Kentucky Derby

Old Friends will host a week-long celebration of GI Kentucky Derby Big Brown from Oct. 14-18. The event begins with an online silent auction which opened Monday and concludes Friday with a party at the farm with the silent auction closing and a live auction. Visitors will be able to meet the 2008 Kentucky Derby winners, as well as two other new arrivals to the farm: Cozmic One, first-born foal of Zenyatta; and multiple grade winner Mission Impazible. The silent auction ends Friday at 5:15 p.m. EST. All bidders, whether...

The Kentucky Derby Museum earned the number three spot as the Best Attraction for Sports Fans in USA Today's 2024 Readers' Choice Awards after breaking records this past year for attendance, the repository said in a Wednesday press release. Located at Churchill Downs, the Derby Museum finished behind Boise State's Blue Turf in Idaho, the top vote getter, and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs, who was the runner-up. Welcoming an all-time high of 258,382 guests during the fiscal year 2024, which spanned from Oct. 1, 2023,...

Expectations were high for the three Grade I preps for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile run Saturday as the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity, the GI Champagne Stakes and the GI American Pharoah Stakes all included horses who seemed to have vast potential. And most came through. Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie) was the star performer in the Champagne, staying undefeated and adding a second Grade I to win to his resume. In the American Pharoah it all came down, as it so often does, to which Bob Baffert would win, and the...

The Kentucky Derby Museum began its new fiscal year Tuesday with the approval of the 2025 budget. The Museum, which will celebrate its 40th anniversary next year, also added three new Board members in Michael Guenthner, Josh Heird and Seema Sheth. "We are deeply grateful for the wisdom and commitment that our outgoing Board members have brought to the museum," said Chair of the Kentucky Derby Museum Board David Nett. "As we prepare to celebrate the museum's 40th anniversary, we look forward to the fresh perspectives and expertise our new...

Japan's top two older dirt horses, Ushba Tesoro (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) and Derma Sotogake (Jpn) (Mind Your Biscuits), were on trial for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic last Wednesday, finishing second and fifth, respectively, in the Listed Nippon TV Hai at Funabashi Race Track. The country's most-accomplished 3-year-old is Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steel {Jpn}), who preps for a likely appearance at Del Mar in just over four weeks' time in Wednesday's final leg of the Japanese dirt Triple Crown, the $828,597 Listed Japan Dirt Classic at Ohi Racecourse. A...

by Tim Wilkin, courtesy Wednesday's Pennsylvania Derby & Cotillion News The echoes that bounced off the rafters at Saratoga Race Course last month are still fresh in the mind of Brian Hernandez, Jr. The 38-year-old jockey can still hear the noise as he rode Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) to a heart-pounding second--beaten by a head--behind Fierceness (City of Light) in the GI Travers Stakes. Thorpedo Anna's bid to become the first filly to win the Travers in 109 years came up just short. Now, the page has turned to Parx...

Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Walmac Farm's 'TDN Rising Star' Locked (Gun Runner--Luna Rosa, by Malibu Moon), one of the early-book favorites for this spring's GI Kentucky Derby following an impressive win in the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity and third-place finish as the favorite in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile last fall, could return to action in the GIII Perryville Stakes at Keeneland Oct. 19. Locked missed a pair of intended starts earlier this spring, including the GII Coolmore Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park Mar. 2, and was subsequently...

GI Wood Memorial Stakes winner Wicked Strong (Hard Spun--Moyne Abby, by Charismatic) has been pensioned from stud duty, gelded and retired to the Massachusetts farm of Centennial Farm owner Don Little, Jr. An earner of nearly $2,000,000 through his racing career which spanned from 2013 to 2015, Wicked Strong broke his maiden at second asking at Belmont Park and was third in the GIII Remsen Stakes before winning the Wood Memorial. After finishing fourth in both the GI Kentucky Derby behind California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit) and the GI Belmont Stakes,...

The surest sign that autumn is upon us is that we are already beginning to look ahead to next spring. In the racing world, that means the release of the 2025 Road to the GI Kentucky Derby qualifying schedule, and the list of points-awarding prep races that came out Friday contained a few tweaks. Two stood out--a schedule addition and a rule change. Churchill Downs Inc., the gaming company that controls the Derby and the points system that determines which horses get into the race, locked up a prime piece...

McPeek Racing at Magdalena Farm has joined Horse Country and will begin offering tours of its breeding and racing stable Sept. 4. Magdalena Farm is the Lexington base of trainer Kenny McPeek and tours of the farm will offer guests a unique opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at a leading racing stable and breeding farm. "It is incredibly exciting to welcome Kenny and his team at McPeek Racing to the Horse Country family," said Hallie Hardy, Executive Director of Horse Country. "Horse Country is dedicated to connecting guests to...

Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl-winning tight end Travis Kelce, along with the Zoldan family, have acquired a significant share of Team Valor International's interest in Gary Barber's Swift Delivery (Not This Time), Team Valor's Barry Irwin announced Tuesday. The Zoldan family have been members of Team Valor's syndicates for nearly four decades, including as partners in 2011 GI Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom. Bruce Zoldan, founder and CEO of Phantom Fireworks, attended this year's Derby along with Ohio native Kelce, who is friends with Zoldan's son, Alex. Irwin said the...

Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) deserves all the credit in world for her game performance in the GI DraftKings Travers Stakes. Facing off against one of the toughest Travers fields in memory, she beat everyone but Eclipse Award winner Fierceness (City of Light), losing by a diminishing head. She finished ahead of the GI Toyota Blue Grass winner and GI Kentucky Derby runner-up Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) and GI Belmont S. and GI Haskell S. winner Dornoch (Good Magic) and four other males. It was a special effort by a special...