Kenny McPeek

Jockey Tyler Gaffalione and trainer Brad Cox entered the final day of racing Sunday at Churchill Downs having already locked up their respective titles for the 14-day September Meet. Both successfully defended their titles from a year ago and set new September Meet records for wins: Gaffalione with 25 victories through 13 days and Cox with 15. Gaffalione more than doubled second-place Cristian Torres's 12 wins prior to Sunday's 10-race card. This will be Gaffalione's 10th riding title at Churchill Downs since 2018 and fourth-straight September Meet title. Cox's dominant...

Racing roads converge this Saturday. With a little over a month left before horses and their connections officially point to Santa Anita, the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series returns to Woodbine Racetrack. Featured are three 'Win and You're In' chances, including the GI Ricoh Woodbine Mile. Meanwhile, at Churchill Downs, the prep seasons officially open for 2-year-old colts and fillies, who are seeking to bank points for next May's 150th editions of the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Kentucky Oaks. There is much to get to with Belmont at the Big...

Perhaps it is called the Hopeful Stakes because that's the most anyone can ever be with a Thoroughbred. But if nearly any purchaser at Keeneland over the next couple of weeks would like to be contesting that race, a year from now, then one consignor might give them not just hope but something closer to confidence. Okay, so a trifecta for Eaton Sales graduates in the Saratoga Grade I last year featured only the winner, Forte (Violence), from the 2021 Keeneland September Sale. Runner-up Gulfport (Uncle Mo) and third Blazing...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Rattle N Roll (Connect)'s very promising and then down-a-bit career path is on a solid upward trajectory approaching the historic $1 million GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Saturday at Saratoga Race Course. With six wins--five of them in graded stakes--and just over $1.6 million in earnings, Rattle N Roll has been a big success for the Mackin family's Lucky Seven Stable. After a two-month break from competition, the chestnut will face seven others in the 1 1/4 miles Gold Cup, long one of the premier races...

"What's in a name?" Spurning Master Shakespeare and embracing anecdotal evidence, consider the tale of how Saratoga's Oklahoma Training Track got its name. Horsemen complained that the distance across Union Avenue to the main course was such a hike that it might as well be in Boomer Sooner land. Another piece from the past concerns the name of the Alabama S. Dating to 1872, the race was given that moniker after the Derby-winning owner William Cottrell of Mobile asked if it could be dubbed after his home state, instead of...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N. Y. - Katsumi Yoshida's Defining Purpose (Cross Traffic) brings a solid resume and a sounds-like-fiction backstory to the GI Alabama S. on Saturday. Now owned by one of the world's top breeding operations, Yoshida's Northern Farm, the gray 3-year-old filly was rejected by buyers when she was offered at sale as a short yearling at Keeneland in January 2021. Colette VanMatre, the Indiana businesswomen who runs a tiny breeding business, decided she would race Defining Purpose. Last year, VanMatre reached out to trainer Kenny McPeek, who agreed...

Wonder Ride (Gun Runner) is by one of the best sires in the sport and comes from a winning barn in the Kenny McPeek stable. But Saratoga bettors overlooked her in Sunday's first race, a seven-furlong dirt maiden for 2-year-old fillies. She was sent off at 10-1. You probably won't get 10-1 again on her anytime soon. Ridden by Julien Leparoux, Wonder Ride was never far back, but the jockey remained patient. She got rolling near the top of the stretch, split horses and then took over in the final...

Trainer Kenny McPeek confirmed Lucky Seven Stable's Smile Happy (Runhappy) for next Saturday's GI Whitney S. at Saratoga Race Course, but his stablemate for the same owner, Rattle N Roll (Connect), will take his show on the road. Both horses last raced in the GI Stephen Foster S. July 1 at Ellis Park. McPeek said Rattle N Roll will target either the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga or the GI Pacific Classic at Del Mar. Both races are run at 10 furlongs September 2 and are "Win and...

Kenny McPeek has managed to keep Lucky Seven Stable's talented pair Smile Happy (Runhappy) and Rattle N Roll (Connect) away from the same starting gate until now, but on Saturday the stablemates will meet for the first time in the GI Stephen Foster S. Set to run this year at Ellis Park, the mile-and-an-eighth contest drew a field of eight and is a 'Win and You're In' qualifier for the GI Breeders Cup Classic. Smile Happy and Rattle N Roll share more than a few similarities, but the main parallel...

NEWMARKET, UK-- They've arrived. The young, the fast, the young and fast. From America, Australia, and Sweden, members of the international contingent for this year's Royal Ascot are now safely ensconced in temporary lodgings, their presence in the UK adding an extra sparkle to what is always one of the most special weeks of the sporting year.  Cannonball (Aus) (Capitalist {Aus}) and Artorius (Aus) (Flying Artie {Aus}) have separate sprint engagements, in the G1 King's Stand S. and G1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee S. respectively, and with no fear of...

In the wake of 12 horses suffering fatal injuries since Apr. 27 and after a Thursday meeting with horsemen, Churchill Downs announced new safety initiatives that will go into effect immediately. They are: A pause of track-based incentives such as trainer start bonuses and purse pay-out allocations to every race finisher through last place. Purse pay-outs will now be limited to the top five finishers. Churchill Downs officials will engage in ongoing discussions with horsemen to determine ways to reallocate these funds to best serve industry needs. With record-high purses,...

Call it going with his gut. Literally. They cut out a whole stretch of it, and with it went much of the caution, the aversion to risk, that seems to stifle so much of the adventure in other trainers. "The truth is that when I was younger, I was probably real conservative," Kenny McPeek admits. "Early in my career, I was mostly dealing with claiming horses, with the odd allowance or stake horse here and there. Then I had a misdiagnosed ruptured appendix. It walled off and they did emergency...