Girvin

The previous time that he had neared rock bottom, it turned out that Allen Poindexter still had a ways to fall. Fell pretty hard, all the same: kept drinking all the way down from Missouri, in fact he bought a bottle of Dom Perignon after reaching Florida and drank it on a park bench outside the treatment center. Then he went into the bathroom, tripped, hit his head on a lavatory. He'll show you a scar over his eye. In fairness, he lasted the 30 days inside, and afterwards actually...

Airdrie Stud's 2025 stallion roster will be headlined by four young stallions all being offered for a fee of $25,000, according to a press release from Airdrie Friday. The quartet includes breakout freshman sire Complexity. Currently ranked fourth in earnings according to TDN's Sire List, Complexity has three stakes winners--including two graded winners--and five stakes horses from his first crop of 2-year-olds. The 8-year-old stallion joins GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic), as well as Girvin (Tale of Ekati) and Upstart (Flatter), who all come in at the price...

1st-Belmont The Big A, $90,000, Msw, 9-26, 2yo, f, 6 1/2f, 1:16.15, ft, 6 1/4 lengths. STUNNER (f, 2, Girvin--Spun Beauty, by Hard Spun) was made the 4-5 favorite for her Aug. 23 debut at Saratoga, but could do no better than a distant second behind a 'TDN Rising Star' performance from Senza Parole (Gun Runner) while finishing two lengths clear of third-placed Hay Evabody (Mitole). Sent away at 30 cents on the dollar to go one better this time around, the $190,000 Fasig-Tipton October yearling purchase won the break...

Eddie Plesa, Jr. secured his 2,500th career training victory with the 3-year-old gelding Raging Fury at Gulfstream Park Apr. 13. TDN's Senior Racing Editor Steve Sherack caught up with the highly respected 74-year-old conditioner for a wide-ranging interview to discuss the milestone victory, his trip to the 2-year-old sales in Ocala this spring, the future of the sport and much more. TDN: Let's start things off with your milestone victory. What does it mean to you to reach 2,500 wins? EP: When you hit a number like that, you take...

The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company launched an action-packed week of under-tack shows ahead of its Spring 2-year-olds in Training Sale, which will run from Apr. 16 through Apr. 19. A total of eight juveniles--half fillies and half colts--led the way Sunday morning with joint :9 4/5 moves. WinStar's freshman sire Improbable was the only sire to be represented by a pair of session-topping workers--Hip 131, a colt out of I Know That Mom (Distorted Humor) (S G V Thoroughbreds LLC), and Hip 133, a colt out of MSW and MGSP...

It very quickly became clear that the stallions launched in 2019 included an above-average proportion equipped to last the course. And the start being made by their second crop of sophomores has only reiterated that impression. Thanks to the contentious prohibition of his ban by a gaming corporation, GI Arkansas Derby winner Muth is ineligible to give Good Magic a second GI Kentucky Derby from two attempts. (Though the Hill 'n' Dale sire might yet manage that with the same mare who gave him the first one, with Mage's brother...

6th-OP, $115k, Msw, 3yo, f, 1m, 4:18p.m. ET Half-sister to last year's GIII Withers S. winner Hit Show (Candy Ride {Arg}), FLASHY DANCER (Curlin) will be unveiled here for Gary and Mary West. Out of two-time Graded winner Actress (Tapit), who has also produced the winning Hot Rumor (Medaglia d'Oro), the second dam is Canadian champion Milwaukee Appeal (Milwaukee Brew). Riding a healthy work tab and picking up the services of Manny Franco, the morning line has Flashy Dancer tabbed at 8-5 odds. TJCIS PPs 4th-SA, $65k, Msw, 3yo, 6...

As we approach the opening of the 2024 breeding season, the TDN staff is once again sitting down with leading breeders to find out what stallions they have chosen for their mares, and why. Today we caught up with Williams S. Sparks of Monroe, Louisiana. Originally from Arkansas where he grew up attending Oaklawn races with his grandfather, Sparks has assembled a band which reflects his philosophy of breeding to race. "I'm really deeply committed to breeding a sound racehorse who is going to do what they do best--run," said...

Now we're really entering nosebleed altitudes for most breeders, between $30,000 and $50,000: a zone where you should feel that you're improving the odds of coming up with an elite horse. It tells you a lot about our business that the majority of the two dozen stallions operating at this level can only do so because they have yet to send a single runner into the starting gate. A quarter of these we immediately set to one side, as absolute beginners, because those received separate consideration in the opening instalment...

Girvin (Tale of Ekati), the sire of three graded stakes winners including Grade I winner Faiza, and Upstart (Flatter), the sire of GI Toyota Blue Grass S. winner Zandon, will both stand for a stud fee of $30,000 at Airdrie Farm in Midway, Kentucky, for the 2024 season, Airdrie announced Wednesday. "We couldn't be looking more forward to the 2024 season as we continue to build momentum in our stallion barn," said Airdrie's Bret Jones. "We believe we have two very special stallions in Girvin and Upstart headlining our roster...

4th-Presque Isle Downs, $49,500, Hcp, 9-18, 3yo/up, 6f (AWT), 1:08.72, ft, 1 1/2 lengths. CLOSETHEGAME SUGAR (g, 3, Girvin--Casual Cocktail, by Magna Graduate), a debut winner in a single start at two sprinting on the turf at Saratoga, was narrowly beaten in this track's Tom Ridge S. on his seasonal return June 5. The Brereton Jones-bred registered a 19-1 upset of the Aug. 13 Mahony S. at the Spa and was backing up quickly off a fourth in the GII Franklin-Stamps S. at Kentucky Downs Sept. 9. Favored at 19-10...

1st-SAR, $136k, Msw, 2yo, f, 1 1/16mT, 1:10 p.m. ET The Niarchos Family's Flaxman Holdings went to $1.3 million for GI Jenny Wiley S. heroine Daisy Devine (Kafwain) at the 2013 Keeneland November Sale, and her daughter CARINA NEBULA (Into Mischief) gets her first taste of the races Sunday. The versatile dam, who also won the 2011 GII Fair Grounds Oaks, is a 100% producer from five to the races, and Carina Nebula makes the trip up from Fair Hill, where she most recently breezed five furlongs over the all-weather...