, to date, Meaning has adjusted to new experiences. She enters as the field's 5-1 second choice on the morning line.
"All 14 of these fillies are going to go face the same thing: the sounds, the lights, the crowds, what have you," McCarthy said.
Churchill Downs, Friday, May 1, 2026, Race 13Entries: Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Explora (KY) Flavien Prat 121 Bob Baffert 6/1 2 2Zany (KY) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 121 Todd A. Pletcher 4/1 3 3Search Party (KY) Cristian A. Torres 121 Mark E. Casse 30/1 4 4Counting Stars (KY) Francisco Arrieta 121 Mark E. Casse 8/1 5 5Meaning (KY) Juan J. Hernandez 121 Michael W. McCarthy 5/1 6 6My Miss Mo (FL) Micah J. Husbands 121 Saffie A. Joseph, Jr. 20/1 7 7Dazzling Dame (MD) Luis Saez 121 Brittany T. Russell 30/1 8 8Bottle of Rouge (KY) Mike E. Smith 121 Bob Baffert 15/1 9 9Always a Runner (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 121 Chad C. Brown 10/1 10 10Prom Queen (KY) Javier Castellano 121 Brad H. Cox 8/1 11 11Percy's Bar (KY) Luan Machado 121 Ben Colebrook 6/1 12 12Bella Ballerina (KY) Tyler Gaffalione 121 Brendan P. Walsh 12/1 13 13Pashmina (KY) Ramon A. Vazquez 121 Rob Atras 30/1 14 14Brooklyn Blonde (KY) Kazushi Kimura 121 Michael W. McCarthy 30/1 15 15Lovely Grey (KY) Dylan Davis 121 Kelsey Danner 30/1 16 16Nycon (KY) Jaime A. Torres 121 D. Whitworth Beckman 50/1 17 17Resist (KY) Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr. 121 Thomas Drury, Jr. 30/1
