Citizen Bull

A quartet of contenders for next weekend's GI Santa Anita Derby took to the track in Arcadia to work Saturday morning: Journalism (Curlin), Citizen Bull (Into Mischief), Rodriguez (Authentic) and Baeza (McKinzie). Journalism, last-out winner of the GII San Felipe Stakes, went five furlongs in 1:01.40 (26/42) for trainer Michael McCarthy. "I let him run a little bit down the lane with a solid gallop-out," McCarthy said of the work. "He did everything we asked of him." Journalism's eye-catching victory in the San Felipe earned a 108 Beyer Speed Figure,...

GII DK Horse San Felipe Stakes winner Journalism (Curlin) was named the 3-1 individual favorite in pool 5 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager which opens Friday, March 14 and runs through Sunday, March 16. Joining him at 3-1 odds is the undefeated Good Cheer (Medaglia d'Oro) in the lone Kentucky Derby Oaks Future Wager which opens the same time. Both pools feature $2 Win and Exacta wagering, as well as a separate Oaks/Derby Future Double linking selections in both races. The Kentucky Derby Future Wager closes Sunday at 6...

Eclipse Award-winning juvenile colt Citizen Bull (Into Mischief) and the well-related Baeza (McKinzie) were each out for breezes Saturday morning as they prep for their respective next starts in the GI Santa Anita Derby on Apr. 5. With former jockey Juan Ochoa in the irons, Citizen Bull went six furlongs in 1:12.60 for trainer Bob Baffert. The $675,000 Keeneland September yearling won three of his four outings in 2024, locking up his championship with a front-running, 3 3/4-length defeat of stablemate Gaming (Game Winner) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile...

Since the last installment of this column, the No. 1-ranked contender, First Resort (Uncle Mo), has been declared off the Triple Crown trail because of a hairline fracture, and no fewer than four other top 12 horses were bet down to favoritism but lost points-awarding graded stakes. Even after this past Saturday's trio of preps for the GI Kentucky Derby, trying to figure out a new pecking order remains challenging, like trying to coax clarity out of chaos. 1) CITIZEN BULL (c, Into Mischief--No Joke, by Distorted Humor) O-SF Racing...

Keeneland's 101st running of the $1.25 million GI Toyota Blue Grass on Saturday, Apr. 5 has attracted 133 nominees, including champion Citizen Bull (Into Mischief), according to a release on Thursday from the track. With a $250,000 purse increase this year, the Blue Grass joins the GI Coolmore Turf Mile as Keeneland's two $1.25 million races, which are the richest in track history. The Turf Mile reached that level during the 2024 Fall Meet. "Keeneland is proud of the enhanced stature of the Toyota Blue Grass, and we thank the...

Citizen Bull (Into Mischief), last year's champion 2-year-old, has been tabbed the 6-1 individual favorite in pool four of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager, while "All Other 3-Year-Olds" is the 9-2 favorite in the pool which runs from Friday through Sunday at 6 p.m. ET. There are 14 new interests in pool four: Burnham Square (Liam's Map), Captain Cook (Practical Joke), Gate to Wire (Munnings), Hypnus (Into Mischief), John Hancock (Constitution), Legitimate (Authentic), Praetor (Into Mischief), Rapture (Uncle Mo), River Thames (Maclean's Music), Sand Devil (Violence), Sorcerer's Silver (Good Magic),...

In his debut and in his lone start prior to showing up last week in a maiden special weight race at Aqueduct, Colloquial (Vekoma) showed that he was a horse with potential. Though he lost, by a nose, the winner was Mentee (City of Light), a full-brother to Eclipse Award winner Fierceness (City of Light). And the final time of :56.97 established a new track record at Aqueduct, eclipsing the mark set 61 years earlier. But few could have expected what Colloquial, who is trained by George Weaver, would do...

Whether you consider it just a random squeaking of the hamster wheel, or evidence of some latent order awaiting our discovery, these Thoroughbreds certainly know how to make us stop and think about the strange operation of life. Last Friday it was announced that Miss Macy Sue (Trippi) had died at 22. The very next day, her son Liam's Map produced a Derby contender in GIII Holy Bull Stakes winner Burnham Square. The 20 starting points banked there, moreover, matched those earned two weeks previously in the GIII Lecomte Stakes...

Eclipse Champion Juvenile Citizen Bull (Into Mischief) tops a list of 373 total 3-year-olds who were made eligible to this year's Triple Crown series, Churchill Downs announced Tuesday. This year's total represents a 7.8% increase from last year's 346 early nominations. Additionally, a record 69 Japan-based horses, trained by 33 different conditioners, were nominated, which shattered last year's record of 47. Sixty of the nominees have already won stakes races, including the top 10 point leaders on the Road to the Kentucky Derby: Citizen Bull, Speed King (Volatile), Coal Battle...

We're inside the 13-week mark to the GI Kentucky Derby with no seismic changes to the running order at this early stage of the season. The rankings are fairly evenly distributed among contenders based on both coasts and in Kentucky, Arkansas and Louisiana. 1) FIRST RESORT (c, Uncle Mo-Fair Maiden, by Street Boss). O/B-Godolphin (KY); T-Eoin G. Harty. Lifetime record GSW, 4-2-1-0, $338,671. Last start: WON Nov. 30 GII Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. First Resort's 6-1 win in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes Nov. 30 rated as the most visually...

The first Saturdays in February, March and April are stacked with points-awarding prep races for the GI Kentucky Derby. It's unusual, though, for all of the coast-to-coast stakes on any one of those weekends to yield three emphatic or impactful performances. But the trio of preps on Feb. 1 produced three intriguing winners who all figure to be "horses of interest" moving forward. The victories Saturday by Citizen Bull (Into Mischief) in the GIII Robert B. Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita, 'TDN Rising Star' Captain Cook (Practical Joke) in the...

Trainer Bob Baffert confirmed all was well with Citizen Bull (Into Mischief) the morning after his 3 3/4-length win in Saturday's GIII Robert B. Lewis Stakes. Baffert indicated a decision has not been made whether last year's 2-year-old champion will make one or two more starts before this year's GI Kentucky Derby on May 3 at Churchill Downs. Citizen Bull, who earned a 98 Beyer Speed Figure for his front-running win in the one-mile Lewis under Martin Garcia, which was his first start since winning the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile...