More Than Looks

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 this weekend running at Kyoto and Tokyo Racecourses: Saturday, April 25, 2026 7th-KYO, ¥15,620,000 ($98k), Allowance, 3yo, 1800m WAZAOGI (c, 3, Gun Runner--Ladies' Privilege, by Harlan's Holiday) outran debut odds of 13-1 to be a sound third over this track and distance last November...

Perhaps the most salient aspect of Cherie DeVaux's 1-2 in one of the first GI Kentucky Derby rehearsals was that it didn't particularly feel like any kind of statement. It was just the sort of thing that now feels natural for a barn that took only six years to go from its first winner to a $10-million campaign, and has just housed its first Eclipse champion in She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}). By sheer force of talent, DeVaux has rapidly dismantled some pretty lazy characterizations. She is no longer, for...

More Than Looks (More Than Ready--Ladies' Privilege, by Harlan's Holiday), winner of the 2024 GI Breeders' Cup Mile, was represented by his first three foals Saturday, when a colt and a filly arrived in Kentucky and a second colt was born in Florida. Multiple stakes-winning and multiple graded stakes-placed Eden Prairie (Mizzen Mast) produced a colt, bred by Sampson Racing Stables, at Chesapeake Farm in Kentucky. "We couldn't be more pleased with this colt. He's a strong, good-looking individual," said Chesapeake Farm's Collier Mathes. "The dam's success with More Than...

Bill Farish recalls how he first met with the Ace Stud team at the 2024 Tattersalls December Mares Sale. More Than Looks, a son of international supersire More Than Ready, had just won the GI Breeders' Cup Mile and was poised to begin his stud career at Lane's End Farm. "They were interested in standing him in Australia, where More Than Ready had done so much good work at stud, so it was a natural fit," explained Farish. After his debut season at Lane's End in 2025, More Than Looks...

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 this weekend running at Tokyo, Kyoto and Fukushima Racecourses: Saturday, November 15, 2025 5th-FKS, ¥14,250,000 ($92k), Newcomers, 2yo, 2000mT HO O STRIKE (c, 2, Good Magic--Nightlife Baby, by Flatter) was knocked down for $95,000 as a Keeneland November weanling in 2023, but was the...

Keeneland has catalogued 3,075 horses for its upcoming November Breeding Stock Sale, the company announced Tuesday. The sale will run for eight days beginning Tuesday, Nov. 4 and running through Wednesday, Nov. 11, with the stand-alone November Horses of Racing Age Sale held the following day. Click here for the Breeding Stock Sale catalog, which features exciting broodmare prospects along with proven mares in foal to prominent stallions and well-bred weanlings by established stallions and popular young sires. Among the horses featured are the first mares in foal to such...

It's easy to see why She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}) has become a fan favorite. She's remarkably consistent, never out of the money in 12 career starts. She's gutsy, having fought to claim her latest of five Grade I wins by a narrow head. And she's got personality. Her friendship with an ornery goat named Mickey has a growing following on social media. Enrique Miranda, an assistant trainer for Cherie DeVaux, is the star filly's main exercise rider and can attest: to know She Feels Pretty is to love her....

Yulong continued their streak of acquiring topline racemares for their broodmare band on Wednesday when paying A$1.625 million for G1 Sistema Stakes winner Velocious, who was offered by Go Racing in the Inglis Digital July (Late) Sale. The daughter of Written Tycoon becomes the second highest-priced filly to ever sell through the platform, after Funstar (Adelaide) realised A$2.7 million in 2021. Offered as a broodmare prospect after the failure of a tie-back operation at the start of her three-year-old season, Velocious attracted global attention from bidders, but it was Yulong,...

Knowing when a horse is ready to take a step up and when it's time to take a step back--it's one of the fundamentals of training. Get it right and you get rewarded. Get it wrong and, well, you'll likely know pretty quickly. Some trainers just seem to have a feel for where that line is, a sense of when to ask for more and when the horse might need a little more time and preparation. Cherie DeVaux is learning to hone that intuition. "It is a balance to be...

One of the last hips through the ring, a colt by leading sire Gun Runner (hip 601), consigned by S G V Thoroughbreds (Steven Venosa), went to Kerri Radcliffe as agent for Memo Racing on a final bid of $1,450,000 to top the second session of the OBS Spring Sale. A half-brother to MGSW Takeover Target (Harlan's Holiday) and to the dam of GI Breeders' Cup Mile winner More Than Looks (More Than Ready), the colt worked a furlong in a co-bullet :9 4/5. He RNA'd for $475,000 at Keeneland...

The first mare has scanned in foal to GI Breeders' Cup Mile winner More Than Looks (More Than Ready--Ladies' Privilege, by Harlan's Holiday), Lane's End announced Monday. The mare, Spirited Storm (Stormy Atlantic), is owned by Tag Stable, and is the dam of graded-placed Uncaptured Spirit (Uncaptured). In addition to last year's Breeders' Cup Mile, More Than Looks also won the 2023 GIII Manila Stakes and was second in both the GI Coolmore Turf Mile Stakes and GI Fourstardave Stakes in 2024. More Than Looks is standing his first season...

By international sire of sires More Than Ready, the 2024 GI FanDuel Breeders' Cup Mile winner More Than Looks will shuttle to Australia from Lane's End in 2025, commencing stud duties at Yulong in Mangalore, Victoria for the Southern Hemisphere season. Bred by Hinkle Farms and campaigned by Victory Racing Partners, the Cherie DeVaux trainee collected several stakes wins including at three the GIII Manila Stakes at Belmont Park and the Jefferson Cup Stakes at Churchill Downs. Last year, More Than Looks was the runner-up in the GI Fourstardave Handicap...