Malathaat

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - There will be no easing back into competition for champion Nest (Curlin). Certainly not on a Sunday in July at Saratoga Race Course. In the first start of her 4-year-old season--which was delayed by illness--in the GII Shuvee S., Nest is likely to face Clairiere (Curlin), the leader of the older female dirt division, and GI La Troienne winner Played Hard (Into Mischief). "It's not the position we set out to be on at the beginning of this year, but it's kind of where we are,"...

Pura Vida Investments celebrated a maiden-breaking win in style Thursday at Ellis Park when 2-year-old Rhyme Schemes (Ghostzapper--Katherine, by Distorted Humor) won second out in a gate-to-wire romp by 9 1/2 lengths and posted a 94 Beyer speed figure at the Pea Patch for trainer Norm Casse. In his debut May 18 at Churchill Downs, the chestnut colt finished a well-beaten sixth behind first-time starter Wilson Q (Constitution) and next-out Tremont S. victor Gold Sweep (Speightstown). "We've gone about training our 2-year-olds a little bit differently this year than previous...

Compared to an exquisite painting by her owner Barbara Banke, Dreaming of Julia (A.P. Indy) has been regarded as racing royalty from the very beginning. Now 13 years old, the Grade I winner reigns as monarch of Stonestreet's world-class broodmare band, and this spring, she was crowned 2022 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year. Thanks to the efforts of her two Curlin daughters Malathaat and Julia Shining, Dreaming of Julia has already put together a produce record for the books, yet Banke and her team at Stonestreet are hopeful that their...

The Kentucky Thoroughbred Association (KTA) and the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders (KTOB) awards dinner Apr. 5 in Lexington named Dreaming of Julia (A.P. Indy), dam of Grade I winner Malathaat (Curlin) and Grade II winner Julia Shining (Curlin), the 2022 Broodmare of the Year. Summer Wind Equine was awarded a bronze mare and foal as the breeder of Flightline (Tapit), who was crowned Champion Kentucky-Bred Horse of the Year and Champion Kentucky-Bred Older Dirt Male. Godolphin received multiple bronzes as the recipient of the P.A.B. Widener Trophy, best known...

Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher is on fire, unveiling one promising colt or filly after another in maiden, allowance, and stakes races it seems. Last month, Pletcher won his eighth Eclipse Award as North America's leading trainer. Not only that, but three horses trained by Pletcher also won Eclipses: Forte (Violence), champion 2-year-old colt; Nest (Curlin), champion 3-year-old filly; and Malathaat (Curlin), champion older female. Like Pletcher, Curlin shone at the Eclipses. Aside from Nest and Malathaat, his Elite Power was named champion sprinter of 2022, giving the Hill 'n'...

GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf winner Tuesday (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) will be bred to perennial leading sire Into Mischief this year, Spendthrift Farm confirmed. Tuesday raced for her breeder Coolmore, in partnership with Swiss car manufacturer Georg Von Opel's Westerberg, and racked up a career line of 10-3-3-1, $1,828,827, which also included a victory in the G1 Cazoo Oaks (Epsom Oaks) and a second in the G1 Yorkshire Oaks. Tuesday is a daughter of English champion and MG1SW Lilly Langtry (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) and therefore a full...

Flightline was clearly the star among stars at the Eclipse Awards ceremonies held Jan. 26 in Palm Beach, Florida, but a trio of stallions that call the rustic environs of John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa home stole the show from a sires' perspective, accounting for half of the evening's 10 winners among the Flat divisions. Success at the Eclipse Awards is obviously directly correlated with horse racing on its biggest stages, and the results from the first weekend of November, not far away from Xalapa at Keeneland Race...

Having just last week been crowned the Longines World's Best Racehorse in London, 'TDN Rising Star' Flightline (Tapit) was named America's no-doubt-about-it Horse of the Year and champion dirt male at the Eclipse Awards, held Thursday evening at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida. Bred in Kentucky by Jane Lyon's Summer Wind Equine, Flightline was a $1-million purchase out of the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, didn't start as a juvenile and didn't get to a starting gate until April of his 3-year-old season. The negatives end right about there. In...

Malathaat and Flightline finished their careers in style at the Breeders' Cup that led to their crowning as the most-talented older female and male in North America. MALATHAAT A star every step of the way, Malathaat hails from Barbara Banke's stellar Stonestreet program out of a second-generation Grade I winner by a two-time Horse of the Year turned elite sire. In a feat for the ages, Stonestreet bred all three finalists in this division, while Godolphin did the same in the male turf division. Malathaat brought seven figures as a...

Voting is now open for the 2022 FanDuel Racing-NTRA Moment of the Year, where the public will pick one of the 11 most memorable, significant, and reflective events from the last 12 months of Thoroughbred racing in North America. The FanDuel Racing-NTRA Moment of the Year will be recognized during the 52nd Annual Eclipse Awards Presented by John Deere, Keeneland, and The Jockey Club at The Breakers Palm Beach in Florida Jan. 26. Voting is available on the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) website, NTRA.com, and via Twitter, where every...

With the 52nd Annual Eclipse Awards in Palm Beach, Fla. less than a month away, the votes will be cast by the media and other important officials until Jan. 3, as Thoroughbred racing aims to honor its best. The Thoroughbred Daily News Staff that are members of the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters (NTWAB) submitted their selections this week and here is a rundown of the results from some of the categories, along with their 'strongest vote.' Bill Horse of the Year: Flightline 3-Year-Old Male: Taiba 3-Year-Old Filly: Nest 2-Year-Old...

Just like her full-sister, champion Malathaat (Curlin), Julia Shining (Curlin) not only won her debut at Keeneland Oct. 16, but did so in 'TDN Rising Star'-fashion. And she followed in her GI Breeders' Cup Distaff-winning sister's hoofprints once again Saturday, capturing the GII Demoiselle S. in the slop at Aqueduct. Favored just like her sister, albeit at 1-2 instead of 2-5, Julia Shining was even farther back than Malathaat was in her Demoiselle, racing in second last as 37-1 shot Tribal Queen (Bolt d'Oro) clocked opening splits of :24.61 and...