Bob Baffert

News out of Churchill Downs last week that two of trainer Saffie Joseph Jr's horses had collapsed and died within days of each other has reignited talk around one of the most confounding--and by extension, frustrating--issues in racing: sudden equine death. More than four years ago in response to the death of GI-placed Bobby Abu Dhabi (Macho Uno)--what was initially suspected a sudden cardiac-related event--the TDN took a lengthy dive into the issue. In a nutshell, sudden cardiac deaths oftentimes leave no discernable physical sign for pathologists to piece together...

Gustavo Delgado Jr., son of and assistant to trainer Gustavo Delgado, said GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) has shown all the right signs following his victory in Saturday's race and will run in the GI Preakness S. May 20 as long as everything continues to go well. The colt is expected to jog around the racetrack Tuesday morning. "He ate up everything, his feed, he's feeling good," Delgado Jr. said. Forte (Violence), the scratched morning-line favorite from the Derby, galloped at Churchill Downs Monday morning in an apparent...

6th-SA, $61K, Msw, 3-5yo, 6f, 6:49 p.m. TRUEHOOD (Nyquist), purchased for $700,000 out of Keeneland September in 2021, makes the races Friday for trainer Bob Baffert and owners Alfred or Liebau. The first foal out of an unraced half-sister to MSP Golden Jaguar (Animal Kingdom) and Golden Domer (Quality Road), Truehood traces back to GI Shoemaker Mile S. winner Bolo (Temple City), MGISW Dullahan (Even the Score), and Canada's champion 2-year-old colt and GI Kentucky Derby upsetter Mine That Bird (Birdstone). Opposing him from the outside is 4-year-old Mohawk Sun...

8th-Santa Anita, $78,316, Alw, 4-28, 4yo/up, f/m, 6 1/2f, 1:16.16, ft, head. EDA (f, 4, Munnings--Show Me, by Lemon Drop Kid) came into this contest riding a three race win streak, though it was one which began in 2021--capped by victory in the GI Starlet S.--and continued via her lone 2022 start where she held on to win the GIII Santa Ysabel S. by a half-length before going on the sidelines. Gone for almost fourteen months, she came back here against an allowance group and the betting public made their...

Bob Baffert's ADARE MANOR (Uncle Mo) re-enters graded-stakes company with an expected start in the GII Santa Maria S. Saturday at Santa Anita. A runaway winner in her maiden-breaking score in early 2022, she romped by 13 lengths in the GIII Las Virgenes S. in her next start but missed qualifying for the GI Kentucky Oaks. Transferred back to Baffert's care after near misses in both the GII Santa Anita Oaks and the GII Black-Eyed Susan S., she faltered to sixth in the GI Cotillion before calling it a year...

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis OCALA, FL - For the third straight day, the team of Bob Baffert and Donato Lanni, acting on behalf of Saudi businessman Amr Zedan, made the highest bid of the session, this time going to $2.2 million--top price of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training sale so far--to acquire a colt by Gun Runner from the de Meric Sales consignment as the Spring sale continued to produce figures largely in line with its record-setting 2022 renewal. Through three of four...

Well into Thursday's third session of the OBS Spring Sale, several of racing's biggest names were out in force to duke it out for a juvenile colt by Horse of the Year Gun Runner. With several separate interests clashing, including agent Donato Lanni, accompanied by Bob Baffert, and trainer Steve Asmussen, the trainer of Gun Runner, it was Amr Zedan's team that outlasted the rest to land the colt for a cool $2.2 million. Offered as Hip 782, the Mar. 20 foal is out of Perfect Wife (Majesticperfection), the dam...

2nd-KEE, $80K, Msw, 2yo, f, 5 1/2fT, 1:32 p.m. A $700,000 acquisition out of the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale last October by Wesley Ward and Three Chimneys Farm, BUNDCHEN (Gun Runner) will look to close out Ward's Keeneland spring meet on a high note with this turf sprint debut. Her dam No More Parties, while unraced herself, is a full-sister to GI Belmont Derby Invitational winner Force The Pass (Speightstown) and from the extended family of MSW & MGISP Wonder Gal (Tiz Wonderful). Joel Rosario gets the call. TJCIS...

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis OCALA, FL-The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training reached its halfway mark Wednesday with a familiar name at the top of the sheets as Amr Zedan paid a session-topping $900,000 for a son of Frosted as figures kept largely on par with the auction's record-setting 2022 renewal. Through two sessions of the four-day auction, 351 juveniles have sold for $45,886,000. The average is down 6.3% from the end-of-day figure from a year ago and the median is down 6.7% to...

A colt by champion Arrogate lit up the board with a $1.45 million final bid late in the opening session of the OBS Spring Sale in Ocala. Signing the ticket on Hip 253 was agent Donato Lanni, accompanied by Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, also the trainer of the deceased champion. Purchased on behalf of Amr Zedan, the colt breezed an eighth in :10 flat last Monday. Consigned by Hartley/DeRenzo Thoroughbreds LLC, the juvenile is out of unraced Destine (War Front), the dam of SP Sunset Promise (Broken Vow)....

Currently on the GI Kentucky Derby bubble with 40 points, rallying GII Louisiana Derby runner-up and 'TDN Rising Star' Disarm (Gun Runner) will look to punch his ticket to the big dance in Saturday's GIII Stonestreet Lexington S. at Keeneland. The Stonestreet Lexington is the final race on the Road to the Kentucky Derby and carries 40 points that will be awarded on a 20-8-6-4-2 basis. A top-three finish by Disarm would secure the Winchell Thoroughbreds homebred a spot in the starting gate on the first Saturday in May. The...

Juan Hernandez was the leading rider and Phil D'Amato topped the trainer's list at Santa Anita's 43-day Classic Meet, which concluded Sunday. Tim and Mark Cohen's Rancho Temescal and Red Baron's Barn were the meet's leading owners. Hernandez, a 31-year-old native of Veracruz, Mexico won four races on opening day and never slowed down, adding two races on closing day Sunday to give him 63 victories for the meet, more than double that of runner-up Flavien Prat's 31. In the all-important stakes-won category, it was Hernandez leading Prat 13 to...