Royal Ascot

In racing circles, trainer Jose D'Angelo might not yet be a "household name," but that's not going to last much longer. In this country for about five years, the native of Venezuela is coming off a stellar 2024 in which he won 140 races, including his first Grade I with Howard Wolowitz (Munnings) in the Aristocrat Franklin-Simpson Stakes. And it looks like 2025 might be even better. He has a stable full of potential stars that includes 'TDN Rising Star' Guns Loaded (Gun Runner), the winner of last Saturday's Mucho...

It may be the season to be jolly, but it's also a time of reflection, and there are many ways one can look back on a first-season sires' championship in Britain and Ireland that was ultimately dominated from start to finish by Whitsbury Manor Stud's Sergei Prokofiev.  The cool thing to say about this year's championship was that none of the new stallions seemed to be standing out from the crowd like Blue Point (Ire) and Havana Grey (GB) had done in previous years.  That may well be true, but...

A leading trainer in his native Venezuela, Jose D'Angelo decided that it was time to "head to the big leagues," and relocated to South Florida in 2019. After having GIII Sam F. Davis Stakes winner No More Time (Not This Time) on the GI Kentucky Derby trail this spring, winning his first career Grade I with Howard Wolowitz (Munnings) in the Aristocrat Franklin-Simpson Stakes at Kentucky Downs in September, and recording second-place finishes on the biggest of stages with Gabaldon (Gone Astray) in the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot...

3rd-GP, $60k, Msw, 3yo/up, 6 1/2f, 1:18p.m. ET Fashionably late to the party, but making it to the races for the partnership of WinStar Farm, Siena Farm, and Rockridge Racing, TUCSON (Constitution) seeks to validate their patience against a field of experienced maidens over the main track. Hammered down for $1.3-million at KEESEP in 2022 but later having to be resold by Keeneland the following spring, the chestnut has been working steadily for Todd Pletcher out at Palm Beach Downs. A half-brother to Grade I-winning and Royal Ascot Group 1-placed...

Julien Leparoux, a two-time Eclipse Award winning rider, collected his 3,000th career win aboard Pike Place (Street Boss) in the third race at Churchill Downs on Thursday, the track said in a press release that same day. Leparoux, 41, launched his career in 2005. Raised in Chantilly, France, Leparoux's passion for horses led him to Southern California in 2003, where he began as an exercise rider for trainer Patrick Biancone. He transitioned to race riding and earned the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey in 2006. Three years later he...

"We bought the bar with a credit card," recalls Ken Donworth. "Forty thousand bucks, credit card debt at 20 percent. And we paid it off in three or four months." He shakes his head. "That was 1998. I don't think I'd do it now. So we did take risks, no doubt. But we didn't get caught on any of those slippery slopes." On the contrary. In a college town like Lexington, Donworth and his partners soon figured that policing their customers' age was more trouble than it was worth. So...

Ramatuelle (Justify--Raven's Lady {GB}, by Raven's Pass), a 'TDN Rising Star' and recent winner of the G1 Prix de la Foret Stakes at ParisLongchamp, headlines the latest group of supplemental entries to Fasig-Tipton's November Sale which will take place on Monday, Nov. 4 beginning at 2 p.m. ET in Lexington, Kentucky, the auction company said in a release early Friday morning. The 3-year-old daughter of the Triple Crown winner and top sire will be offered as hip 310, and is consigned as a racing/broodmare prospect by Bedouin Bloodstock, agent. Winner...

The inaugural Keeneland Championship Sale--part glitzy party, part horse auction--will be held in the Del Mar paddock Oct. 30, offering invitation-only attendees, as well as off-site bidders, the chance to become owners of horses running in the Breeders' Cup at the oceanside oval just days later. The catalogue for the auction was released Thursday, revealing full or fractional interests available in four Breeders' Cup contenders, as well as a stallion share in a fifth championship starter. The 12 offerings in the auction also include a half-sister to a Breeders' Cup...

Blood, sweat and tears. That is what it took Michael Halford to turn Copper Beech Stables from a green field site into one of the most renowned racing yards in Ireland. One from which Group 1 and Royal Ascot winners were sent out and where the trainer managed the careers of over 100 steeds in his pomp.  Halford has trained more than 1,000 winners in his 41-year career, almost 500 of which were managed from Copper Beech during 16 full seasons there, but dwindling numbers during Covid and the separation...

If you really do reap what you sow, then Gavin Cromwell is set for a bumper harvest. A cool €1 million has been injected into the trainer's County Meath stable in the past year alone and the green shoots have already been sighted with the runners who were readied on the trainer's new five-furlong hill gallop burning up the track of late. Important winners they were, too. Diego Ventura (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) has been snapped up by Wathnan Racing after scoring on debut at Naas while Gowran Park winner An...

Royal Ascot winner Rashabar (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}) is set for a step up in trip on his next start as connections of Brian Meehan's colt have identified the G1 National Stakes at the Curragh as a likely target for the shock 80-1 winner of the Coventry Stakes.  Rashabar came close to providing Meehan with a third success in the Prix Morny when narrowly failing to reel in Aidan O'Brien's Whistlejacket at Deauville earlier this month. "There's a fair few options, but we will be sticking in Group 1...

Royal Ascot-winning sprinter Asfoora (Aus) (Flying Artie {Aus}) has run her last race in Britain this year and will return home to Australia, her trainer Henry Dwyer confirmed on Monday. Asfoora became the latest sprinter from the southern hemisphere to strike at Royal Ascot when claiming the King Charles III Stakes and went on to finish a narrow second in a titanic battle with Big Evs at Goodwood, before bowing out in the Nunthorpe Stakes. She was an honourable fourth on the Knavesmire as Archie Watson's Bradsell blitzed his way...