Shared Content Archive

By Steve Sherack While already a player on the GI Kentucky Derby trail via Itsaknockout (Lemon Drop Kid)'s win via disqualification in the GII Besilu Stables Fountain of Youth S. Feb. 21, Starlight Racing unveiled another potential star in the 3-year-old division at Keeneland Saturday.  Two Weeks Off (Harlan's Holiday)--a hard-fought maiden winner in his second career start going seven furlongs at Saratoga in his juvenile finale Aug. 30 (video)--returned from the bench in style with a 6 1/2-length allowance tally in a loaded first-level allowance (video).  Secured in a tracking second...

Steve Sherack & Brian DiDonato will make $100 win/place bets on 20 Kentucky Derby preps. The handicapper with the highest total at the end wins. (For the BetAmerica sign-up bonus, click here). SS: Last Week - Frosted got the day started with a visually impressive win in the Wood at odds of 2-1, and heavy favorites Carpe Diem and Dortmund did what they were supposed to do in the Blue Grass and Santa Anita Derby, capping a perfect three-for-three day. It's awfully nice already locking up an in-the-black finish, but I'm going to have to dig deep to hold off a...

On a day of informative Classic trials, the European flat season bursts into life with Longchamp's G3 Prix de la Grotte the showcase for the fillies with pretensions to glory in the upcoming G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches. As usual, His Highness The Aga Khan's silks promise to play a prominent role via the unbeaten Vedouma (Fr) (Dalakhani {Ire}), successful by six lengths in the Listed Prix Isonomy over a mile on testing ground at Chantilly in November. She is one of a clutch of exciting prospects along with Khalid Abdullah's Mexican...

By Perry Lefko Madefromlucky (Lookin At Lucky) has lived up to his name for Mac Nichol, a Canadian-based horseman who has started to dabble seriously in the Thoroughbred game after a multitude of successes in the Standardbred industry, and he's hoping his star horse will make it to the Belmont S. The three-year-old colt is entered in the Peter Pan S. Saturday at Belmont Park, which could be his ticket into the third leg of the Triple Crown and a possible reunion with Kentucky Derby winner American Pharoah, who has beaten...

Gold-Fun (Ire) (Le Vie dei Colori {GB}) will undergo surgery to remove chips in his right fore ankle and has therefore been removed from consideration for a trip to Royal Ascot next month, South China Morning Post reports. A two-time runner-up in the G1 Hong Kong Mile, the flashy chestnut has proved equally proficient over shorter trips this season, highlighted by a defeat of G1 Longines Hong Kong Sprint hero Aerovelocity (NZ) (Pins {Aus}) in the Chairman's Sprint Prize going 1200 meters Feb. 15. He was also third to world joint...

Godolphin has purchased the Richard Hannon-trained 2-year-old Log Out Island (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), a 4 1/2-length debut winner at Ascot Apr. 29. A £95,000 purchase by Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock at Doncaster last year, Log Out Island was previously campaigned by Potensis Bloodstock and Chris Giles.  "Log Out Island won really well at Ascot,” said Sheikh Mohammed's Bloodstock Advisor John Ferguson. “Richard's 2-year-olds normally improve, and if this horse builds on this performance, the sky is the limit."  Log Out Island will remain in training with Hannon, who added, "Log...

Editorial & Photos by Steve Sherack  With not much going on yet back at Pimlico's stakes barn as the GI Preakness S. field continues to assemble, what better way to spend an afternoon than in Baltimore's Inner Harbor?  It didn't take long for me to feel like I was back at home.  "What do you know about the New York Mets," asked a passerby referring to my blue-and-orange t-shirt.  Not missing a beat after a thunderstorm filled three-hour drive from the Jersey Shore, I quickly replied, "Well, I know that...

G1 Queen Anne S. contender Able Friend (Aus) (Shamardal) is adjusting well to his settings in Newmarket after traveling from trainer John Moore's base in Hong Kong over the weekend. The 5-year-old, a four-time Group 1 winner in his native country since December and currently the world's highest-rated horse on the Longines rankings, is being stabled with trainer Michael Bell.  Moore, who will join his stable star in England June 12, said, “Able Friend traveled unbelievably well; he ate and drank the whole way on the plane. We weighed him and he...

When Coolmore did the deal to buy the breeding rights to American Pharoah in January, before the Eclipse Awards, they were just hoping they were buying their fifth champion 2-year-old colt in six years to stand at their Kentucky arm, Ashford Stud. They couldn't have bought the sixth anyway; that was the gelding Shared Belief, in 2013. But they stand 2009 champion Lookin At Lucky; 2010 champion Uncle Mo; they stood 2011 champion Hansen for a year before he was sold to South Korea; and they stand 2012 champion Shanghai Bobby. Buying...

By T.D. Thornton Canterbury Park in Minnesota has emerged as the latest track to take a stab at wooing Triple Crown champion American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile).  According to Eric Halstrom, Canterbury's vice president of racing operations, track management is considering completely overhauling and raising the purse of an existing non-graded stakes race by a factor of 10 to lure America's most sought-after horse.  Halstrom said the $200,000 Mystic Lake Derby at one mile on the turf Aug. 29 would be moved to 1 1/8 miles on the dirt for a purse...

By Geoffrey Riddle  Thanks to Wesley Ward's troop of ten horses that have arrived in Britain, Royal Ascot next week is set to be the most international that there has ever been. After a numerically strong challenge in Dubai on World Cup night in March, American trainers have embraced the five-day Royal meeting, which starts on Tuesday, like never before. Graham Motion's Miss Temple City (Temple City), George Weaver's Cyclogenisis (Stormy Atlantic) and Art Sherman's California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit) make up a team of 13 US challengers. They form the backbone of a 20-strong raiding party...

Klaravich Stable and William H. Lawrence's Leave the Light On (Horse Greeley), last year's GII Remsen S. winner, is nearing a return to the worktab and is being pointed for the Feb. 21 GII Fountain of Youth S. for his seasonal debut, trainer Chad Brown reported Thursday.  "We gave him a little breather after the Remsen, and now he's been galloping steady for about the last three weeks here at Palm Meadows," Brown said. "He's probably ready to do some breezing, probably at the end of [the] week. He looks good. He's galloping...