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Breakthrough Australian victory for Lord Penman
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Yulong dominates NZ Oaks
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Jaarffi gets deserved Group One victory
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Belle Cheval on target for $4 million NZB Kiwi
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Friday 20th February 2026
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Vale Reliable Man
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Te Akau’s NZB Kiwi triple threat
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Ritchie seeking fourth NZ Oaks crown
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Financier to make long-awaited return
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Group victory powers Cup hope across Tasman
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Coolmore purchases Super Seth
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Derby hope sold to Hong Kong
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Asakura confirmed for NZB Kiwi
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Fly Zenno to fulfil Oaks dream
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Ceolwulf cleared
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McNab keen to resume raceday competition
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Yes you mentioned the Big Dance targets months ago…. not happened and i very much doubt it will. In fact, wouldnt surprise me if its retired soon. -
6 races seems to be about as good as it's going to get, House has only 6 racing this week, still a good number of locals to keep them going, just as well, you do wonder if it's financially viable sending a trackside crew out to these places for 6 races, I think the dogs are on same day but they finish soon......Cambridge don't need 6 race cards, just one meet up north will mostly suffice, Gamma always says you need these small meetings for the small time trainers but you can easily schedule races to cater for them as well, even if only one day a week, 13 or so races ain't that awkward, it cuts down travel cost as well, when considering the one day a week scenario makes sense to have one track only, and I suggest Cambridge , going the right way around is at least a step in right direction. -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
The Cincinnati Trophy Stakes awards the top five finishers qualifying points on a 20-10-6-4-2 scale toward a spot in the starting gate in the $1.5 million Kentucky Oaks (G1) May 1 at Churchill Downs.View the full article -
By Chief Stipe · Posted
Remind me again how many horses you have trained to win anything? Probably a bit like your punting. Damask Rose has won $54k in two starts this time in PLUS chalked up some valuable Grp placings for her pedigree page. Hardly struggling. But if you had any clue about how horses are trained and the fact that in a prep there is one or two "big dance" targets you'd realise that her two 2026 runs at Caulfield have been very good. Add to that she hasn't had the cleanest of runs either. She holds a nominaton for the Queen of the Turf 1600m $1m Grp1 at Randwick in April. You'd know that of course as you do extensive research - not. My guess is there is a race for her in the 1500 to 1600m range before then at Grp level. -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
“Looking for the hidden gem.” That, to Mike Slezak, is the point of crossover; the place where his breakout success dovetails with a personal passion that has now evolved into a way of life. “Which means trying to ask questions in a different way,” he elaborates. “Not making assumptions, looking a little closer.” To the many who first encountered Slezak in his American Idol debrief shows, the next stage of the analogy will make perfect sense. “It's scouting for a contestant like David Cook,” he explains. “No-one thought he was going to win, when he started. But then it became, 'Oh, this guy's actually really good, if the world would take a minute to listen.' And they did, and he sprang the upset.” But the few of us to whom that means little-Slezak having evidently built a cult following in his mainstream role-can rest assured that the same infectious energy and investigative curiosity are proving every bit as effective in our own backwater. As an investor in bloodstock, Slezak has repeatedly picked out a clod of earth that later proves to contain a diamond. Over the past year or so, mares he has processed from the market basement have been upgraded by GI Belmont Derby winner Trikari (Oscar Performance); GI Kentucky Oaks runner-up Drexel Hill (Bolt d'Oro); GIII Southwest Stakes winner Speed King (Volatile); a couple of Grade II-placed stakes winners in Classic Q (Classic Empire) and Willy D's (Lookin At Lucky); and Grade II-placed Me and Molly McGee (Vekoma). Then, just last Saturday at Aqueduct, he could add second, third and fourth in the East View Stakes, two of them born at the Stonegate Stables of Bill Johnson – “one of my earliest and most enthusiastic supporters.” Slezak doesn't pretend to be the only guy dredging claimers for fillies and mares. But he does doubt whether anyone else can be doing it quite so obsessively. “I think there's probably a little ADHD in my brain,” he suggests with a smile. “My goal is to look at every single claiming race in North America every single day. I'll open Belterra Park PPs, and in no time I'm down a rabbit hole. Oh, this one has a half-sister by More Than Ready. So where is she? Has she been bred? What did her foals sell for? And you've got to look at every 2-year-old race, as well, to see what's percolating there: can you spot a future star, work backwards and try and find a sister?” With teenage twins with college on the horizon, however, Slezak accepts the practical necessity of sharing his endeavors with partners and clients. He first dipped his toe in the water while still in entertainment media, covering series like The Voice and How to Get Away with Murder. But it was a fast-changing environment. When he first started doing recaps of American Idol, he could file his copy next day. In the online era, he had to be engaging with viewers more or less as the credits rolled. Then he would regroup for YouTube interviews with contestants as they left the show. “Because I tried not to ask the same questions as all the other media outlets, the contestants would light up,” he recalled. “So, again, trying to approach things a different way. It was great fun, but you cannot do that every single day until 3 a.m. and get up next day and function with kids. Eventually, I realized I wasn't built for speed. I was really built for deep dives. So that's when my husband suggested maybe I could do this horse stuff full time.” Speed King winning the 2025 Southwest Stakes | Coady Media One early experiment was Athenian Beauty (Corinthian), a $8,000 claim at Calder in 2015. Slezak sent her on a mare share to Verrazano and cashed her out the following November for $125,000. She is meanwhile dam of Speed King. “It took a while for her to pay dividends for new owners, but she finally did,” he reflects. “And that's the interesting part of this business. If you claim a broodmare prospect, you won't know until maybe five years later whether she was the right buy.” The opposite, in other words, of being judged on your work as the credits roll. “The very opposite,” Slezak agrees. “And that's why it appeals to me. So seeing Speed King on the Derby trail last year was like, yes, proof of concept. Even though you're not the breeder, you have some fingerprints on what has happened.” As a breeder, however, it was actually in the sales ring that Slezak began his giddiest journey when giving $14,000 for Dynamic Holiday (Harlan's Holiday)-in foal to Oscar Performance-at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton February Sale. As a graded stakes winner, that price was a startling measure of her disappointing start as a broodmare. “I went to look at her and I was like, 'Damn, she's really nice,'” Slezak recalls. “She had not produced a single winner, and nobody wanted an exposed mare pregnant on a second-year book. But she was such a good racemare, and her dam had produced seven stakes horses.” So he consulted Amy Boll, a valued mentor in judging physique, who agreed to come in. As a result, they are listed as co-breeders of the Oscar Performance colt sold for $9,000 as a short yearling at Keeneland the following January-none other than millionaire Trikari. It is certainly typical of this exasperating business that they moved the mare on just before Trikari made his debut in 2023, having meanwhile sold a couple of foals. But it is no less typical that her fortunate purchasers apparently lost her within the year. Around the same time, Slezak hit another seam of gold, buying Ascot Walk (Daaher) with Kaylee Platt at just $5,000 at the 2022 Keeneland November Sale. “That was their budget,” he recalled. “Small backyard breeders, Kaylee and Liz, daughter-and-mom team. And the mare was a good runner: broke her maiden at Saratoga, won her first level allowance at Belmont. She was pregnant to Modernist, had a yearling filly by Mohaymen and was selling with a very nice Bolt d'Oro weanling.” Drexel Hill | SV Photography Sold for $37,000 as a yearling, the Modernist won on debut at Saratoga last summer as Grazie and has been stakes-placed in all three starts since. In the meantime the Bolt d'Oro is Classic-placed Drexel Hill, while the Mohaymen became graded stakes winner/GI Breeders' Cup third Regaled. Ascot Walk was sold after Drexel Hill broke her maiden, and obviously increased her value by the time Turning Point Bloodstock cashed her out last year for $550,000. But if those decisions are always hard to call, there is no arguing with how consistently Slezak has plucked an elite mare from the depths of the market. So what is his secret? “I'm a little obsessive!” Slezak replies. “What I notice is that most of the time there's a foundation of class. Whenever a horse can transition from $5,000 claimer to become a legit Kentucky mare, usually there's some class in there: either she showed something on the racetrack, like Ascot Walk and Dynamic Holiday, or there's a foundation pretty close up in the family that you can tap into. And then it's about reading what's not on the page-those updates that'll percolate in the next six, 12, 18 months.” We haven't finished, though, not by a long chalk. Louisiana-bred Secret Faith (Aurelius Maximus) is a ten-time black-type scorer out of a $4,500 Finger Lakes claim for Jay Adcock and Hume Wornall-and already preceded by two stakes-winnings siblings. Or how about the Sharp Humor mare bought for $2,000 at Keeneland in November 2018? Her 2-year-old by Fed Biz was unnamed in the catalogue but a bulb came on and Slezak recognized him as a debut winner at Gulfstream that summer: Zenden, later a Group 1 winner in Dubai. And back in 2016 there was an Uncle Mo filly Slezak claimed for $25,000 on debut at Tampa Bay. It was only after he sold her on, however, that her half-brother emerged as Tiz the Law. “My timing was not fully on there, but that's okay,” he says with a shrug. “I was on the right horse. The tough part of this business is that you can be right and not get paid. You can be right and get kicked in the face! So you need a lot of self-belief. You need endless optimism that eventually your timing will be right.” The fact is that he's getting the rest of it right to a freakish degree. “The catalogue page, or the Mare Produce Records, those are just the first clicks,” Slezak says. “Which is where that ADHD component kicks in. There's a blank second dam, but wait, she only had two named foals. If you're just zipping through the catalogue, you could dismiss a horse for things that are not their fault. So I guess if there's any overarching philosophy for my business, or why I think I'm good at what I do, it's that horses that slip through the cracks are a fascination for me. “I mean, there aren't that many $4,000 claimers worth going after. Let's get that on the record. They're rare. But there are horses where you pull up the dam and just get a tingling sensation. And when I've listened to that, it usually works out well.” Next up? A foray into the stallion business: Slezak purchased Arzak, a multiple Grade II winner, millionaire and track-record setter by Not This Time, on behalf of Amsterdam Two Farm in Middleburgh, New York, for the 2026 breeding season, and has stayed on board to help market the horse to Northeast breeders. “No small task, launching a stallion,” he admits. “But the response thus far has been incredible.” Slezak also recently joined the board of Wasabi Aftercare Fund, as “a way to give back to the sport that's given me so much.” Yes, he's still waiting for that home run on his own account. But he has middled too many curveballs for it not to happen sooner or later. “It's not easy to get noticed, as a rank outsider with no industry background or connections,” Slezak admits. “I'm the Finger Lakes shipper in this field. So if you want to be taken seriously, you just have to work twice as hard. I do a ton of research. Maybe that's the one thing I do as well as anybody. And the great thing about this business is that there will always be a new angle, a new idea. All I need is to find another Trikari, only this time bank the $1.3 million instead of $9,000!” The post Slezak’s Multiple Claims to Fame appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
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