Keeneland

The under-tack show for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, delayed a day by weather and beset by a strong and persistent headwind when it opened Thursday, nonetheless got off to a fast start when the first horse on track, a colt by Charlatan (hip 176), worked a furlong in :9 4/5. Just a few minutes later, a son of another freshman sire, Maxfield (hip 119), equaled that time and the trio of bullet workers on the day was completed later in the first set...

It was a busy weekend with GI Kentucky Oaks preps being run at Santa Anita, Aqueduct and Gulfstream. None of the winners did enough to crack the top four, but they all have a license to improve. We've dropped the bottom three from last week's list--Running Away (Gun Runner), Runnin N Gunnin (Gun Runner) and White Rocks (Frosted)--and replaced them with horses who appear to have more potential. It will be a quiet week as there is not a single stakes race for 3-year-old fillies that will be run this...

Lexington, KY--The final day of the Organization of Racing Investigators (ORI) Training Conference at Keeneland escalated the focus on enforcement and how investigators can broaden their expertise. Though participants regularly receive training at home, the ORI sessions offer equine knowledge that is highly specialized which can be taken back to their own jurisdictions and applied. Mike Singletary, vice president of security for the Maryland Jockey Club, said when his team walks the shedrow at Pimlico or Laurel being cognizant of your surroundings takes time and effort to hone. "Information is...

Though one of his daughters lost the services of Magnitude (Not This Time) straight after his GII Risen Star romp, and another must send Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie) in from the cold this weekend, once again last Saturday the extraordinary distaff influence of Bernardini loomed behind the big Derby rehearsals on either coast. True, the winners of both the GII Coolmore Fountain of Youth Stakes and GII San Felipe Stakes were first and foremost repaying a seven-figure investment in their respective dams--each clearly having much else going for them. But the...

Lexington, KY - With a view overlooking the massive renovation of the Keeneland paddock, professional equine investigators soaked up the latest techniques in the trade and engaged some of the most pressing issues across racing during the first day of the 29th annual Organization of Racing Investigators (ORI) Training Conference on Monday. The ORI is a member organization which is composed of investigators who hail from jurisdictions across the U.S. and includes an international cadre as well. The conference's purpose is to create a resource where these shoe leather detectives...

When the under-tack show for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale begins Wednesday, harkening the opening of the juvenile sales season, it will find the Hidden Brook Farm team hard at work to locate the newest prospects for its racing partnership. Among the gems the team has uncovered in Ocala in recent years are Hidden Connection (Connect) and Nay Lady Nay (Ire) (No Nay Never). Both enjoyed graded success on the racetrack before attracting seven-figure price tags when reoffered at auction at the conclusion of their...

Fifty years ago this spring John Magnier moved into Coolmore Stud ahead of the now infamous and audacious annual raids on the Kentucky yearling market. At the Keeneland July Select Sale of 1975, Magnier, along with the esteemed trainer Vincent O'Brien and key ally Robert Sangster, started their recruitment drive of what O'Brien described as "baby stallions".  In his biography, O'Brien stated, "We would try and turn the tide: we would organise a syndicate to buy yearlings which I would train, and from which we could make our own stallions."...

Watch out for the "Little Guy." Sold for just $70,000 at a yearling sale in Texas, owned by a grocery store owner from Alabama who has had just a few horses and trained by a veteran who had never won a graded stakes race before last weekend, Coal Battle (Coal Front) isn't exactly your typical GI Kentucky Derby horse. But the son Coal Front did it again last week, winning the GII Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn. Having also won the Smarty Jones Stakes, he is obviously for real. To talk...

Keeneland's 101st running of the $1.25 million GI Toyota Blue Grass on Saturday, Apr. 5 has attracted 133 nominees, including champion Citizen Bull (Into Mischief), according to a release on Thursday from the track. With a $250,000 purse increase this year, the Blue Grass joins the GI Coolmore Turf Mile as Keeneland's two $1.25 million races, which are the richest in track history. The Turf Mile reached that level during the 2024 Fall Meet. "Keeneland is proud of the enhanced stature of the Toyota Blue Grass, and we thank the...

It sometimes seems that not a weekend goes by where Brad Cox isn't making news and visiting the winner's circle somewhere after winning another important race. That was the case last weekend as Cox won the Sam F. Davis S. at Tampa Bay Downs with John Hancock (Constitution). This coming weekend he'll send out one of his top threats for the GI Kentucky Oaks when the filly Good Cheer (Medaglia d'Oro) makes her 2025 debut in the GII Rachel Alexandra S. at the Fair Grounds. To talk about past successes...

Keeneland will open ticket sales for its 2025 Spring Meet, to be held Apr. 4-25, on Tuesday, Feb. 18 at 9 a.m. ET, according to a press release from the track on Wednesday. A variety of options for Dining, Grandstand reserved seating and General Admission will be available. All tickets must be purchased in advance via Keeneland's Official Online Ticket Office. The 15-day Spring Meet features racing Wednesdays through Sundays with a daily first post of 1 p.m. ET, except closing day, Friday, Apr. 25, when the first race is...

C2 Racing Stable, Agave Racing Stable and Ken Reimer's champion female sprinter Soul of an Angel (Atreides) is being pointed towards the Apr. 5 GI Madison Stakes at Keeneland, trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. confirmed Sunday. The 6-year-old mare had been on the alternate list for the Feb. 22 G1 Saudi Cup and, had she kept that engagement, would have shipped to Riyadh on a Tuesday flight. "She's not going for sure," Joseph said of the overseas trip. "That's official. She's going to go to the Madison. We're going to give...