Harpers First Ride represents home state in Pimlico Special
Several Maryland-breds, including defending winner Harpers First Ride, will fly the flag for their home state in the Grade 3 Pimlico Special on Friday.
Nicole RussoMay 12, 2021
Several Maryland-breds, including defending winner Harpers First Ride, will fly the flag for their home state in the Grade 3 Pimlico Special on Friday.
Mandy Pope has spent well over $50 million on broodmares for her Whisper Hill Farm operation in the last nine Novembers at Kentucky's elite sales. The total purse of Saturday's Preakness Stakes is $1 million, with $600,000 going to the winning connections. But a victory by Pope's homebred Unbridled Honor would be priceless.
Champions Gun Runner and Classic Empire each sired his first winner in the past week at Churchill Downs.
Six years after the 2015 Kentucky Derby victory that kicked off his Triple Crown sweep, an already huge month of May for American Pharoah could get even more significant.
Thoroughbreds are often evaluated on paper – on how those black-and-white squares of past performances and Beyer Speed Figures and statistics line up against their foes. But intangible things can also elevate a horse. And if that quality known as heart – the will to win when the chips are down – can be found in a scrutiny of bloodlines, then Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit has come by his honestly.
Malathaat avenged the 2013 Kentucky Oaks loss of her dam, Dreaming of Julia, with a victory in the filly classic on Friday at Churchill Downs. She and her dam were both brought to the Oaks by trainer Todd Pletcher, who achieved an exacta of sorts in this year's edition. He also trained Co Cola, dam of Search Results, a hard-fought second to Malathaat on Friday.
The late Hall of Famer A.P. Indy left a lasting legacy as a sire of sires and as a leading broodmare sire. A.P. Indy and three of his sons accounted for seven graded stakes victories as broodmare sires on the Kentucky Derby and Ketnucky Oaks cards last week at Churchill Downs.
Medina Spirit, a $1,000 yearling who was later purchased for $35,000 on behalf of Amr Zedan as a juvenile, became the seventh Florida-bred to win the Kentucky Derby.
B. Wayne Hughes's Spendthrift Farm already had multiple rooting interests in Saturday's Kentucky Derby, and it has added another. The farm announced Thursday that it has secured the breeding rights to Derby entrant Rock Your World, and will stand the colt upon his eventual retirement.
Catch the Moon has already established herself as a star broodmare. A win by her son Midnight Bourbon in the Kentucky Derby would put her in the stratosphere.