Highland Falls

The initial mares covered by new stallions First Mission (by Street Sense) and Highland Falls (by Curlin) have reported in foal, Darley said via a press release on Tuesday. First Mission enters stud as the fastest freshman stallion to retire at $10,000 or less in the past five years after a racing career that was highlighted by a win in the GII Oaklawn Handicap. By sire of sires Street Sense, he is free of A.P. Indy, which is his sire's best cross. Highland Falls, who took home the GI Jockey...

With Horse of the Year candidate Sovereignty (Into Mischief) recently returned to Bill Mott's winter base at Payson Park in preparation for a 4-year-old campaign, breeders eager to support the three-time Grade I winner will have to wait at least another year. In the meantime, the Darley America stallion team is still plenty occupied with two other millionaire homebreds new to Jonabell Farm for 2026. Sales Manager Darren Fox said that the farm has carved out a competitive position in the market with 'TDN Rising Star presented by Hagyard' First...

GISW Highland Falls (Curlin--Round Pond, by Awesome Again) and MGSW & 'TDN Rising Star', presented by Hagyard First Mission (Street Sense--Elude, by Medaglia d'Oro) will join the Darley America stallion roster with stud fees set at $10,000 each for 2026, according to a press release from Jonabell Farm on Thursday. Darley said that topping the list will be GI Kentucky Derby victor Nyquist (by Uncle Mo)--the sire of ten career GI winners--but his fee will be announced after the Breeders' Cup. Highland Falls, the 2024 GI Jockey Club Gold Cup...

Just how deep is Sunday's running of the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga, a 'Win and You're In' qualifier for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic in a little more than two months' time? Well, six of the eight remaining horses--GII Charles Town Classic winner Banishing (Ghostzapper) will be scratched--have recorded at least one Beyer Speed Figure of 104 or higher this year and three of the entrants are already Grade I winners this term. It is the very definition of a hot race. The field is led by...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - As expected, the field for Saturday's 156th running of the $1.25-million GI Travers Stakes will be a small one. That is because the best 3-year-old in the country, Sovereignty (Into Mischief) is running. Only four others will challenge Godolphin's Sovereignty, who is trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott and ridden by Junior Alvarado. The last time only five horses were entered for the Travers was in 1994 when Holy Bull (Great Above) won. The smallest field in Travers history was two horses and that happened...

Reigning champion 3-year-old colt and 'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone (Gun Runner), second last out in the GI Stephen Foster on June 28 at Churchill Downs, worked a half-mile in :48.80 (52/167) Saturday to the inside of Secured Lender over the Spa main track. The Chad Brown runner is expected to start in next Saturday's GI Whitney Stakes, a 'Win and You're In' race for the GI Breeders' Classic in November at Del Mar. "He worked super. It was just maintenance," Brown said. "He's bounced out of the Stephen Foster...

2nd-Belmont The Big A, $92,000, Alw (C)/Opt. Clm ($100,000), 6-27, 4yo/up, 1m, 1:34.40, ft, 5 1/2 lengths. HIGHLAND FALLS (h, 5, Curlin--Round Pond {MGISW, $1,998,700}, by Awesome Again) was last seen running ninth in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic in a stacked edition of the race, but had come into that contest off a victory two back Sept. 1 in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga. Hammered at the windows here like he could not lose, the 1-5 favorite never gave them any reason to doubt in his...

With Hit Show (Candy Ride {Arg}) already back galloping following his upset victory in the $12-million G1 Dubai World Cup--more on him shortly--trainer Brad Cox will be well-represented by a pair of older horses on Saturday that could make some noise of their own in the handicap division this year. Godolphin homebred and 'TDN Rising Star' First Mission (Street Sense), a fantastic third while launching his 5-year-old season off the bench in the GIII Razorback H. Feb. 23, is the 2-1 program favorite in the $1.25-million GII Oaklawn H. in...

For the fourth consecutive year, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum's Godolphin topped the list of leading individual breeders in North America in 2024, with earnings of $23,205,149. Runners listed as bred by the operation made 1,161 starts for a record of 226 wins, 169 runner-up efforts and 186 thirds. No fewer than 10 Grade I races in North America in 2024 were taken by Godolphin-breds, led by Rebel's Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), who won his second Breeders' Cup Turf in three years and is a finalist for the Male...

The gates are scheduled to open at 9:30 a.m. on Friday. Post time for the first race is 11:35 and the first Breeders' Cup race goes off at 2:45. But long before those bright-eyed Breeders' Cup attendees begin filling the grandstands of Del Mar, the backside will have been awake for hours. For those back in the barns as Breeders' Cup morning dawns, in many ways it's just like any other day. It is the same routine of raking barn aisles, topping off water buckets, checking temps, preparing feed, wrapping...

Nobody should have been to surprised when Tarifa (Bernardini) won Saturday's GII Mother Goose S. at the Belmont at the Big A meet, turning the tables on the favored Gun Song (Gun Runner). The same goes for Saturday's GII Fayette S. at Keeneland, won by the Cox-trained Hit Show (Candy Ride {Arg}). Starting one month ago, on Sept. 27, he's been on a tear, winning 12 of the 17 (70 % percent) stakes races he has entered in. Overall, Cox is 20-for-63 (32%) for the month of October. He ran...

Trainer Chad Brown sent out his two Keeneland-based pre-entrants in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile--'TDN Rising Star' Carl Spackler (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) and Chili Flag (Fr) (Cityscape {GB})--together for a half-mile breeze over the grass in :50.40 (1/3) Saturday morning. According to Keeneland clockers, their final quarter mile went in :22.80. "I thought it was a great work, very straightforward," said jockey Tyler Gaffalione, who rode Carl Spackler to a win in Keeneland's GI Coolmore Turf Mile Stakes Oct. 5. "He's really feeling good out there. He's a...