Breeders' Cup

Three Chimneys' Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) set a new record for progeny earnings for a first-crop sire when his total moved past the $3.8-million mark Sunday. Coolmore's Uncle Mo held the previous record of $3,717,490, which he established in 2015. Prior to Uncle Mo, the first-crop progeny earnings record had been held by Gainesway's Tapit, who set the mark in 2008. Gun Runner took over the record earnings figure when the Tom Amoss-trained Shotgun Hottie won a $92,000 maiden special weight at Churchill Downs Sunday, becoming the stallion's 22nd...

Strengthened by victories from homebreds Modern Games (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), Space Blues (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and Yibir (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), for the fourth consecutive year Godolphin has won the John Deere Award, honoring the outstanding breeder of the 2021 Breeders' Cup World Championships and the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series. The John Deere Award, presented by Breeders' Cup Limited and NTRA Advantage, emphasizes the contributions of breeders to the Breeders' Cup program. NTRA Advantage and John Deere will award a John Deere TS Gator Utility Vehicle to Godolphin. Godolphin-bred runners earned...

A collaboration between America's Best Racing (ABR) and Hipica TV to bring Spanish-language coverage of all 14 Breeders' Cup races at Del Mar Nov. 5 & 6 received 282,000 cumulative views across Hipica TV's YouTube channel. There were more than 88,000 live views on 'Future Stars Friday' and Saturday's live stream attracted better than 200,000 views. The broadcast attracted viewers from the U.S., Panama, Mexico, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Spain and every country in South America. The shows, branded as 'Breeders' Cup en Vivo', were hosted by Claudia Spadaro, Emanuel...

Hard to put a price on a stallion like this. Apart from anything else, he is the parting legacy of Danzig--conceived when the great patriarch was 26--and his maternal line brings a daughter of the wartime foal My Babu (Fr) as close up as third dam. True to that venerable seeding, his stock has emulated both the class and constitution that sustained his own speed--carrying commitment on the racetrack. Though his career was compressed into barely a year, he didn't just "dance every dance," but turned the pages for the...

Still riding high from a scintillating victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with fast-finishing Pizza Bianca (Fastnet Rock {Aus}), celebrity chef, restaurateur and owner/breeder Bobby Flay joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland Tuesday afternoon. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Flay appreciated the significance of winning on racing's biggest stage with a homebred, teased a potential Royal Ascot trip with Pizza Bianca and discussed how he would approach racing's marketing challenges and more. Flay made a huge splash at...

Riding high from a scintillating victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with his homebred Pizza Bianca, celebrity chef, restaurateur and owner/breeder Bobby Flay joined the TDN Writers' Room.

Jack Christopher (Munnings), expected to go off the favorite in the GI TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile but scratched by the track veterinarians the day prior to the race, has had a screw inserted in his left shin due to a stress fracture, according to his ownership group's racing manager, Bradley Weisbord. The news was first reported by the Blood-Horse. "Jack Christopher saw Dr. Larry Bramlage the Wednesday following the Breeders' Cup," said Weisbord. "He had a full examination, including a bone scan. A couple of areas lit up, mainly the...

It had looked as though she had missed her cue. If the notoriously random behaviors of the Thoroughbred were really governed by some benign destiny, Ce Ce (Elusive Quality) would surely have recognized her prompt last year in the Grade I race named for the father of her owner-breeder Bo Hirsch. As it was, she was jostled leaving the gate in the Clement L. Hirsch S., took a wide trip and had to make do with third. So there you had it. We couldn't deceive ourselves that anybody up there...

Mistakes aside, the Modern Games "scratch" and subsequent fiasco tells us plenty about the state of rule-making and pari-mutuel wagering technology. It might even offer signs into the future of betting on the Breeders' Cup and other big American racing events too. Disregarding a horse for "pari-mutuel purposes" and then running the race with that horse in it, as was done in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf, is equivalent to disregarding the interests of betting customers altogether. The rules need to change. While many questions remain unanswered, and the...

Though yielding to few other Englishmen in stubbornly championing the merits of the speed-carrying dirt horse, I must admit that I have been somewhat less voluble over the past week. After so much anticipation, it felt like there were just too many Breeders' Cup races decided within strides of leaving the gate. Obviously track surface and configuration can often be a factor, but perhaps the proliferation of methods introduced from Quarter Horse training has also contributed to the times when dirt racing can appear lacking in subtlety. The GI Distaff,...

Lane's End Farm helped raise nearly $50,000 for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund (PDJF) with the auction of 20 hand-crafted surfboards, each individually designed to highlight the nursery's stallion roster. The surfboards were created in partnership with the Cornett advertising agency and the Torrance, California-based Chili Surfboards. Prior to being auctioned off to the highest bidders, the surfboards were on public display at Breeders' Cup partner hotels in the Del Mar area as well as the racetrack over Breeders' Cup weekend. John Velazquez, Mike Smith, Drayden Van Dyke and Victor...

All samples collected from 2021 Breeders' Cup horses have been cleared by the Kenneth L. Maddy Equine Analytical Chemistry Laboratory at the University of California, Davis. All horses competing in Breeders' Cup races this past weekend at Del Mar were tested for TCO2 levels in blood. Post-race testing was performed for prohibited drugs on the first four finishers in all Breeders' Cup races and any additional random horses selected by the stewards consistent with California Horse Racing Board protocol. Post-race testing was done on both blood and urine samples. The...