Karakontie (Jpn)

When he succumbed to colic in October 2011, aged just 14, there was a poignant sense that Bernstein had never quite lived up to his glamorous billing. He was a celebrity even as an embryo, carried through the Keeneland ring at the 1996 November Sale by a $1.9 million mare--La Affirmed (Affirmed), the second most expensive broodmare auctioned in America that year--as a full-sibling to two graded stakes winners by Storm Cat. On his safe delivery, his dam's purchasers at Brushwood Farm sent Bernstein back the following November to defray...

Trainer Cherie DeVaux achieved Saturday what many trainers work a lifetime to attain when taking Keeneland's GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup with Lael Stables' She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}). After having a day to digest the watershed moment, she summed up the experience succinctly. "Awesome ... amazing." According to DeVaux, a couple of changes factored in the filly's second Grade I win and DeVaux's first at the Lexington oval. "We expected her to run a good race," DeVaux said. "She was training well... she always trains well. She has...

5th-CD, $120k, Msw, 3yo/up, f, 1mT, 2:45p.m. ET MIXOLOGIST (Frosted) will break from the middle of the field in this maiden on the grass, and the LNJ Foxwoods color bearer has big shoes to fill as the half-sister to Australian multiple Group 1-placed Princess Grace (Karakontie {Jpn}). Said sister was a three-time graded winner and three-times Grade I-placed in the States before changing hands for $1.7-million in 2022 at FTKNOV to China Horse Club and being exported to Australia. She twice came a neck short of winning her first race...

She Feels Pretty, who took last year's GI Natalma S. at Woodbine before finishing third beaten just a half-length by Hard to Justify (Justify) as the favorite in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, returned to the races Friday with authority in the Hilltop S. at Pimlico. Bet down to 3-5 even off the layoff, the Lael Stables-owned filly--contesting her third straight one-mile race under John Velazquez--broke towards the outside and was happy to sit back off the early pace, letting Roanan Goddess (Leofric) handle the tempo from the...

Two turns? It turns out there's no problem. When Timberlake (c, 3, Into Mischief--Pin Up {Ire}, by Lookin At Lucky) finished a somewhat rank, then flat, fourth in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile last November, questions swirled about his ability to get two turns. Trainer Brad Cox brushed the questions aside and let the horse do the talking. A freshened Timberlake, making his first start of the year in Oaklawn's GII Rebel S. Saturday, captured the $1.3-million race by a resounding two lengths over Kenny McPeek trainees Common Defense (Karakontie...

Today we'll consider some of the sires standing between $10,001 and $19,999. For a long time, I called this the Lookin At Lucky zone. But don't worry, we won't be deploring his neglect yet again: he's staying in Chile, where they evidently appreciate him rather more. Plenty of horses in this bracket have recently relinquished their brief window of commercial opportunity, and are now hanging around to discover whether they might join the very small group whose first runners generate a fresh vogue. Even with the newcomers out of the...

Gainesway stallion and GI Breeders' Cup Mile hero Karakontie (Jpn) (Bernstein) will stand for $15,000 LFSN, the farm said in a release Friday morning. Bred and raced by the Niarchos Family, Karakontie campaigned in France, where he won a pair of group races at 2-year-old, including the G1 Qatar Prix Jean Luc Lagardere Grand Criterium. The future sire trained on as a 3-year-old to capture the classic G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas before traveling to Santa Anita for that Breeders' Cup win. Karakontie continues to serve as one...

Three-time leading North American sire Tapit will stand for $185,000 S&N on the heels of another strong season for his offspring both on the racetrack and in the sales ring, Gainesway Farm said in a press release Thursday morning in an announcement of its 2024 stallion roster and their advertised stud fees for the next breeding season. Olympiad, a Grade I-winning son of Speightstown, will stand his second season at stud for $35,000. Breeders sent over 200 mares to be part of the 5-year-old's inaugural book. Meanwhile, McKinzie, a four-time...

And so we come to the abyss: that giddy phase between launching your first juveniles and being able to claim a viable niche in this most unforgiving of marketplaces. Yes, for those few young stallions that do manage to seize their fleeting opportunity, a narrow path can rise rapidly towards lucrative heights. Most of the others, however, find themselves clinging to a crumbling ledge. Whatever you do, don't look down! It's easy to disparage the robotic tendencies of the commercial market. Too easy, certainly, for me to have neglected the...

In this continuing series, TDN's Senior Editor Steve Sherack tracks down top horses on the sidelines. Gainesway homebred Spendarella (f, 3, Karakontie {Jpn}--Spanish Bunny, by Unusual Heat)--sidelined since posting a dominating 4 1/2-length victory for trainer Graham Motion in the GI Del Mar Oaks in August--will return for a 4-year-old campaign with an early-season target of the GI Jenny Wiley S. at Keeneland. "She came out of that last race with a couple of little issues and we gave her some time," said Alex Solis II, Gainesway's Director of Bloodstock...

3rd-Churchill Downs, $125,785, Alw (NW1X)/Opt. Clm ($100,000), 11-26, 2yo, 6f, 1:09.52, ft, neck. VICTORY FORMATION (c, 2, Tapwrit--Smart N Soft, by Smart Strike) sailed home to 'TDN Rising Star'-dom last out Oct. 21 against a deep Keeneland maiden special field, going coast-to-coast by 4 3/4 lengths to become the first for his sire to garner the accolade. Hammered down to 6-5 favoritism here on the step up into the allowance ranks, he vied with a rival early from the rail through :21.44 and :45.11 splits. After briefly leading and then...

Turf breeding in Kentucky stands at critical crossroads, being lately bereft of both its most accomplished stallions in Kitten's Joy and English Channel. The small, quixotic community that remains willing to persevere with grass influences, against a vicious commercial tide, is also grieving another recent loss in Get Stormy. That's why a breakout for Karakontie (Jpn), entering his prime at 11 and standing at no more than $10,000, feels so very timely. After recently fielding three stakes winners in 48 hours, either side of the Atlantic, his first millionaire Princess...