Peter Brant

A bay colt from the first crop of Charlatan sold for $1.4 million at Monday's opening session of the Keeneland September sale to Coolmore and Peter Brant. The Mar. 7 colt, consigned by Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa, was bred in Kentucky by Hill 'n' Dale Equine Holdings and Matt Dorman. He is out of MGISW Guarana (Ghostzapper), who was a $4.4-million purchase by Hill 'n' Dale at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton November sale. Sold as Hip 70, the colt is from a deep female family. His young MGISW sire stands...

]The word was out when the Chad Brown-trainee Opulent Restraint (Dubawi {Ire}) made her first career start on July 28 at Saratoga. She was sent off as the 7-10 favorite but couldn't come through. She finished fourth, beaten 1 1/4 lengths. On Sunday at Saratoga she made amends. Sent off this time at 3-2, she won a stretch battle with Good Long Cry (Long On Value) to win the mile-and-a-sixteenth turf maiden by a half-length. "She has shown ability from day one and Chad liked her a lot," wining rider...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--In an intriguing GI Travers Stakes loaded with talent and questions, will anyone be surprised if 'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) wins? Nope. Although it is unlikely that the colt trained by Chad Brown will be the betting favorite Saturday in the 155th running of the signature race at Saratoga Race Course--he is a narrow fourth at 7-2 on the morning line--Sierra Leone's record demands respect. He has never been worse than third in seven career starts. One of those victories came in the GI Blue...

He's been a bit hit-and-miss so far in his brief career, but Ballydoyle's Whistlejacket (Ire) (No Nay Never--Adventure Seeker {Fr}, by Bering {GB}) was in front where it mattered to master his peers in Sunday's stallion-making G1 Sumbe Prix Morny at Deauville. Breaking fast to get the stands' rail, the 27-10 favourite was able to force the pace without the kind of pressure he had endured during last Sunday's G1 Phoenix Stakes. The G2 July Stakes winner kept finding for Ryan Moore to get to the line 3/4 of a...

1st-SAR, $100K, Msw, 2yo, f, 6f, 1:10 p.m. ET. BRILAND (McKinzie), the second to race after SW Miuccia (Mitole), will have her turn for trainer Chad Brown and the ownership group of Gainesway, Bradley Thoroughbreds, Cambron Equine and Alan Northcutt. Featured in TDN's Summer Breezes segment, the $675,000 buy at OBS April was initially purchased for $200,000 by Scoot Stables during Keeneland September. Briland's dam, Bay Harbor (Speightstown), is herself out of GSW Our Khrysty (Newfoundland). This second dam--a half-sister to GI Whitney Handicap hero Bullsbay (Tiznow)--also produced GISW Grace...

7th-DMR, $75K, Msw, 2yo, 5 1/2f, 8:02 p.m. ET. Conditioned by John Sadler, Don Alberto homebred UNIQUE POWER (Into Mischief) debuts for his dam--champion older dirt female Unique Bella (Tapit)--who was acquired by the stable for $400,000 at the 2015 Keeneland September Sale. Her own dam is GI Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic heroine Unrivaled Belle (Unbridled's Song). Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm took this mare home for $3.8 million at the 2016 Keeneland November Sale. Unrivaled Belle's half-sister, Lemon Belle (Lemon Drop Kid), is responsible for GIII Gotham Stakes champ...

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, which opened Monday with figures on pace for a third year of records, concluded Tuesday with an electric session which demolished the sale's previous high for gross, average, and median. At the close of business Tuesday, 154 yearlings sold for $82,160,000--highest ever in the auction's 103-year history, surpassing the previous record of $75,055,000 set last year. The average of $533,506 also improved on the 2023 record figure of $487,370, while the median of $425,000 bettered the...

Hip 146, a colt by boom sire Gun Runner bred on a cross over Tapit mares that has proved a rich source of high-class runners, was hammered down to Coolmore and Peter Brant for $1.9 million to skip to the head of class during the first hour of trade during Tuesday's second session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale. The Feb. 27 foal was consigned by Lane's End on behalf of the colt's breeder, Jane Lyon's Summer Wind Equine, and hails from one of her best families. Hip 146 is out...

After a seven-figure RNA earlier in the session, an Into Mischief colt was the first to crack the $1-million threshold in Monday evening's opening session of Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga Select Yearling Sale when selling to Coolmore's M. V. Magnier and White Birch's Peter Brant. The Darby Dan Farm-consigned colt was bred in Kentucky by Lothenbach Stables out of the winning Distorted Music (Distorted Humor), dam of 2022 GIII Chilukki Stakes winner She Can't Sing (Bernardini). The Feb. 28-foaled, $1-million colt, who went through the ring as Hip 30, sold earlier this...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--In early June, while I was working on a story about the GI Met Mile for the TDN, one question led me to another. First: What year did two-time Met Mile winner Gulch go into the Hall of Fame? Second: How could Gulch, who won seven Grade I races, finished in the top three in 25 of 32 career starts and earned over $3 million in the 1980s not be in the Hall of Fame? "Yeah. You've got it. You're right," breeder-owner Peter Brant said. "They don't always...

1st-SAR, $100k, 3yo/up, f/m, 6 1/2f, 1:10 p.m. ET LADY PINK (Into Mischief), a $720,000 acquisition by Peter Brant at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, is out of the unplaced Astray (Bernardini), whose SW & MGSP dam Away (Belong to Me) was responsible for MGSW and GI Kentucky Derby runner-up Eight Belles (Unbridled's Song) and an additional pair of stakes horses. The bay is a half-sister to Bob Marco (Arrogate), stakes-placed on the grass as a 3-year-old. Rigney Racing's Two Sharp (Twirling Candy), a $925,000 KEESEP yearling, blew the break...

This past week the racing has come a distant second in the minds of many when set against the tragedy that has befallen the family of racing commentator John Hunt. Such an appalling act of cruelty is impossible to contemplate, especially when it concerns someone who is so popular and respected. In any workplace there are divisions and squabbles. What unites the racing press room in Britain is the unquestionable fact that John is not only a talented professional but a thoroughly decent man; a friend to so many.  He...