Kitten's Joy

Calumet Farm's unbeaten homebred Far Bridge (c, 3, English Channel--Fitpitcher, by Kitten's Joy) kicked home impressively for 'TDN Rising Star' honors in a grassy optional claimer at Gulfstream Park Saturday. The bay was a head better than the promising Carl Spackler (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) over the same course and distance on debut Jan. 21. Carl Spackler returned to earn a 'Rising Star' tag of his own with a smashing, 8 3/4-length maiden victory here Feb. 25. Hammered down to 1-2 here, Far Bridge raced under cover passing the...

6th-Tampa Bay Downs, $24,000, Msw, 2-19, 3yo, 1mT, 1:36.33, fm, 1 1/4 lengths. SILVER PEAK (c, 3, Quality Road--Dreamologist {GSW, $203,710}, by Tapit) debuted over the synthetic track at Woodbine Nov. 13 and got up to be second when traveling 6 1/2 furlongs. Given the stretch out and the change of surface Sunday, the gray jumped from the blocks as the narrow 7-5 second choice and dove to the front to lead narrowly into the first turn. Showing the way through opening fractions of :23.63 and :48.85, Silver Peak held...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 6th-GP, $84k, Msw, 3yo, f, 1mT, 2:37p.m. ET Richard Schermerhorn's $390,000 OBSAPR purchase LADY BETH (Hard Spun) will be unveiled on what looks like a very active Sunday of racing across the country. Drawn toward the middle in this Gulfstream maiden, she is the first registered foal for her dam, the Werthemier et Frere-bred and West Point-campaigned Boreale (Makfi {GB}); four times stakes-placed in her career in America as well as a multiple winner in France. This is the female family of MGSW Interactif (Broken...

The Thoroughbred is certainly more versatile than we sometimes give it credit for. There is always the capacity to surprise, particularly when it comes to predicting stallion success. For instance, despite examples showing otherwise, it remains tempting to box sires as 'dirt' and 'turf' and 'American' and 'European' when actually some of them will prove capable of crossing the differing racing jurisdictions quite easily. Had all breeders and buyers remained on 'the straight and narrow', the chance to appreciate the likes of Scat Daddy, Medaglia d'Oro, More Than Ready and...

Koji Maeda's Gendarme (Kitten's Joy) earned a new career high with a neck victory in Nakayama's 1200-metre G1 Sprinters S. on Sunday. The 7-year-old entire captured the race 20 years after his dam, Believe (Jpn) (Sunday Silence), who has thrown a trio of stakes winners including Gendarme. Sent off at 19-1, the eighth choice in the field of 16, the dark bay argued the early pace, but drifted back to stalk from third on the backstretch as T M Spada (Jpn) (Red Spada {Jpn}) set a harried tempo under pressure...

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Saturday's Observations features a son of Group 1 winner Alice Springs (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). 1.25 Curragh, Mdn, €17,000, 2yo, 8fT HIPPODROME (IRE) (Galileo {Ire}) is one of three Ballydoyle newcomers in this maiden won by TDN Rising Stars High Definition (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Duke De Sessa (Ire) (Lope...

In this instance, you really can't say that the grass is any greener on the other side of the fence. Take your dystopian pick: the floods of Kentucky, or the desiccation of Europe, where I've just returned from a vacation that seamlessly united the city parks of England and Italy in the same wasteland, with just a few bleached spikes still protruding from the baked, ashen earth. However illusory, then, it's a relief to find enough recognizable vegetation salvaged Stateside at least to host all three of Saturday's Grade I...

Polite but perfunctory. That was pretty much the tone in which people tended to praise Kitten's Joy while he was with us, and I guess it should be no different now that he's gone. Even so, it strikes me that his loss has been inadequately lamented. Not just in his own right, as an avowed turf stallion who freakishly contrived two general sires' championships in North America; but also, virtually unremarked, as a final straw in what has over the past nine months become an outright catastrophe for the enlightened...

Polite but perfunctory. That was pretty much the tone in which people tended to praise Kitten's Joy while he was with us, and I guess it should be no different now that he's gone. Even so, it strikes me that his loss has been inadequately lamented. Not just in his own right, as an avowed turf stallion who freakishly contrived two general sires' championships in North America; but also, virtually unremarked, as a final straw in what has over the past nine months become an outright catastrophe for the enlightened...

Juddmonte homebred Westover (GB)'s seven-length thumping of the G1 Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby field last month was the second consecutive Irish Derby victory by a son of Frankel (GB) after Hurricane Lane (Ire) in 2021, but his achievement was also a timely reminder of the potency of his late broodmare sire Lear Fan. Born in 1981, the dark bay has also featured as the broodmare sire of another prominent Sadler's Wells-line runner, the two-time U.S. Champion Sire Kitten's Joy (El Prado {Ire}), who died at Hill 'n' Dale Farm...

With the first week of the 2022 Saratoga meet in the books, NYRA and Fox Sports TV analyst Andy Serling joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland Tuesday as the Green Group Guest of the Week to talk about how Saratoga somehow continues to exceed its sky-high expectations, what track trends handicappers should look out for the rest of the summer, whether or not the sport needs fewer stakes races and more. "I'll be honest, I came into this meet concerned [about a drop in business], and I think...

Kitten's Joy (El Prado {Ire}--Kitten's First, by Lear Fan), twice the leading general sire in the United States and a perennial top-five turf sire, passed away from an apparent heart attack July 15 in his paddock at Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa, where he'd served mares since 2018. He entered stud in 2006 at his owners' Ken and Sarah Ramsey's Ramsey Farm. The blaze-faced chestnut was nearly sold, but was ultimately retained by the Ramseys after bidding stalled out at $95,000 at the 2003 OBS April Sale, and it proved...