Goodnight Olive

Jay Hanley considers himself lucky to have had more than his fair share of highs in horse racing, but he has also gone through plenty of mishaps, frustrations and heartbreaks. A co-owner of champion Lady Eli (Divine Park), he was there for the ups and downs of the extraordinary mare's career as she fought a seemingly insurmountable battle with laminitis and returned to the top of the sport. Then there is Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper - Salty Strike, Smart Strike), who overcame two setbacks early in her career and went on...

Trainer Chad Brown breezed several Breeders' Cup prospects Saturday at Belmont Park, including Jeff Drown's Zandon (Upstart), who registered his first move since capturing the GII Woodward S. October 1 at Belmont at the Big A. Under overcast skies and temperatures in the 50s, Zandon, who is targeting the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, went a half-mile in 48.87 seconds over the Belmont main track. "He went great, he worked super," Brown said. "His energy level is good coming out of the Woodward. He's doing well and it was just what...

Fasig-Tipton has catalogued 246 main-catalogue entries for The November Sale, the company's selected mixed sale to be held in Lexington, Kentucky on Tuesday, Nov. 7, following the Breeders' Cup. The single-session sale will begin at 2 p.m. "The Fasig-Tipton November Sale annually offers a collection of the world's finest bloodstock," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. "This year's catalogue is once again outstanding, offering 55 graded stakes winners or producers, 26 of which are Grade I." Browning continued: "We have Eclipse Champions, international champions, multiple Breeders' Cup winners, and a Kentucky...

It's a bit of Christmas in August Saturday at venerable Saratoga Race Course, which plays host to no fewer than five Grade I events for horses of all ages--on dirt and on turf--topped by the main event on the summer calendar, the $1.25-million GI Travers S. While the fields are short on numbers, they are long on quality, as three of the races have attracted reigning Eclipse Award winners, none of whom are anything close to a cinch in their respective heats. Champion and 'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence) has...

Texas businessman Craig Singer, a veteran with over four decades in the breeding business, will look to capitalize on recent additions to his broodmare band when he sends three yearlings through the ring at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale next Monday. Through the Taylor Made Sale Agency consignment, a filly by Gun Runner out of Baby Go Far (Brz) (Elusive Quality) will kick off the two-day auction when selling as hip 1. Singer purchased Baby Go Far, with the filly in utero, for $150,000 at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton February sale. Just...

The GII Honorable Miss H. at Saratoga is named after the highly-successful multiple stakes-winning mare from the 1970s. Owned by Edith Bancroft's sons who carried on the family tradition established by their grandfather, William Woodward Sr., the pair founded Pen-Y-Bryn Farm after their own mother's passing. With only four entered, this year's edition is highlighted by the Saratoga return of '21 champion 2-year-old filly and MGISW Echo Zulu (Gun Runner). The Steve Asmussen trainee won her juvenile debut at the Spa when she soared to become a 'TDN Rising Star'...

Last year's champion female sprinter Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper), a luckless third as the heavy favorite in the GI Derby City Distaff S. May 6, stayed out of trouble this time and was along in time for a narrow success in Saturday's GII Bed O' Roses S. at Belmont Park. Drawn on the fence, the 1-4 chalk broke on top and dropped back to caboose the tightly bunched field of five beneath the hot-handed Irad Ortiz, Jr. through an opening quarter in :22.90. Traveling nicely approaching the quarter pole, Goodnight Olive...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- It was a tale of two trips as Godolphin homebred Matareya (Pioneerof the Nile) delivered a one-length victory over Wicked Halo (Gun Runner) in Saturday's GI Derby City Distaff to kick off the graded action on Kentucky Derby day at Churchill Downs. Heavily favored champion female sprinter Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper) was a very unlucky third. Godolphin was victorious with the Brendan Walsh-trained Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief) in Friday's GI Kentucky Oaks. Sheikh Mohammed's operation and Matareya's trainer Brad Cox finished fourth with the Oaks beaten favorite Wet...

Reigning Eclipse Award-winning female sprinter Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper) made light work of four rivals to make a successful return to the races in Saturday's GI Madison S. at Keeneland, the site of her victory in last year's GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. Eased back off an early duel between Yuugiri (Shackleford) and Society (Gun Runner), the prohibitive 1-4 chalk was steered out into the three path to deliver her challenge and made the front under an Irad Ortiz, Jr. hold a good five-sixteenths of a mile from home....

A week after champion and 'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence) solidified his status as the horse to beat on the first Saturday in May, the final round of major GI Kentucky Derby preps offering 100 points to the winner will share the spotlight on an absolutely stacked Saturday afternoon of racing. Forte's Todd Pletcher-trained stablemate and fellow 'Rising Star' Tapit Trice (Tapit), an impossible come-from-behind winner in the GIII Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby Mar. 11, will exit from the rail in a deep renewal of the GI Toyota Blue...

The Kentucky Thoroughbred Association (KTA) and the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders (KTOB) awards dinner Apr. 5 in Lexington named Dreaming of Julia (A.P. Indy), dam of Grade I winner Malathaat (Curlin) and Grade II winner Julia Shining (Curlin), the 2022 Broodmare of the Year. Summer Wind Equine was awarded a bronze mare and foal as the breeder of Flightline (Tapit), who was crowned Champion Kentucky-Bred Horse of the Year and Champion Kentucky-Bred Older Dirt Male. Godolphin received multiple bronzes as the recipient of the P.A.B. Widener Trophy, best known...

Flightline was clearly the star among stars at the Eclipse Awards ceremonies held Jan. 26 in Palm Beach, Florida, but a trio of stallions that call the rustic environs of John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa home stole the show from a sires' perspective, accounting for half of the evening's 10 winners among the Flat divisions. Success at the Eclipse Awards is obviously directly correlated with horse racing on its biggest stages, and the results from the first weekend of November, not far away from Xalapa at Keeneland Race...