Kentucky Derby

TIMONIUM, MD - The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, whose graduates have been hitting on all cylinders on the racetrack recently, begins Monday morning at the Maryland State Fairgrounds. A total of 603 juveniles have been catalogue for the two-day auction and bidding begins at 11 a.m sessions Monday and Tuesday. "There has been a lot of interest and we have the right people here--either they have been here or their agents have been here to watch the horses breeze," Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sales Director Paget Bennett said at...

Sunday morning's work tab at Churchill Downs featured a trio of trainer Brad Cox's GI Kentucky Derby runners who recorded their first breezes since running on the first Saturday in May. At 5:30 a.m., third-place finisher Angel of Empire (Classic Empire) recorded a half-mile move in :49. The colt, owned by Albaugh Family Stables, is possible to run in the GI Belmont S. June 10. Shortly after, Verifying (Justify), who finished 16th in the Derby, worked a half-mile in :49.60. At 7:45 a.m., Gary and Mary West's Hit Show (Candy...

Eclipse Award winner Forte (Violence) worked a half-mile in :50.31 breezing Sunday morning at Belmont Park, which has him back on a path to make it to the GI Belmont S. It was his first work since he was scratched the morning of the GI Kentucky Derby by a state veterinarian due to a foot bruise. After the scratch, Forte was placed on the vet's list in Kentucky for 14 days, which meant he could not run in the GI Preakness S. "He looked very good in this work and...

GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) drew post three in the field of eight set to go in the $1.65-million GI Preakness S., to be held Saturday, May 20, at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. The second jewel of the Triple Crown drew only one starter from the Kentucky Derby, but it was the one who won the Derby and the only one with a chance for a Triple Crown. Mage was installed as the 8-5 favorite at the draw, which was held at Baltimore's Guinness Open Gate Brewery....

The three-day under-tack show for the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale begins Tuesday morning at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium. The first 200 catalogued juveniles are slated to work Tuesday, followed by hips 201 through 400 on Wednesday and hips 401 through 603 on Thursday. Each session of the under-tack show begins at 8 a.m. The May sale, which produced this year's GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic), will be held next Monday and Tuesday with bidding beginning each day at 11 a.m.

Baseball had a problem. Because games were taking way too long, because stolen bases were near an all-time low, because defensive shifts were cutting down on offense, the product that is baseball wasn't as good as it could be. Too many boring, interminable, bad games could only mean one thing, that fans were and would continue to lose interest in the national pastime. Sound familiar? Horse racing has a Triple Crown where the product has been weakened because trainers, who simply refuse to run their horses back on short rest,...

Next week at this time, we'll know if the sport is on the cusp of another Triple Crown sweep. Of all the potential excuses for GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) not emerging victorious from the GI Preakness S., intense media pressure is unlikely to be one of them. You could make the argument that the diminutive, white-blazed chestnut with the endearing overbite has enjoyed one of the least-scrutinized post-Derby weeks of any winner in recent history. That's not so much because the spotlight on his accomplishment has dimmed....

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) has received the post-race sample results from the runners in the May 6 GI Kentucky Derby and May 5 GI Kentucky Oaks, according to Kristin Voskuhl, a spokesperson for the Public Protection Cabinet, which oversees the KHRC. All samples have been cleared, as indicated by the laboratory results from the University of Kentucky. The Derby had 18 runners and was won by Mage (Good Magic), while the Oaks, won by Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief), had 14 total runners.

Last Saturday's GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) is officially headed to Baltimore for the May 20 GI Preakness S. His connections made the announcement via Twitter Friday morning. "Very excited, he's had a magnificent week of training," said co-owner Ramiro Restrepo. "He's shown all the positive signs." The ownership group, which also includes OGMA Investments, Sterling Racing and CMNWLTH, confirmed the colt's participation in the second leg of the Triple Crown at Pimlico Race Course following his Friday morning training session in which he warmed up in the...

Two Phil's (Hard Spun), a game runner-up in the GI Kentucky Derby, will skip the May 20 GI Preakness S., according to a report from Jim O'Donnell in the Chicago Daily Herald. "Too soon," trainer Larry Rivelli told O'Donnell. "Phil came out of the Derby great. We shipped back to Chicago Sunday, but the Preakness is just 12 days away. That's just too soon." Two Phil's, coming off a win in the Mar. 25 GIII Jeff Ruby Steaks, was the only runner close to the hot pace to still be...

With barely a dozen race days to be eked out of its remaining two years, the Steve Pini Memorial S. of September 2017 formed part of a pretty low-key bookend to the history of Suffolk Downs. The Boston track's opening era, after all, had been propped up by Seabiscuit himself. But it turns out that this race, honoring the late track superintendent, deserves a rather lengthier footnote than anyone might have imagined at the time. Over an extended mile of turf, a 5-year-old daughter of Big Brown overtook Queen Caroline...

An additional 28 supplemental entries have been added to the upcoming Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training. These entries, which are catalogued as hips 576-603, include 2-year-olds by Blame, Candy Ride (Arg), Good Magic, Hard Spun, Into Mischief, Munnings, Nyquist, Quality Road, Tapit, Twirling Candy, and Uncle Mo. "Many of the sport's current leading sires are represented in the supplement, as well as a number of exciting first and second crop 2-year-old sires," said Paget Bennett, Midlantic Director of Sales. "It's a high quality group that adds additional...