Ring Weekend Rallies to Capture Kilroe Mile

St. Elias Stable and West Point Thoroughbreds' Ring Weekend stormed by on the far outside to win the $400,000 Frank E. Kilroe Mile Stakes (gr. IT) March 7 at Santa Anita Park .

With Drayden Van Dyke aboard for trainer Graham Motion, Ring Weekend rallied past favored Summer Front to take the one-mile event by a length in 1:32.98 on a course rated firm. The fractions for the race, set by stretchout sprinter Holy Lute, were :22.04 for the opening quarter-mile, :45.41 for the half-mile, and 1:09.13 for six furlongs.

Summer Front, who got the jump on the winner in the lane, finished second, with Home Run Kitten third by 2 1/4 lengths and Za Approval fourth. Ring Weekend, a 4-year-old gelding by Tapit   out of the Crytoclearance mare Free the Magic, was bred in Kentucky by Gainesway Thoroughbreds.

It was the first grade I win for Van Dyke, who won the 2014 Eclipse Award for top apprentice jockey.

"It feels amazing to win my first grade I for a trainer like Graham Motion," Van Dyke said. "I'm very blessed. I expected (Ring Weekend) to show more speed than he did today. I tried to be as patient as I could. I swung out when I saw Summer Front. I was so far outside, I tried to cut back in to let my horse see him and my horse just kicked on from there.

"I got to breeze Ring Weekend on the turf last week and he worked amazing. I never moved on him. He came back well and really fresh."

"He ran great," said Motion's assistant trainer, Alice Clapham. "Drayden gave him a great ride and settled him nicely. It couldn't have worked out better. He has grown up from last year. I hadn't seen him since then. He has grown up a lot mentally and physically. Hopefully, we'll have a good, fun year with him."

Ring Weekend paid $17.40, $8.60, and $5.20. Summer Front returned $3.80 and $3.20, while Home Run Kitten paid $5.60. The $1 exacta paid $38.60 and the $1 trifecta $356.40.

Ring Weekend was on the Triple Crown trail last year after an easy win in the Tampa Bay Derby (gr. II). He finished fifth in the Preakness Stakes (gr. I) and was pulled up in the Pegasus Stakes (gr. III), and then Motion moved him to the grass.

Ring Weekend won two grade III turf stakes for 3-year-olds last year, the Saranac at Saratoga Race Course and the Hill Prince at Belmont Park, before a sixth-place finish in the Twilight Derby (gr. IIT) at Santa Anita in his last start Oct. 31.

Beyond Za Approval, Winning Prize, Mega Heat, Holy Lute, Hay Dude, Silentio, Dimension, and Mr. Commons completed the order of finish.