Munnings

Action returned to the sales ring Tuesday for the first session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training and consignors and buyers tiptoed carefully through the first auction since the coronavirus pandemic halted the industry across the globe. At the conclusion of the session, numbers were down slightly from 2019 figures, but by and large participants seemed content simply to have made a new beginning. "Given everything that everyone has had to go through, I think it was a solid start," said OBS Director of...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 5th-GP, $65K, Msw, 2yo, f, 5fT, 2:05 p.m. ET Two juveniles bred in Europe who debut for top barns headline this turf sprint Wednesday in Hallandale, led by Wesley Ward trainee AMANZI YIMPILO (IRE) (No Nay Never). By an emerging star stallion, the chestnut was picked up for $300,000 at Keeneland September and signaled her readiness for this unveiling with a best-of-64 bullet half-mile breeze around dogs on the Palm Meadows turf in :47 4/5 May 30. She hails from the female family of champion...

A filly by Not This Time, mirroring the quick start of her freshman sire's progeny on the racetrack, claimed the fastest quarter-mile breeze time of the week so far when covering the distance in :20 1/5 during Monday's second under-tack preview ahead of next week's Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training. Consigned by Top Line Sales, hip 1254 is out of graded stakes winner Sheza Smoke Show (Wilko). "When we led her up there, we knew she would go fast, but we had no idea she...

Ten Broeck Farm's Kimari (Munnings) may be in line for a return date at the Royal Ascot meeting this summer following her win in the Purple Martin S. at Oaklawn Saturday. Trainer Wesley Ward said the tentative plan for Kimari, who was second in last year's G2 Queen Mary S., is to return to England for the June 19 G1 Commonwealth Cup. "She's going to be just a pure sprinter, dirt or turf," Ward said after his first career Oaklawn victory Saturday. "We'll probably try to stick a little bit...

Kimari returned to winning ways and scored her first black-type victory on dirt in the Purple Martin S. The bay settled in mid-pack off a sharp first quarter in :21.63. Tipped out two wide for running room, she improved her position through a half in :45.26 and unleashed a powerful rally in the stretch, charging clear to score. "I was really, really super confident going into this race," trainer Wesley Ward said. "I'm kind of a positive guy, anyways, but after seeing those two works, I knew it would take...

No matter what he does, Lookin At Lucky (Smart Strike) seems condemned always to be the short guy in the back row of the team photo. In the private duel that defines his stud career, moreover, he has to endure Munnings (Speightstown) moving ever closer, year by year, to front and center. These two splendid sires, who started out together at Ashford in 2011, experienced rather typical fortunes last Saturday when dividing the big sophomore tests in New Orleans between them (along with those skilled gentlemen, Brad Cox and Florent...

Finite (Munnings) was out to cement her spot at the head of the sophomore filly class in Saturday's GII TwinSpires.com Fair Grounds Oaks, but it was her sire's Bonny South who came with a stinging rally from last in the field of six to cause a minor upset and soothe--at least in a minor way--the sad loss last month of stablemate and fellow Juddmonte homebred and 'TDN Rising Star' Taraz (Into Mischief). Taken hold of immediately by Florent Geroux, Bonny South dropped out to trail, as French Rose (Raison d'Etat)...

Both the Winchell Thoroughbreds-owned Summerly (Summer Squall, 2005) and Untapable (Tapit, 2014) used a victory in the GII Fair Grounds Oaks as a springboard to success at Churchill Downs on the first Friday in May. That particular double will be delayed this year, but Finite (Munnings), bred by Winchell and campaigned in partnership, can take the first step as the likely heavy favorite in the Saturday co-feature in New Orleans. The current pole sitter on the TDN Kentucky Oaks Top 10, Finite enters the Oaks on a five-race winning skein,...

Off a modest initial stud of $12,500 back in 2011, Munnings (Speightstown) has written his own Cinderella story as he's worked his way to the top tier of the general sires list. But this year has potential to witness the sire's biggest breakthrough yet. With a 2020 fee set at $30,000 and five stakes winners already this year, many of the horses ranking beside Munnings in terms of black-type winners are standing at five and six times his fee. "He's a horse that really in the last two or three...

While the GI Kentucky Oaks will always be overshadowed by the GI Kentucky Derby, this year's Oaks has nothing to apologize for. Through the early round of prep races, it appears that the 2020 Oaks will include one of the deepest and most talented lineups in the race's history. That's still the case after the tragic loss of Taraz (Into Mischief), who had to be euthanized after suffering an injury in a workout Monday at Oaklawn Park. The early round of preps have produced some outstanding performances and several top...

As has been well documented, the Fair Grounds road to the GI Kentucky Oaks has been enormously productive over the last 15 years, producing no fewer than eight winners on the first Friday in May, including Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) and Serengeti Empress (Alternation) in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Finite (Munnings) is well on her way to adding to that impressive total after registering her fifth consecutive victory in Saturday's GII Rachel Alexandra S., easily lowering the colors of the previously unbeaten Eclipse Award winner British Idiom (Flashback). Away in good...

Undefeated British Idiom (Flashback), recently crowned champion 2-year-old filly of 2019, will make her sophomore debut in Saturday's GII Rachel Alexandra S. at Fair Grounds, where she'll meet Finite (Munnings), winner of four straight, and five other rivals in the 1 1/16-mile test. Bought for $40,000 as a Fasig-Tipton October yearling, the chestnut debuted in a maiden race at Saratoga restricted to purchases of $45,000 or less and posted a 3 1/2-length pace-pressing success. Shipped to Keeneland and stretched out to two turns, she blew away her competition to the...