Proxy

Sometimes Proxy (h, 5, Tapit--Panty Raid, by Include), the GI Clark H. winner, shows up and sometimes Proxy, the last-place finisher in the GI Stephen Foster S., makes an appearance. Saturday in Monmouth's $400,000 GIII Monmouth Cup S., it was the former, as the gutsy bay and 2-5 choice called on his class to uncharacteristically set the pace and turn back stiff challenges from Whelen Springs (Street Sense)--the only horse in the field with a recent win over the surface--and last-out GII Brooklyn S. runner-up Calibrate (Distorted Humor). "He really...

Unfortunately, they only have one Two Phil's (Hard Spun). If they had another, presumably making Four Phils in all, then they might yet have the consolation of a proxy in the big races through the second half of the season. As it is, we can only offer our sympathy to the heartbroken team around a horse that brought us such precious cheer during what is proving a challenging year for our sport. Because that's the whole point, really. The big programs would be able to temper their disappointment, on losing...

The names of some of this country's most accomplished Thoroughbred owners grace the honor roll as winners of the GII Oaklawn H., including Loblolly Stable, Greentree Stable, Allen Paulson, Golden Eagle, John Franks, Ogden Phipps, Jerry Moss, Pin Oak Stable and the late Oaklawn president Charles Cella. Following the conclusion of nine sometimes rough-and-tumble furlongs Saturday in Hot Springs, you can now add the name of Godolphin to the list, as the operation's immaculately bred 5-year-old Proxy (Tapit) stormed down the center of the track and managed to outfinish defending...

Gold Square LLC's MGISW Cyberknife (Gun Runner), last seen finishing a narrow second to Cody's Wish (Curlin) in the GI Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, is scheduled to make the final start of his racing career Saturday at Gulfstream Park as the 5-2 morning-line favorite for the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational. The Pegasus World Cup will headline a 13-race program also featuring the GI Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational, the GIII TAA Pegasus World Cup Filly & Mare Turf, and four other graded-stakes races totaling $5.3 million...

Godolphin's Proxy (Tapit) had his last major workout at the Fair Grounds Saturday in preparation for the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Jan. 28. The 5-year-old official time for the six-furlong move to the seven-eighths pole was 1:13.20, the fastest of two works at the distance Saturday morning. Working in tandem with stablemate Global Sensation (Into Mischief), the pair covered five-eighths in 1:00.40, with Proxy working an additional eighth-mile past the wire. With a crush of horses working right after the track's renovation break, exercise rider Arturo Aparicio...

Cyberknife (Gun Runner) and two-time defending champion Colonel Liam (Liam's Map) top the invitational lists for the $3 million GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational and the $1 million GI Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational respectively. The seventh running of the Pegasus World Cup, a 1 1/8-mile stakes for 4-year-olds and up, will be featured Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park along with the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational, a 1 1/8-mile stakes for 4-year-olds and up, and the GIII Pegasus World Cup Filly & Mare Turf, a 1 1/16-mile...

Making his first start since running a career-best 104 Beyer Speed Figure when third to future GI Breeders' Cup Classic runner-up Olympiad (Speightstown) in the GII Stephen Foster S. at Churchill Downs this past July, Proxy (Tapit--Panty Raid, by Include) got just the better of a final-furlong throwdown with favored West Will Power (Bernardini) to take out Friday's GI Clark S. beneath the Twin Spires. The win was a second straight in the race for Godolphin following Maxfield (Street Sense) last fall. Given a positive ride from gate one by...

GI Kentucky Derby upsetter Rich Strike (Keen Ice) hopes to strengthen his case for a year-end championship title as he takes on his elders in the GI Clark H. Friday at Churchill Downs. Right now, the 3-year-old male divisional title could go any way. Taiba (Gun Runner) and Cyberknife (Gun Runner) each have a pair of Grade Is to their credit and Epicenter (Not This Time) won the GI Runhappy Travers S. In addition to finishing second in the first two legs of the Triple Crown. Rich Strike only has...

Grandview Equine, Cheyenne Stable and LNJ Foxwoods' Olympiad (Speightstown) announced himself as a player in the handicap division with a fast-finishing score in the GIII Mineshaft S. last out at Fair Grounds, and will look for an encore as the favorite in Saturday's GII New Orleans Classic S. on the GII TwinSpires.com Louisiana Derby undercard. Graduating at second asking in September of 2020 at Saratoga while besting future stakes winners Caddo River (Hard Spun) and Greatest Honour (Tapit), the $700,000 Keeneland September buy was laid up for 364 days and...

While trainer Mike Stidham isn't fully closing the door on a run in the GI Kentucky Derby for his pupil Proxy (Tapit), Saturday the colt will divert from the big-stage preps in an attempt for a confidence builder as he figures a prohibitive favorite in the GIII Stonestreet Lexington S. at Keeneland. A second-out graduate Nov. 26 at Fair Grounds, the Godolphin homebred repeated in an allowance there Dec. 19 before passing the class test with a good second in the GIII Lecomte S. Runner-up in the GII Risen Star...

Juddmonte Farms' TDN Rising Star Mandaloun (Into Mischief) attempts to follow up on a professional last-out score in the GII Risen Star S. in Saturday's GII Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds. Earning Rising Star status first time out going six panels at Keeneland last October, the bay followed up with another solid win while adding an additional furlong in a Churchill Downs optional claimer the following month. Heavily supported for his seasonal reappearance in the Jan. 16 GIII Lecomte S. in New Orleans, he had to settle for third,...

No getting away from it: even 107 previous runnings, a million bucks and 170 starting points can't dress up the recent misfortunes of the GII Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby as a springboard to the first Saturday in May. Maybe that's because it falls between stools, in terms of scheduling, the previous cycle of rehearsals having left trainers scope for one more start before the GI Kentucky Derby. Not many around, nowadays, who'd even be thinking about running again with just six weeks to go. Credit to the Fair Grounds team, then,...