Sibelius

Defending G1 Dubai World Cup winner Ushba Tesoro (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) features among 868 individual horses from 19 countries nominated to run at the $30.5-million Dubai World Cup meeting on Saturday, March 30. In total, more than 1,400 entries have been received across the nine races and Ushba Tesoro is one of 200 from Japan as he tries to become only the second dual winner of the $12-million Dubai World Cup (Sponsored by Emirates Airline) after Thunder Snow (Ire) (Helmet {Aus}) in 2018 and 2019. Incidentally, Thunder Snow also won...

A pair of graded stakes races will signal that the Gulfstream Park Championship season is officially underway on Saturday. First, the GIII Sugar Swirl S. for older females going six furlongs on the main track includes veteran mare Bluefield (Field Commission), who won by a neck against state-breds in a Tampa black-type race Dec. 9. "She went up to Tampa and it was nice to get a stakes win on her resume at this age," said trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. "She came to us late but she just keeps getting...

Not This Time (Giant's Causeway), whose three-time Grade I-winning son Up To the Mark is a leading candidate for the GI Breeders' Cup Turf and Horse of the Year honors, will stand the 2024 breeding season for a fee of $150,000, stands-and-nurses terms, at Taylor Made Stallions. Not This Time stood the 2023 season for $135,000. The sire of 2022 champion 3-year-old male Epicenter, Not This Time has gone from strength to strength this term, and sits in eighth position on the general sire list with better than $10.4 million...

Hoist the Gold (Mineshaft) punched his ticket to the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint with an overdue first graded stakes win in Friday's 'Win and You're In' GII Stoll Keenon Odgen Phoenix S. at Keeneland. He finished third in the GI Runhappy Malibu S. at Santa Anita last December and second in this year's GI Churchill Downs S. on the Kentucky Derby undercard. He fell just a neck short in this spring's GIII Commonwealth S. in Lexington. Last seen finishing a well-beaten sixth in the GII Pat O'Brien S. Aug. 26...

The fall isn't really, The Fall, until Keeneland arrives. Well, get your steaming pot of burgoo ready, because it's here. Scheduled for Friday, Oct. 6, the meet's opening day at the Old Keene Farm is upon us and the 10-race card includes a trio of graded stakes which all have Breeders' Cup 'Win and You're In' implications. Leading off is the GII Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix S. for 3-year-olds and up going six furlongs on the Main Track. Suitors for the GI Breeders' Cup Qatar Racing Sprint include MSW Bango...

Before bidding commenced for the second and final session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, a share in leading Taylor Made stallion Not This Time (Giant's Causeway--Miss Macy Sue, by Trippi) was hammered down for an even $2 million. The share was purchased by D. J. Stable, BlackRidge Stables, Barry Fowler and John Cummins, according to Taylor Made's Mark Taylor. The sale of the share was coordinated by Taylor Made Sales and is subject to a 10-day match from the syndicate. Not This Time stands at Taylor Made Stallions in Nicholasville,...

A share in leading sire Not This Time figures to provide some fireworks when it kicks off the action Tuesday night at Saratoga. The sale of the share is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Not This Time is the sire of five Grade I winners from three crops to race, and is the leading fourth-crop sire of 2023. The share includes all projected income from the 2023 breeding season. Shareholders receive one nomination annually, plus their proportional share of the excess book. (See complete details here.) Not This Time is governed...

Ever since she was a young girl, Chelsie Raabe had dreamed of reaching the pinnacle moment in her career as an equestrian, where she envisioned one day standing atop the Olympic podium or making the victorious walk out following a clear cross-country round at the Land Rover Three-Day event. But it wasn't until the evening of March 25 at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai, as she looked up at a bustling grandstand that echoed with the crescendo of excited fans awaiting the start of the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen on...

Jun Park and Delia Nash's Sibelius (Not This Time), last seen posting a thrilling victory in the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen at Meydan Racecourse Mar. 25, will bypass the GII True North S. at Belmont Park June 10 in favor of next weekend's $225,000 Listed Aristides S. at Churchill Downs, trainer Jeremiah O'Dwyer said Monday. "He's stabled here at Keeneland and it's only up the road," the conditioner told the NYRA press office. "We'll have a look at the race and see what post position we get and how the...

  When Saint Ballado came to the farm, Duncan Taylor recalls Les Brinsfield telling him to try Mari's Book mares. "Mari's Book!" he exclaims now. "It's not like there were Mari's Book mares all around, out there in the population. But Les was a smart guy, very analytical." And it was easy to see the logic: Mari's Book was by Northern Dancer out of a Maribeau mare; and Maribeau, like Saint Ballado's sire Halo, was out of Cosmah--whose half-sister Natalma, of course, gave us the sire of Mari's Book. Plenty of...

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- It would be difficult to imagine that anyone has embraced and enjoyed their time in the Emirates more than trainer Jeremiah O'Dwyer, his wife Alison and exercise rider Chelsie Raabe. From the perspective of the 130 or so horses taking part on World Cup Night, the same could perhaps be said for Sibelius (Not This Time), who would make his way to the Meydan main track about the same time the sun was peeking over the horizon, then would just stand there, like class horses...

There are American pedigrees galore that feature in the 73-strong catalogue for the Goffs Dubai Breeze-Up Sale, which takes place Tuesday afternoon in the saddling enclosure at Meydan Racecourse. With the lowering of COVID-related travel restrictions in 2022, European-based resellers were a noted presence at this country's yearling auctions last summer and fall, and with the increased focus on dirt racing in the Gulf region--not only at the racetracks of the Emirates Racing Association, but also in Saudi Arabia and, to a lesser extent, Qatar--it stands to reason that American-bred...