Bobby Flay

The last few years of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale have been very profitable ones for Bobby Flay's boutique breeding operation. In 2019, he topped the sale with First Captain (Curlin) out of his homebred mare America (A.P. Indy). In 2021, his Uncle Mo--Dame Dorothy colt brought $1.6 million, the second-highest price of the week. In 2022, First Captain's full-sister was the top filly at $2,000,000, and the second-highest price overall. And it's no wonder: Flay admitted that he targets the sale, and calls the experience "one of my favorite...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - On the Whitney Day card with three Grade I races, the GIII Troy S. is pretty easy to overlook. Last year, though, two-time Breeders' Cup race winner Golden Pal (Uncle Mo) drew attention to the 5 1/2-furlong turf test, which he won by a head. On Aug. 5, Caravel (Mizzen Mast) will be the headliner in the 20th running of the Troy and, if the 2022 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint upsetter prevails, will be its first female winner. Caravel prepped for the race Saturday on the...

Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Fillies winner Pizza Bianca (Fastnet Rock {Aus})--White Hot {Ire}, by Galileo {Ire}) has been retired and has checked in foal to Into Mischief, according to her owner, Bobby Flay, who said that he would be retaining her to add to his international broodmare band. Pizza Bianca broke her maiden in her first start in 2021 at Saratoga before finishing second in the GI Natalma S. at Woodbine, and then winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Fillies. She won the Hilltop S. at Pimlico at three. Her...

5th-Keeneland, $130,000, Alw (NW3$X)/Opt. Clm ($100,000), 4-28, 4yo/up, 1 1/8m, 1:50.29, gd, 3 lengths. WE THE PEOPLE (c, 4, Constitution--Letchworth, by Tiznow) was last seen in Parx's crowning GI Pennsylvania Derby as MGISW Taiba (Gun Runner), GISW Zandon (Upstart), and MGISW Cyberknife (Gun Runner) went on to fill the trifecta. Before that, he'd made a name for himself on the back of a 10 1/4-length score in the GIII Peter Pan S., and then ran fourth in the GI Belmont S. next out as stablemates GISW Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo)...

Paddy Twomey and statistics go hand in hand. It seems as though, whenever the trainer's name is mentioned, a number or a stat of some sort will follow. And it's easy to see why: statistically, Twomey is the most upwardly-mobile handler in Ireland. This is a man who has been operating at a 23 per cent strike-rate or higher since 2018. That takes serious doing in an environment as competitive as Ireland. While the 46-year-old has been training officially since 2012, his Tipperary-based operation has been open to outside owners...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 1st-AQU, $80K, Msw, 3yo, 6f, 12:50 p.m. Bought by Chenoweth Stables for $200,000 at the '21 FTKJUL auction, GLOBAL IMAGE (Liam's Map) was purchased by Taproot Bloodstock a year later at the OBSMAR after breezing an eighth of a mile in :10 1/5. Owned by Robert LaPenta and Madaket Stables, the Brad Cox trainee shipped to Belmont after training with his Churchill Downs string over the winter. Out of Ballerina S. heroine Class Included (Include), the gray colt will break from the three post with...

5th-GP, $84k, Msw, 3yo, 6f, 2:09 p.m. ET Missourians Robert and Lawana Low purchased SGT. PEPPER (Uncle Mo) for $1.6 million at the 2021 FTSAUG sale. Bred by Bobby Flay Thoroughbreds, he will make his debut sprinting on the dirt with Lasix in South Florida for the Todd Pletcher barn. Sgt. Pepper, the 5-2 morning-line favorite, is a half-brother to GSW Spice Is Nice (Curlin), who fetched $1.05 million from these same connections at the 2018 KEESEP sale. Sgt. Pepper's dam Dame Dorothy (Bernardini), owned and campaigned by Bobby Flay,...

4th-Deauville, €27,000, Mdn, 12-16, unraced 2yo, f, 7 1/2f (AWT), 1:31.73, st. QUICKSTEP (FR) (f, 2, Wootton Bassett {GB}--Dance Toupie {Fr}, by Dansili {GB}) was well away from the inside stall to race in a handy third after the opening quarter of this debutantes' heat. Making smooth headway on the bridle in the straight and sent with 300 metres remaining, the even-money pick took a slender advantage into the final furlong and kept on powerfully under whipless coaxing in the closing stages to defeat Sunlike (Fr) (De Treville {GB}) by...

Bobby Flay has always been content to settle for a bit of slow cooking when it comes to his Thoroughbred breeding program, but this particular project probably took a little longer than even the patient chef and restaurateur expected. Flay purchased the yearling filly White Hot (Ire) for 1,250,000 guineas at the 2014 Tattersalls October sale on the advice of his late bloodstock agent James Delahooke. Eight years later, he figures to be paid back, with interest, when her Breeders' Cup-winning daughter Pizza Bianca (Fastnet Rock {Aug}) sells with Elite...

Caravel, purchased for $500,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton November sale, captured her second graded win for the new connections this year when she sauntered clear to the wire to win the GIII Franklin S. at Keeneland Sunday. Sent off the 2-1 favorite, the gray mare sat settled in a tracking third along the rail behind and opening quarter in :21.40. She charged up four wide into the lane and collared pacesetting second-choiceTwilight Gleaming (Ire) (National Defense {GB}) with a furlong to run before skipping clear late. "The mare ran a...

James Delahooke died Wednesday, and I lost a very special friend. I had the great pleasure of working together with him, especially over the last 15-plus years. Tuesday, we spoke about our Keeneland filly short list, of Chris McGrath's great profile of Bobby Flay's equine program to which he had been a major contributor, and meeting in Lexington on Friday for dinner. Life can pivot from normal to abnormal with a phone call, but our initial meeting is a great reminder of the special goodness that can also randomly present...

James Delahooke, an outstanding horseman who played a key role in the creation of the late Prince Khalid Abdullah's Juddmonte empire, died of a heart attack Wednesday morning while grouse hunting in Yorkshire with friends, according to his brother Matthew Delahooke. He was 77. A large proportion of the greatest horses bred and raced by Juddmonte from the late 1980s onwards have descended from fillies or mares bought by Delahooke on the Prince's behalf. The Juddmonte families which have yielded the likes of Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), Enable (GB) (Nathaniel...