Hard Spun

Whatever Hard Not to Love (Hard Spun - Loving Vindication, by Vindication) may have lost with the absence of one eye, she gained with the loyal following that developed over her career as she won the hearts of racing fans and earned the respect of the racing community. "She was special because she dealt with a problem that I knew she was thinking about and I knew was on her mind, but she had the class and the style and the substance to fight through the issue," said Terry Finley,...

DEL MAR, CA - Aloha West (Hard Spun) rocketed down the Del Mar stretch to just nail Dr. Schivel (Violence) by a painful nose in an absolutely thrilling renewal of Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Sprint. Shuffled between runners and outsprinted toward the back of the pack in seventh as heavily favored star sophomore Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) was hounded through fractions of :21.91 and :44.11, Aloha West was ready to pounce in sixth as they approached the top of the stretch. The 1-2 favorite was the first to blink as...

Darley America will have two major new additions to its stallion roster for 2022 as GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile and GI Belmont S. winner Essential Quality (Tapit--Delightful Quality, by Elusive Quality) and fellow Grade I winner Maxfield (Street Sense--Velvety, by Bernardini) are set to retire to Jonabell after their final starts. "To have both Essential Quality and Maxfield coming to Jonabell is as exciting as it gets. And to have accomplished what they did as homebreds in the colors of Godolphin makes it even that much more meaningful," said Darley...

Claiborne Farm has acquired the breeding rights to multiple graded stakes winner Silver State (Hard Spun--Supreme, by Empire Maker). He will stand at the Paris, Ky., farm upon his retirement from racing. The 4-year-old son of Hard Spun has won seven of 13 career starts, hitting the board in 12 of those starts, and has made over $1.9 million. In 2021 alone, he is 4-1-1 from six starts and has made over $1.6 million. "We are very excited to stand Silver State in 2022," said Claiborne's Walker Hancock. "Danzig is...

If his most important legacy to our community was the example of his own conduct, it was nonetheless apt that a more tangible bequest made by Rick Porter to the breed itself was measured afresh even as he left us. For while the owner of Fox Hill Farms devoted more attention to the welfare of those horses that had failed to extend their usefulness, into a breeding program, he also measured out for our benefit some precious genetic ore--none deeper than that mined by the winner of the GI Hill...

One of the most successful and respected owners of his era, Rick Porter died on June 6 after a long battle with cancer. He was 80 years old. He campaigned three Eclipse Award winners: Kodiak Kowboy (2009 sprinter); Songbird (2015 2-year-old filly and 2016 3-year-old filly) and Havre de Grace (2011 older mare and Horse of the Year). Before he was an owner, Porter was a racing fan. He was born in Wilmington, Delaware and began accompanying his parents to Delaware Park as a child where his father made $2...

When Mario Pino began riding way back in 1977, he figured he'd stick around for a few years and then go off and do something else. Weight was an issue and he wasn't sure that he had the desire to keep grinding away. Forty-four years later, Pino, 59, resumed his career last week at Gulfstream and is determined to plug away until he gets his 7,000th win. He needs 39 more winners to reach that milestone, something only nine jockeys have ever achieved. "I'm just 39 away and that's why...

Danon Smash (Jpn) finally broke through at the highest level in Japan with a neck defeat of boom mare Resistencia (Jpn) (Daiwa Major {Jpn}) in Chukyo's G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen on Sunday.  The Danox Inc. colourbearer followed in his sire's hoofprints, who captured the 1200-metre grass feature in 2013. Sent off at 5-1, the Takayuki Yasuda trainee assumed position off the fence near the back of the field as the 2020 Takamatsunomiya Kinen winner Mozu Superflare (Speightstown) rocketed straight to the front. That rival remained glued to the fence and set...

Gainesway freshman sires McKinzie (Street Sense) and Spun to Run (Hard Spun), winner of the 2019 GI Breeders Cup Dirt Mile, have their first mares confirmed mares in foal. McKinzie, a four-time Grade I winner, won graded stakes from age two through five, including the GI Los Alamitos Futurity, GI Pennsylvania Derby, GI Whitney S. and GI Malibu S. In addition to a Breeders' Cup win, Spun to Run also annexed the GIII Smarty Jones S. and was runner up in the GI Cigar Mile and third in the GI...

So here we are at last, rounding the home turn. This series has unfolded in familiar fashion, with an initial stampede of unproven young stallions progressively thinned out by the impatience of a commercial sector operating in ever decreasing cycles. Today we finish with a selection from those admirable stallions who have survived the ruthless attrition, and created a viable niche at various levels of the market. The odds they have overcome, to get here, are such that the long-term health of the breed is clearly being treated as something...

Caddo River (Hard Spun) made good on his 'TDN Rising Star'-worthy graduation at third asking with a facile first stakes score in Oaklawn's Smarty Jones S., good for 10 points on the Road to the GI Kentucky Derby. Away well from his outside post, the 3-5 chalk seized the early advantage and clocked an unpressured opening quarter in :23.12 and a half in :47.16. Extending clear with ease on the backstretch run, the bay rolled home the easiest of winners under a hand ride from Florent Geroux. Caddo River was...

In just its first 14 years of running, the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile has emerged as a stallion-making race and in recent years, its winners are making top headlines as they kick off their stud careers. Goldencents (Into Mischief), winner of both the 2013 and 2014 edition, now leads his class of third-crop sires. The following year's winner, Liam's Map (Unbridled's Song), is already a two-time Grade I producer with his first crop of 3-year-olds while 2016 champion Tamarkuz (Speightstown) now has a Grade III winner in his first...