Oscar Performance

4th-Churchill Downs, $114,370, Msw, 10-30, 2yo, f, 6f, 1:12.08, sy, 10 lengths. RED CARPET READY (f, 2, Oscar Performance--Wild Silk, by Street Sense) proved to be just that with a splashy debut performance through the Churchill slop Sunday afternoon. Touching 37-1 at the off, the $180,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga purchase hit the ground running from her low draw and outsprinted the well-backed Bo Derek (Speightstown) to lead them through an opening quarter-mile in :21.74 over the rain-affected surface. With that 7-2 chance her shadow around the turn, Red Carpet Ready shrugged...

Mill Ridge Farm will add a second stallion to its roster for 2023 in this year's defending GI Breeders' Cup Sprint champion Aloha West (Hard Spun--Island Bound, by Speightstown), according to Mill Ridge's general manager Price Bell. Owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and trained by Wayne Catalano, Aloha West is from the family of Fappiano, out of a winner of the six-furlong GIII Winning Colors S. at Churchill. "Aloha West himself very much resembles this side of his family with the speed of Speightstown and his physical quality and presence,"...

Most of us, in this business, have experienced times when we would implore Jerry Amerman to leave that flier, promoting a horseracing syndicate, right where her husband John had thrown it--in the wastebasket. Happily, while they have sampled the full spectrum of the Turf's ups and downs in the 35 years since, their sense of fulfilment only continues to grow. And the sport has itself welcomed corresponding gains from their presence: John's judgement, seasoned by a stellar business career, has been drafted by numerous regulatory and benevolent bodies; Jerry's love...

This is somewhat of a watershed year for freshman sires, with six first-crop sires within the top 10 on the list of leading sires of 2-year-olds in North America through Monday. Spendthrift stalwart Into Mischief leads the group (as he has for five of the last seven years), but the same farm's freshman Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro) is second, Hill 'n' Dale's Good Magic (Curlin) is third, Coolmore America's Justify (Scat Daddy) is fourth, Hill 'n' Dale's Army Mule (Friesan Fire) is fifth, Three Chimneys's Sharp Azteca (Freud) is seventh,...

The annual Ohio Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Mixed Thoroughbred Sale is to be held at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in Delaware, Ohio, Wednesday Oct. 19 and it has drawn enthusiastic participation. The sale will start at 2:30 p.m. The grounds are open for previews/inspections at noon Oct. 18. There are a record-setting 120 entries with a variety of prospects among the 23 weanlings and 74 yearlings as well as 2-year-olds and broodmares. The 2022 edition of the sale includes a 36-entry dispersal from Mapleton Thoroughbred Farm, which has been atop...

Susan Moulton's Andthewinneris came flying late to win the GII Castle & Key Bourbon S. at Keeneland Sunday, leading home an exacta for his freshman sire while also becoming the Mill Ridge stallion's first stakes winner. The 4-1 shot broke from the far outside in the field of 12, angled over and settled near the back of the field. Still some 10 lengths back approaching the stretch, the bay made eye-catching progress leaving the turn and closed stoutly down the center of the course, hitting the front at midstretch and...

Was it divine intervention? As the story goes, sometime in late 1923 or early 1924, a Kentucky pastor, Rev. Dr. Thomas Settle, convinced some state legislators in Frankfort not to end legalized gambling in Kentucky by repealing parimutuel wagering, much to the relief of the Kentucky Jockey Club and other concerned horsemen. Most ministers may have taken the opposite tack at the time, but not Dr. Settle, and this made him stand out. A well-travelled Englishman who'd found his way to a small congregation on Main St. and Bell Ct....

The final week of the Saratoga meet kicks off Wednesday with a 10-race card highlighted by the GIII With Anticipation S. for juvenile turf colts. With the majority of the 10-horse field coming off maiden wins, horseplayers have a variety of ways to go in the betting. Freshman sire City of Light could get his first black-type winner with Battle of Normandy in this event. The $500,000 FTSAUG buy captured his course-and-distance debut Aug. 6 by 2 1/4 lengths after a wide trip. His dam Adorable Miss (Kitten's Joy) was...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - The momentum from last week's record-setting Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearlings Sale carried into the first of two sessions of the company's New York-bred Yearlings Sale in Saratoga Sunday night, with a colt by Hard Spun bringing a record-tying final bid of $600,000 from owner Al Gold. "It was an outstanding session tonight," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. "It was a great start to the New York-bred sale. The place was full of people and full of energy again, just like it was for the selected sale....

6th-Saratoga, $88,000, (S), Msw, 8-4, 2yo, 1 1/16mT, 1:44.44, fm, 1 1/4 lengths. LACHAISE (r, 2, Oscar Performance--Elusive Rumour {MSP, $140,050}, by Elusive Quality), made the 5-2 favorite for Thursday's start, came away near the front and settled three wide in third a length off of pacesetter Provision (Goldencents). Content to let the top pair go on with it, Lachaise took back a bit and raced two wide around the far bend. Commencing a rally  midway on the turn, he found himself three abreast for the lead at the top...

Polite but perfunctory. That was pretty much the tone in which people tended to praise Kitten's Joy while he was with us, and I guess it should be no different now that he's gone. Even so, it strikes me that his loss has been inadequately lamented. Not just in his own right, as an avowed turf stallion who freakishly contrived two general sires' championships in North America; but also, virtually unremarked, as a final straw in what has over the past nine months become an outright catastrophe for the enlightened...

Sent off the 2-1 second betting favorite, Meiner Vision (Jpn) sat three wide the trip and battled on bravely through the final furlong to become the first Japanese winner and third overall for Mill Ridge Farm's freshman sire Oscar Performance (Kitten's Joy--Devine Actress, by Theatrical {Ire}) in an 1800-meter maiden at Fukushima Racecourse. Drawn gate 11 in a scratched-down field of 12, the bay was nudged along early to take up a prominent position and landed three wide punching the breeze while firmly held by jockey Yukito Ishikawa. Settled nicely...