Thoroughbred Daily News 9/5/25
Rigney Racing’s Jonathan’s Way (Vekoma–Female Drama, by Indian Charle), impressive winner of his first two career starts, including the GIII Iroquois Stakes, has been retired from racing and will enter stud for the 2026 breeding season at Airdrie Stud, the Lexington nursery said in a release Friday morning.
Bred in Ohio by Susan Anderson, the dark bay was knocked down to John Moynihan on behalf of Rigney Racing for $290,000 as a weanling at Keeneland November in 2022, which would prove to be the highest-priced Vekoma offering of the sales season. The colt turned in a spectacular debut effort for trainer Phil Bauer going six furlongs at Saratoga in August 2024, overcoming trouble at the start and looping rivals en route to a 4 1/4-length victory and ‘TDN Rising Star’ honors.
His racing tactics changed in his next start as he led at every call of Churchill Downs’s GIII Iroquois Stakes when drawing away to a 2 3/4-length victory over leading performers Sandman (Tapit), Magnitude (Not This Time) and Owen Almighty (Speightstown)–all of which went on to be respective Derby winners at three. Jonathan’s Way stopped the timer in 1:36 flat, more than a second-and-a-half faster than subsequent multiple Grade I winner La Cara had recorded two races prior in the GIII Pocahontas S. In his final start of his 2-year-old year, Jonathan’s Way closed to be second in Churchill Downs’s GII Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, besting eventual GII Louisiana Derby winner Tiztastic (Tiz the Law). As a result of his juvenile exploits, Jonathan’s Way was assigned the second-shortest odds of any colt in Pool 1 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager.
The day before he was set to make his sophomore debut in the GII Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds–won by Magnitude–Bauer alerted the media that Jonathan’s Way would have to be scratched from the race due to an “unsatisfactory blood count.” The infection was treated but the colt developed life-threatening colitis that set him back for several months and contributed to further complications that ultimately led to the decision to retire him from racing.
“As a racehorse, Jonathan’s Way was a very special talent that, honestly, exceeded the ability of the best horses I have ever been around,” said Bauer. “He is an absolutely beautifully made horse and he translated that beauty to the way he moved on the track. He was poetry in motion. He was also the gold standard of class every day in the barn and as he battled through his illness. I don’t believe we got to see the best of Jonathan’s Way, but I do believe he has a great chance to show everyone how special he was through his stallion career.”
Added Airdrie Stud’s Bret Jones: “In our opinion, there is no ceiling on Johnathan’s Way’s potential at stud. Everyone who has spent time with this horse reveres him and anyone who has watched his races has to recognize his immense talent. Because of bad luck, he never had a chance to showcase that talent as a 3-year-old, but that fits the description of some of the most important stallions to stand at stud; from Not This Time and Dark Angel (Ire) today on back to Hail to Reason and Raise a Native.
“He’s by one of the most highly regarded young stallions in the world in Vekoma, out of an Indian Charlie mare who was an undefeated 2-year-old stakes winner and he was hand-picked by one of the best judges in the industry in John Moynihan,” Jones continued. “We made a commitment to Richard Rigney and his team that we would give him the support he deserves with our broodmare band and we can’t wait to get started in honoring that commitment.”
“Jonathan’s Way has been very special to our family and our racing team,” concluded Richard Rigney. “We really believed we had a Derby horse, but it just wasn’t meant to be. We are equal partners with Airdrie and we are so happy to partner with a team that believes in him as much as we do. We will both be supporting him strongly and I really believe he will repay our faith for many years to come.”
Out of the Indian Charlie mare Female Drama, an undefeated juvenile stakes-winner for trainer Todd Pletcher, Jonathan’s Way comes from a deep female family cultivated by, amongst others, Joseph Allen and Darby Dan Farm and responsible for producing such notable influences as perennial leading sire Dynaformer, Memories of Silver and no less than 23 individual Grade I/Group 1 winners through his first six dams.
Jonathan’s Way is available for viewing at Airdrie Stud throughout the Keeneland September Sale. His stud fee will be announced, along with the entirety of the Airdrie roster, at the sale’s conclusion.
