Mind Control

Enjoy your day at the Big A. Led by the GI Cigar Mile H. and three other graded events, Aqueduct's loaded 10-race card will be in the spotlight in South Ozone Park Saturday. Zandon (Upstart), winner of the GI Toyota Blue Grass S. and third-place finisher in the GI Kentucky Derby this spring, cuts back to a one-turn mile for Chad Brown in the feature. The dark bay, favored at even-money on the Cigar Mile's morning-line, also finished third in the GI Runhappy Travers S. and second in the GI...

Strictly, it's the very reverse of what he's doing—which is actually to revert from two turns to one. In a sense, however, the return of Zandon (Upstart) to Aqueduct on Saturday will bring things full circle. For it was on the equivalent card last year that he began what has turned into a pretty frustrating sequence of races where, for one reason or another, he arguably hasn't quite realized his full potential. When you consider that these include the GI Kentucky Derby itself, that shows how much raw ability he...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 1st-AQU, $85K, Msw, 2yo, 7f, 11:50 a.m. EDT Bill Mott unveils Stone Farm homebred BEARINGS (Candy Ride {Arg}) in this event. The chestnut is a full-sibling to Grade I-winning young sire Mastery and a half to SP Clear Sailing (Empire Maker). TJCIS PPs 7th-TAM, $32K, Msw, 2yo, f, 6f, 3:35 p.m. EDT Red Oak Stable homebred WHITE HOLD GOLD (Candy Ride {Arg}) makes a very timely debut Saturday for Greg Sacco. She makes her first trip to the post just eight minutes before her half-brother...

With undefeated phenom Flightline (Tapit) and sophomore star Epicenter (Not This Time) headlining a respectably deep GI Breeders' Cup Classic, one oft-repeated quip is that 2022 is turning out to be "a tough year to have a good horse" aiming for a divisional championship. Yet a few rungs farther down the class ladder--more than a few, in truth--a blue-collar starter-allowance stalwart is tweaking that phrase so it better suits his grind-it-out style, proving that '22 is actually "a good year to have a tough horse." Last week at Churchill Downs,...

When the late John Brunetti Sr., the colorful and sometimes controversial owner of Hialeah Park and the Red Oak Stable breeding and racing operation, died at 87 in 2018, his racing manager, Rick Sacco, told TDN, "He's been active right up until the very end [and] this is probably Mr. Brunetti's best crop of homebred 2-year-olds that we've ever had." The standout from that Red Oak foaling class of '16 ended up being GISW Mind Control (Stay Thirsty), who at age six edged up over the $1.5 million earnings mark...

OCEANPORT, NJ--It was an unseasonably cool and windy June day at the Jersey Shore for Monmouth Park's GIII Salvator Mile S. and the match up on display for Saturday's marquee race was just as unusual as the weather. It is not often the Salvator Mile attracts a pair of Grade I winners, but that is exactly what the Monmouth Park fans were treated to Saturday with Mind Control (Stay Thirsty) meeting Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow) for the first time. And what a treat it was! GI Pennsylvania Derby hero Hot...

Speaker's Corner (Street Sense), a perfect two-for-two to start the year, led by a dominating victory with a 106 Beyer over next-out GIII Ghostzapper S. winner Fearless (Ghostzapper) in the GII WinStar Gulfstream Park Mile S. Mar. 5, headlines Saturday's GI Carter H. at the Big A. Always held in high regard by his connections, the Godolphin homebred has found his calling around one turn this year after concluding his sophomore season with a drifting second in the 1 1/8-mile Discovery S. here Nov. 27. Drawn widest of all in...

Red Oak Stable and Madaket Stables' multiple Grade I winner Mind Control (Stay Thirsty) was found to have an elevated temperature Monday and will not be able to compete in the GI Big Ass Fans Dirt Mile for trainer Todd Pletcher. It is the third consecutive year where issues have kept him from running in the Breeders' Cup. "He spiked a temperature and his blood count is not right," Pletcher said. "We had no choice but to start him on some treatment and not enter. He wasn't acting himself this...

Red Oak Stable and Madaket Stable's multiple Grade I winner Mind Control (Stay Thirsty) has been confirmed on target for the Nov. 6 GI Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile following a five-furlong work in 1:01.55 (7/19) over the training track at Belmont Park Friday. "Mind Control put in an excellent solo breeze and galloped out strongly," trainer Todd Pletcher said. "He finished out in 1:14.33, 1:27.09, and got the mile in 1:41.71. Mind Control will ship to California Oct. 31 to put in his final preparations for the...

Red Oak Stable and Madaket Stables' Mind Control (Stay Thirsty) will attempt to win his third Grade I victory at Saratoga when he goes postward in the GI Forego S. Saturday. The 5-year-old pulled the 10-1 upset when going wire-to-wire in the 2018 GI Hopeful S. and returned to win the 2019 GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S., again at double-digit odds. His Spa streak was interrupted last year when he was third in the GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. and eighth in the Forego, but he returned to the...

1st-Saratoga, $100,000, Msw, 8-22, 2yo, f, 6 1/2f, 1:18.65, ft, neck. GODDESS OF FIRE (f, 2, Mineshaft--Feel That Fire {SW, $147,280}, by Lightnin N Thunder), who had worked in company with Saturday's impressive 'TDN Rising Star' My Prankester (Into Mischief), was given a 2-1 chance to keep trainer Todd Pletcher's good recent run with juvenile firsters going. The bay tracked out wide as second timer Everyoneloveslinda (Secret Circle) showed the way through splits of :22.17 and :46.07. The frontrunner seemed long gone entering the stretch, and Goddess of Fire was...

Firenze Fire (Poseidon's Warrior) has scored half of his 14 lifetime victories at Belmont and looks to add to that Saturday as the favorite in the GII John A. Nerud S., a "Win and You're In" for the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint S. Victorious in this event last year in his second start for the Kelly Breen barn, the Mr. Amore Stable homebred was off the board in his next two attempts in the GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. and GI Forego S. at Saratoga. Returning to winning ways back...