Bell's the One

A pair of graded stakes for 3-year-olds highlight Saturday's racing action, starting with the GII Mother Goose S. at Belmont. Two of the five fillies are looking to rebound after off-the-board finishes in the May 6 GI Kentucky Oaks, 'TDN Rising Star' Shahama (Munnings) (sixth) and Venti Valentine (Firing Line) (14th). Shahama is making just her second U.S. start after starting her career with a perfect four-for-four record during her time in Dubai. Her trainer Todd Pletcher is looking for his seventh Mother Goose victory here. "It was hard to...

'TDN Rising Star' Kimari (Munnings) looks to successfully defend her GI Madison S. title Saturday at Keeneland. Twice second at Royal Ascot, the bay kicked off 2021 with a win in Oaklawn's Spring Fever S. and took the Madison next out. Sent to the sidelines after that effort, she was ambitiously spotted for her return off that seven-month layoff in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint and she could only manage seventh to stablemate Golden Pal (Uncle Mo). Sent through the ring at Fasig-Tipton's November Sale just days later, Kimari...

By all accounts, trainer Wesley Ward is planning on coming out full force when Keeneland opens the doors on its spring meeting Friday, Apr. 8. To that end, four of the stable's stars tuned up for opening weekend stakes engagements Saturday morning in Lexington. Happy Soul (Runhappy) is set to represent Ward in the GI Central Bank Ashland S., her first try around two turns, and the Gayla Rankin-owned filly blitzed six furlongs in a race-like 1:11.20 Saturday morning. Since dropping her career debut at Keeneland last April, Happy Soul...

Following a conversation with owner Robert Lothenbach of Lothenbach Stables, trainer Neil Pessin confirmed that his Grade I-winning mare Bell's The One (Majesticperfection) will not start in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint Nov. 6 and will instead make her final start of the season in the $300,000 Dream Supreme S. at Churchill Downs one week later. Pessin added that the relatively lightly raced mare would likely remain in training for a 6-year-old campaign in 2022. The $155,000 Fasig-Tipton July gradauate has won three of her six starts...

Bell's the One stamped her ticket to the Breeders' Cup with a gritty score in the TCA at Keeneland Saturday. Heavily favored here, the bay trailed the field through a :21.57 opening quarter. Making an eye-catching move on the backstretch, she launched a five-wide bid turning for home to put herself in contention and fought her way past her foes in mid-stretch, edging clear to score. "She's one of the best mares, if not the best horse, I've ever had," trainer Neil Pessin said. "The only thing I regret with...

Trainer Cipriano Contrereas and Andrew Knapczyk's Inthemidstofbiz (Fed Biz) faces five other fillies and mares in an attempt to defend her title in Saturday's GII Thoroughbred Club of America S., a 'Win and You're In' for the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar Nov. 6. In two starts this term, Inthemidstofbiz won an Indiana optional claimer on the dirt May 20 before finishing fourth in the Aug. 30 Satin and Lace S. over Presque Isle Downs' synthetic surface, the same race she used as a prep...

A quartet of horses headed towards engagements at the Breeders' Cup World Championships at Del Mar Nov. 6 were out for serious workouts Saturday morning at both major Kentucky venues. Champion Essential Quality (Tapit) worked five furlongs in the company of Ellis Park allowance winner Colonel Bowman (Curlin) just after the track opened for business shortly after 5:30 Saturday morning. The duo broke off at the half-mile pole, crossing the wire in :46.80 before completing the move around the clubhouse turn in :59.20. Essential Quality outgamed Midnight Bourbon (Tiznow) to...

Lloyd Madison Farms IV LLC's homebred filly Sconsin (Include) is on track for a second straight appearance in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint following her tough, half-length defeat of Bell's the One (Majesticperfection) in Saturday's Open Mind S. on the Downs After Dark program at Churchill. A pace-compromised fourth, just a half-length behind Bell's the One, in last year's Filly & Mare Sprint at Keeneland, Sconsin was winning for the second time in six starts this term, having taken the course-and-distance GIII Winning Colors S. by 3...

She's the one, all right. The one and only, in fact--at least up until now. Who knows? Perhaps Neil Pessin's exemplary achievements with Bell's the One (Majesticperfection) might yet reward him with another Grade I winner or two. But after a lifetime in the game, and 36 years since saddling his first winner, he's neither expecting nor even desiring to transform the intimate scale of his operation. "You know, I don't get jealous of anybody," Pessin says. "I'm very happy with where I'm at. I've been successful with the numbers...

Lothenbach Stables Inc.'s Bell's the One (Majesticperfection) takes on six rivals in Wednesday's GII Honorable Miss H. at Saratoga. The Neil Pessin pupil annexed last September's GI Derby City Distaff by a nose before finishing third behind Gamine (Into Mischief) in the GI Breeders' Cup F/M Sprint in November. Second in Keeneland's GI Madison S. Apr. 3, she was fourth in defense of her Derby City title May 1--again behind the nearly unbeatable Gamine and two other next-out graded scorers. The 5-year-old was last seen taking a tougher-than-average renewal of...

Fasig-Tipton has cataloged a total of 348 yearlings for The July Sale, to be held at the auction house's Newtown Paddocks in Lexington, Kentucky, in a single session Tuesday, July 13. The catalog is available for viewing online. The front cover for the 2021 edition, which is back in its normal position on the calendar after being pushed back to September last year, is adorned with Grade I graduates of The July Sale, including Derby City Distaff heroine Bell's The One (Majesticperfection), recent GI Madison S. winner Kimari (Munnings) and...

'TDN Rising Star' Gamine (Into Mischief) is the 1-5 morning-line favorite for Saturday's GI Derby City (ex Humana) Distaff, and, facing just five other rivals that lack anything near her front-running prowess, she could go off an even shorter proposition than that. Now six-for-seven lifetime as her once-disputed Oaklawn allowance victory has now been reinstated, Gamine was other-worldly at trips around one turn during her championship season in 2020, winning the one-mile GI Longines Acorn S. by 18 3/4 lengths last June and the seven-furlong GI Longines Test S. by...