The 2-year-old Smokey Image is unbeaten in five sprints, the most recent of which was the $200,500 Golden State Juvenile at Del Mar on Friday. For his next start, Smokey Image will be pointed for the $100,000 King Glorious Stakes for California-breds at a mile Dec. 12 at Los Alamitos.
The King Glorious will define how Smokey Image will be raced in coming months. A win could lead to a start in a prep for the Triple Crown in early 2016.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – After winning three Breeders’ Cup races in 2014, trainer Chad Brown returned to the 2015 Breeders’ Cup with the most runners of any trainer and walked away with two more victories in the sport’s premier year-end event.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The qualities that set American Pharoah apart from any racehorse Bob Baffert has ever trained were on full display in a little more than 12 hours here at Keeneland, for on Sunday morning, the day after he obliterated his rivals in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, American Pharoah came out to greet at adoring public at Barn 62, taking it in with a calmness that was in stark contrast to the speed and power he had unleashed in the race.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Nyquist and Swipe, who ran first and second – in that order for the fourth consecutive time – Saturday in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland, were to return to California in the coming days for a brief rest before gearing up for a run at next year’s Kentucky Derby.
The brilliant Songbird, who rolled by 5 3/4 lengths in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, was packing up Sunday morning to head back to California, with an eye toward an eagerly anticipated 3-year-old campaign.
Songbird, based in California with trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, has won all four of her starts by a combined 22 lengths and is a three-time Grade 1 winner.
“We’re looking forward to next year,” Hollendorfer said, while declining to name a specific next target. “We don’t have any plans yet, but we will.”
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Found, the Breeders’ Cup Turf-winning 3-year-old filly, left for a return trip to Ireland at 6 a.m. Sunday but will get a chance to build on her late-season success during a 2016 campaign that conceivably could end with a repeat bid in the Turf.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Tepin came out of the race in good shape and will train on for a 2016 campaign, trainer Mark Casse said Sunday morning at Keeneland.
At some point in the near future, Tepin will be shipped to Casse’s Moonshadow Farm in Ocala, Fla., and get about 30 days off, just like she did this past winter. Casse said he would point Tepin to the Distaff Turf Mile, a race she won this year, as an early-season goal.
“I haven’t figured out yet how we’re going to get there, but the race Derby Day is what we’ll probably target,” said Casse.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – While most of the top older horses who raced in 2015 are heading to the breeding shed or retirement, Effinex, runner-up to American Pharoah in Saturday’s $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland, will remain in training for a 2016 campaign.
“Absolutely, he’s running next year,” said Russell Cohen, a veterinarian who bred Effinex for his mother Bernice’s Tri-Bone Stable. “He’s sound as a dollar bill. He deserves it. His family deserves it. And you know what? He’s a lot of fun, so why not?”
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Catch a Glimpse, the winner of Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, was doing well Saturday morning, trainer Mark Casse said, along with stablemates Airoforce and Conquest Daddyo, who ran second and fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
Catch a Glimpse earned an 85 Beyer Speed Figure for her Juvenile Fillies Turf victory, in which she rated just off the pace, kicked clear in early stretch, and outlasted late bids from runner-up Alice Springs and third-place Nemoralia.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Todd Pletcher certainly was going to enjoy the victories recorded Friday by Liam’s Map in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and Race Day in the Grade 2 Fayette at Keeneland.
But when he allowed himself to look to the future, he did so with some trepidation, knowing that Liam’s Map and Race Day, as well as several of his other older male dirt graded stakes winners, are heading to the breeding shed in 2016.
