In an exhibition of pure sprinting prowess, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum's Battaash (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) brought all his power to bear on his rivals on Friday to register back-to-back successes in Goodwood's G2 King George Qatar S. Despite the contrasting ground conditions to the easy turf he encountered 12 months ago and the obvious questions posed by defeat in the June 19 G1 King's Stand S. at Royal Ascot, the bay attracted heavy support as the 8-11 favourite and was in front before he had raced two...
The 17th edition of the Claiming Crown, held Saturday at Gulfstream Park, generated total handle of $10,118,000--up 0.57% from 2014 despite rainy conditions which caused four races to be taken off the turf. Gulfstream was hosting the event for the fourth year. "We're extremely pleased with the success of Saturday's Claiming Crown," said P.J. Campo, General Manager of Gulfstream Park and Vice President of Racing for The Stronach Group. "We had big fields and tremendous participation from horsemen throughout North America. We're confident the numbers would have been even more...
After a career of always showing up for a piece of the pie, it's finally Skippylongstocking (Exaggerator) who's the talk of the town, and the statesman strolled home to the roar of an appreciative Oaklawn crowd to confidently win the GIII Essex Handicap. The seven-year-old entire has been exclusively in graded stakes company since early April 2022, when he ran third in the GII Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. He never left the ranks after that, and placed at the highest levels every year since--hitting the board in the 2022 GI...
Exaggerator lacked running room for the majority of the race, but persevered in the end to capture the GII Saratoga Special S. at the Spa Sunday afternoon. Exaggerator has two previous West Coast starts under his belt before trying stakes company in New York Sunday. In his debut, Exaggerator was parked at the back of the field at Santa Anita June 5 and registered a mile rally to finish a well-beaten fifth going five panels. The Curlin colt stalked the pace during his second start going six furlongs at Del...