Juddmonte

NEWMARKET, UK--While Godolphin hogged the headlines on the opening day, it was the turn of a couple of members of the Juddmonte draft to share the limelight during Wednesday's session of the Tattersalls July Sale.  Sold consecutively as lots 558 and 559, the three-year-old fillies Anacapa (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and Calabria (GB) (Kingman {GB}) each brought the hammer down at 300,000gns.  The former, an unraced sister to G3 Prix de Lieurey winner Fount (GB), was bought by Grant Pritchard-Gordon of Badgers Bloodstock for a "long-standing European client". She is a...

Making his first start around two turns and looking for a third straight victory in succession, Juddmonte homebred Dragoon Guard (Arrogate) was sent for the lead from his outside draw and made every pole a winning one in Saturday's GIII Indiana Derby at Horseshoe Indianapolis. Pegged at 7-2 on the morning line and sharing the grey/roan coloring that runs rampant in his pedigree (sire, dam, grandsire, damsire and damsire's sire), Dragoon Guard--off as the 19-10 second-elect--was given a positive ride from Florent Geroux and led his rivals into the first...

Providing a boost to the form of TDN Rising Star Polyvega (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}), Juddmonte's Apollo Fountain (GB) (No Nay Never--Fount {GB}, by Frankel {GB}) made light work of Saturday's five-furlong Listed Prix Yacowlef at Deauville. Runner-up to that Wertheimer blueblood at Chantilly last month, the 3-1 favourite was keen early in the hands of Alexis Pouchin as he opted to drop out last. Delivering a dramatic surge to hit the front passing the furlong pole, the Andre Fabre-trained daughter of the operation's G3 Prix de Lieurey winner...

Winner of three of his four starts on the grass last season, including two at the Grade III level, Amerman Racing's Endlessly (Oscar Performance) returns to the grass for the first time as a 3-year-old as the 6-5 morning-line favorite for Saturday's $750,000 GI Belmont Derby. Typically contested over 10 furlongs at Belmont Park, this year's renewal takes place over a mile and three-sixteenths at Aqueduct. Victorious in the GIII Del Mar Juvenile Turf and GIII Zuma Beach Stakes, Endlessly was a wide-trip eighth in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile...

The 2024 Churchill Downs Spring Meet leading jockey race came down to the wire on closing day Sunday with Tyler Gaffalione and Jose Ortiz tying for the most wins. Gaffalione and Ortiz shared leading rider honors with 45 wins apiece. For Gaffalione, it was his 12th Churchill Downs title as leading jockey. It was the first local championship for Ortiz, who began riding in Kentucky this spring. Luis Saez, who had 32 wins following Day 42 of the 43-day meeting, was in third place followed by Florent Geroux (22), Cristian...

Just a week after her younger brother Batten Down took the GIII Ohio Derby, 'TDN Rising Star' Scylla (Tapit) kept the family's good fortune going with a strong win in the GII Fasig-Tipton Fleur de Lis Stakes at Churchill Downs Saturday. The 4-5 favorite stutter-stepped slightly coming out of the gate and was at the tail of the field behind fractions of :24.07 and :48.83. Still last into the far turn, the bay filly made rapid progress while five wide approaching the stretch. She drifted in slightly in upper stretch,...

Saturday's G1 Cairn Community Games Pretty Polly Stakes served up a thriller, with Juddmonte's TDN Rising Star Bluestocking (GB) (Camelot {GB}--Emulous {GB}, by Dansili {GB}) running down Emily Upjohn (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) in the final yards for a deserved top-level breakthrough. With abundant rain falling on The Curragh throughout the day, the Ralph Beckett-trained 4-year-old who was herself cruelly denied late in last year's Irish Oaks held the upper hand in terms of ground preference and traded as the 11-10 favourite as a result. Settled in mid-division early...

Rockcliffe Stud's homebred Celandine (GB) (Kingman {GB}--Pepita {Ire}, by Sir Prancealot {Ire}) followed up a May 24 debut seventh at Goodwood with a breakthrough score at Windsor earlier this month and continued on a roll with a career high in Saturday's Listed Maureen Brittain Memorial Empress Fillies' Stakes at Newmarket. The Ed Walker trainee broke sharply from the stands' side stall and seized an immediate advantage in this black-type bow. In command throughout, the 9-1 chance came under pressure when threatened passing the quarter-mile marker and kept on strongly up...

The Curragh's three-day Irish Derby fixture is more often than not the place to discover future Classic contenders at first glance and Friday's Kildare House Hotel Irish EBF Fillies Maiden looks to have played host to two potentially top-class daughters of Frankel (GB) in Lake Victoria (Ire) and Red Letter (GB). In a thrilling finale to the seven-furlong contest between the regally-bred debutantes, it was the former who edged it to earn TDN Rising Star status and make Ballydoyle's cup run over when it comes to exciting 2-year-old fillies. The...

While soccer's European Championships has witnessed just one successful penalty kick in 24 matches played in Germany thus far, Eckhard Sauren's €210,000 BBAG September yearling Penalty (Ger) (Frankel {GB}--Praia {Ger}, by Big Shuffle) made a mark of his own and added to his runner-up finish in last month's G2 German 2000 Guineas with a career best in Sunday's G3 35th Grosser Preis der Wirtschaft at Dortmund. Penalty backed up a five-length maiden win, going one mile at Dusseldorf in March, with a second over the same distance at Cologne the...

You could say Batten Down has a little bit of family legacy to live up to. The son of champion Close Hatches took a step towards doing just that Saturday at Thistledown with a gate-to-wire win in the GIII Ohio Derby. The full-brother to both MGSW/MGISP Juddmonte sire Tacitus and to GSW Scylla took four tries to break his maiden, finally winning by 8 3/4 emphatic lengths last out at Churchill Downs going 1 1/4 miles Apr. 30. Saturday's Ohio Derby was his first step up from the maiden ranks...

7th-Churchill Downs, $124,570, Alw (NW1X), Opt. Clm ($100,000), 6-19, 3yo, 7f, 1:21.65, ft, 5 lengths. PURE FORCE (c, 3, Constitution--Mexican Gold {GSW & G1SP-Fr, GSP-US, $234,810}, by Medaglia d'Oro) debuted in the Derby Day opener going 6 1/2 furlongs over a muddy strip and raced a bit greenly through the closing stages, but stamped his authority over seven rivals with a 2 1/4-length victory. That effort would otherwise have made him strictly the one to beat in a first-level allowance, but the presence of 'TDN Rising Star' Discreet Mischief (Into...