Necker Island

Hoist the Gold (Mineshaft) punched his ticket to the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint with an overdue first graded stakes win in Friday's 'Win and You're In' GII Stoll Keenon Odgen Phoenix S. at Keeneland. He finished third in the GI Runhappy Malibu S. at Santa Anita last December and second in this year's GI Churchill Downs S. on the Kentucky Derby undercard. He fell just a neck short in this spring's GIII Commonwealth S. in Lexington. Last seen finishing a well-beaten sixth in the GII Pat O'Brien S. Aug. 26...

Necker Island (Hard Spun) crossed the wire first in the $150,000 Chesapeake S. at Colonial Downs Aug. 16, stopping the timer in 1:07.72, the track's fastest six-furlong dirt clocking ever. But after multiple objections and a stewards' inquiry, Necker Island was disqualified and demoted to third for interference in the stretch. The lights had barely stopped blinking on the tote board when speculation sparked to life on social media about whether or not the 5-year-old's status as a track-record holder would be stripped, too. The answer, according to Equibase, the...

Greg Harbut's mission to make horse racing more diverse has taken take him back to the classroom. Starting in January, he began a lecture series as part of an entrepreneur residency program at Wilberforce University in which he delivers the message to the students at the historically Black university that getting involved in racing can be a terrific career opportunity. It's his latest attempt to help racing solve what is clearly a problem--its lack of diversity. "It's a wonderful industry, an industry I hold near to my heart and an...

With just seven days remaining until the coronavirus-delayed GI Kentucky Derby, the race's likely second favorite Art Collector (Bernardini) topped a busy Friday morning worktab at Churchill Downs. News also emerged from Saratoga that 'TDN Rising Star' Caracaro (Uncle Mo) would be forced to miss the 'Run for the Roses' after suffering an undetermined injury in a breeze Friday morning. With gameday jockey Brian Hernandez, Jr. in the irons, Bruce Lunsford homebred Art Collector (second in the TDN Kentucky Derby Top 12) went five-eighths of a mile in a 1:00.80...

Bruce Lundsford's Art Collector (Bernardini), winner of the GII Toyota Blue Grass S. in his latest start, worked over a muddy Churchill Downs track Saturday morning. Trained by Tom Drury, the colt carved out fractions of :12.80 and :24.60 before galloping out five furlongs in 1:01.20 and six panels in 1:14.80. "It's so nice to have a horse who is versatile and can really run over any surface," said Drury. "He did everything very easily this morning and it was really just a perfect work. We are still taking things...