Colonial Downs

NEW KENT, VA-Is it too soon to call 2025 the year of Junior Alvarado? The Venezuelan jockey continued to ride a tsunami of success right into southeast Virginia Saturday, piloting Fort Washington (War Front) to victory in the GI Arlington Million at Colonial Downs. The "other" Claude McGaughey runner, dispatched at odds of 5-1 compared to favored stablemate Integration (Quality Road), has enjoyed a similar run of success once Alvarado climbed aboard earlier this year. After running fifth beaten 2 1/4 lengths to kick off 2025 in the GI Pegasus...

Nothing Personal (c, 2, Violence--Will She, by Wando) became the 11th 'TDN Rising Star' for Violence after scorching seven furlongs in 1:19.90--just .04 off the track record--at Colonial Downs Saturday afternoon. Off at odds of 4-1 shipping in from trainer Greg Compton's Delaware base, the $135,000 KEESEP yearling turned $270,000 EASMAY juvenile sat the trip in third behind a pair of dueling leaders through fractions of :22.15 and :44.44. He rolled up three deep at the top of the stretch and put on a show from there, winning with authority...

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse needed a very good reason to miss next weekend's prestigious $1-million Listed King's Plate at Woodbine. Actually, he has two of them. Casse will miss Canada's oldest thoroughbred horse race--one has won three times--because he's staying in Saratoga to try and win the $600,000 GI Alabama Stakes for the first time. He will be well represented by La Cara (Street Sense) and Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro) in Saratoga's premier race for 3-year-old fillies. The King's Plate at Woodbine and Alabama are both...

by Stefanie Grimm & Alan Carasso For the first time in it's 24-year history, Virginia's Colonial Downs will play host to a Kentucky Derby winner as 2024 winner Mystik Dan (Goldencents) will make his turf debut in Saturday's 1 1/4-mile GI Arlington Million. Trainer Kenny McPeek has had his eye on the turf for his Derby winner for quite some time, telling the TDN this week that the idea had been on his mind for at least a year. "It was kind of an audible at the line of scrimmage,"...

   In this series, the TDN takes a look at notable successes of European-based sires in North America. This week's column is highlighted by the win of Luther (Frankel) in Saratoga's National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes. Frankel Colt Pens His Name Into The Hall Of Fame Paul Hickman and Nicholas Jones's Luther was put up via the disqualification of Zulu Kingdom (Ten Sovereigns) in the GII National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes at Saratoga on August 1 (video). The Frankel colt is trained by Charlie...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - For now, it looks like Baeza (McKinzie) is going to stay put in California. Trainer John Shirreffs said Wednesday that a cross-country trip to Saratoga and another shot at Sovereignty (Into Mischief) in the $1.25 million GI DraftKings Travers Stakes is unlikely. "I would say there is not a really good chance of doing that," Shirreffs said by phone from his summer base at Del Mar. Shirreffs said the reason for skipping the Aug. 23 Midsummer Derby has everything to do with getting to Saratoga. Baeza...

Jockey Tyler Conner, who was seriously injured in a fall at Colonial Downs July 24, continues to heal but says he's done riding races. In a video update posted to social media, Conner wears a neck brace, explains the complicated nature of his injuries and how he's begun to regain feeling in his arms and legs following the accident. "I broke my C1, compression fractured my T5, bruised my spinal cord which they call 'central cord syndrome'," Conner says in the video. "So I was fully paralyzed for a small...

Even though Nysos (Nyquist) was 1-10 on the board, Saturday's GII San Diego Handicap was a race he didn't have to win. He sprinted in his last two starts and had never been the distance of a mile-and-a-sixteenth. He also has a couple of large gaps in his form, suggesting that trainer Bob Baffert was having a hard time keeping him together. None of that mattered in the San Diego. Flavin Prat, who flew in from Saratoga for the ride, rode a patient race and saved ground into the second...

During the running of the seventh race at Colonial Downs on Thursday, Stanza (Great Notion), who went off at 6-1 for the maiden special weight, clipped heels and unseated jockey Tyler Conner. According to a post on X from Colonial Downs, Conner was conscious and airlifted to Virginia Commonwealth Hospital in Richmond for medical care. "He broke a vertebrae in his neck and broke his nose," agent Paula Bacon told TDN. "But he regained all of his feeling. He may have to have surgery. He's getting an MRI." Bacon was...

   In this series, the TDN takes a look at notable successes of European-based sires in North America. This week's column is highlighted by the win of Navy Seal (Dubawi). Navy Seal Another For Dubawi At Saratoga Fitri Hay's Navy Seal clawed out a nose victory at the Spa for trainer Wesley Ward on July 19 (video). Bred by Coolmore, the gelding was formerly trained by Aidan O'Brien and earned a Galway victory from five Irish starts before signing off his career for the Coolmore partners with a fifth in...

3rd-Colonial Downs, $73,600, Msw, 7-18, 2yo, 6 1/2f, 1:18.46, gd, 6 1/2 lengths. CHANNEL THE MUSIC (c, 2, Maclean's Music--Empress Eleanor, by Empire Maker) finished a closing third on debut over a muddy main track at Monmouth Park June 22. In career start number two, the colt broke alertly, settling just off the speed up the backstretch. Making steady progress around the far turn, the even-money favorite took command at the top of the stretch, kicking away from rivals when called on for his best. Runner-up American Tapit (American Pharoah)...

SARATOGA SPRINGS - The milestone victory came about 530 miles away from Saratoga Race Course, but that wasn't going to stop Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse from celebrating. Casse, 64, won his 4,000th career race when It's Witchcraft (Tapit) won the 11th race at Colonial Downs by a nose in a four-horse photo finish. Casse watched the race and cheered with his wife, Tina, on a television in the clubhouse at Saratoga. He then scrambled to watch the Saratoga sixth race where he saddled 2-year-old filly Charlottesuniverse (Into Mischief),...