Northern Dancer Stakes Northern Dancer Stakes The Northern Dancer Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually in mid-June at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. Named in honor of the horse, Northern Dancer, the Grade III stakes for three-year-olds is run on dirt over a distance of 8.5 furlongs ( miles). The race currently offers a purse of $150,000. Canadian-bred and owned honoree Northern Dancer (1961–1990) won the 1964 Kentucky Derby in record time on the Churchill Downs track. He went on to win the Preakness Stakes and Queen's Plate. Retired from racing, Northern Dancer became the most important sire and sire
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