Today's Edition:  Record-Setting $1.4M Justify Filly Leads The Way at OBS · Baeza Set for Summer Showdown · Royal Ascot Coverage 2

Horse Racing

Coolmore's Wootton Bassett
Sunday's Racing Insights: Homebreds Debut At Gulfstream, Reigning King's Plate Winner Returns

2nd-GP, $89K, Msw, 3yo, f, 1mT, 12:39 p.m. ET. SF Racing's MONT SAINT MICHEL (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) makes her inaugural voyage for Brendan Walsh after she started her work regimen at Turfway in early December and then moved to Palm Meadows. The homebred is out of SP Black Dahlia (GB) (Dansili {GB}), who is also responsible for third place GI Breeders' Cup Mile runner Lope Y Fernandez (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}). Also making the post is Alpha Delta homebred Highland Light (Uncle Mo) for trainer Chad Brown. The...

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Oklahoma Training Track To Open Apr. 18

The Oklahoma Training Track at Saratoga Race Course will open Thursday, Apr. 18, officials at the New York Racing Association (NYRA), with the barn area opening to licensed trainers and staff from Monday, Apr. 15. As Saratoga prepares to host the 2024 Belmont Stakes Fesitval June 6-9, the main track will open one month earlier than customary on Monday, May 6. Due to the ongoing construction at Belmont Park, there will be significant changes to the usual NYRA training schedule. The Belmont main track will remain closed for training through...

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Fifty Months And Twenty Races Later, Storm The Court Looking To Get Back To Winner's Circle

Even though he won the 2019 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile, no one was ready to declare that Storm the Court (Court Vision) was a star in the making.  After all, he was 45-1 that day at Santa Anita and the field for that year's Juvenile was one of the weakest in the history of the race.  But nobody could have predicted what was to become for that year's 2-year-old male champion, an epic losing streak that has lasted now for more than four years and 20 races. Storm the Court...

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Lucky Sweynesse Looks To Bounce Back in QSJC

Having endured a sub-optimal trip when only sixth to Victor the Winner (Aus) (Toronado {Ire}) in defence of his crown in the G1 Centenary Sprint Cup Jan. 26--not to mention some post-race veterinary issues--reigning champion sprinter Lucky Sweynesse (NZ) (Sweynesse {Aus}) will look to atone for that effort in Sunday's G1 Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup, a race he also took out 12 months ago. The 5-year-old, victorious in the G1 Longines Hong Kong Sprint in December, was found to be lame in his right fore the morning after the Centenary...

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Glen Hill Farm Family On Display At Chukyo

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 Chukyo and Hanshin Racecourses: Sunday, March 10, 2024 3rd-CKO, ¥10,400,000 ($71k), Maiden, 3yo, 1400mT KAFUJI NIHONIUM (c, 3, Kitten's Joy--Broken Dreams, by Broken Vow) represents six generations of Glen Hill Farm breeding and is out of a Grade III-winning dam...

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Laurel River To Test 10-Furlong Waters In Dubai World Cup

Juddmonte Farms' recent G3 Burj Nahaar romper Laurel River (Into Mischief) will bypass the Mar. 30 G2 Godolphin Mile and will instead stretch out to 10 furlongs for the first time in the G1 Dubai World Cup, Garett O'Rourke, the manager of Juddmonte's American operation, told the TDN Thursday morning. "It's worth a try. There's $12 million reasons to do it," he said. The homebred winner of the seven-furlong GII Pat O'Brien S. when under the care of Bob Baffert in 2022, Laurel River was favored in many circles for...

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Light Up Racing Aims To Change Industry Narrative

If the crowd at Light Up Racing's first community event in Lexington, held Feb. 26 at Fasig-Tipton, was any indication of the support behind the industry's new grassroots initiative, the number of attendees at their second event held Tuesday, Mar. 5 at Keeneland only solidified that. Over 300 people, spanning across all aspects of the Thoroughbred industry, gathered in Keeneland's Limestone Café to learn about how their own voices and platforms can be used to collectively transform negative opinions about racing into positive messaging through accurate information, transparency, authenticity and...

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ARCI Meeting To Tackle Evolving, Unsettled Issues In Racing

Edited Press Release The Annual Meeting of the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) convened Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio, in the midst of an evolving regulatory structure for Thoroughbred racing and great uncertainty for what the future may hold. Outgoing Chair Tom Sage, the retiring Executive Director of the Nebraska Racing and Gaming Commission, gaveled the meeting to order saying, "One thing is certain, change is inevitable.   Whether the change is good or not so good, we shall see.  Regardless, the agencies that regulate this sport will adapt and continue...

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Sibelius Preps For Golden Shaheen Defense At Palm Meadows

Jun Park and Delia Nash's Sibelius (Not This Time) breezed a half-mile in an easy :49 flat at Palm Meadows the morning of Mar. 5 as he builds up to a defense of his title in the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen at Meydan Racecourse Mar. 30. Trainer Jeremiah O'Dwyer was in the irons for the move aboard the 6-year-old, who--like last year--enters the Golden Shaheen after winning the GIII Mr. Prospector S. at Gulfstream Dec. 23 and the Feb. 10 Pelican S. at Tampa Bay Downs. "He went very well...

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Japanese DWC Night Team Continues To Grow

An already stiff Japanese challenge for the Dubai World Cup programme at Meydan on March 30 was further fortified on Wednesday when it was announced that the Mikio Matsunaga-trained duo of Matenro Sky (Jpn) (Maurice {Jpn}), upset winner of the G2 Nakayama Kinen, and the three-year-old colt Ballon d'Or (Jpn) (New Year's Day) have accepted invitations to the G1 Dubai Turf and G2 UAE Derby, respectively. Netkeiba was first to report the news. The five-year-old Matenro Sky broke through at the stakes level in the Listed Rigel S. going a...

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Investigators Tradecraft Displayed On Day One At Parx Conference

With a strong first day program which ran the gambit from the centrality of horse racing's societal license to the destructive use of xylazine to an update from the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit, horse racing investigators at the annual Organization of Racing Investigators were immersed in some of the most pressing issues affecting the sport. Hosted by Parx Racing and sponsored by everyone from Keeneland to the Breeders' Cup, over 100 specialists who protect racetracks in America and several other countries, listened, asked questions and made connections, all in...

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Helios Express Leaves It Late In Hong Kong Classic Cup

Sent away as the $16.50 (65-100) jolly to add Sunday's HK$13-million Hong Kong Classic Cup to last month's Hong Kong Classic Mile, top-rated Helios Express (Aus) (Toronado {Ire}) managed to work his way out of a jackpot with 200 metres to travel and flashed home to touch off an extremely game Chancheng Glory (Mor Spirit) by a short head Sunday afternoon at Sha Tin Racecourse. He can join the likes of the late Rapper Dragon (Aus) (Street Boss) and Golden Sixty (Aus) (Medaglia d'Oro) as Triple Crown winners should he...

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