Breeders' Cup Classic

Pin Oak Stud LLC's Geaux Rocket Ride (Candy Ride {Arg}), winner of the GI TVG.com Haskell S. ahead of a runner-up effort in the GI TVG Pacific Classic, breezed three-quarters of a mile in 1:13.80 over the Santa Anita main track Friday morning as he resumed his serious preparations for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic Nov. 4. Taking to the track at around 7:45 a.m. PT, the $350,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga graduate was put through his paces by regular rider and four-time Classic winner Mike Smith, who pronounced himself pleased with...

Celebrating 40 Years of the Breeders' Cup Can you imagine being a horse racing-crazy kid with a ringside seat to the creation of the Breeders' Cup? Mark Taylor can, because he was. Fast forward more than four decades and now he is president and CEO of the Central Kentucky farm that is believed to have raised and/or sold more Breeders' Cup winners than any other. There's also the matter of having stood the Breeders' Cup winner who currently holds the record for siring the most Breeders' Cup winners in turn....

"The American Horse of the Year and the Arc winner are heads apart with a furlong to go in the Classic... Here's the wire, desperately close. Tiznow wins it for America!" Chances are you can actually hear Tom Durkin's legendary call as you read those words. And chances are listening to the call now will give you goosebumps all over again and bring you straight back to that amazing moment. Tiznow became an American hero that day at Belmont Park, just weeks after what would become known as 9/11. Still...

Between winning the COVID-delayed Kentucky Derby in September and giving thousands of microshare owners cause to celebrate, Authentic was a major talking point the fall of 2020. His first foals, yearlings of 2023, include 10 who fetched $700,000 or more at recent Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton sales. "Authentic is a very special horse to us here at Spendthrift," said the farm's general manager, Ned Toffey. "He is a horse that we initially pursued the breeding interest in, but very quickly we found ourselves taking it a step farther and buying him...

The first of back-to-back GI Breeders' Cup Classic winners retired to Spendthrift, Vino Rosso currently leads the U.S. freshman sire list and has had four individuals place in Grade I races in the last five weeks, including three on Oct. 7. "Since he is a son of Curlin, we were fortunate enough to acquire the breeding rights to him in his 4-year-old year, and that's when he really began to take off," said Ned Toffey, general manager of Spendthrift. "He won the Wood Memorial, so he was good early in...

Horses aren't supposed to be able to do what Ghostzapper did. The Hall of Famer was so dazzling that the 128 Beyer Speed Figure he registered in the GIII Philip H. Iselin H.--still the highest figure in the history of American racing at a route--isn't even remembered as one of his top races. Some people might count his GI Vosburgh sprinting at three against older horses as one of his best, others might prefer his GI Woodward battle over eventual Horse of the Year Saint Liam, and still others might...

Slow Down Andy (Nyquist), front-running winner of Saturday's GI Awesome Again S. at Santa Anita, will miss the GI Breeders' Cup Classic Nov. 4, according to a report in Daily Racing Form. Although he was sound following the Awesome Again, the 4-year-old came out of the race with some filling in his ankle and will get 60 days off. The Awesome Again was Slow Down Andy's first Grade I win and earned him a paid berth into the Classic as it was a "Win and You're In" race. He got...

Leading GI Breeders' Cup Classic contender Arcangelo (Arrogate), winner of this summer's GI Belmont S. and GI Travers S., had his first work at Santa Anita Thursday, breezing five furlongs in 1:02.20 under exercise rider Robert Mallari. "We're just getting him used to the track," trainer Jena Antonucci said. "There's plenty of time go fast." Antonucci was on hand in California for the work from her stable in New York. She will be back in New York Friday morning, but will return to Santa Anita later this month and remain...

One of the biggest stories going into the 2018 Breeders' Cup was trainer John Sadler's 0-41 record on racing's championship day. Accelerate, whose five for six already on the year included four Grade Is in California, succinctly put all that babble to rest with his win in the biggest race on the card. "What stands out to me with Accelerate was the year he had that culminated in the Breeders' Cup Classic," said Sadler. "He won, what, four or five Grade Is that year. So, he had just a fabulous...

Celebrating 40 Years of the Breeders' Cup with Living Legends There are great racehorses and there are great sires. One doesn't always equal the other. Sometimes, but not always, a horse is equally adept at both. "It's rare for world-class racehorse to become a world-class sire. It's two different resumes, two different achievements," said John Sikura, owner of Hill 'n' Dale. Rarely, ever so rarely, a top racehorse becomes a sire so good and so prolific in generating top-class horses that his own championship race record becomes almost an afterthought....

'TDN Rising Star' and MGISW Forte (Violence), off since his disappointing fourth-place finish in the GI Travers S. Aug. 26, is receiving treatment for a quarter crack. His connections, including trainer Todd Pletcher and owner Mike Repole, still believe there is time to prepare him for a start in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita Nov. 4. Per the Daily Racing Form, farrier Ian McKinlay patched the quarter crack on Forte's left front foot and the horse has been training at Churchill Downs, where he galloped Sunday morning....

Paul Reddam's Slow Down Andy (Nyquist) assumed command of Saturday's GI Awesome Again S. from the opening bell and made every pole a winning one, earning a fees-paid berth into the GI Breeders' Cup Classic over an extra eighth of a mile of the Santa Anita main track on Nov. 4. "I was kind of surprised, I thought everyone would try to go," Reddam said. "The track has been pretty speed favoring all day and he just broke so smoothly that he was on top in three jumps and that...