Maclean's Music

3rd-Churchill Downs, $77,248, Msw, 6-19, 2yo, 5f, :57.49, ft. JACKIE'S WARRIOR (c, 2, Maclean's Music--Unicorn Girl, by A. P. Five Hundred) topped off a concise worktab with a bullet half-mile from the gate in :47 1/5 (1/35) at Keeneland June 9 and was made the 21-10 second favorite on debut. Hustled along early to contest the pace from the inside, Jackie's Warrior was taken hold of by Ricardo Santana, Jr. at the 3 1/2-furlong pole and switched out into the two path. Despite having lost some momentum in so doing,...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 1st-BEL, $64K, Msw, 2yo, 5fT, 1:15 p.m. ET International star sire power will be on display in Friday's opener at Belmont, as Coolmore unveils RIVER TIBER (War Front) against Gary Barber's Mrs Frankel (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) and six other juveniles in this intriguing turf sprint, the first 2-year-old turf race in New York this year. River Tiber, a $500,000 Keeneland September buy, is a full-brother to 2015 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf hero Hit It a Bomb and 2016 G1 Cheveley Park S. victress Brave...

by Andrea Branchini There is quite a Native American connection in the names of the family line of Oaklawn allowance winner FIRECROW. His dam is the artistically named CHEYENNE AUTUMN (by Indian Charlie), resonant of the 1964 very "pro-Indians" John Ford western, defined as "an elegy for the Native Americans". The late Joseph Fire Crow (sometimes spelled as Firecrow or FireCrow) was a famous and talented Cheyenne musician, nominated for a Grammy in 2001 for his album "Cheyenne Nation". 8th-Oaklawn, $88,000, 2-14, (NW3L), 3yo/up, 6f, 1:10.62, ft. FIRECROW (g, 4,...

by Andrea Branchini DAY THE MUSIC DIED (g, 5, Maclean's Music--Kelly's Question, by Mr. Greeley) Laurel Park, 1-31, Alw, 6f, 1:10.95. O-Electric Rooster Racing Stable, LLC; B-R. Larry Johnson (MD). The recent Laurel winner Day the Music Died is poetry in motion, literally. Don McLean is the author of the 1971 song and world hit "American Pie," whose most famous and often repeated verse is the refrain line "the day the music died." The song is supposedly about the plane crash in 1959 that killed early rock and roll performers...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - A year ago, Jonathan Thorne sent a son of Pioneerof the Nile through the sales ring at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred Yearlings Sale and watched as the youngster sold for a sale-record $600,000. It was a gratifying moment for the longtime New York breeder who has been on the front lines of the evolution of the state's breeding program. Thorne returns to the New York sale with a five-horse consignment in 2019. "I was just really fortunate enough to breed a horse and raise him and...