LEXINGTON, Ky. – Crossing the country, California-bred Big Fame, now based in Arizona, was honored as the overall champion at the 2024 Retired Racehorse Project's Thoroughbred Makeover, presented by Thoroughbred Charities of America, at the finale competition on Saturday evening at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.
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DRF Past Performances
An ankle injury will prevent Grade 1 winner Subsanador from starting in the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar on Nov. 2, trainer Richard Mandella said on Saturday.
Subsanador, owned by Wathnan Racing, won the Grade 1 California Crown at Santa Anita on Sept. 28 to earn a fees-paid berth to the BC Classic.
“We found a problem in his ankle and we’ll have to turn him out,” Mandella said. “It’s not a big problem. “We’ll have to stop and come back next year.”
A unionization effort for backstretch workers at tracks operated by the New York Racing Association has received certification to engage in collective-bargaining negotiations with at least nine trainers, according to the organizers of the effort and trainers.
Wed, 10/09/2024 - 13:55
A year ago at this time, trainer Todd Pletcher wasn’t sure what to make of Fierceness.
After a dominant debut win at Saratoga, Fierceness flopped in the slop of the Grade 1 Champagne at Aqueduct, dimming his Breeders’ Cup prospects. Finding nothing wrong with Fierceness out of the race, Pletcher shipped him to Keeneland to train. If he trained well enough, then Pletcher would give the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile a shot.
Greg Tramontin recently turned his attention to purchasing quality racing prospects out of the yearling market and has come up with Quickick, the runner-up in last weekend’s Alcibiades at Keeneland who is now possible for the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
Quickick, trained by Tom Amoss, is a daughter of McKinzie and the Grade 3-winning mare Graeme Six. She was a $550,000 purchase last year at the Keeneland September sale.
Divisional races in California, Kentucky, and France this past weekend failed to bring into focus the complexion of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. While they didn’t establish a pecking order, the North American races at least provided a stronger sense of who figures to participate, something that can’t be said of the European front.
Far, far away from Breeders’ Cup prep races in the United States, an undefeated filly in Japan is quietly preparing for a chance to upset the stars of the BC Distaff.
It happened once before, three years ago at Del Mar, where a filly from Japan shocked the Distaff at 49-1. This year, at the same track in the same race, Awesome Result will arrive from the Land of the Rising Sun with a higher profile than Marche Lorraine, 2021 Distaff knockout.
This could be a nerve-wracking October for Steve Landers, the owner of the 2-year-old filly Destino d’Oro.
A contender for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 1, Destino d’Oro finished a troubled third by a head in her stakes debut in the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland last Friday.
Destino d’Oro narrowly missed a win, and the fees-paid berth to the Juvenile Fillies Turf that went to the undefeated May Day Ready.
Wed, 10/09/2024 - 11:45
Ramatuelle’s win Sunday in the Prix de la Foret at Longchamp surely didn’t resonate for the American racing audience the way Carl Spackler’s had the day before in the Turf Mile at Keeneland. But Ramatuelle stamped herself a serious contender for the Breeders’ Cup Mile, at least as much so as Carl Spackler, who might not even be the most interesting BC Mile contender exiting the Turf Mile at Keeneland.
Tyler Gaffalione has ridden the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile just three times. The odds on those horses were 94-1, 52-1, and 103-1.
Gaffalione will be on a much shorter-priced horse in this year’s renewal of the Juvenile, to be run Nov. 1 at Del Mar, as he is the jockey of East Avenue. Coming off a dominant 5 1/4-length victory in last Saturday’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland, East Avenue figures to vie for favoritism with Chancer McPatrick, a two-time Grade 1 winner.