Aristides Stakes Aristides Stakes The Aristides Stakes is a Grade III American Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds and older over a distance of six furlongs on the dirt held annually in early June at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. . The race currently offers a purse of $100,000. The Aristides Stakes is named in honor of the racehorse Aristides who won the inaugural Kentucky Derby in 1875 on the Churchill Downs track. The race itself was inaugurated in 1989 and run at a distance of furlongs. Bet on Sunshine, the only two-time winner in the race's history, set a new track record
Caressing (horse) without ever looking likely to win and finished second, beaten two and three quarter lengths. John Velazquez took over the ride from the injured Kuntzweiler when Caressing contested the seventeenth edition of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, run that year at Churchill Downs on November 4. Before the race Vance commented "She deserves to get into the race," he said at the time. "We're taking a shot, but so are a lot of other people. Nobody is scared of anyone in this race. She knows the track at Churchill. She works well over it, and it's her home base." Raging