Skippylongstocking

A day after the closest finish in the history of the the legendary 500-mile road race not far away, there was horse power of a different variety on display at Horseshoe Indianapolis when Shadwell Stable's well related Nahla (Authentic) graduated in convincing style to enhance her future residual value. They didn't need a photo finish to call the winner of this one. The bay filly ran very well against much tougher in her first two appearances, finishing second over an extended mile at Tampa on debut Feb. 28 before rounding...

The purse for Churchill Downs's marquee race for older horses, the Grade I Stephen Foster on Saturday, June 27, has been doubled from $1 million to $2 million, according to a press release from the track on Wednesday. Billed as the "Summer Showdown," the 45th running of the 1 1/8-mile dirt race for 4-year-olds--which is part of the Breeders' Cup 'Win and You're In' Challenge Series--will be broadcast on NBCSN and Peacock from 4:30-6:30 p.m. (all times Eastern). Five of the world's elite dirt horses have already expressed interest in...

Corporate Power (Curlin) out-finished the veteran Skippylongstocking (Exaggerator) and a closing Baeza (McKinzie) to earn his first graded stakes win in Friday's GII Alysheba Stakes at Churchill Downs. The 5-1 shot, making his third start here for trainer Steve Asmussen, was last second by just a half-length to classy Louisiana-bred Touchuponastar (Star Guitar) in the GII New Orleans Classic at Fair Grounds March 21. As a 3-year with Shug McGaughey, he tried his hand on the Triple Crown trail with a narrow win in the Sir Barton Stakes at Pimlico....

The 2025 GI Preakness Stakes winner Journalism (Curlin) will ship to Hot Springs for the Apr. 18 running of the GII Oaklawn Handicap where the colt could face reigning Horse of the Year Sovereignty (Into Mischief), according to a Friday post on X by co-owner Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners. The tweet read, "JOURNALISM turned in a strong 5-panel move at Santa Anita Park in 1:00 3/5 this a.m. and has been declared all set by Michael McCarthy to make his seasonal debut in next Saturday's GII $1.25 million Oaklawn Handicap with...

Saffie Joseph, Jr. captured his 15th consecutive leading trainer title at Gulfstream Park with the conclusion of the track's Championship Meet Sunday, while Irad Ortiz Jr. finished as leading rider at the meet for a fourth straight time and a record-extending seventh time overall. It was the fifth straight Championship Meet title for Joseph, a 39-year-old native of Barbados whose string of success dates back to Gulfstream's 2021 Royal Palm stand. He had 45 wins and more than $4.7 million in purse earnings during the 72-day stand. "Obviously my name...

After a career of always showing up for a piece of the pie, it's finally Skippylongstocking (Exaggerator) who's the talk of the town, and the statesman strolled home to the roar of an appreciative Oaklawn crowd to confidently win the GIII Essex Handicap. The seven-year-old entire has been exclusively in graded stakes company since early April 2022, when he ran third in the GII Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. He never left the ranks after that, and placed at the highest levels every year since--hitting the board in the 2022 GI...

A total of 1,220 horses have been catalogued for the upcoming OBS Spring Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale, which will be held over four days Apr. 14-17. The catalogue is available online at www.obssales.com. Sale sessions will begin at 10:30 a.m. ET.  Hips 1 - 306 will sell Apr. 14 with Hips 307 - 610 going Apr. 15. Apr. 16 will offer Hips 611 - 916 with the sale concluding Apr. 17 with Hips 917 - 1220. The under-tack show will run from Apr. 6-11 starting at 8 a.m. ET each...

Daniel Alonso's Skippylongstocking (Exaggerator), who acted up badly on the plane that was meant to transport him to California for Saturday's GI Santa Anita Handicap and was subsequently scratched, is possible for one of two races over the coming weeks. "I always look at it as everything happens for a reason. No regrets," said trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr., who saddles three horses in Saturday's Barbados Gold Cup in his native country. "He'll probably run at Oaklawn in the Essex, or he'll run at Gulfstream in the Ghostzapper. I'm going to...

Skippylongstocking (Exaggerator) will be scratched from Saturday's GI Santa Anita Handicap after he acted up and had to be removed from an airplane in Florida Tuesday morning as his flight to California was preparing to take off. Mike Welsch of Daily Racing Form previously reported the story, quoting trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. "We could have tranquilized him," Joseph told Welsch. "But with the medication regulations I didn't want to take that chance just four days before the race. He's never done anything like this before, so I'm not sure if...

2nd-GP, $84K, Msw, 3yo, 6f, 12:01 p.m. ET. Al Loud (Quality Road), a $650,000 OBS April purchase by Tagermeen Racing, gets his career started for Todd Pletcher. Produced by GSW & GISP Genre (Bernardini), Al Loud previously brought $410,000 as a Keeneland September yearling. The Quality Road x Bernardini cross is also responsible for 2022 G1 Saudi Cup winner Emblem Road and 2019 GI Alabama S. heroine and narrow 2021 GI Breeders' Cup Distaff runner-up Dunbar Road. Gilded Bandit (Charlatan), drawn widest of all in post 11 for this unveiling,...

The Saffie Joseph Jr-trained White Abarrio (Race Day) will ship to Oaklawn to target the GII Oaklawn Handicap April 18, his trainer said Wednesday. Detailing next starts for his stable stars, Joseph said, "White Abarrio is going to come for the Oaklawn Handicap. That's the plan. Dubai is still in play for Skippy, but we haven't come up with a plan yet." Last seen finishing runner-up to stablemate Skippylongstocking (Exaggerator) in the GI Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park last month, White Abarrio also owns a win in the 2023...

It was nothing less than a perfect GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., who finished one-two in the $3-million race with Skippylongstocking (Exaggerator) and White Abarrio (Race Day). To talk about his big day at Gulfstream, his concerns that White Abarrio would not run well, and plans for the two 7-year-olds going forward, Joseph joined this week's TDN Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland. Joseph was the Gainesway Guest of the Week. White Abarrio had not run since the Aug. 31 GI Jockey Club Gold Cup...