War Like Goddess

Every few years the Eclipse Award goes to a horse (always a turf horse) who ships in from overseas--usually fresh--and wins a Breeders' Cup race and our designated voters make the horse an American champion. I remember going down to New Orleans 25 years ago to watch the 9-year-old gelding John's Call (Lord At War {Arg})--a people's horse if there ever was--be named champion turf horse after watching him win the Sword Dancer (by nine lengths) and the Man o' War. Unfortunately in the GI Breeder's Cup Turf he got...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - If the 2024 racing season at Saratoga Race Course wrapped up Labor Day weekend, why are so many of the best horsemen in the country still sticking around? Overlooking the famed Oklahoma Training Track, and, at the moment, enveloped in bright fall foliage, the former home to 2023 Horse of the Year Cody's Wish (Curlin) seems like a good place to start. "What did we win, five the last two years? That's not bad," Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott said with a smile standing outside...

Multiple Group 1 winner 'TDN Rising Star' City of Troy (Justify) was the first horse into the quarantine barn from the 11-horse Saturday evening ship-in for Ballydoyle at Del Mar, as per a Breeders' Cup release, which references information from the International Racing Bureau. The Aidan O'Brien-trained star is scheduled to make a first appearance on track Tuesday morning. Many of the European horses used the weighing scale in the quarantine barn and connections are reporting positive prognoses for their runners. The arrivals will remain in quarantine until Monday afternoon...

Arthur's Ride (Tapit), a disappointing fifth in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes Sept. 1 after posting one of the more impressive performances of the year in the GI Whitney Stakes Aug. 3, remains on target for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar Nov. 2. The stunning gray breezed five furlongs in 1:02.87 (1/2) for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott over Saratoga's Oklahoma training track over a surface labeled as "good" on a rainy Sunday morning Oct. 13, his fourth workout since the Jockey Club Gold...

The catalogue for the Fasig-Tipton November Sale, to be held Nov. 4 at Newtown Paddocks in Lexington, is now online. Featuring 300 catalogued head, the auction opens with an offering of 159 catalogued weanlings, including foals from the first crop of superstar Flightline (Tapit), as well as the first foals of sprint champion Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music), juvenile champion Corniche (Quality Road), and sophomore champion Epicenter (Not This Time). "Fasig-Tipton has assembled some outstanding November catalogues through the years, but this may be our deepest yet," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd...

The late English Channel was himself a two-time winner of the race now known as the GI Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, scoring in 2006 and 2007, the last of which preceded a victory in the Monmouth bog in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf a handful of weeks later. George Krikorian's outstanding turf distaffer War Like Goddess (English Channel) was in search of an unprecedented third straight win against the boys in the 12-furlong contest, but LSU Stables' 'TDN Rising Star' Far Bridge (English Channel)--whose dam sire Kitten's Joy (El Prado...

With just a neck separating National Treasure (Quality Road) and Senor Buscador (Mineshaft) in a thrilling renewal of the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes back in January, the two will meet for the third time this season in Saturday's inaugural GI California Crown Stakes at Santa Anita. Senor Buscador turned the tables on National Treasure and delivered a come-from-behind head victory in the $20-million G1 Saudi Cup Feb. 24, then was a well-beaten third in the $12-million G1 Dubai World Cup. Given plenty of time to bounce back following...

Loose on the lead and identified as a rabbit for fellow Klaravich Stables runner and Chad Brown stablemate McKulick (GB) (Frankel {GB}), Seth Klarman's Idea Generation (Ire) (f, 4, Dubawi {Ire}--Knocknagree {Ire}), by Galileo {Ire}) stole Saturday's GII Flower Bowl Stakes at the Spa, a 'Win and You're In' event for the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf. The longest shot on the board at 31-1, Idea Generation put them all to sleep while surprising everyone to notch her first career black-type win. MGISW and 6-5 favorite War Like...

It doesn't take long for the Kentucky Downs meeting to hit full gear, as Saturday's program features three graded contests, including the GIII DK Horse Nashville Derby Invitational Stakes, with prize money that could reach $3.1 million. The purse remains intact should one of the 10 Kentucky-breds--eight in the main body of the field and two also-eligibles--is home first over the mile and five-sixteenths journey along the Kentucky/Tennessee border. The four foreign raiders are ineligible for the KTDF money, but the base purse of $2.5 million already makes it one...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- George Krikorian's dependable War Like Goddess (English Channel) will make her age-matching seventh career Saratoga start Saturday in the GII $500,000 Flower Bowl. War Like Goddess has never been worse than third at Saratoga Race Course. The turf distance specialist won the 1 3/8-mile Flower Bowl in 2021, its last year as a Grade I, and was second by a neck in 2022. Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott did not run her in the race last year. The Flower Bowl will be her third start...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Ten days before the start of the Saratoga season, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott was typically optimistic and realistic about how his stable might follow yet another solid summer at the Spa. Long a force at Saratoga, where he has won or shared nine titles, Mott was without most of the heavy hitters from the lineup that carried him to an Eclipse Award: - Horse of the Year and champion Cody's Wish (Curlin), third in the GI Whitney in the experiment at 1 1/8 miles,...

Back on the hamster wheel, everybody. You know the drill. Usual freshman hype, please. Just remember to change the names--and not to dwell too unhelpfully on how things played out for those being talked up four or five years ago. But the legitimate, perennial challenge of the yearling circuit also abides, and likewise much of its color and character. Just not quite all. Not enough time has elapsed, certainly, to heal one aching void. For many of his compatriots, in particular, every barn we enter we still half-expect to hear...