In the summer of 2023, it was announced that Golden Gate Fields, the major remaining Thoroughbred track in Northern California, would be closing. The Bay Area track staged its final card this June.

With that closure pending, Thoroughbred breeder Dr. Dorothee Kieckhefer was keeping an eye on a filly she had co-bred in California, Big Fame. After being well-beaten in two outings on the Southern California circuit, the filly had scored both her career wins in claiming company at Golden Gate, as well as running on the fair circuit at Pleasanton, Sacramento, and Santa Rosa.

Brickyard Ride won his stakes debut in the California Cup Sprint at Santa Anita way back in January 2021. The race became an annual stop in his prolific career, which ended earlier this year with 13 wins in 31 starts.

Brickyard Ride won the 2022 California Cup Sprint and was second in the 2024 running.

Overall, Brickyard Ride won eight stakes and earned $925,477.

It is possible that in the final days of the year, a runner owned by Californian Nick Alexander will win or place in a race or two at Santa Anita and push the stable past $1.5 million in earnings for the fifth time in the last six years.

Through Dec. 16, Alexander-owned runners had earned $1,457,317 with a win by Shea Brennan in the $102,000 King Glorious Stakes for 2-year-old California-breds at Los Alamitos on Dec. 15 being the latest success.

In a race that looks like it is coming down to the wire, veteran California sire Grazen is looking to hold off Stay Thirsty and secure his second straight leading sire title.

The interstates from New Orleans to Louisville hardly offer a driver a pleasing, scenic experience, yet Whit Beckman, making that journey Sunday, sounded ebullient. And why not? The day before, Beckman sent out first-time starting 2-year-old filly Simply Joking to win the $100,000 Letellier Stakes and 2-year-old filly Her Laugh to win the $100,000 Untapable.

Simply Joking got a 78 Beyer Speed Figure for her six-furlong win, Her Laugh a 74 after leading on a slow pace going a mile and 70 yards.

Wayne Catalano, 68, has trained a Kentucky Derby winner – just not when the horse won the Kentucky Derby.

Animal Kingdom as a 2-year-old came from the Florida farm where he was broken into Catalano’s stable at Arlington Park. The colt ran twice during 2010, winning a Keeneland maiden race, before his owner, Team Valor International, consolidated their stock with trainer Graham Motion. The following spring, Motion saddled Animal Kingdom to a Derby upset.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The second day of the Santa Anita winter meet on Friday will be quieter than the Thursday opener, and the competition will be easier for a pair of female turf runners dropping in class for the Grade 3 Robert J. Frankel Stakes.

Hang the Moon and Mouffy are back where they belong after taking shots in Grade 1s. Hang the Moon finished last of 12 in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Mouffy finished seventh in the Matriarch Stakes.

Hang the Moon was outclassed and out of luck in the Breeders’ Cup.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Soul of an Angel will have a final chance to enhance her already outstanding 2024 résumé and impress Eclipse Award voters when she goes postward the heavy favorite over a field that includes Grade 1 winner Power Squeeze Thursday at Gulfstream Park in the $140,000 Rampart Stakes.

The one-mile Rampart tops a 10-race program that also features the $140,000 Via Borghese for older fillies and mares, which will be decided at 1 3/8 miles on the turf.