Instant Coffee

For the Brad Cox stable, the road to the GI Kentucky Derby will make a stop Saturday at Oaklawn where Verifying (Justify) will run in an allowance race. It will be his first start since finishing sixth in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Cox will also send out Judo (Street Sense), who will not be among the favorites in the race. But even if the Cox pair falters, he'll still be loaded. The trainer, whose Mandaloun (Into Mischief) was placed first in the 2021 Derby with the disqualification of Medina...

The first week of January doesn't have much in common with the first Saturday in May--with the exception that the inaugural TDN Top 12 has arrived to herald the coming of the seemingly far-off GI Kentucky Derby season. Get tied on and enjoy the ride. 1) ARABIAN KNIGHT (c, Uncle Mo--Borealis Night, by Astrology) 'TDN Rising Star'. O-Zedan Racing Stables, Inc.; B-Corser Thoroughbreds LLC (KY); T-Bob Baffert. Sales history: $250,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP; $2,300,000 2yo '22 OBSAPR. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $86,025. Last start: 1st Keeneland Maiden Special Weight, Nov. 5....

As we saw in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff, if there's anything more exciting than a duel to the wire, it's the intrusion of a third nose. And that's pretty much the way a remarkable contest for the freshman sires' title is playing out entering the stretch. The first thing to stress is that it really shouldn't matter which of the stallions involved happens to bank the critical extra cents to claim the crown. That won't be how the marketing teams of their respective farms are viewing things, naturally, but...

After traveling the GI Kentucky Derby trail through the first half of this year with MGISW Cyberknife (Gun Runner), Al Gold's Gold Square and Brad Cox took the first step down the long road to the 2023 Derby Saturday at Churchill Downs, winning the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. with Instant Coffee (Bolt d'Oro). Rallying to victory on debut going seven panels at Saratoga Sept. 3, the $200,000 KEESEP buy came from way out of it to be fourth behind next-out GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile and likely champion Forte (Violence)...

We can harness Thoroughbreds to our best and worst, to our altruism or avarice--but thankfully we will never alter the essential, inherent wonder of the breed, nor maintain the illusion that we are ever truly in control of its destiny. There's a genuine possibility, this weekend, that a German colt could elevate himself to the top of the global sophomore crop by winning the G1 Japan Cup. Yet Tünnes (Ger) (Guiliani {Ire}) was a wholly inadvertent acquisition at the Baden-Baden yearling sales, his purchaser having dropped out at €20,000 only...

8th-Saratoga, $105,000, Msw, 9-3, 2yo, 7f, 1:22.77, ft, 3/4 length. INSTANT COFFEE (c, 2, Bolt d'Oro--Follow No One {SP}, by Uncle Mo), let go at a tick under 15-1 while breaking from the rail, had to be coaxed from the gate, but he chased along well from sixth from the inside down the backstretch. Just off that fence coming through the bend and three wide into upper stretch, he took a narrow advantage just inside the eighth pole, brushing with Arthur's Ride (Tapit) as the pair battled to the wire....