Arrogate

Some of the most highly anticipated races during the summer racing season are the 'baby' races during the boutique meetings at both Saratoga and Del Mar and at Ellis Park, which attract its fair share of high-priced offspring from a variety of top national outfits. Summer Breezes highlights debuting 2-year-olds at those meetings that have been sourced at the breeze-up sales earlier in the year, with links to their under-tack previews. To follow are the horses entered for Sunday at Saratoga and Del Mar. Qualifying horses entered for the cards...

The recently concluded Belmont Park spring/summer meet generated $14,746,421 in average daily handle, a 9.7 percent increase over 2022 the New York Racing Association, Inc. announced Friday. Originally scheduled for 40 days of live racing, NYRA was forced to cancel two cards due to poor air quality caused by wildfires in Canada. All-sources handle for the 38-day spring/summer meet totaled $560,363,986, which compares to $591,250,409 in 2022 when the meet was contested over 44 days. The blockbuster June 10 Belmont Stakes Day card, highlighted by Arcangelo's (Arrogate) victory in the...

Clarence and Dorothy Scharbauer built Valor Farm outside of Dallas 30 years ago after Dorothy and their daughter Pam campaigned Hall of Famer Alysheba in the late 1980s. Their son Doug continues the blue-and-white silk tradition as his unbeaten homebred Closing Act (Munnings) takes on 10 other 2-year-old fillies in Thursday's GIII Schuylerville S. on opening day at Saratoga. The Steve Asmussen trainee, listed at 10-1 on the morning line, is coming off her first stakes win in the Astoria S. June 11 at Belmont Park after breaking her maiden...

A $650,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase, Edified (c, 2, Tapit--For Royalty, by Not For Love) became his superstar sire's 53rd 'TDN Rising Star' Saturday with a commanding performance to graduate at Ellis Park. Facing a salty field of mostly first-time starters, the dark bay was given only a 9-1 chance but more than outran his odds. Under the hands of jockey Joel Rosario, Edified broke alertly from an inside gate and raced in the top flight inside of race-time favorite Normandy Hero (Omaha Beach). Joined up front by Liberal Arts...

TIMONIUM, MD - The inaugural Fasig-Tipton Midlantic June Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training drew a fairly limited catalogue of 99 juveniles that had some consignors worrying about a lack of buyers, but the auction ultimately proved a good first step in remaking the juvenile sales calendar. A filly by Kantharos brought the auction's top price of $500,000 when selling to bloodstock agent Steve Young. The juvenile was one of four to bring six figures Wednesday in Timonium. "I would be less than honest if I said we weren't a little...

7th-LRC, $45K, Msw, 3yo/up, 6 1/2f, 7:05 p.m. Trainer John Sadler debuts LEVON (Practical Joke) for Talla Racing and Central Dispatch (Arrogate) for Hronis Racing. The stablemates both worked a bullet five furlongs from the gate in :59 1/5 (1/12) at Los Alamitos June 10. The former is a $750,000 KEESEP buy whose dam Gal Factor (The Factor) counts GI Arkansas Derby hero Super Stock (Dialed In) as a half brother. Trainer Bob Baffert will saddle first-time starter Confucius (Candy Ride {Arg}) whose dam Mumtaazah (Tapit) is a half-sister to...

4th-ELP, $120K, Msw, 3yo/up, f, 1 1/16mT, 2:13 p.m. Racing for the same connections that bred, owned, and trained her leading young sire, RESOURCE (Gun Runner) makes her afternoon debut as a homebred for Winchell Thoroughbreds under the watchful eye of trainer Steve Asmussen. Out of a multiple stakes-winning mare in Remit (Tapit), herself a full-sister to MGSW/GISP Tapiture and SW/GSP Retap, the chestnut filly is a half-sister to both MGSW Finite (Munnings) and MSW/GSP Reride (Candy Ride {Arg}). Opposing her is a pair from the outside gates led by...

OCALA, FL - A flurry of late activity carried the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training to its conclusion Thursday in Ocala, with final numbers slightly off the auction's robust 2022 renewal. "Coming off of a record gross of last year, I think we kind of held our own," said OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski. "It seemed like the market held up through the entire season. There were no big surprises--the market is what the market is. There is money for the perceived higher quality...

With a new cycle of yearling sales nearly upon us, nearly everyone will once again be deciding where they are most prepared to compromise. Would you prefer an athlete low on pedigree, or will you trust the genes to come through even if you're not wowed by the specimen in front of you? Well, there's no mistaking which strategy is recommended by the story of the GI Belmont S. winner. Though from one of America's most aristocratic families, Arcangelo (Arrogate) lurked in the September Sale as Hip 1182 and was...

Counterforce (Smart Strike), currently Canada's leading second-crop sire and 2022 champion freshman sire, will relocate from Road's End Farm in British Columbia to Stride Away Thoroughbreds in the Okanagan region for the 2024 season. The stakes winner is a half-brother to GII winner Cezanne (Curlin) and out of a half-sister to the dam of Saturday's GI Belmont S. winner Arcangelo (Arrogate). "He's a lovely horse, with a magnificent pedigree," said Stride Away co-owner Cathy Reggelsen. "He came out firing as a freshman last year and that's certainly continued this season...

A pair of fillies shared the fastest quarter-mile work of the penultimate day of the under-tack show for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training Friday in Ocala, while eight juveniles shared the fastest furlong time of :10 flat during a day pestered by persistent headwinds. Consignor Omar Ramirez sent out a filly by Street Boss (hip 817) to share Friday's bullet time of :20 3/5 while working early in the day's first set. "I was waiting for her all week," Ramirez admitted. "I knew she...

5th-CD, $120K, Msw, 3yo/up, f/m, 6 1/2f, 2:45 p.m. PUMPKIN SCONE (Into Mischief), a $1.25-million Keeneland September Yearling purchase by Spendthrift Farm, debuts for Brad Cox from the outside gate on Sunday. Bred in Kentucky by the China Horse Club, the bay filly is out of Embellish the Lace (Super Saver), who has also produced three-time winner and fellow $1.25-million KEESEP graduate Tap the Faith (Tapit). Pumpkin Scone hails from a female family which includes GI Travers S. hero Afleet Express (Afleet Alex) and MGISP My Miss Sophia (Unbridled's Song),...