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
Is It True (horse) the Grade I Champagne Stakes, and second in a maiden race. However, in their most important meeting of 1988, run on a muddy track at Churchill Downs, Is It True defeated Easy Goer in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile by a little over a length, though Easy Goer won the Eclipse Award for American Champion Two Year Old Male. For owner Eugene Klein, it was his third straight win in the Juvenile. In an August 8, 2007 article, ESPN's Jeremy Plonk wrote that "Easy Goer's loss, on a muddy track at Churchill Downs, in the 1988 Juvenile to Is It True