Awesome Hawaiian

The year 2025 was not a good one for jockey Florent Geroux. A jockey who had won at least 100 races for 11 years in a row, and won 217 races in 2016, he won only 75 races last year. The start of 2026 was no better. When he left Fair Grounds after the Feb. 14 card, he had only seven winners on the meet. Worse yet, after going 5-for-5 on Disco Time (Not This Time), he lost the mount on the 3-2 favorite in the GI Pegasus World Cup...

What were the most popular stories in the TDN in 2025? What resonated most with our readers? Here again is our annual review of the stories you liked the most and the ones that received the most views: 1) Alvarado Faces Penalties for Overuse of Whip in the Derby, by Bill Finley. 258,371 Views. Winning the GI Kentucky Derby aboard Sovereignty (Into Mischief) was the highlight of jockey Junior Alvarado's career. But the story included a bad footnote as Alvarado faced penalties from HISA for overuse of the whip. Under...

The sixth race Wednesday at Churchill Downs was, on the surface, rather unremarkable. It was just a $30,000 maiden claimer for 2-year-olds, normally the type of race where even the winner usually doesn't amount to much. But the race, won by a horse named Awesome Hawaiian (Awesome Bet), turned out to be one of the most remarkable and heartwarming stories of the year. You probably know prominent owner John Stewart and his family and their work to save horses from slaughter. But 99 times out of 100 those horses never...