Seven months into 2025, Brad Kelley's Calumet Farm has matched its graded stakes tally from all of 2024.
Daisy Flyer became the Kentucky farm's fourth graded stakes winner of 2025 in swooping to victory in the $175,000 Lake George Stakes (G3T) July 26 at Saratoga Race Course. Her victory followed earlier graded wins from Running Bee in the Tampa Bay Stakes (G3T), Tennessee Lamb in the Ben Ali Stakes (G3), and Gin Gin in the Doubledogdare Stakes (G3).
Daisy Flyer seemed an unlikely winner for much of the Lake George, in fifth early and still as far back as fourth at the head of the stretch, as favored Classic Q raced freely on the lead and turned into the final stretch a length and a half in front. But fast fractions she set of :23.13, :46.55, and 1:10.02 in the 1 1/16-mile turf race would take a toll on her late, just as Daisy Flyer was hitting her best stride.
Rallying furiously under Jose Lezcano, Daisy Flyer made up 3 1/2 lengths in the final furlong to pass the leader with only a couple of strides remaining and post a neck upset. The improving filly, unraced since a close third-place finish in the Herecomesthebride Stakes (G3T) at Gulfstream Park in March, returned $16.40 to win.
Lezcano said his mount's style dictated how he rode her. "She does not have much speed early on. I kind of kept her in a place I wanted to be," he said.
Winning trainer Rusty Arnold acknowledged that in the early stretch, he was hoping "to get her up to be second" before her late spurt claimed the victory.
"She's a filly we obviously liked to bring her back from March 1 to now and run in a graded stakes, but she had trained the right way and backed it up," added the trainer, who recorded his second Lake George win after initial success with Centre Court in 2012.
Classic Q just managed to hold the place by a nose over an inside-surging Reining Flowers in third.
Classic Q had won the one-mile Wild Applause Stakes in her last start, and seemed to grow tired over the additional sixteenth of the Lake George.
"I felt like she didn't relax like she did last time," jockey Jose Ortiz said. "Obviously, the extra sixteenth of a mile hurt me. We think she's really good at a mile."
Bred by Calumet in Kentucky, Daisy Flyer is a 3-year-old daughter of Mshawish out of the dual graded-winning Galileo mare Starstruck. She is her dam's fourth black-type runner and second stakes winner.
Mshawish initially stood in the United States at Taylor Made Stallions in Kentucky before being relocated to Qatar in late 2022.
Arnold said he expects Daisy Flyer to run next in the $2 million Dueling Grounds Oaks Invitational Stakes (G3T) Sept. 10 at Kentucky Downs at 1 5/16 miles on turf. Kelley is from Southern Kentucky and previously owned Kentucky Downs in partnership.
"We had to get her eligible for it. It's an invitational and I don't think she'd quite done enough and now she has," Arnold said.
