Whitham Thoroughbreds’ homebred Burnham Square nosed out East Avenue at the finish to win the 101st running of the $1.25 million Toyota Blue Grass (G1) for 3-year-olds Tuesday afternoon. The race was rescheduled from Saturday because of severe weather and significant rainfall in Central Kentucky.

With the victory, Burnham Square picked up 100 qualifying points toward the 151st running of the $5 million Kentucky Derby (G1) Presented by Woodford Reserve to be run May 3 at Churchill Downs.

The Kentucky Derby is limited to the top 20 point earners and invitees that pass the entry box.

Also earning a spot in the Derby starting gate were East Avenue, who picked up 50 points to increase his total to 60 that is good for 13th place, and third-place finisher River Thames, whose 25 points raised his total to 50 and good for 16th place.

Trained by Ian Wilkes and ridden by Brian Hernandez Jr., Burnham Square completed the 1⅛ miles over a fast track in 1:51.33. It is the second victory in the race for Hernandez, who won the 2020 running with Art Collector.

Luan Machado hustled East Avenue to the lead out of the gate and raced off to an uncontested lead through fractions of :22.95, :46.95 and 1:11.96 as Burnham Square raced at the back of the seven-horse field.

Coming off the final turn, Owen Almighty moved to challenge East Avenue and stuck his head in front briefly only to have East Avenue battle back to regain the lead.

To the outside of the dueling leaders, River Thames and Burnham Square were gaining ground. At the sixteenth pole, Owen Almighty began to fade and Burnham Square pulled clear of River Thames to set up the two-horse duel to the wire.

Today’s race marked the fifth running of the Toyota Blue Grass since the race first was contested at Keeneland in 1937 to be determined by a nose.

Burnham Square is a Kentucky-bred gelded son of Liam’s Map out of the Scat Daddy mare Linda. He is the seventh gelding to win the race and the first since Dominican in 2007.

Winner of the Holy Bull (G3) in February, Burnham Square notched his second stakes victory and improved his record to 6-3-1-1. Tuesday’s winner’s share was $755,625 and increased Burnham Square’s earnings to $977,755.

Burnham Square returned $10.48, $5.18 and $3.34. East Avenue returned $6.42 and $4.26 and finished three-quarters of a length in front of River Thames, who paid $3.24 to show under Irad Ortiz Jr.

It was another 2¼ lengths back to Admiral Dennis with Render Judgment fifth and Owen Almighty and Chancer McPatrick finishing in a dead heat for sixth.