Keen Ice

Rich Strike (Keen Ice), the winner of the GI Kentucky Derby and a starter in the upcoming GI Belmont S., was placed on the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission's veterinarian's list May 22 and did not come off the list until last Sunday. However, trainer Eric Reed reports that the horse's presence on the vet's list is not a cause for concern. "He was on there because of routine stuff that we had a chiropractor work on," Reed said "In Kentucky, with anything like that you have to report it to...

ELMONT, NY -- With GI Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike (Keen Ice) exiting from post four, a field of eight was drawn Tuesday morning for Saturday's 154th GI Belmont Stakes. The historic, come-from-behind 80-1 Derby upsetter heads to the final leg of the Triple Crown fresh after breaking the norm and skipping the GI Preakness S. He has been installed as the third choice on the morning line at odds of 7-2. The $30,000 claim-to-fame will attempt to be the first non-Triple Crown winner to capture both the Kentucky Derby...

Rich Strike (Keen Ice), upset winner of the GI Kentucky Derby, got his first look at the Belmont Park main track on Thursday, galloping 1 1/2 miles over the sloppy going with regular exercise rider Gabriel Lagunes in the irons. The chestnut arrived at Belmont early Wednesday morning to prepare for the GI Belmont S. on June 11. "It seems like he's done everything a little bit better than I thought he would," said trainer Eric Reed. "We actually took him out yesterday and we were going to give him...

GI Kentucky Derby upsetter Rich Strike (Keen Ice) arrived in New York by van from Kentucky at 1 a.m. Wednesday to prepare for the GI Belmont S. June 11. With exercise rider Gabriel Lagunes up, Rich Strike visited Belmont's dirt training track at 9:30 a.m. with the accompaniment of outrider Juan Galvez and his pony Stormy, making two laps the wrong way round. "He settled down a lot the second time round. A lot of that was trying to get him used to the pony. You could see the farther...

A New York Racing Association (NYRA) clocker has been suspended for 30 days and fined $2,500 "for altering a published work of a horse to make the horse eligible to race." A New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) ruling dated May 19 states that Richard Gazer, a NYRA employee, has appealed his penalties and has been granted a stay while that process plays out. But the ruling does not list any details about the circumstances, like the horse involved or the date of the alleged wrongdoing. Asked via email to...

Rich Strike (Keen Ice), upset winner of the Gl Kentucky Derby at 80-1, and Secret Oath (Arrogate), the powerful Gl Kentucky Oaks winner, are members of the first crops of their respective sires, both of whom were late-developing Classic-distance horses. Keen Ice and Arrogate each won his first stakes race at Saratoga in late August at three, in the Gl Travers S. at 10 furlongs. Keen Ice won the "Midsummer Classic" in 2015 at 16-1, defeating Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in a shocker. Arrogate won the race the next...

Keen Ice, who has been flying under the radar behind some heavy-hitting first-crop sires, has been non-existent at the 2-year-old sales so far this year, but that's about to change when the Calumet stallion has two juveniles catalogued for the upcoming Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale. And the timing couldn't be better following his son Rich Strike's dramatic victory in Saturday's GI Kentucky Derby. Ron Fein of Superfine Farms and partner Juan Centeno will offer the first colt by Keen Ice to sell at a 2-year-old auction when they...

Well, if it was hard enough to make sense of his performance, then don't expect things to appear any more conventional when you look at the pedigree of Rich Strike. His grandsire and dam share the same paternity. His mother was discarded a couple of years ago for $1,700; his half-sister was claimed only last month for $5,000; and his sire's only previous stakes winner had emerged in Puerto Rico. But if communal incredulity over the GI Kentucky Derby must have been flavored with extra piquancy for the breeders of...

LOUISVILLE, KY - Credit the Coach with an assist. Making his way into the field following the late scratch of the D. Wayne Lukas-trained Ethereal Road (Quality Road), also-eligible Rich Strike (Keen Ice) lit up the tote board with an impossible 80-1 upset in Saturday's GI Kentucky Derby. It was three-quarters of a length back to 4-1 favorite Epicenter (Not This Time) in second. Zandon (Upstart) was another three-quarters back in third. "He passed them all," winning trainer Eric Reed said. "I'm elated. I'm happy because this horse trained good...

Affable Iowan Jerry Crawford, a longtime client of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, runs the successful racing partnership Donegal Racing, which was established in 2008 with the specific goal of winning the Gl Kentucky Derby. That may have sounded like wishful thinking at the time, but Crawford's stable has made it to Louisville on average every three years or so, with live runners, and with horses that haven't been purchased for exorbitant sums: Paddy O'Prado (El Prado {Ire}), a $105,000 Keeneland September purchase and among the first yearlings bought by the fledgling...

1st-DMR, $100K, Opt. Cl. ($40k), 3yo/up, 6f, 2:55 p.m. ET Summer Wind Equine's TRIPLE TAP (Tapit) marks his return to the races for the first time since his impressive 4 1/4-length TDN Rising Star-earning win at Santa Anita Mar. 13. The chestnut is a half-brother to Triple Crown hero and Horse of the Year American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile). His prolific dam, Litteprincessemma (Yankee Gentleman), was purchased by Jane Lyon's Summer Wind for $2.1 million carrying a full sibling to Pharoah--the subsequently Group 3-placed St Patricks Day--at Fasig-Tipton November in...

The mystique around Calumet is such that it aptly discloses a nearly perfect anagram for "Camelot." Both words evoke, not just an idealized past, but a yearning for the restoration of standards eroded during our unchivalrous times. Of course, Calumet has itself had its modern lapses, but there's no mistaking the wholesome intentions animating its latest ownership. True, the methods of Brad Kelley and his team sometimes strike the orthodox observer as idiosyncratic, to put it mildly. But it makes sense to write a new chapter, in their own hand,...