Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint

LEXINGTON, KY-With the breeze-up sales having been thrown into turmoil in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic this spring, Yorkshire trainer Nigel Tinkler found himself with an important decision in his hands. Breeze-up consignors Roger Marley and John Cullinan, like others in the sector, had begun offering some of their pinhooks privately in an effort to soften the financial blows of the global economic crisis, and Tinkler was offered his choice of colts by Kodiac (GB) and Dandy Man (Ire) for his clients Martin and Lisa Webb. "We had the...

Bryan Hilliard's homebred Second of July (Jack Milton), who was a 68-1 outsider when he captured his debut at Belmont Park last month, came back to score another upset victory in the GIII Futurity S. in Elmont Sunday. The win earned the gelding an automatic berth in the GII Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Keeneland Nov. 6. "I knew he was very fit and sharp and doing good, so I knew he would run his race, but I just wasn't sure if it was going to be good enough,...

Undefeated Campanelle (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) will head straight to the Nov. 6 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Keeneland after connections decided to forego next weekend's G1 Cheveley Park S. at Newmarket. Campaigned by Stonestreet Stables, the Wesley Ward-trained filly broke her maiden at Gulfstream Park May 31 before taking the G2 Queen Mary S. during the Royal meeting at Ascot June 20. In her latest start at Deauville Aug. 23, she gave her trainer his third victory in the G1 Darley Prix Morny. "We took her out of...

For better or worse, we're all products of our environment. Better, plainly, in the case of Jimmy Jerkens and Wesley Ward--both raised by exemplary practitioners in a trade that this weekend sees each send a gifted sophomore dashing round a single turn. Each of these trainers, of course, has long stood on his own two feet. So we'll wait and see how much flexibility Jerkens may consider latent in Green Light Go (Hard Spun) after he returns in the Roar S. at Gulfstream Saturday. Sprinting, after all, could yet turn...