Sierra Leone
According to a report by David Grening in the Daily Racing Form, owner Peter Brant has taken away approximately 75 percent of his horses that had been trained by Chad Brown and moved them to new trainers. The Brant runners that have been moved will now be trained by Bill Mott, Riley Mott and Miguel Clement. It is not clear when Brant made the decision to take horses away from Brown. When contacted by text by the TDN Wednesday to address speculation that he was moving on to other trainers,...
Contrary Thinking (Into Mischief), who ran in a trio of Grade I races as a 5-year-old last year, has a new home as Amanda Gillman, acting on behalf of Lucky Hat Racing and Eric Bensussen, went to $130,000 to acquire him through the Fasig-Tipton May Digital Sale. Consigned by EliTE as agent for White Birch Farm, the gelding recently came off the bench at Belmont's Aqueduct meet Apr. 25. "He's a lightly-raced 6-year-old with a 2X condition, which is rare to find," Gillman said. "He's such a classy horse and...
Last year's Eclipse-winning 3-year-old male Sovereignty (Into Mischief) led the Kentucky-bred merits for 2025 along with his owner/breeder, Godolphin who were honored as KTOB Breeder of the Year. The full list of awards is: Broodmare of the Year: Crowned (Bernardini) (Owner: Godolphin) Horse of the Year, 3-Year-Old Male: Sovereignty (Godolphin) 2-Year-Old Male: Ted Noffey (Into Mischief) (Aaron & Marie Jones LLC) 2-Year-Old Filly: Super Corredora (Gun Runner) (Woodford Thoroughbreds, LLC) 3-Year-Old Female: Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro) (D. J. Stable) Older Dirt Male: Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) (Debby Oxley) Older Dirt Female:...
With a victory in Saturday's $12-million G1 Dubai World Cup--a fait accompli in the eyes of many--reigning Japanese Horse of the Year and GI Breeders' Cup Classic hero Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steel {Jpn}) would leap-frog Hong Kong superstar Romantic Warrior (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) as the world's richest racehorse with over $36 million in career earnings, accomplished in the space of just 15 races. Heady stuff. Unfathomable stuff, really. And to think that the 5-year-old is out of a mare that fetched just $8,000 as a yearling, well, you just...
Each year, our team at Taylor Made does a S.W.O.T. analysis for our business. The "T" represents threats, and we have consistently listed the shrinking foal crop as an existential threat to our business. We realize one farm alone cannot stop the tide of breeders exiting our industry, but we are trying to do what we can through our Premier Mare Program. We believe that breeding and raising thoroughbreds can be every bit as gratifying as racing them. Through PMP, we bring like-minded people together to buy quality mares which...
Peter Brant's investment in Gun Runner has paid dividends, and the momentum shows no signs of slowing down. Eclipse Award winner Sierra Leone, who Brant campaigned alongside the Coolmore group, headlines Brant's success with the sire. The champion retired to Ashford Stud this year as Gun Runner's all-time leading earner. A similarly composed partnership that includes Brant owns undefeated Paladin (Gun Runner), the recent winner of the GII Risen Star Stakes, as well as a Gun Runner colt out of GSW Thoughtfully (Tapit) who was purchased for $3.3 million at...
by Joel Politi I have been around horses since I was young and grew up with a 12-horse barn in our backyard. My Dad bred and raised almost all of the horses that he ran and I've been paying attention to breeding my whole life. I love this aspect of horse racing, have owned horses myself for more than 20 years and I bred our first mare in 2017. Currently have 12 broodmares, and Mark Taylor and Travis White with Taylor Made help me with all of my matings. We...
From an immediate-return standpoint, jockey Flavien Prat's trip to King Abdulaziz Racecourse on Saturday paid off handsomely. Imagination (Into Mischief) took home the $1.2 million winner's share of the purse in the G2 Riyadh Dirt Sprint, and the $3.5 million runner-up money earned by 'TDN Rising Star presented by Hagyard' Nysos (Nyquist) was a lucrative consolation prize for crossing the wire second behind dual-continent champ Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steel {Jpn}) in the G1 Saudi Cup. But there are tradeoffs to any business decision, and the future cost that the...
Paladin (Gun Runner) needed the length of the stretch to get there, but surged late to reel in pacesetter Chip Honcho (Connect) by a half-length in the GII Fasig-Tipton Risen Star S. over a speed-favoring course at Fair Grounds Saturday. 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' Golden Tempo (Curlin), a last-to-first winner of the GIII Lecomte S., was third. Making his sophomore debut after defeating subsequent Sam F. Davis S. winner Renegade (Into Mischief) in the GII Remsen S. at the Big A Dec. 6, the 3-5 chalk raced in...
Sovereignty (Into Mischief) capped off yet another massive evening at the Resolute Racing Eclipse Awards for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum's far-flung Godolphin operation, capping the festivities at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida, by being named America's Horse of the Year for 2025 by a wide margin. It marks the second time in three years that a horse bred and raced by Godolphin stole the show, following on from Cody's Wish (Curlin), who took down top honors in 2023. Godolphin was also named outstanding owner and breeder Thursday...
Already an Eclipse Award winner from last year, Flavien Prat has gone back to back and has once again been named Best Jockey. His 2025 campaign of 1,256 starts earned a record of 309-234-188 with earnings of over $40,460,428. His picked up wins aboard Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) in the GI Whitney Stakes and was named the Leading Rider for Keeneland's Spring meet. He also set a new NYRA record for wins on a single card, earning seven wins on the final day of the Belmont the Big A meet...
With a rating of 130, the Aga Khan Studs homebred Calandagan has been crowned Longines World's Best Racehorse for 2025, ahead of five horses from four different countries who all tied for second on a rating of 128. At a ceremony to mark the Longines Racing Awards at the Savoy Hotel in London on Tuesday, it was confirmed that the performance of Calandagan when winning October's G1 Champion Stakes at Ascot was the best produced by any racehorse on the planet last year. The son of Gleneagles - who also...