Nest

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Though Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas rarely passes on big stakes opportunities, he is skipping the GII Shuvee S. Sunday with Secret Oath (Arrogate). After she turned in an uncharacteristic dull performance in the June 10 GI Ogden Phipps S., Lukas and the 4-year-old filly's breeder-owners Robert and Stacy Mitchell are using a little-bit-less-is-more approach at Saratoga Race Course. "She's really, really doing well," Lukas said Wednesday morning, "but we have made a decision to run here only once. We're trying to space her...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - There will be no easing back into competition for champion Nest (Curlin). Certainly not on a Sunday in July at Saratoga Race Course. In the first start of her 4-year-old season--which was delayed by illness--in the GII Shuvee S., Nest is likely to face Clairiere (Curlin), the leader of the older female dirt division, and GI La Troienne winner Played Hard (Into Mischief). "It's not the position we set out to be on at the beginning of this year, but it's kind of where we are,"...

Nest (Curlin), last year's Eclipse champion 3-year-old filly, tuned up for her expected seasonal debut in the July 23 GII Shuvee S. with a four-furlong work in :50.00 (13/38) in company with unraced stablemate Onlooker (Street Sense) over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga Sunday. "It was a good work and a nice, strong gallop out. She seemed to keep going," trainer Todd Pletcher said. Owned by Repole Stable, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Michael House, Nest has been off since finishing fourth in last year's GI Breeders' Cup Distaff. During...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y--Nothing new at old Saratoga this summer. As has been the case for many decades, most of racing's stars will be in town for America's most important Thoroughbred meet of the year. The first race of the 40 days of the 155th season opens at 1:10 p.m. Thursday with a 10-race program at Saratoga Race Course. By the time the meeting reaches its conclusion on Labor Day, Sept. 4, over 400 races, including 71 stakes worth $20.8 million, will have been run. The traditional opening-day feature is the...

Reigning Champion 2-Year-Old Colt and 'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence) resumed his work schedule on Friday morning over the Belmont Park training track by traversing a half-mile in 50.40 for trainer Todd Pletcher. With exercise rider Hector Ramos aboard, Forte worked following the 9:30 a.m. renovation break and breezed in company with MGSW Major Dude (Bolt d'Oro), who is slated to run in next Friday's GIII Manila S. at Belmont. The move was Forte's first since finishing second in the GI Belmont S. "We were just looking for an easy...

Four days after his Forte (Violence) won the GII Fountain of Youth S. in his 3-year-old debut, co-owner Mike Repole was still beaming. At this point, Forte's lead-up to the GI Kentucky Derby has been perfect. There have been no hiccups and his race in the Fountain of Youth checked every conceivable box. So what did Repole, who owns the horse in partnership with Vinnie Viola, think? We had Repole join us on the TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland to find out. Repole was this week's Green Group...

Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher is on fire, unveiling one promising colt or filly after another in maiden, allowance, and stakes races it seems. Last month, Pletcher won his eighth Eclipse Award as North America's leading trainer. Not only that, but three horses trained by Pletcher also won Eclipses: Forte (Violence), champion 2-year-old colt; Nest (Curlin), champion 3-year-old filly; and Malathaat (Curlin), champion older female. Like Pletcher, Curlin shone at the Eclipses. Aside from Nest and Malathaat, his Elite Power was named champion sprinter of 2022, giving the Hill 'n'...

Flightline was clearly the star among stars at the Eclipse Awards ceremonies held Jan. 26 in Palm Beach, Florida, but a trio of stallions that call the rustic environs of John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa home stole the show from a sires' perspective, accounting for half of the evening's 10 winners among the Flat divisions. Success at the Eclipse Awards is obviously directly correlated with horse racing on its biggest stages, and the results from the first weekend of November, not far away from Xalapa at Keeneland Race...

Having just last week been crowned the Longines World's Best Racehorse in London, 'TDN Rising Star' Flightline (Tapit) was named America's no-doubt-about-it Horse of the Year and champion dirt male at the Eclipse Awards, held Thursday evening at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida. Bred in Kentucky by Jane Lyon's Summer Wind Equine, Flightline was a $1-million purchase out of the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, didn't start as a juvenile and didn't get to a starting gate until April of his 3-year-old season. The negatives end right about there. In...

A pair of battle-tested performers in their 3-year-old categories, Nest and Epicenter showed grit and determination versus some stiff competition along the Derby and Oaks Trails. NEST When all the votes were tallied, the title for the 2022 champion 3-year-old filly division went for the second consecutive year to another uber-talented daughter of Curlin out of an A.P. Indy mare. Also trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, Nest follows in the footsteps of 2021 3-year-old filly champion Malathaat, who employed a similar route to Eclipse success, including wins in...

Alex Solis II and Jason Litt, who operate the Solis/Litt bloodstock agency, have joined forces with owner Mike Repole, who has continued to add to his team as both his stable and his goals have grown in recent years. Repole, who owns many horses in partnership with Vinnie Viola, has about 300 horses and has been very active in recent years at the yearling sales. "I am all about family and friends," Repole said. "Over the last couple of years they've been helping me out with some yearlings and colts...

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), Daily Racing Form, and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters (NTWAB) today announced the finalists for the 2022 Eclipse Awards, recognizing excellence in Thoroughbred racing. Winners in 17 horse and human categories will be announced on FanDuel TV, and other outlets, during the 52nd annual Eclipse Awards, presented by John Deere, Keeneland, and The Jockey Club,  on Thursday, Jan. 26 at 7:30 p.m. ET. The evening will culminate with the announcement of the 2022 Horse of the Year. Of the 258 eligible voters represented by...