Ken McPeek

The finger pointing over Tyler Gaffalione's decision not to ride Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) in the GI Preakness S. continued Thursday when Gaffalione's agent Matt Muzikar said trainer Ken McPeek's version of the events was "nowhere near the truth." On this week's edition of the TDN Writers' Room podcast, McPeek sharply criticized both Muzikar and Gaffalione, claiming that the two reneged on an agreement to ride the filly in the Preakness. "I announced that we're going to run in the Preakness and Tyler was on board," McPeek said on the podcast....

The viability of the horse business hinges on a precarious equilibrium. Its values have to work out often enough for the rich guy to keep spending, but not so often that the rest of us have to pack up and go home. Very seldom, however, are both extremes embraced so proximately as by Meg Levy last weekend. On Sunday, the Grade I success of Valiance (Tapit) in the Juddmonte Spinster S. vindicated all the promise, in pedigree and physique, she had evinced as a $650,000 yearling sold through Levy's Bluewater...

GI Preakness S. winner Ken McPeek and Robby Albarado will be the special guests on the Breeders' Cup's Cocktails & Conversations. The virtual happy hour will air Thursday at 6 p.m. on the Breeders' Cup's Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

It takes a certain kind of personality to enter a filly against the boys in a leg of the Triple Crown, and Kenny McPeek showed all of that personality on Wednesday's TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, McPeek talked about his successful, outside-the-box campaign of Peter Callahan's GI Preakness S. winner Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil), why he subbed in Robby Albarado to ride the chestnut, his approach to training 2-year-olds and much more. Swiss Skydiver has run nine...

TIMONIUM, MD - The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearlings Sale begins its two-day run at the Maryland State Fairgrounds Monday afternoon, with bidding scheduled to begin at 1 p.m., and trainers and agents were busy shopping the sales barns on a picture-perfect fall morning Sunday in Timonium. After cancellations and postponements caused by the global pandemic, the yearling sales season finally got underway a month ago with the Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearlings Showcase-an amalgamation of a trio of canceled auctions-followed by the two-week Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Both featured a highly polarized...

While putting off a final decision regarding which Breeders' Cup race GI Preakness S. winner Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) will run in, trainer Ken McPeek said Sunday morning that he prefers running his filly at a mile-and-a-quarter, the distance of the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. His other option is the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff, which is run at a mile-and-an-eighth. "It's a little early and we don't have to make a decision right now but I do like her at the mile-and-a-quarter," he said. "The further, the better. She gets to...

Only five fillies had managed to take home the blanket of black-eyed susans in the previous 144 runnings of the GI Preakness S. and the last to do so was Hall of Famer Rachel Alexandra, who beat GI Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird by a length in the 2009 renewal. However, in 2020, a year of upsets and the unconventional, a filly took down the Derby winner yet again with Oaks runner-up Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) getting the better of Derby hero Authentic (Into Mischief) in an epic stretch battle...

One day before saddling $35,000 bargain buy Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) to take on the boys in the GI Preakness S., trainer Ken McPeek was represented by the one-two finishers in Keeneland's GI Darley Alcibiades S. Friday. New York-bred Simply Ravishing (Laoban), just a $50,000 Fasig-Tipton October yearling herself, dominated her competition on the front end and ran up the score to 6 1/4 lengths. 'TDN Rising Stars' Crazy Beautiful (Liam's Map) and Travel Column (Frosted) fought it out for second and third. This was McPeek's fifth win in the Alcibiades,...

A trio of 'TDN Rising Stars,' including unbeaten Thoughtfully (Tapit), will square off in Friday's GI Darley Alcibiades S. at Keeneland, a 'Win and You're In' for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. The rail-drawn Thoughtfully, tabbed as a 'Rising Star' out of a blowout debut win for Steve Asmussen at Churchill Downs June 11, made good on the promise with a sparkling performance in Saratoga's GII Adirondack S. Aug. 12. The $950,000 FTSAUG graduate tries two turns for the first time here. Drawn one to her outside is fellow...

GI Kentucky Derby hero Authentic (Into Mischief) was assigned gate nine in a field of 11 and was installed the 9-5 morning-line favorite for Saturday' GI Preakness S. at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. John Velazquez has the return call on Authentic, who goes for a third consecutive victory at the Grade I level, having beaten Ny Traffic (Cross Traffic) in the GI TVG.com Haskell S. before defying those who concluded he would not stay the 10 furlongs of the Derby by outfighting heavily favored Tiz the Law (Constitution) beneath...

Ny Traffic (Cross Traffic) was named likely to make the line-up for Saturday's GI Preakness S. at Pimlico following a four-furlong work in :48 flat (2/88) at Churchill Downs Sunday. "Most likely he's going to go, but tomorrow we'll make the decision," trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. said. "We were very happy with the work." Ny Traffic came up a nose short of Authentic (Into Mischief) when second in the July 18 GI TVG.com Haskell S. Sunday's work was his first since finishing eighth behind that rival in the Sept. 5...

GI Alabama winner Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) remains possible to contest the GI Preakness S. at Pimlico Oct. 3. "It's going to depend on who shows up," said trainer Ken McPeek. "We are also nominating her to the [GI] Spinster [Oct. 4] and she's been invited to the [GI] QEII [Oct. 10]. We're shopping it, that's all. We have three good choices. My strong preference would have been a 3-year-old filly Grade I [on dirt], but there isn't one out there." Both alternatives to the Preakness, the nine-furlong Spinster for fillies...