Belmont Derby

NEW KENT COUNTY, VA -- It would have been no surprise had trainer Graham Motion elected to run Amerman Racing's Trikari (Oscar Performance) in Sunday's rescheduled GI Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes as opposed to the GII Secretariat Stakes at Colonial Downs. After all, the long-barreled bay was exiting a victory in the GI Belmont Derby over a mile and three-sixteenths, but Trikari proved more than capable of handling the step back down in trip with a powerful victory in the eight-furlong Secretariat. The second betting choice when all was said...

When bloodstock agent Bob Feld and his son Sean first saw Trikari (Oscar Performance) at the 2022 OBS October Sale, they pegged him as a definite six-figure yearling and, with no clients for whom to buy the handsome bay, they moved on to the next one. But when the father-son team saw the colt had RNA'd for $30,000, they purchased him privately for just $27,500. Now campaigned by the Amermans, Trikari is a Grade I winner with earnings closing in on a million dollars. "My son and I were at...

Pop quiz: which North American third-crop sire leads his contemporaries by individual graded stakes winners in the Northern Hemisphere in 2024? It's not Justify, nor Good Magic, who are each tied with three and are the runaway leaders by 2024 progeny earnings. The correct answer is Mill Ridge Farm's Oscar Performance, who has four graded winners in 2024 and also leads the top third-crop sires by percentage of black-type winners to runners at 6.6%. In addition, Oscar Performance secured his first career Grade I winner as a sire Saturday with...

In a sit-sprint race that turned out to be a tactical affair, Trikari (Oscar Performance), the lesser-preferred half of an uncoupled, Amerman Racing-owned entry with 8-5 second choice Endlessly (Oscar Performance), sat handy to a sluggish pace, engaged long-time leader White Palomino (Kitten's Joy) at the furlong grounds and just held off a late re-rally from the pace-advantaged front-runner to take Saturday's GI Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes at Aqueduct. Two-back winner of the May 4 GII American Turf Stakes--at cricket-score odds--and exiting a game third in the GIII Penn Mile...

Winner of three of his four starts on the grass last season, including two at the Grade III level, Amerman Racing's Endlessly (Oscar Performance) returns to the grass for the first time as a 3-year-old as the 6-5 morning-line favorite for Saturday's $750,000 GI Belmont Derby. Typically contested over 10 furlongs at Belmont Park, this year's renewal takes place over a mile and three-sixteenths at Aqueduct. Victorious in the GIII Del Mar Juvenile Turf and GIII Zuma Beach Stakes, Endlessly was a wide-trip eighth in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile...

Todd Pletcher stablemates Charge It (Tapit) and Far Bridge (English Channel), each victorious in stakes company on the July 8 program at Belmont Park, returned to the worktab for the first time since those efforts. Whisper Hill Farm's 'TDN Rising Star' Charge It, who returned to winning ways with a dominating victory in the GII Suburban S. at a mile and quarter, went a half-mile in :49 flat over the Saratoga main track and is on track for a start in the GI Whitney S. Aug. 5. "He worked really...

'TDN Rising Star' Far Bridge (c, 3, English Channel--Fitpitcher, by Kitten's Joy) was the beneficiary of a clean trip beneath Jose Ortiz, took command in upper stretch and finished off nicely to take Saturday's GI Belmont Derby on Long Island. Less fortunate was King Power Racing's G2 Dante S. hero The Foxes (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}), whose passage more resembled a rush-hour trip on the adjacent Cross Island Parkway, but he flew home to remarkably grab second on the line from pacesetting longshot Mondego (GB) (Lope de Vega {Ire}). Supplanted late...

A pair of Grade I events for 3-year-olds on grass will co-anchor a loaded 12-race program at Belmont Park Saturday. European invader The Foxes (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}), a narrow winner of the G2 Dante S. May 18 and fifth-place finisher after stumbling at the start in the G1 English Derby June 3, will make the trip across the pond for trainer Andrew Balding for the GI Belmont Derby Invitational. The 7-2 morning-line favorite, drawn widest of all in post 11, will square off against 10 rivals, including GII Pennine Ridge...

Fozzy Stack says that Aspen Grove (Ire) is something of a forgotten horse heading into the GI Belmont Oaks Invitational S. and revealed that there were genuine excuses for her below-par effort in the Irish 1,000 Guineas when the Justify filly was found to be in season.  Aspen Grove carried Craig Bernick's distinctive silks to victory in a Group 3 contest at the Curragh last term and, with that valuable black-type success already secured, Stack felt connections could afford to be brave in travelling her over for Saturday's Grade I...

Trudy Veinot's Dreamcatcher consignment makes its second auction appearance in the Fasig-Tipton July Sale of Selected Yearlings and, while a son of Gift Box (hip 107) is the veteran horsewoman's sole entry in the sale, she is excited about the colt's prospects in the ring Tuesday. Veinot, a transplanted Canadian now living in Lexington, purchased the colt for $30,000 at last year's Keeneland November sale. "I liked his frame," Veinot said of the weanling's appeal. "There wasn't a lot of meat on those bones, but there was a beautiful frame....

Nations Pride (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), the beaten favorite with a wide trip four weeks ago in the GI Caesars Belmont Derby Invitational S., worked out a much cozier voyage Saturday under William Buick to annex the GI Saratoga Derby Invitational S. Graduating by 4 3/4 lengths at second asking over the Lingfield all-weather last October, the Godolphin homebred reeled off three more open-lengths tallies culminating with a seven-length rout in the Newmarket S. Apr. 29. Disappointing some when finishing a distant eighth in the G1 Cazoo Derby June 4 at...

The book on training the modern racehorse goes something this: Give them at least six weeks off between races, start them no more than five times a year and never take a chance. It's a book that, apparently, Ken McPeek has never read. Among top-tier trainers, there is no one like him. He'll run fillies against the boys, run back in a week and he's not afraid to throw a 50-1 bomb into a race or, in the case of 2022 GI Belmont S. winner Sarava (Wild Again), a 70-1...