Howard Wolowitz Returns for Turfway Synth Championships

Grade 1 winner Howard Wolowitz  will try to repeat in the $250,000 Holiday Cheer Stakes Dec. 21, one of four stakes offered in the second year of the Turfway Park Synthetic Championships.

Originally scheduled for Dec. 13, the full card was moved to Dec. 21 due to a winter storm in Kentucky that led to a cancellation. First post for the rescheduled card is 3 p.m. ET.

As in 2024, the card is highlighted by a quartet of $250,000 races, with each race including $50,000 in Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Funds. Only registered Kentucky-breds are eligible to win that $50,000 portion of the purse.

There are two 6-furlong races and two at a mile, all on Turfway's Tapeta track. The four races have proved popular with horsemen, drawing deep fields. All four races attracted graded stakes talent, though a handful of runners have opted for other spots after the postponement.

"If you put the money up, people are going to come," said trainer Brendan Walsh, who has three horses entered in two stakes at Turfway. "The incentive isn't there to get everything out of Kentucky anymore after Churchill Downs. With the purses, you have to take a good look at Turfway."

The Holiday Cheer for 3-year-olds and up going 6 furlongs is the ninth race feature. Gold Square's Howard Wolowitz, winner of the 2024 Franklin-Simpson Stakes (G1T) at Kentucky Downs, will be shortening up off a seventh-place finish in the Turf Mile Stakes (G1T) Oct. 4 at Keeneland. He is undefeated in two career starts sprinting on a synthetic track and won last year's edition by 1 1/2 lengths in a sharp final time of 1:08.10, just barely off the track record of 1:08.03.

Irad Ortiz Jr. has been named to ride the 4-year-old Munnings   colt for trainer Jose D'Angelo.

The Holiday Cheer, which drew 14 entries, is likely to lose at least four runners from the original field. Nobals , the 2023 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) winner; 2024 Holiday Cheer runner-up Run Carson ; and Turfway Prevue Stakes winner Coming in Hot  all raced and lost in a Dec. 18 allowance optional claimer at Turfway, and multiple grade 3 winner Roll On Big Joe , who had been training at The Thoroughbred Center in Lexington, went to Oaklawn Park and won the Ring The Bell Stakes Dec. 13.

Even without their presence, there is talent behind Howard Wolowitz. Lael Stables' Arrest Me Red  is a multiple graded stakes winner sprinting on the turf and has run effectively at Turfway, including a March 8 win in the Big Daddy Stakes. The 7-year-old Pioneerof the Nile gelding trained by Wesley Ward exits a troubled fifth, beaten just three-quarters of a length, Oct 4 in the Woodford Stakes (G2T) at Keeneland.

The second- and third-place finishers from the Woodford—Stone Farm's Script  and Joe Shiesty , owned by Foster Family Racing, Lonnie Reynolds, Vicki Mills, and Donald Coomes—also look dangerous with previous wins over the Turfway surface.

Lucky Score , who crossed the line second in Woodbine's Kennedy Road Stakes (G2) but was placed fourth by the stewards, invades for trainer Mark Casse.

My Charmer Stakes

The stakes action begins with the My Charmer Stakes for fillies and mares going a mile in the sixth race. WinStar Farm's Caitlinhergrtness , Canada's champion 3-year-old filly of 2024, could be favored off her strong 3-year-old form of 2024 that included a third-place finish in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes (G1T) and what has been a solid 4-year-old campaign in 2025 in Canada.

The Omaha Beach   filly trained by Kevin Attard has two wins and three seconds in seven starts this year, all in graded company.

Holiday Inaugural Stakes

The Holiday Inaugural Stakes—for fillies and mares going 6 furlongs—drew a pair of 3-year-old fillies from the Godolphin barn. Civetta  (Into Mischief  ), a stakes winner on the turf at Gulfstream Park as a 2-year-old, tries synthetic for the first time after capturing a turf sprint allowance race Nov. 1 at Churchill Downs.

Godolphin's Pondering  won the 7-furlong Bessarabian Stakes (G3) last out at Woodbine, where she defeated Caitlinhergrtness by three-quarters of a length. By Hard Spun  , Pondering is also a stakes winner going 5 1/2 furlongs on turf.

"When (Pondering) is good, she's very good," trainer Walsh said. "She ran a great race at Woodbine. She's a very, very talented filly. She's been at Turfway all year, and she works very well over the surface there. If she runs her best race, it should make her very competitive.

"The 6, 7 furlongs is probably her distance, with plenty of pace in front of her. But that's an awkward distance (on turf) in this country. This is a nice distance for her.

"I don't think there is much between the two of them. (Civetta) is a half sister to Santin, with whom we won a couple of grade 1s, so she's a valuable filly as she is."

LNJ Foxwoods' Ellen Jay , a 4-year-old Constitution   filly, has run on a synthetic track only once, but it was a wide, eye-catching performance for second in the Sept. 19 Presque Isle Downs Masters Stakes (G2). She comes in off a form-darkening sixth sprinting on the dirt, a surface on which she is winless in three starts, but the Brad Cox trainee has attracted the services of 2024 Eclipse Award-winning jockey Flavien Prat and should be one of the favorites.

Prairie Bayou Stakes

The Cox-Prat pairing also could be one of the main choices in the 1-mile Prairie Bayou Stakes with Godolphin's Encino , though he did draw the outermost 12 post. The 4-year-old Nyquist   colt won the Presque Isle Mile Stakes on synthetic two back, and his 2-2-0 record from four starts at Turfway includes a win in the 2024 John Battaglia Memorial Stakes and a second in this year's Kentucky Cup Classic Stakes (G3).

"We got him back up to Turfway the other week, and he put in a solid work over the track," Cox's local assistant Trace Messina said. "He's obviously run well at Turfway in the past and we're really looking forward to getting him back over the surface for (the) race."

True North Stable and Bloom Racing Stable's Dresden Row  finished second, beaten just a head, in last year's Prairie Bayou, and he returns for another shot. The Canadian shipper trained by Lorne Richards won the Autumn Stakes (G3) at Woodbine in his most recent start in a return to his top form.

"(The card) is another example of Kentucky's racetracks working with the horsemen to find ways to strengthen the product throughout the state," said Alex Foley, executive director of the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association. "The Synthetic Championships will put the focus on Turfway Park this weekend, providing one of the winter's best betting cards. We see the event only growing each year."