Rock Your World filly rolls to victory in Pocahontas S. (G3)

Top-three First-Crop sire Rock Your World got his first stakes winner in emphatic fashion in Saturday’s $300,000 Pocahontas S. at Churchill Downs when Taken by the Wind rolled home a 5 ¼-length winner with a devastating kick in the final furlong.

 Rock Your World now has four stakes horses from his first crop, second only to runaway leader and fellow Spendthrift stallion Yaupon. He is also the first Freshman sire to produce a graded stakes winner.

Taken by the Wind had raced once prior to Saturday, winning an Aug. 21 maiden at Saratoga by three lengths. She was tucked in midpack for the first six furlongs of the one-mile Pocahontas, with Dazzling Dame leading at the head of the stretch. When an opening between horses appeared in upper stretch, Taken by the Wind moved through boldly and quickly began to open up on the field. She was hand-ridden to the wire to finish up in 1:36.50 on a fast track.

“She ran like an older filly today,” jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. said of the winner’s professionalism.

As the first race in the 2026 Kentucky Oaks challenge series, Taken by the Wind earned 10 qualifying points towards a start in next year’s race.

Owned in partnership by Sherri McPeek’s Magdalena Racing, Terry Bradshaw, and Graham Leveston, Taken by the Wind has now earned $180,710. The bay filly was bred by Courtney L. Meagher.