Rich Mendez

The Eclipse-Award winning female sprinter Shisospicy (Mitole) spiked a fever following a recent workout, which will cause her to miss the G2 1351 Turf Sprint scheduled for Feb. 14 in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian race was supposed to kick off her 2026 campaign, and Shisospicy was scheduled to leave for there on Feb. 2. The Blood-Horse was the first to report the story. "She spiked a little bit of a fever," said Rich Mendez, who heads the Morplay Racing partnership that owns the 4-year-old filly. "If you look at...

The podium at the 55th annual Eclipse Awards ceremony was awash in Godolphin blue Thursday, with a homebred from that global bloodstock powerhouse, Sovereignty (Into Mischief), running away with both Horse of the Year and 3-year-old male championship honors. Sovereignty's on-track tour de force included emphatic Grade I victories in the 2025 Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes, and those headline-grabbing wins helped to trigger a cascade of accolades for the colt's human connections. Godolphin took home its sixth straight Eclipse recognition as outstanding owner and its fifth consecutive...

Under the leadership of Rich Mendez, Morplay Racing has come a long way in a short time. The Morplay team, which also includes Mendez's son, Josh, Randy Hartley, and Dean DeRenzo, and started up in 2023, has already won at the highest levels with Shisospicy (Mitole) and got a taste of Derby Fever when it won the 2024 GIII Sam F. Davis Stakes with No More Time (Not This Time). Morplay will look to add to its accomplishments when sends out its most recent acquisition, Brotha Keny (Mo Town), in...

Rich Mendez joins this week's TDN Writers' Room to discuss how he got involved in racing, how Morplay Racing got its start, and stable stars Brotha Keny and Shisospicy.

Morplay Racing LLC's 'TDN Rising Star' presented by Hagyard Shisospicy (Mitole), who beat the boys in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint and is a finalist in no fewer than three Eclipse Award categories, will begin her 4-year-old campaign in the Middle East before following a similar course to the Breeders' Cup as in 2025. The news was revealed by Morplay's Rich Mendez and trainer Jose D'Angelo on FanDuel TV midday Thursday. D'Angelo is set to be represented for the second straight season in the G2 1351 Turf Sprint on...

Kentucky Derby hopeful GSW No More Time (Not This Time) returned from a breeze Sunday morning with an injury which will knock him out of the GI Kentucky Derby, announced the colt's owner Rich Mendez, the founder of Morplay Racing, on X. The account stated in a release that there are still plans to head to Churchill Downs later in the week as well as provided a positive prognosis for a future return to the track. "Less than 24 hours after officially qualifying for the Kentucky Derby, No More Time...

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis OCALA, FL - With a pair of colts topping the seven-figure mark, the tempo picked up during the second session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training Wednesday. With 144 horses sold Wednesday for $25,488,000, the session average was $177,000--up 6.2% from last year's corresponding session--and the median of $87,500 declined 2.8% from a year ago. The buy-back rate was 31.8%. "I thought it was a very good session," said OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski. "It felt like...

TIMONIUM, MD - With a $1-million filly leading the way, the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale concluded its two-day run at the Maryland State Fairgrounds with statistics close to its record-setting 2022 renewal. "It was a great two days in Maryland," Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sales Director Paget Bennett said Tuesday evening. "There was plenty of competition for the horses people wanted. The ones they want, they all go to battle on." At the end of Tuesday's session, 375 head sold for $34,795,500. The average was $92,788--down just 2.7% from...

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis OCALA, FL - The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training completed its four-day run Friday with a  new record gross and average and a record-tying median in an auction which closely mirrored the 2022 renewal which set high-water marks for all of those metrics. Through four sessions, 698 horses grossed $90,805,000. A year ago, 705 horses grossed a record $90,723,000. The 2023 average of $129,907 was up fractionally from $128,685. The median remained unchanged at $65,000. "It was a great...