Brass Hat, the star of trainer Buff Bradley’s stable, was retired in 2010, and along came Groupie Doll, one of the best female sprinters in recent history, to start her career in 2011. Groupie Doll was retired after one race in 2014, and just a year later, Bradley, who runs a compact stable, somehow has another good one on his hands.
Gleneagles soared to the fore of the European 3-year-old mile division, won his fourth group stakes, and gave trainer Aidan O’Brien a record-equaling seventh career win in Saturday’s Group 1 English 2000 Guineas at Newmarket Racecourse.
After Competitive Edge remained unbeaten with a 4 1/2-length score in the Grade 3, $200,000 Pat Day Mile, his first try at that distance, on Saturday at Churchill Downs, trainer Todd Pletcher raised a scary possibility.
The catalog for the 2015 Barretts May sale of 2-year-olds in training and horses of racing age is now available online, featuring 151 horses on offer.
Dan Farley, an award-winning turf writer and former president of the National Turf Writers Association, died Friday at a Mechanicsville, Va., hospital. He was 72.
Cat Burglar (#6, ML 4-1) returns for the first time since June 14 in Saturday’s fourth race at Churchill Downs, a one-mile optional claimer. Trainer Bob Baffert is winning at 32 percent clip when starting a horse coming off a layoff longer than 180 days, for a return on investment of $2.45.
International Star has been scratched from the 141st Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, it was announced shortly after 9:30 a.m. Eastern on Saturday. His defection leaves a field of 18.
Fear (#1, ML 6-1) will return to action in Saturday’s 12th race at Belmont Park, a six-furlong maiden claimer on turf. It will be his first start since a third-place finish by 3 1/4 lengths in a maiden race March 22 at Gulfstream Park. The first-, second-, and fourth-place finishers from that race came back to win their next starts.
Wake up. Shake off the fatigue. The day that drives the Thoroughbred industry is dawning. “I think you have to dream,” assistant trainer Norman Casse said. “I’m not exaggerating – I think about it at least once a day every day. The Kentucky Derby’s why I do it. I think everyone should have something like that to drive them, and the Derby’s what drives me.”
Under confident handling by Joe Patin, a winner of two races on the undercard, Wire Me Bessie eased out around the leaders entering the stretch and stormed home by four expanding lengths in Friday night’s $60,000 Tellike Stakes at Evangeline Downs.
