After reaching the pinnacle of Thoroughbred racing several times, including training the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years and sending out three consecutive GI Breeders' Cup Classic victors, it's difficult to imagine how the hunger and enthusiasm hasn't faded some yet in Bob Baffert's voice, but it hasn't. Speaking from his Santa Anita base Monday, [...]

A dozen 2-year-old fillies will line up in Saturday's GII Golden Rod S. at Churchill Downs and a dozen 2-year-old fillies will have a realistic shot at winning the annual closing weekend test, with no standouts among a bunch indicative of a muddled division. The best credentials in the race belong to morning line favorite [...]

Two recently designated 'TDN Rising Stars' drew the outside two slots in a 12-horse renewal of the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. on the final Saturday of the Churchill Downs racing calendar. Whitham Thoroughbreds' homebred McCraken (Ghostzapper) took a ton of play first out Oct. 2 under the Twin Spires for the usually patient first-out [...]

4th-AQU, $60K, Msw, 2yo, 1mT, 1:47 p.m. EDT China Horse Club, WinStar Farm and trainer Bill Mott debut a rare stateside Japanese-bred in YOSHIDA (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) going a mile on the Aqueduct lawn. Bought for ¥94 million as a JRHA select yearling, the bay is out of 2011 GI Ballerina S. heroine Hilda's [...]

4th-BEL, $75k, Msw, 3yo/up, 7f, 2:34 p.m. EDT Lane's End Racing brings back MORSE CODE (Tapit) for this elongated sprint test at Big Sandy in his first start since Nov. 20. The half-brother to MGISW Honor Code (A.P. Indy) ran well in his debut that day at Aqueduct, breaking slowly and coming with a big [...]

The big prize for 3-year-old grass fillies at the Keeneland fall meet has come and gone, with Time and Motion (Tapit) winning a three-horse photo in last Saturday's GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup S. There are still plenty of talented and improving sophomore turf lasses on the grounds, however, and 14 of them will [...]

There was a lot of hype coming into Sunday's seventh race at Belmont Park, but almost none of it surrounded the eventual blowout winner of the six-furlong dash. Ladies Day (Bernardini), a distant second on debut in the slop July 31 at Saratoga behind 'TDN Rising Star' Runway Doll (Majestic Warrior), was an afterthought at [...]

In what was likely the strongest juvenile filly maiden race of the Saratoga meet, Gainesway Stable's Cherry Lodge (Bernardini) and Lael Stables' Amapola (Broken Vow) threw down in a good stretch battle Aug. 7, with the former prevailing by one length to earn 'TDN Rising Star' status. Now the two will reunite again, each looking [...]

The top three finishers from the GI Northern Dancer S. will face off against a strong quartet of European shippers in an intriguing renewal of the GI Pattison Canadian International S. Sunday at Woodbine. The Pizza Man (English Channel) had only found the mark once in seven starts since conquering the GI Arlington Million last [...]

A wide-open field of 13 will contest the 10 furlongs of the GI E.P. Taylor S. Presented by HPIbet, and without an especially strong American contingent, the conversation centers around the race's half-dozen imports, led by morning line choice Best In The World (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). Owned by Coolmore and trained by Aidan O'Brien–who also [...]

Six Grade I winners. A multiple graded stakes winner never off the board on turf. Four other graded victors. Minus an appearance from Tepin (Bernstein), it's hard to imagine a more contentious and high-quality gathering for the GI Shadwell Turf Mile, as 11 horses, all with real credentials and a fighting chance, will line up [...]

Now that the emotional journey of getting Lady Eli (Divine Park) back to the races has been completed, the business of reestablishing her as a force in the filly and mare turf division commences. And the Sheep Pond Partners colorbearer needn't look beyond the limits of her own barn to see the filly she has [...]