More Than Ready

by Kristen Manning/The Thoroughbred Report Extreme Choice (Aus) made history in the 2024 G1 Melbourne Cup by siring the longshot Knight's Choice (Aus), who stunned as Australia's top stayer. For Sheila Laxon, the first official female trainer to win a Melbourne Cup with Ethereal (NZ) (Rhythm) in 2001, this victory marked a triumphant return to Flemington with her husband, John Symons. Owners Cameron Bain, Richard and Kaye Waldron watched their A$85,000 purchase become a A$5.8 million champion, realising breeder Norm Bazeley's vision, who originally acquired Knight's Choice's dam, Midnight Pearl...

Victory Racing Partners' More Than Looks (More Than Ready) has spent a fair bit of the last 16 months in the shadow cast by his talented contemporary, 'TDN Rising Star' Carl Spackler (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}). In three previous head-to-head battles, the $135,000 Keeneland September graduate had finished behind his rival each time, but the quirky dark bay managed to flip the script on one of racing's biggest stages, coming with a barnstorming rally--in particular in the final 100 yards--to win Saturday's GI FanDuel Breeders' Cup Mile at Del...

It was the Girl in Gold who came home best of all at Keeneland as Emery (More Than Ready) claimed the GII Lexus Raven Run Stakes for owner Stonestreet Stables. Last seen playing bridesmaid to GISW Ways and Means (Practical Joke) in the GI Test Stakes at Saratoga, where MGSW & GISP My Mane Squeeze (Audible) ran third, Emery had come into that contest riding a three-race win streak which began in June. After claiming victory in the Leslie's Lady Stakes at Churchill Downs and then picking up her first...

Multiple Grade I-placed 'TDN Rising Star' Ferocious (Flatter) was out on track at 7:30 a.m. at Keeneland following the first harrow period and had Javier Castellano in the irons for the morning session as he continued preps for his scheduled start in the GI FanDuel Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Castellano had spent nearly two months on the sidelines with a fractured hand, but made a trip from New York to Lexington specifically for the half-mile work. In the first move since Ferocious finished second in the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity, the...

1st-BAQ, $95k, OC/N2X, 3yo/up, 7f, 12:10p.m. ET LOCKED (Gun Runner) will make his return to the races here after not being seen since suffering a knee injury which knocked him off the Triple Crown trail this past spring. Racing with first-time Lasix, and made the 4-5 morning line favorite, he's been working steadily over the Saratoga training track with two of his last three moves being bullet efforts. Last year's GI Breeders' Futurity winner and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile third will have John Velazquez in the irons. TJCIS PPs 3rd-KEE,...

Ellen Jay (f, 3, Constitution--Covfefe, by Into Mischief) planted her flag as the first of her famed dam's offspring to the races and now the first to claim black-type as she kicked home determinedly to win the Glen Cove Stakes. Unveiled to a fourth-place effort in May at Churchill Downs, she steadily improved and really jumped forward on paper with the swap to turf two back at Ellis Park when breaking her maiden July 15 by a nose. Remaining in turf sprints and against first-level allowance company last out Aug....

Spaliday came running late to annex the GII Sands Point Stakes at Aqueduct Saturday. The 3-1 shot lost contact with the field, trailing a strung-out bunch as Macanga led by some six lengths down the backstretch. Spaliday made rapid progress on the far turn and rallied powerfully in deep stretch to just edge the pacesetter for her first graded stakes score. "Around the three-eighths marker, I was looking to see if she could hit the board in this race because I didn't think she could get there," said winning trainer...

GIII Vosburgh Stakes winner Mufasa (Chi) (Practical Joke) was expected to arrive back at Keeneland Sunday, and has two races on Championship weekend under consideration, trainer Ignacio Correas IV confirmed. The 4 1/4-length victory in the "Win and You're In" Breeders' Cup Challenge race was the first North American graded score for the Chilean star since arriving in the U.S. While Mufasa has a fees-paid berth into the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint, Correas has said that the GI Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile is also under consideration. Grade...

If you didn't get your fill of stakes action on Saturday, this is the weekend for you. Five more graded stakes, including the 'Win and You're In' GII Miss Grillo Stakes, as well as the final leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, will take place on Sunday. 'TDN Rising Star' Virgin Colada (More Than Ready) will look to punch her ticket to the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf in a wide-open renewal of the Miss Grillo at the Belmont at the Big A meeting. A flashy come-from-behind debut winner...

May Day Ready (Tapit) put it all together once again in her second career start to claim the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies Stakes. A winner on unveiling Aug. 4 at Saratoga as the second longest shot on the board in a roughly run maiden on the grass, she shipped south from that productive contest which also yielded Ballerina d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro), who won an allowance earlier on the same card. Sent away here at 9-2, she tracked the action in front of her from sixth and raced along from cover...

6th-WO, $111k, Msw, 3yo/up, f, 6 1/2f AWT, 3:52p.m. ET In against a mixed field which includes considerably more seasoned rivals, ONTARIO (Ghostzapper) will be unveiled for the partnership of LNJ Foxwoods and NK Racing. A $450,000 KEESEP yearling in 2022, the filly hails from the female family of Canadian Horse of the Year and two-time champion MGSW Wonder Gadot (Medaglia d'Oro) as well as GISW Hard Not to Love (Hard Spun) and SW & GSP Solemn Tribute (Medaglia d'Oro). Ontario's dam SP Mexican Hat (Street Cry {Ire}) is a...

5th-GP, $60k, Msw, 3yo, f, 1mT, 3:15p.m. ET Going to post carrying the legendary Claiborne colors is STRIFE (War Front), a homebred for the storied operation under the tutelage of Christophe Clement. Out of Black Dynamite (More Than Ready), a winning half-sister to MGSW Chocolate Ride (Candy Ride {Arg})--himself a course-record setter in the GII Melvin H. Muniz Jr. H., Strife is the first to the races for that mare. Her dam is also a half-sister to GISW Killer Graces (Congaree), who made a name in Japan as the dam...