Sails Up, Taken by the Wind Puts Wires the Silverbulletday — Ken McPeek charge, earns 20 Kentucky Oaks points & remains undefeated
New Orleans, La (Jan. 17, 2026) – Away alertly from post position four of six, jockey Brian Hernandez, Jr. backed the pace down masterfully and when called upon off the far turn, Magdelena Racing, Terry Bradshaw, Graham Leviston & Rassi Stable’s Taken by the Wind responded gamely to prevail in Saturday’s $150,000 Fasig-Tipton Silverbulletday at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.
With Untapable runner-up Luv Your Neighbor perched to her outside and .50-1 favorite Atropa sitting the pocket, Taken by the Wind was able to back down the opening half mile fraction to a pedestrian 50.24. The Ken McPeek trainee cruised on the lead by an open length all the way until the quarter pole when she was engaged by the chasing duo both outside and inside. Taken by the wind dug deep, prevailing over Luv Your Neighbor by a neck in a final time of 1:43.58 for the 1 mile & 70 yards distance on a fast track. It was another neck back to Atropa in third. The race was run in a merry-go-round all the way around the track.
“She put us in that spot first jump out of the gate,” Hernandez, Jr. said. “They let us cruise around there as slow as we did. She had her ears up and was able to get a nice long breather. When Luv Your Neighbor came to her at the head of the lane, she was able to fend her off with how easily she was able to go early on.”
With the win, Taken by the Wind increased her Kentucky Oaks points total to 30, with the previous 10 earned for her victory in the Pocohontas (G3) at Churchill Downs in September. Purchased for just $20,000 out of the Fasig-Tipton October yearling sale, the 3-year-old daughter of Rock Your World is undefeated from three starts banking $270,710 in the process.
With consecutive runner-up performances in Fair Grounds stakes this meet, Luv Your Neighbor upped her total to 15. Golden Rod (G2) runner-up Atropa now has 11 points after banking five more in the Silverbulletday. Fourth place finisher Pashmina earned four and now has seven. Dancin in Old Town got two points for running fifth. White Smoke completed the order of finish in sixth.
Taken by the Wind paid $10.80, $7.00 and $2.80. Luv Your Neighbor returned $8.20 and $3.40 and Atropa paid $2.10 to show.
The next race in the Fair Grounds series of 3-year-old fillies races is the Fasig-Tipton Rachel Alexandra (G2) to be contested on Saturday, February 15. The Kentucky Oaks points increase again to 50-25-15-10-5.
Additional Silverbulletday quotes:
Cherie Devaux, trainer of third-place finisher Atropa
“The race didn’t unfold for Atropa. I don’t want to take anything away from the other horses, but it’s hard when they go in 50, and if you’re on the lead on this track it seems it’ll carry you a little bit. She kept coming. It’s just, they kept going.”
Jose Ortiz, jockey of third-place finisher, Atropa
“There were two very nice horses in front of me, and they went 50. I basically had my hand tied in the first turn. I wish I could have gone forward a little bit more, but (Taken by the Wind) broke better than me, crossed over, and then I had to fight next to him. I was following, waiting. But, you know, they went easy and they kept coming home.”
Ben Curtis, jockey of fourth-place finisher, Pashmina
“We were keen to kind of teach her today, but I like the way she dug in. She kind of got a little bit lost there at the quarter pole and then at the eighth pole she started running again. She’s going to keep running against these fillies, so she’s going to have to improve, but she ran another solid race today and I think she’s still learning on the job.”
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