Kentucky Oaks

Tickets for Kentucky Derby Week and the entire Spring Meet at Churchill Downs Racetrack are set to go on sale Thursday at noon with an added day of racing to celebrate this year's Derby Week. For the first time since 2010, Churchill Downs will return its meet opener and kickoff to Derby Week to the afternoon rather than running at night under the lights as was the case from 2011-25, the track announced Wednesday. Post time for Opening Day powered by LG&E and KU will be Saturday, April 25, at...

There's not a whole lot of guesswork when it comes to putting together a Top 12 list for this year's GI Kentucky Derby. Ted Noffey (Into Mischief) is clearly Number One, and finding a list of quality horses to slot in behind him isn't that difficult. If only compiling a similar list for the Kentucky Oaks were that easy. The 3-year-old filly set has begun the new year without a clear leader, and many who will make this list have to prove more. It's also early...very early. That means there's...

We continue to spotlight a few of the extraordinary mares--and some of the people behind them--who produced the Grade I winners of 2025. The two mares we highlight today are responsible for the last two GI Kentucky Oaks winners, with the 2024 Oaks victress adding to her laurels in 2025 and the 2025 Oaks winner returning to the track for 2026 in hopes of doing the same. Both are also finalists for this week's Eclipse Awards.  Sataves, dam of Thorpedo Anna By any measure, Judy Hicks is a smart woman....

Keeneland's 15-day Spring Meet, which will run from Friday, April 3 through Friday, April 24, has scheduled 19 stakes worth a total of $9.55 million to set a season record for total stakes purses, the track announced Tuesday. In addition to offering two marquee events for 3-year-olds--the $1.25 million GI Toyota Blue Grass for males and the $750,000 GI Central Bank Ashland for fillies--the meet includes three races that have been upgraded for 2026 and also have increased purses. Contributing to stakes purses for the season is $2.25 million from...

Dazzling Dame (Girvin) shot out to the front and romped in Saturday's $150,000 Busanda S. at the Big A, good for 20 points on the road to the Kentucky Oaks. The 2-1 chance showed the way through fractions of :23.55 and :47.20, let it out a notch on the far turn and dropped the hammer in the stretch to win by 11 1/2 lengths. Two Bits (American Pharoah) was second. The final time for the one-turn mile was 1:38.30. My World (Essential Quality) completed the same distance in 1:38.96 in...

The stakes schedule for the 2026 winter meet at Aqueduct Racetrack will include 20 stakes races worth more than $3.1 million in total purses, the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) announced Wednesday. The 2026 Aqueduct winter meet will open Wednesday, Jan. 1 and continue through Sunday, Mar. 30. The winter meet will offer 45 live race days in total. The centerpiece of the winter meet stakes calendar is the Saturday, Feb. 28 card offering four stakes, led by the one-mile Grade III, $300,000 Gotham, providing 50-25-15-10-5 Kentucky Derby qualifying...

Super Corredora (Gun Runner), a front-running, upset winner of the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, will launch her sophomore campaign in the GIII Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita Feb. 1, according to trainer John Sadler. She returned to the worktab with a three-furlong bullet in :34.60 (1/9) in Arcadia Dec. 12. "She had her little vacation and she's doing really well," Sadler said. "She had her first work Friday. Right now, the plan calls for her to go in the Las Virgenes and have one more prep, whether it's...

Rags to Riches (A.P. Indy--Better Than Honour, by Deputy Minister), only the third filly in history to win the GI Belmont Stakes, died due to infirmities of old age, Coolmore announced Monday. Owned by Coolmore's Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith, Rags to Riches etched her name into the annals of American racing history when she outbattled Curlin in a dramatic stretch duel to take the final leg of the Triple Crown in 2007, becoming the first filly in 102 years to win the race. Rags to Riches, purchased for $1.9...

Tickets for the 152nd running of the GI Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve will go on sale to the public Thursday, Nov. 13 at noon ET, Churchill Downs announced Wednesday. Two-day all-inclusive reserved tickets to the 152nd GI Longines Kentucky Oaks, held Friday May 1, and Kentucky Derby on Saturday, May 2, will be available for purchase online, including recent renovations such as the Ford First Turn Reserved seating as well as the Starting Gate Courtyard, both featuring stadium-style seats and easy access for concessions and wagering windows. Limited...

Klaravich Stable and Chad Brown might be the only ones in New York having a better afternoon than Coolmore America's young stallion Tiz the Law. 3-year-old filly Fully Subscribed (Tiz the Law) became the fourth winner on the Saturday card at Aqueduct for the owner/trainer combo, capturing the GII Mother Goose Stakes. Her win came just 60 minutes after another 3-year-old, Tiz Dashing (Tiz the Law) took down the GII Hill Prince Stakes in upset fashion on the grass for Sackatoga Stable. A classy debut winner going seven furlongs on...

The Backside Learning Center (BLC) will host its largest annual fundraiser, 'Benefits for the Backside: A Day at the Races', Friday, Nov. 21 in the First Turn Club at Churchill Downs, the non-profit announced via press release. Set to begin at noon, guests will enjoy a day at the races with front row views from the clubhouse turn while celebrating and supporting backstretch workers and their families. An auction will be available both in-person and online, and a raffle will be held for a chance to win a Derby or...

2nd-KEE, 110K, Msw, 2yo, 7f, 1:32 p.m. The 2-year-old half-brother to MGISW Shedaresthedevil (Daredevil), LEADING CHANGE (Gun Runner) was an $800,000 acquisition for Case Clay Thoroughbred Management from Keeneland September last year and makes his debut Thursday for trainer Brad Cox, who also trained his Kentucky Oaks-winning half-sister. First dam Starship Warpseed, who sadly passed away last year, has a perfect six-for-six strike rate of runners to winners with GSP Mojovation (Quality Road) and GSP 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' Star of Wonder (Uncle Mo) also amongst Leading Change's...