Kitodan

Turf specialist Kitodan, who went from being claimed twice last year to winning Kentucky Downs's GIII $750,000 Big Ass Fans Dueling Grounds Derby, has been selected the National HBPA's 2022 Claiming Horse of the Year, the group announced Friday morning. "We are blessed that we were able to claim that kind of horse compared to where we were just a few years ago," said western Kentucky-based trainer Eric Foster,  whose wife Brooklyn's Foster Family Racing and partners Doug Miller and Bill Wargel campaign the now 4-year-old colt after claiming him for...

Kitodan, claimed for $80,000 just four starts ago, flew home from out of the clouds to pull the 20-1 upset in the GIII Dueling Grounds Derby on Kentucky Downs's rescheduled card Monday. The bay colt settled near the back of the 12-horse field and was well off the pace as Double Clutch (Optimizer) bowled along on the front end through pedestrian splits. Kitodan was well-held by jockey Gerardo Corrales as the field began to bunch up climbing the hill. He was mired in traffic turning for home and was tipped...