By Alan Carasso
Gary Barber, Cheyenne Stable and Wachtel Stable's Rhetorical (Not This Time) provided his all-conquering sire with his second winner of Keeneland's GI Coolmore Turf Mile in the space of three years, striking from close range to earn an all-expenses-paid trip to Del Mar for the GI Breeders' Cup Mile exactly four weeks down the road. Not This Time's Eclipse Award-winning son Up to the Mark won this event in 2023 ahead of a very good runner-up effort in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf.
Only once-beaten in five career starts coming into this first go at graded stakes company and exiting a popular victory in the state-bred restricted West Point Stakes at Saratoga, the $320,000 Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearling Sale grad–carrying the Wachtel black and gold this time–was dispatched at odds of 19-2 and bounced nicely from gate nine, and when GIII Mint Millions winner Epic Ride (Blame) went up to sit off the cracking early pace set by Quatrocento (War Front) and the stretching-out Howard Wolowitz (Munnings), Irad Ortiz, Jr. was able to slide Rhetorical down onto the fence to save ground while those ahead of him did the heavy lifting.
Enjoying the run of the race for the remainder of the contest, Rhetorical traveled one out and one back with cover on the back of the distance-challenged Howard Wolowitz down the back and around the second turn and was steered three wide and into the clear to lay down his challenge in upper stretch. Rhetorical quickly went to a weakening Quatrocento inside the final furlong and proved an ultimately comfortable winner, as Program Trading (GB) (Kingman {GB}) and Brilliant Berti (Noble Mission {GB}) made belated inroads.
Rhetorical became the second open Grade I winner on the afternoon bred in New York, joining Frizette Stakes heroine Iron Goddess.
The Coolmore Mile was a first winner at the Grade I level for young trainer Will Walden.
“I'm just happy for the team. This is why we do it, get up and do it seven days a week, for moments like this,” Walden said. “Super happy for the horse and the ownership: Adam Wachtel (of Wachtel Stable), Gary Barber, Everett Dobson (of Cheyenne Stable). There were some doubts about whether the horse could jump up. We didn't know. But he'd been training awfully good and giving us all the signs that we wanted to see going forward.
“Irad came into the office this morning and we talked about the race. He rode it to perfection. He's such a clutch rider and makes the right decisions in those split-second decisions. Just happy for everybody involved.”
With just the five previous starts under his belt, each as the betting favorite, Rhetorical was easily the least-experienced member of the Coolmore Mile field. A maiden winner in a pair of starts last year at three, he returned from an August layoff to thump first-level NY-bred allowance company at Aqueduct May 18 and easily defeated open second-level allowance foes at Saratoga ahead of a 2 1/4-length success in the West Point Stakes. Spirit of St Louis (Medaglia d'Oro), runner-up in the West Point in 2023 and 2024, won this year's GI Pegasus World Cup Turf and GI Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic Stakes.
Pedigree Notes:
Rhetorical is the 29th group/graded winner and ninth Grade I winner (56 SWs overall) for his remarkable young sire and at the other end of the spectrum, the late Distorted Humor was being represented by his 72nd group/graded winner as a broodmare sire, his 26th at the highest level.
The Robert Masterson-bred Sheet Humor, also the dam of the five-time stakes winner and five-times graded-placed Sterling Silver, was sold to Korean interests in foal to Central Banker for $3,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Fall Mixed Sale in 2021. The mare produced a colt in March 2022, but according to the Korean Studbook, was barren to Race Day for 2023 and slipped her Hansen foal of 2024.
Saturday, Keeneland
COOLMORE TURF MILE S.-GI, $1,038,750, Keeneland, 10-4, 3yo/up, 1mT, 1:33.61, fm.
1–RHETORICAL, 126, g, 4, by Not This Time
1st Dam: Sheet Humor, by Distorted Humor
2nd Dam: Sheets, by Scatmandu
3rd Dam: One Hot Minute, by Relaunch
1ST GRADED STAKES WIN, 1ST GRADE I WIN. ($320,000 Ylg '22 SARAUG). O-Gary Barber, Cheyenne Stable LLC and Wachtel Stable; B-Mallory Mort & Karen Mort (NY); T-William Walden; J-Irad Ortiz, Jr. $573,500. Lifetime Record: 6-5-0-1, $824,700. *1/2 to Sterling Silver (Cupid), MSW & MGSP, $1,143,051. Werk Nick Rating: C+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Program Trading (GB), 126, r, 5, Lope de Vega (Ire)–Dreamlike (GB), by Oasis Dream (GB). (250,000gns Ylg '21 TATOCT). O-Klaravich Stables, Inc.; B-Fittocks Stud & Arrow Farm Stud (GB); T-Chad C. Brown. $185,000.
3–Brilliant Berti, 126, c, 4, Noble Mission (GB)–Believe in Bertie, by Langfuhr. 1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. O/B-Klein Racing (KY); T-Cherie DeVaux. $115,625.
Margins: 3/4, NK, HF. Odds: 9.59, 4.39, 10.53.
Also Ran: Jonquil (GB), Diego Velazquez (Ire), Quatrocento, Howard Wolowitz, Epic Ride, Mercante, Beach Gold, Woodshauna (Fr). Scratched: Donegal Momentum.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
⚡ #4 SIMPLY IN FRONT ($28.24) gets up to win the $800,000 First Lady Stakes (G1) at @Keeneland. This is the first Grade 1 win for the four-year-old Summer Front filly. @kenneallyracing trains, @_benacurtis up. pic.twitter.com/dYiChKbKz7
— FanDuel Racing (@FanDuel_Racing) October 4, 2025
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