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    • Despite a few downgrades due to weather and a cancellation here and there, the U.S. and Canada still combined to run 446 graded races in 2025. What stands out after another full year of North American graded racing is in the books? All 98 scheduled Grade I races were run, with just three horses scoring a trio of successes at the elite level: Journalism, Sovereignty, and Ted Noffey. Another nine horses doubled up with two Grade I wins on the year. In addition to the 98 Grade I events, there were 136 North American Grade II races and 212 Grade III races. Sovereignty and Nitrogen tied for the most graded wins in 2025 with five. Hot on their heels were Bishops Bay, Fionn, Journalism, and Thorpedo Anna, who each had four graded wins. One sire notched five individual Grade I winners in North America in 2025: Into Mischief. Gun Runner, Not This Time, and Nyquist were right on his heels with four individual GISWs, while Dubawi (Ire), Liam's Map, Medaglia d'Oro, Ten Sovereigns (Ire), and Twirling Candy each had three. Another nine sires scored with two coveted Grade I winners apiece. Into Mischief also led the individual graded stakes winner tally with 17 on the year in North America, while Not This Time (15), Gun Runner (14), and Nyquist (11) also breached double digits. 24 of North America's graded races were won by runners out of Bernardini mares, making the late stallion far and away the leading broodmare sire by graded wins in 2025. Uncle Mo had 17 graded wins as a damsire, while Street Sense and Tapit each ended the year with 16. In the Grade I category, Bernardini, Distorted Humor, and Uncle Mo tied with six Grade I wins apiece, but it was Distorted Humor in front with five individual GISWs while Bernardini and Uncle Mo had three each. 58 of the Grade I races were contested on dirt, with the remaining 40 on grass. Overall, 224 of the 446 graded races ran on the main track, with another 195 on the lawn and 27 on all-weather surfaces. 37 of the 98 Grade I races were won by homebreds, whether raced by their breeders outright or with additional partners. At least 142 of the 446 graded races in 2025–or nearly a third–were won by homebreds. Godolphin bred four individual Grade I winners in North America, Juddmonte bred three, and Don Alberto Corporation and Spendthrift Farm each bred two. While a number of programs bred multiple graded winners, one stands especially tall: Godolphin bred the winners of 25 North American graded races in 2025. Those represented 15 individual graded winners, 12 of which were campaigned as homebreds when they visited the graded winner's circle in 2025. 231 of the 446 graded races were won by graduates of Fasig-Tipton, Keeneland, or OBS. The priciest were Barnes ($3,200,000 Ylg '23 FTSAUG), Brant ($3,000,000 2yo '25 OBSMAR), and Lush Lips (GB) ($3,700,000 3yo '25 KEENOV). On the flip side, Argos, Chunk of Gold, Nobals, Regaled, Sultana, The Queens M G, and White Abarrio all sold for $10,000 or less at domestic sales. There's a three-way tie for most Grade I wins among trainers. Bob Baffert, Chad Brown, and Todd Pletcher each won 10 in 2025. Baffert (35), Brown (28), and Brad Cox (26) led the year by graded wins. Fun facts: Not This Time sired the trifecta in the GII Jessamine Stakes on opening day of Keeneland's fall meet and the superfecta in the GIII Bryan Station Stakes on closing day of the same meet… The First Defence mare Antonoe produced two new Grade I winners in 24 hours at the end of November when Salamis won the Hollywood Derby and Segesta won the Matriarch Stakes; both race as homebreds for Juddmonte… Four specific crosses resulted in two 2025 Grade I winners each: Gun Runner over Malibu Moon, Into Mischief over Distorted Humor, and Liam's Map over Scat Daddy. The post 446 Graded Races in 2025: What Did We Learn? appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
    • By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk  Junior driver Kate Coppins finds herself in an unusual position at the Wairarapa Harness Racing Club’s short and sharp dual code meeting at Tauherenikau on Friday. All four of her drives on the four-race programme are on heavily-favoured runners for Michael House. “I am very excited for it,” she says, “Micky always has all his horses on point.” Her drives will be Koko Kaboom (R1), Big Gee (R2), Million Dollar Chic (R3) and Goorambat Art (R4). Both Koko Kaboom and Million Dollar Chic back up after unplaced efforts at Alexandra Park on New Year’s Eve.  “Koko Kaboom, I’ve had a good combination with him, and had a win and third with him, he’s a lovely horse.” “The 50 metre mark is a bit of a push over 2000 but if I step and get handy he’ll be there at the finish.” Million Dollar Chic is the shortest priced favourite of her four drives at $1.85. “Going onto the grass will be a big help and she’s racing pretty consistently.” Big Gee is a newcomer to the House stable, with a career record of no placings from 12 starts but Coppins is confident he can turn that around. “I’ve watched some of his videos and he has ability and some potential.” Her final drive will be Goorambat Art, who’s drawn one the second row.  “He’s a good boy, he’s been racing very consistent.” In 2025 Coppins had four of her 19 wins for the House stable. She has 22 wins overall.  She started driving for the stable after first getting to know the Houses through Kidz Kartz. “Wilson and I represented New Zealand in Australia,” Coppins says.  And Coppins was delighted to see Wilson cap off a brilliant 2025 by winning the Junior Drivers premiership for the first time. “I was bloody happy for him – he’s a great guy.” While Coppins is driving at Tauherenikau, Wilson House will have six drives at Friday’s Central Otago Trotting Club’s meeting at Omakau.  Employed full-time at Arna Donnelly’s Cambridge stables Coppins  has a target for 2026. “I’d like to get to 50 career wins by the end of the year.” Judging from her book of drives on Friday she could get off to a cracking start. To see the Tauherenikau fields click here    View the full article
    • The horses were tougher but I think there was more respect.  Most licensees called the Stipes "Sir".
    • The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) wrapped up Aqueduct's fall meet Wednesday with Flavien Prat taking the leading rider title and Linda Rice taking the leading trainer honors. Prat's 46 wins included nine stakes victories and five graded victories. His record for the fall stands at 136-46-21-15, earnings of $3,247,016, and a win percentage of 33.82%. Manny Franco was second with 33 wins, while Kendrick Carmouche was third with 25 victories. Rice notched her fourth consecutive Aqueduct fall meet training title with 31 wins and an overall record of 139-31-24-23. Her win rate was 22.30%, while her earnings stand at $1,788,075. Chad Brown was second with 19 wins and Tom Morley was third with 10 wins. It was a 31st owners' title on the NYRA circuit for Seth Klarman's Klaravich Stables, with 10 fall meet wins that included six stakes scores. Klaravich Stables completed the meet with a 20-10-2-2 record and $877,183 in earnings. Rice finished second with nine wins and Tristar Farm finished third with eight wins. In addition, rider Manny Franco secured top honors as NYRA's leading jockey of 2025 with 206 wins across the circuit's six race meets. Franco won his fourth year-end title at NYRA following victories in 2018, 2019, and 2023. Franco won this year's Aqueduct winter title and Belmont at the Big A fall title, as well as 19 stakes at NYRA tracks in 2025, including with Test Score (Lookin At Lucky) in the GI Belmont Derby. “It's amazing,” Franco said. “First of all, I want to say thanks to God for letting me do what I love. I'm just happy to get the opportunity from all the owners and trainers in New York. My agent, John Panagot, has been doing a tremendous job and I'm happy to be the leading rider for the fourth time in New York. It's not easy, but it's not impossible either. You've got to work hard and that's what I've been doing since I came here. You never take anything for granted.” Franco's NYRA stats for 2025 are 1,164-206-205-195 with earnings of $15,851,470 and a win rate of 17.70%. Kendrick Carmouche was second with 178 wins and Flavien Prat was third with 168 wins. Trainer Linda Rice, who established a single-season NYRA record of 165 training wins earlier in December, finished the year with 172 victories. Rice captured three meet training titles this year at Aqueduct: winter [51 wins], spring [15 wins] and fall [31 wins]. Rice finished the year with NYRA stats of 808-172-139-120. Her purse earnings reached $9,561,873 and her win rate was 21.29%. Chad Brown was second with 127 wins, while Todd Pletcher was third with 78 wins. “2025 has been a great year overall,” said Rice. “The team has really performed and have been putting in the hours, energy, and expertise. My clients have given me the opportunity to go different directions and that allows you to have success when they give you that latitude to make sometimes difficult decisions.” Rice also clinched the NYRA year-end owners' title with a total of 61 wins and three meet owners' titles: Aqueduct winter [22 wins], Aqueduct spring [six wins], and Belmont at the Big A fall [10 wins, tie]. As an owner, Rice completed the year with a 273-61-45-39 record and $2,833,134 in total purse earnings. Klaravich Stables finished second with 46 wins; Michael Dubb was third with 38 wins. Live racing resumes Thursday at Aqueduct with an eight-race card for opening day of the winter meet. First post is 12:40 p.m. ET. The post Aqueduct Fall Meet Wraps with Honors for Prat and Rice, Franco and Rice Secure Year-End NYRA Titles appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
    • they had a speedy mare recently that did a similar thing Chief. Kiwi lad Jack Trainor (currently disqualified for 18 months) had a Mark Jones mare , the Bettor's Delight sired STYLISH MEMPHIS , who had average results n NZ , but really took off at Menangle through 2021-2022,  winning the $200k Ladyship and $200k Queen Elizabeth GROUP 1's for Mares. one of them in a quick 1.49.2.  Stylish Memphis even a bold 4th in the Chariots Of Fire and also in the Biggest race going, the Miracle Mile itself ,she was 6th in fast time against the boys too.  Makes perfect sense they would try the same approach with their next speedy mare. Tokyo Rose might be it ???  Best of luck to her NZ connections. 🏆💰   
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