Quietside

'TDN Rising Star' Quietside (Malibu Moon) put in her last major workout for the GII Fantasy Stakes, covering five furlongs in :59.60 Sunday morning at Oaklawn under Ramon Vazquez. The 'Rising Star's' time was the fastest of 26 published at the distance, with clockers catching her galloping out six furlongs in 1:12 and seven furlongs in 1:26.80. The track was rated fast. "It was a strong five-eighths," said trainer John Ortiz. "We'll come back next week and give her a maintenance [half-mile]. She did it really well today." Entries will...

Shortleaf Stable's 'TDN Rising Star' Quietside (Malibu Moon) returned to the Oaklawn Park worktab for the first time since taking the Feb. 23 GIII Honeybee Stakes, going a half-mile in :48 flat in the company of her stakes-placed stablemate Spankerboom (Mendelssohn). "Just a maintenance work," Ortiz said of Quietside, who covered her final quarter in :23.40 and galloped out five furlongs in 1:00.20 according to track clockers. "Spankerboom always works with her. It was a good work for both. After the wire, I let her gallop out a little bit....

The GIII Honeybee S., rescheduled for one day due to cold weather at Oaklawn, figured to be the key GI Kentucky Oaks prep run so far this year. And it was. Our No. 1 in previous polls Muhimma (Munnings) ran well to finish third, but it was not enough for her to keep her top spot. Take Charge Milady (Take Charge Indy) was 10th and Look Forward (Bolt d'Oro) was seventh. Off those performances both have dropped out of the Top 10. This will be a big weekend for Oaks-bound...

Shortleaf Stable's Quietside (Malibu Moon) had been knocking on the door of stakes success since she was tabbed a 'TDN Rising Star' following her debut win at Saratoga last August, but finally the filly just broke the door down with an emphatic victory in the GIII Honeybee Stakes at Oaklawn Park Sunday. Five G (Vekoma) rocketed from her far outside post at the start of the 1 1/16-mile race and cleared the field, with Quietside, who broke just to her inside, shadowing her move into first turn. Favored Muhimma (Munnings),...

The English polymath John Ruskin, who was always hard at work scribbling a well-timed observation for some future generation to co-opt, said when it came to the weather, "Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather." Well, bully for you Mr. Ruskin! Send him a going stick and put him to work on the nearest turf course. Some might care to offer quite a different observation after recent events. What...

Multiple Grade I-placed Quietside (Malibu Moon) will be targeted to make her sophomore debut in the Jan. 25 Martha Washington Stakes at Oaklawn Park, trainer John Ortiz confirmed Sunday. The Shortleaf Stable homebred, tabbed a 'TDN Rising Star' following her 6 1/4-length debut win at Saratoga in August, was second behind expected 2-year-old filly champion Immersive (Nyquist) in the GI Spinaway Stakes and was third behind that foe while making her two-turn debut in the GI Darley Alcibiades Stakes. She was most recently seen finishing second in the GII Golden...

Horse racing and bourbon intersect in so many ways, but they really form a nexus around the themes of time and patience. Without either in the breeding shed or in the rickhouse, your chances at success will be severely hampered. There is nothing quite so powerful as a statement of age in the racing form or an age statement out of the barrel. When it comes to Thoroughbreds and specifically placing a strong emphasis on homebreds, John Ed Anthony's Shortleaf Stable personifies what many in the industry think a great...

The sole Grade I winner in Saturday's GI Hollywood Derby lineup, Carson's Run (Cupid) will try to shift his East Coast form to California for Del Mar's nine-furlong turf test. A first-out winner at Saratoga at two, the chestnut took the one-mile GI Summer Stakes at Woodbine later in September. Demoted to fifth in his sophomore bow in the Woodhaven Stakes at Aqueduct in April, the Christophe Clement trainee rebounded to win his next two-a confident score in Monmouth's Tale of the Cat Stakes before closing to a 3/4-length score...

It was a Godolphin homebred filly by a Darley stallion to take the GI Darley Alcibiades Stakes on Keeneland's Opening Day. GI Spinaway Stakes winner Immersive (Nyquist) carried her strong form to Kentucky from Saratoga and will now head to Del Mar a two-time Grade I winner while still undefeated into the GI NetJets Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. The race looked to flatter New York form with the top three runners from that Spinaway appearing in Immersive, 'TDN Rising Star' Quietside (Malibu Moon) and Sherbini (Cairo Prince) along with the...

Tickets, please! Keeneland's fall meet has the turnstiles primed Friday and that means the featured GI Darley Alcibiades Stakes will fill the apron on what promises to be massive weekend with some 30 graded races across North America--half of which have Breeders' Cup implications. The signature top-level race at the site of the Old Keene Farm was named for a foundational mare who was bred at Hal Price Headley's Beaumont--where modern-day Mill Ridge resides. Alcibiades won the 1930 Kentucky Oaks for Headley, who was one the Keeneland Association's founders and...

The 2024 GI Spinaway Stakes was a tale of the haves and the have-nots. On one hand, there was just a single stakes winner in the field. But that runner, The Queens M G (Thousand Words), was looking to sweep the 2-year-old stakes on offer at Saratoga this season--a feat not commonly accomplished. Lined up to oppose her was a talented group of maiden winners led by 'TDN Rising Star' Quietside (Malibu Moon) and Godolphin homebred Immersive (Nyquist). And of the 11 fillies lined up seeking Grade I glory, only...

It doesn't take long for the Kentucky Downs meeting to hit full gear, as Saturday's program features three graded contests, including the GIII DK Horse Nashville Derby Invitational Stakes, with prize money that could reach $3.1 million. The purse remains intact should one of the 10 Kentucky-breds--eight in the main body of the field and two also-eligibles--is home first over the mile and five-sixteenths journey along the Kentucky/Tennessee border. The four foreign raiders are ineligible for the KTDF money, but the base purse of $2.5 million already makes it one...