Red Route One

Red Route One began his career racing on turf and finished fifth in his career debut before winning his second start by 3 ¾ lengths Sept. 5, 2022, at Kentucky Downs.

Subsequently shifted to the main track to assess his chances as a contender for the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and 2023 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve, Red Route One showed some versatility. The Gun Runner colt finished third in the Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity Oct. 9 at Keeneland in his first try on the dirt and then was unplaced on a loppy track in the Grade 3 Street Sense Stakes at Churchill Downs. Red Route One closed out his 2-year-old season with a fourth-place finish, beaten by 1 ½ lengths, in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill.

In his 3-year-old debut, Red Route One showed nice improvement as he closed powerfully on a sealed-sloppy main track Jan. 28, 2023, at Oaklawn Park to finish second to Arabian Knight in the $750,000 Southwest Stakes.

Red Route One ended up back on a sloppy track again in his next start, which came in the Grade 2 $1 million Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Feb. 25. In the Rebel, Red Route One closed from far back in an 11-horse field and passed horses from last to second to finish within a length of the winner, Confidence Game. Red Route One added another 20 points to his total on the Road to the Kentucky Derby courtesy of his runner-up finish in the Rebel.

Steve Asmussen’s charge ended up bypassing the 2023 Kentucky Derby and instead ran in the Bath House Row stakes at Oaklawn two weeks earlier, winning that 1 1/8-mile race by a rallying head. He then finished fourth in the Preakness Stakes and an eased-up eighth in the Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets, but rebounded off of those two efforts with a powerful three-length score in the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby on Aug. 6.

Red Route One was produced by the unraced Tapit mare Red House, a full-sister (same dam, same sire) to 2014 champion 3-year-old filly Untapable.