Life is Sweet
In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for Sunday running at Kokura Racecourse: Sunday, February 2, 2025 5th-KOK, ¥11,850,000 ($76k), Newcomers, 3yo, 1200mT FOCUS LIGHT (JPN) (f, 3, City of Light--Zest, by Tapit) was acquired by K I Farm for $420,000 when offered in utero at the 2021 Keeneland November Sale. The...
Modernist (Uncle Mo) will shuttle to Chile and stand at Haras Dadinco for the Southern Hemisphere 2024 season, it was announced via presser Friday. The winner of the GII Risen Star Stakes and the GIII Excelsior Stakes with on-the-board finishes in three other graded contests, he'd retired to Darby Dan in 2022 and bred 280 mares in his first three years at stud. Modernist hails from the female line of Broodmare of the Year Sweet Life (Kris S.), who also produced his dam's half-sisters GI Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic (now...
7th-CD, $120K, Msw, 3yo/up, f/m, 6f, 3:51 p.m. ET. Coteau Grove homebred and first-time starter EYE OF THE PHARAOH (American Pharoah) is out of unraced dam You Caught My Eye (Can the Man), who the farm purchased for $230,000 at the 2020 Keeneland November Sale with the filly in utero. Trained by Brad Cox, the 3-year-old's second dam, MSW Halo River (Irish River), is responsible for Canadian Horse of the Year Catch A Glimpse (City Zip) and north of the border multiple-leading sire Old Forester (Forestry). Also set for her...
After a long lifetime marked by notable wins on the racetrack and in the business world, prominent owner-breeder, entrepreneur and philanthropist Marty Wygod has passed away aged 84. "I have so many good memories of Marty Wygod. I was telling Emily [Bushnell, Wygod's daughter] this morning, one of my favorite things about Marty was he had a great sense of humor," said trainer John Shirreffs, who conditioned some of Wygod's heaviest hitters on the track. Wygod, said Shirreffs, was also something of a prankster. "The first time I met him...
Celebrating 40 Years of the Breeders' Cup with Living Legends In the nearly 40-year history of the Breeders' Cup, only two sets of full-siblings have won Breeders' Cup races. It's difficult enough for a mare to produce one Breeders' Cup winner, but two individual Breeders' Cup winners? That's such a rarity only six mares have ever done it. And only two of those six have had lightning strike twice as they've produced two Breeders' Cup winners by the same sire. The first set, Juddmonte homebreds Banks Hill (GB) and Intercontinental...
Edited Press Release The 2009 Broodmare of the Year Sweet Life (Kris S-- Symbolically, by Flying Paster), the dam of champion Sweet Catomine (Storm Cat) and MGISW Life Is Sweet, has passed away at age 27. Sweet Catomine was crowned champion 2-year-old filly in 2004 after capturing the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, GI Del Mar Debutante S. and GI Oak Leaf S. At age three, she was victorious in the GI Santa Anita Oaks and GIII Santa Ysabel S. Three years after foaling Sweet Catomine, Sweet Life foaled a...
Grade II winner Modernist (Uncle Mo) was represented by his first foal on Sunday, Jan. 15, when the Mineshaft mare Meteoric Matron produced a colt, Darby Dan Farm tweeted. Owned and bred by Bill Johnson's Stonegate Stables, LLC., the new arrival is a New York-bred. "We're obviously thrilled that the first foal by Modernist is such a good one," Darby Dan Farm manager Charlie McKinlay said. "This stallion has been very well-received and supported by his shareholders and breeders alike. He's a very well-bred horse from the Wygod family program...
Great expectations don't necessarily begin with lofty intent. Most new licensees start out hungry for that one lionheart of any stripe to announce their arrival. Those trainers who are routinely sent the big weekend warriors learn to acquire a more refined palate, to remodulate their ambitions accordingly. But scant few are fortunate enough to have harnessed the sort of thunderbolt that doesn't just electrify a trainer's career but leaves a patch of scorched earth for posterity. And really, how many ever expect to? In part one, we deconstructed some of...
In a landscape where so many fixed points have suddenly melted into a mirage--Saturday, remember, was supposed to be the final leg of the Triple Crown--trainers are perhaps better qualified than most to navigate a way forward. For the unchanging cycles of the backstretch, feeding horses and breezing them and hosing them down and walking the shedrow, must be constantly adapted to the flesh-and-blood unpredictability of the Thoroughbred. In normal times, at least, races are like the high tide: consult the handbook, and you'll know post-time to the minute. Then...