journalism

Grade I winners Journalism (Curlin) and Baeza (McKinzie), each among the leading 3-year-old colts of 2025 with GI Breeders' Cup Classic aspirations, drilled Friday morning at Santa Anita in advance of their joint Nov. 1 target. Journalism, who is campaigned by the partnership of Bridlewood Farm, Don Alberto Stable, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Elayne Stables 5 LLC, Robert V. LaPenta, Mrs. John Magnier-Lessee, Derrick Smith-Lessee, and Michael B. Tabor-Lessee, went a half mile in :49. The Michael McCarthy trainee was last seen finishing second to Fierceness (City of Light) in the...

The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF) is rolling out a special fundraising raffle giving racing fans an opportunity to own a shadowboxed halter worn by MGISW Journalism (Curlin) during his 2024-2025 campaign, according to a press release from the non-profit on Friday. Each ticket--priced at $100--offers a direct way to support TRF's mission of dignified lifetime care for nearly 400 retired Thoroughbreds across the country. The raffle, which is limited to 100 tickets, will close Oct. 31. "Every ticket helps us continue our mission of providing dignified lifetime care for the...

Breezing a star like Journalism (Curlin) demands an extra level of concentration. It isn't that the colt is headstrong or unfocused. If anything, he does his job almost too well. "You have to be careful about your fractions because you're thinking that you're going really slowly, but really you're going quick with him," said Tony Gutierrez. "You don't feel when he's touching the ground. He floats." While Marc Witkowski is Journalism's regular exercise rider, Gutierrez has been aboard the talented colt for the majority of his breezes since he was...

GI Santa Anita Derby and GI Preakness Stakes winner Journalism (Curlin) continued to prep for his upcoming start in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic Nov. 1, working a half-mile bullet in company in :47.0 (1/41) Friday at Santa Anita. Journalism shared the bullet for the distance with his workmate, Touch of Destiny (Midshipman), an group-winning import from Uruguay who has not started in the U.S. Of Journalism, trainer Mike McCarthy said "I thought he worked well. It was just an easy half-mile, a leg stretcher." Journalism most recently was second...

"It was great," Steve Shahinian says, thinking back to his show-jumping days. "But it was just a little boring, compared with racing. And I thought racing was something I could figure out." Over 40 years on, how is that project progressing? Shahinian, a man lacking neither humor nor candor, offers a wry look. "I've sort of half-figured it out," he says. A pretty modest verdict, considering his role in the making of one of the best sophomores around. Gosger (Nyquist) again pushed Journalism (Curlin) hard in the GI Haskell Stakes,...

Bi-coastal, 1 1/4-mile Grade I stakes over the weekend at Del Mar and Saratoga featured a number of contenders projected to target the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. The obvious winner was continent-crossing jockey John Velazquez, who parlayed a win in Saturday's GI Pacific Classic into a score 16 hours later in Sunday's GI Jockey Club Gold Cup. Here's a look how the horses who were in action emerged from those efforts and where they stand heading into the championship race. Fierceness: For a colt who has a reputation for sometimes...

The Repole Stable connections have heard it for nearly as long as their star has been racing, that 'TDN Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light) can be blazing hot when he gets his own way and ice cold when he doesn't. Their Eclipse-winning 2-year-old has spent much of his career in a win-loss pattern that left owner Mike Repole and trainer Todd Pletcher scratching their heads. But perhaps Saturday, Fierceness finally laid those demons to rest in exactly the spot he'll need to have them buried come November as he...

'TDN Rising Star' Nysos (Nyquist) has been scratched from Saturday's GI Pacific Classic. "He looked good this morning and, all of a sudden we noticed his hind foot was a little sensitive," said trainer Bob Baffert. "He must have had something brewing in there. It's the way this business is. He will be alright." Baffert said Nysos will be rerouted to the GI Goodwood Stakes (formerly the Awesome Again) at Santa Anita Sept. 27, another 'Win and You're In' race for the GI Breeders Cup Classic. The 4-year-old Baoma Corp-owned...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - All summer long, Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher has fielded questions, seemingly daily, about the two marquee older horses that live in his barn at the Oklahoma Training Track. The goal, Pletcher said, was to keep Fierceness (City of Light) and Mindframe (Constitution) as far apart from each other as possible. On the racetrack that is. Mission accomplished. That weekend is here, and the two 4-year-olds are spending it on opposite ends of the country. Fierceness is in California to run in the GI, $1...

When 'TDN Rising Star' Arabian Knight (Uncle Mo) went wire-to-wire to take out the 2023 GI Pacific Classic, it made trainer Bob Baffert the winningest trainer in the relatively short history of the event with seven winners, surpassing the late Bobby Frankel. The Hall of Fame conditioner will have every chance to extend that record when he sends out fellow 'Rising Star' Nysos (Nyquist) in a compelling renewal of the 10-furlong feature Saturday afternoon, with an all-expenses-paid trip to the GI Breeders' Cup Classic over the same course and distance...

With eight entered for the 35th renewal of Saturday's GI Pacific Classic at Del Mar, a stellar matchup is anticipated with GI Preakness Stakes and GI Haskell Stakes winner Journalism (Curlin) set to take on his elders for the first time. Among those he'll face are 'TDN Rising Star' Nysos (Nyquist), who exited a win in the July 26 GII San Diego Handicap with a five-for-six record, and 'TDN Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light), the 2023 Eclipse champion 2-year-old colt and a triple Grade I winner. The 10-furlong Pacific...

Should we call him The California Kid? It trips off the tongue, certainly. Like The Great Gambino. Or The Iceman. If Journalism's nickname needs more than just a nice phonetic ring to it, then The California Kid seems fitting for a horse who appears to embody the sun- bleached Pacific Coast ideal. The surfer dude, never happier than out on the waves or cracking a beer on the beach, unfazed by all of life's other meaningless clutter. Just ask the horse's tightknit coterie of coaches, fitness gurus, therapists and (unofficial)...