Dan Blacker

Hit the Road (More Than Ready), winner of the prestigious GI Frank E. Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita last March, has been given some time off following an eighth in the GI Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational at Gulfstream Park Jan. 26. "He's at Kingfisher [Farms] in Solvang [in the Santa Ynez Valley] and he'll be back in the summer," confirmed trainer Dan Blacker. "To win Grade I's you have to have a horse 100 % and he wasn't quite 100 % [at Gulfstream]," Blacker said. "He'll have a couple...

As is the case in the day's feature event on the main track, Gulfstream's GI Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational highlights a returning champion in the form of Robert and Lawana Low's Colonel Liam (Liam's Map). Following a neck win in the 2021 renewal of the nine-furlong test, the Todd Pletcher trainee added a win in the GII Muniz Memorial Classic at the Fair Grounds in March before finishing on even terms with Domestic Spending (GB) (Kingman {GB}) in the GI Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic at Churchill Downs in...

Hit the Road (More Than Ready), aiming for the Jan. 29 GI Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational at Gulfstream Park, worked five furlongs in :58.40 (1/1) over the Santa Anita turf Sunday. The 5-year-old, trained by Dan Blacker, capped a four-race win streak with a win in the GI Frank E. Kilroe Mile S. last March. He has been off since a third-place effort in the GII City of Hope Mile S. last October. The nine-furlong Turf Invitational will be Hit The Road's first start beyond a mile. Also working...

Grade I winner Hit the Road (More Than Ready) has been scratched from Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Mile due to a fever, trainer Dan Blacker announced via Twitter Friday. "Sad to report we have to scratch Hit The Road from Breeders' Cup Mile as he has a fever," Blacker tweeted. "So disappointed for his great group of owners. Unbelievably bad timing and bad luck. We will get him healthy, regroup and point for the next race." Winner of the GI Frank E. Kilroe Mile and GIII Thunder Road S. earlier...

by Dan Ross and Jessica Martini  The third time proved the charm for the Fasig-Tipton California Fall Yearlings Sale, which produced the strongest results in its short three-year history with a session of lively bidding in Pomona Tuesday. "Today was the most encouraging day we have had in California in a sales environment in the last three years that we've been  involved here," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. "There was a dramatic increase in the average and the median doubled from the sale last year and the RNA rate was...

The winner of four straight races and six of nine overall, including a first-ever Grade I triumph for his trainer last out, progressive Hit the Road (More Than Ready) will travel outside of California for the first time in his career to face eight rivals in a competitive renewal of the GI Maker's Mark Mile Friday at Keeneland. Capturing his first two turf tries, the latter coming in the Zuma Beach S., as a 2-year-old, the bay ran seventh before being disqualified to last in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile...

With active hands-on experience in two arenas in racing--television and presentation as well as horsemanship--Christina Blacker is one of a handful of people in the industry with that variety of perspective. Tuesday morning, the TVG reporter, analyst and host joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland for an expansive discussion on growing the sport. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Blacker also talked about the triumph of her husband Dan's recent first Grade I winner as a trainer and her I Am Horse...

After watching her husband, trainer Dan Blacker, enjoy his first Grade I victory last week, racing analyst and TVG host Christina Blacker joined this week's TDN Writers' Room to talk on marketing racing to a wider audience.

Hit the Road (More Than Ready) struck a blow for the locals, parlaying a perfect trip into a stirring short-neck victory in Saturday's GI Frank E. Kilroe Mile S. at Santa Anita. Drawn in gate two with the visiting Florent Geroux in the irons, Hit the Road found the perfect spot in the box seat, as Flying Scotsman (English Channel) sped across from his outside barrier to supplant favored Smooth Like Strait (Midnight Lute). The pace was sensible through the middle stages, with positions largely unchanged, and Hit the Road...

On Feb. 6, the Oxford-born Dan Blacker celebrated his first graded stakes win as a trainer when Hit The Road (More Than Ready) took Santa Anita's GIII Thunder Road S., unleashing a powerful turn of foot inside the final furlong to win by an eye-catching 3 3/4 lengths. The progressive 4-year-old now has his sights set on Grade I glory in the Frank E. Kilroe Mile over the same course and distance as the Thunder Road on Mar. 6, and a victory there would epitomize everything Blacker has been working...

The financial toll from COVID-19 on the racing industry in California, spurred by the suspension of live Thoroughbred racing, has been sharp and swift. Backstretch healthcare and mental illness services have been pared back, those in charge of other programs reliant on betting revenue are wondering how to bolster coffers if the broader economy nose-dives, while the financial thumb-screws have been further twisted on stretched-thin trainers. What's more, all this is playing out against an economic backdrop that was already shaky. The California Horse Racing Board's (CHRB) latest annual report...