Defending Champion Kimari, Millionaire Bell's the One Top Madison Field of 10

Westerberg Limited, Mrs. John Magnier, Jonathan Poulin, Derrick Smith and Michael Tabor’s Kimari will attempt to become the first repeat winner of the $500,000 Madison (G1) on Saturday when she faces nine other fillies and mares in the 7-furlong main track test. 

One of two Grade 1 stakes on Saturday’s 11-race program, the Madison will go as the afternoon’s seventh race with a 3:55 p.m. ET post time. First post Saturday is 12:30 p.m. 

Trained by Wesley Ward who also won the Madison in 2014 with Judy the Beauty, Kimari returned from a four-month layoff following a seventh-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1) at Del Mar by winning a 6½-furlong allowance test at Gulfstream as the 1-20 favorite by 5¼ lengths. 

Tyler Gaffalione has the mount Saturday and will break from post position six. 

Back to challenge Kimari is Lothenbach Stable’s Bell’s the One, who finished three-quarters of a length back in a dead-heat for second in last year’s race. 

A two-time Grade 2 winner at Keeneland in her career in which she has earned more than $1.5 million, Bell’s the One will be making her first start since winning the Dream Supreme (L) at Churchill Downs last November. Trained by Neil Pessin, Bell’s the One will break from post position five under regular rider Corey Lanerie. 

The field for the Madison, with riders and weights from the rail out, is: Cilla (Brian Hernandez Jr., 123 pounds), Center Aisle (Luis Saez, 123), Lady Rocket (Irad Ortiz Jr., 123), Just One Time (Flavien Prat, 123), Bell’s the One (Lanerie, 123), Kimari (Gaffalione, 123), Four Graces (Julien Leparoux, 123), Club Car (Colby Hernandez, 123), Kalypso (Gerardo Corrales, 123) and Tiz Splendid News (Kazuski Kimura, 123).