Ethical Diamond Aimed at Kentucky Downs Turf Cup
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Photo: Skip Dickstein
Ethical Diamond captures the 2025 Breeders' Cup Turf at Del Mar
Streaking American turf horse Burnham Square🔥 is scheduled to have some international competition when racing in the Kentucky Downs Turf Cup Invitational Stakes (G2T) Sept. 5.
Ethical Diamond , the 2025 Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T) upsetter trained in Ireland by Willie Mullins, is an intended starter for the 1 1/2-mile turf race at Kentucky Downs in the southern part of the Bluegrass State. The race is part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In, providing its victor with a paid, automatic berth in this fall's $5 million Breeders' Cup Turf Oct. 31 at Keeneland.
H O S Syndicate's Irish-bred Ethical Diamond scored at 27-1 odds last year when the Breeders' Cup was held at Del Mar. Most recently, Ethical Diamond took the Aug. 6 Ballyroan Stakes (G3) at Leopardstown, where he edged group 2 winner Green Impact by a nose. Ethical Diamond had been unplaced at group level in two earlier starts this year.
As an Irish-bred 6-year-old Awtaad gelding, Ethical Diamond is eligible for $1 million of the Kentucky Downs Turf Cup's $2 million purse. Half of the purse is funded with incentives for Kentucky-breds.
The Kentucky Turf Cup will mark a long-awaited return to Kentucky Downs for Mullins, whose father Paddy Mullins saddled Grabel to a victory in the 1990 Dueling Grounds International Hurdle.
"I am looking forward to visiting Kentucky Downs again," Mullins said. "The last time I was there was the opening of the racetrack, then known as the Dueling Grounds, when my father trained a winner there."