Kentucky Oaks

Slam Dunk Racing, Legacy Ranch and Doug Branham's undefeated Tonalist's Shape (Tonalist), a dominant winner of the local Hut Hut S. on opening day of Gulfstream's Championship Meet, returns Saturday as a likely prohibitive favorite in her graded stakes debut, the seven-furlong GIII Forward Gal S. Rallying from well off the pace to score a 19-1 upset on debut here Sept. 28 for Sabana Racing Stable and trainer Juan Avila, the chestnut was privately purchased and transferred to the red-hot Saffie Joseph, Jr. barn, for which she notched another impressive...

Finite had to fight for it, but her class saw her through on the day as she gutted out a narrow victory over pacesetting Ursula while earning 10 more qualifying points for the GI Kentucky Oaks. Three wide out of the stretch for the first time, the homebred filly continued to cover ground on the second turn and was three and four wide off the final corner. With Ricardo Santana, Jr., throwing everything he had at her, she eyeballed the longtime leader with a furlong to race and clawed that...

Spice Is Nice (Curlin) turned heads when hammering for $1.05 million at Keeneland September back in 2018, and turned many more Sunday at Gulfstream when running away to a double-digit debut graduation and 'TDN Rising Star' honors. Drilling steadily at Belmont until late November, the chestnut missed a few weeks of breezes, but got right back to task with a half-mile bullet in :48 4/5 (1/5) Dec. 20 at Palm Beach Downs before recording a sharp five-furlong move in 1:00 1/5 (3/22) there nine days later. Hammered early in the...

In a matchup of three talented newly-turned-sophomore fillies from the Bob Baffert barn, it was the experience and the class of multiple Grade I winner Bast (Uncle Mo) that proved superior, as the 124-pound highweight sat off her stablemates and edged clear late to score an odds-on success in the GII Santa Ynez S. Sunday at Santa Anita. A debut second Aug. 11 at Del Mar, the $500,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga buy added blinkers and dominated the GI Del Mar Debutante S. by 8 3/4 lengths 20 days later. A narrow...

A Thread of Blue (Hard Spun), who led every step of the way to cause a 13-1 upset in the 9 1/2-furlong Saratoga Derby Aug. 4, will be pointed for a start in the final leg of the Turf Trinity, the inaugural Jockey Club Derby to be contested over a mile and a half at Belmont Park Sept. 7. "He came out of the race really well, we'll look at [the Jockey Club Derby]," trainer Kiaran McLaughlin told the NYRA notes team. "We weren't sure if he'd get a mile-and-three-sixteenths...

For several weeks, astute racing fans had tabbed Saturday's GI Longines Test S. as one of the potential highlights of the Saratoga meeting. Often times, the bark is bigger than the bite, but this particular renewal lived up to the considerable hype, as Covfefe (Into Mischief) and GI Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress (Alternation) hooked up early on and never let the other out of their sights. At the conclusion of 71 seconds and change, Covfefe won the battle and the war, decisioning a very game Serengeti Empress by a hard-fought...

Oaklawn Park has announced significant purse increases to a number of its 2020 stakes as the Arkansas oval will for the second year host a meet that stretches into May. Four stakes at meet, which runs from Jan. 24 to May 2, will feature $1-million purses: the Mar 14 GII Rebel S., Apr. 11 GI Arkansas Derby, Apr. 18 GI Oaklawn H. and Apr. 18 GI Apple Blossom H. Both the Oaklawn H. and Apple Blossom have been pushed back on the calendar and given $250,000 purse bumps. The purse...

Brereton C. Jones's GI Kentucy Oaks victress Lovely Maria (Majesticperfection) makes her highly anticipated return from a brief freshening in Saturday's GIII Delaware Oaks. Her conditioner, Larry Jones, seeks his second win in this event, having scored the first with 2008 Kentucky Oaks winner and fellow Brereton Jones homebred Proud Spell (Proud Citizen), who was named champion sophomore filly that year after also taking the GI Alabama S. Lovely Maria has done little wrong in her eight-race career and seems to be improving with each start. Kicking off her sophomore...