Hard Spun

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...

Caddo River (Hard Spun), a promising runner-up in a live-looking maiden race last out, went to the front and widened throughout for a dominant, 'TDN Rising Star'-worthy graduation Sunday at Churchill. Second on debut Sept. 5 at Saratoga, he filled the same slot after dueling on a scorching pace Oct. 11 at Belmont and was pounded down to 3-10 to break through stretching out to a mile here. Away in good order, the homebred made the lead on his own power and dictated terms through sharp splits of :22.38 and...

Bob and Sue Donaldson's Spun to Run (Hard Spun--Yawkey Way, by Grand Slam), last year's clear-cut winner of the GI Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, has been retired from racing. The Juan Carlos Guerrero trainee blossomed in the second half of his sophomore season in 2019, finishing third in the GI Haskell Invitational S. behind eventual Maximum Security (New Year's Day) in July before annexing the GIII Smarty Jones S. over a pair of next-out winners. He earned a gaudy 110 Beyer Speed Figure two starts later when...

PRICEY HARD SPUN FILLY DEBUTS AT ELLIS 8th-ELP, $37K, Msw, 3yo/up, 6f, 5:10p.m. Susan Moulton's $560,000 KEESEP buy SARAH JOE (Hard Spun) makes her career bow in this test. Her unraced dam Castilla (Afleet Alex) is a half to MGISW Spain (Thunder Gulch), who is the dam of GSW & GISP Plan (Storm Cat). This is also the family of MG1SW Pleascach (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}). TJCIS PPs

NEWMARKET, UK—Thunder is indeed expected in Newmarket as the scorching hot snap comes to an end but it appeared early at Tattersalls on Thursday when Darley's up-and-coming sire Night Of Thunder (Ire) was represented by the leading juvenile, at 575,000gns, of the Craven Breeze-up Sale. With Jane Chapple-Hyam one of the early determined bidders, the bragging rights eventually went to Tom Biggs of Blandford Bloodstock, who played the winning shot in a game of ping-pong in the seats between himself and underbidder Mark McStay. Johnny Collins of Brown Island Stables...