Accelerate

Sugar Fish Keeps Swimming To Capture Zenyatta Stakes At Santa Anita

In the race named after America's sweetheart, it was Sugar Fish (Accelerate--Madiera Park, by Langfuhr) who saved her best stride for the stretch and took home her second piece of graded Arcadian hardware in the GII Zenyatta Stakes. A modest auction buy with modest beginnings, the former $40,000 maiden claimer has risen through the ranks on a noticeably sharp incline, having sailed through her conditions since breaking her maiden Mar. 29 by 10 lengths, and finally finding herself the 9 3/4-length GII Summertime Oaks victress by June 8. Stepping up...

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From Stumble to Surge, Sugar Fish Sews Up Summertime Oaks

Sugar Fish (f, 3, Accelerate--Madeira Park, by Langfuhr), the longest shot at 5-1 in a short field of four, looked to lose all chance when she tumbled out of the gate as the sophomore fillies were sent on their way Saturday in the GII Summertime Oaks at Santa Anita. She immediately lost at least three lengths on the field in the first few seconds and trailed as early fractions were clocked in :23.80 and :47.41. Previously unbeaten Jane Austen (Tapit), like Sugar Fish trying stakes company for the first time,...

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What Was Your Favorite Moment of 2023: Rob Willis

As 2023 draws to a close, the TDN is asking industry members to name their favorite moment of the year. Send yours to suefinley@thetdn.com It was an exciting year at the Horse Park in 2023 at the Hall of Champions. It was a bit sad during the summer that we lost two great Thoroughbreds in Hall of Famer Point Given and dual Classic-winning Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide, but we were recently able to add two Breeders' Cup winners in Roy H--a two-time Breeders' Cup Sprint winner and two-time Eclipse...

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Accelerate Relocates to Kentucky Horse Park Hall of Champions

Accelerate, one of the top racehorses of his generation, will be relocated to the Hall of Champions at the Kentucky Horse Park, Lane's End Farm announced Tuesday. Accelerate was a five-time Grade I winner on the racetrack with over $6.6 million in earnings. His victory in the 2018 GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs capped off a season in which he also won the GI Santa Anita H., GI Gold Cup at Santa Anita, GI Pacific Classic S., and GI Awesome Again S. Accelerate had stood at Lane's End...

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Breeders' Cup 40: From Accelerate to Zenyatta

The Breeders' Cup 40 project began as a special tribute looking back at 40 individual winners in the 40 days leading up to the 40th anniversary of racing's championship day, but it grew into more than that. Of course, it's beyond wonderful to reawaken the excitement of those championship wins and revisit these amazing horses today through brand-new photos. We thought we would simply catch up with these Breeders' Cup horses through some gorgeous images, but it really ended up as a celebration of how these living champions have impacted...

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Catching Up with 2018 Breeders' Cup Classic Winner Accelerate

One of the biggest stories going into the 2018 Breeders' Cup was trainer John Sadler's 0-41 record on racing's championship day. Accelerate, whose five for six already on the year included four Grade Is in California, succinctly put all that babble to rest with his win in the biggest race on the card. "What stands out to me with Accelerate was the year he had that culminated in the Breeders' Cup Classic," said Sadler. "He won, what, four or five Grade Is that year. So, he had just a fabulous...

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What's In a Name: Tiz Tok and A Mo Reay

4th-Santa Anita, Mcl, 2-17, 3yo, 1m. TIZ TOK (r, 3, Tiznow--Weekend Prospect, by A.P. Indy). Lifetime Record: 4-1-0-0, $26,568. O-Hronis Racing. B-Calumet Farm (KY); T-John W. Sadler. As a play on words under the times we live in, naming a horse by Tiznow Tiz Tok simply is masterly, no doubt about it. BEHOLDER MILE S.-GI, $501,500, Santa Anita, 3-11, 4yo/up, f/m, 1m. A MO REAY, 122, f, 4, Uncle Mo-Margaret Reay, by Pioneerof the Nile). Lifetime Record: 12-5-1-3, $692,650. O-Hunter Valley Farm; B-T & G Farm of Kentucky LLC (KY);...

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Value Sires for '23: Part V, First Sophomores

Today we finally come to a group that has at least had some initial opportunity to show whether or not they can replicate their own racing prowess. By the same token, of course, this means that their level of support--which in many cases will already have declined through each preceding year, as racetrack exposure draws perilously closer--may now fall off a cliff. If the stampede to unproven sires is ludicrous, then so is the haste with which they are abandoned. Stallions whose stock should plainly be granted time to mature...

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Accelerate Gets First Stakes Winner At Woodbine

Having broken his maiden on this same surface and distance Oct. 2 with a 71 Beyer Speed Figure, Hal returned Saturday to Woodbine as the 2-1 second choice--a far cry from his 10-1 morning-line odds. Much as he did Oct. 2, Hal tracked off the pace inside from mid pack before shifting out to the clear as the field passed the quarter pole. He loomed outside of pacesetter Ticker Tape Home and the pair bobbed heads down the lane with Hal gaining only minimal separation on the wire for the...

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Juan Leyva in Full Flight for Breeders' Cup

LEXINGTON, KY - Juan Leyva has a first-class 'Flight' for this year's Championships. The assistant trainer to John Sadler and former Breeders' Cup winning-jockey is the regular morning partner of unbeaten sensation and 3-5 Classic morning-line favorite Flightline (Tapit). The highest-rated racehorse in the world has won his first five starts by an astounding combined margin of 62 3/4 lengths, led by a jaw-dropping 19 1/4-length win while making his two-turn debut in the GI Pacific Classic at Del Mar. Getting the monster that is Flightline to harness some of...

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Justify's Tres Soles Digs In To Take Determined Debut Win

6th-Churchill Downs, $121,125, Msw, 9-29, 2yo, 6f, 1:10.62, ft, neck. TRES SOLES (c, 2, Justify--Chocolate Souffle, by Tapit), gunned right to the front from his middle gate as the 8-5 favorite, wasted no time taking command in his debut performance. With a length in hand moving into the far turn ahead of a wall of horses chasing behind, Tres Soles was confronted on his outside by Reagan (Accelerate). The pair dueled past the quarter pole and Tres Soles looked beaten with three-sixteenths to run as his rival began to pull...

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On Eve of Pacific Classic, Sadler Just Doing His Job

Four years ago on the eve of the GI TVG Pacific Classic, the hunt for the heavy favorite amid the lettered labyrinth of Del Mar's backstretch ended at Barn J. The stall, of course, belonged to Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky), a sleek, shiny copper penny of a colt, who carried weighty expectations that this was the year his trainer, John Sadler, would finally shrug off the voodoo that had cursed his previous attempts at the coveted prize. It was also viewed as a new high altitude for a horse whose...

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