Alex Solis

These are the dog days of the racing season at Woodbine. The weather is cold, the meet is winding down and the circuit's best horses have been turned out waiting for the spring. Some have headed to Florida. But there was a reason to be excited about last Saturday's card, even if it were run in a snowstorm. Owned by LNJ Foxwoods, trained by Josie Carrolll and having sold for €1.4 million at the 2022 Arqana Deauville August Yearling Sale, the 3-year-old filly Earhart (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) was a dazzling...

Leading American owner Mike Repole opened up about his long-term breeding plan after sourcing six fillies and mares for just shy of €2 million at the December Breeding Stock Sale at Arqana, headed by the Sunday sale-topper Hoshiana (Fr) (Dabirsim {Fr}) at €220,000.  Fourth in a Listed contest on heavy ground when last seen, Hoshiana is out of Doctor Dino (Fr) mare Galtika Coat Frity (Fr) and was knocked down to bloodstock agent Alex Solis on behalf of Repole. She was sold by trainer Nicolas Perret.  Speaking from America, the...

By Brian Sheerin, Emma Berry and Adam Houghton DEAUVILLE, France -- Just 24 hours after John Stewart's Resolute Racing lit up Arqana when snapping up a Wootton Bassett (GB) filly for €1.4 million, it was another American-based buyer who commanded top lot status at the August Yearling Sale when bloodstock agents Alex Solis and Jason Litt struck the winning bid of €730,000 for lot 187, a Sea The Stars (Ire) filly out of an unraced half-sister to the multiple Group 1 winner The Fugue (GB) (Dansili {GB}). While Solis and...

Nineteen individuals have been elected Breeders' Cup Members by 2023 Breeders' Cup foal and stallion nominators in voting that concluded Monday evening. Each Member will serve a four-year term. The following individuals, listed alphabetically, received the most votes from the Breeders' Cup nominators to fill 19 Member seats: Conrad Bandoroff, Maria Niarchos-Gouaze, Barbara Banke, David O'Farrell, Boyd Browning, Bernie Sams, Doug Cauthen, Alex Solis II, Matt Dorman, Edward (Ned) Toffey, Craig Fravel, Elliott Walden, Eric Gustavson, Barry Weisbord, Bret Jones, Aron Wellman, Gray Lyster, Jacob West, and Clem Murphy. The...

DEAUVILLE, France-- On Nov. 19 at Aqueduct, Leslie's Rose (Into Mischief--Wildwood Rose {Ire}) by Galileo {Ire}) made a spectacular debut, demolishing the competition by almost 10 lengths, becoming her sire's 42nd 'TDN Rising Star'. Nothing new there. But the Into Mischief cross with a Galileo mare got Mike Repole thinking. Repole, the American entrepreneur who looks set to earn his second straight Eclipse Award with a champion juvenile, this time with his homebred GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Fierceness (City of Light), has become more and more invested in the...

With a star-studded lineup preparing to go through the ring on a night showcasing some of racing's most prestigious broodmares and broodmare prospects, Fasig-Tipton's Boyd Browning has high praise for Onshore (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire) -- Kalima {GB}, by Kahyasi {Ire}), a royally-bred Group I producer who will sell as Hip 216 at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale. "I believe Onshore is one of the most exciting broodmare offerings that we've had the privilege of selling in my lifetime at Fasig-Tipton," Browning said. "She embodies everything you look for in...

Three members of the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB), plus the agency's executive director, on Thursday advocated for the reinstatement of temporarily suspended CHRB equine medical director Jeff Blea on the eve of his hearing before the California Veterinary Medical Board (VMB) to rule on a list of allegations that include administering "dangerous drugs" to racehorses without examination or medical necessity. "For my own two cents as chairman, I think that the issues surrounding Dr. Jeff Blea brought forth by the veterinary medical board are both ill-advised and slanderous," said...

In an attempt to get a revised whip violations penalty scheme on the books before Del Mar hosts the Nov. 5-6 Breeders' Cup, the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) Wednesday advanced a rule amendment that mostly has the blessing of The Jockeys' Guild because it strips out a previously controversial proposal that would have docked jockeys 50% of purse earnings if they over-whipped while finishing first, second or third in graded stakes. That purse penalization had been proposed by the CHRB in March in an attempt to disincentivize riders from...

As anti-whipping rules continue to evolve nationwide, one problem area that has emerged is the fairness of penalization. Do the various systems of fines and suspensions match the severity of the violations? Or, put more directly, are there ample deterrents on the books to keep a jockey from totally disregarding the number of times and manner in which a Thoroughbred is struck with the whip if the rewards of winning an important graded stakes like a Breeders' Cup race far outweigh the comparatively small dent a penalty might make in...

The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) voted 4-3 Jan. 21 to grant Los Alamitos Race Course a full-year Quarter Horse racing license for 2021, superseding a 5-1 vote from last month that awarded only a six-month license out of concerns that management wasn't doing enough to mitigate the 29 equine deaths that occurred at the track in 2020. In the immediate aftermath of that controversial interim licensure in December, Los Al owner Ed Allred had threatened to close his track and develop the property for a purpose other than racing,...

Grade I producer Danceforthecause (Giant's Causeway) was the second mare of the day to reach $925,000 when selling to Gainesway Farm as Hip 587 from the Sam-Son Farm broodmare dispersal. MGSW Regal Glory (Animal Kingdom) (Hip 403) brought the same price at the start of the session as part of the dispersal of the Estate of Paul Pompa, Jr. The unraced Danceforthecause's first foal was GI Northern Dancer Turf S. winner Say the Word (More Than Ready) and her next foal was GII Canadian S. victor Rideforthecause (Candy Ride {Arg})....

After initially being deadlocked on a Thursday vote to put off implementing anti-whipping regulations that have been repeatedly delayed since first proposed in March 2019, the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) finally voted 4-2 to pass a rule that will prohibit a jockey from striking a mount more than six times during a race, and then only in an underhanded position with no more than two strikes in succession using whips that must meet new CHRB standards to soften the blows. Representatives from the Jockeys' Guild, plus California riders Mike...