First, the Jeff Ruby Steaks, named for the beef at a fine restaurant, dates back to 1972. This thoroughbred race is the only major qualifying Kentucky Derby prep raced on tapeta, an all-weather track. As an elevated stakes, this race offers 100-50-25-15-10 points to the top five finishers in respective order. The Jeff Ruby Steaks is a 1 and 1/8 mile race held annually at Turfway Park in Florence, KY.
Furthermore, Saturday, March 21, 2026 features the Grade III, Jeff Ruby Steaks. With a purse of $777,000 there are twelve three year-old horses entered. At 6:25 PM ET, race 12 posts, on a card of lucky 13 , as follows by post/horse/jockey/trainer/morning-line odds/and current KY Derby prep points and leaderboard ranking as applicable:
- Turf Star/John Velazquez/Graham Motion/10-1/
- Fulleffort/Irad Ortiz, Jr./Brad Cox/7-2/
- Baytown Dreamer/Orlando Bocachia/Paul McEntee/30-1/seven, ranked 40th
- Two Out Here/Gerardo Corrales/Kevin Attard/8-1/
- Black Hornet/Declan Cannon/Brandan Walsh/12-1/
- Medici/Mirco Demuro/Richard Mandella/6-1/
- Maximus Prime/Joseaph Ramos/Anthony Mitchell/20-1/seven, ranked 41st
- Chaos Agent/Joel Rosario/Josie Carroll/10-1/
- Brave Force/Vincent Cheminaud/Jack Sisters on/30-1/
- Argos/Luan Machado/Brad Cox/6-1/
- Stark Contrast/Kazushi Kimura/Micheal McCarthy/5-2/
- Stop the Car/Edgar Morales/Brenadan Walsh/20-1/
Moreover, the top of the leaderboard is held by Paladin with just 60 points, thus the winner of the Jeff Ruby Steaks will automatically rise to become the new leader and eligible to hold a place in the 152nd Kentucky Derby. Please, check out Thoroughbred U again soon to see how the KY Derby field is shaping up.
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