Churchill Downs Stakes Recap & Quotes: The Knicks Go

May 03, 2025 Kevin Kerstein

Stephen and Evan Ferraro’s favored Liberal Arts surged past Patriot Spirit in deep stretch to post a three-quarters of a length victory in the fourth running of the $200,000 Knicks Go Overnight Stakes Presented by L&N Federal Credit Union (Listed) for 4-year-olds and up Saturday afternoon, the first of nine stakes on the 14-race Kentucky Derby program.

Trained by Brad Cox and ridden by Luis Saez, Liberal Arts completed the mile over a sloppy track in 1:35.25. It is the second win in the race for Cox, having scored previously with Zozos in 2023.

Liberal Arts raced early in midpack and on the outside in the clear as Inveigled dueled for the lead with New King and Best Actor. Leaving the far turn, Saez had Liberal Arts on the move five wide with Patriot Spirit to his immediate inside.

Those two opened up on the field at the top of the stretch and dueled to deep stretch where Liberal Arts pulled away.

Now three for five at Churchill Downs, including a victory in the 2023 Street Sense (GIII) over a sloppy track, Liberal Arts is a 4-year-old Kentucky-bred son Arrogate out of the Tribal Rule mare Ismene.

Liberal Arts returned $5.60, $3.52 and $2.72. Patriot Spirit, ridden by Junior Alvarado, returned $6.22 and $4.6 and finished 2 ½ lengths in front of Kupuna, who paid $3.40 to show under Brian Hernandez Jr.

It was another 3 ¼ lengths back to Inveigled with Castle Chaos, Ashcroft, Accretive, Best Actor, Chiron, New King, Quality Chic and Osbourne following in order.

KNICKS GO QUOTES

Luis Saez (Jockey, Liberal Arts, winner) – “He put me in a good spot early. He handled the track pretty well today. He has been an impressive horse leading into this race and he proved it today.”

Brad Cox (Trainer, Liberal Arts, winner) – “It’s very special to win a race named after such a great race horse as Knicks Go. This horse is pretty tough to train and very aggressive but when he is working well in mornings, we know he is going to run his best effort. He did that coming into this race and the trip played out exactly like we thought it would.”

Junior Alvarado (Jockey, Patriot Spirit, second) – “He fought hard there for me. Turning for home. I thought it was going to be home free. He responded well when I asked him, but the other horse (Liberal Arts) kept coming at me. I tried to defend my race as much as I could, but I think today we were just second best.”

Brian Hernandez Jr. (Jockey, Kupuna, third) – “I thought he ran well. You know, this is the first time I'd been on him, so I was in between horses and I thought I had a lot of horse, but then asked him for his run, but he's more of a grinder, which I learned today. And like I told (outrider) Greg (Blasi), when I came back and said, man, I wish I'd have known him a little better because watching his replay, he always looks like he'd make the lead and kind of wait on horses. So today I wanted to kind of be patient on him and unfortunately, that wasn't the right answer. It was just one of those deals where he grinded it out down the lane. But, I mean, he grinded it off a third, so you got to be proud of him.”