Ground Support

When torrential rain and severe weather forced the third and final under-tack session of last year's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds In Training Sale into a gallop-only, untimed preview, the adjustment was used as an experiment of sorts. How would buyers react to the change and ultimately, how would the horses that galloped at the sale go on to perform on the racetrack? While the sale defied the storm to produce all-time gross, average and median records, three of the top 10 lots and eight of the top 20 were horses...

Two-time Horse of the Year Curlin (Smart Strike) and his champion son Good Magic will stand the 2026 breeding season for $225,000 and $125,000, respectively, at John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa, the Lexington area nursery announced Thursday. Curlin, who turns 22 in 2026, remains the only stallion to have supplied three Breeders' Cup winners on a single program and the only sire to account for four Eclipse Award winners in the same year. Good Magic, who was represented by a quartet of $1-million yearlings in 2025, is the...

She wasn't 100-1 this time and it's doubtful she ever will be again. NBS Stable's Ground Support (f, 2, Army Mule--Arch Support, by Arch), fresh off a 100-1 debut win going a mile at Kentucky Downs Aug. 30, secured her berth in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with a 'Win and You're In' victory in Saturday's GII Miss Grillo Stakes at Belmont at the Big A. "I don't know why they didn't like her at Kentucky Downs," said trainer Kelsey Danner with a laugh. "She does everything right,...

Kelsey Danner probably didn't look at the tote board prior to Thursday's first race at Kentucky Downs. She's not a bettor, she says. But she thought her starter, Repentless (Violence), could run a bit, something the bettors obviously didn't pick up on. They sent the first-time starter off at 25-1. With Adam Beschizza aboard, the colt won by three lengths and paid $52.08. It was not her longest priced winner at the meet. Fellow first-time starter Ground Support (Army Mule) won Saturday's second race for the Danner Stable and paid...