Breeders' Cup

It's hard for a horse to have a better season than Mitole did at four: his four Grade Is included the Sprint as well as the Met Mile and it's no small thing to set (and still hold) Saratoga's GI Forego stakes record of 1:20.80 for seven panels. "A long time ago somebody asked a groom what makes a good racehorse. He said speed and more speed. That always makes me think of Mitole," said Ned Toffey, general manager of Spendthrift Farm. "This was a horse that had an unbelievable...

After his strong third in the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe on Sunday, the connections of Onesto (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) were thinking Breeders' Cup, and now QIPCO Champions Day is also on the table as long as the ground isn't too soft, trainer Fabrice Chappet revealed on Thursday. Raced by Gerard Augustin-Normand, the 4-year-old colt won the G1 Grand Prix de Paris last year and was also second in the G1 Champion S. during a campaign that took him from France, to Ireland and Japan. He returned this term...

One of the biggest stories going into the 2018 Breeders' Cup was trainer John Sadler's 0-41 record on racing's championship day. Accelerate, whose five for six already on the year included four Grade Is in California, succinctly put all that babble to rest with his win in the biggest race on the card. "What stands out to me with Accelerate was the year he had that culminated in the Breeders' Cup Classic," said Sadler. "He won, what, four or five Grade Is that year. So, he had just a fabulous...

Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable's 'TDN Rising Star' Agate Road (Quality Road) saved his best for last, as he found his best stride inside the final furlong and edged away to take Wednesday's GII Pilgrim S., earning an all-expenses-paid trip to Santa Anita for the Nov. 3 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf in the process. Favored at a shade under 5-2 the $650,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase--carrying the St. Elias colors this time--was content to sit one from the tail as the outposted Spirit Prince (Cairo Prince)--a latest third...

Celebrating 40 Years of the Breeders' Cup with Living Legends There are great racehorses and there are great sires. One doesn't always equal the other. Sometimes, but not always, a horse is equally adept at both. "It's rare for world-class racehorse to become a world-class sire. It's two different resumes, two different achievements," said John Sikura, owner of Hill 'n' Dale. Rarely, ever so rarely, a top racehorse becomes a sire so good and so prolific in generating top-class horses that his own championship race record becomes almost an afterthought....

"He's one of my all-time favorites," said trainer Wesley Ward. "He was an awesome horse. Extremely talented, super quick, and agile: that was really his biggest attribute. When the first jump opened, he was explosive. He would open up effortlessly. He pulled the heart away from the other horses a little bit. "He was a joy to train, a highly intelligent horse. I really appreciated the time at the barn with him every day, because based on his accomplishments I knew that our time would be limited with him and he'd...

"After Sheikh Mohammed purchased Stonerside Stable in 2008, he graciously kept on the entire Stonerside staff," said Vicky Van Camp, who was formerly the Research and Information Director of Stonerside Stable and is now Godolphin's U.S. Racing Research Coordinator. She was at Stonerside when Midshipman was born and is now at Darley, where Midshipman stands. "Midshipman, the last Grade I winner for Stonerside, became the first Grade I winner from the purchase for Sheikh Mohammed with his Breeders' Cup Juvenile win just a month later. I'm happy to say a...

All four winners of Santa Anita's stakes on Saturday--Slow Down Andy (Nyquist), Dr. Schivel (Violence), Lane Way (Into Mischief) and Hong Kong Harry (Ire) (Es Que Love {Ire})--were resting and doing well Sunday morning. Three from that group will head to the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita Nov. 3-4. Slow Down Andy, front-running winner of the GII Awesome Again, "ate up a full feed tub and is doing great this morning," said Leandro Mora, assistant for trainer Doug O'Neill. Second in last year's GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland,...

The legend of Cody's Wish (Curlin), dampened only briefly by a 10-length defeat in the two-turn GI Whitney S., is back at full flame with a gutsy effort in the rescheduled 'Win and You're In' GII Vosburgh S. Rained off of Saturday's card at Belmont's Aqueduct Fall meeting, the Vosburgh awarded a paid entry to the GI Qatar Racing Breeders' Cup Sprint though winning trainer Bill Mott indicated a title defense for his stable's star in the GI Big Ass Fans Breeders's Cup Dirt mile was preferred. Beaten just once...

The only two-time winner of the Dirt Mile to date, Goldencents had gameness written all over him. The Equibase chart for his second Breeders' Cup win summed up much of his career: "gunned hard," "met the oncoming challenge," and "dug in tenaciously." "Goldencents was a special horse for us because he is the first horse that really began to put Into Mischief on the map," said Ned Toffey, general manager of Spendthrift Farm. "He and [MGSW & MGISP] Vyjack came out of Into Mischief's first crop. Obviously he went on...

Just over 100 years ago, the Jockey Club's resident New York handicapper, William Vosburgh, knew the value of history and understood how it could be applied when he penned his magnum opus, Racing In America, 1866-1921. The turf wordsmith revealed his intent in the Preface when he said, "I shall show that, owing to want of popular support, racing had fallen so low, and so infrequent, as to excite little or no interest." What he was talking about was a sport in crisis, as progressive forces in America drove racing...

Celebrating 40 Years of the Breeders' Cup with Living Legends Each race--particularly a Breeders' Cup win--is special to the connections of the winner, but some races stand out more than others in all who are lucky enough to witness them. Some get embedded in the mind and take up permanent residence there. Just about everyone in racing can recall in vivid detail Arazi's scintillating 1991 Juvenile or Personal Ensign's electrifying 1988 Distaff or Tiznow's gripping 2001 Classic. Each of those are among the transcendent performances in our sport that stir...