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The Grand Tour ... get in behind the concept @Chief Stipe!

There appears to be something for everyone–pari-mutelly speaking–in Saturday's GIII Commonwealth Turf Stakes, the final age-restricted contest on the grass on the Kentucky circuit for 2025. Donamire Farm's GI Franklin-Simpson Stakes hero Troubleshooting led home a top-four sweep for the outstanding Not This Time when last seen in the GIII Bryan Station Stakes at Keeneland back on Oct. 25, and he looms the one they'll have to beat at or around his 7-2 morning line. Placed once from three tries on the dirt to begin his career, he has conversely missed the trifecta just a single time in seven starts on the turf. The homebred took out the July 4 Dade Park Dash at Ellis and was just touched off in allowance company in Henderson Aug. 4 ahead of his heroics at Kentucky Downs. Giocoso (Not This Time) saw off Simulate (Blame) in the GII Secretariat Stakes at Colonial in August and led the field into the final furlong of the Sept. 6 Gun Runner Stakes at Kentucky Downs before settling for second behind Plensa (Caravaggio). The dark bay exits a troubled third in the Bryan Station. Montadore (Nyquist) would otherwise be three for four on the grass but for a disqualification in his turf bow in Virginia July 24 and he annexed his lone appearance over the Matt Winn, taking a nine-furlong allowance by two lengths just shy of three weeks ago. Mansetti (Collected) upset the Aug. 16 King's Plate and just missed in the Sept. 9 Prince of Wales Stakes before finishing runner-up in the GIII Ontario Derby Oct. 18. There is enough turf in his female family to give this a shot, but the flow of the race may not suit. If seeking out a longer-priced alternative or two, Three Diamonds Farm Anegada (Midshipman) endured a checkered passage when fourth, two lengths adrift in the Secretariat and there were clear issues in the Gun Runner. The gelding bounced back in no uncertain terms in the Oct. 5 Hawthorne Derby, benefitting from a truly run race to score by a half-length. Outrunner (American Pharoah) hasn't really run a bad race in five starts on the turf, including a runner-up effort in the Tale of the Cat Stakes in June, and was most recently third to Grade I winner World Beater (Oscar Performance) in the GIII Old Dominion Derby at Colonial Sept. 6. A distant seventh in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, Pegram,  Watson and Weitman's Nevada Beach (Omaha Beach) looks to have four other rivals over a barrel in Saturday's GIII Native Diver Stakes at Del Mar. The open-lengths winner of the Los Alamitos Derby in June and of the GI Goodwood Stakes Sept. 27, the dark bay is the 3-5 morning-line choice ahead of Indispensable (Constitution), fourth in the GI Pacific Classic here in August and a latest third in the GIII Ack Ack Stakes going Churchill's one-turn mile Sept. 27. The final of the weekend's three graded events is Sunday's rescheduled GIII Pebbles Stakes at Aqueduct. Fast Market (Volatile) required no fewer than nine starts to win her maiden, doing so with some authority when reporting home a 2 1/4-length winner going a mile here Sept. 21. Stepped up in class for the GII Sands Point Stakes Oct. 18, the $350,000 OBS June graduate nearly got the job done and she has the benefit of the rail and Flavien Prat this time around. Twirling Candy was represented by GIII Jockey Club Oaks heroine Fionn just last weekend and has a good chance for a new graded winner in the form of Sweet Treasure. Fifth when first-up for nearly 11 months in Churchill allowance company Sept. 27, she stripped fitter when kicking away to score by two lengths beneath the Twin Spires on Halloween. Florent Geroux will need to work out a trip from an outside draw. The post Logical Favorites, Playable Longshots Face Off In Commonwealth Turf appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

WTF are your ideas?  That's right you don"t have any!

Appearing six months after connections went to €300,000 for her at the Arqana May Breeze-Up, Amo Racing's Domina Ignis (Pinatubo) looked well worth the wait as she sparkled on debut at Southwell on Friday. Sent off the 7-2 second favourite for the six-furlong novice, the Kevin Philippart De Foy-trained bay from the family of Johnny Barnes travelled smoothly and once committed by David Egan two out quickly had the race in safe keeping. At the line, there was a five-length margin back to the Doncaster maiden runner-up Angel Gabriel (Mehmas). The dam, whose yearling colt Lisan Al Gaib (Zelzal) was a €65,000 purchase by Ludovic Gadbin at Arqana Deauville October, is a full-sister to the Listed scorer and multiple Group-placed Chartreuse. She is a granddaughter of Danehill's Mahalia, who captured the Prix Imprudence when it carried Listed status before producing Acclamation's aforementioned sire Johnny Barnes and the fellow Group 3 winner Albisola (Montjeu). This is also the family of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf heroine Meditate (No Nay Never) and the sire half-siblings Ectot and Most Improved, with the latter like the dam by Lawman. 4th-Southwell, £6,300, Novice, 11-21, 2yo, 6f 17y (AWT), 1:14.28, st. DOMINA IGNIS (FR) (f, 2, Pinatubo {Ire}–Your Ladyship {Ire}, by Lawman {Fr}) Sales history: €70,000 Wlg '23 ARQDEN; 50,000gns RNA Ylg '24 TATOCT; €300,000 2yo '25 ARQBRU. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $4,447. O-Amo Racing Limited; B-S.A.S. Langlais Bloodstock & Mme Fabienne Fiquet; T-Kevin Philippart De Foy. The post Arqana Breeze-Up Sensation Domina Ignis Impresses On Debut appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Returning to racing action in Dubai months after finishing fifth in the Preakness Stakes (G1) and sixth in the Belmont Stakes (G1), Heart of Honor romps in the one-mile Nakheel Stakes at Meydan.View the full article

Bear with me now, but parallels could be drawn between the Irish football team's World Cup qualification campaign and the Goffs November Foal Sale. Last year's sale was akin to the boys in green thumping Portugal 2-0 in the Aviva Stadium. Nobody saw it coming.  One swallow doesn't make a summer, though, and it would all have been forgotten had Ireland come up short in Hungary. Well, Troy Parrott didn't read the script, and neither did Henry Beeby. A last-minute winner in Budapest gives Ireland a fighting chance of making the 2026 World Cup in America.  This week's November Foal Sale at Goffs was the equivalent of Ireland backing up that Portugal win with an even better 3-2 triumph against Hungary as few people saw it coming. More fool them.  1 – We need to talk about Awtaad. At a time when smaller Irish breeders are bemoaning the lack of affordable stallions whose progeny stay a mile or further, Awtaad produced a performance that many will undoubtedly stand up and take note of. Awtaad was responsible for 13 foals who sold at an average of €55,039 this week. That average was obviously propped up by Ethical Diamond's brother, who sold to Peter and Ross Doyle for €380,000. However, even when you take out the brother of the Breeders' Cup winner from the statistics, Awtaad averaged a hugely respectable €26,291 from 12 foals sold. All of that was achieved from a €5,000 covering fee, which has to go some way in bolstering the Derrinstown Stud-based stallion's reputation as being one of the value plays for Irish breeders. It would be remiss not to give an honourable mention to Phoenix Of Spain here, too, because his €25,334 average for 30 foals sold is similarly impressive. All told, the Irish National Stud resident was responsible for six foals that sold for €48,000 or more. In fact, one of the best-walking foals in the entire sale, lot 155, went the way of renowned pinhooker Mick Fitzpatrick for €52,000. Similarly shrewd pinhookers like the Gleeson brothers of Aughamore Stud, Tally-Ho Stud [who bought two] and Tradewinds featured among the buyers' sheet for the progeny of Phoenix Of Spain.  2 – Speaking of pinhookers, they well and truly put any notion of the idea that they would play the market with caution in the bin and played a massive role in setting Kildare Paddocks ablaze all week. Philipp Stauffenberg was one of the many pinhookers who, on the eve of the sale, spoke openly and honestly about navigating what many agreed was a tricky yearling sale season across Europe. Yet, Stauffenberg was one of the many pinhookers who stuck their chest out this week, with the legendary German-based operator accounting for the most expensive lot all week, a New Bay half-sister to Group 1 scorer Dreamloper at €650,000. What you could say about Stauffenberg's performance is that he was definitely more selective as his €960,000 spend was completed by a well-bred Lope De Vega filly. Tally-Ho Stud were the busiest buyers all week [€1,443,000 spent on 20 foals] while Yeomanstown Stud, Eddie O'Leary, Jamie Railton and Flash Conroy were just a number of other leading pinhookers who contributed to the market.  3 – What more can you say about Starman that hasn't already been said? Quite a lot, actually. Okay, we get it, he's a bloody brilliant stallion who has more than justified his bump from a fee of €10,000 the past two years up to €40,000 next year. The most uplifting part of his success story has to be the amount of small breeders who benefited this week by supporting him before he was famous. David Bourke, an accountant by trade who only keeps a handful of mares, summed it up brilliantly when he netted €120,000 for his Starman filly out of Evie Be Kool (Jeremy) on Monday. “You need to land on sires like Starman because it gives you such a boost when you go to the sales,” he said. That was not an isolated comment and even the most expensive Starman sold all week – a colt offered by Abbeyleix Stud who netted €225,000 to Tally-Ho themselves – was produced out of a mare the connections sourced for just €3,000 at this sale two years ago. These are the types of stories that keep smaller breeders going. It just goes to show what can happen when you get in early on a stallion that happens to catch fire.  4 – This week provided us with the opportunity to get the first glimpse of the younger stallions coming through and, of those with good representations, Tally-Ho's Good Guess and Darley's Native Trail fared best. In fact, hardly anything split the two stallions in terms of averages posted – Good Guess finished the week with a €43,477 average for 44 foals sold while the 35 Native Trails brought in an average of €40,771.  5 – You've heard about the luck of the Irish, but maybe we should start making more about the pluck of the Irish after what played out this week. The appetite for foals, particularly among the younger generation, is something that really ought to be celebrated in Ireland. There are plenty of young pinhooking groups in England, and the touch young Charlie and Oliver Vigors enjoyed with their Minzaal filly was one of the best stories of the entire year. However, you just don't get the same volume of younger people rocking up to the foal sales in any other country than you do in Ireland and there were even some stories of foals getting north of 300 shows this week. It provided a fascinating dynamic to the whole foal section and, who knows, perhaps we had the next Mick Fitzpatrick or Barry Mahon within our midst.   The post Beeby Or Parrott? Five Talking Points From A Frenetic Foal Sale At Goffs appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Therefore under that assumption most tracks around the country should only own up to outside rail , utter madness the sale of land for profit or not it"ll be one of the biggest reasons the racing industry descends into oblivion.

I thought he had shares in about 10 TA syndicates you're telling me he only has one?

In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for this Sunday running at Tokyo Racecourse: Sunday, November 23, 2025 4th-TOK, ¥14,250,000 ($90k), Newcomers, 2yo, 1600m FULMINE BLU (c, 2, Bolt d'Oro–Thundering Sky, by Sky Mesa), a half-brother to the multiple graded-placed middle-distance turfer Corruption (Medaglia d'Oro), was bought back on a bid of $120,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton July Sale, but was knocked down to Northern Farm's Katsumi Yoshida for $200,000 at this year's OBS March Sale after breezing an eighth of a mile in :10 1/5. The April foal's dam was victorious in the 2016 Pebbles Stakes and was placed no fewer than seven times at the graded level on multiple surfaces before selling to Spendthrift Farm for $500,000 at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton November Sale. Fulmine Blu, who debuts in the colors of Silk Racing, is the mount of visiting Frenchman Alexis Pouchin. O-Silk Racing Co Ltd; B-Spendthrift Farm LLC (KY); T-Naoto Chiba The post Nicely Bred Bolt d’Oro Colt Gets Going at Tokyo appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article