Filly named after Breonna Taylor wins race during Kentucky Derby week

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A horse named after Breonna Taylor won a Thurby race Thursday at Churchill Downs in a race leading up to Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.

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The 3-year-old filly, named Breonna, is owned by Sam Aguiar, the lawyer who represented Taylor’s family in its lawsuit against the Louisville Metro Police Department, the Courier-Journal reported.

The filly won the fourth race at Churchill Downs, leading nearly wire-to-wire in the 6-furlong race on a muddy track, the newspaper reported.

Louisville-based jockey Corey Lanerie rode the filly, which is owned by JS Stables, LLC, a racing stable operated by Aguiar and his wife, Janelle Aguiar, WHAS reported.

Sam Aguiar said he watched the race in his office with his law partner, Lonita Baker, and Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, the Courier-Journal reported.

According to the newspaper, the Aguiars said they are donating the race’s $10,000 purse to the Breonna Taylor Foundation, a nonprofit the Taylor family formed in 2020.

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“My wife named the filly Breonna because she was beautiful, strong and resilient,” Sam Aguiar told the Courier-Journal. “She’s tough and has swagger. But to those closest to her, she’s also loving and kind. That was Breonna Taylor as well.”

Sam Aguiar said the stable purchased the filly around April 2020, a month after the police shooting that took Taylor’s life, WHAS reported.

“We’re still fighting for justice for Breonna Taylor, and so anything to put a smile on our faces is good,” Aguiar told Spectrum News 1.

Officers from the Louisville Metro Police Department awakened Taylor, 26, an emergency room technician, when they entered the home using a battering ram in March 2020. Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired on them once.

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Police were at Taylor’s home on a no-knock warrant as part of a drug investigation but did not find any narcotics.

In September 2020, former Louisville police detective Brett Hankison was the only person indicted in the March 13, 2020, shooting death of Taylor.

Hankison, who was fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department in June 2020, was charged with three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment by a Kentucky grand jury for shooting into Taylor’s apartment from outside. The grand jury ruled that his actions endangered the lives of three people in the apartment next door.

Cox Media Group