Puca

A Landmark Day in a Landmark Year

Who knows what kind of Turf, never mind what kind of world, may be inherited by such of his 15 grandchildren as may themselves be blessed to reach the landmark they celebrate with Catesby W. Clay on Tuesday? But someday they will look back on the apt emergence, in his 100th year, of a fourth Kentucky Derby winner raised on the farm founded by his own grandfather, and see that the heritage of the race itself gained at least as much from Runnymede, in 2023, as the other way round....

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Saturday Insights: Mage Full-Brother Entered 'MTO' at the Spa

1st-SAR, $136k, Msw, 2yo, 1 1/16mT, post time: 1:10 p.m. ET His full-brother Mage is about three hours south at Monmouth Park to contest Saturday's GI TVG.com Haskell S., but DORNOCH (Good Magic) could still represent the family should the Saratoga opener be transferred to the main track. Whereas Mage cost $235,000 at Keeneland September in 2021 (before fetching $290,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale last year), Dornoch was a $325,000 acquisition in Lexington. The pair's dam SW & GSP Puca (Big Brown), a 'TDN Rising Star' and also responsible...

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Magic Formula for Curlin Succession

With barely a dozen race days to be eked out of its remaining two years, the Steve Pini Memorial S. of September 2017 formed part of a pretty low-key bookend to the history of Suffolk Downs. The Boston track's opening era, after all, had been propped up by Seabiscuit himself. But it turns out that this race, honoring the late track superintendent, deserves a rather lengthier footnote than anyone might have imagined at the time. Over an extended mile of turf, a 5-year-old daughter of Big Brown overtook Queen Caroline...

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Dams of Oaks, Derby Winner, Sold Three Hips, 10 Minutes, Apart

For a sales company, selling the dam of a future Classic winner at your mixed sale is about as good a marketing tool as there is. Imagine selling two of them, three hips and 10 minutes apart, at the same sale. After the dust cleared from Derby weekend, a closer look at the results revealed just that: Pretty City Dancer, the dam of GI Kentucky Oaks winner Pretty Mischievous, sold as hip 122 at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton November Sale; and Puca, the dam of the Kentucky Derby winner Mage, sold...

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Mage Benefits From Feet Of Clay

Mage. It's not a word you come across too often, though its roots are obviously entwined with those of "magus"--as in the three magi, the wise men who followed the star from the east-and indeed "magician." It denotes one of deep learning, sometimes to an occult degree. And if the horse bearing that name (a son of Good Magic, it hardly needs adding) should happen to win the GI Kentucky Derby, then perhaps we should view the man responsible for bringing him into the world as aptly honored. Because just...

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Good Magic's Mage Opens His Account On Pegasus Undercard

2nd-Gulfstream, $70,000, Msw, 1-28, 3yo, 7f, 1:22.54, ft, 3 3/4 lengths. MAGE (c, 3, Good Magic--Puca {SW & GSP, $299,406}, by Big Brown), dismissed by the betting public at 11-1 in his debut start despite selling for $290,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale, avoided trouble with a forward ride out of the gate, setting the early pace from just off the rail. Positioned inside of pressure from Perform (Good Magic) through the half-mile in :45.88, Mage hit his best stride past the quarter pole and drew off nicely down...

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Saturday Insights: The Urban Sea Influence on American Shores

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 5th-GP, $50,000, Msw, 3yo/up, 1mT, post time: 3:13 p.m. ET A day after her half-brothers Galileo (Ire) and Sea The Stars (Ire) accounted for the two Group 1 winners on Cazoo Oaks day at Epsom, Live Oak's Grade I winner My Typhoon (Ire) (Giant's Causeway) is represented by the debuting TYPHOON'S LEGACY (Kitten's Joy). Charlotte Weber's operation paid a sales-topping (more than three times the price of the next most expensive offering) 1.8 million gns ($2,942,730) for My Typhoon when offered by the Irish National...

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