Wandering Eyes

Triple Missile has opened favourite for Saturday’s Rising Fast Stakes. (Photo: George Sal/Racing Photos) The Group 3 Rising Fast Stakes (1200m) has attracted a field of 12 for the sprint down the Flemington straight on Saturday. The top three in the market with horse racing bookmakers are separated by a point. Triple Missile (+350) has not been seen since chasing home Star Patrol in the Group 2 Gilgai Stakes (1200m) on October 7. The six-year-old gelding went down by a length on that day and put a further 1.25 lengths on C’est Magique, who he meets once again on Saturday. James McDonald will partner Triple Missile from barrier two. Spacewalk +400 was narrowly defeated in the Group 2 Caulfield Sprint (1000m) when finishing second behind Doull and will be looking to go one better on the weekend. To be partnered by Jamie Kah once again, the James Cummings-trained runner will be having his second start at Flemington. In his only other run at Flemington, Spacewalk was first across the line in the 2022 Listed Poseidon Stakes (1100m) before losing on protest to Buenos Noches. Chain Of Lightning (+450) finished an eye-catching third when resuming in the Group 2 Schillaci Stakes (1100m). The Peter Moody & Katherine Coleman-trained mare boasts two wins from three starts when second-up, and Billy Egan will partner her from barrier five. The Rising Fast Stakes is set to jump at 2:20pm AEDT as part of VRC Derby Day at Flemington. 2023 Rising Fast Stakes Final Field No. Silks Horse Trainer Jockey Barrier Weight 1 Rocketing By David Pfieffer Rachel King 3 59kg 2 Chain Of Lightning Peter Moody & Katherine Coleman Billy Egan 5 58kg 3 Gravina James Cummings Mark Zahra 6 57.5kg 4 It’sourtime Danny O’Brien Blake Shinn 12 57kg 5 Triple Missile Lindsey Smith James McDonald 2 57kg 6 Crosshaven Ben, Will & JD Hayes Daniel Stackhouse 11 56.5kg 7 Spacewalk James Cummings Jamie Kah 10 56.5kg 8 General Beau Mathew Ellerton Dean Yendall 1 56kg 9 C’est Magique Grahame Begg Tim Clark 9 54kg 10 Najem Suhail Robbie Griffiths & Mathew de Kock Zac Spain 4 54kg 11 Cause For Concern Shawn Mathrick Blaike McDougall 7 54kg 12 Garza Blanca Ciaron Maher & David Eustace Jamie Spencer 8 54kg More racing news View the full article

Vilana will be partnered by the man himself in the inaugural running of The Damien Oliver. The inaugural running of The Damien Oliver (1400m) has attracted a capacity field of 16 runners for the $500,000 race at Flemington. Registered as the Chatham Stakes, Saturday’s Group 2 race has been renamed to honour retiring superstar jockey Damien Oliver. Oliver won the race in 2011 aboard the John Sadler-trained Sister Madley and will be looking to add another win when he partners Godolphin’s Vilana (+600) this weekend. Having finished fifth behind I Am Me in the Group 3 Sydney Stakes (1200m) on October 14, Vilana comes to Flemington second-up and will carry 59kg as the topweight. Godolphin holds a strong hand in The Damien Oliver, with last-start Listed Paris Lane Stakes (1400m) winner Tamerlane hunting his maiden Group success. Horse racing betting sites have installed the six-year-old gelding as a +280 favourite. Tamerlane brings genuine Group 1 form lines to Flemington, having chased home subsequent Group 1 Epsom Handicap (1600m) winner, Rediener, first-up from a spell on September 16 in the Group 3 Bill Ritchie Handicap (1400m). The only other runner with a single-figure quote is Here To Shock at +850. The Ben, Will & JD Hayes-trained runner took Antino to a long neck in the Group 3 Sandown Stakes (1500m) two runs back, before being outclassed in the Group 1 Toorak Handicap (1600m) last time out. Dropping back in grade, Here To Shock will be partnered by Daniel Stackhouse from barrier four. The Damien Oliver is the final race at Flemington on Saturday afternoon, closing a stacked VRC Derby Day card. The Damien Oliver 2023 Field No. Silks Horse Trainer Jockey Barrier Weight 1 Vilana James Cummings Damien Oliver 9 59kg 2 King Magnus Robbie Griffiths & Mathew de Kock Thomas Stockdale 8 57.5kg 3 Bandersnatch Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes Jordan Childs 6 57kg 4 Ayrton Mick Price & Michael Kent (Jnr) Mark Zahra 17 56.5kg 5 Tamerlane James Cummings James McDonald 1 56.5kg 6 Zoutori Mathew Ellerton Linda Meech 3 56.5kg 7 Corner Pocket Lindsey Smith Declan Bates 13 56kg 8 Munhamek Nick Ryan Blake Shinn 18 55.5kg 9 Not An Option Mike Moroney Billy Egan 16 55kg 10 Here To Shock Ben, Will & JD Hayes Daniel Stackhouse 4 54.5kg 11 Savannah Cloud Phillip Stokes Zac Spain 12 54.5kg 12 Kalino Chris Waller Jye McNeil 10 54kg 13 Swords Drawn Mike Moroney Winona Costin 2 53.5kg 14 Williamsburg Gerald Ryan & Sterling Alexiou Rachel King 14 53kg 15 Lord Vladivostok Michael Hickmott TBC 5 53kg 16 Jack The Lad Wayne Francis & Glen Kent Justin Potter 11 53kg 17 Cause For Concern (1E) Shawn Mathrick Jamie Kah 7 53kg 18 Zennzella (2E) Ciaron Maher & David Eustace TBC 15 53kg More racing news View the full article

VRC Derby favourite Riff Rocket. (Photo by George Sal/Racing Photos) A capacity field of 16 three-year-olds will step out at Flemington this Saturday in the Group 1 VRC Derby (2500m). Riff Rocket has been the long-standing favourite for the $2 million feature since destroying his rivals in the Listed Super Impose Stakes (1800m), and despite being nosed out in the Group 3 Caulfield Classic (2000m) at his latest start, still maintains firm favouritism. The Chris Waller-trained gelding opened +160 with online bookmakers after drawing perfectly in barrier five for Saturday’s staying contest. Apulia is clear on the second line of betting at +300 and will be searching for back-to-back wins after saluting in the Group 2 Moonee Valley Vase (2040m) last Saturday. Mark Zahra elects to stick aboard the colt by Fiorente and will jump from barrier three. Verdad (+550) will be looking to turn the tables on Apulia on the one-week back up and will be aided in his quest from barrier four. It is double-figure odds for every other runner engaged here, suggesting the VRC Derby may be a top-heavy affair. Air Assault (+1000) will be partnered by Ben Allen for the first time, while John Allen will continue his association with Sunsets ($14.00) after steering him to victory in the Caulfield Classic. The 2023 VRC Derby is the second leg of the Flemington quaddie on Saturday and is set to get underway at 4.20pm AEDT. 2023 Victoria Derby Final Field No. Silks Horse Trainer Jockey Barrier Weight 1 Apulia Ben, Will & JD Hayes Mark Zahra 3 57kg 2 Verdad Robbie Griffiths & Mathew de Kock Jye McNeil 4 57kg 3 Air Assault Andrew Gluyas Ben Allen 6 57kg 4 Riff Rocket Chris Waller James McDonald 5 57kg 5 Sunsets Trent Busuttin & Natalie Young John Allen 16 57kg 6 Make A Call Peter & Paul Snowden Jamie Kah 15 57kg 7 Gold Bullion Gai Waterhouse & Jamie Kah Opie Bosson 13 57kg 8 Gates Peter Moody & Katherine Coleman Luke Nolen 14 57kg 9 Kosgei Trent Busuttin & Natalie Young Blake Shinn 12 57kg 10 Bulawayo Pat Carey & Harris Walker Celine Gaudray 7 57kg 11 Sacred Eagle Symon Wilde Jordan Childs 2 57kg 12 Roguery Lloyd Kennewell & Lucy Yeomans Billy Egan 1 57kg 13 Mercante Nigel Blackiston Damien Oliver 11 57kg 14 To Be Frank Ciaron Maher & David Eustace Jamie Spencer 10 57kg 15 Warialda Warrior John Ramsey Darryl McLellan 9 57kg 16 Tokyo Run Dean Mirfin Declan Bates 8 57kg More racing news View the full article

Shinzo heads a near full field in the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington on Saturday afternoon. Photo: Steve Hart The Coolmore Stud Stakes will kick off a run of three straight Group 1’s at Flemington on Derby Day, where 19 three-year-olds will compete in the $2 million stallion-making race. The top three runners in the market, Shinzo, King’s Gambit, and Cylinder, will all meet again in another 1200m Group 1, after they ran the trifecta in the Golden Slipper as two-year-olds earlier this year. Heading the field in race book order is the Chris Waller-trained and Coolmore-owned Shinzo (+550). Shinzo will be seeking to become the first horse since Sepoy in 2011 to complete the Golden Slipper/Coolmore Stud Stakes double. Although the son of Snitzel hasn’t finished in the placings at his two starts back this preparation, there is no doubt that this is the target race for this colt, who has already amassed $3.7 million in prize money from six starts. As for the owner and trainer combination, they will be attempting to win the Coolmore for the second time in three years, after Home Affairs won the race in 2021. After claiming the Coolmore with In Secret last year, Godolphin will be seeking back-to-back victories, as their star colt Cylinder (+260) will compete in the 1200m contest down the famous Flemington straight. The son of Exceed And Excel took out the Group 3 Vain Stakes and Group 2 Run To The Rose to begin this current campaign before finishing third in the Group 1 Golden Rose and running an impressive fifth in The Everest against the older horses. Last start Group 2 Roman Consul Stakes winner, King’s Gambit (+650), will reconnect with Mark Zahra for the first time since his third-place finish in the Golden Slipper. The Peter & Paul Snowden-trained colt was expected to dominate the two-year-old features after an arrogant five-length victory on debut, but his most recent win was the first since that debut success. Philip Stokes-trained Stretan Angel (+1100)will be joined by two other fillies that will take on the boys in the Coolmore. The daughter of Harry Angel defeated a few of her rivals that she will meet on Saturday in the Group 2 Danehill Stakes last start, and she is expected to attract a lot of market support with online bookmakers based on that win. Veight) (+2200, Steparty (+1100), and Scheelite (+5000) will drop back in distance from the 1600m of the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas, where all three of them ran credible races but couldn’t land that coveted victory at the very top level. I Am Unstoppable (+1100) was narrowly beaten in the Danehill Stakes, and at his fourth start this preparation, he is still seeking his first win this time in. Bjorn Baker-trained Ozzmosis (+1000) had his unbeaten start to his career broken when stepping out in Group 3 company over 1200m for the first time, which has raised some queries about whether he is up to Group 1 level. Will the dominance of the Godolphin and Waller stables from the last three years continue, or will someone else take out the opening Group 1 of the Melbourne Cup Carnival? The Coolmore Stud Stakes jumps at 3:40pm AEDT on Saturday at Flemington. 2023 Coolmore Stud Stakes Final Field No. Silks Horse Trainer Jockey Barrier Weight 1 Shinzo Chris Waller James McDonald 4 57kg 2 Cylinder James Cummings Tim Clark 14 57kg 3 Don Corleone Peter & Paul Snowden Opie Bosson 3 57kg 4 Veight Tony & Calvin McEvoy Jamie Kah 18 57kg 5 King’s Gambit Peter & Paul Snowden Mark Zahra 2 57kg 6 Steparty Paul Preusker John Allen 1 57kg 7 Arkansaw Kid Ben, Will & JD Hayes Jye McNeil 16 57kg 8 Snapback Peter & Paul Snowden TBC 13 57kg 9 Scheelite Ken & Kasey Keys Luke Nolen 11 57kg 10 I Am Unstoppable Lloyd Kennewell & Lucy Yeomans Blake Shinn 12 57kg 11 Ozzmosis Bjorn Baker Rachel King 6 57kg 12 Mexico Michael Freedman Jordan Childs 10 57kg 13 Butch Cassidy Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott Jamie Spencer 19 57kg 14 Moravia Michael Freedman Damien Oliver 7 57kg 15 Celui Brent Stanley Craig Newitt 5 57kg 16 Nadal Ciaron Maher & David Eustace Ben Allen 15 57kg 17 Tiz Invincible Ciaron Maher & David Eustace Harry Coffey 9 55kg 18 Stretan Angel Phillip Stokes Daniel Stackhouse 17 55kg 19 Treasurway Jason Warren Billy Egan 8 55kg More racing news View the full article

Atishu has opened as the market elect for the Group 1 Empire Rose Stakes at Flemington on Saturday. (Photo: Brett Holburt/Racing Photos) The Group 1 Empire Rose Stakes is traditionally one of the most competitive races on the Derby Day program at Flemington, and the 2023 edition is no different, with a full field of 16 mares expected to compete in the $1 million race. After finishing fifth in the same race last year, the Chris Waller-trained Atishu has opened as the market elect at +450 with online bookmakers. The daughter of Savabeel finished 13th of 14 in the Group 1 King Charles III Stakes on October 14, where she settled way too far back and didn’t run on, but her runner-up finish in the Group 2 Golden Pendant two starts back suggests she will be hard to beat on Saturday afternoon. Alcohol Free (+500) from the Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott yard finished an impressive fourth in The Invitation last week, and the stable has chosen to back her up after seven days. The ex-European mare has yet to find the winner’s circle since arriving in Australia before the Sydney Autumn Carnival, but after two good performances this time in, the market believes she is close to a win. Wishlor Lass (+750) recorded her sixth win from eight starts last weekend at Moonee Valley, and Symon Wilde has chosen the 1600m Empire Rose over the 2000m Matriarch Stakes later in the Melbourne Cup Carnival. Although he has been aboard for her last two Group 3 victories, Damian Lane will not be riding in Melbourne on Saturday, so John Allen will have his first sit on the Mshawish mare. Princess Grace (+650) appeared destined for Group 1 glory this preparation after consecutive runner-up finishes in the Winx Stakes and Memsie Stakes. However, after she was defeated in the Group 2 Rose Of Kingston Stakes as an odds-on favourite, the jury is out on the daughter of Karakontie. It was hard not to be impressed with the win of Wrote To Arataki (+1800) in the Group 2 Tristarc Stakes at Caulfield on October 21, and she is expected to be one of the key speed influences in this race. The Kerry Parker-trained Hope In Your Heart (+650) will have her first look around Flemington on Saturday in the Empire Rose, coming off an eighth-place finish in the King Charles III Stakes last start. Peter Moody & Katherine Coleman will have two runners engaged: Life Lessons (+1500), who is looking for back-to-back victories after she claimed the Rose Of Kingston last start; and Shuffle Dancer (+2500), who finished second in the Tristarc Stakes last time out. The 2023 Empire Rose Stakes will be race eight on the Flemington program and is scheduled to jump at 5pm AEDT on Saturday afternoon. Empire Rose Stakes 2023 Field No. Silks Horse Trainer Jockey Barrier Weight 1 Alcohol Free Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott Opie Bosson 5 57kg 2 Princess Grace Chris Waller TBC 12 57kg 3 Hope In Your Heart Kerry Parker Tim Clark 1 57kg 4 Atishu Chris Waller TBC 8 57kg 5 Hinged Chris Waller TBC 13 57kg 6 Foxy Frida Andrew Noblet Billy Egan 6 57kg 7 Renaissance Woman Bjorn Baker TBC 14 57kg 8 Barbie’s Fox Ben, Will & JD Hayes Mark Zahra 16 57kg 9 Wrote To Arataki Matthew Williams Dean Yendall 10 57kg 10 Pride Of Jenni Ciaron Maher & David Eustace Declan Bates 17 57kg 11 Deny Knowledge Michael Kent TBC 7 57kg 12 Life Lessons Peter Moody & Katherine Coleman Daniel Stackhouse 15 57kg 13 Shuffle Dancer Peter Moody & Katherine Coleman Luke Nolen 2 57kg 14 Wishlor Lass Symon Wilde John Allen 11 57kg 15 Ausbred Flirt Brad Widdup Rachel King 9 57kg 16 More Secrets Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes Damien Oliver 4 57kg 17 Jennilala (1E) Ciaron Maher & David Eustace TBC 3 57kg More racing news View the full article

The Golden Eagle, Sydney’s second richest horse race after The Everest, will be run and won this Saturday at Rosehill Racecourse for a prize pool of $10 million. View the full article

By Jonny Turner A big week could get even bigger when Brendon Hill heads to Methven on Wednesday. The trainer takes two horses to a rescheduled meeting after producing Jimmy James Maguire to win the NZB Standardbred Sales Series Classic at Kaikoura on Monday. After brilliantly consistent form, the pacer finally nabbed a big race when leading throughout for his driver and part-owner Ricky May. “He was really good; you’ve just got to step and get handy out on that track, and that’s what he did,” Hill said. “The horse deserved it, and he’s got good owners; it was a good result.” “The horse had been knocking for a while to get a big one, and it was great that he was able to get it.” Hill is still deciding on what targets Jimmy James Maguire will be aimed at over New Zealand Cup Week. But the trainer is reasonably sure he won’t target the Junior Free-For-All. “I don’t think he will go to the Junior Free-For-All; he will probably race on one of the two days.” “We will look at a grade race for him; it will probably be 1980m, which isn’t ideal because he likes a bit of distance.” Hill will be out to continue his winning form at Methven on Wednesday with two starters. The trainer starts The Finisher fresh up without a trial in race 3, and he thinks the horse is forward enough to be competitive, with May in the sulky. “I think he is fit enough to go there and go a good race if he steps,” Hill said. “His work has been good; he is on the unruly for mobiles, so I thought we would give that a miss and try some stands.” “He is cleared from a stand, but he is a bit of a fidgety horse around at the start, so it won’t be easy for Ricky.” Hill also lines up Sergeant Best in race 11 on Wednesday. The pacer looks up to matching motors with most of his rivals, but he must overcome drawing barrier 13. “He has been going super; he hasn’t had good draws and he hasn’t had much luck, and he has copped that again.” “But if they go hard and he is following the right horse, Sarge always puts in and lets down that last 150m-200m.” Henry Sail takes the reins behind Sergeant Best at Methven. View the full article

Recent events at Hallmark Stud have ensured the inclusion of a highly valuable daughter of Proisir in the farm’s draft to New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale in January. The Te Kauwhata operation bred and sold multiple Group One winner Prowess and in the lead-up to her latest victory in the Gr.2 Crystal Mile (1600m) at The Valley last Saturday, they welcomed a sister to the Roger James and Robert Wellwood-trained star. “She will be going to Book One at Karaka next year and she’s going because we had a bit of luck and had another full-sister born last week, so we won Lotto,” Hallmark Stud principal Mark Baker said. “You need to keep a daughter sooner or later, we prayed for a filly and the mare came up trumps, she’s had three in a row now.” The dam is the Don Eduardo mare Donna Marie, a half-sister to the multiple Singapore black-type winner Onceuponatime, whose four foals to race have all been successful. “She’s played a blinder, Donna Marie, and she’ll be going back to Proisir again,” Baker said. “It’s working so well and she’s left great types so the mating obviously works and if you’re going to keep a daughter, then you’re better off with a full-sister than a half. “There’s nothing surer, all leading sires end up leading broodmare sires so even if the Proisir is unraced, who cares. “Apart from the monetary gains, you have to keep the family going.” Baker said Prowess’ yearling sister looked to have a touch more precocity about her. “She looks a bit sharper with a bit more muscle on her, a bigger hip and I’d say she might not go as far (in distance),” he said. “She has got a brilliant action and uses herself really well, just like Prowess did, and they are both correct with great natures. “I just think this filly is maybe a little bit more precocious and muscular, she doesn’t strike me straight out as a 2000m horse like Prowess did.” Prowess will now target the Gr.1 Champions’ Stakes (2000m) at Flemington and another Hallmark graduate is also eyeing off an elite level prize next time out. Impendabelle’s victory in the Gr.2 Soliloquy Stakes (1400m) at Pukekohe last Saturday boosted her Gr.1 Barneswood Farm New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) prospects. “It’s hard enough winning a midweek maiden so to have had a Group Two double within 10 minutes was great for all concerned,” Baker said. The Tony Pike-trained Impendabelle, a daughter of Impending, was sold by Hallmark on behalf of breeder Monovale Holdings at Karaka for $80,000. “We had her here for four months doing the prep for Max and Joe Smithies and she was always a beautiful filly,” Baker said. “I remember seeing her in the winter as a weanling and she was a stand-out then. “There’s a lot of upside to her and she was very good buying, Jim Bruford (of Brewers Bloodstock) played a blinder there, he didn’t pay a lot for her.” She’s arrived! It was a special one as our own daughter was on hand for the delivery, 1st night on foal watch, must have the magic pic.twitter.com/cUNHXVWR3u — Mark Baker (@hallmarkstud) October 25, 2023 View the full article

New Zealand-bred mare Ruthless Dame (NZ) (Tavistock) is on song for Saturday’s A$10 million Golden Eagle (1500m) at Rosehill according to trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace. The daughter of Tavistock was runner-up in the A$2 million The Invitation (1400m) at Randwick on Saturday, giving her connections confidence to back her up this weekend in the rich feature. “We took her to the beach on Sunday morning and she trotted up nice and free. She is a good doer and has licked the bin. I do think she has the constitution to do it,” Eustace told RacingHQ. Ruthless Dame has drawn barrier 20 on Saturday, but Eustace isn’t overly perturbed by the wide draw. “It is not a complete disaster given her pattern,” he said. “She likes room to build into a race. If we drew there at Randwick we wouldn’t be concerned at all, but it does make it hard at Rosehill. “We have just got to hope that they go quick and we will be in the second-half, three-wide, eyeing a bit of cover, and just hope that she is able to work into the race without having to do too much work.” Ruthless Dame will best tested over 1500m for just the second time on Saturday, having finished 10th in the Gr.1 Coolmore Classic (1500m) last year. “I do think a mile would be her limit, but she does seem very versatile and her form over six (furlongs, 1200m) is very good,” Eustace said. “She gets seven (furlongs, 1400m) but Sam (Clipperton, jockey) did feel on the day (last Saturday) that seven was her limit, but we will find out on Saturday.” Ruthless Dame was bought by Maher out of Curraghmore’s 2021 New Zealand Bloodstock Book 1 Yearling Sale draft for $90,000. She has gone on to win three of her 11 starts to date, including the Gr.1 Robert Sangster Stakes (1200m) and Gr.3 TBV Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1200m). View the full article

The three-year-old Practical Move collapses after a morning gallop on Tuesday, though his rider remains uninjured, while Arcangelo pulls out of the Classic because of an issue with his left hind foot.View the full article

Derby Day - one for the racing and punting purists. It also marks the start of the four-day Flemington Spring Carnival which also includes next Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup, Thursday’s Oaks meeting (Ladies Day) before concluding on Saturday November 11 with Stakes Day. View the full article

Race 2 ENTAIN – NZB INSURANCE PEARL SERIES RACE 800m CAPITAL LISTING (L Allpress) – Trainer Mr. A Carston advised Stewards, that on Tuesday 31 October, CAPITAL LISTING underwent a veterinary examination which included blood tests with no abnormalities being detected. A Carston further advised it is his intention to continue on with the filly’s current preparation. Race 5 NZB AIRFREIGHT ROAD TO JERICHO 3000m HONESTY (L Allpress) – Trainer Mrs. L Beck reported to Stewards, that upon return to the stable the mare developed an abscess to the offside front coronet. L Beck further advised, HONESTY, has now been sent for a freshen up. The post Canterbury Jockey Club at Riccarton Park, Saturday, 28 October 2023 appeared first on RIB. View the full article

Race 8 JAMIESON PARK SOLILOQUY STAKES 1400 (G2) LUBERON (C Gaudray) – Trainer Mr. L Nobel reported to Stewards, LUBERON, was examined by the Veterinarian on Monday 30 October, and the Physiotherapist on Tuesday 21 October, with no abnormalities being detected. L Nobel further advised it is his intention to continue on with the filly’s current preparation. The post Auckland Thoroughbred Rading @ Pukekohe Park, Saturday, 28 October 2023 appeared first on RIB. View the full article

Race 1 TE RAPA EVENT CENTRE 1400 PAUL DAVID (C Grylls) – Trainer Mr. C Cole advised Stewards, the gelding pulled up post-race showing signs of jarring up and underwent treatment on its back. C Cole further advised the gelding has now been sent for a freshen up. The post Waikato Thoroughbred Racing @ Te Rapa, Saturday, 21 October 2023 appeared first on RIB. View the full article

French rider believes the longest-priced winner of the season can prove it was no fluke on WednesdayView the full article

Following the recent defections of Mage and Arcangelo from the Nov. 4 Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) at Santa Anita Park, there will be no American-trained alumni from the 2023 Triple Crown in the $6 million main event.View the full article

Awapuni trainer Peter Didham is looking forward to heading to Wanganui and Trentham this week where he will be represented by a handful of runners. His more immediate interest will be at Wanganui on Thursday where he rates a couple of his runners as good prospects. “Morus always gallops well so he’s a chance with a good run and Glorifilia has had a few knee problems, but has a lot of ability,” Didham said. A son of Savabeel, Morus ran third when resuming at Waverley and has improved further for the G Bristol & Sons Handicap (1600m) after making late ground for sixth at his most recent appearance at Waverley. The lightly raced Zed mare Glorifilia has had two trials ahead of her return in the Wanganui Insurance Brokers Maiden (1360m). Didham is also keen on the chances of the in-form Moon Money in the intowin.co.nz Join A Syndicate Handicap (1400m) at Trentham on Saturday. The Per Incanto mare placed in both outings last preparation before she successfully opened her current campaign off the back of a trial victory. “She’s really good and has worked really well since her win at Taupo,” he said. View the full article

Peter Didham will be on a two-fold mission to Christchurch this month with his promising three-year-old Danjuro (NZ) (Saxon Warrior). The Awapuni trainer is firstly focussing on a crack at the Gr.1 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton on November 11, but is also mindful of the future benefits the southern venture will bring. Danjuro has earned his place in the age group feature with quality performances in his two appearances and the trip away will stand the son of Saxon Warrior in good stead for assignments later in the season. “He’s really well and galloped nicely on Tuesday. It would probably have been nice to go there for his fourth run and not his third and he’s going to learn a lot from it all going forward,” Didham said. “All the good trainers take their horses away and they just keep improving, so the trip is going to do him good.” Danjuro was a debut winner over 1200m at Woodville in September and last month overcame a slow start at Trentham to finish runner-up behind the Kevin Myers-trained Bozo (NZ) (Satono Aladdin). “The ability is there now but he is a big, raw sort and will improve mentally and physically and I think he is a chance of being a Derby (Gr.1, 2400m) horse,” Didham said. “He went super at Wellington, it was a really good run and Bozo is pretty smart.” Bred by Cambridge Hunt, Danjuro was secured by Didham for $140,000 out of Curraghmore’s draft at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale. He is a son of the Shinko King mare Kabuki (NZ), who is a half-sister to the late Group One winner and successful sire Tavistock and the family of the dual Gr.2 Moonee Valley Cup (2600m) Precedence and the Listed Japan Cup (2400m) winner Jupiter Island. “He’s a lovely horse and I’ve always had a lot of time for him,” Didham said. Danjuro is currently sharing the fifth line of betting at $14 in the Guineas market. “Crocetti is obviously pretty good, but I think the others look quite even. It’s good stake money and we’ve got to go and chase it,” Didham said. View the full article

The long-awaited return of racing to Te Aroha following track renovations will take place on Friday, having been postponed from its initial Wednesday time slot due to adverse weather. Te Aroha received 85mm of rain on Monday night and the decision was made to postpone the Wednesday meeting following a track inspection on Tuesday. Local horseman Gavin Opie is particularly looking forward to the return and is hoping to get a few of his owners there on raceday, having entered seven horses. “We have been trekking everywhere (since the track renovations) and the owners have copped the travel expenses the whole way through. I have got a few in to try and get all the owners to the races,” Opie said. “I have got a couple of syndicates. I am sure a lot of them will be there and hopefully we can get a nice result somewhere along the day for them.” While the track renovation wasn’t ideal early on for Opie’s training routine, he said patience has paid off and he is pleased with the surfaces now on offer at the Waikato venue. “It will be two years in January (since they started the renovation),” Opie said. “It was a bit frustrating to start off with because we didn’t have a galloping track, so I was trucking a few to Matamata to gallop. We have never been without a pacework track, and we have just been rolling with the punches. “They moved every inch of soil to start with and cambered the chutes and the bends. I don’t think there is another track in New Zealand like it now. The 1600m chute has a bit of an up and a down and the same at the 1200m. It is pretty unique what they have done.” While the track was earmarked to return to racing earlier this year, Opie said he is glad it was delayed until spring. “It was probably a blessing in disguise that it didn’t kick-off when they wanted to eight or nine months ago,” he said. “The winter has been and the ground has had a good time to consolidate. “It’s full steam ahead now – we have got a perfect plough, a nice sand track, and we are getting to use the course proper for galloping as well.” Opie is hopeful of some bold showings from his seven runners on Friday and has highlighted Koro’s Princess (NZ) (Proisir) in the Mainfreight 1400 as one of his better chances. “Koro’s Princess has been waiting for a bit of moisture. She is a pretty handy mare, but she just needs a bit of cut in the track,” he said. Opie is also upbeat about the chances of debutant Palace Princess (NZ) (Belardo) in the Donaghys Pro-Abamac 1200, as well as Mister Pucci (NZ) (Puccini) and Flight Plan in the Donaghys Pro-Equine 1400. “I have got a first starter called Palace Princess and we have got a bit of time for her. She might not win (on Friday), but she will be winning a race in the near future,” he said. “Flight Plan is bouncing out of his skin. He went to one of those abandoned meetings and we have been trying to find him moisture and it has finally come. I am expecting a bold run from him. “With Mister Pucci, it was a leaders bias the other day at Te Rapa, he got back and his last 200m was the second fastest of the race even though he ran 10th. He should run well.” View the full article

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) on Tuesday approved a Thoroughbred racing calendar for 2024 that largely mirrors the template that has been in place for the past three seasons. The board's unanimous approval included a conditional “optional dates” placeholder for Ellis Park's July and August calendar that has to be solidified into a three-dates-per-week commitment before the end of this year. The gaming company Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), which owns Ellis, Churchill Downs Racetrack, and Turfway Park, had requested additional time to figure out if swapping Fridays for Mondays will be feasible for 2024. So Ellis got awarded 18 mandatory dates (which will be run on Saturdays and Sundays) and 30 optional dates. Waqas Ahmed, the KHRC's executive deputy director, told commissioners that he expected Ellis would eventually end up picking up seven more mandatory dates from that optional allotment of 30. “The obvious goal at Ellis is to run three days a week,” Gary Palmisano, Jr., CDI's executive director of racing, said during the KHRC meeting. “As we approached the race dates application deadline, the idea was tossed around of potentially running Saturday, Sunday, Monday rather than [this season's] Friday, Saturday, Sunday.” Leaving that placeholder for now, Palmisano said, “is going to allow our team a little bit more time to conduct some due diligence [and] make sure the horsemen are on board; make sure test barn workers can get there; make sure we can actually cover potential Monday racing.” CDI must notify the KHRC by Dec. 31 as to how it will satisfy the commission's condition that calls for “at least” three days of racing per week at Ellis in 2024. Assuming Ellis ends up with 25 mandatory dates, the total number of race dates in Kentucky will rise slightly in 2024 compared to the assigned dates for 2023, up from 211 to 215. The total mandatory dates for the other tracks are Churchill (83), Turfway (67), Keeneland (33) and Kentucky Downs (7). Here's a chronological look at the state's 2024 Thoroughbred schedule: Turfway: Jan. 3-Mar. 30 on a Wednesday-Saturday evening schedule. Keeneland: Apr. 5-26 on a Wednesday-Sunday schedule. Churchill Downs: Apr. 27-June 30 on a Wednesday-Sunday schedule, with exceptions on GI Kentucky Derby week and the Memorial Day holiday week. Ellis Park: July 4-Aug. 27 with Saturdays and Sundays anchoring the schedule, plus additional dates to be announced and an opening-day Thursday card on Independence Day. Kentucky Downs: Aug. 29-Sept. 11 for seven dates with three “optional” dates in case of rainouts. Churchill: Sep. 12-29 on a Wednesday-Sunday schedule. Keeneland: Oct. 4-26 on a Wednesday-Sunday schedule. Churchill: Oct. 27-Dec. 1 on a Wednesday-Sunday schedule. Turfway: Dec. 4-28 on a Wednesday-Saturday evening schedule with a Christmas Day exception. The post 2024 Kentucky Race Dates Set appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Maybe our sport is still capable of bringing together four such people round a dinner table. But you have to doubt it. “They were comparing the theaters that they had played on the Vaudeville circuit,” Dave Johnson recalls. “Which had the best backstage dressing rooms? Which had the best eating places, that you could walk to still with your costume and makeup on?” These memories were being shared between Johnson's mother and Fred Astaire. Moreover, both of those who were listening on, fascinated, had remarkable stories of their own: Astaire's wife, the former jockey Robyn Smith, and Johnson himself-the man whose call, for those present at the 1973 Belmont S., will forever be synonymous with one of the greatest performances in the story of the breed. Whether or not the world has moved on, it has certainly turned plenty since. Next Saturday, indeed, is the 50th anniversary of Secretariat's final start. And this dinner itself took place over 40 years ago, in Los Angeles, during Johnson's tenure as the caller at Santa Anita. “Afterwards Fred sent my mother an autographed picture,” Johnson recalls. “I think things like that helped keep her alive. My dad died early, he was only 52. But my mother passed away at 93. I have a picture of her as a dancer in 1930, when she was nine or so, with the whole McLeod Troupe on the Orpheum Circuit: my grandfather, my grandmother, their oldest son who was an attorney, then a daughter who was in the chorus, and then my mother, and then baby Jackie, who was about four or five.” It was a different world, clearly. His grandparents, indeed, were blackface comedians. But the timeless dividend, for Johnson, was to be raised on the stories of a nomadic community, full of incident and character; and, moreover, with a genetic flair of his own. Because it was performance, of course, that united all four of those gathered round the table at the Palm that night. McLeod Troupe on the Orpheum Circuit: Johnson's mother is second from the left next to brother Jackie | Dave Johnson “Robyn was much younger than Fred, but each was equally dependent on the other,” Johnson recalls. “Robyn's a wonder. She was a terrific rider, but a great person. Still is. And of course Fred was just a hell of a guy. Loved the game. He would get emotional about his horses. If one got claimed, just like Burt Bacharach, he would buy it back. “At one point during that dinner Fred leaned across the table to me, just so serious, and I thought, 'Oh gosh, what's coming now?' And he said, 'Dave, I really have an important question to ask you.'” Johnson pauses and chuckles. “'Dave,' he said. 'How do you win the Pick Six?'” Now here we are, on the opposite coast, in the Manhattan apartment that Johnson even then called home. (He bought it 51 years ago.) And we're wondering what has happened to our game since; how to retrieve the glamor of those days, when the golden age of the silver screen retained at least a copper glow; when Marje Everett ran Hollywood Park and made sure that friends like Elizabeth Taylor would show up for the inaugural Breeders' Cup. Johnson knows that horseracing today is a very different world from when his mother taught him, aged just four or five, how to read the Racing Form: they were on the train from St. Louis to New Orleans, in the last months of the war, visiting his father's military posting. “The arc of what has happened, in racing, seems so evident to me,” Johnson says. “I first started to go to the races as a very young guy. My family was never in the game as owners, trainers, anything. But we all loved to go to Fairmount Park, over the river from St. Louis, and it was always a wonderful holiday. “In 2023, racing is a television production. There's no longer people at the track, or only very few. For the Derby, Oaks, the Breeders' Cup, Royal Ascot, a destination like Saratoga or Keeneland: yes. But on a day-to-day basis, year round, it's a television production. So what we have now, with some racing executives, is people making decisions about television without knowing anything about broadcasting. Of course, some are terrific. I've worked for good and bad; and it's no different on the TV side, some know their racing, some don't.” At 82, naturally enough, Johnson doesn't find it quite so easy to get around. But he remains fully engaged, and feels due gratitude for precisely the reach of all the broadcasting platforms that are available today. Shortly before welcoming TDN, indeed, he had already been watching British racing on his phone over a morning coffee. But breadth of access does not equate to breadth of engagement. Dick Enberg and Dave Johnson at the 1984 Breeders' Cup | NBC Sports One of the things that sustained the sport's popular heyday, he feels, was simply the way horses were bred or trained (or both). Johnson wonders whether longer intervals between races have partly become standard because of medication levels; less speculatively, he deplores the sensitivity of trainers to their win percentages, above all now that so many potential runners are concentrated in so few hands. Johnson remembers when even someone like Woody Stephens would have no more than 40 horses. “I knew Woody very well, and his assistants Sandy Bruno and David Donk,” Johnson recalls. “I knew that whole barn. Wonderful people. And Lucille, Woody's wife. That was before the age of flying horses around, which was really started by Wayne Lukas. I mean, how would you begin to know 200 horses? I don't know how they do it. “Woody was very funny. And very self-centered! 'Let's see what time it is. Oh, by the way, did I tell you that Laurel gave me this watch for winning five Selimas?' But he was a hell of a horse trainer, wasn't he? I mean, a real hardboot. Hardworking, old school. A throwback. Owners had some input, too, but the trainers ran their horses where they thought. I mean, Woody is a perfect example: winning the Met Mile with Conquistador Cielo Monday, and winning the Belmont on Saturday. I think there are some traditions which should stay, including the Triple Crown. To move the Met Mile to the Belmont undercard, that hurt me. Maybe I'm old school too.” But maybe that's just what we're missing-the sense of participation that spreads down from the barns to the public. Horses weren't just financial or career devices, whether for breeders or trainers: they put on a show. After all, Johnson himself would never have got started without an innate sense of theater. “I called my first race in '65 at Cahokia Downs,” he recalls. “And it's like the script of a B movie. I was 24, working for a law firm. I'd do wills, I'd go out and take pictures of where an accident happened, I'd go and talk to a guy in prison. Anyway we had a box at the track, for the clients, and that evening I'd gone over there to wheel a horse in the double. And the announcer, Todd Creed, became ill. A stretcher went by, behind the box, and an announcement was made: 'Ladies and gentlemen, there'll be no more announcing tonight. Please watch the tote board. Thank you, and good night.' “Now, I knew the general manager, Ann Detchemendy. She was an Ethel Merman type: a brash, wonderful lady. She'd say to me, 'Hey sweetheart, you want to split a double with me?' 'Oh yes, Miss Ann, I'd love to.' Her office was right behind, so I went in and said, 'Miss Ann, I could call the races for you. I can memorize the 10 points of the Yalta Agreement, so I can certainly manage the seven horses in this race.'” Miss Ann picked up the phone, there was some back and forth, and she hung up. “Thanks, Dave, but the announcer's son is going to fill in.” “That was Todd's son, Mike,” Johnson recalls. “So he's in there with the engineer, and the 'musician' who would put the stylus on the record to play the bugle. (They had to have a member of the Music Union do that for every race!) And so the three of them stood there as the horses broke out of the gate.” “That's number five going to the lead,” says Mike. “I don't think it's the five,” interjects the engineer. Then a third voice: “I think it's Blue Boy.” “And you heard the three of them argue for five furlongs,” Johnson says. “It was hilarious. Immediately after the race, Miss Ann came into the box. 'You're next!'” Johnson pauses and smiles. “I'd told my friend Tony Marino that I was going over to the track, but he was going to have some dinner first and drive over later. So he parks his car, and as he's coming through the parking lot he hears the fourth or fifth race being called. And he said, 'Geez, that sounds like Dave.'” Johnson shakes his head and chuckles. “And that was it. And here we are, almost 60 years later.” Johnson did other stuff around the track, too: booked group parties, wrote stories, did selections for both the local newspapers. (They had to be different!) He carried on working during the day and called races at night. Meanwhile he was still reading history at Southern Illinois University, albeit graduation had to be squeezed in between the fourth and fifth races one night. “And the people, I loved the people,” he stresses. “That's what is so wonderful about working at the track. They're like family. Because you spend more time with them than you do at home.” Calling a race just came naturally: that performance gene coming through. Having provided cover on other, less extempore occasions, Johnson took over at Cahokia and Fairmount when Creed went to Ak-Sar-Ben. Then, in 1970, he got the NYRA gig on the retirement of Fred Capossela. Secretariat was foaled that year, and so the wheel of destiny turned. Pete Axthelm, Dick Enberg and Dave Johnson in 1984 | NBC Sports With time, Johnson's trademark call (“And down the stretch they come…”) became literally that: he was able to charge its unauthorized use to charity. But however entertaining his style, he always felt that his first priority was to inform. “Say what you see,” he says. “That was my only job. All the extraneous B.S. of the announcer coming on, and telling who they like, that's somebody else's job.” That said, even the informing was constrained in the old days. “At the track, you had to shut the microphone off at the 16th pole,” he recalls. “That was because of a federal law called the Wire Act. They didn't want the result to get outside the confines of the racetrack, for fear that illegal bookmakers would churn the money. Prior to the first race, the string of payphones at Belmont Park would be locked up-and they'd only unlocked after the ninth.” There was one time, admittedly, when Johnson finished the call too early even for the strictures of the Wire Act-in a race at Cahokia that he called as a sprint when it was really a route. (“I saw these jocks with the brakes on,” he recalls. “And I thought, 'Oh my God, it's a fixed race!' They went around the clubhouse turn, I hung up the microphone off, and the engineer said to me, 'Dave, they go around again!'”) Not all change is for the worse, plainly. “No, that's true,” Johnson acknowledges. “One time Angel Cordero was going for his fourth win of the day. And early in the stretch I said, 'And Cordero moves to the front.' And then at the 16th pole I said who was in front, who was second, shut it off. [Next day] my boss Pat Lynch called me in and said, 'I got a memorandum. From a board member. “Please inform Mr. Johnson, it's horse racing-not jockey racing!” The mentality… I mean, see how much it's changed? “But if you listen to Fred Capossela-a wonderful man, just a great human being-his calls were never jockey-, or trainer-related. But it was all very good. And that's our job: to identify, and give the margins, and who's moving. And from the top of the stretch, maybe only concentrate on the horses in contention.” One way or another, however, Johnson showed that inherited flair for performance. And, in time, that actually extended as far as playing roles on stage and screen. Back in St. Louis, for instance, he performed in musicals like My Fair Lady, Can-Can and Unsinkable Molly Brown in front of 12,000 at the outdoor theater in Forest Park. Above all, however, Johnson has adapted his racetrack nose for a wager to investment in Broadway productions. “That also came from a St. Louis connection,” he says. “Rocco Landesman, who I knew from the racetrack 20, 25 years ago. Owned six theaters here in New York, called the Jujamcyn Theaters. We had always talked about The Producers, which was one of my favorite films, with Zero Mostel. So when he said there was a chance he might do it as a stage play, I said, 'Count me in.'” Johnson had already backed a theatrical winner in London, a city he would get to know very well through attending 24 consecutive Royal Ascots. In 1983 he saw the West End debut of Michael Frayn's Noises Off, and virtually camped on the producers' doorstep. “I begged them to take my money!” he says. “And it was a big success, mainly because they sold the film rights for $5 million. But I didn't invest in another show until The Producers, nearly 20 years later. Rocco came up to me at the memorial service for David Merrick and said, 'I think we've got Matthew Broderick.' And that was it. Biggest bet I ever made. But it paid very well.” The show opened at the St. James Theater on 19 April 2001, and ran for 2,502 performances, harvesting a record 12 Tony Awards. And Johnson remains immersed in that cosmopolitan community, still telephoning and corresponding with folks from behind and in front of the footlights. Asked what draws him to their world, his answer is succinct and emphatic. “Talent, and honesty,” Johnson declares. “I have a lot of friends whose talent I really admire. They give it all. But it's not just the performing, it's everything that goes into making any of these things: a television show, a commercial, a stage show, a movie. Because, really, can't you see through people that are phony? I can, at least I think I can. So it's not just talent, it's also the honesty: people, like Rocco, who always do the right thing. I don't want anything to do with anybody who isn't above board, who's shady, who cuts corners.” But come on, Dave, how does that account for where you spent the rest of your time? You must have seen a few phonies on the racetrack. “Oh, yeah!” he says with a chuckle. “And in the management of racetracks, too.” This, in fact, is one of his pet vexations: track executives who didn't come up through the game; people who would never go to the races on their day off. But the beauty of Johnson's own story is the way he has straddled the margins between these two cosmopolitan, theatrical worlds: the stage and the Turf. “There's only one job at the racetrack that is a performer,” he reflects. “As announcers, we are performers. If you're doing it on television, you're not doing it for the crowd. Yeah. Isn't that funny? Only one job. “And it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing. In anything, like a movie, that's going to be on videotape or film, you can change it. You can do take two, whatever. At the racetrack, you get one shot, and it'll never be the same. Ever. Run the same horses, your call is never going to be the same.” What luck, then, that he took his cue that night back in 1965: an unscheduled audition for the rest of his life. “There's a little article in The New York Times called Tiny Love Stories,” Johnson says. “It has to be 100 words or less. And so many times it's about people who met their mate in a cab, or on a corner, or in a rainstorm. I love those stories. It's the same kind of thing. What if I hadn't gone to the track that evening? Who knows? How lucky was I? And then I get to see Secretariat, Ruffian, Affirmed. I really have been lucky. I have no regrets. I've had a great career, and a wonderful life. I love the line in the movie Braveheart, where Mel Gibson says: 'Every man dies. But not every man lives.' And boy, have I lived.” The post Dave Johnson: What a Performance! appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Seabhac (Scat Daddy) will stand for €4,000 at Haras du Taillis in 2024, the stud announced on Tuesday. He stood for €3,000 this season. A winner of the GIII Pilgrim S. in the U.S., the 8-year-old's eldest foals are 3-year-olds of this year. Both Angers (Fr) and Rue Boissonade (Fr) have won Group 2 events, the former the G2 Mehl-Mulhens Rennen and the latter the G2 Prix de Malleret. Of his 65 runners worldwide, the stallion sports 27 winners. Alexandre Lacour, speaking to Jour de Galop on behalf of the syndicate that manages Seabhac, said, “He is a stallion who produces and is certainly transmitting quality. We want to capitalise on the success of his first starters by leaving his fee at a very low, attractive price for 2024.” The post Seabhac’s Fee Released By Haras Du Taillis appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

A homebred for Gary Seidler and Peter Vegso, Unrivaled Belle's Breeders' Cup win came at the expense of the following year's Horse of the Year Havre de Grace, who finished third. The two mares would eventually share common ownership, both being purchased by Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm, and live together at Timber Town before Havre de Grace's passing earlier this year. The crown jewel among Unrivaled Belle's foals to date is two-time champion Unique Bella. Unrivaled Belle has a 2-year-old full-sister to Unique Bella named Tap My Belle, as well as yearling and weanling colts by Into Mischief. She was bred to Flightline for next term. “Our time with Unrivaled Belle was amazing and super fun,” said Vegso, best known outside of racing as publisher of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series. “She was a wonderful horse and loved racing. Bill Mott did a super job with her; he's a special soul as is 'the Belle.' It's always so special when a horse we foal does so super well; makes having a farm and mares and mating–and the Mother Nature surrounding that comes with it–magical.” Unrivaled Belle (2006 gray or roan mare, Unbridled's Song–Queenie Belle, by Bertrando) Lifetime record: GISW, 14-6-6-1, $1,854,706 Breeders' Cup connections: B/O-Gary Seidler & Peter Vegso (KY); T-Bill Mott; J-Kent Desormeaux. Current location: Timber Town Stable, Lexington, Ky. The post Catching Up with 2010 Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic Winner Unrivaled Belle appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Wedneday's Observations features a son of six-time American Grade I winner Abel Tasman (Quality Road) at Dundalk 15.30 Dundalk, €15,000, Mdn, 2yo, 7f (AWT) Aidan O'Brien trainee HALLOWED (Galileo {Ire}) is a son of six-time Grade I heroine Abel Tasman (Quality Road), who was knocked down for a sale-topping $5-million at Keeneland's 2019 January All-Aged sale. The April-foaled bay encounters a baker's dozen on debut, headed by twice-raced stablemate Greenfinch (Justify), who is kin to three-time Group 1 winners Roly Poly (War Front) and U S Navy Flag (War Front) out of four-time elite-level victrix Misty For Me (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). Rivals also include Teme Valley Racing's hitherto untested Celestial Reighn (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), who is a Joseph O'Brien-trained full-brother to G1 Gran Premio Del Jockey Club hero Ventura Storm (Ire). The post Son of Six-Time Grade I Heroine Abel Tasman On Deck for Dundalk Bow appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

The Golden Mile and Senator Ken Maddy Stakes are two $150,000 open turf stakes carded as race 1 and 3, respectively, Nov. 3, on Breeders' Cup Friday at Santa Anita Park. View the full article