Kentucky-bred Troubleshooting made his graded stakes debut a winning one, defeating 11 rivals in the $2,000,000 Franklin-Simpson Stakes (G1) at Kentucky Downs.
The Donamire Farm homebred raced in sixth position early in the 6 ½-furlong turf fixture. With jockey Tyler Gaffailone in the irons, Troubleshooting shifted out five wide near the quarter pole. He charged through the lane and defeated Golden Afternoon by a half length at the finish. In notching the biggest win of his career, Troubleshooting stopped the clock in a fast final time of 1:14.33, just ticks off Saturday Flirt’s track record of 1:14.01.
Trained by Gregory Foley, Troubleshooting improved his record to 9-3-3-0 and the $1,154,900 winner’s share of the lucrative purse raised his career bankroll to $1,395,656. The dark bay or brown colt is a 2022 son of Not This Time out of the stakes-winning Into Mischief mare Into Trouble.
“When you have a very good horse, you can be pretty confident,” Foley said of his charge. “He fit for sure. It was just if you can get in there and get lucky. For $2 million, you know it’s going to be the best there is around right now, a couple of horses that came from Saratoga and that. But this horse has been running against good horses, too.”
In addition to winning the Franklin-Simpson, Troubleshooting also won the Dade Park Dash Stakes at Ellis Park in July.