Caitlinhergrtness

King's Plate Hero Mansetti Crowned 2025 Canadian Horse of the Year

The 51st Sovereign Awards were held by the Jockey Club of Canada Thursday, and among a list of venerable champions to be crowned, 2025 King's Plate hero Mansetti (Collected) topped the lot as Canada's Horse of the Year. Owned by Al & Bill Ulwelling, the son of Collected also claimed the GIII HPIBet Marine Stakes and the Woodstock Stakes as well as placing second in the GIII Ontario Derby and Prince of Wales Stakes. Mansetti garnered 81 votes while champion Caitlinhergrtness (Omaha Beach) came in a close second with 74....

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Sovereign Award Finalists Named, List Includes King's Plate Hero Mansetti

The Jockey Club of Canada named the finalists for the 2025 Sovereign Awards and the winners, along with Canada's Horse of the Year, will be revealed during the 51st annual ceremony to be held on Thursday, Apr. 23 at Paramount Eventspace in Woodbridge, Ontario, the club said via a press release on Friday. The nominees for this year's Sovereign Awards include a pair of past King's Plate winners in Canadian MGSW Caitlinhergrtness (Omaha Beach)--a finalist for Older Main Track Female--and last year's hero Mansetti (Collected), who was named in the...

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Pegasus World Cup Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary

It seems like just yesterday the announcement was made that Gulfstream Park would host the inaugural Pegasus World Cup Invitational. However, a lot has happened over the course of the past 10 years. While the present-day Pegasus format doesn't look much like it did when it was first launched in 2017, the primary directive of getting the best older horses in the country to come to Southern Florida for the third week in January has remained constant. And the history of past winners certainly reflects that. Beginning with its first...

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Hot-Handed Cox Barn Plays Godolphin Aces On Graded Saturday

Trainer Brad Cox's outfit was like a hen on a June bug towards the end of Keeneland's 'Fall Stars' meet and subsequently kept pouncing on wins at Churchill, Horseshoe Indy and Aqueduct as the calendar flipped to the more autumn-like weather of November. Louisville's favorite son collected 20 winner's circle visits across 61 starts from Oct. 21 on, which included a Hit Show (Candy Ride {Arg}) playlist in the GIII Hagyard Fayette Stakes, an Oaks points deposit for Life of Joy (Gun Runner) in the Rags to Riches Stakes and...

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Foster Anchors A Super Saturday At Churchill Downs

About the only thing missing from Saturday's $1-million GI Stephen Foster Stakes is a Horse of the Year--for good measure, she runs elsewhere on Saturday's blockbuster program on the final weekend of racing at Churchill Downs--but the nine-furlong event is rich in quality and brings together the winners of such prestigious events such as the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, the GI Kentucky Derby, and the G1 Dubai World Cup. A 'bananas' Foster, indeed. The horses that will line up for the 'Win and You're In' qualifier for this year's Classic...

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Breeding Digest: Nysos Hitting High Notes of a Familiar Song

In approaching a Saturday that threatens to restore the Triple Crown viability of the American Thoroughbred-between Journalism (Curlin) here, and a son of Justify at Epsom-it feels timely to consider a horse often viewed as typifying the precarious compromise between size and speed, on the one hand, and soundness on the other. The double-edged reputation of Unbridled's Song traces right back to his own sales history. He was the perfect commercial model for a 2-year-old auction, so big and fast that the Barretts hammer fell at $1.4 million, back then...

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King's Plate Winner Caitlinhergrtness Returns In Style At Woodbine

Unraced since November, last year's King's Plate winner and Canadian champion 3-year-old filly Caitlinhergrtness (Omaha Beach) returned in great style to Woodbine Saturday, winning the GIII Belle Mahone Stakes to open her 2025 season. Having beaten the boys in the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, the filly, named for WNBA player Caitlin Clark, returned to facing her own gender Saturday having been third behind She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}) in the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes at Keeneland and fourth in the GIII Maple Leaf to...

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Attard Top Trainer, 'Patches' Voted HOY At Canadian Sovereign Awards

On a night that saw Patches O'Houlihan (Reload) take home both Canadian Horse of the Year and Male Sprinter honors, Kevin Attard finally ended the 13-year consecutive streak of dual Hall of Famer Mark Casse when he won Outstanding Trainer by a single vote at the 50th Sovereign Awards presented by The Jockey Club of Canada which was held outside the city of Toronto, the organization said in a press release late Thursday. Besting Casse 135 to 134 in the tally, Attard pushed the outside of the envelope in what...

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Sovereign Award Finalists Revealed; Attfield, Wilson and Moira to Receive Special Awards

Canada's Sovereign Award finalists were announced by The Jockey Club of Canada Wednesday, in addition to dual Hall of Fame trainer Roger Attfield who will receive the E.P. Taylor Award of Merit at the 50th Annual Sovereign Awards ceremony which will be held Apr. 24 at the Paramount Eventspace in Woodbridge, Ontario. Additionally, Emma-Jayne Wilson and Moira (Ghostzapper), winner of the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf before selling for $4.3 million at Fasig-Tipton in November, will both receive Special Sovereign Awards. Wilson surpassed Julie Krone's purse earnings record...

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Red Smith Leads Turf Stories On Graded Stakes Saturday

If only those walls could talk. There's a room from a bygone era within the press box at Aqueduct Racetrack where members of the media congregated between races. The space's counter is still there, but you have to use your imagination when it comes to what the scene looked like in the old days. The latches on the windows that are now worn with time would be thrown open to let in the sounds of the oval below, while the crisp white shades from the fixtures would have adequately illuminated...

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DeVaux Rules Out Breeders' Cup for QEII Winner She Feels Pretty

Trainer Cherie DeVaux achieved Saturday what many trainers work a lifetime to attain when taking Keeneland's GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup with Lael Stables' She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}). After having a day to digest the watershed moment, she summed up the experience succinctly. "Awesome ... amazing." According to DeVaux, a couple of changes factored in the filly's second Grade I win and DeVaux's first at the Lexington oval. "We expected her to run a good race," DeVaux said. "She was training well... she always trains well. She has...

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Euros Descend on Keeneland in Salty Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup

Quite fittingly, a pair of group-winning Europeans have made the trip over the Atlantic for Saturday's GI Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup Stakes, headed by Highclere Thoroughbred Racing's Soprano (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}). Trained by George Boughey, the 3-year-old filly was last seen finishing 1 1/2-lengths in third behind winner Porta Fortuna (Ire) (Caravaggio) and Fallen Angel (GB) (Too Darn Hot {GB}) in the one-mile G1 Matron Stakes at Leopardstown Sept. 14. That form alone would justify another look at this Irish-bred filly given that Porta Fortuna is a multiple Group 1...

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