Bango just became the winningest horse in Churchill Downs history

Beneath an overcast sky and two spires, the son of Congrats out of Josaka by Smart Strike broke from the gate last.

There wouldn’t be much time. The race was six furlongs, a sprint. And the dark bay was competitive.

Bango pushed and strode three wide, racing across a sloppy dirt track before jockey Tyler Gaffliaone pulled him back.

The horse and jock spent the backstretch tracking behind the leaders, waiting … stalking.

From the back of the pack while rounding the turn at the quarter pole, Bango started to push his pace. As soon as the front stretch was in sight, the Louisville great did what the GOATs do: At just the right moment, he made the winning move.

The beast of the Churchill Downs backside is known as Bango.

On Friday, Bango won his 12th race at the historic track. No horse has won more races at Churchill than this 7-year-old bay.

Bango, trained by Greg Foley and his sons Travis and Alex, took a little more than a year to break the record.

“It’s pretty special all around,” Travis Foley said. “It’s special for our longest client, Fred Schwartz. Bango’s a homebred horse, us being local guys, and obviously Churchill is where we train, and to have a place in history there is awesome.

“It’s a record that I don’t know if it will ever be broken, which is pretty special, too. It will be hard to break.”

Greg Foley started training horses 46 years ago; Travis followed 30 years later.

Ready’s Rocket had been the sole record-holder for more than a decade. Ready’s Rocket retired from racing at age 9, following his final victory in 2012 during the lead-up to the 138th Kentucky Derby.

Then on Sept. 16, 2023, during the Louisville Thoroughbred Society Stakes, Bango tied the record. He tried to break the record two months later, during the Bet on Sunshine Stakes, but was beat in the final stretch of the race and finished third.

Foley raced Bango in May during the St. Matthews Overnight Stakes and again in June during the Kelly’s Landing Stakes, but Bango finished fourth and eighth, respectively.

“It looked like he was a no-brainer to break the record last year,” Travis said. “Instead, he just kind of mentally checked out for a while. For him to bounce back ― we weren’t sure that he still wanted to do it, but he did.”

Bango will race again in November at Churchill Downs during the Bet on Sunshine Stakes.

‘Bango!’

Josaka foaled Bango on March 7, 2017, at Upson Downs Farm in Oldham County.

Greg Foley had first liked the look of Josaka and her breeding line when he saw her during the 2008 Keeneland yearling sale, but her racing career was cut short after a freak injury. She became a broodmare.

Fred Schwartz, Bango’s owner, is from Wisconsin. He told The Courier Journal last fall that it’s hard to pick names when there are thousands of thoroughbreds born in the U.S. each year, so he’s stuck with Wisconsin-based names.

And Bango’s name came from a time when the Milwaukee Bucks were making history.

In 1977, Schwartz began attending the annual Kentucky Derby and the word “bango” was becoming a part of the lexicon for Wisconsin NBA fans.

The word was born when legendary Bucks announcer Eddie Doucette settled on an exclamation to celebrate the Bucks’ Jon McGlocklin draining a long-range basket.

“People standing around the water cooler talking about the game the night before started to say, ‘It was a bango jumper that won it,'” Doucette told The Courier Journal from his home in San Diego last year. “I’d get calls from teachers who said their students were throwing spitballs into the trash can, and every time it went in, they’d shout, ‘bango!'”

Fans even voted to name the Milwaukee Bucks’ mascot Bango, a moniker that still holds to this day.

More: ‘The beast of Churchill Downs’: How a winning horse named Bango can make track history

A run to the record

Rain or shine.

Fast track or sloppy.

Big field or small pack.

Bango has raced in it all and beaten the rest.

“He’s a versatile horse,” Travis said. “It’s not how I saw the race playing out, but it doesn’t matter now.”

On a quiet Friday, rain from a hurricane poured heavy upon Louisville.

“And up the rail, Bango!” the announcer shouted as the horses rounded the turn toward home in the third race.

The stands were mostly empty. Nobody wore a fancy hat. Bourbon didn’t flow from Millionaire’s Row.

Slicked in mud, a horse simply made his move ― surging into the history books on the kind of gray day you’re liable to forget.

“And it’s Bango, the record-setting Bango, the all-time leading winning horse at Churchill Downs,” the announcer yelled.

Bango hit the wire and began to slow. His work, once again, done.

Stephanie Kuzydym is an enterprise and investigative sports reporter, with a focus on the health and safety of athletes. She can be reached at skuzydym@courier-journal.com. Follow her at @stephkuzy.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Churchill Downs history made by Foley-trained Bango