Todd Pletcher

Eclipse Champion Juvenile Citizen Bull (Into Mischief) tops a list of 373 total 3-year-olds who were made eligible to this year's Triple Crown series, Churchill Downs announced Tuesday. This year's total represents a 7.8% increase from last year's 346 early nominations. Additionally, a record 69 Japan-based horses, trained by 33 different conditioners, were nominated, which shattered last year's record of 47. Sixty of the nominees have already won stakes races, including the top 10 point leaders on the Road to the Kentucky Derby: Citizen Bull, Speed King (Volatile), Coal Battle...

7th-Gulfstream, $73,260, Alw (NW1$X)/Opt. Clm ($75,000), 2-1, 3yo, 1m, 1:36.34, ft, 6 1/2 lengths. RIVER THAMES (c, 3, Maclean's Music--Proportionality, by Discreet Cat), tabbed as a 'TDN Rising Star' with a 94 Beyer Speed Figure on debut going six furlongs at Gulfstream Jan. 11, stayed perfect in style, stretching to a mile here. The rail-drawn, 3-5 favorite forced the issue from an inside second through an opening quarter in :23.89. He appeared to bobble slightly, but recovered quickly to challenge for command entering the far turn. The New York-bred enjoyed...

Shaking off a more experienced and favored rival at the top of the Gulfstream stretch, Blueberry Hill (Munnings) powered home in eye-catching fashion Thursday to become the latest 'TDN Rising Star' for Coolmore's Munnings. The 3-1 second choice behind third-time starter Keepsake (Into Mischief), the Todd Pletcher trainee led from the jump but never got too comfortable up front as her rival stalked just off her hip through much of the running through fractions of :22.43 and :45.43. As the top pair opened up a gap back to the rest...

7th-GP, $94k, Msw, 3yo, 1 1/16m, 3:21p.m. ET A $500,000 KEESEP purchase by Repole Stables in 2023, ADVENTURIST (Curlin) goes to post here for Todd Pletcher with Irad Ortiz Jr. in the irons. Out of GIII Comely Stakes victress Touching Beauty (Tapit), the chestnut is a half-brother to GISP Just a Touch (Justify) and SP Corps of Discovery (Unbridled's Song). His dam is herself a half-sister to GSP Tritap (Tapit) as well as SW Noisy Feet (Tapit), in turn the mother of SW What Say Thee (Sea The Stars {Ire})....

The English polymath John Ruskin, who was always hard at work scribbling a well-timed observation for some future generation to co-opt, said when it came to the weather, "Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather." Well, bully for you Mr. Ruskin! Send him a going stick and put him to work on the nearest turf course. Some might care to offer quite a different observation after recent events. What...

A week and a half before Saturday's Pegasus World Cup, Gulfstream Park's glitziest event of the year, former The Stronach Group (TSG) executive Keith Brackpool stood before an assembled group of industry stakeholders and warned them the event might not go ahead in 2029, even if a bill to decouple Thoroughbred horse racing from casino licenses passes the state legislature. "We have said, this passes, this bill passes, that we will commit to racing here at Gulfstream at least through 2028," Brackpool told the crowd, according to a recording of...

Listed Pegasus Stakes winner Tuscan Sky (Vino Rosso) will be staying in his same stall after Mike Repole purchased the 4-year-old colt for $450,000 from Spendthrift Farm during the Fasig-Tipton January Digital Sale which concluded Tuesday. West Bloodstock's Jacob West, who signed the ticket on Repole's behalf, noted that the colt would stay just where he was. "He'll stay with Todd [Pletcher]," said West. "He'll point towards all the older horse graded stakes that are out there. We thought he was a horse that offered a lot of upside for...

Hallandale, FL--The initial idea behind the GI Pegasus World Cup was rooted in the notion that Gulfstream Park's marquee race for older horses should attract the nation's top competitors to run for a lot of money before launching a championship racing season or heading off to the breeding shed. Of course, there was more nuance behind the earliest concept of the race, not to mention that others Pegasus Day events have been added since the initial renewal was run in 2017. However, the basic framework seemed to lend itself to...

Multiple stakes winner Lost Ark (Violence--Marion Ravenwood, by A.P. Indy) will begin his stud career next month at Sherry McLean's Northern Dawn Stables in Ontario. The 5-year-old stallion will stand for C$4,000, live foal. Lost Ark won the 2022 Sapling Stakes and 2023 Jockey Club Derby Invitational Stakes while racing for Harrell Ventures and trainer Todd Pletcher. He was also third in the 2023 GIII Saranac Stakes. On the board in six of 11 starts, Lost Ark won four times and earned $542,100. Out of stakes-winner Marion Ravenwood, Lost Ark...

Morning line 5-2 favorite Locked (Gun Runner) drew post 11 for Saturday's GI Pegasus World Cup during Sunday's draw at Gulfstream Park. Trained by Todd Pletcher on behalf of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Walmac Farm, the winner of last month's GI Cigar Mile has a single horse to his outside, that being the sole filly in the field, GI Alabama heroine Power Squeeze (Union Rags), who was given a 30-1 chance on the morning line. "He's a horse that we always felt would be better going longer, so we're looking...

He is 22 months into a two-year contract to train privately in Saudi Arabia for Prince Faisal bin Khalid Al Saud, a move that rejuvenated his career, but Jimmy Jerkens said he is ready to come home. Jerkens told the TDN that when his contract expires in March he will return to U.S. and resume his career at the NYRA tracks. It's not that Jerkens hasn't done well in Saudi Arabia. He's had 21 winners during his time there. And it's not that he doesn't have any quality horses. "We've...

7th-Gulfstream, $70,000, Msw, 1-11, 3yo, 1m, 1:36.83, ft, 2 1/2 lengths. GRANDE (c, 3, Curlin--Journey Home {GSW, $225,997}, by War Front) was off at a modest 9-1 in the face of Camp Hale (Mo Town), who was crunched into 1-2 favoritism on the back of a pair of big-figure runner-up efforts, including to 'TDN Rising Star' and recent Mucho Macho Man Stakes winner Guns Loaded (Gun Runner) when last seen over six furlongs at Churchill Downs back on Nov. 16. Given a positive ride from John Velazquez from the inside...