Bob Baffert
The powerful ownership group involved with juvenile colt Eight Rings (Empire Maker) celebrated their first win as a team Sunday as the buzzed-about Bob Baffert trainee blitzed Del Mar maiden company to become a no-brainer 'TDN Rising Star'. A $520,000 Keeneland September yearling, the dark bay prepped for this with a bullet five-furlong drill from the gate in 1:00 flat here July 25 in company with unraced Garth (Into Mischief--Country Star) (Click for XBTV Video) and was crushed down to 3-5 favoritism despite the presence of several other well-bred and...
The Week in Review, by T.D. Thornton Four-time Grade I-winning 4-year-old McKinzie (Street Sense) has always been saddled with high expectations, while 3-year-old Mr. Money (Goldencents) has now achieved millionaire status by grinding out four consecutive Grade III victories. Convincing wins on Saturday gave each horse a divisional foothold, with McKinzie establishing himself as the top two-turn older dirt horse who might finally be getting comfortable with kingpin status, and Mr. Money carving out a niche as the late-blooming sophomore who appears primed to punch above his weight thanks to...
Saturday's GI Whitney S. lost some of its appeal when two-time G1 Dubai World Cup hero Thunder Snow (Ire) (Helmet {Aus}) was scratched sick, depriving fans of a battle with 'TDN Rising Star' McKinzie (Street Sense) in the 'Win and You're In' qualifier for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita the first weekend in November. Though that clash is on hold for the next eight weeks, McKinzie upheld his end of the bargain, getting a thinking-man's ride from Hall of Famer Mike Smith before holding off a late...
Saturday's prestigious GI Whitney S. at Saratoga has drawn top-class runners from around the world for what is sure to be a memorable renewal. MGISW and 'TDN Rising Star' McKinzie (Street Sense) ships in from the West Coast for Hall of Famer Bob Baffert. Winner of the GI Pennsylvania Derby and GI Malibu S. last term, the bay came up just a half-length short of the late Breeders' Cup winner Battle of Midway (Smart Strike) in the GII San Pasqual S. Feb. 2 and was just a nose shy of...
The Jockeys & Jeans summer auction to benefit the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund (PDJF) will begin Aug. 1 and end Sept. 15. Items up for sale include a Gulfstream VIP package and signed memorabilia from the likes of Hall of Fame trainers Bob Baffert and D. Wayne Lukas and jockeys Braulio Baeza and Jorge Velasquez. To bid, click here.
Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 7th-SAR, $90k, 3yo/up, f/m, 1mT, post time: 4:21 p.m. ET The powerful owner/trainer combo of Klavarich Stables and Chad Brown unveil NEW AND IMPROVED (Cairo Prince) on Saratoga's Sunday card. A $320,000 yearling purchase at the Keeneland September Sale, the gray's dam High Style (Giant's Causeway), is a daughter of the multiple Grade I winning turf specialist Tout Charmant (Slewvescent). TJCIS PPS 7th-ELP, $50,000, 2yo, f, 7f, post time: 4:40 p.m. ET Three Chimneys Farm homebred PRINCESINHA JULIA (Pioneerof the Nile), a daughter of multiple...
Maximum Security (New Year's Day) faces a speed-laden field of six foes as he looks to bounce back in Saturday's GI TVG.com Haskell Invitational S. at Monmouth Park, which carries a "Win and You're In" berth to this year's GI Breeders' Cup Classic. The saga the Gary and Mary West homebred has been embroiled in is well documented--a controversial DQ from first to 17th in the GI Kentucky Derby led to plenty of debate, and litigation, and the GI Xpressbet Florida Derby winner skipped the next two legs of the...
In the swirling, indefinite haze of which races might be next for Triple Crown champion American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile), the Aug. 2 GI Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park and the Oct. 31 GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland Race Course loom as the most logical, according to tentative plans put forth by the colt's connections in myriad published reports. But the 13-week gap between those two starts remains a wild card, and it could shape up as a prime spot for an outlier track to step up with a...
The morning after ending the 37-year Triple Crown drought, American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) was in fine form, according to trainer Bob Baffert. “Looking at the horse today, he looked pretty darn good for a horse that just ran a mile and a half,” Baffert said outside of Barn 1 in Elmont. “He's a tough horse. Today he looked like he could run back in three weeks.” Baffert allowed members of the media to pet American Pharoah outside of the barn to demonstrate the colt's demeanor. “I just wanted to...
One week from tomorrow Fasig-Tipton kicks off the 2015 North American yearling market with the Kentucky July yearling sale, in which 40 years ago this year, Seattle Slew sold as a yearling for $17,500 to Karen and Mickey Taylor, and it's been producing good horses ever since. This year 332 yearlings are catalogued--a 25% increase on last year's 265--to be followed by around 100 horses of racing age, minus withdrawals, plus 'wild cards'. Fasig catalogued 258 yearlings in 2013, significantly down from the 338 catalogued in 2012. That year 189...