Great White rolled to the lead at the top of the stretch then held off Full Effort to win the $175,000 John Battaglia Memorial S. Saturday night at Turfway Park.
The 3-year-old son of Volatile, who has won two of three starts, earned 20 qualifying points on the Roady to the Kentucky Derby (G1).
After a rough trip and a fifth-place finish in last month’s Leonatus S. at Turfway, Great White got a much cleaner trip in Saturday’s 1 1/16-mile race. A good break put him in third going into the first turn as he tracked Street Beast through a half-mile of :48.84. On the final turn, Great White began his move and took the lead with a quarter-mile to run. With a determined stretch run, Great White held off the runner-up by a neck in 1:46.83 on the synthetic surface.
“There’s so much more improvement in this horse,” trainer John Ennis said after the race. “He’s obviously by Volatile, who was a quick horse, but (Great White) gets the two turns so well. I don’t think distance is going to be a problem with him.”
Great White is owned by Ennis along with Three Chimneys Farm and was bred in Kentucky by Stud TNT.
Ennis added that the imposing gray will most likely make his final Derby prep in Kentucky, either the March 21 Jeff Ruby S. (G3) at Turfway or the April 4 Blue Grass S. (G1) at Keeneland.
A top-five Second-Crop sire of 2025, Volatile is the first Third-Crop sire to have multiple stakes winners in 2026. He is standing this year for $10,000.
