Paynter

Domestic Product (Practical Joke), a forgettable 13th after getting pinched at the start in the GI Kentucky Derby, showed no mercy on his three rivals in Saturday's GIII Dwyer Stakes at the Big A. Turning back to a one-turn mile, the 3-5 favorite stalked the early leaders from an outside third. He launched while three deep entering the far turn, hit the front as they straightened for home and blasted off to score by 7 1/2 lengths over Hades (Awesome Slew). The pacesetter Billal (Street Sense) was third. "He was...

Sabrina Moore's GreenMount Farm will offer its final consignment during next week's Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale and, fittingly, the consignment's three offerings kick off with a short yearling from the first crop of the champion who put the Maryland farm on the map, Knicks Go. "It's a little bittersweet that this is going to be my last consignment," Moore admitted. "But it will kind of come full circle, hopefully." Moore and her mother Angie co-bred Knicks Go and sold the son of the late Paynter for $40,000...

WinStar's Grade I-winning millionaire Paynter, whose story of perseverance captivated the racing world in 2012, had to be euthanized on Friday, Nov. 10, due to lameness, the farm said in a release Friday morning. The 2009 son of Awesome Again captured the 2012 GI Haskell Invitational S. and finished a close second in that year's GI Belmont S. en route to career earnings of $1,101,924 for owner Zayat Stables and trainer Bob Baffert. After nearly wiring the field in the 2012 GI Belmont S. and winning the GI Haskell Invitational,...

Jockey Carlos Eduardo Lopez, currently third in earnings and fourth in wins at Charles Town Races this year, was fined $1,000 by the track's stewards for losing a win at the wire after his mount was clear by five lengths at the sixteenth pole and he apparently thought he could coast to victory without additional effort. "Jockey Lopez eased his mount, Stylish Paint, coming to the wire in the ninth race on Saturday, Apr. 8, 2023, causing his horse to get beat on the wire," stated the Apr. 14 stewards'...

Hopes were high when Must Be the Money (Paynter) made his first start Wednesday for trainer Paul McGee. The betting public agreed, pushing the bay colt down into the 3-2 favorite's slot as the field loaded into the gate at Churchill Downs. But, when the latches sprung open and the field came away, Must Be the Money was caught flat-footed and quickly found himself in chase mode at the back of the pack. Able to weave his way through the field to be an outside fifth at the top of...

Already named champion older dirt male Thursday, Knicks Go (Paynter) finished off Eclipse Award night with one more big win as he was crowned Horse of the Year for a 2021 campaign that saw him rack up $7,324,140 in earnings with five wins from seven starts, capped off with a convincing gate-to-wire score in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic for Korea Racing Authority and trainer Brad Cox. The grey, who stands this year at Taylor Made, was bred in Maryland by Angie Moore. 

When a racetrack musters a $3-million purse for a featured event, the hope is that racing's stars will attend the big dance. And this year's GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. certainly succeeded in attracting two of the biggest names--Knicks Go (Paynter) and Life Is Good (Into Mischief)--in the American handicap division. Knicks Go, a 2 3/4-length winner in last year's Pegasus World Cup, finished fourth in the G1 Saudi Cup and GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan H. before reeling off four-straight wins, including the GI Whitney S. and in...

In reaching the penultimate instalment of our series, once again we are obliged by the steepening commercial gradient to combine different intakes--this time, those who have now launched between four and six juvenile crops--to ensure a suitably competitive podium. For by this stage of their career the majority of Kentucky start-ups will already have packed their bags for regional or overseas programs. One or two are still barely clinging on, their books plummeting, but overall we're now looking at those few who have bravely consolidated to the brink of inclusion...

Korea Racing Authority's Knicks Go (Paynter), seeking to become the first repeat winner of Gulfstream Park's $3- million GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational, recorded his first workout since capturing the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic a month ago. The dark gray worked what was clocked as a three-eighths of a mile breeze in :36.20 (2/2) under exercise rider Edvin Vargas early Saturday morning at Churchill Downs. Trainer Brad Cox said he timed Knicks Go galloping out a half-mile in :48 1/5. "Well in hand, and I think he was out...

Welcome to our annual winter survey of Kentucky stallion options--with the difference, this time round, that the emphasis will be far more strictly and succinctly on value. Over the past couple of years, acknowledging of the brevity of commercial momentum for so many sires once losing their freshman luster, we've got into the habit of granting some attention (more or less courteous!) to just about every stallion in the Bluegrass. But such an exhaustive approach has doubtless proved still more exhausting for the reader than for the compiler. So, we've...

DEL MAR, CA - On paper, the scratched-down field of eight for Saturday's $6-million GI Breeders' Cup Classic appeared to have more than its share of speed to keep 5-2 morning-line favorite Knicks Go (Paynter) company on the front end in his first attempt at 1 1/4 miles. It didn't. With the sunset providing a magnificent backdrop as the octet left Del Mar's 1 1/4-mile chute, the stunning gray, off as the co-second choice at 3-1, broke like a shot beneath Joel Rosario from post four and quickly was clear...

Now this, we can all agree, is just what a GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic should look like. Three of the first four in the Derby, albeit not the one that may ultimately be credited as winner. And besides resolving the questions left open by that processional race at Churchill, they must also pick up the gauntlet thrown down by an older horse whose plain running style should leave no stone of merit unturned. A race, in other words, commensurate with the biggest prize of the American Turf, with the...