Keeneland

GI Arkansas Derby victor Super Stock (Dialed In) was represented by his first foal at Leadem Farm in Arkansas, the operation announced Saturday afternoon. Out of the Ohio-bred three-time winner Sprinkle Time (Shackleford), who raced for the colt's owner Keith Asmussen--and who also campaigned Super Stock in partnership with Erv Woolsey, the foal hit the ground early Feb. 7. His dam is a half-sister to MSW Justalittlesmoke (Smoke Glacken) as well as MSW Portales (Sharp Humor) and SP Hazy Command (Mastery). Super Stock placed third in the GI Claiborne Breeders'...

Amo Racing and Giselle De Aguiar's 2023 G2 Norfolk Stakes hero and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint runner-up Valiant Force (Malibu Moon--Vigui's Heart, by Quality Road) broke a seven-race winless streak--which included a two-test Stateside stint with Jorge Delgado--when snagging a five-furlong heat at Dundalk in early October and the 4-year-old opened his 2025 campaign with a Friday-evening victory upped to six furlongs back at the Co. Louth track. The Adrian Murray trainee, a last-out fourth tackling five furlongs here in the Oct. 25 G3 Mercury Stakes, broke swiftly...

Hosted by the Keeneland Association, the Organization of Racing Investigators (ORI) annual training and networking conference is marked for Sunday, Mar. 2 through Wednesday, Mar. 5. Central to ORI's mission is the pursuit of integrity and education for its members. By sharing best practices, interactions among investigators creates lasting relationships between jurisdictions. Representatives from every state racing entity will be in attendance, as well as regulators from national and international entities. With sponsors such as the AQHA, Breeders' Cup, NYRA, Parx Racing, PENN Gaming, The Stronach Group and Woodbine, this...

I was feeling a mix of excitement and nervousness May 7, 1984. It was my first day at Daily Racing Form, hired to report on the breeding industry, farm news, and horse sales. At the time, the paper's Midwest offices were located at Keeneland, in fact on the ground floor of the clubhouse in what were some of the original stalls when the track first opened in 1936. I was not long removed from having earned a degree in Journalism from the University of Kentucky, where I was a rare...

Saffie Joseph, Jr. has had some big days since he came to the U.S. from his native Barbados in 2011, but perhaps none bigger than last Saturday at Gulfstream Park. He had three stakes wins, including a score with Be Your Best (Ire) (Muhahaarar ({GB}) in the GII Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes and a win with Mystic Lake (Mo Town) in the GII Inside Information Stakes. But the one that really mattered was the victory by White Abarrio (Race Day) in the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes....

Keeneland Race Course is projecting overall purses for the upcoming April meet to increase in the range of 10-12%, with maiden special weight (MSW) purses for 3-year-olds and up rising to $110,000 after that MSW figure had plateaued at $100,000 for the past three springs. Churchill Downs plans to card 3-and-up MSW races at $120,000 during its April-June meet, a level that hasn't changed since 2022. Executives from both tracks disclosed those spring 2025 purse projections during the Jan. 28 Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) advisory board meeting. Rick Hiles,...

"Your Mr. Bassett doesn't come to Japan because of the war," said a junior executive of the Japan Racing Association in late August 2004. It was close to midnight in Sapporo, where I had accompanied Rogers Beasley on my first trip to Japan. We had dined with Masayuki Goto, a very sharp man, then a general manager of corporate planning, who the same junior executive whispered would in time ascend to the top job. Gotosan insisted on karaoke after dinner, and I learned later such occasions bring out candor, laughter,...

Jockeys either misjudging the location of an alternate finish line or failing to ride all-out under a traditional wire placement have been in the news on four occasions since October. But after apparently failing to realize that a one-mile stakes on Saturday ended at the sixteenth pole under Oaklawn Park's short-stretch configuration for races at that distance, the 22-year veteran Rafael Bejarano got penalized for essentially the opposite infraction. Timing his ride on a closer like there was still half a furlong to go, Bejarano kept whipping and driving his...

3rd-Chukyo, ¥10,600,000 ($68,720), Maiden, 3yo, 1900m, 2:01.3, ft. RHINO (JPN) (c, 3, Into Mischief--Princess Noor {'TDN Rising Star', GISW, $363,500}, by Not This Time) was not disgraced when fourth in a pair of starts on the turf to begin his career, but was switching to the surface for which he was bred this time around and looked a different proposition altogether. Sent forward from gate one, Rhino was content to allow a rival to take up the running and sat a comfortable stalking trip from second down the backstretch. Awaiting...

Robert Slack, celebrating his 78th birthday last Tuesday, had a ready answer when asked about his goals for his Kentucky-based Stoneriggs Farm. "Live long enough to watch it prosper," he said with a chuckle. "I wish I had gotten into it 10 years earlier, but I wasn't able to at that stage." Stoneriggs Farm has been in operation in Paris, Kentucky for just four years, but Slack is already well on his way to realizing that goal, not just in the sales ring, but also on the racetrack where the...

With the news of the passing of industry titan James E. "Ted" Bassett III, tributes from the Thoroughbred industry recount the enormous impact Bassett had in shaping the sport for generations to come. Elected president of the Breeders' Cup four years after the inaugural running in 1984, Bassett spearheaded the organization's growth and making the World Championships into the global affair it's known as, today. "Mr. Bassett served the Breeders' Cup, Keeneland, and a multitude of Thoroughbred racing industry organizations with magnificent honor and distinction, and his legacy will continue...

James E. "Ted" Bassett III, who led Keeneland through historic expansion during his 38-year tenure serving as President, Chairman and Trustee, died Thursday at his home in Lexington. He was 103. So he was not immortal, after all. But those of us privileged to have known James E. Bassett III will know how rare it is not only for human life to stretch to so wide a span but yet to conclude with the emphasis so unequivocally on quality, rather than mere quantity. It began [and ended] in Lexington, aptly...