Little came easy for Locked in his juvenile campaign, yet he was talented enough to win a Grade 1 and finish third in the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to earn a spot as a finalist for the Eclipse Award in the 2-year-old male division.
Locked, a son of Gun Runner owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Walmac Farm and trained by Todd Pletcher, was a $425,000 yearling purchase at the Keeneland September 2022 auction.
Brilliant on debut, a bust in the Grade 1 Champagne, Fierceness left his connections a bit baffled four weeks out from the Breeders’ Cup.
Opting to forge ahead and see what those weeks would bring, Fierceness convinced trainer Todd Pletcher and owner Mike Repole to take a shot in the $2 million FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita. Pletcher and Repole were rewarded for their persistence when Fierceness galloped to a 6 1/2-length victory in the Juvenile.
A successful debut season by Pretty Mischievous in 2022 was merely the foundation to a chart-topping campaign in 2023. Pretty Mischievous won four graded stakes, more than any 3-year-old in North America, to emerge as the favorite to win the Eclipse Award as outstanding 3-year-old filly.
Bill Mott last won an Eclipse Award as North America’s outstanding trainer in 2011 and has not been a finalist for the award since 2013.
While the Hall of Fame trainer has done just fine over the last decade, Mott is once again in the running for a championship as are three of his horses as the finalists for the 2023 Eclipse Awards in 11 equine and five human categories were announced Saturday.
Two pieces focusing on the death of Maple Leaf Mel in the 2023 Test Stakes on Aug. 5 at Saratoga Race Course have been selected for Eclipse Awards, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association announced on Friday.
Sean Clancy, the co-editor and publisher of the Saratoga Special, and Tim Layden, a writer-at-large for NBCSports.com, were each selected for an Eclipse Award for their pieces examining the tragic death, which sent shock waves throughout the racing community and cast a pall over last summer’s Saratoga meet.
Irad Ortiz Jr., the jockey who is likely to win his fifth Eclipse Award this year as Outstanding Jockey, set a single-season earnings record in 2023 with purses totaling $39,192,585, surpassing the record he set in 2022 by more than $2 million, according to Equibase records.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Paddy Gallagher’s final win of 2023 at Santa Anita occurred via an experiment, of sorts.
Angel Nadeshiko recorded an upset win in Saturday’s Grade 3 Robert Frankel Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf for fillies and mares at Santa Anita by leading throughout.
In recent starts, Angel Nadeshiko had raced from off the pace. She was sent to the front in the $100,500 Frankel Stakes, led by a length on the backstretch and by two lengths in the stretch before holding off a late run from 8-5 favorite Lakota Spirit to win by three-quarters of a length.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Trainer Richard Mandella is planning stakes appearances in the Middle East in coming months for the recent Del Mar stakes winner Planetario and possibly Forbidden Kingdom, the winner of the Grade 2 Joe Hernandez Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday.
Forbidden Kingdom returned from a seven-month layoff to win the $203,500 Hernandez Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs on the main turf oval. The 4-1 second choice, Forbidden Kingdom led throughout to win by a half-length over 13-1 Dancing Buck.
“He showed some real fight, the first time in a long time,” Mandella said.
