Churchill Downs
Coady Photography has partnered with the connections of GI Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike (Keen Ice) to offer fans a photo opportunity in the paddock at Churchill Downs with the chestnut Saturday, Nov. 26. Rich Strike will be making his last anticipated start as a 3-year-old the day prior in the GI Clark H. at Churchill and is scheduled to race next year. The "Rich Strike Golden Ticket" will be limited to just 80 and available in increments of a single person, a pair of two people, and a group...
Ben Huffman, Vice President of Racing for Churchill Downs Racetrack and Racing Secretary at Keeneland Race Course, is the 2022 recipient of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners' Warner L. Jones Jr. Horseman of the Year Award. He will be honored at the Louisville-based KTO's 34th annual awards gala Saturday, Nov. 19 at the Kentucky Derby Museum. The award recognizes individuals for outstanding contributions to Kentucky racing. "It is incredibly special and humbling to be honored with this prestigious award that honors a horseman I greatly admired," Huffman said.
The Backside Learning Center (BLC)--an independent non-profit organization providing support and resources in a safe, welcoming environment for the diverse community of racetrack workers and their families--will hold its largest annual fundraiser, "The 16th Annual Benefit for the Backside: A Day at the Races", Friday, Nov. 18 at Churchill Downs. While the event is sold out, the BLC is hosting an online, silent auction consisting of horseracing, and hard to find items including a Kentucky Oaks box for 6; a speakeasy tasting tour at Evan Williams bourbon for 20; a...
When trainer Tom Van Berg won two Claiming Crown races Saturday with his first horses in that series, most racing regulars made the connection to his father, the late Hall-of-Fame conditioner Jack Van Berg. But a link to another family legacy in that series might not have been as apparent: John Timothy Kirby, 25, who also saddled his first Claiming Crown starter to a victory in his first-ever race at Churchill Downs, is a third-generation horseman with strong roots that run deep in New England. In fact, after more than...
Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 4th-DMR, $70K, Msw, 2yo, f, 6f, 5:00 p.m. The third foal out of four-time champion Beholder (Henny Hughes), TEENA ELLA (War Front) debuts Saturday for the same connections as her dam, owner/breeder Spendthrift Farm and trainer Richard Mandella. Beholder, herself out of blue hen Leslie's Lady (Tricky Creek), is a half-sister to the likes of GISW & top-10 freshman sire Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy) as well as GISW & perennial leading sire Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday). The first of...
Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 10th-CD, $120K, Msw, 3yo/up, 1m, 5:35 p.m. A $500,000 Keeneland September yearling out of the 2020 Stonestreet Thoroughbreds consignment, CAWKAB (Curlin) was purchased by Shadwell Stables and makes a belated debut out of the Brad Cox barn. A 3-year-old son of Catch the Moon (Malibu Moon), Cawkab is a half-brother to four graded-stakes winners including the late GSW & MGISP Midnight Bourbon (Tiznow), GISW & up-and-coming freshman sire Girvin (Tale of Ekati), GSW Cocked and Loaded...
Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable's GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity winner, GI Hopeful S. winner, and 'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence), who is set to contest the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Friday for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher, has been made the 15-1 individual favorite in the first pool of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager, while the option of "all other colts and geldings" not among the 38 individual betting interests has been given 3-5 odds. The new three-day pool, which was previously announced, will run from Tuesday to...
Patricia's Hope LLC and Phillip Sagan's Two Phil's (Hard Spun) stalked, pounced and pulled away to take Churchill's GIII Street Sense S. Sunday while flattering the form of a pair of GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile contenders. Fifth in his local unveiling June 23, the chestnut broke through next out at Colonial the following month. He resurfaced to crush by 9 3/4 lengths in Canterbury's Shakopee Juvenile S. Sept. 17, but could only manage seventh on the stretch out in Keeneland's GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity Oct. 8. 'TDN Rising Stars' Forte...
Gold Standard Racing Stable's Hoosier Philly (Into Mischief), a good-looking debut winner sprinting beneath the Twin Spires Sept. 25, wasn't off to the most alert of beginnings in Sunday's $200,000 Rags To Riches S. at Churchill Downs, but the gray sat a cushy inside trip and responded when asked by Edgar Morales to post a facile first stakes success. Off a half-step slowly, the $510,000 Keeneland September graduate nevertheless secured the box-seat trip and raced in close attendance to moderate fractions of :24.08 and :48.38 set by Peacock Lass (American...
4th-Churchill Downs, $114,370, Msw, 10-30, 2yo, f, 6f, 1:12.08, sy, 10 lengths. RED CARPET READY (f, 2, Oscar Performance--Wild Silk, by Street Sense) proved to be just that with a splashy debut performance through the Churchill slop Sunday afternoon. Touching 37-1 at the off, the $180,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga purchase hit the ground running from her low draw and outsprinted the well-backed Bo Derek (Speightstown) to lead them through an opening quarter-mile in :21.74 over the rain-affected surface. With that 7-2 chance her shadow around the turn, Red Carpet Ready shrugged...
1st-Churchill Downs, $122,250, Msw, 10-30, 2yo, 5f, :57.87, sy, 2 3/4 lengths. TWO EAGLES RIVER (g, 2, Cloud Computing--Majestic Island, by Majestic Warrior) got his career off on the right hoof with a solid debut victory in the Stars of Tomorrow lidlifter Sunday at Churchill Downs. Under a bit of a Mitchell Murrill ride right out of the gate then held a spot at the fence in the slipstream of pacesetting Birthday Munnings (Munnings). The $32,000 Fasig-Tipton July yearling turned $220,000 OBS April breezer improved inside on the turn and...
The GIII Street Sense S.--graded for the first time in 2022--is one of 11 races for juveniles on Sunday's "Stars of Tomorrow I" card to kick off the Churchill Downs fall meeting. Winchell Thoroughbreds homebred Red Route One (Gun Runner) gets the tepid morning-line nod at 3-1. The chestnut broke through by daylight second out at Kentucky Downs Sept. 5, then switched to dirt to finish third from out of the clouds at almost 60-1 in the Oct. 8 GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland. Jace's Road (Quality Road), a...