Oaks Trail

Trainer Brad Cox celebrated a win in the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks a mere six months ago when Good Cheer (Medaglia d'Oro) ran to her odds that Friday afternoon. On Saturday at Churchill Downs another 2-year-old filly conditioned by him took home her first Oaks points when Life of Joy (Gun Runner) got her picture taken in the Rags To Riches Stakes. With only one race under her belt, Life of Joy certainly made it a memorable one when she romped over the competition by some 14 lengths at Horseshoe...

HOT SPRINGS, Ark.--When 'TDN Rising Star' and GI Kentucky Oaks hopeful Quietside (Malibu Moon) jettisons like an escape pod from the Oaklawn Park gate in the GIII Fantasy Stakes on Saturday, the conflict between the light and the dark inside of John A. Ortiz will be at peace. It's the way of the trainer. In the sport of Thoroughbred racing, all conditioners develop coping mechanisms when it comes to managing raw emotion before the bell sounds, but Ortiz and his stable chooses to draw insight from 'A long time ago...

Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse won 15 races out of 53 starts during the tough as nails Saratoga meet this season, which amounted to a 28% clip. One of those runners who got her picture taken was La Cara (Street Sense--Cara Caterina, by Bernardini). Off that performance, she rolled into Louisville for the GIII Pocahontas Stakes and won, which earned her 10 points on the path to next May's running of the GI Kentucky Oaks. In the first two starts of her career under the Twin Spires earlier this...