Forever After All

Looking to snag the first graded stakes score of her career, Mrs. Astor (Lookin At Lucky) kicked home strongest of all in the GIII Red Carpet Stakes at Del Mar Sunday afternoon. The 4-year-old filly was last seen running fourth Oct. 20 in the GIII Dowager Stakes at Keeneland after closing from ninth. She'd mostly been contesting the allowance/optional claiming conditions in her career but had placed third in the 2023 running of the GIII Regret Stakes over the Churchill Downs grass along with a couple off-the-board finishes in Listed...

With so many roads now leading to Del Mar, traffic may feel pretty slow just now. But we should make a virtue of that, in that our preoccupation with the elite program tends to deny due attention to those achieving their success a tier or so below the very top. After all, such people have typically required no less skill, endeavor and patience, often denied the very highest rewards only through lacking similar parity in resources. Take the breeder of GIII Ontario Derby winner Dresden Row (Lord Nelson), whose emergence...