Be Your Best

Champion sprinter Muhaarar, the sire of six individual stakes winners in 2025, is on the move to Haras de Montaigu for the 2026 breeding season, after two seasons at Haras du Petit Tellier. Back in May, the Saffie Joseph-trained Be Your Best became Muhaarar's third top-level winner when landing the Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita, while other notable runners for the sire in 2025 include Motorious, a dual Grade III winner in America, G3 Bengough Stakes scorer Annaf and Listed-winning two-year-old Clea Chope. Be Your Best, Motorious and Annaf were...

C2 Racing Stable LLC, Gary Barber and La Milagrosa Stable LLC's White Abarrio (Race Day) went a half-mile Thursday morning at Gulfstream Park as he continues his preparations for the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar on Saturday, Nov. 1. Winner of the 2023 GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita, the 6-year-old took to the main track following the renovation break and drilled a half-mile in :46.56 (1/7) before galloping out five furlongs in :59.29. A latest fifth, but placed fourth, in a rough-and-tumble renewal of the...

Moyglare Stud Farm's homebred Bellezza (Ire) (f, 4, Siyouni {Fr}--Terrific {Ire}, by Galileo {Ire}) wore down a loose-on-the lead 'TDN Rising Star' and GI Gamely Stakes winner Be Your Best (Ire) (Muhaarar {GB}) late in Saturday's GII Flower Bowl Stakes at Saratoga, a 'Win and You're In' event for the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Her trainer, the young Miguel Clement, has had a magical Saratoga meet in his first months as head trainer. The Flower Bowl marked his sixth stakes win on the lawn since opening day...

NEW KENT, VA-It wasn't as much of an upset as it felt like but Charlene's Dream (Qurbaan) proved a determined winner on the front end Saturday to take the GII Beverly D. Stakes at Colonial Downs. In a race billed as largely between GI Gamely Stakes winner Be Your Best (Ire) (Muhaarar {GB}) and Beach Bomb (Saf) (Lancaster Bomber), it was the Ed Moger Jr. trainee who stole away as the third choice in the wagering for owner Domeyko Taylor, LP. Having raced on all three surfaces in now her...

by Stefanie Grimm & Alan Carasso For the first time in it's 24-year history, Virginia's Colonial Downs will play host to a Kentucky Derby winner as 2024 winner Mystik Dan (Goldencents) will make his turf debut in Saturday's 1 1/4-mile GI Arlington Million. Trainer Kenny McPeek has had his eye on the turf for his Derby winner for quite some time, telling the TDN this week that the idea had been on his mind for at least a year. "It was kind of an audible at the line of scrimmage,"...

The GI Dunkin' Diana Stakes has run through the Chad Brown barn for the last three years and while Brown has two solid entries here, the race runs through the rail-drawn Cherie DeVaux starter She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}). The 4-year-old Lael Stables-owned filly has won four straight dating back to last year, including three Grade I races over several of the rivals she'll line up against Saturday. For reference her last two 1 1/8-mile races resulted in wins by a combined 8 1/4 lengths and she'll be stepping back...

Saffie Joseph Jr. is no stranger to rejection. In the early years of his training career, there were moments when he wondered if chasing his dream had been a big mistake. In what is now a familiar part of Joseph's origin story, his father had warned him against leaving Barbados to launch a stable in America. Joseph came anyway. He arrived at Calder Race Course in 2011 only to be told that there was no stall space available, but he went back to the racing secretary week after week until...

Bloodstock agent Mike Ryan has picked out dozens of Grade I winners over the years. He has also bred Grade I winners, most notably Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming (Bodemeister) and his half-sister Hot Dixie Chick (Dixie Union), and he's even raced a few, including 2008 GI Spinaway Stakes victress Mani Bhavan (Storm Boot) and 2019 GI United Nations Stakes winner (Tiz Wonderful) But this year's GI Gamely Stakes marked a particularly special victory for Ryan when 'TDN Rising Star' Be Your Best (Ire) (Muhaarar {GB}), a horse that he...

   In this series, the TDN takes a look at notable successes of European-based sires in North America. This week's column is highlighted by the victory of Lope De Vega's Growth Trajectory at Monmouth Park.   Chad Brown. Check. Klaravich Stables' silks. Check. Tattersalls October Book 1 yearling grad. Also check. That particular combo combined in Lope De Vega's 3-year-old filly Growth Trajectory, who blitzed a field of Monmouth maidens by 3 1/2 lengths on May 25 (video). Bred by The Wekeela Partnership in Britain, she was an 180,000gns purchase...

Too much of a good thing? Not when it comes to maintaining the gold standard. For if we have only recently celebrated the way Medaglia d'Oro is confounding the self-fulfilling prejudice against aging stallions by continuing to produce runners like Good Cheer and East Avenue, then he now demands a sequel addressing his equal prowess in the kind of role more conventionally reserved for a stallion of 26--namely, as broodmare sire. Last weekend, daughters of Medaglia d'Oro gave us GI Gamely Stakes winner Be Your Best (Muhaarar {GB}); GII Santa...

Bloodstock agent Mike Ryan has not ruled out offering his recent Grade II winner Be Your Best (Ire) at a European sales house but explained that priority number one was to bag a victory at the highest level with his homebred daughter of Muhaarar (GB). Ryan is perhaps best known for sourcing many champions on behalf of owners Klaravich Stables and trainer Chad Brown but described seeing Be Your Best, who he bred under his own St Croix Bloodstock, landing the Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf Invitational Stakes...

Hallandale, FL-After rounding out the 2024 season with a pair of graded victories, Mike Ryan's 'TDN Rising Star' Be Your Best (Ire) (Muhaarar {GB}) picked up right where she had left off last season, winning Saturday's GII Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf Invitational at Gulfstream Park. Given a 7-1 chance to record her third straight victory, and only the fourth of her career, the 5-year-old showed a good turn of foot in the early going of the 8 1/2-furlong test, keeping leader and stablemate In Our Time (Not...