Saffie Joseph

We're learning more every day about the relationship between horses and mankind and how people struggling with such things as PTSD so often thrive and recover when working closely with horses. But can it work the other way? Can a human have such a positive and calming effect on a horse that a bond and relationship develops that makes the horse prosper? In the case of GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational winner White Abarrio (Race Day) and his groom Eduardo (Lalo) Diaz, it looks like that might be the case....

Talk about a tried and true stakes horse. Since breaking her maiden at Woodbine in Sept. 2023, Mystic Lake (Mo Town) has contested nothing but stakes or graded stakes races and, with her win in Saturday's GII Inside Information Stakes, has earned over $1,000,000 while also winning such races as the GIII Miss Preakness Stakes and the GII Charles Town Oaks both last year. 5 3/4 lengths behind Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) in the 1 1/16-mile GI Cotillion Stakes at Parx in September, the daughter of...

A total of 1,123 entries, including 81 Group or Grade I winners from no fewer than 21 racing jurisdictions from all over the world were received for the 2025 Saudi Cup meeting, to be held Friday and Saturday, Feb. 21 and 22 and King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh. The entries were released Friday by the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia (JCSA). (See TDN Europe for the entries to the meeting's turf events) Some $38.1 million in prize money will be on offer over the course of the weekend, headed up...

Though he won the 2022 GI Florida Derby with White Abarrio (Race Day), Saffie Joseph, Jr. isn't necessarily thought of as someone to fear on the roads to the GI Kentucky Oaks and GI Kentucky Derby. His bread and butter remains claimers and tough older horses like the now 5-year-old White Abbario and Skippylongstocking (Exaggerator), who won this year's GII Oaklawn Handicap and the GII Charles Town Classic Stakes. But that may be about to change. It's early yet and Todd Pletcher has yet to send his first string to...

About a year before Drayden Van Dyke won the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint aboard Soul of An Angel (Atreides), no one would have thought he was about to win any sort of major race. His career in shambles, he went 5-for-136 in 2023, and he knew it would not be easy to bounce back. But the story changed. It's now about perseverance. Van Dyke is in Florida, getting ready for the Championship Meet at Gulfstream. His mental health has improved dramatically and, most importantly he is winning...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - If the 2024 racing season at Saratoga Race Course wrapped up Labor Day weekend, why are so many of the best horsemen in the country still sticking around? Overlooking the famed Oklahoma Training Track, and, at the moment, enveloped in bright fall foliage, the former home to 2023 Horse of the Year Cody's Wish (Curlin) seems like a good place to start. "What did we win, five the last two years? That's not bad," Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott said with a smile standing outside...

National Treasure (Quality Road), who gave eventual Horse of the Year Cody's Wish (Curlin) everything he could handle before going down grudgingly in last year's GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, will miss this year's event with a foot issue, Daily Racing Form reported Friday afternoon. Winner of this year's GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. and GI Metropolitan Handicap either side of a close fourth in the G1 Saudi Cup, the 4-year-old may have struggled with an off track when sixth to Arthur's Ride (Tapit) in the GI Whitney Stakes...

Repole Stable's 'TDN Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light), expected to vie for favoritism in next Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar, turned in his final breeze Friday ahead of the $7-million centerpiece of championship weekend, going a half-mile in :48.98 over the Oklahoma training track. With his regular work rider Danny Wright in the irons, the homebred began his work slightly behind a workmate, drew alongside at the entrance to the stretch and was in front at the line before galloping out five furlongs in 1:02 1/5....

Bellavinino (Get Stormy), a latest second in the $1-million Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies Stakes, brought a final bid of $170,000 from prominent owner/breeder Bill Heiligbrodt to top the Inglis Digital USA September Sale. Bred by Brian Burns's Mt Joy Stables Inc. the dark bay filly easily defeated $35,000 maiden claimers on Gulfstream Park debut July 28 ahead of a fourth in a $250,000 restricted allowance test at Kentucky Downs Aug. 29. Returned on 10 days' rest for the Juvenile Fillies, Bellavinino was always handy to the pace and overcame some...

White Abarrio (Race Day), the winner of the 2023 GI Breeders Cup Classic, is close to his first workout after being given a freshener by his connections. However, co-owner Mark Cornett reports that the now 5-year-old horse will not be ready in time to defend his title in this year's Breeders' Cup. "The Breeders' Cup Classic is not in our plans," Cornett said. "We're not going in that direction. There's no way he can be ready for that and we want to get a good race in him off this...

Saffie Joseph, Jr. collected his 10th Gulfstream Park training title in a row, while Edgard Zayas regained the top spot in the jockey standings when the Royal Palm Meet concluded Sunday. Joseph broke his own Royal Palm Meet record with 93 victories, eclipsing the 71 winners he sent out during the 2021 stand. Zayas, who won the Royal Palm Meet title in 2020 and 2021, was third in the standings in 2022 and 2023. During this year's meet, he regained the top spot in the standings with 112 winners. Ken...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.-Just the mere fact that a $3,500 yearling has won two races of any kind at Saratoga this summer, puts The Queens M G (Thousand Words) in a "that's impressive" category. In the GI Spinaway Stakes Saturday, she will try to add to her reputation by completing the rare sweep of the track's three stakes for 2-year-old fillies. The Queens M G scored in the 5 1/2-furlong Schuylerville Stakes, long the opening day feature, by 2 3/4 lengths at 44-1 July 11. She crushed the six-furlong GIII Adirondack...