Today's Edition

LOUISVILLE, Ky - Unbeaten 'TDN Rising Star' Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg})--hero of the GI Del Mar Futurity Sept. 3 and GI American Pharoah S. Sept. 29--overcame a rough trip to deliver a well-deserved, 2 1/4-length decision as the even-money favorite in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile. The bay, owned by Gary and Mary West and trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, cemented his status as the year's top 2-year-old and early GI Kentucky Derby favorite in the 'Future Stars Friday' feature before a crowd of 42,249 on a...

LOUISVILLE, KY--The Europeans left it until the last chance they had to record a victory on the Breeders' Cup Future Stars Friday card, but Godolphin's Line Of Duty (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) ensured Team Europe didn't go home empty handed on the opening day of Churchill Downs's two-card extravaganza, coming home a dramatic winner of the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf for Godolphin, Charlie Appleby and William Buick. The Europeans had already been shut out in the GI Juvenile Turf Sprint and the GI Juvenile Fillies Turf, and for a few...

The two biggest prior victories of Midlantic-based trainer John Servis's career had come at Churchill Downs, and now it's the three biggest after Cash Is King and D J Stable's Jaywalk (Cross Traffic) went right to the front and never looked back en route to a dominant 5 1/2-length tally in the GI Tito's Handmade Vodka Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. Emerging from the early scramble into the first turn to take a clear lead, the grey tugged her way under a tight hold through splits of :23.23 and :46.76. Favorite...

The unbeaten 'TDN Rising Star' Newspaperofrecord (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) entered Breeders' Cup weekend as one of the headliners off a pair of dominating performances, including Belmont's GII Miss Grillo S. Sept. 30, and ran to the hype with a scintillating, 6 3/4-length front-running tally as the 3-5 favorite in Friday's Juvenile Fillies Turf. East (GB) (Frankel {GB}) just tagged Stellar Agent (More Than Ready) late by a neck for second. Trainer Chad Brown continues to dominate the Juvenile Fillies Turf, now winning it for the fifth time in...

Reliving some of the sport's greatest moments over the past week through my colleagues' favourite Breeders' Cup memories has not only raised a ton of goose bumps and nostalgia, but has also reminded me think that 1) the Breeders' Cup has far outdone itself in providing some of the crowning moments in racing history, and 2) how lucky we are well into the 21st century to be witnessing some of the sport's greatest-ever performances. Many will yearn for the bygone "glory" days of the sport in the 60s and 70s;...

NEWMARKET, UK--Frequent rain around Park Paddocks on Thursday tested the resolution of all those remaining for the final session of the 2018 Tattersalls Autumn Horses In Training Sale, but it would certainly be incorrect to describe the event itself as a damp squib. At the close of four days' trade, there were 1,181 lots offered, compared with 1,255 last year and the aggregate was a healthy 26,853,500gns, just 3% down on the record 27,282,200gns set 12 months ago. The clearance rate was a respectable 89% across the four-day extravaganza, which...

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky--So who will it be? Who will go out onto that soggy track on Friday and, with apologies to Louis XV, pronounce: "Apres le deluge, moi!" For while the downpour has moved the goalposts for those Europeans who targeted the 35th Breeders' Cup in the expectation of a test of pure speed, the opening programme-- being dedicated to juveniles-remains all about the coronation of young pretenders. Even before the introduction of extra attrition to the turf events, of course, the vagaries of racing mean that the laurels won today...

LOUISVILLE, Ky - When Mike Stinson hired Tom McGreevy as his advisor last spring, it represented a "pivotal point" for the longtime owner's racing operation. The 72-year-old native of Texas had already campaigned about a half dozen or so stakes winners in New Mexico, but is clearly playing at an entirely differently level now as he makes his way to Louisville with his first Breeders' Cup runner in 'Future Stars Friday's' featured Juvenile with impressive Santa Anita maiden winner Dueling (Violence). "The only way that I would participate at the...

Churchill Downs track announcer Travis Stone, 34, called his first GI Kentucky Derby in 2015, and will now call his first Breeders' Cup Friday and Saturday. He took some time out of his busy week to share some memories and insights with Brian DiDonato. TDN: How did you first get interested in racing? TS: I grew-up in Schroon Lake, NY, which is about an hour north of Saratoga. My family would go to the races often. My Dad, though, would save his vacation time so for two full weeks every...

NEWMARKET, UK--Newsells Park Stud made a solitary but spectacular foray into the market at the Tattersalls Autumn Horses In Training Sale on Wednesday evening by breaking the event record with a 1-million gns swoop for top-notch broodmare prospect Aljazzi (GB) (Shamardal) (lot 1140). The winner of this year's G2 Duke Of Cambridge S. at Royal Ascot among four stakes prizes was, as Newsells manager Julian Dollar admitted, an unusual inclusion in a sale which is largely for ready-to-run candidates for destinations around the world. Indeed, Dollar's final bid from a...

For the home team, the spectre at the feast will be Justify (Scat Daddy). But let's not forget that the European raiders at the 35th Breeders' Cup have also--albeit temporarily--lost the services of their premier Classic winner. For the stylish Epsom success of Masar (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}) represented spectacular vindication of an appointment that had come literally "out of the blue"-the royal blue, that is, his trainer Charlie Appleby having been promoted as an in-house solution to an excruciating crisis at Godolphin. To many, the Mahmood Al Zarooni steroids...

Lee Pokoik, who has been in the racing game for over three decades, celebrated his first Grade I victory when Sippican Harbor (Orb) flew home first in the GI Spinaway S. at Saratoga in September. He could be in line to double his Grade I tallies when the dark bay returns in Friday's GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs, but that isn't his only rooting interest on championship weekend. Pokoik bred Gunmetal Gray (Exchange Rate), who earned a spot in Friday's GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile with a runner-up...