Practical Joke

After winning Saturday's Letellier Memorial Stakes with first-time starter Simply Joking (Practical Joke), trainer Whit Beckman struck again with another daughter of Practical Joke in the Untapable Stakes at Fair Grounds. Scratched out of that six-furlong affair on the undercard in favor of the two-turn Untapable, it was Her Laugh (Practical Joke) who got the job done for Beckman in front-running fashion at odds of 9-2, good for 10 points on the Road to the GI Kentucky Oaks. It was 2 1/2 lengths back to favored 'TDN Rising Star' Golden...

Simply Joking (Practical Joke) was certainly for real, kicking off her career with a debut victory in Saturday's Letellier Memorial Stakes at Fair Grounds. Well backed at 5-2 with a flashy worktab on display for trainer Whit Beckman, the $65,000 Keeneland September yearling wasn't off to the sharpest of beginnings and trailed the field of six in the early stages. Fifth and traveling nicely approaching the quarter pole, she rolled up five wide at the top of the stretch and outbattled Delta Downs runaway debut winner Whata Moon (Gormley) to...

Ashford Stud's Practical Joke has enjoyed perhaps his strongest season yet with seven graded stakes winners so far this year. Only four stallions in North America can claim more, while both Quality Road and Not This Time also have seven graded stakes winners to their credit in 2024. Practical Joke, a three-time Grade I winner in his own right, retired to Ashford in 2018 and has produced four Grade I winners from his first four crops. In 2025, the son of Into Mischief's stud fee will increase from $45,000 to...

2nd-Del Mar, $54,500, Msw, 11-23, 2yo, 6 1/2f, 1:15.91, ft, 2 1/4 lengths. ROMANESQUE (c, 2, Practical Joke--Mony'slittlegracie, by Alphabet Soup) was the slightly better-fancied half of an uncoupled Bob Baffert-trained entry at 5-2, raced in lockstep with Rodriguez (Authentic) for most of the final half-mile of Saturday's second race at Del Mar and finally gained the upper hand inside the final 100 yards to graduate at first asking. Off perhaps a half-step slowly from the inside gate while Rodriguez clearly won the break, the $60,000 Keeneland November weanling turned...

The sire of 19 stakes winners on four different continents in 2024, Justify (Scat Daddy--Stage Magic, by Ghostzapper) will command a service fee of $250,000 in 2025, the Versailles, Kentucky-based nursery announced Monday. Alongside Into Mischief and Gun Runner, Justify will stand for the joint-highest covering fee in the United States. The rising 10-year-old stallion is the sire of a trio of Group 1 winners this season, including City of Troy, winner in succession of the G1 Betfred Derby at Epsom, the G1 Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown and an all-the-way...

In a four-horse field where trainers Bob Baffert and Tim Yakteen accounted for the entire group, it was Silent Law (f, 2, Tiz the Law--Southern Silence, by Dixie Union) who put the pedal to the metal and never gave her foes a chance in the Anoakia Stakes at Santa Anita. In front right from the jump, the heavy 2-5 favorite rolled along on the lead while under a tight hold by Juan Hernandez through :21.64 and :44.65 opening splits. Entering the lane with a two-length buffer, Practical Dream (Practical Joke)...

LEXINGTON, KY - The Fasig-Tipton October Yearlings Sale smashed its previous records for gross and average and produced its lowest buy-back rate in 11 years when it concluded its four-day run in Lexington Thursday. " All in all, I am somewhere between thrilled and ecstatic with the results of these four days," Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. said at the close of business Thursday evening. "The consignors continue to bring us higher quality horses each and every year and it is reflected in these results and these statistics." Through four...

Multiple Grade I-placed 'TDN Rising Star' Ferocious (Flatter) was out on track at 7:30 a.m. at Keeneland following the first harrow period and had Javier Castellano in the irons for the morning session as he continued preps for his scheduled start in the GI FanDuel Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Castellano had spent nearly two months on the sidelines with a fractured hand, but made a trip from New York to Lexington specifically for the half-mile work. In the first move since Ferocious finished second in the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity, the...

Keeneland has catalogued 209 horses to the November Horses of Racing Age Sale to be held Nov. 14, the day after the conclusion of the November Breeding Stock Sale, the auction company said in a Wednesday press release. The sale will start at noon ET., which will enable trainers and racing entities to complete their morning activities. The majority of horses in the catalogue will be stabled at Keeneland in Barns 18-26 with some horses offered remotely from their training locations. The catalogue comprises 42 juveniles, 106 3-year-olds and 59...

Trainer Chad Brown sent out a quartet of Breeders' Cup aspirants to work over Belmont Park's dirt training track, led by GI Toyota Bluegrass Stakes winner Sierra Leone (Gun Runner), who covered a half-mile in :48.67. Runner up in the GI Kentucky Derby and third in the GI Belmont earlier this spring, the $2.3 million yearling purchase races for Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg, Rocket Ship Racing and Brant. "He looks super, and the horse is really training well," Brown said of the GI Breeders' Cup Classic...

The Jockey Club projects a North American registered Thoroughbred foal crop of 17,300 in 2025, which is some 700 fewer foals than the 2024 foal crop estimate of 18,000, the organization said in a press release early Wednesday. The foal crop projection is computed by using Reports of Mares Bred (RMBs) received to date for the 2024 breeding season. RMBs are to be filed by Aug. 1 of each breeding season. This year, The Jockey Club has published preliminary statistics regarding mares reported bred by state/province through the current date...

GIII Vosburgh Stakes winner Mufasa (Chi) (Practical Joke) was expected to arrive back at Keeneland Sunday, and has two races on Championship weekend under consideration, trainer Ignacio Correas IV confirmed. The 4 1/4-length victory in the "Win and You're In" Breeders' Cup Challenge race was the first North American graded score for the Chilean star since arriving in the U.S. While Mufasa has a fees-paid berth into the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint, Correas has said that the GI Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile is also under consideration. Grade...