Gun Runner

4th-CD, $120K, Msw, 3yo/up, f&m, 7f, 2:00 p.m. ET. Juddmonte homebred COUPLET (Gun Runner) heads to the post with some strong drills under her belt in Louisville for trainer Michael McCarthy. The farm acquired the first-time starter's dam, Canadian champion 2-year-old & GISW Spring in the Air (Spring At Last), for $1.65-million during the 2015 Keeneland November sale. Couplet's extended female family includes GI Spinaway Stakes winner Sweet Loretta (Tapit) and GSW Nafisa (Quality Road). TJCIS PPS 2nd-CD, $134K, OC80K/N2X, 3yo/up, 1m, 1:00 p.m. ET. A $300,000 2024 Keeneland September...

TDN's Chief Correspondent Bill Finley is joined by Senior Contributing Editor Alan Carasso and Senior Racing Editor Steve Sherack to handicap Saturday's GI Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. FINLEY: The Puma (Essential Quality) is Mage (Good Magic) 2.0. From the same team that won the GI Kentucky Derby in 2023 with Mage, The Puma is following the exact same pattern. He finished an improved second in the GI Curlin Florida Derby and now looks ready to take another step forward, one that can land him in the winner's circle Saturday...

8th-OP, 110K, Msw, 3yo, f, 1 1/16m, 5:32 p.m. Windancer Farm went to $1.05 million to acquire SKYFORGE (Gun Runner), the full-sister to MGISW and young sire Cyberknife, at the 2024 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Dam Awesome Flower, herself an earner of over $556k on track, sold for $1.6 million at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale in 2022 with Skyforge in utero. She's also responsible for another stakes horse in Bath House Row runner up Tapit Shoes (Tapit). Steve Asmussen will leg up son Erik for the debut. TJCIS PPS

With a namesake from Old Norse mythology, valkyries being a group of maidens in service to Odin who guided the worthy to Valhalla, it was fitting that Valkyrie (Early Voting) fought the good fight on the front end to strike at first asking at Churchill Downs. Her graduation served dually as a coming out party for freshman sire Early Voting as she is his first starter and first winner. Given 7-1 odds for this jump, and with the heavy 7-5 favorite Cardio Cat (Catalina Cruiser) eyeballing her in the gate...

Renegade (Into Mischief), a spectacular, come-from-behind winner for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher in the GI Arkansas Derby, was tabbed as the 4-1 morning-line favorite despite drawing the rail in a field of 20 set for next Saturday's GI Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. Irad Ortiz, Jr. rides. Renegade, a $975,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase, is campaigned in partnership by Repole Stable and breeders Robert and Lawana Low. Pletcher has won the Kentucky Derby twice with Super Saver (2010) and Always Dreaming (2017). The last horse to win the...

[tdn-newsletter-embed]Three Chimneys Farm's GUN RANGE (c, 3, Gun Runner--Bella Carina, by War Front) went up to the leading duo three abreast at the midstretch marker and kicked home to score by five convincing lengths, giving trainer Wesley Ward his 300th training victory at Keeneland. He is just the third to accomplish that particular feat, joining Bill Mott and Rusty Arnold. "This is such a special place," Ward told FanDuel TV. "When I came here 19 years ago, I knew this was a place for me. It's such a wonderful, wonderful...

3rd-GP, $68k, Msw, 3yo/up, f/m, 7f, 1:54 p.m. ET Godolphin homebred Delightfully (Tapit), a full-sister to two-time champion and promising young sire Essential Quality, kicks off her career for Brad Cox. She is the 8-5 morning-line favorite. Cox will also saddle second-time starter Nahla (Authentic), a half-sister to GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. winner Skippylongstocking (Exaggerator). The Shadwell Stable colorbearer and $550,000 KEESEP yearling finished second on debut going two turns at Tampa Feb. 28. TJCIS PPs 6th-KEE, $110k, Msw, 3yo, f, 6f, 3:40 p.m. ET The rail-drawn Mashallah...

The Flightline colt who sold for a record-setting $10.5 million at the OBS Spring sale Friday arrived at the Southern California barn of trainer Bob Baffert Saturday night shortly before 9 p.m. "He's a specimen," Baffert said Sunday morning. "A man among boys really. And with his pedigree, you know why he cost so much." Bloodstock agent Donato Lanni signed the sales ticket for the colt on behalf of Amr Zedan's Zedan Racing. The purchase price shattered the all-time OBS record of $3 million, which Zedan paid for Grade I...

Spring Classic preparations kicked off bright and early Saturday morning at Keeneland with GI Toyota Blue Grass runner-up Ottinho (Quality Road) working in company for trainer Chad Brown despite being ruled out of the Kentucky Derby. Ottinho had been in consideration for the Derby but DRF's David Grening reported Saturday afternoon on X that Brown believed it was 'unlikely' the colt would go on to the spring marquee. The GI Preakness Stakes at Laurel May 16 or the GIII Peter Pan Stakes remain as targets later on. With his defection,...

It truly is spring in Kentucky when the penultimate preps for the marquee event in May start rolling out, and so was the story Saturday morning as Albus (Yaupon) and Right to Party (Constitution) led the work tab for GI Kentucky Derby hopefuls at Churchill Downs. The top two from last month's GII Wood Memorial Stakes both went out Saturday morning with winner Albus spotted first for trainer Riey Mott. He breezed four panels in :49 flat (35/65) for his first move over the track since arriving at the venue...

Fasig-Tipton has catalogued 143 offerings for its April Digital Sale, which includes a pair of broodmares closely related to Derby and Oaks contenders. Bidding is now open through Tuesday, Apr. 21, when the online event begins to close at 2 p.m. ET., the auction company said in a press release on Thursday. "With more than 140 catalogued, up more than a third from last year's catalogue, the April Digital Sale catalogue shows the continued strength and popularity of our digital platform," Fasig-Tipton Director of Digital Sales Leif Aaron said. "Offerings...

Will Stroud, Andrew Farm, Mountmellick Farm and For the People Racing Stable's Life of Joy (Gun Runner) will miss the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks due to a minor setback, according to a post on X by Churchill Downs' communications team on Tuesday. Winner of the Mar. 21 GII Fair Ground Oaks, the bay will be pointed toward a fall campaign, according to trainer Brad Cox. A 14 3/4-length winner in her career debut at Horseshoe Indianapolis in the fall of her juvenile season, she added a score in the Rags to...