Kentucky Oaks winners have Cincinnati connections

Marty Kelly and Ed Stanco go way back as friends and business associates. They worked together at Great American Insurance in Cincinnati starting in the late 1970s.

Friday afternoon at Churchill Downs in Louisville, their horse Princess of Sylmar won the 139th Kentucky Oaks.

Stanco is the majority owner of Princess of Sylmar, which at 38-1 produced the second highest payout in Kentucky Oaks history at $79.60. The filly was off the pace on the backstretch but hit its stride coming off the final turn and ran down Beholder and Unlimited Budget for the victory.

While Stanco left Cincinnati in 1981, Kelly kept his family in the area until 1990.

“My daughter, the elder of the two, said living in Cincinnati was like living in Disney World,” said Kelly. ""The butt of the joke is that she works for NASA and lives on east suburbs of Orlando."

Kelly’s son Michael is a 1990 Turpin grad.

“We’ve seen her run and we know she is a great finisher,” said Michael Kelly of Princess of Sylmar. “We knew if she was there at the end that she would have a great shot. There are so many great horses in that field. It just makes it that much more exciting.”