Idiomatic

When the TDN staff decided to make Patch Adams (Into Mischief) and Chasten (Into Mischief) 'TDN Rising Stars' after their maiden wins Saturday at Churchill Downs history was made by trainer Brad Cox. Never before has a trainer had two Rising Stars on the same day. Both were obvious choices. Patch Adams ran away from his competition to win by 10 lengths. Chasten, a winner by 1 ½ lengths, wasn't quite as impressive, but that she is half-sister to 2023 Older Filly & Mare Champion Idiomatic (Curlin) obviously swayed the...

Saturday's program at Churchill Downs is meant to showcase the 'Stars of Tomorrow' and Juddmonte's bred-in-the-purple Chasten (f, 2, Into Mischief--Lockdown, by First Defence) shaped as just that, as she did her best work through the line to score by a widening margin and earn the 'TDN Rising Star' badge. The half-sister to champion Idiomatic (Curlin), MGISW, $3,944,190, appeared to get bounced around at the break of the seven-furlong contest and was clearly last early before making progress and improving a spot or two down the backstretch. Asked to come...

1st-CD, 120K, Msw, 2yo, f, 7f, 1:00 p.m. The half-sister to Eclipse Champion older dirt female and MGISW Idiomatic (Curlin), CHASTEN (Into Mischief) debuts in the opener at Churchill Saturday for owner/breeder Juddmonte and trainer Brad Cox. Out of SW and MGISP Lockdown, the 2-year-old filly is the third filly out of a full-sister to Champion older mare Close Hatches who has been just as successful in her second career, producing MGSW/MGISP Tacitus (Tapit), MGSW/MGISP Scylla (Tapit) and GSW Batten Down (Tapit). The family also includes G1 Tattersalls Irish Two...

With her convincing victory in Saturday's GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff at Del Mar, 'TDN Rising Star' Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) displaced fellow 'Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light) atop the final National Thoroughbred Racing Association Top Thoroughbred Poll for 2024. The Ken McPeek-trained filly, who received 26 of a possible 30 first-place votes, should be a unanimous choice for champion 3-year-old filly and cemented her case for Horse of the Year with her front-running, 2 1/2-length defeat of Raging Sea (Curlin) in the Distaff, and combined with Fierceness's runner-up...

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 are people that work with horses and there are people that love horses. In the case of Katie Tolbert, there is no better example of a person that works with horses because of how much she loves them. You see the devotion on a quiet morning on the backside of Churchill Downs as she sits in the saddle, stroking the neck of the horse she is astride or is ponying alongside her. You hear it in the echo of a nicker from an excited trainee, eager for her company,...

Eclipse Champion Idiomatic (Curlin--Lockdown, by First Defence) was found to be lame in her left knee Friday morning with an issue that should heal readily, according to a Juddmonte Farms press release early Friday. The homebred has been ruled out for the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff where she was set to take on MGISW Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna). Juddmonte has decided to retire the 5-year-old mare to the breeding shed. This is the first time she has been sidelined over the course of three seasons of racing. Idiomatic won...

Bolstered by a record 80 entries from the connections of horses based overseas--smashing the previous mark of 60 set just last year--some 212 horses have been pre-entered for the 2024 Breeders' Cup World Championships to be held Friday and Saturday, Nov. 1 and 2. For the third time, the festival will take place at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, which hosted the event for the first time in 2017 and again in 2021. "The record number of outstanding international contenders pre-entered this year speaks to the truly global nature of...

With the Del Mar Breeders' Cup officially less than two weeks away, trainer Chad Brown is continuing to oversee his string's preparations at Belmont Park, while the accomplished MGISW Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) puts in her final works for conditioner Ken McPeek upstate at Saratoga. Over the training surface in Elmont, Brown sent out two juveniles for half-mile works in 'TDN Rising Star' Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie) [:48.01] and Zulu Kingdom (Ire) (Ten Sovereigns {Ire}) [:48.63], who are targeting the GI FanDuel Breeders' Cup Juvenile and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf,...

Idiomatic (Curlin), the defending Eclipse champion older mare, capped a big day for Juddmonte Farms with a wire-to-wire victory in the GI Juddmonte Spinster Stakes at Keeneland Sunday. Hours after Bluestocking (GB) (Camelot {GB}) gave the operation its record seventh victory in the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Idiomatic was sent off the 1-5 favorite in the Spinster, a Win and You're In event for the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff. The bay mare broke alertly and was soon at the head of affairs while pressed by Candied (Candy Ride...

Continuing an important weekend as next month's Breeders' Cup World Championships rapidly approach, Keeneland's GI Juddmonte Spinster Stakes headlines Sunday's graded stakes action spanning from coast to coast. A 'Win and You're In' for the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff, the Spinster has six contenders signed on, including last season's champion older mare Idiomatic (Curlin), who draws the rail under regular pilot Florent Geroux. The winner of a trio of Grade I stakes in 2023--capped off by the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Santa Anita--the Juddmonte homebred has proven consistent at...

Fresh off his gutsy win in the inaugural GI California Crown Stakes Saturday, Subsanador (Arg) (Fortify) jumped into the fourth slot of the NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll. Last year's champion juvenile colt Fierceness (City of Light) sits at the top just 7 points ahead of top filly Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna). Top sprinter Cogburn (Not This Time) sits third while Highland Falls (Curlin) and National Treasure (Quality Road) share fifth to round out the top five. Idiomatic (Curlin), Next (Not This Time) and Seize the Grey (Arrogate) fill out the...