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Cindy McDonald Joins TRF Board of Directors
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ITA Hosts Fifth Stallions & Services Auction
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NYRA Bets Approved as Vendor in Pennsylvania
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Half to Mangoustine Debuts at Kempton
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Group 1-Winning Trainer Rae Guest to Retire
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Annette Covault Passes Away
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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Charles Fipke's Ready for Shirl (More Than Ready) hadn't visited the winner's circle since January, however, she found the right time to mark her return, collecting her first taste of black-type in the process, in Sunday's GII Canadian Stakes at Woodbine. Favored Gimme a Nother (SAf) (Gimmethegreenlight {Aus}) soon went to the front, slowing the pace to a modest :24.60 and :49.37 as Ready for Shirl set up shop about three lengths behind in the early stages of the nine-furlong test. Continuing to dawdle along through three quarters in 1:14.24, Gimme a Nother cornered for home in front, and it looked like the South African Group 1 winner was going to add her first stateside win as well. Given some solid encouragement down the long straight, Gimme a Nother remained tough, however, Ready for Shirl drew closer with each stride, catching the front runner in the final jump to eke out the win. Stakes winning and graded placed Venencia (Fr) (Recoletos {Fr}), who was camped out at the back early, also kicked on late to get up and grab third. “She's been training exceptional,” said winning rider Emma-Jayne Wilson. “Her last breeze last week on the training track turf was quite stellar, both physically and mentally. And so, she kind of telegraphed to us that she was going to showcase a big day today, and she, she showed up exactly as we expected.” A winner of two of six starts last term, the Fipke homebred kicked off 2025 with a score in an off-turf Gulfstream optional claimer in January before finishing seventh in the one-mile GIII Honey Fox Stakes over that turf course in March. A distant fourth in a main-track allowance at Keeneland in April, the bay was third in the GIII Belle Mahone Stakes over Woodbine's Tapeta surface before coming up just 3/4-of-a-length short of the win in the one-mile GII Nassau Stakes on the turf June 28. “I remember saying her last work, it was as good as she's ever worked for me,” said dual Hall of Fame trainer Roger Attfield. “She's carrying more weight than she's ever carried before, and since her last race, she's put weight on. I've always had problems keeping weight on this filly, so she was indicating that she's rounding into a really nice filly now.” Pedigree Note: With Sunday's Canadian victory, Ready for Shirl gave her late sire his 109th career graded stakes scorer. The 4-year-old is out of GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf heroine Perfect Shirl, herself a daughter of Grade I winner Lady Shirl. Also a homebred for Fipke and trained by Attfield, Perfect Shirl is also responsible for GISW Shirl's Speight (Speightstown) and was most recently bred to Gun Runner. Perfect Shirl is a half-sister to Grade I winner Shakespeare (Theatrical {Ire}) and GSW Lady Shakespeare (Theatrical {Ire}), herself the dam of three-time Canadian champion Lady Speightspeare (Speightstown). Sunday, Woodbine CANADIAN S. PRESENTED BY THE JAPAN RACING ASSOCIATION-GII, C$200,000, Woodbine, 7-20, 3yo/up, f/m, 1 1/8mT, 1:49.57, gd. 1–READY FOR SHIRL, 121, f, 4, by More Than Ready 1st Dam: Perfect Shirl (GISW-USA, GSP-Can, $1,390,729), by Perfect Soul (Ire) 2nd Dam: Lady Shirl, by That's a Nice 3rd Dam: Canonization, by Native Heritage 1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. O/B-Charles Fipke (KY); T-Roger L. Attfield; J-Emma-Jayne Wilson. C$120,000. Lifetime Record: 12-4-2-1, $279,987. *1/2 to Shirl's Speight (Speightstown), GISW-USA, GSW & GISP-Can, $1,497,245 and Speightstown Shirl (Speightstown), GSP, $119,038. Werk Nick Rating: D+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue- style pedigree. 2–Gimme a Nother (Saf), 124, m, 5, Gimmethegreenlight (Aus)–Nother Russia (Saf), by Tiger Ridge. O-Newstead Stables LLC; B-Wilgerbosdrift & Mauritzfontein (SAF); T-H. Graham Motion. C$40,000. 3–Venencia (Fr), 121, m, 5, Recoletos (Fr)–Sign of Life, by Lemon Drop Kid. O-Bradley Thoroughbreds, Laura Leigh Stable, Jim Cone, Belmar Racing and Breeding, LLC, Team Hanley and Cambron Equine, LLC; B-Patricia Laffon Lomba, Ines Laffon Lomba & Fernando Laffon Lomba (FR); T-Chad C. Brown. C$22,000. Margins: HD, NK, 1. Odds: 6.25, 1.05, 3.85. Also Ran: Scarlet Poppy (Ire), Crevalle d'Oro, Life's an Audible. Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV. The post Ready For Shirl Gets Up in Time to Win Woodbine’s Canadian appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Even with a lack of it for this running of the GII Honorable Miss Stakes in Saratoga, the Sunshine State was well-represented as Halina's Forte (Mitole) outbattled fellow Florida-bred R Disaster (Awesome Slew) to take home the hardware. Given the cold shoulder by the betting public, she went off at 24-1 long odds for this sloppy running of the contest, and was content to watch R Disaster set the pace as she saved all the ground on the rail in fifth. Still in midpack behind an opening quarter in :21.72 and a half in :44.50, she made her move from the inside to overtake that longtime leader in deep stretch and hold off a second wind. The 6-5 favorite, Scylla (Tapit), ran on for third. Halina's Forte was last seen June 6 beginning her 2025 campaign at Prairie Meadows, finishing second by a half-length in the Prairie Rose Stakes. Sales history: $130,000 Ylg '22 OBSWIN; $250,000 Ylg '22 FTKJUL. O-Rigney Racing; B-Bill & Corinne Heilegbrodt, AF & B Vanlangendonck; T-Philip Bauer. The post The Florida-Bred Takes New York: Halina’s Forte Wins the Honorable Miss at Saratoga appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
The late-striding Journalism (Curlin) is developing a knack for snatching Grade I victories from the jaws of defeat, but he has yet to be able to solve the riddle known as Sovereignty (Into Mischief). On Saturday at Monmouth Park, this athletic colt did his part to edge us closer to a possible Round 3 rematch of the top two finishers of the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont Stakes. But on Sunday, with Journalism shipping back to California, the colt's connections made no commitment either way about renewing their rivalry with Sovereignty in the Aug. 23 GI Travers Stakes at Saratoga. Journalism didn't have to shoulder a rival out of the way like he did when winning the GI Santa Anita Derby, or burst through a barely clearable hole like when capturing the rock 'em, sock 'em stretch run of the GI Preakness Stakes (in which Sovereignty didn't participate). But Journalism's GI Haskell Stakes score still had that increasingly familiar “Too much work to do-he'll never get there!” sense of deep-stretch foreboding. Then, right on cue, the Houdini-like closer sparked to life and uncoiled with shadow-of-the-wire precision to win yet another big sophomore stakes by a less-than-a-length margin (101 Beyer Speed Figure). Sovereignty is indeed aiming for the Travers, prepping this Saturday at the Spa in the GII Jim Dandy Stakes (entries drawn Wednesday). Sovereignty beat Journalism on the square the two times they raced against each other, stamping his victories in the first and third legs of the Triple Crown as “best horse won” performances that left little doubt that the Bill Mott trainee has now twice executed better-timed and longer-sustained late moves over his hard-trying rival going 10 furlongs. If he does return East, the Travers projects to be Journalism's last shot to try and dislodge Sovereignty from the top of the divisional totem pole before the 3-year-olds start to take on older horses. But even if he doesn't, there is one key element about the sophomore crop as a whole that stands out: The entire campaign has been dominated by off-the-pace closers who rate from far back, and the absence of legitimate, front-running pacemakers who stay on under pressure is striking compared to historical norms. Dating back to last December, when late-season 2-year-olds were first tasked with a nine-furlong graded stakes in high-level races, there have been 18 juvenile/sophomore stakes at that distance or longer on dirt or Tapeta. Eleven were “Road to the Kentucky Derby” qualifying races; three were the Triple Crown series, plus the Haskell, the GIII Ohio Derby, the GIII Peter Pan Stakes, and the $200,000 Bath House Row Stakes. Of those 18 Triple Crown-caliber divisional stakes at 1 1/8 miles or longer, 11 (61%) were won by deep closers. Only two (11%) were won in wire-to-wire fashion. Two went to horses flashing early speed who pressed just behind the leaders. Stalkers accounted for the other three. I don't have an exact number that tells what the long-term winning pace profile is for non-turf route races on this continent, but I am confident in guessing the figure is nowhere close to being titled toward tailgate types as the nearly 6:1 ratio of closers to wire-to-wire horses suggests. And yes, admittedly, 18 races is a small sample. But the trend has persisted across the division for more than eight months now, and it stands out considering that strong early speed is a defining characteristic of North American breeding and racing. And it wasn't as if those closers were launching mid-pack runs that picked off only a few stragglers. Eight of those 11 route stakes were won by horses who closed from either last or next-to-last positions. The number increases to nine if you also count Sovereignty's win in the Derby, in which he rallied from 17th in a 19-horse field. At the opposite end of the scale, scrutinizing the four sophomore stakes at nine furlongs that were either wired or won by pace-pressing threats, two of them subsequently seem suspect because of possible speed biases and one might be chalked up to an odd course configuration. 'TDN Rising Star' Rodriguez (Authentic), for example, wired the field in the GII Wood Memorial on an afternoon when 10 of 13 main-track races at Aqueduct were won by horses racing on the front or just off it. Rodriguez next ran in the Belmont Stakes, where he assumed an easy lead but caved under far-turn pressure, finishing fourth behind Sovereignty and Journalism by 8 1/4 lengths. In the Ohio Derby, Mo Plex (Complexity) sat second behind a wilting favorite and took control in deep stretch to win. But the 12 races at Thistledown that afternoon were slanted toward horses who flashed early speed, with that pace profile accounting for nine winners. Mo Plex is an expected entrant in Saturday's Jim Dandy. The speed-centric victory by American Promise (Justify), who forced the pace from second in the Mar. 15 Virginia Derby, also has to be viewed in the context of being aberrational. Nine-furlong races are seldomly run on the main track at Colonial Downs, and they are conducted over a one-turn configuration that theoretically aids frontrunners. After his track-record win in Virginia, American Promise couldn't come close to replicating his winning form, finishing 16th in the Kentucky Derby and eighth in the Preakness. That leaves us with a single wire-to-wire winner of a graded dirt stakes for the sophomore class of '25 who could still be a dangerous divisional contender in the second half of the season: Magnitude (Not This Time). We don't often see 43-1 shots winning graded stakes by 9 ¾ lengths while earning a 108 Beyer number, but that's exactly what this Steve Asmussen trainee managed to uncork when wiring the GII Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds back on Feb. 15. Sent straight to the lead from post 12, Magnitude established a brisk early pace, drew away from the odds-on favorite when confronted mid-race, then braced for and shrugged off a fresh challenge from the second fave. He increased his margin while soaring home solo for a 1:48.85 clocking that equated to the fastest Risen Star in seven runnings since that stakes was elongated to nine furlongs in 2020. Randy Moss of NBC-TV, who makes speed figures for the Beyer team and is also a co-host of the TDN's Writers' Room podcast, wrote on the X social media platform at the time that Magnitude's final clocking for the Risen Star “is likely the fastest” 1 1/8-mile win ever by any 3-year-old at Fair Grounds. (The lone exception Moss found was the 1:48 4/5 win by Clev Er Tell in the 1977 Louisiana Derby, which predates the modern era of timing races in hundredths of seconds.) Moss also noted that Magnitude's 108 rating “equals the highest Beyer ever for a sophomore at Fair Grounds.” Three days after his gaudy win, Magnitude was removed from Triple Crown consideration to have surgery to fix an ankle chip. After recovering, Asmussen gave the colt a relatively easy first race back, and Magnitude ran up the score in the 1 1/16-miles July 5 Iowa Derby, leading at every call, prevailing by 9 1/4 lengths, and earning a 105 Beyer. This past Saturday, Magnitude had his first published workout since that Prairie Meadows victory, breezing a :51.68 half-mile at Saratoga (35/42), where he is training up to the Travers. Magnitude will bring a 4-for-8 lifetime mark into the Spa's “Midsummer Derby.” He's now 4-for-4 in races where he's either led throughout or hit the front by the midpoint call, and 0-for-4 in races where he hasn't. Magnitude's running style will be no secret to the connections of Sovereignty and (if he runs) Journalism. But the two divisional leaders are likely the ones who'll be tasked with making the most significant tactical adjustments to try and win the Travers by reeling in a potentially unpressured pacemaker. It hasn't been a defining characteristic of the current sophomore crop so far this season, but proven early speed never really goes out of style at any level of American racing. The post With Closers in Control of Division, Sophomore Crop’s Curious Lack of Early Speed Stands Out appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
As the connections of the top finishers in the Haskell Stakes (G1) spend the next few days and weeks mulling plans for their 3-year-olds, some interesting possibilities abound. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Raging Torrent, a two-time grade 1 winner, has been retired after developing a suspensory injury to his left foreleg. It has not been decided yet where he will begin his stud career. View the full article
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