Gamine

It had looked as though she had missed her cue. If the notoriously random behaviors of the Thoroughbred were really governed by some benign destiny, Ce Ce (Elusive Quality) would surely have recognized her prompt last year in the Grade I race named for the father of her owner-breeder Bo Hirsch. As it was, she was jostled leaving the gate in the Clement L. Hirsch S., took a wide trip and had to make do with third. So there you had it. We couldn't deceive ourselves that anybody up there...

DEL MAR, CA - With all eyes on defending champion and 2-5 favorite Gamine (Into Mischief) and star 3-year-old Bella Sofia (Awesome Patriot), it was Ce Ce (Elusive Quality) who came rolling over the top in the stretch to upend Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint at Del Mar. Last year's Filly & Mare Sprint heroine Gamine, looking to become only the second two-time winner of the race following Groupie Doll (Bowman's Band), went to the front, as expected, and was shadowed by GI Longines Test S. heroine...

The TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland produced its third annual comprehensive Breeders' Cup preview show Wednesday, analyzing and handicapping all 14 World Championships races in depth, and welcomed trainer Wesley Ward later as the Green Group Guest of the Week to discuss his five combined Breeders' Cup starters in the GI Turf Sprint and GII Juvenile Turf Sprint and future goals for his barn. Asked whether he's happy with the niche he's carved out for himself as mainly an elite 2-year-old and turf sprint trainer or if he has...

The genius of the Breeders' Cup is the way it brings together the two ancillary channels of investment that offer a Thoroughbred racehorse such viability as it may have: from the bloodstock industry, on the one hand; and fans and handicappers, on the other. So far as the first group are concerned, it might be overstating things to say that the GI Kentucky Derby would not lose a single runner if they only ran for that blanket of roses. But it's certainly true that the values of the bloodstock market...

For the sake of being entirely accurate, which would help members of the press and public who aren't close followers of racing, I think it is important to clarify that Bob Baffert's positive tests have all been for overages of permitted medications not for banned substances. I think it is an important point to make, as it is not the same as what Jason Servis was using. Also, the positive test for Gamine in the Oaks was within the rules--she received the Beta Vet 18 days before the race, which...

Lloyd Madison Farms IV LLC's homebred filly Sconsin (Include) is on track for a second straight appearance in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint following her tough, half-length defeat of Bell's the One (Majesticperfection) in Saturday's Open Mind S. on the Downs After Dark program at Churchill. A pace-compromised fourth, just a half-length behind Bell's the One, in last year's Filly & Mare Sprint at Keeneland, Sconsin was winning for the second time in six starts this term, having taken the course-and-distance GIII Winning Colors S. by 3...

Everything that top-class racing should be was on display over the last weekend. The six Grade l races at Saratoga on Saturday featured most of the leading horses in each division except older dirt males, and as a group they didn't disappoint, did they? Nor did their trainers. One race after another was dramatically decided at or close to the wire, and some of the runners-ups, including the Steve Asmussen-trained Midnight Bourbon (Tiznow) in the Gl Runhappy Travers S. and the Todd Pletcher-conditioned Life is Good (Into Mischief) in the...

Gamine kicked off the Grade I action at Saratoga Saturday with a front-running score in the GI Ballerina H. Away alertly from her rail draw, the heavy favorite went straight to the front and was pushed along by Estilo Talentoso (Maclean's Music) through an opening quarter in :23.20 and a half in :45.68 with Lake Avenue in tow. Showing the way into the lane, the bay filly was kept to task by pilot John Velazquez, drawing clear for a facile victory. Lake Avenue held second and fellow California raider Cece...

Michael Lund Petersen's Gamine (Into Mischief), last year's Eclipse champion female sprinter, aims for her fifth straight victory in the GI Ketel One Ballerina S.--a Win and You're In event for the GI Breeders' Cup F/M Sprint--at Saratoga Saturday. Gamine capped her championship campaign with a 6 1/4-length romp in last year's F/M Sprint and she has been largely unchallenged in three starts so far this term. The bay filly opened 2021 with a five-length score in the Apr. 4 GIII Las Flores S. and added the May 1 GI...

Last year's GI Breeders' Cup F/M Sprint winner and Eclipse champion Gamine (Into Mischief) looms large in Monday's GII Great Lady M S. at Los Alamitos. The Bob Baffert-trained 'TDN Rising Star' has been perfect in two tries this year--she bested stablemate Qahira (Cairo Prince) by five lengths in Santa Anita's GIII Las Flores S. Apr. 4, and was a facile winner of the GI Derby City Distaff at Churchill May 1 ahead of three next-out stakes winners. The $1.8-million Fasig-Tipton Midlantic topper figures to be extremely tough to beat...

The week between the GI Kentucky Derby and the GI Preakness S. is typically a quiet one, and this year the racing industry was basking in the glow of an exciting and safe Derby headlined by a feel-good story: Medina Spirit (Protonico), a hard-battling underdog any average joe could have purchased at public auction as a $1,000 yearling, had unexpectedly won the Run for the Roses under the care of seven-time Derby-winning trainer Bob Baffert, and was heading to Baltimore as a likeable overachiever trying to win the second jewel...

Bob Baffert told the media Sunday morning at Churchill Downs that his stable has been informed by the Kentucky Racing Commission that GI Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit (Protonico) tested positive for the medication betamethasone in post-race tests conducted after the Derby. In a 13-minute press conference (video) at his barn on the Churchill Downs backstretch Baffert, denied any wrongdoing. "All I can tell you is that betamethasone is an allowed therapeutic medication, but we did not give it to this horse," Baffert said. "In fact, Medina Spirit has never...