Aurelius Maximus Sires First Winner in Louisiana

Norman Stables' Secret Faith  provided freshman stallion Aurelius Maximus  with his first winner when she captured her debut June 14 in a maiden special weight at Evangeline Downs.

Secret Faith chased the pace early under rider C.J. McMahon and drew away from the field to win by 6 1/4 lengths in a final time of :52.71 for the 4 1/2 furlongs on a fast main track. The 2-year-old gray or roan filly is trained by Jayde Gelner, who selected Secret Faith out of the 2023 Texas Thoroughbred Association Yearling Sale for $75,000.

Bred in Louisiana by J. Adcock and Hume Wornall, Secret Faith is out of the stakes-producing Macho Uno mare St. Jean. The dam of five winners, St. Jean has produced four-time stakes winner and $340,971 earner Midnight Fantasy  (Midnight Lute  ) and Strong Promise , a Broken Vow colt who posted three black-type victories for Norman Stables.

Aurelius Maximus, a son of Pioneerof the Nile, entered stud in 2021 at Red River Farms in Louisiana. A $625,000 buy-back at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Aurelius Maximus won three of eight starts for owners Stonestreet Stables, George Bolton, and Peter Leidel. He was a narrow runner-up to Mr Freeze   in the 2020 Fayette Stakes (G2) for trainer Steve Asmussen and was fourth in the 2018 Champagne Stakes (G1) when trained by Chad Brown as a juvenile.