Sweet Treasure goes gate to wire in Old Forester Mint Julep Stakes

Sweet Treasure turned Churchill Downs’ Stephen Foster Preview Day into her coming-out party, shaking loose from the far outside and never letting the field get close in the 50th running of the Old Forester Mint Julep Stakes. The 4-year-old Kentucky-bred filly went gate to wire in the 1 1/16-mile Grade III turf race, defeating Pin Up Betty by a half-length in 1:40.29 and collecting the first stakes victory of her career.

The win carried more weight than a single afternoon score. Sweet Treasure had already been knocking on the door in black-type company, with third-place efforts in the GIII Pebbles Stakes and the Albert M. Stall Memorial Stakes, and she had flashed new life in a Keeneland allowance over the same distance on April 14, when she earned a career-best 90 Beyer Speed Figure. This was not a sudden leap so much as the next step in a steady climb, one that finally ended with her in the winner’s circle at Churchill Downs on firm turf.

Irad Ortiz Jr. kept the race simple once Sweet Treasure secured the lead. With Charlene’s Dream and Stylish Sue both scratched, the expected pace pressure vanished and the Brad H. Cox runner was allowed to settle into an uncontested rhythm. She stayed composed through every fraction, and when the stretch run arrived, she had enough left to deny any late challenge. The result paid $6.96 to win, and the exacta returned $35.44.

The stakes also mattered on a bigger Churchill Downs stage. The Mint Julep sat on a Stephen Foster Preview Day card that offered seven stakes and $1.975 million in purses, giving Sweet Treasure’s breakthrough a prominent backdrop rather than a quiet overnight-race setting. Pin Up Betty had won the 2025 edition of the Mint Julep in 1:40.55, but Sweet Treasure’s 1:40.29 was faster, underscoring how efficiently she handled the distance and the surface.

Pedigree only sharpened the picture. Sweet Treasure is by Twirling Candy out of Stellium, by Empire Maker, and the victory gave Twirling Candy his 30th graded winner and 67th black-type winner. For Full of Run Racing II LLC and Frank Silva, it was more than a graded trophy; it was the kind of front-running turf performance that can lift a mare’s value and point her toward richer targets if she stays in this division.