Oscar Performance

Ashbrook Farm and Upland Flats Racing's Red Carpet Ready picked up right where she left off Saturday, dominating Gulfstream's GIII Forward Gal S. to stay unbeaten and earn eight GI Kentucky Oaks qualifying points. Belying almost 37-1 odds when she aired in the Churchill slop first out Oct. 30, the dark bay handled the next step with aplomb, taking the Nov. 26 Fern Creek S. by daylight over a next-out allowance winner back under the Twin Spires. Off as the narrow second choice behind multiple local stakes winner Atomically--last seen...

After a short hiatus from the stallion business, Mill Ridge welcomed GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Oscar Performance to their farm in 2019. Four years later, they now add a second stallion to their roster in Aloha West (Hard Spun - Island Bound, by Speightstown), who claimed the 2021 GI Qatar Racing Breeders' Cup Sprint for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Wayne Catalano. With breeding shed doors opening soon, what has this newcomer's initial reception been like with breeders? "A lot more positive than the Oscar Performance reception was," said...

Today we finally come to a group that has at least had some initial opportunity to show whether or not they can replicate their own racing prowess. By the same token, of course, this means that their level of support--which in many cases will already have declined through each preceding year, as racetrack exposure draws perilously closer--may now fall off a cliff. If the stampede to unproven sires is ludicrous, then so is the haste with which they are abandoned. Stallions whose stock should plainly be granted time to mature...

Though he didn't debut until April of his 3-year-old year, Arrogate (Unbridled's Song) proved worth the wait, coming in third in his debut before unleashing an onslaught of victories that culminated in early 2017's last-to-first performance in the G1 Dubai World Cup. A $560,000 Keeneland September yearling, Arrogate earned his 'TDN Rising Star' tag with a wire-to-wire effort at Santa Anita June 6. He won twice more in allowance/optional claiming company before his coming-out party in the GI Travers S. where he defeated a loaded field--MGISP American Freedom (Pulpit), 2017...

The betting public had some difficulty knowing exactly what to do with Red Carpet Ready in Saturday's $200,000 Fern Creek S. at Churchill Downs. The $180,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga graduate opened her account at first asking by 10 going six furlongs on the Stars of Tomorrow I program here Oct. 30, but it came over a heavily rain-affected track and was only modestly graded. The dark bay filly was accordingly no better than 7-1 off a morning line that was half that number and jumped alertly to stalk the pace outside...

Mill Ridge Farm's Oscar Performance, who currently ranks among the top 10 first-crop sires based in North America, will get a bump in his fee for 2023 to $20,000 live foal, the initial fee he stood for in his first two years at stud. The four-time Grade I winner, whose victories included the 2016 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf, has sired 14 individual winners (16% winners to foals) and four graded stakes performers, including the GII Castle & Key Bourbon S. exacta with the winner Andthewinneris and runner-up Deer District....

4th-Churchill Downs, $114,370, Msw, 10-30, 2yo, f, 6f, 1:12.08, sy, 10 lengths. RED CARPET READY (f, 2, Oscar Performance--Wild Silk, by Street Sense) proved to be just that with a splashy debut performance through the Churchill slop Sunday afternoon. Touching 37-1 at the off, the $180,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga purchase hit the ground running from her low draw and outsprinted the well-backed Bo Derek (Speightstown) to lead them through an opening quarter-mile in :21.74 over the rain-affected surface. With that 7-2 chance her shadow around the turn, Red Carpet Ready shrugged...

Mill Ridge Farm will add a second stallion to its roster for 2023 in this year's defending GI Breeders' Cup Sprint champion Aloha West (Hard Spun--Island Bound, by Speightstown), according to Mill Ridge's general manager Price Bell. Owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and trained by Wayne Catalano, Aloha West is from the family of Fappiano, out of a winner of the six-furlong GIII Winning Colors S. at Churchill. "Aloha West himself very much resembles this side of his family with the speed of Speightstown and his physical quality and presence,"...

Most of us, in this business, have experienced times when we would implore Jerry Amerman to leave that flier, promoting a horseracing syndicate, right where her husband John had thrown it--in the wastebasket. Happily, while they have sampled the full spectrum of the Turf's ups and downs in the 35 years since, their sense of fulfilment only continues to grow. And the sport has itself welcomed corresponding gains from their presence: John's judgement, seasoned by a stellar business career, has been drafted by numerous regulatory and benevolent bodies; Jerry's love...

This is somewhat of a watershed year for freshman sires, with six first-crop sires within the top 10 on the list of leading sires of 2-year-olds in North America through Monday. Spendthrift stalwart Into Mischief leads the group (as he has for five of the last seven years), but the same farm's freshman Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro) is second, Hill 'n' Dale's Good Magic (Curlin) is third, Coolmore America's Justify (Scat Daddy) is fourth, Hill 'n' Dale's Army Mule (Friesan Fire) is fifth, Three Chimneys's Sharp Azteca (Freud) is seventh,...

The annual Ohio Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Mixed Thoroughbred Sale is to be held at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in Delaware, Ohio, Wednesday Oct. 19 and it has drawn enthusiastic participation. The sale will start at 2:30 p.m. The grounds are open for previews/inspections at noon Oct. 18. There are a record-setting 120 entries with a variety of prospects among the 23 weanlings and 74 yearlings as well as 2-year-olds and broodmares. The 2022 edition of the sale includes a 36-entry dispersal from Mapleton Thoroughbred Farm, which has been atop...

Susan Moulton's Andthewinneris came flying late to win the GII Castle & Key Bourbon S. at Keeneland Sunday, leading home an exacta for his freshman sire while also becoming the Mill Ridge stallion's first stakes winner. The 4-1 shot broke from the far outside in the field of 12, angled over and settled near the back of the field. Still some 10 lengths back approaching the stretch, the bay made eye-catching progress leaving the turn and closed stoutly down the center of the course, hitting the front at midstretch and...