Champagne Stakes

Four years ago this week, McKinzie was retired to Gainesway after a stellar racing career that netted four Grade I wins and 11 triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures. While it may have been difficult at the time for many to see past the ravages of the COVID pandemic--it was 2020, after all--those far-sighted breeders who patronized McKinzie the next spring are looking positively clairvoyant in 2024. As is becoming blatantly obvious, McKinzie isn't just starting strong as a freshman sire. Instead, McKinzie's beginning as a young sire has been the stuff...

'TDN Rising Star' Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie) ran by them all to remain unbeaten and provide his freshman sire with a rolling Grade I double in Saturday's 'Win and You're In' GI Champagne Stakes at the Belmont at the Big A meeting. McKinzie's Scottish Lassie, a debut third as the favorite at Saratoga, broke her maiden in style with a runaway success in the GI Frizette Stakes one race earlier on the card. Favored at 1-2, Chancer McPatrick broke like a shot from his outside draw--not the case in either of...

Saturday is one of those 'burn the candle at both ends' kind of days for horseplayers, as no fewer than 17 graded stakes take place within a six-hour window. Eight of those events serve as 'Win and You're In' qualifying events for various Breeders' Cup races, and even those races that don't offer a free pass are liable to toss up a runner or two or three at Del Mar in four weeks' time. Keeneland Race Course brands its opening three days of racing as 'Fall Stars Weekend' and who's...

John Kimmel had $25,000, and wanted an Exclusive Native filly. But he had to pass up his first choice, at Fasig-Tipton in 1978, after she went to $32,000. She turned out to be Genuine Risk. A first experience to put most people off, right? Kimmel gives a wry chuckle and shakes his head. "I'd have been ruined," he says. "I was a sophomore in vet school. Can you imagine? I'd have been wrecked." As it was, he had proved his eye. He continued absorbing the bittersweet lessons routinely dispensed by...

The Belmont at the Big A fall meeting will feature 50 stakes races worth $10.35 million, officials at the New York Racing Association (NYRA) announced Thursday. Thirty-one days of racing are scheduled at Aqueduct Racetrack, which will once again stage the meeting due to the ongoing construction at Belmont Park. The meet begins on Friday, Sept. 13 and runs through Sunday, Nov. 3. Three Grade I contests for on the flat and six Breeders' Cup Challenge races are to be run, including the first of the elite-level events, the $500,000...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY -- Missing from action for two months, but certainly not forgotten, beaten GI Kentucky Derby favorite and 'TDN Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light) is ready to make his comeback. Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher said the Repole Stable homebred is set to resume competition in the GI Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park on July 20 with stablemates Mindframe (Constitution) and Tuscan Sky (Vino Rosso). Mindframe is making his first start since finishing second in the GI Belmont Stakes on June 8. Tuscan Sky won the...

Multiple Grade I-placed Reinvestment Risk (Upstart--Ridingwiththedevil, by Candy Ride {Arg}) has been acquired to stand stud at Rising Sun Farm in Portmore, Jamaica, Schumer Bloodstock reported Monday. The 5-year-old was second behind future champion Jackie's Warrior in the 2020 GI Hopeful S. and GI Champagne S. In 2022, he was second in the GI Carter H. and GI Churchill Downs S. On the board in seven of 10 starts, Reinvestment Risk won twice and earned $415,980. Reinvestment Risk will stand alongside 2014 GIII Sham S. winner Midnight Hawk (Midnight Lute)...

Forte (Violence) has been disqualified from the Sept. 5, 2022 GI Hopeful S. due to the presence of meloxicam in his system, according to the horse's owner, Mike Repole; his trainer, Todd Pletcher; and their lawyer, Karen Murphy, who held a phone conference Thursday afternoon to address the suspension. Meloxicam is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, widely prescribed to treat osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, and is sold under the brand name Mobic. It is not one of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatories that is approved in the United States for the treatment of...

Coolmore Stud and Peter Brant have purchased a minority interest in Jack Christopher (Munnings), who figures to be one of the top choices in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile on Nov. 5. A TDN Rising Star in his debut Aug. 28 at Saratoga for trainer Chad Brown, Jack Christopher followed that win up with a 2 ¾ length score in the GI Champagne at Belmont Park this past Saturday as the favorite over a quality field. Selected as a $135,000 Fasig-Tipton October yearling by Liz Crow, Jack Christopher ran in...

Last year Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen captured both the GI Hopeful S. at Saratoga and GI Champagne S. at Belmont with the fleet-footed Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) and he looks to repeat that feat Saturday when he saddles Gunite (Gun Runner) in this year's Champagne. The stallion-making race offers a spot in the gate for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile in November. A third-out graduate going six panels at Churchill Downs June 26, Gunite finished second behind 'TDN Rising Star' High Oak (Gormley) in the GII Saratoga Special S....

Klaravich Stables, Inc.'s Complexity (Maclean's Music--Goldfield, by Yes It's True) will stand stud at Brereton and Elizabeth Jones's Airdrie Stud upon his retirement from racing, the farm announced Thursday. Trained throughout his career by Chad Brown, Complexity was a convincing winner of his most recent start, the GII Kelso H. at Belmont, where he defeated multiple Grade I winner Code of Honor (Noble Mission) by two lengths in a time of 1:33.82, earning a 110 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest number earned by any horse at a mile or longer...

B. Wayne Hughes's Spendthrift Farm has acquired the breeding rights to undefeated multiple Grade I-winning juvenile Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music--Unicorn Girl, by A.P. Five Hundred), recent winner of Belmont's GI Champagne S., a 'Win and You're In' event to the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Keenland next month. Trained by Steve Asmussen, the J & J Stables-bred colt has earnings of $402,564 in four career starts for owners Kirk and Judy Robison. "Jackie's Warrior is proving to be one of the fastest 2-year-olds to come around in the last decade...