{"id":321238,"date":"2025-08-06T01:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T01:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/321238\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T01:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T01:14:09","slug":"trainer-ethan-west-looks-to-continue-banner-year-in-arlington-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/321238\/","title":{"rendered":"Trainer Ethan West Looks To Continue Banner Year In Arlington Million"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trainer Ethan West Looks To Continue Banner Year In Arlington Million<\/a> originally appeared on Paulick Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trainer Ethan West won the second graded stakes of his career on Sunday when Chunk of Gold wired the field in the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby, and the young trainer will look to stay hot this Saturday at Colonial Downs with Robert J. Hunt\u2019s Runaway Storm, who is entered in the G1 Arlington Million on Festival of Racing Day.<\/p>\n

Before Sunday\u2019s West Virginia Derby, Chunk of Gold earned a spot and ran ninth in Kentucky Derby 151. With 36 starters since that first Saturday in May, West has won with 11. Along with Chunk of Gold\u2019s West Virginia title, West went three-for-three last week, and his other two wins came locally. It\u2019s been a big year for the 32-year-old trainer who has already surpassed $1 million in earnings for the first time in his eight-year career.<\/p>\n

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Tabbed at 20-1 in the morning line, Runaway Storm will face his toughest field to date, including last year\u2019s runner-up in the Million, Integration; Mystik Dan, who\u2019s resume includes a win in Kentucky Derby 150 and $4,467,120 lifetime earnings; and the globetrotting European import Cairo who finished third last out in the Queen Anne Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot.<\/p>\n

West has had the Arlington Million circled for Runaway Storm for more than a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were actually targeting the Million last year,\u201d West said. \u201cWe could only get one start into him before the Million, but we were okay with it because he ran really good off an eight-month layoff to just get beat a nose by Money Supply. But (after that race) he had a little bit of a setback. By the time he was going to get back up and going, it would have been the dead of winter. So we figured we’d just give him time off until the first of the year, then get him back up as a 5-year-old and campaign him towards the Million.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his first of two races so far this year, both on the turf at Horseshoe Indianapolis, Runaway Storm ran a troubled sixth. Most recently, in the Jonathan B. Schuster Memorial Stakes, he led throughout but was run down by Encino, earning a consecutive second-place finish in that event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you watch the last race at Indiana, he never stopped but just got beat by a good horse,\u201d West said. \u201cIn the gallop out, his jockey couldn’t get him stopped until the half-mile pole going down the backside.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 2023 Virginia Derby (G3), Runaway Storm ran valiantly in defeat to Integration, setting extremely fast fractions but never throwing in the towel to finish third.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s one of those horses that lays it down every time you lead him over,\u201d West said.<\/p>\n

After the Virginia Derby, Runaway Storm went to Keeneland for the Bryan Station (G3) and earned his young trainer\u2019s first graded stakes title. The gelded son of Midnight Storm, who was known for doing his best running on the lead, came from off the pace in the Bryan Station and tenaciously fought off Talk of the Nation in a thrilling photo finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just walked out of the gate that day and took a completely different approach to his running style,\u201d West said. \u201cI wish he would relax and have that running style more often. But he’s just a very heavy horse, a very strong horse. And he’s a very tough horse to break. We’ve never sent him and asked him to go to the lead. He just does it on his own. So he’s always kind of just been a front runner, and even though he doesn’t explode down the lane, he doesn’t stop running.\u201d<\/p>\n

Runaway Storm broke his maiden going nine furlongs and proved himself again at that distance with his third in the Virginia Derby, but at 1\u00bc miles over the turf, the Arlington Million will be his longest distance test to date.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can get him to relax a little bit and harness that early speed, I think we’ll be fine,\u201d West said.<\/p>\n

The way West\u2019s barn is going, Runaway Storm has the profile of a longshot contender that horseplayers and fans should keep a close eye on in Saturday\u2019s Million.<\/p>\n

Tickets for the Colonial Downs Festival of Racing can be purchased at www.colonialdowns.com.<\/p>\n

Colonial\u2019s races will be prominently featured on FanDuel TV all season long. Additionally, FanDuel TV will be on-site for coverage of the Festival of Racing on Aug. 9.<\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Aug 5, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trainer Ethan West Looks To Continue Banner Year In Arlington Million originally appeared on Paulick Report. Trainer Ethan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[110986,116311,94806,1071,116307,79,116309,16,15,116310,43928,116308],"class_list":{"0":"post-321238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-arlington-million","9":"tag-bryan-station","10":"tag-colonial-downs","11":"tag-racing","12":"tag-runaway-storm","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-trainer-ethan-west","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-virginia-derby","18":"tag-west-virginia","19":"tag-west-virginia-derby"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}