Hopeful Stakes

'TDN Rising Star' Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie) ran by them all to remain unbeaten and provide his freshman sire with a rolling Grade I double in Saturday's 'Win and You're In' GI Champagne Stakes at the Belmont at the Big A meeting. McKinzie's Scottish Lassie, a debut third as the favorite at Saratoga, broke her maiden in style with a runaway success in the GI Frizette Stakes one race earlier on the card. Favored at 1-2, Chancer McPatrick broke like a shot from his outside draw--not the case in either of...

John Kimmel had $25,000, and wanted an Exclusive Native filly. But he had to pass up his first choice, at Fasig-Tipton in 1978, after she went to $32,000. She turned out to be Genuine Risk. A first experience to put most people off, right? Kimmel gives a wry chuckle and shakes his head. "I'd have been ruined," he says. "I was a sophomore in vet school. Can you imagine? I'd have been wrecked." As it was, he had proved his eye. He continued absorbing the bittersweet lessons routinely dispensed by...

It's easier to identify the phenomenon of a broodmare sire than to account for it. But we certainly have a modern marvel of the genre in Bernardini, whose posthumous consolidation of what had been an exceptionally precocious emergence in this sphere reached a fresh peak as the Saratoga summer drew to a close. On Saturday, one of his daughters produced Immersive (Nyquist) to win the GI Spinaway Stakes; and on Monday another Bernardini mare gave us Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie) to achieve a reciprocal status among the crop's colts in the...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Without hesitation Sunday morning, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said he knows what he will be doing Monday, his 89th birthday. "Training horses," he said. "I got two in, and I'll see if I can make it a special day by trying to get those things at least closer or win one. I told Laurie, my wife, 'for a birthday present, I'd like see one of them jump up and win.'" A victory on closing day of the Saratoga Race Course season would enable...

The holiday weekend of stakes action--and the Saratoga meet--conclude in style when morning-line favorite Ferocious (Flatter) faces eight rivals in contentious renewal of the GI Hopeful Stakes. Campaigned by JR Ranch, Ramiro Restrepo, High Step Racing and OGMA Investments, the $1.3-million OBS March graduate romped to a 7 3/4-length debut win and earned a 'TDN Rising Star' label Aug. 3. Off a step slow in that unveiling, Ferocious settled in a good stalking position behind an opening quarter-mile in :22.06 over a muddy and sealed main track. Tipped out to...

Sierra Leone (Gun Runner), who rallied from last to finish second behind Fierceness (City of Light) in the GII Jim Dandy Stakes Saturday, will continue on to the Aug. 24 GI DraftKings Travers Stakes, trainer Chad Brown confirmed Sunday. "I thought he ran great. He put in a really good performance," Brown said of his charge's Jim Dandy effort. "He's come out of it well, so we'll move forward and point to the Travers. We're looking forward to getting back out to a mile and a quarter." Sierra Leone won...

Multiple Grade I-placed Reinvestment Risk (Upstart--Ridingwiththedevil, by Candy Ride {Arg}) has been acquired to stand stud at Rising Sun Farm in Portmore, Jamaica, Schumer Bloodstock reported Monday. The 5-year-old was second behind future champion Jackie's Warrior in the 2020 GI Hopeful S. and GI Champagne S. In 2022, he was second in the GI Carter H. and GI Churchill Downs S. On the board in seven of 10 starts, Reinvestment Risk won twice and earned $415,980. Reinvestment Risk will stand alongside 2014 GIII Sham S. winner Midnight Hawk (Midnight Lute)...

In response to comments from Forte's connections on a conference call last Thursday, May 11 accusing the New York State Gaming Commission of unprofessional handling of the Forte meloxicam overage in the Sept. 5, 2022 Hopeful Stakes, the commission's spokesman, Brad Maione, has issued a timeline of the eight months between the positive test and the stewards' hearing to discuss the results. At that hearing May 10, Forte was disqualified from the Hopeful Stakes win, Todd Pletcher was fined $1,000 and suspended for 10 days. The connections said they would...

The three New York stewards met with Trainer Todd Pletcher and his representation Wednesday "regarding an alleged medication violation of a horse that raced in New York on September 5, 2022," according to Brad Maione, Director of Communications for the New York State Gaming Commission. Maione was answering an email request from the TDN for information on the meeting. "In this case, the matter likely would have been adjudicated months ago but for the repeated procedural delays sought by the trainer's counsel," Maione wrote. According to a report in Tuesday...

The New York Times is reporting that Forte (Violence), the Kentucky Derby favorite who was scratched on the morning of the race with a bruised right front hoof, failed a drug test after his win in last September's Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga. Forte won the Hopeful by three lengths over a muddy track at odds of 6-1. In a story published Tuesday just after 7 p.m., the Times writes, "Shortly after leaving the winner's circle, however, Forte was given a post-race drug test, which he failed but has yet to...

Making his fifth career start and his first in Group 1 company in Wednesday's G1 Hopeful S. at Nakayama, Dura Erede (Jpn) parlayed a close fourth-place finish last out in the G2 Tokyo Sports Hai Nisai S. on Nov. 19 to claim victory at odds of 89-1 by a nose over 17-1 outsider and pacesetter Top Knife (Jpn). The colt received a stalking trip to the outside of the frontrunner for the first mile before reaching even terms with his leading rival at the top of the stretch. After falling...

After a youth spent around horses, Amy Moore took a three-decade long sabbatical from the sport to focus on a career in law, but she is making up for lost time with the launch of her South Gate Farm in Millwood, Virginia. The fledgling operation has a star-in-the-making in 'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence), who goes postward in Monday's GI Hopeful S. at Saratoga, and will follow up the following Monday when that colt's half-brother by Uncle Mo (hip 11) goes through the sales ring during the first session of...