Awesome Again

Breeders' Cup Classic winner and top sire Awesome Again (Deputy Minister--Primal Force, by Blushing Groom {Fr}) died suddenly Tuesday at Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement farm in Georgetown, Kentucky. He was 26. (Click here for video feature 'The House That Awesome Again Built')  The exact cause of death is unknown. A full necropsy is pending and a full veterinary report will follow. The Canadian-bred had an exemplary resume as both a racehorse and a stallion. He broke his maiden at Hollywood Park in just his second start as a 3-year-old in...

Calumet Farm's Bravazo (Awesome Again--Tiz o' Gold, by Cee's Tizzy) will be the newest addition to the nursery's stallion roster in the 2021 season. The 5-year-old will stand for $6,000, with discounts given for multiple mare packages and quality mares. Trained by Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, the dark bay earned $2,033,195 in career earnings through four seasons on the racetrack. At two, he was second in the GI Claiborne Futurity S. and annexed the GII Risen Star S. early in his sophomore season. A close-up second behind...

Former Adena Springs stallions Awesome Again and Milwaukee Brew have been transferred to the Old Friends Thoroughbred retirement farm, according to a press release sent from Old Friends Friday afternoon. The announcement follows on the heels of the relocation from Adena Springs of three sires announced last Saturday--Awesome Again's Ghostzapper, Mucho Macho Man, and Point of Entry--who were moved to Hill 'n' Dale Farm's new Xalapa facility to stand at stud. Awesome Again and Milwaukee Brew were pensioned from stud duty in 2019. Awesome Again, now 27, retired after an...

All eyes will be on Santa Anita for their opening weekend feature in the GI Awesome Again S. as Bob Baffert trainees Maximum Security (New Year's Day) and Improbable (City Zip) go head to head for the first time since that consequential first Saturday in May last year. The $300,000 Breeders' Cup "Win and You're In" contest could mark the emergence of an unusual stablemate rivalry. Over two decades ago, the race's namesake was part of a different rivalry-- one for 1998 Horse of the Year. Awesome Again had gone...

Of all the oddities shoehorned into the 2020 calendar, a Jim Dandy on Derby day felt like one of the most incongruous. In a regular year, this Grade II race serves as a midsummer crossroads for sophomores with an eye on the GI Travers: a chance either to regroup, after participation in the Triple Crown series, or to test the water after missing the Classics through immaturity or injury. At least this latter function was maintained, this time round, in the coming-of-age of 'TDN Rising Star' Mystic Guide (Ghostzapper), a...

The $100,000 Perfect Sting S. at Saratoga features a talented field with several older mares who have the potential to be racing at Keeneland come November. The mile-and-a-sixteenth turf race will feature two Chad Brown trainees in Grade III winner Café Americano (Medaglia d'Oro) and the French-bred Altea (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}), as well as Graham Motion's three-time graded stakes winner Secret Message (Hat Trick {Jpn}). Last year, the race was run over Belmont's turf and won by Uni (GB) (More Than Ready), who would go on to claim the GI...

Ocala Stud stallion Awesome Slew (Awesome Again--Slewfoundmoney, by Seeking the Gold), a multiple graded stakes winner, sired his first reported foals Jan. 18 when a bay colt was born in Ocala and a bay filly was foaled in Ohio. Bill Law bred the colt out of the multiple stakes-winning Yesbyjimminy mare Flay Mignon. Craig and Cindy Powell bred the filly who is produced from the Super Saver mare Winnercoasttocoast. A Live Oak Stud homebred, Awesome Slew won stakes ranging in distance from seven furlongs to 1 1/16 miles and won...

Tracy Farmer's Sir Winston (Awesome Again), upset winner of last year's GI Belmont S., is expected to start in Aqueduct's Jazil S. at Aqueduct Jan. 25. The Mark Casse trainee was last seen finishing 12th in the Woodchopper S. over yielding Fair Grounds grass Dec. 28. "The problem was I was trying to get him ready for the [GI] Pegasus [World Cup Invitational]," Casse said of Sir Winston's disappointing effort in New Orleans. "It's not easy to find a spot for a Belmont Stakes winner. No conditions. He's trained well...

A total of 43 graded events, 18 at Grade I level including the two-day Breeders' Cup World Championships Nov. 1 and 2, comprise the stakes schedule for the Santa Anita fall meet Sept. 27 through Nov. 3. For the first time, a pair of Breeders' Cup 'Win and You're In' qualifiers join the traditional opening-day feature, the $200,000 GII Eddie D. S. The $300,000 GI American Pharoah S. for 2-year-old males and its female counterpart, the $300,000 GI Chandelier S., have been moved up to anchor the opening-day program. "We're...