Colucci gives Corniche third winner with debut score at Presque Isle Downs

Colucci gave Corniche another fast-starting juvenile and another reason for breeders to pay attention, rolling home to a 1 1/2-length debut win in a 4 1/2-furlong maiden special weight at Presque Isle Downs. The Kentucky-bred colt handled the all-weather surface professionally, sat just off the pace, and finished the job in 52.80, a sharp first outing at a distance where early speed and composure matter most.

The race came in Race 5 on Wednesday, June 17, with the field going off at 5:25 in a $31,000 maiden special weight for 2-year-olds. Colucci, by Corniche out of Bluegrass Miss by Bluegrass Cat, was ridden by Yuri Yaranga for trainer Gregory Viands and owner Ira Ashwal. BloodHorse listed the colt’s win price at $18.60, a reminder that the market did not fully catch up to the horse’s ability before the gates opened.

That matters beyond one afternoon at Presque Isle. Colucci became Corniche’s third winner, and for a young sire whose own reputation was built on precocity and class, these are the kinds of early data points that can move a commercial story. Corniche went undefeated in three starts and capped his juvenile campaign by winning the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, so the question around his first crop has never been whether his name carries cachet. It has been whether his runners can show that same kind of speed early enough to matter in juvenile races that shape a sire’s image.

The answer so far is getting clearer. Colucci followed Fanshell Beach, who won a 4 1/2-furlong maiden special weight at Churchill Downs on April 28 in 51.42, and Suspicions, who took a similar 4 1/2-furlong maiden special weight at Keeneland on April 3 in 52.74. Three winners at the same short juvenile trip point to a crop that can show up ready, not merely later on pedigree.

Colucci’s path to the winner’s circle also adds a sharp market angle. He had been sold for $65,000 as a Keeneland September yearling, then failed to meet his reserve at OBS April, and later brought only $12,000 at OBSOAP before proving his worth on the racetrack. That arc is exactly why debut winners can change the conversation so quickly: a horse can look ordinary in the sale ring and then, with one professional first start, redraw his profile.

Presque Isle’s 4 1/2-furlong track record is 50.22, set by Dazzled Saint in 2011, so Colucci’s 52.80 was not record territory, but it was a strong opening number for a first-time starter. At a track that was the first in the United States to use Tapeta Footings’ artificial surface, the effort suggested surface fit as much as raw talent. For Corniche, that is the kind of result that strengthens the case one winner at a time.