Puca

Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna), who was named Horse of the Year and champion of her generation at the Eclipse Award ceremonies in January, was recognized with the same honors at Friday night's annual champion Kentucky-Bred Awards Dinner. The daughter of Sataves (Uncle Mo) was campaigned to six wins from seven starts in 2024, highlighted by victories in the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks and GI Breeders' Cup Distaff. In total, she took out five elite-level contests and was narrowly runner-up in the GI Travers Stakes against the boys while earning better...

6th-Santa Anita, $60,500, Msw, 2-14, 3yo, 1m, 1:37.84, ft, 4 3/4 lengths. BAEZA (c, 3, McKinzie--Puca {SW & GSP, $299,406}, by Big Brown) debuted over the grass at Del Mar Dec. 1 and finished a well-beaten ninth. Switching to the main track at Santa Anita Jan. 4, the pricey Keeneland September buy was the runner-up behind 'TDN Rising Star' Rodriguez (Authentic). Backed at the windows as the 2-1 second choice here, the bay came running out of the blocks to shadow a longshot into the first turn. The 3-year-old waited...

The biggest surprise of the two-and-a-half hour livestream which revealed Resolute Racing's mating plans for 2025 was that Puca will be bred to Frankel (GB) on Southern Hemisphere time. That was only one of the revelations as John Stewart--accompanied by Coolmore's Adrian Wallace, Resolute Racing's Director of Breeding and Bloodstock Chelsey Stone, farm manager Noel Murphy, and general manager Gavin O'Connor--discussed the 2025 matings for his 41 mares in the livestream. Several stallions will receive multiple mares; Resolute will send four mares to Justify, three to American Pharoah, two to...

9th-DMR, $54k, Msw, 2yo, 1mT, 7:28p.m. ET Looking to add to Puca (Big Brown)'s remarkable streak of runners, BAEZA (McKinzie) will go to post in the turf night cap at Del Mar. Racing for the partnership of C R K Stable and Grandview Equine, the John Shirreffs trainee has big shoes to fill as the half-brother to MGISW Dornoch (Good Magic) and his full-brother, GI Kentucky Derby hero Mage. Even before those two, their dam had produced another stakes runner, namely Gunning (Gun Runner). She was placed in the Listed...

LEXINGTON, KY--With the Breeders' Cup squarely in the rearview mirror, the breeding stock sales take center stage this week, highlighted by the start of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale Tuesday. This year's November Sale, which has cataloged 3,384 horses, spans a total of nine sessions through Nov. 13. The stand-alone Keeneland November Horses of Racing Age Sale will take place Nov. 14. In 2023, a total of 2,128 horses had sold through the ring for $176,571,000. The average was $82,975, while the median closed out at $32,000. "It's a...

Dornoch (Good Magic--Puca, by Big Brown), a leading 3-year-old colt with impressive wins in the 2024 GI Belmont Stakes and GI Haskell Stakes, has been diagnosed with bone bruising, which will force him to miss his planned final start in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. Dornoch, fourth in the GI Travers Stakes last out, has been retired from racing and will begin his stud career at Spendthrift Farm in 2025. "Dornoch's performance in the Travers really wasn't what we expected, and we just have not been happy with the way...

If you didn't know the sophisticated people behind the mating, you might imagine that Puca went to Good Magic on no better premise than to double down on the alchemy implicit in both names. Because a puca (or pooka) in folklore is a shape-changing sprite, capable of bringing good or bad fortune. Shakespeare named Puck accordingly in A Midsummer Night's Dream, but my favourite example is Elwood P. Dowd's invisible drinking buddy Harvey, a rabbit standing just under six feet four inches. Perhaps you've noticed his silhouette at Harvey's Bar...

It was announced during the telecast of the GI Haskell Stakes that Dornoch (Good Magic) will stand at stud at Spendthrift Farm. Spendthrift General Manager Ned Toffey addresses another big move by his team. TDN: What is it about Dornoch that makes him a good stallion candidate? NT: He's obviously got a great pedigree and he's a very talented horse. We always thought he was a really talented horse. They tried to rate him in the Blue Grass and he got wiped out from the one hole in the Derby....

Saturday's GI Blue Grass S. will be Dornoch's big chance to put away any uncertainty surrounding his true talent. The son of Good Magic beat Blue Grass morning-line favorite Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) last December in the GII Remsen S., but his Chad Brown-trained rival only lost by a nose and has since improved his resume with a definitive win in the GII Risen Star while adding blinkers. Meanwhile Dornoch claimed a scratched-down edition of the GII Fountain of Youth, taking the lead early and breaking away from rivals in...

Statements don't come much bigger than that made by John Stewart in the second half of 2023 when he spent over $25 million at public auction in less than 10 weeks, suddenly announcing himself as an emerging force in racing and bloodstock. Stewart's most costly recruits included the second-top lot at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, an Uncle Mo half-sister to the multiple Grade I winner Shedaresthedevil (Daredevil) who sold for $2.5 million. He then rolled into the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November Sale where a pair of Breeders' Cup winners headlined...

The racing year is only just doing up its laces, but already Into Mischief is on the march. Last week we examined the GI Kentucky Derby candidature of his son Timberlake and now, with a little help from the evergreen Dettori, he has a 19th Grade I scorer in Newgate. I must admit that my heart went out to connections of Subsanador (Arg) (Fortify), who led every step bar the last, and would have been John Sadler's fourth winner of the storied Santa Anita Handicap-still dearly cherished by some of...

As the 2024 breeding season is now underway, the TDN staff is sitting down with breeders to find out what stallions they have chosen for their mares, and why. Here we catch up with Chelsey Stone, the Director of Breeding for John Stewart's Resolute Bloodstock. Stewart made a huge splash at the yearling and breeding stock sales in 2023 and he purchased the former Shadwell Stud property in Midway, Kentucky to launch Resolute Farm. "We have such an awesome fleet of mares, but we are always looking to add to...