Wandering Eyes

Glen Hill Farm's Caribou Club rang in 2019 in style, notching his first graded stakes win of the year in the $100,000 Joe Hernandez Stakes (G3T) at Santa Anita Park. View the full article

CK Ng suspended four days, Zyrul gets two View the full article

Horses' test results January 1 View the full article

7th-GP, $50K, Msw, 3yo, f, 1 1/16mT, post time: 3:35 p.m. ET AMARONE (Quality Road), a $100K acquisition by Three Diamonds Farm out of the 2017 Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearling Sale, has the right to be any sort on this surface. Her diminutive dam Megahertz (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) was one of the more charismatic turf distaffers on the West Coast in recent memory for trainer Bobby Frankel, as she employed a wicked turn of foot to win the GI Yellow Ribbon S. and GI John C. Mabee H. when pace-compromised on both occasions. Megahertz was acquired for $40K with this filly in utero at the 2015 Keeneland November sale. TJCIS PPs View the full article

The Hong Kong Jockey Club will hold a five-heat "Exhibition Raceday" March 23 at its new Conghua Racecourse on the Chinese Mainland, an initial step toward expansion of an international equine sports industry in the area. View the full article

When Red Hot Kitten crossed the wire a neck to the good in Turfway Park's last race on New Year's Eve, the final day of the 2018 holiday meet, Maker claimed sole possession of the record for training titles at the Northern Kentucky track with 21. View the full article

Mahoning Valley Racecourse recently concluded its Fall Meet and 2018 calendar season this past Saturday and did so with yet another annual increase in wagering. View the full article

Mind Control bounced back from a seventh in the Nov. 2 Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) at Churchill Downs last out for Red Oak Stable and Madaket Stables, and picked up 10 points to rank fifth on the Kentucky Derby Leaderboard. View the full article

Sent off the 3-2 favorite to get the New Year off on a positive note, Red Oak Stable and Madaket Stables’ MIND CONTROL (c, 3, Stay Thirsty-Feel That Fire, by Lightnin N Thunder) set a comfortable if pressured pace, took a narrow lead into the stretch and repelled a final-furlong challenge from Maryland invader Our Braintrust (Freud) to win Tuesday’s $150,000 Jerome S. at Aqueduct. The bay, a 10-1 upset winner of the GI Hopeful S. at Saratoga last summer, was last seen finishing a distant seventh to likely 2-year-old champion Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg}) in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs Nov. 2. Cutting back to a one-turn route for this sophomore debut, Mind Control showed good speed from the gate and was tracked along to his outside by his chief market rival Souper Jackpot (Ghostzapper), narrowly second in the Dec. 8 Smooth Air S. at Gulfstream Park at this trip. That duo was joined to their outer by the slow-starting Gates of Dawn (Arch) as the quarter pole loomed, but Mind Control was always holding those two, then found an additional gear when taken on by Our Braintrust inside the eighth pole. Lifetime Record: 5-3-1-0. O-Red Oak Stable & Madaket Stables LLC; B-Red Oak Stable (KY); T-Greg Sacco. View the full article

Mike Maker tied with Wesley Ward to earn his 21st training title at Turfway Park and took sole possession of the record for most titles at the Florence, Kentucky track. Maker had been tied with Bernie Flint, who last earned a Turfway Park title for the 2004 holiday meet. Maker and Ward ended Turfway’s holiday meet Monday with 10 wins apiece. Ken and Sarah Ramsey earned a record 15th owner’s title at Turfway with nine winners from 20 starters. Leading jockey honors went to Rodney Prescott with 21 wins. View the full article

There’s some hope for the camp of Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky), but not much. The more you talk to voters and racing fans and experts, the more it becomes clear that Justify (Scat Daddy) will be named the 2018 Horse of the Year. It’s the power of the Triple Crown, and it’s such a big force it appears that even a GI Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and a five-time Grade I winner on the year can’t even put a dent into it. A little history: The modern day Eclipse Awards were created in 1971. Wikipedia has compiled a list of Horses of the Year going all the way back to 1887. Until the award was unified by the Daily Racing Form, The National Turf Writers Association, and the Thoroughbred Racing Associations (which has been replaced by the NTRA), several groups, including Turf and Sports Digest Magazine named their own champion. That sometimes led to there being more than one Horse of the Year. Should Accelerate not be named Horse of the Year, trainer John Sadler and the Hronis brothers might want to take some solace in the fact that he would be joining an elite list of great Thoroughbreds who fell short. Here’s one person’s list of the 10 best horses who were not named Horse of the Year in a year when their racetrack feats were extremely impressive. 1. Omaha (1935): The only Triple Crown winner in history not named Horse of the Year. The Triple Crown may not have meant as much in 1935 as it does today, but the linking of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont had definitely been established by then. In its coverage of the 1935 Belmont, the New York Times alludes to the fact that Omaha’s win meant he won the Triple Crown. Instead, Horse of the Year went to Discovery, who was 11 for 19 on the year and at one point reeled off eight in a row, including a 90-length win in the Detroit Challenge Cup. The pivotal race was the Brooklyn H., where he met Omaha for the only time that year. Not only did he beat him by 12 lengths, he won in a world-record time. That gave him two world records, joining Man o’War as the only horse at the time to hold more than one. “Omaha was a disappointment to the many who backed him, but it was simply a case of a good 3-year-old not being able to beat good older horses,” the Times reported. “This is a result as old as horse racing and has seldom been reversed.” 2. Seattle Slew (1978): He won five of seven starts, including the GI Woodward and the GI Marlboro Cup H. and he was, well, Seattle Slew. In the GI Marlboro Cup, he beat Affirmed by three lengths. He also finished ahead of him when he was second behind Exceller in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup, but Affirmed’s race was finished the moment his saddle slipped. Because he was DQ’ed in the Travers, Affirmed won only one race after the Triple Crown and it was the GII Jim Dandy. But the power of the Triple Crown carried Affirmed to Horse of the Year. Seattle Slew was, of course, Horse of the Year in 1977. 3. Native Dancer (1953): Those 1953 voters must have been a tough bunch to satisfy. One loss derailed one of the greatest horses ever. Native Dancer was 21 for 22 during his career. Unfortunately, for him, the one defeat, came in the 1953 Derby when he was beaten by Dark Star by a head. Other than that, he merely won the Gotham, Wood Memorial, Withers, Preakness, Belmont, Dwyer, Arlington Classic, the Travers and the American Derby. At least he was beaten by a deserving horse. The 1953 Horse of the Year was Tom Fool, who ran the table, going 10 for 10. In his last four starts, though, he twice faced only two horses and twice was involved in match races. No betting was allowed on any of those races. Native Dancer was Horse of the Year in 1952 and 1953. 4. Personal Ensign (1988): You go 7 for 7 on the year and end an historic campaign with a Breeders’ Cup win so riveting that 30 years later many still believe the 1988 GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff was the single best race in the history of the series…and you’re not Horse of the Year? Personal Ensign retired after that Breeders’ Cup with a 13 for 13 record, the first major horse to retire without a loss after a full campaign since Colin in 1908. But much like Accelerate, she came around in the wrong year. The voters went for Alysheba, who son six Grade I races, including the Breeders’ Cup Classic. He likely would have been Horse of the Year in 1987, the year of his wins in the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness, if not for losing the Classic by a nose to Ferdinand. 5. Northern Dancer (1964): Well before he became known as one of the greatest sires in history, Northern Dancer was one hell of a horse. After winning the Florida Derby, the Blue Grass, the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, he returned home to his native Canada and won the Queen’s Plate. Losing out on the Triple Crown when third in the Belmont clearly cost him, as did the fact that he never ran again after the Queen’s Plate. He was beaten out by Kelso, who won his fifth straight Horse of the Year title that year. 6. Blame (2010): Yes, he only ran five times, but that was par for the course for top horses by 2010. His only loss came in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup and he became the only horse in history to defeat Zenyatta, when he stuck his head in front at the wire of the Breeders’ Cup Classic. It was the only time the two met. But Zenyatta had cult-like status and some may have felt she deserved Horse of the Year after losing to Rachel Alexandra the year before. The end result: Zenyatta was named Horse of the Year. 7. Zenyatta (2009): You can’t do much better than Zenyatta did in 2009. She went 5-for-5 and beat males in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. But there was another super filly out there by the name of Rachel Alexandra. She was also undefeated in 2009 and beat males twice, in the Preakness and GI Woodward. To some, she should have been penalized because she never took on Zenyatta because owner Jess Jackson refused to run her over “plastic” (a.k.a a synthetic surface). But at the end of the day, the voters determined she was the more super of the two super fillies. Zenyatta would have to wait one year for her Horse of the Year title. 8. Slew o’ Gold (1984): Maybe they just should have called this one a dead-heat. A winner of four straight Grade I’s before a narrow defeat in the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Classic, Slew o’ Gold was expected to be named Horse of the Year, but lost to sentimental favorite John Henry. Barely lost, that is. Slew o’ Gold won the National Turf Writers Association bloc, while John Henry was the choice among the Daily Racing Form voters. Like the electoral college, total votes don’t matter when it comes to Horse of the Year. You had to win the majority of the votes among at least two of the three entities that voted. The voting among the third, the Thoroughbred Racing Associations, ended in a tie. In a tiebreaker, John Henry won because he had more overall votes. This was John Henry’s 10-year-old year and his last year of racing. He won six of nine starts, including four Grade I’s. He did not participate in the Breeders’ Cup. 9. Spectacular Bid (1979): Buddy Delp called him “the greatest horse to ever look through a bridle,” but voters in 1979 decided he was second best in the Horse of the Year vote. Affirmed won for the second straight year. Obviously, losing the Belmont S. cost Spectacular Bid. So did he his head-to-head loss to Affirmed in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup. With an undefeated season in 1980, Spectacular Bid was a runaway winner of the Horse-of-the-Year title. 10. Exceller (1978): Seattle Slew wasn’t the only star not to be named Horse of the Year in 1978, a year when the award went to Triple Crown winner Affirmed. In the ’78 Jockey Club Gold Cup, he became the only horse in history to beat two Triple Crown winners in the same race when he defeated Affirmed and Seattle Slew. A Grade I winner on both turf and dirt, he also won the GI Oak Tree Invitational, the GI Sunset H., the GI Hollywood Gold Cup, the GI Hollywood Invitational, the GI San Luis Rey and the GIII Arcadia H. He had a sensational year. But it was the year of Affirmed. View the full article

After brief freshenings, Chocolate Martini, Serengeti Empress, and Lone Sailor all recently returned to Fair Grounds Race Course to prepare for their 2019 campaigns. View the full article

It’s probably fair to call it a first-world problem, but one dilemma which extremely successful owner/breeders can find themselves facing is what strategy to adopt when a top-class broodmare produces several prospective stallions, because it is asking a lot for them all to fulfil their potential if they are standing alongside (and essentially in competition with) each other. That is the position which Prince Khalid Abdullah has found himself in with Kind (Ire) (Danehill), dam of two winners of the G1 Champion S., i.e. the peerless Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) and his full-brother Noble Mission (GB). Few have played their cards better in such a situation than the 17th Earl of Derby, whose 1922 Park Hill S. victrix Selene (GB) (Chaucer {GB}) produced not only the 1933 Derby and St Leger hero Hyperion (GB) (Gainsborough {GB}) but also the high-class colts Sickle (GB) (Phalaris {GB}), Pharamond (GB) (Phalaris {GB}) and Hunter’s Moon (GB) (Hurry On {GB}). Lord Derby stood Hyperion himself in Newmarket (mostly at Woodlands Stud but also at Plantation Stud for three seasons) which was a good move as the little chestnut turned out to be Great Britain’s greatest stallion of the 20th century. He also stood Sickle for one season at Woodlands before the horse was leased to (and subsequently bought by) Joseph Widener who relocated him to his Elmendorf Stud in Kentucky, a move which worked out very well as Sickle was US Champion Sire in 1936 and ’38, and his sire-line yielded in turn Unbreakable, Polynesian, Native Dancer, Raise A Native and Mr. Prospector. Pharamond was sold to a syndicate headed by Hal Price Headley (who subsequently bought out his partners) to stand at Headley’s Beaumont Farm in Kentucky, where he enjoyed great success; while Hunter’s Moon was sold to South America, where he started his stud career in Argentina and ended it in Brazil and sired numerous champions. The late Lord Howard de Walden faced similar decisions regarding the placement of the progeny of his great mare Doubly Sure (GB) (Reliance {Fr}). He made sure that her two best sons stood on opposite sides of the Atlantic. He stood Kris (GB) (Sharpen Up) at his own Thornton Stud in Yorkshire while Diesis (GB) (Sharpen Up) went to Mill Ride in Kentucky. Their siblings Keen (GB) (Sharpen Up), Presidium (GB) (General Assembly), Doubletour (Lyphard) and Rudimentary (Nureyev) were dotted around the British Isles. More recently, Prince Khalid Abdullah has found himself in the same situation with the offspring of Kind (Ire) (Danehill). Mirroring the movements of the top-class full-brothers Kris and Diesis, Frankel has settled at Banstead Manor Stud while Noble Mission calls Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky home; while Bullet Train (GB) (Sadler’s Wells) is at Woodfield Farm Stud in Ireland after having spent seven years in Kentucky, Morpheus (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) is at Haras de Chesnaie in France after having spent four years at Tally Ho in Ireland, and Proconsul (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) is about to start his third season at Mickley Stud in England. Noble Mission wasn’t as good a racehorse as Frankel, but that’s no disgrace because no horse has been as good as Frankel. But he was still a proper Group 1 performer in his own right. He won three Group 1 races during his final year in training (2014) and in the last of them he emulated his brother by bringing down the curtain on a distinguished career by taking the G1 QIPCO Champion S. at Ascot. He too then topped it all off by collecting a Cartier Award (albeit ‘merely’ as Champion Older Horse, rather than Horse of the Year). By this time Frankel had completed two seasons at Banstead Manor, and Prince Khalid Abdullah took a leaf out of Lord Howard de Walden’s book by selling a majority interest in the horse to Lane’s End. The similarities between Frankel and Noble Mission did not end with the way in which they concluded their racing careers. Frankel had got his stud career off to a perfect start when his first runner Cunco (Ire) won on debut at Newbury in May 2016. Noble Mission followed suit. Bred by Green Lantern Stables LLC, On A Session was bought at the Keeneland September Sale in 2017 for $50,000 by Amy Marnane and brought to Ireland. He was offered by Bansha House Stud at the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale at Doncaster this spring but was retained by his vendors at £60,000. Put into training in France by the Marnanes with Matthieu Palussiere, he made the perfect start for Noble Mission by scoring on debut, taking the Prix des Hortensias at Lyon Parilly by 4 1/2 lengths on May 10. Two weeks later he doubled his tally by landing the Prix De Puycharic at Angers. While Noble Mission was a British racehorse and sired his first winner in France, the focus of his stud career, of course, is primarily in the USA. He ends 2018 in seventh place (judged on worldwide earnings) in the American First-Season Sires’ table, which is extremely creditable for a stallion whose progeny, if they take after their father, ought not to be particularly precocious, ought to progress markedly as they mature, and ought to show their best form on turf. His progeny have earned $651,585 in North America and the equivalent of $97,097 in Europe, putting him just ahead of the top-class dirt runners Verrazano (More Than Ready) and Mucho Macho Man (Macho Uno) who lie in eighth and ninth. The star of Noble Mission’s first crop at this early stage appears to be the Lane’s End home-bred Code Of Honor, who was offered as a yearling at Keeneland last September but failed to reach his $70,000 reserve. Consequently Will Farish put him into training with Shug McGaughey and must now be very thankful that he didn’t sell him. Code Of Honor went from winning a six-furlong maiden special weight at Saratoga in August to contesting the G1 Champagne S. over a mile at Belmont seven weeks later and he coped with the rise in class and distance admirably, staying on strongly to finish second of 10 behind the favourite Complexity (Maclean’s Music). An elevated temperature ruled Code Of Honor out of the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and he still wasn’t ready for his fall-back option in the G2 Remsen S. at Aqueduct in December, so he is now heading down to Florida to begin his preparation for the Triple Crown Series. He is currently ranked fourth in the TDN’s Derby Top 12, and major honours surely await. Code Of Honor is not Noble Mission’s only stakes performer. Life Mission has recorded minor placings in listed company in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Turf Sprint S. at Kentucky Downs, the Awad S. at Aqueduct and the Pulpit S. at Gulfstream Park. Other promising US-based juveniles for Noble Mission include the maiden special weight winners Noble Love and Surprise Again, trained respectively by Bret Calhoun and Christophe Clement. Wild as Elle is another maiden special winner to keep an eye on, as the filly streaked to a 2 1/2-length victory going a mile over the Gulfstream sod for trainer Brendan Walsh on Dec. 30. Understandably, several sons and daughters of Noble Mission have been brought to Europe. Even so he has obviously had nothing like the numerical representation of the locally-based stallions, which makes his 22nd position in the first-season sires’ table for Great Britain and Ireland particularly creditable. Five of his 13 runners in the British Isles have won: the John Gosden-trained novice winners Buffalo River and Humanitarian, the David Simcock-trained conditions race winner Spanish Mission, the Simon Crisford-trained maiden winner Alnadir, and the Sylvester Kirk-trained Hackle Setter, winner of a novice auction race at Chepstow and a nursery at Epsom. All told, Noble Mission has started his stud career very promisingly. Just as it worked so well sending Hyperion’s half-brother Sickle and Kris’s full-brother Diesis to the USA, so it could turn out that the decision to settle Noble Mission at Lane’s End has been a very good one. El Prado (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells) and his son Kitten’s Joy have already demonstrated that the right horse from the Sadler’s Wells line can thrive at stud in Kentucky. In years to come we may well find ourselves putting Noble Mission in the same bracket. View the full article

The Hong Kong Jockey Club will host a comprehensive dry run before the inaugural exhibition meeting at Conghua Racecourse on March 23 to ensure the historic event goes off without a hitch. It will be the first time the Jockey Club has had to juggle back-to-back race meets – there is also racing at Sha Tin on March 24 – and the first time it has had to deal with the constraints of crossing the border into the mainland under race conditions, but executive director of racing Andrew... View the full article

It was only a matter of time before newly minted star pairing Joao Moreira and John Size took a meeting by the scruff of the neck and it eventuated on Tuesday at Sha Tin, with the duo ringing in the new year with a scintillating five-timer. Moreira had ridden eight winners for Size since becoming his stable jockey on December 9 but the Magic Man took it up a notch on Tuesday, producing a dominant display that included winning the feature aboard Conte. “He never does much wrong and since... View the full article

He is only two starts into a promising career but trainer Danny Shum Chap-shing believes his sprinter Regency Legend could compete with Hong Kong’s best in a year’s time. The three-year-old backed up his phenomenal debut Hong Kong performance last month with another eye-catching win at Sha Tin on Tuesday, putting in one of the wins of the day in the Class Two Tai Mo Shan Handicap (1,200m). While many are cautious about over-racing three-year-olds in Hong Kong, Shum said he was happy... View the full article

Yusof and Lucky Stable back on top in New Year Cup View the full article

The Big Easy wraps New Year double for Logan View the full article

Lerner welcomes 'better start' with Letitgo View the full article

Makkem Lad picks up where he left off View the full article

Meagher and Woodworth usher in new season again View the full article

Horses' body weights January 1 View the full article

Track conditions and course scratchings January 1 View the full article

Early scratchings January 1 View the full article

Trainer Chad Brown registered his fourth consecutive New York Racing Association year-end training title, jockey Manny Franco picked up his first crown, and Michael Dubb earned his fifth straight title on the circuit. View the full article