Kentucky Downs

King Power Racing's Bellum Justum (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) was the recipient of a letter-perfect steer from Frankie Dettori, split horses with less than a quarter-mile to race and held off a rails rally from GI Saratoga Derby hero Carson's Run (Cupid) to take out the GIII DK Horse Nashville Derby Invitational at Kentucky Downs. Last to make the first corner with a truncated run from the start, Bellum Justum was no better than third-last turning down the backstretch as Navy Seal (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) showed the way, but...

Black Forza (Complexity), the 5-2 morning-line favorite for Sunday's $1 million National Thoroughbred League Juvenile Sprint Stakes at Kentucky Downs, had some new visitors Saturday morning at the barn area at Kentucky Downs. Jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle and owner Eleanora Kennedy were there to fetch a look at the colt, who has won two of his first three starts - the first two in Ireland and the third, the G2 Markel Richmond Stakes at Goodwood. Lauren Faulkner, assistant to trainer Michael O'Callaghan, has been with Black Forza since he got...

1st-Kentucky Downs, $180,800, Msw, 8-31, 2yo, f, 1mT, 1:35.60, fm, 2 1/4 lengths. DESTINO D'ORO (f, 2, Bolt d'Oro--Heart of Destiny {GISP, $242,089}, by Lion Heart), debuting at 8-1 in her first start since bringing $185,000 at OBS April earlier this year, found herself towards the back of the field after a slightly awkward beginning and was kept off the pace on the outside as Wonderland (Medaglia d'Oro) set speedy fractions of :23.06 and :46.01. Out in the center of the track around the far turn, she came roaring up...

Some of the most highly anticipated races during the summer racing season are the 'baby' races during the boutique meetings at Saratoga and Del Mar and at Kentucky Downs, which attract its fair share of high-priced offspring from a variety of top national outfits. Summer Breezes highlights debuting and stakes-entered 2-year-olds at those meetings that have been sourced at the breeze-up sales earlier in the year, with links to their under-tack previews. Here are the horses entered for Sunday at Saratoga, Kentucky Downs and Del Mar: Sunday, September 1, 2024...

It doesn't take long for the Kentucky Downs meeting to hit full gear, as Saturday's program features three graded contests, including the GIII DK Horse Nashville Derby Invitational Stakes, with prize money that could reach $3.1 million. The purse remains intact should one of the 10 Kentucky-breds--eight in the main body of the field and two also-eligibles--is home first over the mile and five-sixteenths journey along the Kentucky/Tennessee border. The four foreign raiders are ineligible for the KTDF money, but the base purse of $2.5 million already makes it one...

Some of the most highly anticipated races during the summer racing season are the 'baby' races during the boutique meetings at Saratoga and Del Mar and at Kentucky Downs, which attract its fair share of high-priced offspring from a variety of top national outfits. Summer Breezes highlights debuting and stakes-entered 2-year-olds at those meetings that have been sourced at the breeze-up sales earlier in the year, with links to their under-tack previews. Here are the horses entered for Saturday at Saratoga, Kentucky Downs and Del Mar: Saturday, August 31, 2024...

7th-SAR, $100k, Msw, 3yo/up, 1 1/16mT, 4;28 p.m. ET WHEELHOUSE (Tapit) was knocked down to Steve Young for $600,000 at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale and makes a belated first trip to the races for Harrell Ventures and Gainesway. The March-foaled chestnut is a son of Lady Pewitt (Orientate), whose daughter Jaywalk (Cross Traffic) won the 2018 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies en route to an Eclipse Award, and whose multiple stakes-winning daughter Danzatrice (Dunkirk), the dam of Grade I-winning 'TDN Rising Star' Tapit Trice (Tapit). This is the extended...

For the last several years, Kentucky Downs has been the track that had almost everything. Big fields, huge purses and a betting handle that increases exponentially every year. But one thing has largely been missing--European shippers. Despite an all-turf meet, the purses and the fact that Kentucky Downs is much like a European turf course, the meet hadn't really registered with European horsemen. That has changed. According to Martin Panza, the co-director of racing at Kentucky Downs, which kicks off its annual seven-day meet Thursday, as many as 16 European-based...

Some of the most highly anticipated races during the summer racing season are the 'baby' races during the boutique meetings at Saratoga and Del Mar and at Kentucky Downs, which attract its fair share of high-priced offspring from a variety of top national outfits. Summer Breezes highlights debuting and stakes-entered 2-year-olds at those meetings that have been sourced at the breeze-up sales earlier in the year, with links to their under-tack previews. Here are the horses entered for Thursday at Saratoga and for the first of six days of racing...

When it comes to racing, breeding and sales, Justin Wojczynski has done just about everything. He's been a pinhooker, he's broken horses for others and prepared them for the races, he's handled layup horses and he's been a trainer. One might think that's plenty, but Wojczynski is intent on expanding his stable of race horses while keeping his other side jobs. That might sound like a lot, but it has been made easier by the emergence of the 6-year-old mare Awesome Treat (Awesome Patriot). In her last start, she sprung...

A Trio of European horses running at Kentucky Downs this weekend hit the track for the first time after clearing quarantine at Churchill Downs Monday morning. Bellum Justum (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) and Stromberg (GB) (Iffraaj {GB}), who came over for Saturday's $3.1 million DK Horse Nashville Derby, and 2-year-old Black Forza (Complexity), slated for Sunday's $1-million Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint, went out together at 9 a.m. ET for some light exercise. They are scheduled to take a two-hour van ride to Franklin, Kentucky after training at Churchill Tuesday...

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...