Kentucky
2026 Kentucky Derby and Oaks Trail Begins: Spice Runner, Taken by the Wind Strike First in Points Races
The Road to the 2026 Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks kicked off on Saturday with two point qualifying races at Churchill Downs.
Florida-bred Taken by the Wind scooped up the first ten points on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks with her dominant win in the Grade 3 Pocahontas Stakes. The win marked sire Rock Your World’s first graded stakes winner. Kenny McPeek trains the two year old filly and is no stranger to the Derby and Oaks trail. In 2024, McPeek accomplished the rare feat of capturing the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby and the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks in the same year with Mystik Dan and Thorpedo Anna.
Taken by the Wind tracked pacesetter, Embrace the Moment until turning from home where she took the lead and began opening up on the field of fillies. She crossed the wire over five lengths over the rest with Irad Ortiz, Jr. in the irons.
The current leader of the Oaks leaderboard broke her maiden last month at Saratoga at 13-1 to win going away.
On the Derby trail, Spice Runner became the first leader of the Derby points leaderboard with a win in the Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes.
The son of red-hot sire Gun Runner turned the tables on favorite Comport who beat Spice Runner last meeting in the Ellis Park Juvenile Stakes.
Spice Runner is a homebred for Ron Winchell’s Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC. Spice Runner is also a full brother to multiple Grade 1 winner, Gunite. Spice Runner is trained by Steve Asmussen.
Asmussen is the winningest thoroughbred trainer in North America and while he has won a great deal of graded stakes over the course of his career, there’s one missing from his resume—the Kentucky Derby. Asmussen has campaigned a great deal of horses across the Derby trail but none have crossed the wire first under the Twin Spires on the first Saturday of May. In 2022, Epicenter was strides away from accomplishing the feat when longshot Rich Strike snatched victory in an upset for the ages.
This is just the beginning for qualifying points on the Derby and Oaks trail. While a bulk of these points will be earned in 2026, more point races will be run this year with the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Juvenile Fillies offering 30 points to the winners. While 30 points is typically not enough to make it into the starting gate of the Kentucky Derby or Kentucky Oaks, it’s a start that many connections look to achieve.
The starting gate of the Kentucky Oaks is capped at 14 fillies while the starting gate for the Kentucky Derby is capped at 20 colts.
The Kentucky Oaks will take place in primetime on May 1 while the Kentucky Derby will run May 2.
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GRAYSON, Ky. (WSAZ) – New information has been released in the search for a missing woman at Grayson Lake.
According to game wardens with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, Marly Kinney, 19, of Ashland, was last seen at Grayson Lake on Wednesday afternoon.
They say search efforts are focused on the water at this time and include Kentucky State Police aerial support, drones, boats, and K9 assistance.
Crews suspend search for missing teen for the night
The search is now into its third day, with officials saying on and off rain has hindered their search and that a group of 50 volunteers are walking the banks of the lake to help in the search.
Search and rescue boats have been seen at the lake as well.
Officials say there are still many questions, including if Kinney is still alive and where exactly she went missing.
They also say they’ve been using a variety of equipment, including sonar and thermal detectors, as well as helicopters and underwater drones.
WSAZ received a statement from Kinney’s family Friday afternoon:
“We are very appreciative of the absolute surplus of support from law enforcement, search and rescue, 1st responders, and all of the community and its volunteers that are here with us and for us searching for Marly. We do not even know how to express our absolute gratitude to you all. We continue to have faith she will be found and brought back to us. We know we have the very best people doing all they can to bring her home.”
Anyone with information is asked to call 911.
We are still working to get more information.
Previous coverage can be found here.
Copyright 2026 WSAZ. All rights reserved.
13 things more likely to happen than winning the Powerball jackpot
Hoping to win the Powerball jackpot? Here are 13 things more likely to happen than becoming an instant millionaire.
The Kentucky Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at Thursday, June 25, 2026 winning numbers for each game.
Cash Ball
02-08-24-32, Cash Ball: 09
Check Cash Ball payouts and previous drawings here.
Pick 3
Evening: 6-3-0
Midday: 9-6-0
Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Pick 4
Evening: 5-7-6-0
Midday: 5-2-6-6
Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Millionaire for Life
03-13-14-34-45, Bonus: 01
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Courier Journal digital producer. You can send feedback using this form.
On Thursday, Kentucky’s home and away SEC opponents for the 2026-27 season were revealed and on top of learning the three opponents who they will play twice, there are some very intriguing matchups. In conference play, Kentucky will face six teams who are among the top 25 in many preseason rankings.
In SEC play, Kentucky will play Tennessee, Vandy and Ole Miss all both home and away. The home matchups include Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Vandy. As for the road tilts, the Wildcats will face Florida, Georgia, Mississippi State, Missouri, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee and Vandy. Let’s take a look at some interesting developments from the schedule release.
John Calipari returns to Rupp Arena (again)
In Calipari’s first year with Arkansas, he got the best of Kentucky when he came into Rupp Arena and left with a 10-point victory, a game where you could really feel the tension all game long in the building from Kentucky fans, which translated onto the court with the players. Last season, it was Kentucky who shocked everyone when they stole one on the road against a top 20 Arkansas team after a rough up-and-down season up to that point. Now, the two will face off again as Kentucky will look to get the win in Rupp and make sure Calipari doesn’t get two in a row in the building. It’ll be another highly-anticipated showdown.
Kentucky hits the road at Texas
This is shaping up to be a major challenge for Kentucky next season and may even end up being one of the biggest games of the season. Texas is seen by many as a clear top 10 team, with some even having them within the top five and when you combine that with the fact that the game is on the road, the Wildcats will have their hands full. The Wildcats fell to the longhorns in the 2024-25 season, and it’ll be a much stiffer challenge this time.
Which game could be a trap?
We don’t have the game-by-game dates yet, so it’s hard to say with a lot of confidence, but opponent-wise, Georgia could really give Kentucky fits. In Pope’s first year, his team struggled handling the physicality of the Bulldogs and now, they’ve retained one of their best guards for another year and have added physicality through the portal. Mike White’s teams love to make opponents uncomfortable and they could do that once again down in Athens. Another sneaky team to watch is Oklahoma, who will have very good guard play. Kentucky will face both teams on the road.
Overall, it’s a pretty fair SEC schedule for a Kentucky team who has the capability of a return to being atop the conference once again. Mark Pope has such a system-fit squad and he can do some damage in the SEC.
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