This already has been a banner year for the trainer Brendan Walsh, and it is not over yet.
With about six weeks still left in 2025, Walsh has hit career bests in all the major categories. He has won 116 races, more than any previous year, and has stable earnings greater than $13.8 million, about $2.4 million more than his previous top. Walsh has won 21 stakes, surpassing his previous high of 16, and has 15 graded stakes wins, six more than his best.
Trainer Kevin Scholl said last month his goal for Miss Code West this season is a third consecutive horse of the meet title at Remington Park. He will be looking to strengthen her case in Saturday night’s eighth race, a 6 1/2-furlong, no-conditions allowance race for fillies and mares bred in Oklahoma.
Miss Code West enters off back-to-back stakes wins at Remington. She won the Bob Barry Memorial on Sept. 12 and the Oklahoma Classics Night Distaff Turf on Oct. 17. In her other start this season at Remington, Miss Code West was second in an allowance sprint Aug. 16.
Free Like a Girl, who was a $500,000 buyback at a recent auction in Kentucky, is scheduled to return to Louisiana next week, according to co-owner and trainer Chasey Deville Pomier.
She said Free Like a Girl would likely ship into Delta Downs, but the stable also has a division at Fair Grounds.
“She’s coming home,” Deville Pomier said Tuesday. “We’re just taking it day by day and will see what we’re going to do with her.”
Explora, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies runner-up, is among the 10 fillies that trainer Bob Baffert nominated to the Starlet at Los Alamitos. Baffert stopped short of committing Explora to the race but said “She came out of [the Breeders’ Cup] very well. I have a bunch nominated” to the Starlet.
Baffert has won the last eight editions of the Starlet. In addition to Explora, his top nominees include Himika, who will be the odds-on favorite Sunday at Del Mar in the seven-furlong Desi Arnaz, and Bottle of Rouge, winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante.
Trainer Michael McCarthy did not win a Breeders’ Cup race this year, but his horses all fired. Journalism finished fourth in the Classic; Formidable Man finished second in the Mile; Stark Contrast finished second in the Juvenile Turf; and second-time starter Meaning finished fourth in the Juvenile Fillies.
Journalism was still stabled at Santa Anita as of midweek, but he will ship out soon for a winter vacation. McCarthy said the Metropolitan Handicap is his first main objective for 2026. Formidable Man also is getting a break.
Hey Nay Nay, the John Sadler-trained colt who finished 10th in the BC Juvenile Turf, will be nominated to the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes on Nov. 30 at Del Mar.
“He came out really good, he’s a possible to go back in the” DeMille, Sadler said.
From a pace perspective, Hey Nay Nay did not have a good trip in the Juvenile Turf. He got caught up in a duel with Outfielder, who finished last. Hey Nay Nay hung tough to near midstretch before he faltered.
Full Serrano had excuses for finishing fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, a race he won a year ago. This year, things did not go his way. The 4-1 second betting choice, Full Serrano pressed blistering fractions and retreated on the far turn. He was unaccustomed to a severe pace – 44.96 seconds and 1:09.08 – and he also was compromised by a foot issue.
“He came out of it with a little bit of a [tender] left foot,” trainer John Sadler said. “I have to get that squared around and then we’ll figure out a campaign. We still believe in him.”
As good as Super Corredora was in 2025, her trainer believes she will be even better in 2026.
John Sadler is already looking forward to next season with the Gun Runner filly, who wired the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar.
“We’re going to save [Super Corredora] for next year,” Sadler said this week at his Santa Anita base. “I think she has a chance to be better next year. She’s not a big filly, and if you look how much she improved, I really think we’re in a great spot.”
Though her next start is still up in the air, Nature’s Candy is sure to return to open company at Parx Racing this month. Trainer Hugo Padilla is still deciding between two spots for his 5-year-old mare, who earned her first stakes victory against Pennsylvania-breds in the $75,000 Disco Chick last month.
“I think she’s ready for whatever comes,” Padilla said. “The way she came back, the way she’s responding right now, she’s on her best time. She’s doing really good.”
Touchuponastar earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 108 last Saturday night, when he improved his Delta Downs record to 8 for 9 while defeating open company in the $100,000 Delta Mile. Plans call for him to return to the Louisiana-bred ranks for the $150,000 Champions Day Classic on Dec. 13 at Fair Grounds.
“We’ll point towards that,” Jake Delhomme, the retired NFL quarterback who owns Touchuponastar, said Tuesday. “It’s really good timing. We’ll see how it all shakes out. He’ll let us know.”
