Frizette 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...

What a way to tally a first career graded stakes. Both trainer Jorge Abreu and his charge, who entered Saturday with only a third-place finish under her girth, broke their graded maiden with a runaway score in the GI Frizette Stakes at Belmont at the Big A. Now Abreu and Scottish Lassie (f, 2, McKinzie--Bodebabe, by Bodemeister) have earned a fees-paid berth to the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies in four weeks. Abreu, a former assistant to Chad Brown, brought a longshot filly to the Juvenile Fillies last year and...

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...

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...

Stonestreet Stable's Emery (More Than Ready), whose lone career loss to date came when fourth in the GI Frizette Stakes at Aqueduct last October, returns to the New York oval as the 6-5 morning-line favorite in the GIII Victory Ride Stakes Thursday. The 6 1/2-furlong race with a field of five is the lone graded event on tap for the holiday. Trained by Brad Cox, Emery was a first-out winner at Saratoga last August before finishing some five lengths adrift of champion Just F Y I (Justify) in the Frizette....

When the Fasig-Tipton July Sale of Selected Yearlings catalogue came out, Tony Ocampo admitted it was exciting to see Grade I winner Chocolate Gelato (Practical Joke), a graduate of his Rose Hill Farm, on the cover. It was not until a few weeks later, when the Fasig-Tipton July Selected Horses of Race Age Sale catalogue came out with Stilleto Boy (Shackleford) on the cover, that Ocampo realized the operation had completed a rare double. "I didn't know it was going to happen," Ocampo said. "The yearling catalogue came out earlier...

There have been other impressive performances turned in by 2-year-old fillies in recent weeks (namely Hidden Connection {Connect}  in the GIII Pocahontas S. and Ain't Easy {Into Mischief} in the GII FrontRunner S.), but 'TDN Rising Star' Echo Zulu (Gun Runner) reaffirmed her spot at the top of the division Sunday as she blew away her competition in Belmont's GI Frizette S., a "Win and You're In" qualifier for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Nov. 5 at Del Mar. The L and N Racing and Winchell Thoroughbreds colorbearer was...

Undefeated Echo Zulu (Gun Runner) looks to maintain her position at the top of her division as the headliner in Sunday's GI Frizette S. at Belmont, a "Win and You're In" for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar next month. The bay earned the 'TDN Rising Star' nod and a 92 Beyer Speed Figure for her impressive 5 1/2-length graduation on debut going 5 1/2 panels at Saratoga July 15. She became the first top-level scorer for her leading freshman sire next out when running the field...

Dayoutoftheoffice (Into Mischief), away since a smashing success in the GIII Schuylerville S. at Saratoga July 16, picked up right where she left off to earn an automatic berth to the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies in Saturday's GI Frizette S. at Belmont. Co-owned by her trainer Tim Hamm and breeder Siena Farms, the daughter of the nation's hottest stallion was an easy debut winner at Gulfstream all the way back on May 14 in her only other start. Back as the second choice at 29-10 behind GI Spinaway S....

Vequist (Nyquist) was ultra-impressive when earning her diploma in the GI Spinaway S. Sept. 6 and looks to replicate that performance at Belmont Saturday in the GI Frizette S., which grants the winner a spot in the gate for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. Missing by just a nose in her 4 1/2-panel unveiling at Parx July 29, the dark bay graduated in style with a dominant 9 1/2-length success in Saratoga's Spinaway. "She has to confirm it; anybody can do it once," Butch Reid said. "You have to...