GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile

1st-BAQ, $95k, OC/N2X, 3yo/up, 7f, 12:10p.m. ET LOCKED (Gun Runner) will make his return to the races here after not being seen since suffering a knee injury which knocked him off the Triple Crown trail this past spring. Racing with first-time Lasix, and made the 4-5 morning line favorite, he's been working steadily over the Saratoga training track with two of his last three moves being bullet efforts. Last year's GI Breeders' Futurity winner and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile third will have John Velazquez in the irons. TJCIS PPs 3rd-KEE,...

It's well-known around the racetrack that a good horse can come from anywhere. Saturday's eighth race at Saratoga, a seven-furlong maiden special weight race run on the dirt, featured a field of nine. No surprise that eight of the starters were bred in Kentucky. The only one that wasn't was Dapper Moon (Malibu Moon), a Louisiana-bred. But he had no problem conquering his fashionably-bred rivals from the Blue Grass State, winning the race by five lengths for trainer Dallas Stewart and owner Murray Valene. "He doesn't know where he was...

Fierceness (City of Light), the beaten favorite in the GI Kentucky Derby, is scheduled to make his next start in the GI Belmont S. on June 8 in Saratoga. "He has settled in well and we are pointing to the Belmont," trainer Todd Pletcher said in a text. Sent off at 3-1, Fierceness finished 15th, beaten 24 1/2 lengths in the Derby. When asked if his colt had any excuses in the Derby, Pletcher replied: "Perhaps too close to a fast pace? Stuck a little wide on both turns?" Following...

Kentucky Senator Henry Clay might be considered one of the premier American politicians pre-Lincoln, but what is not up for debate was his fervent commitment to breeding equine athletes and attending the races. You cannot actually visit his home--Ashland--because the structure that stands on the Clay Estate just south of downtown Lexington is not original to "The Great Compromiser" and his time. However, interpretations of Clay-related objects enliven the tour. Ashland in name was imported as a stakes race when Keeneland opened in 1936. Some familiar female runners who graced...

Unbeaten 'TDN Rising Star' Cave Rock (Arrogate) led home a one-two-three-four finish for Hall of Famer Bob Baffert in Saturday's 'Win and You're In' GI American Pharoah S. at Santa Anita. It was the 11th winner for Baffert in the race named in honor of his 2015 Triple Crown winner. The eye-catching last-out GI Del Mar Futurity winner, off as the 2-5 favorite here, went straight to the front in this two-turn debut, led comfortably through fractions of :22.96 and :46.82 and seemed to play possum a bit on the...

Rattle N Roll (Connect) provided his first-crop sire with a first Grade I win, and potentially a Breeders' Cup-bound colt to go along with his promising filly Hidden Connection, as he powered away to an impressive score in Saturday's 'Win and You're In' GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland. A three-length, third-out, two-turn maiden winner at Churchill Sept. 23, the 8-1 shot stumbled slightly at the start and sat a midpack trip while saving ground as favored Classic Causeway (Giant's Causeway) cleared from his wide draw through fractions of :22.81...