thoroughbreds

With a strong turn of foot late in the game, Watchtower (Demarchelier (GB)--Zloty, by Exchange Rate) won the GIII Autumn Miss Stakes at Santa Anita, and in the process handed her second-crop sire his first black-type score. A two-time winner earlier this year when she was in the barn of Chad Brown, Watchtower moved west after changing hands for $310,000 at KEEAPR from owner Peter Brant to the partnership of Abbondanza Racing, LLC, Omar Aldabbagh and Michael Iavarone, who placed her into the Richard Baltas program. A back-to-back runner-up against...

Tuned for a big debut performance and well-supported by the betting public at 30 cents on the dollar, it was Cipriani (Bernardini--Salamera, by Successful Appeal) who had DeLorean-like flames behind her as she blazed a trail home to graduate at the 'Great Race Place' on Sunday afternoon. The $875,000 OBS grad, who was taken home in March by Speedway as the fifth highest return through the ring, showed interest early, but was not quite quick enough as a longshot and American Blessing (American Pharoah) tussled for the lead up the...

While her connections passed on an opportunity in the Breeders' Cup next weekend, 'TDN Rising Star' With the Angels (Omaha Beach) kept things rolling in New York with yet another stakes win in Sunday's Maid of the Mist Stakes. Dubbed a 'Rising Star' at Saratoga with an 11 1/2-length romp against New York-breds Aug. 22, she stepped out an additional furlong and put 9 3/4 lengths on the field in the Joseph A. Gimma Stakes Sept. 22. The no-doubt favorite at 1-9 trying the flat mile Sunday, With the Angels...

Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (TAA) will be at Del Mar for the Breeders' Cup World Championships as the official aftercare partner and will host several events, the non-profit said in a release Friday morning. TAA will be represented with two named races on Friday of Breeders' Cup weekend. Race 2, The GII Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Stakes is scheduled for 12:10 p.m. PT/3:10 p.m. ET. The GI FanDuel Breeders' Cup Juvenile presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance will be run at 4:45 p.m. PT/7:45 p.m. ET. After each race, a presentation will be...

6th-BAQ, $90K, Msw, 2yo, f, 1 1/16mT, 3:16 p.m. ET. DIVINE ROSE (Good Magic) has reached her unveiling under the watchful eye of trainer Cherie DeVaux. The John Gunther and Eurowest homebred is a half-sister to GI Central Bank Ashland Stakes heroine and 'TDN Rising Star' Leslie's Rose (Into Mischief). Both are out of unraced Wildwood Rose (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who herself is a half-sister to GI Kentucky Oaks runner-up My Miss Sophia (Unbridled's Song)--the dam of 'TDN Rising Star' and current sire Annapolis (War Front). Also set for a...

The Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI), a service provider and membership organization, has added to its board Dr. John Chancey and Connie Winn, the group said in a press release on Thursday. Both Chancey and Winn were appointed to fill vacant seats by the group's chair, Commissioner Doug Moore of the Washington Racing Commission. Dr. Chancey has been Executive Director of the Oklahoma Racing Commission since early 2023 and he currently serves as the Chair of the Drug Testing Standards and Practices Committee of ARCI. Winn, the Executive Director...

It has always been a small farm, and nowadays they're down to no more than half a dozen mares. Some of the more strenuous duties, moreover, have lately been contracted out. After all, Alfonso Mazzetti is not as young as he was. It's been a long and winding road since he used to ride a motorcycle, aged just 11, to the racetrack in Lima where he would shoot pool with the jockeys; never mind the many years in Colorado in between. Such a long and winding road, in fact, that...

Some of the best fillies and mares in the world will soon descend on Southern California for the Breeders' Cup. But one of the fastest fillies in the sport will spend the afternoon in a stall for the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff, while her trainer, Michael McCarthy. figures out path he wants to take with 3-year-old filly Accuracy (Arrogate). She's certainly not ready for the Breeders' Cup after maiden win, but a phenomenal performance in an Oct. 19 race at Santa Anita suggest the Mike Repole owned 3-year-old could...

6th-Keeneland, $116,200, Alw (NW2X)/Opt. Clm ($125,000), 10-23, 3yo, f, 1 1/8m, 1:52.16, ft, 1 length. NEON ICON (f, 3, Arrogate--Mademoiselle Coco, by Medaglia d'Oro) earned 'TDN Rising Star' honors on debut at Keeneland Apr. 17 with a 4 1/2-length score. The gray cleared the allowance ranks next time over a wet track at Churchill Downs May 23. Well-beaten in the GIII Indiana Oaks July 6, Neon Icon finished seventh in the GI Alabama Stakes at the Spa Aug. 17 and fifth in the Seneca Overnight Stakes under the Twin Spires...

Horse racing has a PR problem. Tina Bond has a possible solution. "It's to create a new narrative and to help elevate the sport," said Bond, president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (NYTHA), and the mastermind behind The Heart of Horse Racing, a new campaign--one undergoing something of a soft launch--to cultivate new followers to the game by sharing the stories of those already in it. In the campaign's own words, "our mission is to win over the hearts and minds of a new generation of fans while...

With so many roads now leading to Del Mar, traffic may feel pretty slow just now. But we should make a virtue of that, in that our preoccupation with the elite program tends to deny due attention to those achieving their success a tier or so below the very top. After all, such people have typically required no less skill, endeavor and patience, often denied the very highest rewards only through lacking similar parity in resources. Take the breeder of GIII Ontario Derby winner Dresden Row (Lord Nelson), whose emergence...

The "Heroes Day" program at Caymanas Park on the island of Jamaica had to be called off after the second race Oct. 21 when hooligan racegoers reacted violently to a controversial stewards' disqualification of an odds-on winner by upending garbage bins, hurling debris at horses and jockeys on the track and in the winner's circle, and blocking the tunnel between the paddock and the track. "After an initial announcement that the third event was abandoned, the day's meet was officially called off by the stewards, citing safety concerns," the Jamaican...