Original Sin wins Blame Stakes in first stakes start at Churchill Downs

Original Sin won the Blame Stakes because he got the trip and Hit Show did not. In the seventh running of the $290,000 Grade III race at Churchill Downs, Brendan Walsh’s 4-year-old gray son of Curlin tracked close to Liberal Arts, moved when Tyler Gaffalione asked, and edged clear before holding off Who Dey by a half-length in 1:49.39 for 1 1/8 miles over a fast track.

The victory came in Original Sin’s first stakes start and paid $181,900, pushing his record to 4 wins from 8 starts with earnings of $387,735. He had already signaled he belonged in deeper waters with an allowance win at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots in January and a second-level allowance optional claiming victory at Keeneland on April 11, and the Blame confirmed that progression against graded company.

Walsh said he was “quietly confident” after the Keeneland run and said the colt had been “improving all year.” Gaffalione said Original Sin “got away well, stayed engaged, got into a great rhythm, and then found another gear” when the pressure came. That rhythm mattered, because the race never became a pure test of class. It became a traffic test, and Original Sin was on the right side of it.

Hit Show was the one left with the frustrating run. The 2025 Dubai World Cup winner was making his first start since finishing fifth in the March 28 Dubai World Cup, but he never got a clean chance to uncork his late kick. He was bottled up on the second turn and into the stretch, then had to settle for third after being locked in traffic for the first half of the lane. Who Dey, a 10-1 runner who was scratched Friday from an Ohio-bred stakes to land here, finished second after launching the late bid that put pressure on the winner.

The result also delivered another Churchill Downs milestone for Calumet Farm, which now has 39 stakes victories at the track under Brad Kelley’s ownership. It was the kind of race that changes the form beyond the official order of finish: Original Sin now owns a graded stakes win, but the horse to upgrade next time may be Hit Show, the runner who lost his shot before the stretch even opened.