Volatile

TIMONIUM, MD - Midway through Monday's first session of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale in Timonium, one bloodstock agent quipped, "Turns out untimed works, work." The final figures of the auction's opening session--conducted a week after the company's first untimed under-tack preview show--seemed to bear the sentiment out, with the session's average and median concluding well ahead of last year's sale record-setting figures. "It was a tremendous start to the Fasig Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training sale," Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning said Monday evening. "There were pretty...

The same trainer-jockey combination Whit Beckman and Tyler Gaffalione teaming up with GI Preakness entrant Ocelli later in Saturday's card, enjoyed a victory earlier in the day when Bring the Smoke got up just in time to take the GIII Maryland Sprint Stakes at Laurel. The most lightly-raced 4-year-old with only three prior starts under his belt, Bring the Smoke, getting blinkers off this time, was given a 7-1 chance while stepping into black-type company for the first time in his career. Breaking from Post 1, he was pinned back...

TIMONIUM, MD - The first of two sessions of the under-tack preview of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale got underway under brilliantly sunny skies and a brand new format Tuesday at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium. Some 250 horses previewed over the track, and, while they were cascaded by the beeps of stopwatches from onlookers in the grandstand, Fasig-Tipton provided no times for the works. With forecasted wet weather later in the week, the under-tack show was condensed to two days, leading to close to nine...

Undefeated Taj Mahal (Nyquist) has been all the rage in the lead up to the GI Preakness Stakes, and his move Saturday morning will have done nothing to cool those feelings as the Brittany Russell trainee posted his fourth consecutive bullet move. Sent out to work five furlongs with exercise rider Alex Beitia aboard, he went in company with stakes winner Regalo (Maximus Mischief) early in the morning at 6:15am. Taj Mahal cruised through splits of :12 1/5, :24 1/5, :36 2/5, and :48 flat while leading his workmate throughout....

There is no truth to the rumor that T O Elvis (Volatile) stepped onto the Churchill Downs main track last Saturday to the Theme from 2001 Space Odyssey, the instrumental to which the horse's namesake took to the stage for wildly popular concerts in the 1970s. But when Elvis--T O, that is--'left the building' following a defeat of no fewer than seven last-out graded winners in a renewal of the GI Churchill Downs Stakes that was widely heralded as one of the best races of the year, there will have...

Trainer John Ennis said Great White (Volatile), who reared up and fell before he was loaded into the starting gate for the Kentucky Derby and was scratched, escaped without a scratch and is a strong possibility to run in the GI Preakness Stakes. "I've taken worse falls out of bed," Ennis quipped by phone Monday. Regular rider Alex Achard, who also escaped injury in the incident, is scheduled to ride. According to Ennis, the hulking colt will work an easy half-mile Saturday at the trainer's home base--The Thoroughbred Center in...

With a smashing five-length victory in the G3 Capella Stakes at Nakayama in December, Tomoya Ozasa's T O Elvis (Volatile) earned a place in the field for the G2 Riyadh Dirt Sprint in February. Connections elected to take a pass on that 1200-meter test--won by Imagination (Good Magic)--to give the colt more time to prepare for the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen at the back end of March. But owing to the ongoing hostilities in the region, T O Elvis's trip to Meydan was called off at the 11th hour and...

There will be no missing Great White (Volatile) when he heads to the starting gate for Saturday's GI Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. Trainer John Ennis reports that the gray gelding towers at over 17.2 hands tall, but he insists that any "Jaws" comparisons are a reflection of his imposing frame and not his disposition. "He weighs a ton, but he's just a big, kind old boy," Ennis explained on Wednesday after shipping Great White in from the Thoroughbred Center for a paddock schooling session. "His demeanor is fantastic. Nothing...

Three Chimneys Farm's Great White (Volatile) tuned up for his dirt racing debut in Saturday's GI Toyota Blue Grass by working a half-mile in company in :47.60 over a fast track a Keeneland Sunday morning. Working with the 3-year-old maiden Just Munny (Justify), Great White, accompanied by rider Omar Torres, started two lengths behind his stablemate and finished two lengths in front with fractions of :35.60, :47.60 and galloping out five furlongs in 1:01.20. "He started off slow but then flew down the lane and Alex [Achard] had a hard...

Multiple Grade I-placed Percy's Bar (Upstart), unraced since running third in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies behind juvenile champion Super Corredora (Gun Runner) and one of the likely favorites in the Kentucky Oaks in Explora (Blame), will make her return to the races Friday in the GI Central Bank Ashland Stakes at Keeneland. The Ben Colebrook trainee has been something of an enigma on the work tab, with an initial breeze Jan. 6 marked as her first since her troubled Breeders' Cup start, but nothing publicly listed after that...

Looking to build on an open-lengths allowance victory first off a December absence back on Feb. 11, Three Chimneys Farm's Igniter (Volatile) remained perfect at three with a popular victory in Saturday's $135,000 Jimmy Winkfield Stakes at Aqueduct. Sent off as the 3-5 chalk, the homebred was the first to break the line, but was overtaken on the front end by chief market rival Easy Decision (Charlatan) through an opening quarter in :22.78. Joined to his outside by 8-1 Time To Roll (Not This Time), leaving him in a somewhat...

Springing an upset in Saturday's John Battaglia Memorial Stakes at Turfway, 15-1 longshot Great White (Volatile) came from just off the pace to earn his first stakes win over 2-1 chance Fulleffort (Liam's Map). With the victory, Great White earned 20 points toward the 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby, while the runner-up collected 10 points. The race also serves as the local prep for the Mar. 21 GIII Jeff Ruby Steaks on the Road to the Kentucky Derby Championship Series. Dual stakes winner Street Beast (Street Sense), sent off...