Todd Pletcher
Graded-stakes winning stablemates Locked (Gun Runner) and Crupi (Curlin) have been confirmed to make their 2025 debuts in the Jan. 25 GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream, according to trainer Todd Pletcher Sunday. Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Walmac Farm's Locked raced four times as a 2-year-old, including a win the GI Breeders' Futurity and a third to champion stablemate Fierceness in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile but was knocked off the Triple Crown trail earlier this year with a knee injury. The TDN Rising Star made his return with...
Spendthrift Farm LLC's Tuscan Sky (Vino Rosso) was among several horses Saturday morning tuning up for Pegasus World Cup Preview card held next Saturday at Gulfstream Park. Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, the 3-year-old breezed a half-mile at Palm Beach Downs in preparation for the GIII Harlan's Holiday Stakes, a prep for the $3 million GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational Jan. 25 at Gulfstream. Tuscan Sky, who is coming off a runner-up finish in the Discovery Stakes at Aqueduct Nov. 3, turned in the fastest clocking (:47.89) at...
9th-Gulfstream, $40,000, Msw, 12-14, 2yo, 1m, 1:39.43, ft, 1 length. VASSIMO (c, 2, Nyquist--Bsharpsonata {MGSW & MGISP, $595,010}, by Pulpit) worked four furlongs in :49 3/5 (12/25) out of the gate at Palm Beach Downs Dec. 6 and was off at odds of 2-1 in his debut run for Todd Pletcher at Gulfstream Park Saturday. Drawn widest of all in post nine going a one-turn mile, he stalked the leaders in a three-wide third through an opening quarter in :24.11. The bay hit the gas to take a narrow advantage...
6th-Gulfstream, $40,000, Msw, 12-13, 2yo, f, 1m, 1:41.21, ft, 1 1/4 lengths. RUTH (f, 2, Uncle Mo--Peppy Rafaela, by Bernardini), bet down to 3-5 favoritism for Todd Pletcher and owner/breeder Frank Batten, was a close-up third behind early pacesetter Queen in the Deck (Cairo Prince) through the opening quarter in :24.81. Fanned out widest of the group around the far turn and relegated back several slots, Ruth responded in kind to urging from jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. and found a high gear coming to the line, powering past the leader...
9th-Tampa Bay Downs, $32,000, Msw, 12-11, 3yo/up, f/m, 7f, 1:24.69, gd, 4 1/4 lengths. INTO AMORE (f, 3, Into Mischief--Embellish the Lace {GISW, $441,540}, by Super Saver) made the trip up off a solid worktab at Palm Beach Downs and was made the 7-5 choice to get her career off to a winning start. Ridden along to take up a chasing role in second down the backstretch beneath Pablo Morales, the homebred was more or less on even terms approaching the stretch and asserted through the final furlong to take...
Since finishing second in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, 'TDN Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light) has undergone what owner Mike Repole described as minor elective surgery on a hind ankle. The news was broken by Dave Grening in the Daily Racing Form on Sunday and reiterated Tuesday by trainer Todd Pletcher at the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program's Global Symposium on Racing, at which Pletcher was a featured speaker. "We had two vets look at him and one guy said you'll just turn him out for 60...
9th-TAM, $53K, Msw, f, 3yo/up, 7f, 4:30p.m. China Horse Club sends out the late-starting INTO AMORE (Into Mischief), a homebred daughter of GI Alabama winner Embellish the Lace (Super Saver). Trained by Todd Pletcher, the 3-year-old filly has been posting steady works at the Hall of Famer's Palm Beach Downs base in South Florida. The half-sister to GI Travers winner Afleet Express (Afleet Alex), herself a $2.4 million Fasig-Tipton November purchase in 2016, is responsible for a pair of $1.25 million Keeneland September yearlings--Tap the Faith (Tapit) in 2020 and...
Making just his second start of the season, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Walmac Farm's 'TDN Rising Star' Locked (Gun Runner) made up for lost time with a powerful performance against older horses in a loaded renewal of Saturday's GII Cigar Mile Handicap at the Big A. It was 1 1/2 lengths back to GI Forego Stakes winner and GI Breeders' Cup Sprint third Mullikin (Violence) in second. The overachieving Maryland-bred Post Time (Frosted), runner-up in the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, rallied from the back for third. One of the...
When the TDN staff decided to make Patch Adams (Into Mischief) and Chasten (Into Mischief) 'TDN Rising Stars' after their maiden wins Saturday at Churchill Downs history was made by trainer Brad Cox. Never before has a trainer had two Rising Stars on the same day. Both were obvious choices. Patch Adams ran away from his competition to win by 10 lengths. Chasten, a winner by 1 ½ lengths, wasn't quite as impressive, but that she is half-sister to 2023 Older Filly & Mare Champion Idiomatic (Curlin) obviously swayed the...
8th-Aqueduct, $95,000, Alw (NW2$X)/Opt. Clm ($62,500), 12-1, 3yo/up, f/m, 1m, 1:35.78, ft, 3 1/4 lengths. JULIA SHINING (f, 4, Curlin--Dreaming of Julia {Broodmare Of The Year, GISW, $874,500}, by A.P. Indy) was named a 'TDN Rising Star'--the fifth in her extended female family--after she broke her maiden at first asking over Keeneland's main track as a late juvenile. The well-bred filly won the GII Demoiselle Stakes that December, and the following spring she was third in both the Suncoast Stakes at Tampa in mid-February and in the GI Central Bank...
Amelia Green, 31, whose most recent racetrack job was as an assistant trainer to Todd Pletcher, wasted no time getting her own training career off to a fast as she won Sunday's first race at Aqueduct with her first ever starter. The win came with On Command (Omaha Beach) in a maiden special weight race. Green, a native of England, has served in several roles in racing, as a jockey, exercise rider, foreman and traveling assistant. One of her first stops in the U.S. was to work as an assistant...
If only Thomas Crown had been introduced to something like Centennial Farms, he might have spared himself a lot of trouble. As it was, the bored millionaire played by Steve McQueen in the 1968 classic sought his kicks from a bank heist, as an experiment in the perfect crime. And he instead confined his exposure to horses to the polo field. But that was where the fictional adrenaline junkie encountered a father and son who would subsequently provide their clients, in real life, with all the excitement they could need...