GI Champagne S.

If it stays like this, a single maiden winner might settle it. Because all that separates McKinzie ($2,294,679) from current leader Tiz the Law ($2,339,575) in the freshman table is $44,896. But wait, there's more. McKinzie isn't even second. Between the pair lurks Vekoma ($2,306,457), ensuring a desperate three-way contest for the prized laurels of champion first-season sire. It's even closer than this time last year, when four stallions were divided by barely $200,000. In the end, Mitole actually extended his lead down the stretch. But the fact that the...

Timberlake (Into Mischief), a 'TDN Rising Star' and Grade I winner at two, will stand the upcoming breeding season at WinStar Farm and his stud fee will be set at $20,000 S&N, according to a press release from the company on Thursday morning. "Being an attractive and imposing son of top sire Into Mischief, Timberlake showed tremendous precocity in winning the GI Champagne and being second in the GI Hopeful at two," said David Hanley, senior vice president/bloodstock services for WinStar Farm. "With his exceptional physical and his unique depth...

After his racing career is complete this year, Blazing Sevens (Good Magic), the winner of the GI Champagne Stakes at two and the runner-up in the GI Preakness Stakes, will stand at Darby Dan for 2025, the farm said via a press release on Thursday. A stud fee for the 'TDN Rising Star' and future stallion will be named before the year is out and plans are being finalized syndicate him. Peter Bradley, bloodstock advisor for owner Rodeo Creek Racing, brokered the deal to stand the son of Good Magic...

Verifying (Justify--Diva Delite, by Repent), winner of the GIII Indiana Derby and a half-brother to Eclipse winner Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute), will stand at Pleasant Acres Stallions in Florida for an introductory fee of $10,000 in 2024. Trained by Brad Cox after selling for $775,000 as a KEESEP yearling, Verifying began his career at two with a win in his first asking at Saratoga before placing in the GI Champagne S. at Belmont at the Big A in his second start. In addition to winning the Indiana Derby, he placed...

The parade of graded stakes races this Saturday is like a Christmas tree laden with presents. Towards the end of the celebration, as the wadded paper congregates, there will be a customary wistfulness that slowly sets in. We never want it to end. With 17, yes 17, graded races on the docket--nine of those have Breeders' Cup 'Win and You're In' status--it is going to be a splendid day to receive as Belmont at the Big A, Keeneland Race Course, Woodbine Racetrack, Gulfstream Park, Hastings Racecourse and Santa Anita Park...

After Jack Christopher (Munnings) romped in the GI Champagne S. at Belmont Park last year, his connections were optimistic that the horse had the talent to get them to the winner's circle at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May. That happened, just not the way anyone had planned. Not ready for the GI Kentucky Derby after seven-month layoff, Jack Christopher ran instead in the GII Pat Day Mile S., which he won by 3 3/4 lengths. While the victory was somewhat of a consolation prize, it set the...

Green Light Go (h, 5, Hard Spun--Light Green, by Pleasantly Perfect), winner of the 2019 GII Saratoga Special S. and runner-up in that term's GI Champagne S., was euthanized after breaking the sesamoid bone in his right foreleg during a workout Friday morning over the Belmont Park training track, according to Daily Racing Form's David Grening. "It looked like he was just cruising," trainer Jimmy Jerkens told DRF. The Stronach Stables runner was preparing for a start May 7 in the GIII Westchester S. at Belmont Park following a fourth-place...

  "He was one of those horses that there was a buzz about before he ever stepped foot on a racetrack," Airdrie Stud's Bret Jones said of their new addition, Grade I-winning 'TDN Rising Star' Complexity (Maclean's Music--Goldfield, Yes It's True). A Stonestreet-bred half-brother to a Breeders' Cup runner-up and a $375,000 KEESEP yearling purchase by Mike Ryan, Complexity was the talk of the Saratoga backstretch in the summer of his juvenile season. Horseplayers anticipated the Chad Brown pupil's unveiling after a stretch of speedy breezes, including a five-furlong move...