Nakatomi

In a division lacking the star power of previous years, another contender threw his hat in the ring Friday as Federal Judge (Army Mule) wired the field in the GII Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix at Keeneland to earn his spot into the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint. Making his third start of the form cycle off over a year-long layoff, the 4-year-old gelding picked up his second straight win having also taken a field of Saratoga allowance runners gate to wire over nearly this distance Aug. 31. Clearly the speed of...

Tickets, please! Keeneland's fall meet has the turnstiles primed Friday and that means the featured GI Darley Alcibiades Stakes will fill the apron on what promises to be massive weekend with some 30 graded races across North America--half of which have Breeders' Cup implications. The signature top-level race at the site of the Old Keene Farm was named for a foundational mare who was bred at Hal Price Headley's Beaumont--where modern-day Mill Ridge resides. Alcibiades won the 1930 Kentucky Oaks for Headley, who was one the Keeneland Association's founders and...

Last seen finishing the distant runner-up behind Tuz (Oxbow) in the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen at Meydan Mar. 30, Don Frankie (Jpn) (Daiwa Major {Jpn}) turned in an ideal prep for an expected date in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint with an all-the-way victory in Wednesday's $353,808 Listed Cluster Cup at Morioka Raceourse on the National Association of Racing circuit. An agile individual for a horse that tipped the scales Wednesday at 607 kg (1335 pounds), Don Frankie was ridden for speed from gate seven by Kenichi Ikezoe and made...

There can't be many tracks that that deviate further from the standard American model than Goodwood. Even in Britain nobody today would dream of laying out a racecourse along a twisting ridge of downland, and we remain duly indebted to the militia officers who first eked out a little sport here 223 years ago. Not that the horses themselves share our appreciation for a gorgeous panorama of cornfields and woodland, focused as they are on keeping their balance over the swaying terrain and round sharp right-hand bends. Yet last week...

An interval of 136 years between Apollo and Justify, followed by one of just five to Mage, tells us all we need to know about the way modern trainers can (and increasingly prefer to) prepare their Derby prospects. So these remain very early days for the freshmen sires, nowadays responsible for such a large portion of every juvenile crop. In this era of monster books, especially, even the rookie with most action to date has barely scratched the surface. At the moment that's Vekoma, who lies second in the freshman...

"My friends thought I was nuts when I got back into the horse business," says Maynard Thompson. "But when those babies are about three to five days old, and you take them outside and turn them loose for the first time, every one of them thinks he's the toughest thing out there. And if that doesn't put a smile on your face, you're not breathing." Which is why Thompson perseveres on 15 acres of gently undulating terrain, a few miles south of Tama on the Iowa River. "I'm 71 years...

Qatar Racing and Mrs. Fitriani Hay's Nakatomi (Firing Line), a longshot third in last year's GI Breeders' Cup Sprint at Santa Anita, broke through with a career-best effort to capture Saturday's GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap at the Spa. Backed at odds of 7-2, Nakatomi broke smartly from his rail draw and, somewhat surprisingly, showed good early speed while chasing favored 10-time winner Skelly (Practical Joke) from second through an opening quarter in :22.20. Traveling nicely approaching the quarter pole, Nakatomi set his sights on Skelly at the top of...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - In her days as a Thoroughbred horse trainer, Keri Brion has been associated mainly with steeplechase runners. And she has no problem with that. The jump game has been good to her. Since opening her own stable, the former assistant to the late Hall of Famer Jonathan Sheppard has trained an Eclipse Award Steeplechase horse in The Mean Queen (Ire) (Doyen {Ire}), who won it in 2021, her first year. But there is more to her training game, and she made people take notice. On Thursday,...

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- Tuz (Oxbow), who like Kabirkhan (California Chrome) was purchased on the final day of the Keeneland September sale and overwhelmed his competition in Russia to earn a call up to Dubai, took a gap at the fence with 200 metres to run and bolted clear to take Saturday's G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen Sponsored by Nakheel by a record-setting 6 1/2 -length margin. Tuz won three starts at Pyatigorsk Hippodrome by the better part of 50 lengths was making his fourth straight appearance on World Cup...

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- The 28th running of the $12-million G1 Dubai World Cup is set for Saturday at sprawling Meydan Racecourse and has attracted an internationally flavored field of 12, a third of which are based in various parts of the U.S. Senor Buscador (Mineshaft) will attempt to make history as the first to sweep the 'Desert Double,' having caused a surprise when just touching off the re-opposing World Cup champion Ushba Tesoro (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) 600 miles to the west of here in the G1 Saudi Cup...

The fall isn't really, The Fall, until Keeneland arrives. Well, get your steaming pot of burgoo ready, because it's here. Scheduled for Friday, Oct. 6, the meet's opening day at the Old Keene Farm is upon us and the 10-race card includes a trio of graded stakes which all have Breeders' Cup 'Win and You're In' implications. Leading off is the GII Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix S. for 3-year-olds and up going six furlongs on the Main Track. Suitors for the GI Breeders' Cup Qatar Racing Sprint include MSW Bango...

Fasig-Tipton has catalogued an additional 39 entries to its July Selected Horses of Racing Age sale, the organization said in a release Friday. The auction will begin at 2 p.m. ET on Monday, July 10 in Lexington, Kentucky. The latest entries are catalogued as hips 598-636, which may now be viewed online. They include: Showgirl Lynne B (Constitution) (hip 598), Reflexivity (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) (hip 616), Nakatomi (Firing Line) (hip 617), Astonesthrowaway (Bustin Stones) (hip 618) and Devil's Bit (Daredevil) (hip 627). These entries will also be available...