Oscar Performance

In a battle of two touted maiden winners, it was ENDLESSLY (Oscar Performance) who got the final say in Sunday's GIII Del Mar Juvenile Turf S. Lined up opposite 'TDN Rising Star' Boltage (Bolt d'Oro), the 5-2 second choice kept to what he knew after a winning debut over this same distance earlier in the meet July 30. Also facing two of his stablemates in this spot, Endlessly broke with the pack but was quickly outrun passing the wire the first time by. A keen Des Doigts (Hootenanny), chased intently...

Some of the most highly anticipated races during the summer racing season are the 'baby' races during the boutique meetings at both Saratoga and Del Mar and at Ellis Park, which attract its fair share of high-priced offspring from a variety of top national outfits. Summer Breezes highlights debuting 2-year-olds at those meetings that have been sourced at the breeze-up sales earlier in the year, with links to their under-tack previews. To follow are the entries for Friday at Saratoga and Del Mar. Ellis Park has rescheduled its Friday card...

Undefeated in three career starts, but facing a steep trifecta of challenges to scale--trying dirt, graded company, and the tough New York circuit for the first time--New York Thunder (c, 3, Nyquist--Start Over, by Midshipman) set sizzling fractions on the front end of Saratoga's GII Amsterdam S. Friday and held sway to win by 7 1/2 lengths while eased up late despite spending most of the stretch on his wrong lead. His 1:07.77 six-furlong split was faster than the 1:07.92 track record set in 2019 by Imperial Hint (Imperialism) in...

While Friday's GII Eight Belles S. was bet more or less like a coronation for the freaky and previously unbeaten Munnys Gold, Red Carpet Ready--whose own perfect record was tarnished last out--had other ideas. Away as the second choice almost 14 times the favorite's odds, Red Carpet Ready shadowed the pacesetting chalk early with both kept well off the inside. Red Carpet Ready put the screws to Munnys Gold around the turn after a :45.11 half, and quickly opened up as noses pointed for home. Munnys Gold dug in deep,...

In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for this weekend running at Hanshin and Nakayama Racecourses: Saturday, April 1, 2023 1st-HSN, ¥10,480,000 ($79k), Maiden, 3yo, 1400m TAKE A STAB (JPN) (f, 3, Justify--It Was Magic, by War Front) is the first foal out of a daughter of 2011 G1 Irish 1000 Guineas...

Amerman Racing's Devine Actress (Theatrical {Ire}--Devine Beauty, by Mr. Prospector) hemorrhaged after foaling a Not This Time filly Feb. 24 at Mill Ridge Farm and has died. Winner of Santa Anita's Santa Lucia H. in 2010, the mare produced three graded winners, including MGISW and young Mill Ridge stallion Oscar Performance (Kitten's Joy). Her other foals include MGSW & MGISP Oscar Nominated (Kitten's Joy) and GSW Award Winner (Ghostzapper). "Devine Actress had been a part of the Mill Ridge family since 2010," said Mill Ridge's general manager, Price Bell. "It...

Ashbrook Farm and Upland Flats Racing's Red Carpet Ready picked up right where she left off Saturday, dominating Gulfstream's GIII Forward Gal S. to stay unbeaten and earn eight GI Kentucky Oaks qualifying points. Belying almost 37-1 odds when she aired in the Churchill slop first out Oct. 30, the dark bay handled the next step with aplomb, taking the Nov. 26 Fern Creek S. by daylight over a next-out allowance winner back under the Twin Spires. Off as the narrow second choice behind multiple local stakes winner Atomically--last seen...

After a short hiatus from the stallion business, Mill Ridge welcomed GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Oscar Performance to their farm in 2019. Four years later, they now add a second stallion to their roster in Aloha West (Hard Spun - Island Bound, by Speightstown), who claimed the 2021 GI Qatar Racing Breeders' Cup Sprint for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Wayne Catalano. With breeding shed doors opening soon, what has this newcomer's initial reception been like with breeders? "A lot more positive than the Oscar Performance reception was," said...

Today we finally come to a group that has at least had some initial opportunity to show whether or not they can replicate their own racing prowess. By the same token, of course, this means that their level of support--which in many cases will already have declined through each preceding year, as racetrack exposure draws perilously closer--may now fall off a cliff. If the stampede to unproven sires is ludicrous, then so is the haste with which they are abandoned. Stallions whose stock should plainly be granted time to mature...

Though he didn't debut until April of his 3-year-old year, Arrogate (Unbridled's Song) proved worth the wait, coming in third in his debut before unleashing an onslaught of victories that culminated in early 2017's last-to-first performance in the G1 Dubai World Cup. A $560,000 Keeneland September yearling, Arrogate earned his 'TDN Rising Star' tag with a wire-to-wire effort at Santa Anita June 6. He won twice more in allowance/optional claiming company before his coming-out party in the GI Travers S. where he defeated a loaded field--MGISP American Freedom (Pulpit), 2017...

The betting public had some difficulty knowing exactly what to do with Red Carpet Ready in Saturday's $200,000 Fern Creek S. at Churchill Downs. The $180,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga graduate opened her account at first asking by 10 going six furlongs on the Stars of Tomorrow I program here Oct. 30, but it came over a heavily rain-affected track and was only modestly graded. The dark bay filly was accordingly no better than 7-1 off a morning line that was half that number and jumped alertly to stalk the pace outside...

Mill Ridge Farm's Oscar Performance, who currently ranks among the top 10 first-crop sires based in North America, will get a bump in his fee for 2023 to $20,000 live foal, the initial fee he stood for in his first two years at stud. The four-time Grade I winner, whose victories included the 2016 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf, has sired 14 individual winners (16% winners to foals) and four graded stakes performers, including the GII Castle & Key Bourbon S. exacta with the winner Andthewinneris and runner-up Deer District....