Pharoah’s Wine from Kentucky Downs-loving family
Published 3:46 pm Monday, September 1, 2025
- Pharaoh’s Wine wins a June 18 allowance race at Churchill Downs. (COADY MEDIA)
FRANKLIN — Pharoah’s Wine is set to add to a family tradition Thursday when she runs in the $500,000 The Mint One Dreamer Stakes at Kentucky Downs.
The One Dreamer will be the 4-year-old American Pharoah filly’s third career start at all-turf Kentucky Downs. She broke her maiden on the course for trainer Dale Romans in 2023 and finished seventh in the Music City last year. Her dam, Sweeping Paddy, broke her maiden at Kentucky Downs in 2012.
“I’ve trained a lot of good horses out of that family,” Romans said. “She likes that racetrack. She should run well.”
Pharoah’s Wine finished in a dead heat for second in the $250,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf Mile at Ellis Park on Aug 3. Simply In Front, winner of the Ellis Park race by a head, finished second by three-quarters of a length to Ag Bullet in the $2 million Never Say Die Ladies Sprint (G2) on Saturday.
Pharoah’s Wine is out of Sweeping Paddy, who is a full sister to Cherry Wine, the Preakness runner-up in 2016. She is a homebred by longtime Romans clients William Pacella, Nancy Delony, the late Frank Jones and Frank Shoop.
Romans’ connection to the family goes back to 1999 when he took over the training of Sweeping Story, who went on to win the listed Bourbonette and finish third in the G1 Kentucky Oaks.
“I think we’ve trained four generations out of that mare,” Romans said. “The whole family can run. The mother liked it down there. We should be all right.”
The 5-2 favorite in the field of nine is the Joe Sharp-trained Vive Veuve, winner of allowance races in good time in her last two starts at Saratoga and Churchill Downs.
The One Dreamer at a mile and 70 yards is for fillies and mares that have not won a stakes in 2025. However, it is sprinkled with graded-stakes winners from prior years: No Mo Candy (who was third in Saratoga’s G2 Ballston Spa in her last start), Watchtower (third in Santa Anita’s G2 Yellow Ribbon in her previous race), Grayosh (third by a total of a neck in Monmouth Park’s G3 Matchmaker), Waves of Mischief (second in last year’s Dueling Grounds Oaks) and Sparkle Blue.
FIRST WEEK STATS
With the first three days of the 2025 Kentucky Downs meet in the books, the trainer and jockey titles are up for grabs and an abundance of favorites have won.
Frankie Dettori rang up a four-bagger Sunday, pulling ahead of Jose Ortiz, six wins to five, after Ortiz booted four home on opening day. In a jockey colony deep with talent, Tyler Gaffalione and Luan Machado are next in the standings with three victories apiece.
By riding to victory in the 10th race Sunday, Gaffalione tied Brian Hernandez, Jr. for most career wins at the track with 66. Hernandez won a race on opening day.
Joe Sharp has three trainer wins and holds a narrow lead over six tied with two apiece: Rusty Arnold, Rodolphe Brisset, Brad Cox, Mike Maker, Michael Stidham and Wesley Ward. Horses trained by 19 other conditioners were led into the Kentucky Downs winner’s circle in the opening three days.
On the purse earnings front, three trainers are in the million-dollar club after winning stakes. Keith Desormeaux ($1,174,685) won the Grade 2 The Mint Kentucky Turf Sprint Stakes with Bear River; Richard Baltas ($1,154,900) took the Grade 2 Never Say Die Ladies Turf Sprint Stakes with Ag Bullet; and Wimbledon Hawkeye (GB), trained by James Owen, got the winner’s share of $2 million ($1,109,800) offered to horses bred outside Kentucky in the $3.5 million Grade 3 DK Horse Nashville Derby Invitational Stakes.
Dettori leads his closest competition in purse earnings by more than a million dollars with $2,484,920. Among his six winners were Wimbledon Hawkeye in the DK Horse Nashville Derby and Johnny’s Red Storm in the $1 million Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint.
Favorites have won 17 times from 34 races, a 50-percent clip that is 17 points higher than the national average. On Thursday, handicappers got seven of 11 races right, and the other four winners were sent off as the second choice. Six favorites scored in 12 races Saturday, and there were four of 11 Sunday with a fifth winner only 0.11-1 from being the bettors’ choice.
The longest odds to light up the tote board by far belonged to Ground Support in Saturday’s second race. Sent off at 100-1, she paid $203.20 after being ridden by Adam Beschizza for trainer Kelsey Danner and owner NBS Stable.