Gun Song

DEL MAR, California--In Saturday's GI Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Del Mar, the Europeans come to town riding a five-year win streak having taken the hardware and the bragging rights with thanks. Yet, lest we forget that this is horse racing on the turf and that means even the most deserving favorites can be vulnerable. To put it in sports betting terms, the Filly & Mare Turf could be deemed what we call a 'trap game' in the business. That means a seemingly stronger opponent underestimates...

Nobody should have been to surprised when Tarifa (Bernardini) won Saturday's GII Mother Goose S. at the Belmont at the Big A meet, turning the tables on the favored Gun Song (Gun Runner). The same goes for Saturday's GII Fayette S. at Keeneland, won by the Cox-trained Hit Show (Candy Ride {Arg}). Starting one month ago, on Sept. 27, he's been on a tear, winning 12 of the 17 (70 % percent) stakes races he has entered in. Overall, Cox is 20-for-63 (32%) for the month of October. He ran...

There was a time, not that long ago, when the Mother Goose Stakes was one of the most prestigious Grade I summer targets for sophomore fillies in North America. It may be a Grade II now late in the season while the division leaders wait another week for the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff, but Godolphin homebred and 'TDN Rising Star' Tarifa (f, 3 Bernardini--Kite Beach, by Awesome Again) did her part to honor that former glory at the Belmont at Aqueduct meet with an extremely game and tenacious victory as...

With less than a week until the Breeders' Cup World Championships, you can pregame with a bevy of graded stakes races across three tracks and two types of surfaces on Saturday. Heading up to the Belmont At The Big A meet, the New York Racing Association has carded a trio of graded contests. Chief among them is the GII Mother Goose Stakes for 3-year-old fillies going nine furlongs on the dirt. At first glance, this appears to be a street fight between the pair that ran second and third to...

BENSALEM, PA -- The look of sheer relief on the face of trainer Ken McPeek pretty much said it all. Sent off the long odds-on pop and with the bullseye squarely on her back in Saturday's $1-million GI Cotillion Stakes at Parx Racing, 'TDN Rising Star' Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) was forced into a perilous trip and found herself locked away for the better part of the opening seven furlongs, but the great ones find a way to win when the chips are down and she clawed her way past...

Trainer Chad Brown has long stated that a victory in the GI Travers S., not far from home in Mechanicville, would be one of the crowning moments of what will be a Hall of Fame career. 'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) is the barn's main hope for the centerpiece of the Saratoga meeting and he can take one giant step towards fulfilling his trainer's dream as the likely favorite in Saturday's GII Jim Dandy Stakes. The colt, who topped the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale not far from the...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY -- It sounds a little like a fairy tale. A fire-breathing creature descending on several unsuspecting ladies in search of a prized acorn. In this story, however, the role of the fearsome creature is played by GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna), who while not grotesque, gives eight other GI Acorn S. rivals cause for concern nonetheless. "The boys are lucky she is not running," said trainer Kenny McPeek with a chuckle. "I mean she's good." After an emphatic win at Keeneland last October, she...

BALTIMORE, MD -- On a day where the track was proving kind to front-runners, Gun Song (Gun Runner) benefitted from a text-book ride by Hall of Famer John Velazquez to give Mark Hennig a win for longtime client Lee Lewis in Pimlico's Friday feature, the GII George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan S. The 14-race card concluded with record handle of $28.4 million, up from $28.2 million one year ago. Breaking slightly inward from post 5, the chestnut cruised into contention, positioning herself on the flank of 18-1 shot Jeanne Marie...