Brad Cox

Hardly a secret while attempting to extend her winning streak to three, Good Cheer produced more of the same Sunday afternoon with yet another sparkling victory in the Rags to Riches Stakes at Churchill Downs. Squeezed back at the break, the Godolphin homebred found herself back in last as 8-5 second choice Claire's Charm took to the lead. With the leading taking the compact field through a :23.88 initial quarter, Good Cheer positioned herself in a ground-saving fourth, only three lengths from the lead. Continuing to bide her time along...

Nobody should have been to surprised when Tarifa (Bernardini) won Saturday's GII Mother Goose S. at the Belmont at the Big A meet, turning the tables on the favored Gun Song (Gun Runner). The same goes for Saturday's GII Fayette S. at Keeneland, won by the Cox-trained Hit Show (Candy Ride {Arg}). Starting one month ago, on Sept. 27, he's been on a tear, winning 12 of the 17 (70 % percent) stakes races he has entered in. Overall, Cox is 20-for-63 (32%) for the month of October. He ran...

Saturday marked the final day of Keeneland's 2024 Fall Meet which saw a season-record all-sources wagering total of $210 million boosted by record purse money that attracted full fields featuring the nation's top trainers, jockeys and horses. Jockey Tyler Gaffalione earned the leading rider title, his eighth overall, with 24 total wins while trainer Brad Cox led all trainers with 14 wins including a record six stakes wins during the meet. Godolphin was the meet's leading owner with four wins. "The Fall Meet was exceptional," said Keeneland President and CEO...

Trainer Chad Brown sent out his two Keeneland-based pre-entrants in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile--'TDN Rising Star' Carl Spackler (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) and Chili Flag (Fr) (Cityscape {GB})--together for a half-mile breeze over the grass in :50.40 (1/3) Saturday morning. According to Keeneland clockers, their final quarter mile went in :22.80. "I thought it was a great work, very straightforward," said jockey Tyler Gaffalione, who rode Carl Spackler to a win in Keeneland's GI Coolmore Turf Mile Stakes Oct. 5. "He's really feeling good out there. He's a...

There are people that work with horses and there are people that love horses. In the case of Katie Tolbert, there is no better example of a person that works with horses because of how much she loves them. You see the devotion on a quiet morning on the backside of Churchill Downs as she sits in the saddle, stroking the neck of the horse she is astride or is ponying alongside her. You hear it in the echo of a nicker from an excited trainee, eager for her company,...

Eclipse Champion Idiomatic (Curlin--Lockdown, by First Defence) was found to be lame in her left knee Friday morning with an issue that should heal readily, according to a Juddmonte Farms press release early Friday. The homebred has been ruled out for the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff where she was set to take on MGISW Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna). Juddmonte has decided to retire the 5-year-old mare to the breeding shed. This is the first time she has been sidelined over the course of three seasons of racing. Idiomatic won...

It was the Girl in Gold who came home best of all at Keeneland as Emery (More Than Ready) claimed the GII Lexus Raven Run Stakes for owner Stonestreet Stables. Last seen playing bridesmaid to GISW Ways and Means (Practical Joke) in the GI Test Stakes at Saratoga, where MGSW & GISP My Mane Squeeze (Audible) ran third, Emery had come into that contest riding a three-race win streak which began in June. After claiming victory in the Leslie's Lady Stakes at Churchill Downs and then picking up her first...

With the Del Mar Breeders' Cup officially less than two weeks away, trainer Chad Brown is continuing to oversee his string's preparations at Belmont Park, while the accomplished MGISW Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) puts in her final works for conditioner Ken McPeek upstate at Saratoga. Over the training surface in Elmont, Brown sent out two juveniles for half-mile works in 'TDN Rising Star' Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie) [:48.01] and Zulu Kingdom (Ire) (Ten Sovereigns {Ire}) [:48.63], who are targeting the GI FanDuel Breeders' Cup Juvenile and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf,...

Multiple Grade I-placed 'TDN Rising Star' Ferocious (Flatter) was out on track at 7:30 a.m. at Keeneland following the first harrow period and had Javier Castellano in the irons for the morning session as he continued preps for his scheduled start in the GI FanDuel Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Castellano had spent nearly two months on the sidelines with a fractured hand, but made a trip from New York to Lexington specifically for the half-mile work. In the first move since Ferocious finished second in the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity, the...

Ellen Jay (f, 3, Constitution--Covfefe, by Into Mischief) planted her flag as the first of her famed dam's offspring to the races and now the first to claim black-type as she kicked home determinedly to win the Glen Cove Stakes. Unveiled to a fourth-place effort in May at Churchill Downs, she steadily improved and really jumped forward on paper with the swap to turf two back at Ellis Park when breaking her maiden July 15 by a nose. Remaining in turf sprints and against first-level allowance company last out Aug....

5th-Keeneland, $100,000, Msw, 10-17, 2yo, 7f, 1:28.92, ft, 3 lengths. UNCLE JIM (c, 2, City of Light--Now Now, by Tiznow), the 6-5 favorite, was unhurried and rated off the pace while racing along the rail through a quarter in :22.46 and a half in :45.71. Behind a wall of horses as the field bunched up nearing the stretch, the dark bay colt found clear sailing along the rail and closed powerfully to win going away by three lengths. Copp (Blame) was second. Uncle Jim, a $240,000 KEESEP yearling, has a...

Angel of Empire (Classic Empire--Armony's Angel, by To Honor and Serve), who took home the GI Arkansas Derby, has been retired and will join the roster at Taylor Made Stallions for the upcoming breeding season, according to a press release from the farm on Wednesday. The 4-year-old, who last raced in 2023 when he finished third in the GII Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga, will stand for $7,500 LFSN. Breeders will have an opportunity to earn a lifetime breeding right to the millionaire earner of more than $1.4 million. "We're...