John Ortiz

Brightwork made short work of her rivals Sunday to remain undefeated in Saratoga's GIII Adirondack S. Sent off at 5-1 while stepping up to graded company for the first time, the filly broke running and thrust herself into the mix as 5-2 lukewarm favorite Here U Come Again and Streaming Now led through an opening quarter in a snappy :22.1. Swung out several paths turning for home, Brightwork swept to the front midstretch under strong encouragement by Irad Ortiz Jr. and drew clear to triumph by five emphatic lengths over...

Unless you are riding in the very best races for the best stables, it's not easy being a jockey in Great Britain. Prize money in the bread-and-butter races is dreadful and, even in these lower-level events, the competition for mounts can be fierce. Four years into her career, 22-year-old jockey Grace McEntee had had enough. In search of a better life, she booked a one-way ticket to Kentucky and will begin the next stage of her career Saturday at Turfway Park when she makes her U.S. debut. "This is very...

Barber Road (Race Day) may be one of the longer shots on the board come the first Saturday in May, but there is one thing former Walmart CEO Bill Simon is sure of when it comes to his GI Kentucky Derby hopeful. "I don't know what's going to happen, but I can promise that at the end of the race he's going to be running as hard as he can and he'll be moving forward," Simon said. Trained by John Ortiz, Barber Road has placed in each of the three...

Gold Square LLC's Cyberknife (Gun Runner) exited his win in Saturday's GI Arkansas Derby in fine shape and is expected to ship to Louisville Tuesday to continue preparations for the May 7 GI Kentucky Derby. The colt, who was making his second stakes appearance after a sixth-place effort in the Jan. 22 GIII Lecomte S., continued a trend of frisky behavior Saturday at Oaklawn when dumping jockey Florent Geroux in the post parade. "I was too far away to do anything about it, but Florent was able to jump up...

Julio Canani, a three-time Breeders' Cup-winning trainer who came to America from his native Peru in 1954, died Friday morning at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California, according to his daughter, Lisa. He was 82. The news was first reported by the Daily Racing Form's Jay Privman, who quoted friends as saying that Canani had been suffering from dementia and had recently contracted COVID-19. He was 16 when he came to America, and worked for a landscape company before heading to the racetrack and taking a job with trainer Tommy...