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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Taken by the Wind (Rock Your World) remained undefeated and took another step closer to a start in the GI Kentucky Oaks when capturing Saturday's Silverbulletday Stakes at the Fair Grounds. But a day later, what was most on the mind of trainer Kenny McPeek was what he called a “bureaucratic nightmare” that she had to overcome to even make the $150,000 race. The Silverbulletday was Taken by the Wind's first start since she won the Sept. 13 Pocahontas Stakes at Churchill Downs. McPeek said that she was sidelined not by injury, but by a decision made by Dr. Nick Smith, the chief racing veterinarian for the Kentucky Racing Commission, to put the filly on the vet's list after her win in the Pocahontas. “The Kentucky state vets wouldn't let her run until this weekend,” McPeek said. “She won the Pocahontas and then the Kentucky vets put her on the vet's list after the race. I never understood why. It's ridiculous what they did. We've never found anything wrong with her. They forced us to bone-scan her, to PET scan her. We've done everything, and Dr. Nick Smith wouldn't let her run. He didn't like the way she moves. This was one of the most frustrating things I've ever dealt with as a horse trainer. She should have won the Alcibiades and she should already be a Grade I winner. She was going to be the even-money favorite in that race. And then we would have taken her to the Breeders' Cup.” McPeek said that his filly was not removed from the vet's list until after a Dec. 29 workout at Oaklawn Park. “We had to ship her to Oaklawn to work her to get her off the HISA vet's list,” he said. “And we had to ship her back to the Fair Grounds to run her. I hope it's not going to be an on-going issue because we've never found so much as a bump or bruise on her. We don't know what it has been about. But Dr. Smith seems to think that his eyes are stronger than PET scans and bone scans. We've been very frustrated by it. It has hurt her value. You watch. She'll win the next one, and I think she has a very good chance of winning the Oaks. This is a very good filly. She does everything right. We're dealing with this regularly, especially in Kentucky. They are basically picking us apart, and this filly has been caught up in a bureaucratic nightmare. But her talent keeps rising.” McPeek, known for his ability to find talented horses at bargain prices, purchased Taken by the Wind for $20,000 at the Fasig-Tipton October yearling sale. But he said there's more to the story, and it also involves horses winding up on the vet's list in Kentucky. “The $20,000 is a little bit of an aberration,” he said. “I bought her as a yearling in July for $70,000 for Walking L Thoroughbreds, which is owned by a gentleman named Scott Leeds. For years, he's been one of my best clients. He decided to divest himself of everything after we bought her and after he had a list of horses go on the Kentucky vet's list. He said. 'Just sell everything.' I said, 'You shouldn't sell her because I think she's a pretty good filly.' He said, 'No, just run her through the sale.' He ran her through the sale in October, and I wasn't going to let her go for nothing. I think people hesitated. I think they were thinking, 'Why did Kenny buy her in July for $70,000 and now he's selling her back in October? Is there something wrong with her?' No, there was nothing wrong with her whatsoever. l just protected her and bought her back.” The good news is that McPeek formed a new ownership group, and it includes a celebrity, the Hall of Fame quarterback and Fox NFL analyst Terry Bradshaw. “Terry watched the race from the Fox NFL studio with all of his cohorts and colleagues,” McPeek said. “They hadn't gone on the air yet. He was there with 15 to 20 people. They watched the race together and they had a blast.” McPeek added that Taken by the Wind will likely run next in the GII Fair Grounds Oaks on Mar. 21 or the GII Fantasy Stakes, which will be run on Mar. 27 at Oaklawn Park. The post McPeek Wins The Silverbulletday With Taken by the Wind But Frustrations Linger 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
Vodka Vodka (Stay Thirsty), winner of Saturday's Unusual Heat Turf Classic, exited his first stakes win in good form, according to trainer Aggie Ordonez Sunday morning. “He ate all his dinner last night, his legs are cold and tight this morning,” she added. Vodka Vodka won the 1 1/8-mile Turf Classic by a half-length under Hall of Famer Kent Desormeaux. In his only previous stakes try, which came on Opening Day of the Classic Meet, Vodka Vodka finished fourth on dirt in GII Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes. Bred by co-owners Jerry Baker and Connie Baker, Vodka Vodka is a 5-year-old gelding out of the Hard Spun mare Margie's Minute. His year-younger half-sister Om N Joy (Om), provided Ordonez last year with her first graded stakes win in the GIII Torrey Pines at Del Mar. The two siblings combined helped Ordonez produce a career-best year in 2025 with $645,233 in earnings, more than double her previous high. Ordonez currently has nine horses in her stable. “It's unbelievable to have the two best horses of my career running at the same time. In the barn, healthy and sound at the beginning of a new year,” Ordonez said. “I look back on last year and I couldn't have dreamed to put something like that together. I almost didn't want the year to change. I didn't want to flip the calendar. I thought we can't possibly keep that going or do it again. Then right off the bat Dark Omen comes up with a giant race to break his maiden here and now Vodka Vodka becomes a stakes winner. It's more than I could dream.” Dark Omen (Om), a 3-year-old gelding, was a debut winner on Jan. 10 at Santa Anita for Ordonez and owners-breeders Larry and Marianne Williams. Next up for Vodka Vodka and Om N Joy could be Grade I's on Mar. 7 at Santa Anita. Ordonez is eyeing the GI Santa Anita Handicap for Vodka Vodka, while Om N Joy is a candidate for the GI B. Wayne Hughes Beholder Mile on the same day. “I'm a dreamer. I love to swing big,” Ordonez said. “[Vodka Vodka] ran a great race. I think his best race is actually dirt, I don't think it's grass.” Om N Joy is back galloping at Santa Anita after spending “six to eight weeks” on the farm. She closed out the 2025 campaign on Oct. 18 with a fourth-place finish in the GII Raven Run at Keeneland. “She looks great,” Ordonez. “She looks like a 4-year-old now. She had lost some weight towards the end of last year and I knew she needed some time after to recover after a tough season.” “She's going to be ready in March. I'd like to try her in the Beholder. I know people say 'wow' when I say the Beholder, but she's been 'wowing' me for a while.” The post Ordonez Outlines Grade I Goals for Vodka Vodka, Om N Joy appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Nowornever · Posted
Who would have believed a House Quaddie would pay 3K for a $2 spend. That made my day pretty good. -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Although Cherie DeVaux sent out the first and second choices in the wagering, the trainer knew that her horses had something to prove in Saturday's GIII Lecomte Stakes at the Fair Grounds. Both Golden Tempo (Curlin) and Mesquite (Union Rags) had done nothing more than win maiden races and both seemed to be horses that still needed time to mature and develop. That may still be the case. But after Golden Tempo and Mesquite ran one-two, with Golden Tempo winning by three-quarters of a length, DeVaux knows she has two horses that are stakes quality colts who are likely to get better. “I don't feel either one of them is even close to their top yet,” said DeVaux. “We have time. Going into a race like the Derby, you want them peaking at that time. Also, in these races, you always want to win, but if they run a big number then they are probably going to regress the next time they run. Showing improvement each time and getting there and winning is the best case scenario.” For the DeVaux pair, the race developed as most handicappers expected it would. Neither horse showed any early speed in their prior starts, and the story was the same in the Lecomte. In a 10-horse field, Mesquite was seventh early and Golden Tempo was ninth. Mesquite, who was six-wide on the far turn, moved first under jockey Flavien Prat, and made his way into contention in the upper stretch. Meanwhile, Golden Tempo, after weaving his way through traffic on the turn, was taken to the inside by Jose Ortiz and closed relentlessly for the win. “[Golden Tempo] broke out of the gate fine,” DeVaux said. “He just doesn't have any early foot. The most impressive aspect was that he had to go inside, had to spilt horses, and then it seemed that he idled coming down the stretch for a couple of strides. But then he kicked clear. I was really impressed with how he handled everything.” The final time for the mile-and-a-sixteenth race run over a fast track was 1:44.98. Golden Tempo earned a modest Beyer figure of 81. When the Thoro-Graph and Ragozin sheet numbers come out, Mesquite may get the better figure of the two because of his wide trip. That Golden Tempo was the 5-2 favorite, while Mesquite was the 4-1 second choice, may have had something to do with the fact that Ortiz had ridden both in their prior races and had, apparently, chosen to ride Golden Tempo. That wasn't necessarily the case. DeVaux said that Ortiz liked both horses so much that he couldn't make up his mind and left the decision up to the trainer. DeVaux said she put Ortiz on Golden Tempo for no other reason than that the jockey had ridden him in a more recent race. DeVaux said she will wait a few days before deciding on the next races for the pair, but definitely plans to keep them apart between now and a possible start in the GI Kentucky Derby. “That was the plan, to run them both back here right out of their stalls at the Fair Grounds,” she said. “We will definitely try to separate them. We will probably keep Golden Tempo here where he's only run. Mesquite has now run at three different tracks and has handled everything fine. There are plenty of races all over the country for him.” The news on Saturday at the Fair Grounds was not all positive for DeVaux. In the Silverbulletday Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, she also sent out what appeared to be a formidable pair in Atropa (Into Mischief) and White Smoke (Essential Quality). Atropa finished third as the 1-2 favorite and White Smoke finished last in the six-horse field. “I really try to forget about what happens previously and I try not to get too down,” DeVaux said. “It was not the results we wanted, for sure. The race just didn't unfold favorably for us. You take it race by race and regroup. I am trying to enjoy what we are doing and not get lost in the pressure and nervousness of it all.” Of course, it didn't take long for DeVaux's mood to lift. The Lecomte was one of her finest hours. “It was really exciting,” she said. “Everyone has Derby dreams, Oaks dreams. We all dream of participating on the biggest days of our sport. Looking back, around the middle of last summer, I knew that if we didn't have something in the Derby that I would be let down because we did have a lot of really nice, Classic-type horses. The physicals were there, the pedigrees were there, and then they all started training and checking the boxes. I like to manage my own expectations. I don't like to feel like I let myself down or take the wind out of my sails. But this has continued to be exciting. It's so exciting and it's fun to look to the future.” It's not just her 3-year-old colts that have DeVaux excited. She is the trainer of Nymue (War Front), the last foal out of the great Zenyatta, and one that has shown DeVaux unmistakable signs of talent. The 3-year-old has finally shown up on the work tab. On Friday, she breezed three furlongs at the Fair Grounds in :38.20. “Nymue has really matured physically and mentally,” DeVaux said. “She's so big that we had to give her time to let her body develop on its own timeline. I really noticed a difference in her this time around. We gave her a real easy work to start and then in her last work I put her against a colt who is on her same time -line and has the same physical constitution. She was really engaged in the work. They didn't go that fast, but she's probably not going to be that speedy by nature of who she is. She was moving really well. Physically, she has just blossomed. She's got a lot more muscle to her and a lot more condition. It was coming along during the summer, but that was lacking. She's finally starting to get there. But she is a June foal. Patience has always been the key with her.” DeVaux said that she is hopeful that Nymue will make her career debut before the end of the Fair Grounds meet on Mar. 22. The post After Landing a One-Two Punch in the Lecomte, DeVaux is Excited About Her Derby Prospects 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
Following a record-breaking season for the team at Cropthorne Stud in 2025, Tony Carroll has set his sights on doing it all over again in 2026. And whilst the Worcestershire trainer concedes that it won't be easy to surpass last year's impressive haul, he is understandably buoyed by a phenomenal start to January which brought 14 winners in as many days. “We had a really good December [with 16 winners] and we've been able to continue that momentum,” Carroll told the TDN on Sunday. “Things can change very quickly in this game, but the horses have stayed in good form and we've got plenty of runners still to come [in January]. We're going to be busy all of next week. “You always need a little bit of luck, but we'll be trying our best to get as many winners as we can. We'll just keep our heads down and keep going, although you do have to enjoy the success as well. That's the most important thing, really.” Certainly, Carroll had more than his fair share to enjoy in 2025. In April, he was crowned champion trainer on the all-weather for the first time after saddling 57 winners during the winter months, including 22 in the month of January alone. By the end of the calendar year, he'd amassed 128 winners on the Flat in Britain and over £1 million in prize-money, both personal-best totals in a training career spanning three decades. “We were very proud, to be honest with you,” Carroll added of that watershed year, before quickly turning his focus back to the task at hand. “We've already gone over £100,000 in prize-money this year. We're ticking along at a fair rate of knots, so things are looking really good. “Quietly, we've always been on an upward trajectory. I think, if we could replicate last year, we would all be very, very happy. It was an incredible year for everybody.” Having saddled 38 winners so far during the qualifying period, Carroll has already gone a long way towards repeating one of his finest achievements of last year. He is currently seven ahead of Ian Williams in the race to be crowned champion trainer on the all-weather for 2025/26, with his ability to put his horses in the right spots, often with not much time between runs, enabling him to stay one step ahead of the competition. “We've got around 80 horses in the yard,” Carroll continued. “It's all about keeping them healthy and keeping them right. Placing them correctly is a big thing and the jockeys play a big role in it all as well. It's not just one particular thing. It's about having that attention to detail, from start to finish, in everything you do.” In recent weeks, the campaigning of Gogo Yubari (Havana Grey) is perhaps the best embodiment of Carroll's front-foot approach. The daughter of Havana Grey has won four of her eight starts since November, including three wins in the space of five days earlier this month. The second of those was achieved under promising young rider Harry Vigors at Lingfield on January 10, before the duo rocked up at Chelmsford the next day and repeated the dose. “She's a filly that has really come right,” said Carroll, who will see how the five-year-old is on Monday morning before deciding whether she takes up her engagement at Kempton later in the day. “The races just fell in front of her really. We've been a bit hard on her in some cases, running her back so quickly, but the races were there for her and she took them in her stride.” Only the five-time winner Aisling Oscar (Rajasinghe) is ahead of Gogo Yubari among the winningmost horses on the all-weather this winter, while Carroll's Francesi (Caravaggio) also deserves an honourable mention with three wins, a second and two thirds from his last six starts. In all of those races, Francesi was partnered by the 16-year-old Myla Coppins, one of three apprentices attached to the Carroll yard. Francesi himself only arrived there in November – on a losing run stretching back to April 2022 – since which time Coppins has played an important role in the seven-year-old rediscovering his best form, according to Carroll. He explained, “Myla Coppins has got on superbly well with him. She's only just left school and it's her first season riding. She's had a handful of rides and she's ridden four winners already. She rides him [Francesi] every day and I think she's probably been the key to him. She's got a nice style and a nice way about her – I'm sure she'll have a future.” He added, “Jack Doughty rides most of ours and is the in-house man. And then we've got Matthew Slater, Molly Gunn and Myla Coppins in the yard, all young kids who have got licences and are riding very well. They all have a chance.” As for the fresh equine talent coming through the ranks at Cropthorne Stud, Carroll is particularly excited about the prospects of the five-year-old Betsen, a 40/1 winner on his stable debut at Southwell in November. Formerly trained in Ireland by Jack Davision, the son of Invincible Spirit, a €16,000 purchase at last year's Goffs Autumn HIT Sale, will line up at Newcastle on Tuesday from a revised BHA mark of 86. “Betsen is a very nice horse,” said Carroll. “We weren't really sure what to expect at Southwell. We liked him from the day he stepped into the yard, but he'd previously worn headgear and run over all sorts of different trips. We just took him back to basics and he showed that he's very talented. He's the sort of horse you want to have in the yard and I would be hoping to land him in a race on Good Friday.” He added, “I'm always looking and always trying to find another horse. They come to us from all sorts of places. We've got some new faces in now and we're looking forward to the year ahead. We just really have to keep our heads down and concentrate on what we do have and not what we don't. Fingers crossed, we can continue what we've been doing.” The post ‘We’ve Always Been On An Upward Trajectory’ – All-Weather Maestro Tony Carroll On The March 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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