Connect

In a season highlighted by victories in the GI Kentucky Derby, GI Kentucky Oaks and GI Breeders' Cup Distaff, the training job Ken McPeek has done with the overachieving Rattle N Roll (Connect) is equally deserving of plaudits. Making his second start off a 363-day absence and having shipped to the West Coast and back when failing to draw into the GI Breeders' Cup Classic on Nov. 2, Rattle N Roll returned to something approaching his best under the Friday night lights at Churchill, rallying wide into the stretch before...

8th-Belmont The Big A, $90,000, Msw, 10-3, 2yo, f, 6fT, 1:09.68, fm, 2 lengths. CANDY QUEST (f, 2, Connect--Candy Crush, by Candy Ride {Arg}), a $225,000 Keeneland September yearling who was the priciest of her sire's 31 yearlings reported as sold in 2023 (43 ring), set her sights on heavily favored Tam I Am (Authentic) entering the final eighth of a mile and kicked past with relative ease to graduate in very professional fashion at first asking Thursday afternoon. Live on the board at 9-2 from a 5-1 morning line,...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - Fasig-Tipton concluded an impressive week of work in Saratoga with the second and final session of the company's New York-Bred Yearling Sale Monday at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion. The auction finished with a sale-record median and the third-highest average in its history. Trainer Chad Brown, bidding on behalf of Seth Klarman's Klaravich Stable made the sale's highest bid when going to $370,000 just five hips from the end of Monday's session. "It was another successful edition of the New York-bred sale," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd...

Today we'll consider some of the sires standing between $10,001 and $19,999. For a long time, I called this the Lookin At Lucky zone. But don't worry, we won't be deploring his neglect yet again: he's staying in Chile, where they evidently appreciate him rather more. Plenty of horses in this bracket have recently relinquished their brief window of commercial opportunity, and are now hanging around to discover whether they might join the very small group whose first runners generate a fresh vogue. Even with the newcomers out of the...

Chad Brown had three chances to record a sixth victory in the last eight runnings of the GIII Pebbles S., and it was the 10-1 longest priced of the trio Implicated (Connect) who parlayed a perfect trip into a first black-type success Saturday at the Big A. Drawn the fence with Manny Franco at the controls for the first time, the $125,000 Fasig-Tipton October yearling purchase was away without incident and raced a touch keen into the first turn as 53-1 Precious Avary (Divining Rod) showed the way at a...

The Fasig-Tipton October Digital Sale closed Tuesday afternoon with 100 horses sold for $1,820,000. Offerings included breeding stock, horses of racing age, yearlings, and a stallion. Racing prospect Witwatersrand (Hip 8) topped the sale when sold for $230,000 to Deputy from the consignment of Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent for DJ Stable Graduate. A 2-year-old daughter of Connect, Witwatersrand broke her maiden on debut at Woodbine on Sept. 1 for owners DJ Stable and Quintessential Racing Florida and trainer Mark Casse. The chestnut filly was offered and sold from her...

Lucky Seven Stable's Rattle N Roll (Connect), winner of this term's GIII Ben Ali S. Apr. 22 and GIII Pimlico Special S. May 19, is the horse to beat returning on short notice in Saturday's GIII Blame S., the featured race on "Stephen Foster Preview Day" at Churchill Downs. The $1-million GI Stephen Foster will now be held four weeks later at Ellis Park. The Ken McPeek-trained 2021 GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity winner will face seven rivals from his rail draw, including the re-opposing Ben Ali second and third-place finishers...

And so we come to the abyss: that giddy phase between launching your first juveniles and being able to claim a viable niche in this most unforgiving of marketplaces. Yes, for those few young stallions that do manage to seize their fleeting opportunity, a narrow path can rise rapidly towards lucrative heights. Most of the others, however, find themselves clinging to a crumbling ledge. Whatever you do, don't look down! It's easy to disparage the robotic tendencies of the commercial market. Too easy, certainly, for me to have neglected the...

After romping by seven lengths to break her maiden at third asking over this same track and distance Dec. 1, The Alys Look checked in second behind 'TDN Rising Star' Pretty Mischievous in the Untapable S. Dec. 26. Going for her third straight effort at a mile and 70 yards Saturday, the Brad Cox trainee hung a length back outside of pacesetter Hayunevano through fractions of :24.37 and :48.08. As that leader began to fade past the quarter pole, The Alys Look got the first jump to take command as...

The momentum carried through into Tuesday's closing session of Book 4 of the Keeneland September Sale in Lexington with a filly by sophomore sire Connect drawing a $450,000 final bid from Maddie Mattmiller, acting as agent for Black Type Thoroughbreds. Tuesday's session grossed $21,182,500, up slightly from the corresponding session in 2021 when 312 horses sold for $20,549,000. The average for the day was $71,805, up 9.02% from 2021, while median increased 22.22% to $55,000. The final day of Book 4 saw a total of 295 horses sold, while 1,851...

5th-Woodbine, C$104,200, Msw, 6-12, 2yo, 5f (AWT), :57.57, ft, 6 1/4 lengths. BATTLE STRIKE (c, 2, Connect--Hold the Sugar, by Forest Wildcat), dispatched at 4-5 favoritism for his career debut, showed good speed from the gate to take the lead from mid-pack inside of Kaukokaipuu (Mr Speaker) through an opening quarter in :45.73. A length clear into the far turn racing just off the rail, it became a one-horse race down the stretch as Battle Strike powered home unchallenged to win impressively by 6 1/4 lengths as Kaukokaipuu held off...

Of the 1,630 stallions who covered mares in North America in 2018, a grand total of up to 34 could have starters in the respective gates of the upcoming GI Kentucky Derby and GI Kentucky Oaks (based on a maximum of 20 Derby starters and 14 Oaks starters). That's about a 2% chance. How remarkable is it, then, that this year we have not one, not two, but seven stallions with the potential to pull off a Derby-Oaks sire double, something that hasn't been done since Native Dancer sired the...