Palace Malice

Sent off a generous 7-1, Mr. Monomoy (Palace Malice) secured an easy lead, set incredibly steady fractions up front and pulled away late to easily defeat GIII Lecomte S. hero Enforceable (Tapit) in the first of two divisions of the GII Risen Star S. Saturday afternoon at the Fair Grounds. Silver State (Hard Spun), who completed the exacta behind Enforceable last time, rounded out the trifecta. Drawn gate nine and looking to improve on his useful third-place effort in the Lecomte, Mr. Monomoy hit the ground running and dropped down...

After surveying the four intakes since, each still safely immune from judgement on the track itself, today we finally reach the first group of stallions who have actually tested their ability to replicate the talent that first earned them--however marginally, in some cases--a place at stud. Their first juveniles, last year, at least permitted some initial response to any erosion of their reputations, through the notoriously jittery and impressionable consensus of the yearling market. Yet there are few more instructive indices of the odds against them than the contrast between...