Whitham Thoroughbreds’ homebred Burnham Square nosed out pacesetter East Avenue at the finish to win the $1.25 million Blue Grass S. (G1) at Keeneland on Tuesday, April 8. The race was rescheduled from Saturday because of severe weather and rainfall in Central Kentucky.

With the thrilling victory, Burnham Square earned 100 qualifying points toward the 151st running of the $5 million Kentucky Derby (G1). The Derby will be run May 3 at Churchill Downs. Runner-up East Avenue also earned a spot in the Derby starting gate, having picked up 50 points. Third-place finisher River Thames, whose 25 points raised his total to 50, also secured a Top 20 spot on the Derby leaderboard.

Trained by Ian Wilkes and ridden by Brian Hernandez Jr., Burnham Square closed resolutely in the lane of the Blue Grass. He tagged East Avenue right on the wire to win by a nose. The winner covered 1 1/8 miles over the fast main track in 1:51.33.

“When we turned for home my horse had a full head of steam, and I was confident we were going to be able to run (East Avenue) down,” said Hernandez. “So right at the wire, I had an idea that we got our neck in front of him.

“That’s the nice thing about a horse like him,” Hernandez added. “For a 3-year-old to make such a long run like he did today and be able to run down Grade 1 winners like he did, he’s an exciting horse to move forward with.”

Burnham Square Headed to the Kentucky Derby

Burnham Square is a Kentucky-bred gelded son of Liam’s Map out of the Scat Daddy mare Linda. He is the seventh gelding to win the Blue Grass and the first since Dominican in 2007. The win is the second in a stakes race for Burnham Square. He also won the Holy Bull S. (G3) at Gulfstream Park in February. He is now an earner of $977,755.

“He’s not a big, robust horse, and I was probably a little kind on him coming into that race (Fountain of Youth S. where he finished fourth). I wasn’t as hard on him as what I wanted to be,” Wilkes shared. “Then I trained him a little more for here because I needed (Kentucky Derby) points, so I couldn’t mess around. We had to step up and get a little more serious now.

“I’ll watch him,” Wilkes added of preparing his charge for the Kentucky Derby. “He’ll tell me what I need to do. But we have to keep the foot on the gas, got to keep the foot down on the pedal because we’ve got to get a little better again.  It’s going to be very deep waters, and we’ve got to get a lot better.”