GI Beholder Mile

Vodka Vodka (Stay Thirsty) and his younger half-sister Om N Joy (Om) are both on target for Grade I assignments on Mar. 7 at Santa Anita after each worked five furlongs at Santa Anita Sunday morning. Trained by Aggie Ordonez, Vodka Vodka and Om N Joy each worked with Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux aboard. Winner of the Unusual Heat Turf Classic at Santa Anita on Jan. 17, Vodka Vodka completed the task in 1:00.20. He is slated to run in the GI Santa Anita Handicap. "He's doing so...

Vodka Vodka (Stay Thirsty), winner of Saturday's Unusual Heat Turf Classic, exited his first stakes win in good form, according to trainer Aggie Ordonez Sunday morning. "He ate all his dinner last night, his legs are cold and tight this morning," she added. Vodka Vodka won the 1 1/8-mile Turf Classic by a half-length under Hall of Famer Kent Desormeaux. In his only previous stakes try, which came on Opening Day of the Classic Meet, Vodka Vodka finished fourth on dirt in GII Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes. Bred by co-owners...

GISW Sweet Azteca (Sharp Azteca), now in the barn of trainer Richard Baltas, was out Saturday morning to post her second workout at the Great Race Place as she continues progressing toward a racing return. Gone since finishing fourth in the GIII Chillingworth Stakes for trainer Michael McCarthy, the grey worked five furlongs in 1:00 flat after going four furlongs last Saturday Apr. 19 in :47.60. The GI Beholder Mile victress was spotted back in mid-March when she resurfaced at San Luis Rey Training Center with a three-furlong breeze as...

Quite a few horses have lately nourished the illusion that we might, collectively, actually know what we're doing. Sierra Leone (Gun Runner), for instance, is threatening to make sense of the second-highest price paid for an American yearling in 2022; while Newgate (Into Mischief) is steadily working off a $850,000 debt of his own, while similarly bringing closer the real payday at stud. But last weekend we were given yet another reminder of the genetic powder-keg lit by a mating strategy that can only have prompted a supercilious smile in...