{"id":350299,"date":"2025-08-16T23:37:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T23:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/350299\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T23:37:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T23:37:10","slug":"dylan-and-katie-davis-face-off-at-saratoga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/350299\/","title":{"rendered":"Dylan and Katie Davis Face Off at Saratoga"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u201cSmiling Assassin\u201d Katie Davis engaged in some friendly fire when she faced off against her brother Dylan in multiple races this weekend at Saratoga.<\/p>\n

The two jockeys both grew up near the Saratoga Race Course, where they fell in love with horse racing thanks to their father, Robbie Davis, who was a popular jockey in New York in the 1980s. Robbie rode more than 3,000 winners in his career before transitioning into a trainer. But perhaps his greatest legacy was inspiring his kids to enter the family business.<\/p>\n

Aside from Dylan and Katie, the Davis family also includes Jacqueline (aka Jackie, a jockey based in the Finger Lakes) and Edmund (aka Eddie), a rising trainer. All told, that\u2019s four Davis kids on the New York circuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great support system to have my dad, my sisters, and my brother all actively involved in racing,\u201d Dylan recently told Saratoga Living<\/a>. \u201cWe can all relate to what the others are experiencing. We\u2019re competitive with each other, but first and foremost we\u2019re family and we\u2019re always rooting for each other to have success. Sometimes we\u2019re working together, sometimes we\u2019re trying to beat each other. It\u2019s a fun dynamic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family, we\u2019re all jockeys, but I\u2019m the best,\u201d Katie said (jokingly) in an episode of the Netflix docuseries Race for the Crown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Katie\u2019s first opportunity to prove she was right came in the third race at Saratoga on Aug. 14. Katie was aboard Extraordinary One, who was trained by her brother Eddie and entered the race at 17-1 odds. It was the horse\u2019s first turf sprint. Dylan rode the 9-2 Leading Role, who was coming off a second-place finish at Churchill Downs on June 22.<\/p>\n

Katie was at the back of the field at the start of the race, with Dylan wedged in between the frontrunners. As they rounded into the stretch, Katie was on the outside, at one point reaching fourth place. But In the Dark proved too much for the Extraordinary One to handle, and Katie ultimately finished fifth. In sixth, however, was her brother Dylan on Leading Role, who fell many lengths behind in the stretch. Score: Katie 1, Dylan 0.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The siblings had been scheduled to hold a rematch later that day, with Katie atop Solo Dancing and Dylan piloting Wind Dancer (one might be tempted to call the race a \u201cdance off\u201d). Sadly, Wind Dancer scratched, thwarting a Davis v. Davis rematch. Katie solo danced her way to a sixth-place finish in the contest. The score would have to remain Katie 1, Dylan 0 until the following day.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 15, the Davises suited up for the seventh race of the day, with Queen Katie riding the long shot Royal Event and Dylan steering the favorite, 2-1 Golden Irish. The oddsmakers were (almost) right on the money, with Irish finishing second, far ahead of Royal who ended at the back of the pack. Score: Katie 1, Dylan 1.<\/p>\n

With the friendly family squabble tied at one win apiece, Katie and Dylan entered the final race of Aug. 16 with an opportunity to settle the score. Katie\u2019s ride, the 9-2 Courtly Banker, squared off against Dylan\u2019s 9-2 Pay the Juice. With all things even, who would prevail?<\/p>\n

Courtly Banker quickly worked into the thick of the leader pack while Juice lagged behind. Coming into the stretch, Banker took the lead with one furlong to go. Spoken Bluntly made a noble effort to catch up, but to no avail. Katie not only beat her brother but won the race, her first victory of the 2025 Saratoga summer meet. The score: Katie 2, Dylan 1. An emotional Katie entered the winner\u2019s circle to a hearty applause from the crowd, who seemed thoroughly behind the homegrown hero.<\/p>\n

Perhaps when Katie declared herself the best of the Davis jockeys, she wasn\u2019t joking after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The \u201cSmiling Assassin\u201d Katie Davis engaged in some friendly fire when she faced off against her brother Dylan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-350299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115041078140602670","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350299","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=350299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}