Bear River, a 4-year-old son of Flameaway, collected his third career stakes win Sunday at Ellis Park in the Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Sprint S.
With the win, Bear River earned a fees-paid berth to the $2 million Turf Sprint (G2) Aug. 30 at Kentucky Downs. That race is part of the Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” series for this year’s race at Del Mar.
Bear River, in post 12, and Coppola, in post 1, both came out running and locked up in what would be a race-long battle for the win. Coppola set the early fractions, blazing through a quarter in :21.47 and a half in :43.36. Bear River ultimately collared Coppola inside the final sixteenth to win by a neck in 1:00.68 for the 5 ½-furlongs on the firm turf, missing the track record by less than a half-second.
“I thought there might’ve been more speed in the race, but my horse is pretty fast himself,” winning rider James Graham said. “He’s very genuine, very honest, very fast. [Trainer] Keith (Desormeaux) brought him back at Indiana earlier this month in his first start off a layoff. He ran well that day and improved on that today.”
Bear River, out of Sixtyfivenorth, was bred in Kentucky by Dreamfields Farm, Don Brady and Brendan Burke.
Sunday’s win improved his record to 6-0-3 in 21 starts and increased his career earnings to $543,923 for owner Charles Marquis.
Top-10 Third-Crop sire Flameaway now has six stakes winners in 2025, including Grade 1 winners Dark Saffron and Amada Mila (CHI).
Warning: Undefined variable $post_id in /chroot/home/darbydan/darbydan.com/html/wp-content/themes/dd_theme/single.php on line 31
