George Krikorian

Well, just take a look at the video--and then show us a horse more eligible for stardom, the year the soccer World Cup comes to America. As a yearling, he would roll a beach ball around his paddock 45 minutes at a time. Using his feet, his nose, arching his body. As a rule, other youngsters on the farm do no more than pick it up with their teeth, shake it. "And that kind of gives you the essence of this colt," Kris Gibbons suggests. "We just want to stop...

STAR ACTRESS (f, 3, Justify--Star Act {SP, $147,605}, by Street Cry {Ire}) was unveiled Feb. 8 at this venue trying a seven-furlong maiden race on the main track, and despite a wide trip, closed ferociously late to claim second by a half-length. Back here as the 3-5 favorite with added real estate to work with, Star Actress went one better while stalking the pace from much closer. Improving her position down the backstretch  to come even with the pacesetter and another challenger by the half-mile marker, she was vying for...

4th-GP, $84K, Msw, 3yo, f, 7f, 1:49 p.m. ET. Star Actress (Justify), a full-sister to champion 2-year-old filly and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies heroine Just F Y I, gets her career started for Hall of Famer Bill Mott. The George Krikorian homebred will exit from post one with Junior Alvarado in the irons. She worked five furlongs from the gate in 1:03 (1/3) at Payson Park Jan. 23. The aforementioned Just F Y I brought $4.5 million from Katsumi Yoshida at the 2025 Fasig-Tipton November sale. TJCIS PPS

by Christina Bossinakis, Alan Carasso & Jessica Martini LEXINGTON, KY - The Fasig-Tipton November Sale, led by the $6.2-million Streak of Luck (Old Fashioned), produced strong results with increases in average and median over its 2024 renewal during its single session Monday in Lexington. "The market was very, very good, but it's still rational," Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning said. "I think that's one of the things that we've seen in recent years during the November sale that there is still a sense of rationality to it. The buyers are demanding....

The mare portion of Monday night's Fasig-Tipton November Sale started with early fireworks as champion Just F Y I (Justify), the 2023 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner, sold for $4.5 million to Shingo Hashimoto for Northern Farm. The bay mare is carrying her first foal to a May 4 cover by six-time leading sire Into Mischief. Sold as Hip 109 from the Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa consignment, Just F Y I is a 4-year-old who also won the 2023 GI Frizette Stakes and is out of SP Star...

Justify was off to a fast start at stud, leading in several black-type categories as well as in winners and wins with his first crop of runners. But it was in year two when the cream really started to rise to the top. That year, in 2023, he sired two Breeders' Cup winners, Hard to Justify in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, and Just F Y I in the Juvenile Fillies. The latter brings a talented resume and a special pedigree to this year's Fasig-Tipton November sale when she sells as...

Friday's GIII Baird Doubledogdare Stakes at Keeneland has all the trappings of a high-level race as a salty group of seven older fillies and mares have assembled to go a mile and a sixteenth on the main track. Made the 8-5 choice on Nick Tammaro's morning-line, Candied (Candy Ride {Arg}) makes her 4-year-old debut for trainer Todd Pletcher. In 2024, the filly finished off the board in only one Grade I race out of the five. She was last seen running third in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff at...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- George Krikorian's dependable War Like Goddess (English Channel) will make her age-matching seventh career Saratoga start Saturday in the GII $500,000 Flower Bowl. War Like Goddess has never been worse than third at Saratoga Race Course. The turf distance specialist won the 1 3/8-mile Flower Bowl in 2021, its last year as a Grade I, and was second by a neck in 2022. Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott did not run her in the race last year. The Flower Bowl will be her third start...

Back on the hamster wheel, everybody. You know the drill. Usual freshman hype, please. Just remember to change the names--and not to dwell too unhelpfully on how things played out for those being talked up four or five years ago. But the legitimate, perennial challenge of the yearling circuit also abides, and likewise much of its color and character. Just not quite all. Not enough time has elapsed, certainly, to heal one aching void. For many of his compatriots, in particular, every barn we enter we still half-expect to hear...

Emily Bushnell and Ric Waldman's Resilience (Into Mischief), most recently sixth behind Mystik Dan (Goldencents) in the GI Kentucky Derby May 4, is under consideration for the June 8 GI Belmont S., trainer Bill Mott told the NYRA media office Friday. The Hall of Famer said a decision would likely come this weekend after the GII Wood Memorial S. winner breezes at Saratoga. "We've got some discussions to have with the owners, but we're giving it strong consideration," Mott said. "We're going to work on the weekend and once he...

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott has plenty to look forward to at next month's Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, with at least five trainees eyeing stakes engagements during the lucrative weekend. Juddmonte homebred Batten Down (Tapit) is the latest addition to the prospective field for the GI Belmont S. with Mott confirming the 10-furlong test is next. "I don't know if he'll get in or not--he's only broken his maiden," said Mott. At fourth asking Apr. 30 at Aqueduct, the full-brother to the Mott-trained MGISP and current sire Tacitus drew...

5th-Turf Paradise, $30,000, Msw, 4-25, 2yo, 5f, :59.17, ft, 1 1/4 lengths. DANCING PORKY (c, 2, Honor A. P.--Morning Dance, by Broken Vow) recorded the first worldwide winner for his Lane's End freshman sire Honor A.P. (by Honor Code), who has 80 foals of racing age to his credit. The juvenile, who debuted at Turf Paradise and finished third Apr. 11, was sent off as the 1-2 choice here. Though the colt started slowly, around the far turn he got into gear. Driving down the lane, Dancing Porky crossed the...