Alpha Delta Stables

When Jon Clay bought Strong Incentive for his Alpha Delta Stables for $2.15 million at last year's Fasig-Tipton November Sale, she had already produced Grade III winner and track-record holder Highly Motivated (Into Mischief), now a stallion at Airdrie Stud; two-time Grade III winner Surge Capacity (Flintshire {GB}); and an up-and-coming `TDN Rising Star' named Ways and Means (Practical Joke), who had run second in the Grade I Spinaway Stakes. Within a month of his purchase, Surge Capacity won the Grade I Matriarch, and by the following summer, Ways and...

Meet racing's newest millionaire. Raging Sea (Curlin), closing in an all-out stretch drive, just got up to nail pacesetter Idiomatic (Curlin) in the shadow of the wire to win Friday's GI Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga. Billed as the renewed rivalry between Idiomatic and her GI Ogden Phipps upsetter Randomized (Nyquist), the Personal Ensign featured four runners from that June 8th race--all four finishing inside the top five and missing only the recently-retired Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief). In fact, this is a group of fillies and mares who have taken...

6th-SAR, $100K, Msw, 2yo, f, 7f, 3:53 p.m. ET. Lining up for another competitive maiden special weight at Saratoga, several 2-year-old fillies will be making the first start of their careers. TRADING STRATEGY (Quality Road) was purchased for $500,000 by Klaravich Stables during last year's Keeneland September Sale. The Chad Brown trainee is out of Dothraki Sea (Union Rags), herself a 2020 $560,000 Keeneland November buy for Band of Brothers while GSP Mc Vay (Constitution)--a $1.25 million Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale grad--was in-utero. This dam is a half-sister to GISW...

There can't be many tracks that that deviate further from the standard American model than Goodwood. Even in Britain nobody today would dream of laying out a racecourse along a twisting ridge of downland, and we remain duly indebted to the militia officers who first eked out a little sport here 223 years ago. Not that the horses themselves share our appreciation for a gorgeous panorama of cornfields and woodland, focused as they are on keeping their balance over the swaying terrain and round sharp right-hand bends. Yet last week...

In a race that changed dramatically when expected speed Venti Valentine (Firing Line) stumbled to her knees not once but twice out of the gate, it was Raging Sea (Curlin) who took advantage and pulled away late to win the GII Shuvee Stakes at Saratoga Sunday. A talented juvenile who hit the board in both the GI Darley Alcibiades Stakes and the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, Raging Sea struggled to regain form as a 3-year-old, contesting mostly optional claimers at Keeneland and Saratoga before ending her season a winner...

When Jon Clay first got started in the Thoroughbred business, he launched Alpha Delta Stables with ambitious goals in mind. Step one: breed a stakes winner. Step two: breed something good enough to make it to either the Kentucky Derby or the Kentucky Oaks. Nearly two decades later, Clay has checked off every one of those goals, having bred both a Derby and an Oaks starter. Plus, his program has produced something he never could have dreamed up back when he was compiling that wish list of accomplishments. In world-class...

Godolphin's Cody's Wish (Curlin) was named 2023 Kentucky-bred Horse of the Year and older dirt male, while his dam, Dance Card (Tapit), was named broodmare of the year by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders. Godolphin also received awards for Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief) as champion 3-year-old filly and as KTDF Owner of the Year and winner of the P.A.B. Widener Trophy as KTOB Breeder of the Year. Other Kentucky-bred champions announced Wednesday: 2-year-old male: Fierceness (City of Light) (Breeder Repole Stable); 2-year-old filly Just F Y I (Justify) (George...

2nd-GP, $89K, Msw, 3yo, f, 1mT, 12:39 p.m. ET. SF Racing's MONT SAINT MICHEL (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) makes her inaugural voyage for Brendan Walsh after she started her work regimen at Turfway in early December and then moved to Palm Meadows. The homebred is out of SP Black Dahlia (GB) (Dansili {GB}), who is also responsible for third place GI Breeders' Cup Mile runner Lope Y Fernandez (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}). Also making the post is Alpha Delta homebred Highland Light (Uncle Mo) for trainer Chad Brown. The...

It was a Halloween exacta come early as Occult (Into Mischief) dominated the GIII Monmouth Oaks over a determined Foggy Night (Khozan), giving jockey Feargal Lynch the black-type double in New Jersey. Steadied last out in the GI Acorn at Big Sandy, but recovering well enough to finish third, the 7-5 favorite had already tasted success early this year in New York as the Busanda S. victress at Aqueduct before running fifth in the GIII Gazelle behind Promiseher America (American Pharoah). Racing four wide after the jump and settling well...

5th-Saratoga, $105,000, Msw, 8-7, 2yo, f, 7f, 1:25.36, ft, neck. RAGING SEA (f, 2, Curlin--Stormy Welcome, by Storm Cat), allowed to drift from a 5-1 morning line to jump at a dime short of 7-1, locked horns with favored Peace Cruiser (Violence) entering the final furlong of a seven-furlong maiden and fought on to prevail by a neck at first asking Sunday afternoon. The field was away in good order and the well-bred chestnut raced between rivals in the second flight of horses as Tribal Queen (Bolt d'Oro) cut out...

In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for this weekend running at Nakayama and Hanshin Racecourses, the latter of which plays host to the first of this year's Japanese Classics--the G1 Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas) over 1600 meters: Saturday, April 9, 2022 11th-NKY, New Zealand Trophy-G2, ¥103.5m ($835k), 3yo, 1mT JEAN...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 11th-GP, $55K, Msw, 3yo, f, 6f, 5:48 p.m. ET Giverny (Tapit) makes her first start here for Bill Mott and owner/breeder Alpha Delta Stable. She was being carried by her SW and MGSP dam Oscar Party (Dixie Union) when Jon Clay's operation purchased that one for $1.9 million at the 2017 Keeneland November sale. Giverny is the half-sister to MGISW Room Service (More Than Ready)'s second foal--a year-older Tapit colt RNA'd for $675,000 at the same KEENOV renewal. Chad Brown pupil Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper), a...