LEXINGTON, Ky. – Flavien Prat is one of the best jockeys in North America. He holds himself to high standards and wasn’t happy when Bowies Hero fell too far behind the early pace and ran into furlong-long trouble finishing fifth Aug. 18 in the Del Mar Mile.
Saturday at Keeneland, in a 14-horse race filled with tight spots and tough-luck stories, Prat engineered a lovely trip for Bowies Hero, who bounded home a three-quarter-length winner of the Grade 1, $1 million Shadwell Turf Mile.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Tiz the Law came off a two-month layoff and ran himself right near the top of the 2-year-old division with a dominant four-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park.
While the victory earned the New York-bred son of Constitution an expenses-paid trip to the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita on Nov. 1, his connections are inclined to skip that championship-making race.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Maxfield stamped himself as a major player for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile when giving trainer Brendan Walsh the first Grade 1 victory of his training career with a sensational rally Saturday in the 106th running of the Grade 1, $500,000 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland.
“He’s a very special horse,” Walsh said after Maxfield, ridden by Jose Ortiz, rallied from ninth in a field of 10 to win the 1 1/16-mile Breeders’ Futurity by 5 1/2 lengths.
ARCADIA, Calif. – It was a September to forget for jockey Drayden Van Dyke, who is hoping October is far better. It’s starting off the right way.
Van Dyke was injured Sept. 2 when Eight Rings ducked in not long after the start of the Del Mar Futurity, and the arm and head injuries he suffered kept him sidelined for most of the month and ended up costing him mounts on highly regarded 2-year-olds like Eight Rings and Bast when they ran, and won, last weekend.
LEXINGTON, Kentucky – Rushing Fall finally lost at Keeneland, but trainer Chad Brown still won the Grade 1, $400,000 First Lady Stakes as Uni rumbled home under Joel Rosario to post a brilliant 2 1/2-length victory.
Eleventh of 13 during the early and middle stages as Ms Bad Behavior flew through an intemperate half-mile in 45.40 seconds, Uni, a petite chestnut with a wicked turn of foot, began moving up around the far turn, launched herself fully into the fray at the quarter pole, and buzzed past Juliet Foxtrot in the final furlong to win going away.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Peter Miller was watching a simulcast from Keeneland back home in Southern California on Saturday. He scarcely could believe what he was seeing.
“That’s one of the best races one of my horses has ever run,” Miller said by phone shortly after Spiced Perfection overcame a terrible start to win the 39th running of the Grade 2, $250,000 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes at Keeneland. “It was just incredible.”
Anapurna, the winner of the Group 1 English Oaks in May, won Saturday’s Group 1 Prix de Royallieu for fillies and mares at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris in what could lead to a start in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 2.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Even when something goes wrong for Brad Cox these days, it usually turns out right.
Cox had to scratch British Idiom last month from her second scheduled start in the Pocahontas Stakes at Churchill Downs, forcing the trainer to wait for the Alcibiades Stakes.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Trainer Steve Asmussen already has one of the likely favorites for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in Mitole. He now has another possible starter in Engage, who prevailed in a long drive to edge Whitmore by a half-length in the Grade 2, $250,000 Phoenix Stakes on Friday at Keeneland.
Enable might be the main attraction on Sunday’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe card at Longchamp, but she’s not the only one.
There are five other Group 1 races on the Arc card, including the Prix l’Abbaye de Longchamp, a five-furlong straight-course dash that’s part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Win and You’re In series, offering a fees-paid entry into the BC Turf Sprint plus travel expenses to Santa Anita.
