Breeders' Cup Distaff

Adare Manor (f, 4, Uncle Mo--Brooklynsway, by Giant Gizmo), a big, rangy daughter of her Breeders' Cup-winning sire, made it four in a row and a first Grade I with a facile win in the $400,000 GI Clement L. Hirsch S. at Del Mar Saturday. The filly will likely attempt to win a Breeders' Cup of her own as the "Win and You're In" Hirsch offers a fees-paid berth to the GI Distaff, which will be held at Santa Anita in November. When the field broke in the Hirsch, it...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - There will be no easing back into competition for champion Nest (Curlin). Certainly not on a Sunday in July at Saratoga Race Course. In the first start of her 4-year-old season--which was delayed by illness--in the GII Shuvee S., Nest is likely to face Clairiere (Curlin), the leader of the older female dirt division, and GI La Troienne winner Played Hard (Into Mischief). "It's not the position we set out to be on at the beginning of this year, but it's kind of where we are,"...

Secret Oath (Arrogate) looked home free after inhaling the longtime runaway pacesetter and striding confidently clear into the Oaklawn stretch, but Clairiere (Curlin) was unleashing a powerful stretch run of her own that saw the Stonestreet homebred just get her nose in front on the wire in a dramatic finish to the GI Apple Blossom H. Saturday in Hot Springs. Hot and Sultry (Speighster) caught a flyer out of the gate and was some seven lengths in front down the backstretch as she cut out fractions of :24.01 and :47.88...

Blue Stripe (Arg) (Equal Stripes {Arg}), beaten a nose when second in Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Distaff, handsomely rewarded her connections' decision to supplement to the Fasig-Tipton November sale when fetching $4 million from Emmanuel de Seroux's Narvick International late in the session as hip 316. Consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency as hip 316, the Argentinian Group 1 winner took Del Mar's GI Clement L. Hirsch S. two starts back for owner Pozo de Luna Inc. and trainer Marcelo Polanco.

Breeders' Cup action continues at Keeneland Saturday with nine Championship races. The TDN staff provides detailed previews of each of those events in our special Breeders' Cup Saturday edition. Click here for all you need to know. Saturday's program includes the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic, GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff, GI Longines Breeders' Cup Turf, GI Breeders' Cup Maker's Mark F/M Turf, GI Breeders' Cup Big Ass Fans Dirt Mile, GI Breeders' Cup FanDuel Mile, GI Qatar Racing Breeders' Cup Sprint, GI Breeders' Cup F/M Sprint and GI Breeders'...

With unbeaten sensation Flightline (Tapit) leading the way, 205 horses, including 45 from overseas, and seven former or returning Breeders' Cup champions, have been pre-entered for the 39th Breeders' Cup World Championships at Keeneland Nov. 4 & 5. The Breeders' Cup will be televised live domestically on NBC, Peacock, USA Network, and FanDuel TV. Click here to view all of the 2022 Breeders' Cup World Championships Pre-Entered Fields. Nine horses were pre-entered for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. In addition to the record-setting GI Pacific Classic winner Flightline, the $6-million...

Champion Echo Zulu (Gun Runner) and probable champion Epicenter (Not This Time) topped a busy worktab for Steve Asmussen's potential Breeders' Cup starters Sunday morning at Keeneland as the racing world draws closer than two weeks away from the 39th World Championships in Lexington Nov. 4-5. With exercise rider Wilson Fabian aboard, Echo Zulu drilled five furlongs in :59 2/5 in company with Marsalis (Curlin). The move was the fastest five-eighths of 30 Sunday over the fast main track. Echo Zulu, who returned off a layoff to win the GIII...

With two graded events for distaffers and four for juveniles, including including four Breeders' Cup qualifiers, Sunday is basically Saturday part two from coast-to-coast. The day's main event is the GI Juddmonte Spinster S. at Keeneland, a "Win and You're In" event, where champions Malathaat (Curlin) and Letruska (Super Saver) face off yet again. 'TDN Rising Star' Malathaat looks to make amends for a solid third in last year's GI Breeders' Cup Distaff and she enters off a win in Saratoga's GI Personal Ensign S. Aug. 27. Letruska, who won...

Pozo de Luna's Blue Stripe (Arg) (Equal Stripes {Arg}), a Group 1 winner in her native country, scored her first top-level win in the big leagues of American racing Saturday, conquering odds-on defending champion Shedaresthedevil (Daredevil) and three other rivals in Del Mar's GI Clement L. Hirsch S. The victory in the Win and You're In qualifier punched Blue Stripe's ticket to the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff. Annexing the G1 Criadores last May Hipodromo in Argentina for trainer Nicolas Martin Ferro, the bay was ambitiously spotted in the Distaff in...

Saturday's GI Ogden Phipps S. may have only attracted five horses, but it was the "right" five with champions Malathaat (Curlin) and Letruska (Super Saver), Grade I winners Clairiere (Curlin) and Search Results (Flatter) and MGSW Bonny South (Munnings). After a knock down, drag out fight on the front end between Letruska and Search Results, it was left to the two Stonestreet Stables-bred fillies, Clairiere and Malathaat, to decide it in the lane. In the end, it was Clairiere, carrying her breeders' famed gold and burgundy silks, who got her...

Letruska (Super Saver), who will be named 2021's champion older mare next month, will kick off her 6-year-old campaign in the Feb. 26 GIII Royal Delta S. at Gulfstream, reports trainer Fausto Gutierrez. The race will serve as a prep for the Apr. 23 GI Apple Blossom H. at Oaklawn. The winner of last year's Apple Blossom, Letruska will attempt to become the first horse to win back-to-back runnings of that event since Azeri, who won it in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Letruska is currently stabled at Palm Meadows. "The...

The TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland produced its third annual comprehensive Breeders' Cup preview show Wednesday, analyzing and handicapping all 14 World Championships races in depth, and welcomed trainer Wesley Ward later as the Green Group Guest of the Week to discuss his five combined Breeders' Cup starters in the GI Turf Sprint and GII Juvenile Turf Sprint and future goals for his barn. Asked whether he's happy with the niche he's carved out for himself as mainly an elite 2-year-old and turf sprint trainer or if he has...