Karakontie (Jpn)

Using her speed from the outside gate, Roja (Karakontie (Jpn)--Redmeansgo, by Red Ransom) made the lead and never looked back in the GII Intercontinental Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on Thursday afternoon. The win was the first graded victory of her career. In her lone 2026 start, the blazing fast filly hurdled a turf sprint versus optional claimers at Churchill Downs Apr. 29. Her first visit to the winner's circle came when she broke her maiden at third-asking just over a year ago at Laurel Park. Roja was the runner-up...

Lael Stables' She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}--Summer Sweet, by More Than Ready), last season's Eclipse champion turf female, has been retired from racing, according to the DRF Monday. "She had an issue that just was going to take even longer to resolve, and she'd have no time for a campaign," trainer Cherie DeVaux told DRF. "She kept needing more time." Winner of the GI Natalma Stakes at Woodbine at two, she concluded the season with a third-place finish in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita. At...

by George Adams Wasabi Ventures Stables & Stallions continues to upgrade the quality of their breeding stock and the commerciality of the foals that they're producing on their Serendipity Springs Farm. There is a very interesting group of stallions retiring for 2026, and Wasabi has shares in several which we'll be supporting. TICKLE THE IVORIES, 5, Justify-Gagnoa (Ire), by Sadler's Wells. Will be bred to Mindframe. The highest profile of the new stallions with whom Wasabi is involved is the multiple GI winner Mindframe, who retired to Claiborne. He's a...

During Keeneland September last year, bloodstock agent Steve Young signed the ticket to the tune of $150,000 on a dark bay colt bred by Gainesway (hip 1408) for his client Harrell Ventures. Sent to Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher, Sunrise (Karakontie {Jpn}--Spanish Bunny, by Unusual Heat) made his second start a winning one after a gritty battle over the turf in the ninth race at Saratoga on Sunday afternoon. When reached by phone, Young said that in the days leading up to the sale that the colt was high...

A slate of 65 offerings were catalogued for the Inglis Digital USA September Sale, led by a number of runners coming off of successful racetrack performances and the broodmare Earth Shaking (War Front), a half-sister to the dam of GISW Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro), the organization announced via press release. The aforementioned daughter of War Front will be offered not in-foal and ready for mating. All five of Earth Shaking's foals to make the races have gotten their picture taken. Another of the broodmare offerings is Jill's a Hot Mess (Laoban),...

8th-SAR, $100K, Msw, 2yo, f, 1 1/16mT, 4:28 p.m. ET. From the same Cherie DeVaux shedrow as her older half-sister MGISW She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}), SHE FEELS STUNNING (American Pharoah) is unveiled for Lael who owns both fillies. The first-time starter was acquired by the stables for $650,000 during Keeneland September. Dam Summer Sweet (More Than Ready) is herself out of French stakes winner Summer Solstice (Ire) (Caerleon), who is also responsible for SW Adirondack Summer (Thunder Gulch), SW Summer Breezing (Langfuhr) and GISP Summer Solo (Arch)--the dam of...

The GI Dunkin' Diana Stakes continues, as it has for nine of the last ten years, to run through the Chad Brown barn as Excellent Truth (Ire) (Cotai Glory {GB}) just edged out favorite She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}) in a stretch duel to take the opening Grade I of the Saratoga summer meet. While eyes and wagering dollars were on Cherie DeVaux's She Feels Pretty, Brown wielded a strong hand in stablemates Excellent Truth and Dynamic Pricing (Ire) (Night of Thunder {Ire}), the one-two finishers in the GI Just...

When he succumbed to colic in October 2011, aged just 14, there was a poignant sense that Bernstein had never quite lived up to his glamorous billing. He was a celebrity even as an embryo, carried through the Keeneland ring at the 1996 November Sale by a $1.9 million mare--La Affirmed (Affirmed), the second most expensive broodmare auctioned in America that year--as a full-sibling to two graded stakes winners by Storm Cat. On his safe delivery, his dam's purchasers at Brushwood Farm sent Bernstein back the following November to defray...

Trainer Cherie DeVaux achieved Saturday what many trainers work a lifetime to attain when taking Keeneland's GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup with Lael Stables' She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}). After having a day to digest the watershed moment, she summed up the experience succinctly. "Awesome ... amazing." According to DeVaux, a couple of changes factored in the filly's second Grade I win and DeVaux's first at the Lexington oval. "We expected her to run a good race," DeVaux said. "She was training well... she always trains well. She has...

5th-CD, $120k, Msw, 3yo/up, f, 1mT, 2:45p.m. ET MIXOLOGIST (Frosted) will break from the middle of the field in this maiden on the grass, and the LNJ Foxwoods color bearer has big shoes to fill as the half-sister to Australian multiple Group 1-placed Princess Grace (Karakontie {Jpn}). Said sister was a three-time graded winner and three-times Grade I-placed in the States before changing hands for $1.7-million in 2022 at FTKNOV to China Horse Club and being exported to Australia. She twice came a neck short of winning her first race...

She Feels Pretty, who took last year's GI Natalma S. at Woodbine before finishing third beaten just a half-length by Hard to Justify (Justify) as the favorite in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, returned to the races Friday with authority in the Hilltop S. at Pimlico. Bet down to 3-5 even off the layoff, the Lael Stables-owned filly--contesting her third straight one-mile race under John Velazquez--broke towards the outside and was happy to sit back off the early pace, letting Roanan Goddess (Leofric) handle the tempo from the...

Two turns? It turns out there's no problem. When Timberlake (c, 3, Into Mischief--Pin Up {Ire}, by Lookin At Lucky) finished a somewhat rank, then flat, fourth in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile last November, questions swirled about his ability to get two turns. Trainer Brad Cox brushed the questions aside and let the horse do the talking. A freshened Timberlake, making his first start of the year in Oaklawn's GII Rebel S. Saturday, captured the $1.3-million race by a resounding two lengths over Kenny McPeek trainees Common Defense (Karakontie...