Keep It Easy kept on going Saturday to win the $225,000 Ed Brown Stakes by 5 1/4 lengths at Churchill Downs, joining Bullard and Sandman on the early radar for the Kentucky Derby for West Point Thoroughbreds.

Keep It Easy had stamped himself as a 2-year-old to watch in June when he broke his maiden impressively at Churchill, but his next start went awry at the start when he stumbled badly coming out of the gate and never recovered at 5-to-2 odds in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special Stakes.

Trainer Dale Romans freshened the colt up with an eye toward the November meet at his home base Churchill, and Keep It Easy responded with gusto in the Ed Brown, charging to the front at the top of the lane and kicking clear for jockey Corey Lanerie.

Dale said, “After stumbling as bad as he did in the Saratoga Special you never know how young horses will handle that mentally. We’ve got a really nice horse on our hands and it was very impressive how he rebounded out of that race. On Stars of Tomorrow Day here at Churchill, they’re all Derby horses until they’re not.”

West Point races Keep It Easy with co-owners St. Elias Stable and CJ Thoroughbreds. Keep It Easy notched West Point’s 25th stakes victory of 2024.

Coinciding with Churchill’s Stars of Tomorrow card for 2-year-olds Saturday, the track staged a Future Wager round for the 2025 Kentucky Derby. Bullard, winner of the Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes at Del Mar on November 17, closed at 23-to-1, while Grade 3-placed Sandman closed at 123-to-1. West Point also has a 2-year-old stakes winner, Pascaline, coming back from a short break.