Kentucky Downs was built in 1990 as Dueling Grounds Race Course and spent the better part of its early existence running in relatively quiet fashion over its European-style course in Franklin, Ky. The track has experienced a renaissance in recent years, spiking in popularity both with horsemen, due to its soaring purses, and with horseplayers.
Thoroughbreds are prized for the bravery and athleticism, making them a natural fit for the sport of eventing, described as the triathlon of equestrian sport. Indeed, a number of Thoroughbreds are set to compete at the United States Eventing Association’s American Eventing Championships this week at the Kentucky Horse Park.
European champion Noble Mission managed to finish fifth on last year’s freshman sire earnings list, even with his most promising runner, Grade 1 Champagne Stakes runner-up Code of Honor, missing the Breeders’ Cup due to illness. The Galileo stallion figures to finish much higher on this year’s second-crop sire list after Code of Honor swept to victory in the Travers Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga, giving Noble Mission a Grade 1 winner from his debut crop.
Multiple Grade 1 winner Mitole will stand at Spendthrift Farm in 2020.
Mitole, a 4-year-old Eskendereya colt campaigned by Bill and Corrine Heiligbrodt, scored his latest victory in the Grade 1 Forego Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga, establishing a stakes record of 1:20.80 for the seven furlongs. He has now won 9 of 13 career starts, and pushed his earnings past $2 million with the win.
Arthur Hancock III was standing in the darkness outside a stall in Saratoga after the Curlin colt inside, raised and consigned by his Stone Farm, sold for $1.5 million to co-top the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale. Hancock was quick to credit the colt’s breeder, celebrity chef Bobby Flay.
“When you got one like that, and you got the opportunity to sell one like that, our job is getting him here in one piece and showing him the best we can, and he did the rest,” Hancock said. “Bobby bred a good horse. I told people Bobby breeds horses as damn near good as he cooks.”
Roaring Lion, the Kentucky-bred who earned the 2018 Cartier Award as Europe’s Horse of the Year, was euthanized after suffering from another bout of colic in New Zealand, ending his health battle that began in late July. The son of leading sire Kitten's Joy was 4.
Three-time leading sire Tapit and current leading sire Into Mischief will each have two chances at the Runhappy Travers Stakes on Saturday – each with one veteran of the classics trail and one newcomer.
The 3-year-old divisional picture remains wide open heading into this Saturday’s Runhappy Travers Stakes. None of the 12 entrants in the field, which is absent this year’s three American classic winners, has won a Grade 1 race.
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Medaglia d’Oro competed with distinction in the Travers at Saratoga and the Pacific Classic at Del Mar. He will now have the chance to take down both in the same season as a sire.
Medaglia d’Oro’s nine Grade 1 or Group 1 wins or placings included a triumph in the 2002 Travers Stakes at Saratoga. The following season, after winning the Whitney Handicap at the Spa, he headed cross-country for a runner-up finish in the Pacific Classic behind Candy Ride at Del Mar.
Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup winner and international sire Animal Kingdom recorded a rarity Saturday with three winners on the card at Saratoga Race Course, including a pair of stakes winners.
