TDN Rising Star

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-bred horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Tuesday's Observations features 'TDN Rising Star' Zanthos. 2.50 Leicester, Novice, 2yo, f, 7fT ZANTHOS (Sioux Nation) has so far done everything perfectly, from making €1 million at Arqana's May Breeze-Up to earning 'TDN Rising Star' status on debut at Newmarket, and now has to take the second step under...

A Tapit filly out of GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Sharing (Speightstown) sold to Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm for $1,500,000. Bred and consigned by Gainesway, the filly has plenty of Breeders' Cup in her pedigree with second dam Shared Account (Pleasantly Perfect) taking the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf in her racing career. Sharing has already produced one winner, the 3-year-old Into Mischief filly Sharedashenanigans.  

A colt by Not This Time (hip 66) sold for $1,600,000 Monday to Windancer Farms. Out of MSP Out Post, the colt is a half-brother to 'TDN Rising Star' and MGSP Jace's Road (Quality Road). He was bred in Kentucky by Colts Neck Stables and consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency.

With a rocket in his pocket and a willingness to take on all comers in stride, 'TDN Rising Star' Brant (Gun Runner--Tynan, by Liam's Map) put up his dukes in the GI Del Mar Futurity Stakes and landed Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert his record 19th score in the seaside oval's signature race on closing day. Every moment the colt has had an opportunity to hit the track he has done so with a gusto to the stop the clock as soon as possible--no sundials here. After going to...

Morplay Racing and Qatar Racing's 'TDN Rising Star' Shisospicy (Mitole) faced a couple of niggling questions entering Saturday's GII Music City Stakes at Kentucky Downs. Already accomplished over sharper turf sprint trips, how would she handle the extended 6 1/2-furlong distance of the $2-million contest, one, and two, what sort of lingering hangover might there be from an overseas trip to face the boys in the G1 Commonwealth Cup, when she dropped away tamely to finish in the latter third of that 21-strong field? Well, it took fewer than 75...

Bob Baffert will send out a capable quartet in Sunday's closing-day GI Del Mar Futurity, a race he has won the last four years and a remarkable 18 times overall. After sending out future GI Kentucky Derby winner Silver Charm (Silver Buck) to scoop the event for the first time back in 1996, he added the next six renewals. His personal honor roll is a veritable Hall of Fame, including champions Midshipman (1998), Lookin At Lucky (1999) and American Pharoah (2014) among the champions to have succeeded at the seaside....

A cool $15.6 million in prize money is up for grabs Saturday afternoon at Kentucky Downs, as a 12-race program features no fewer than five graded events each worth at least $2 million at distances from 6 1/2 to 12 furlongs. The GII Kentucky Turf Cup wraps up the main events on the afternoon, and a field of 11 will head to the post for a circuit of the undulating turf course, with a berth in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf on the line. Fort Washington (War Front) is arguably...

The mission was simple: go to the Keeneland September Sale with half a million dollars and come back with a horse that could get to the Kentucky Derby. Easy, right? Tom Benson had been out of the sport ever since he purchased the New Orleans Saints back in 1985. But now it was 2014 and he was ready to get back in the game. He recruited three trainers he knew from the Louisiana circuit--Dallas Stewart, Al Stall and Tom Amoss--and laid out the assignment. The outcome surpassed even the most...

Merely a satisfactory debut for Raaheeb (Sea The Stars) at Ascot on Friday would have sufficed, but Shadwell's brother to Baaeed and Hukum was in the winning mood to earn instant TDN Rising Star status with a certain bright future ahead. Almost certainly still a work in progress if pedigree is any guide, the Owen Burrows-trained 7-4 favourite was asked to take control by Jim Crowley approaching the furlong pole and readily asserted for a 1 1/4-length verdict over Pompette (New Bay). "We liked him at home, but he's so...

"There are decades where nothing happens," said Lenin. "And there are weeks when decades happen." By the notoriously slow-burning standards of Thoroughbred breeding, however, for Amy Moore it has felt more like a decade when centuries have happened. The way it began, in a sprint maiden at Saratoga on 16 August 2015, could hardly have been less auspicious. The previous September, as she prepared to surface from a 30-year immersion in employee benefits law in Washington D.C., Moore had bought a Blame filly at Keeneland. The idea was that someday...

In a day good for the runners who made the pace, Johnny's Red Storm (Twirling Candy) made every pole a winning one and took home the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint Stakes Sunday afternoon. The George Weaver charge came into this race off a sterling debut Aug. 3 at Saratoga, where he similarly took a field of auction-price restricted maidens gate-to-wire by four lengths. Training well in New York since then and shipped down for the race, the betting public liked him to the tune of 8-5 odds, and he was...

The GI Spendthrift Farm Hopeful Stakes is carded as the anchor for Monday's Labor Day festivities, which marks the last set of races for the season upstate. A scan through the past winners of the top-level affair over the past 25 years include a strong list of future sires. How about for starters Sky Mesa (2002), First Samurai (2005), Shanghai Bobby (2012) and Competitive Edge (2014)? More recently Practical Joke (2016), Mind Control (2018), Basin (2019), Jackie's Warrior (2020), Gunite (2021) and Forte (2022) got their picture taken before heading...