Lukas Classic

A stakes schedule packed with $3.575 million in purses will headline this year's 14-day September Meet at Churchill Downs, which runs Thursday, Sept. 11 through Sunday, Sept. 28 and features 11 stakes contests over three weekends. Saturday, Sept. 13 sets the tone with five stakes races led by the $400,000 GII Fasig-Tipton Locust Grove and the first points events on the Road to the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks: the $300,000 GIII Iroquois and $300,000 GIII Pocahontas. The second Saturday of the meet on Sept. 20 includes four more stakes...

In a season highlighted by victories in the GI Kentucky Derby, GI Kentucky Oaks and GI Breeders' Cup Distaff, the training job Ken McPeek has done with the overachieving Rattle N Roll (Connect) is equally deserving of plaudits. Making his second start off a 363-day absence and having shipped to the West Coast and back when failing to draw into the GI Breeders' Cup Classic on Nov. 2, Rattle N Roll returned to something approaching his best under the Friday night lights at Churchill, rallying wide into the stretch before...

Hit Show got up late to cap a huge day for Wathnan Racing with a win in the GII Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs Saturday night. The 3-1 shot angled to the rail under the wire the first time and into the first turn while many of his foes opted to angle outside over the sloppy going. Settled in fourth off the pace down the backstretch as Cooke Creek set a moderate pace, the gray began making forward progress approaching the far turn. He rolled up five wide approaching the...

With just a neck separating National Treasure (Quality Road) and Senor Buscador (Mineshaft) in a thrilling renewal of the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes back in January, the two will meet for the third time this season in Saturday's inaugural GI California Crown Stakes at Santa Anita. Senor Buscador turned the tables on National Treasure and delivered a come-from-behind head victory in the $20-million G1 Saudi Cup Feb. 24, then was a well-beaten third in the $12-million G1 Dubai World Cup. Given plenty of time to bounce back following...

The 2-year-old gelding Tyler's Tribe (Sharp Azteca) is the fastest horse in Iowa--maybe the fastest horse ever to come out of the Hawkeye State--and has won his five career starters by a combined 59 3/4 lengths. But does that make him good enough to win a Breeders' Cup race? The Green Group Guest of the Week on this week's TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland was his co-owner and trainer Tim Martin, and when the big event rolls around, he'll be going into the race with confidence. "For me, it's...

The Churchill Downs stewards have suspended jockey Sonny Leon 15 days for his controversial ride on second-place finisher Rich Strike (Keen Ice) in Saturday's GII Lukas Classic S. The head-on view of the race clearly showed Leon leaning into jockey Tyler Gaffalione on winner Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow) and he appeared to elbow his rival rider. In a ruling issued Sunday, the stewards determined that Leon was guilty of "intentionally attempting to interfere with and impede the progress of a rival by repeatedly making physical contact with another rider in...

The Week in Review, by Bill Finley Reflections on an interesting weekend of racing: (*) No, Rich Strike did not win the GII Lukas Classic S. at Churchill Downs. A very game Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow) had a second surge and came back just before the wire to nip him by a head. But not only was there no shame in losing, this was the best race of Rich Strike's career-better, yes, the GI Kentucky Derby-and finally put to rest that he was a one-race wonder who just got lucky...

   The gutsy Hot Rod Charlie clawed his way back late to deny a late rally from GI Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike in the GII Lukas Classic S. Saturday beneath the Twin Spires. Favored at 6-5, the bay hustled up to press Art Collector (Bernardini) through opening splits of :23.55 and :47.94. Turning up the heat as three-quarters went in 1:11.77, the bay took control entering the far turn and had his nose in front at the top of the stretch. Rich Strike rallied up the outside and briefly...

There are but five weeks remaining between now and the Breeders' Cup at Keeneland Nov. 4 and 5, and many of horse racing's biggest names will take in their final prep races over the course of the next couple of weekends. Better than 40 graded stakes, the majority of which have championship weekend implications, are set to take place from sea to shining sea, including 21 'Win and You're In' events offering the winners an all-expenses paid trip to the Bluegrass. Santa Anita stages one of the four Breeders' Cup...

Even in a market like this one, weirdly insulated from economic and geopolitical chaos, trading Thoroughbreds will always remain a precarious business. Speculators never hesitate, then, to pounce whenever the odds appear skewed temporarily in their favor. Sure enough, with the dollar squeezing other currencies dry, around one in eight of the yearlings sold at the Goffs Orby Sale this week is said to be heading to the U.S.; and they'll have plenty of company out of Tattersalls next week. To one who constantly berates breeders both sides of the...

Going...going... gone. Leading older horse Knicks Go (Paynter), as expected, punched his ticket to the GI Breeders' Cup Classic with a facile victory in Saturday's GIII Lukas Classic S. at Churchill Downs. The overwhelming 1-9 favorite took his usual spot on the front end and led the field of six through very manageable fractions of :23.53 and :47.27. Joel Rosario hit the gas entering the far turn, and Knicks Go responded in spades. He passed the quarter pole as the one to catch, cornered for home in the four path...

The inaugural running of the GIII Lukas Classic in 2013, contested as the Homecoming Classic, was won handily by the previous year's GI Breeders' Cup Classic hero Fort Larned (E Dubai), who would go on to finish a hard-trying fourth in defense of his Classic title five weeks later. This year's renewal goes through Korea Racing Authority's Knicks Go (Paynter), who is expected to cement his status as the favorite for the championship day feature Saturday afternoon. An imperious winner of last year's GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile over a...