Horse Racing
8th-Fair Grounds, $47,000, Msw, 11-27, 2yo, 6f, 1:10.15, ft, 3 1/4 lengths. SWIFTSURE (c, 2, Uncle Mo--Island Saint {GSP, $133,860}, by Speightstown) had lit up the Fair Grounds main track in his two most recent morning trials--a bullet five furlongs from the gate in :59 4/5 (1/24) Nov. 13 and five-eighths in 1:00 flat (2/45) a week later--and was no secret at 11-10 to get his career off on a high note. Very alertly into stride, the dark bay colt set a pressured pace down inside from the much more...
6th-Fair Grounds, $47,000, Msw, 11-27, 2yo, f, 1m 70y, 1:45.79, ft, 3 1/2 lengths. SOCIAL DILEMMA (f, 2, Medaglia d'Oro--Singing Kitty {MSW & GSP, $398,478}, by Ministers Wild Cat) was let go at debut odds of 21-5, better than twice her morning line of 2-1, and worked out a good trip beneath Colby Hernandez to graduate at first asking going an extended mile Friday afternoon at the Fair Grounds. Four wide around the first turn, the $575,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga buyback stalked the pace outside and poked her nose in front...
Mrs. Danvers went virtually gate to wire to earn her first stakes success with a dominant score while trying two turns for the first time in the Comely Friday at the Big A. Seizing the early advantage, the gray loped through a :24.30 opening quarter and was confronted by longshot Project Whiskey, who pressed the pacesetter and led between calls through a :48.69 half-mile. That rival burned out quickly and fell to the back as Mrs. Danvers continued strongly on the front end. The Joe Allen homebred opened up in...
Godolphin's Shared Sense (Street Sense), a dual Derby winner this season for champion trainer in-waiting Brad Cox, can complete a highly successful season as the likely favorite in Saturday's GIII Discovery S. at Aqueduct. Runner-up to next-out GII Toyota Blue Grass S. hero Art Collector (Bernardini) in a June 13 Churchill allowance, the homebred ran out a three-length winner of the GIII Indiana Derby July 8 and was done in by a dreadful draw when fifth to Art Collector in the Aug. 9 Runhappy Ellis Park Derby. The bay colt...
Five horses based with powerhouse outfits on the East Coast have shipped into Southern California for Saturday's GI Hollywood Derby and in a cruel twist, they have been allocated the 'visitors' draw' in five of the six widest gates in what will be a field of 12. Trainer Christophe Clement has never won the Derby, but he is double-fisted with a pair of high-quality turf sophomores. Gufo (Declaration of War) has won five of his seven trips to the post, having earned a maiden graded success in the GIII Kent...
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 Hanshin and Tokyo Racecourses. Headquarters plays host to a G1 Japan Cup for the ages with Almond Eye (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}) against undefeated Triple Crown winners Contrail (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) and Daring Tact (Jpn) (Epiphaneia {Jpn}) Sunday, and...
It has been 12 months since Ballydoyle's Magic Wand (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) was just beaten to the wire by Japan's Win Bright (Jpn) (Stay Gold {Jpn}) in the G1 Longines Hong Kong Cup, but that outfit's globetrotting Magical (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) will try to turn the tables as the marquee name among 15 foreign raiders for the Longines Hong Kong International Races at Sha Tin Racecourse Sunday, Dec. 13. No fewer than 17 international Group 1 winners are set to compete. "The Longines Hong Kong International Races is firmly established...
Curlin's Honor (Curlin--Franscat, by Stormin Fever), the $1.5-million topper at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, will enter stud in 2021 at Joe and Helen Barbazon's Pleasant Acres Stallions in Morriston, Florida, for a fee of $2,500. A five-time winner from 17 career starts, Curlin's Honor won the 2018 Woodstock S. over the Woodbine synthetic and the 2019 Artie Schiller S. on the turf at Aqueduct and was placed in no fewer than six times at the graded level, including a third to Pink Lloyd (Old Forester) in...
Courtesy Thoroughbred Idea Foundation Racing needs a long-term plan which will put the sport on a path to raise handle to nearly $50 billion annually with more than $5 billion held by the industry by 2040. Sound optimistic? Falling well short of that goal would still be a monumental accomplishment given we are on track for another year at just $11 billion in handle, and down nearly 50% in the last two decades, adjusted for inflation. So where are the plans from the industry to start thinking long-term about...
Tom's Ready (More Than Ready), a three-time graded-stakes winner around one turn, has been added to the roster at Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Center in Georgetown, Kentucky. The 7-year-old, trained by Dallas Stewart for Gayle and Tom Benson's GMB Racing, was runner-up in the GIII Lecomte S. and GII Louisiana Derby in 2015, but cut back to one turn to win the GII Woody Stephens S. over seven furlongs and the GIII Ack Ack S. going a mile that season. Winner of the GIII Bold Ruler H. in 2016, the...
Take a quick glance at the opening day card at Delta Downs and it might seem like nothing has changed. The fields for Tuesday's races are full, perennial leading trainer Karl Broberg has seven entered and the feature is a $60,000 stakes for Louisiana-breds that has attracted horses from the stables of Tom Amoss and Steve Asmussen. But this will be a meet unlike any other at the track that sits just a few miles east of the Texas-Louisiana border. Delta Downs was directly in the path of Hurricane Laura,...
In an effort to attract out-of-state horses to run at its winter/spring meet, officials at Santa Anita have announced the introduction of the 'Sunshine Bonus.' The bonus offers $3,000 of guaranteed money paid to the owners of eligible horses making their first starts at Santa Anita, excluding stakes races and debuting horses. "Along with the 10% raise in our average daily purse distribution--which now totals $533,000--we're hopeful this new Sunshine Bonus program will help to attract horses that have not run in California over the past 12 months," said Chris...