Eclipse Award

Eclipse Award-winning jockey Axel Concepcion, who was named top apprentice in 2023, will return to the Mid Atlantic and make his first appearance at Colonial Downs this summer as the 20-year-old has joined the local riding colony for the 2025 summer session. "It feels great to be here," Concepcion said. "I want to take advantage of these opportunities that the trainers are giving me. My goal is to win as many races as I can and to try to win a title." No stranger to the Mid Atlantic circuit, Concepcion...

Flavien Prat, the reigning Eclipse Award-winner as Outstanding Jockey, earned his first riding title at a New York Racing Association meet when posting 43 wins at the Belmont at the Big A spring/summer meet which ran from May 1 through July 6. Statistics for the Belmont at the Big A spring/summer meet include the five-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival and four-day July 4th Racing Festival, both of which were held at Saratoga Race Course. Prat, a 32-year-old native of Melun, Siene-et-Marne, France, enjoyed a major milestone at the meet when...

Those who have been following racing for, oh, 10 years or less, they may not quite understand the impact Wayne Lukas had on horse racing or how much he changed what it meant to be a successful horse trainer. The Wayne Lukas who was still training when his 90th birthday was just around the corner transformed into your favorite uncle or grandfather. He became the sport's elder statesman. There was a sweet and gentle side to the man that everyone started calling "Coach" because he was once a high school...

Old Friends has welcomed 2015 Eclipse Award Champion Grass Horse Big Blue Kitten (Kitten's Joy) to the farm on Thursday, Apr. 24, according . The 17-year old stallion was donated to Old Friends courtesy of Calumet Farm. "We are so excited to welcome this robust, battle tested late bloomer to Old Friends," said President and CEO of Old Friends John Nicholson. "His accomplished career, his impressive connections and his pleasant demeanor will make him a favorite with our thousands of visitors. We are deeply grateful to Calumet Farm for allowing...

Eclipse Award-winning sprinter Straight No Chaser (Speightster--Margarita Friday, by Johannesburg) will stand at WinStar Farm upon his retirement, the farm announced Friday. After beginning his year with a win in the G2 Riyadh Dirt Sprint in Saudi Arabia in February, the Dan Blacker trainee is entered in next Saturday's G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen at Meydan on Dubai World Cup Day. "Acquiring the breeding rights to Straight No Chaser ensures that we will retire the fastest horse in the world two years in a row, following Cogburn this season," said WinStar...

Dan Piazza, a financial advisor from Chicago, won the 26th NTRA National Horseplayers Championship at the Horseshoe Las Vegas held from March 14-16, and took home $825,000, an Eclipse Award as 2025 Horseplayer of the Year and earned a return trip to next year's NHC, according to a press release late Sunday from the NTRA. Sticking to his strategy throughout the contest, Piazza prevailed by amassing a mythical bankroll of $356.52. "I didn't try to do anything different and didn't get me out of my comfort zone," he said. "That...

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...

The GI Breeders' Cup NetJets Juvenile Fillies winner and leading candidate for Eclipse 2-year-old filly honors, Immersive (Nyquist--Gap Year, by Bernardini), will be given some time off due to bone bruising, according to a Thursday post on Godolphin's website. The homebred and Brad Cox trainee--who also won the GI Spinaway Stakes and GI Darley Alcibiades Stakes--will likely be off until summer. Godolphin's Director of Bloodstock, Michael Banahan, said, "Brad [Cox] wasn't happy with the way she was moving so she came home for diagnostics that confirmed the issue. While obviously...

Stuart S. Janney, III, will step down from his position as chair of The Jockey Club, effective August 2025, the organization announced Tuesday morning. On Janney's recommendation, the board of stewards has chosen Everett Dobson to be his successor. The leadership transition will commence over the coming months, and Janney will remain on the board of stewards through his term, which will end in August 2026. Janney, a prominent Thoroughbred owner and breeder for several decades, was elected vice chair of The Jockey Club in 2010 and became chair in...

Breeders' Cup-winning owner Frank Calabrese, who took home 10 consecutive leading owner titles at Arlington Park starting in 2000 and bred late sire Fast Anna, passed away on his 96th birthday, Monday, Nov. 4 at his home in Park Ridge, Illinois. A pioneer in the printing, Calabrese founded FCL Graphics in 1973 and sold the business in 2004. The avid horseplayer ran under FCC stables and paired primarily with trainer Wayne Catalano. With homebred Dreaming of Anna (Rahy), the duo won the 2006 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Woodbine,...

OCEANPORT, NJ-On paper, it appeared that a single horse, Idiomatic (Curlin), couldn't be beaten. That was until they ran Monmouth Park's GIII Molly Pitcher Stakes. Sent off the searing 1-9 choice in the scratched reduced field of five, the 2023 champion older mare stumbled a hair coming out of stall 6 as Kathleen O (Upstart) faced a much more dramatic misstep exiting the gate. While the latter was rushed into contention along the inside, the champion cruised effortlessly to the lead, doling out an opening quarter in a poky :25.57....

Drayden Van Dyke was quick out of the gate in his first weekend of riding at Gulfstream Park, finding the winner's circle on five of nine mounts, all of whom are trained by Saffie Joseph Jr. The 29-year-old jockey, who switched his tack from Santa Anita for a 30-day trial run at Gulfstream, won aboard his only mount Friday before winning on two of four mounts Saturday. Sunday, he won with Novo Sol in the second race and with Practically Dark in the eighth. Van Dyke earned the Eclipse Award...