Horse Racing
His contentious prohibition from Churchill penalizes many others besides Bob Baffert and his loyal patrons. A shot at the GI Kentucky Derby, once-in-a-lifetime for most, is also being denied to everyone else with a stake in his horses' development, from those on duty at the foaling shed to the pre-trainer to the feed company. And, of course, there's nothing like a Derby winner to market a stallion. As things have turned out, a setback means that Nyquist would have lost the services of Nysos even had he moved to another...
Godolphin homebred Encino (Nyquist) took to dirt with aplomb, delivering a 3/4-length, wire-to-wire victory over favored The Wine Steward (Vino Rosso) in Saturday's GIII Stonestreet Lexington S. at Keeneland. With the win, good for 20 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby, Encino is currently ranked 21st on the leaderboard with 40 points. "Ultimately (whether he starts in the Kentucky Derby) will be up to the Godolphin team--Dan Pride, Michael Banahan, Sheikh Mohammed--and if it's something they want to do, we'll prepare him," winning trainer Brad Cox said. "We'll...
3rd-GP, $60k, Msw, 3yo, f, 6f, post time: 2:14 p.m. ET In the name of her Whisper Hill Farm, Mandy Pope went to $1.3 million for a son of Tapit out of MSW & GSP Danzatrice (Dunkirk) at the 2021 Keeneland September, and that looked like money well spent when Tapit Trice went on to a victory in the 2023 GI Toyota Blue Grass S. while placing in the GI Belmont S. and GI Travers S. Pope was so enamored of her purchase that she went back to the well...
Ready for Shirl (More Than Ready), a daughter of GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf upsetter Perfect Shirl (Perfect Soul {Ire}) from a wildly productive female family beautifully nurtured over the last 20 years by Charles Fipke and his team, jumped at odds of nearly 8-1 in a two-turn maiden over the Keeneland turf course Saturday afternoon. 8-1? 'Shirl'-y you must be joking, but the March-foaled bay rewarded her backers in becoming the second 'TDN Rising Star' out of the mare and the fourth from the first two dams...
After a long lifetime marked by notable wins on the racetrack and in the business world, prominent owner-breeder, entrepreneur and philanthropist Marty Wygod has passed away aged 84. "I have so many good memories of Marty Wygod. I was telling Emily [Bushnell, Wygod's daughter] this morning, one of my favorite things about Marty was he had a great sense of humor," said trainer John Shirreffs, who conditioned some of Wygod's heaviest hitters on the track. Wygod, said Shirreffs, was also something of a prankster. "The first time I met him...
Making his fourth straight appearance on the North American continent, Godolphin's Master Of The Seas (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) overcame easy underfoot conditions and five other rivals to add Friday's GI Maker's Mark Mile to his previous victories in the GI Ricoh Woodbine Mile and GI Breeders' Cup Mile when last seen at Santa Anita last November. Naval Power (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), conversely racing for the first time on these shores, completed the exacta for the 'Boys In Blue.' Sent off at 77 cents on the dollar while making his 6-year-old...
On April 22-23 Light Up Racing will launch its Media & Content Cohort Training Program in Lexington, Kentucky, which aims to improve the narrative of horse racing and empower changemakers by teaching skills to better promote the sport, the organization said in a release Friday. Light Up Racing is assembling approximately 20 individuals from every aspect of the horse racing industry, across all demographics, united by their passion for positive change over two days of training. "Our goal is to empower each participant with the confidence to share their stories...
Wynonna Judd will perform the National Anthem at this year's Kentucky Derby, while Martha Stewart will handle the 'Riders Up' announcing duties, Churchill Downs said via a press release early Friday morning. Judd, a Kentucky native, will take the mic just after 5 p.m. ET and her performance will be broadcast as part of NBC's Derby coverage. "I am so proud to represent my home state, taking part in one of the most storied and iconic traditions," Wynonna Judd said. "The Kentucky Derby is something I look forward to every...
War Chant (Danzig), the winner of the 2000 GI Breeders' Cup Mile at Churchill Downs, passed away on Thursday, Apr. 11. Housed at Yarradale Stud in Western Australia, the 27-year-old stallion succumbed to old age at the Gidgegannup nursery that he had called home for over a decade, the breeder said in a Thursday release. War Chant was bred and raced by Marge and Irving Cowan, and trained by Neil Drysdale. Out of MGISW Hollywood Wildcat (Kris S.), the homebred finished ninth in the GI Kentucky Derby and ended his...
In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for this weekend running at Fukushima, Nakayama and Hanshin Racecourses. The colts' Classics kick off Sunday at Nakayama in the G1 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas), with champion Jantar Mantar (Jpn) (Palace Malice) squaring off against Sottsass's sales-topping full-brother Shin Emperor (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) from...
2nd-Keeneland, $79,675, Msw, 4-11, 2yo, f, 4 1/2f, :52.86, sy, 4 3/4 lengths. PERFECT SHANCES (f, 2, Shancelot--American Baby, by Bayern) became her freshman sire's first to get her picture taken. The bay took most of the action at the windows as she went off as the 1-2 favorite after drilling regularly at three furlongs over the course of March and into this month. As she battled sheets of rain, the filly made the front and moved to the rail around the far turn. The homebred straightened in control for...
Every week, the TDN posts a roundup of the relevant Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) related rulings from around the country. Among this week's rulings, trainer Lorenzo Ruiz was issued a combined 7-year suspension and charged a total of $95,000 in fines for three separate post-race positives for Diisopropylamine, a banned substance under HISA. The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) classifies Diisopropylamine as a vasodilator, which is a substance that dilates the blood vessels to allow blood to flow more freely through them. Diisopropylamine is also found in...