Sam F. Davis S.

The Tampa Road to the Kentucky Derby heats up Saturday afternoon, as a full field of 12 sophomore males is set to face the starter for the $250,000 GIII Sam F. Davis S., with 42 Kentucky Derby qualifying points (20-10-6-4-2) up for grabs. When Litigate (Blame) took out the 2023 renewal, he was giving trainer Todd Pletcher a seventh victory in the Davis, having won the race for the first time in 2006 with Bluegrass Cat (Storm Cat). 'TDN Rising Star' Agate Road (Quality Road) will be the more-fancied of...

Asked to negotiate two turns for the first time from a high draw, Centennial Farms' Litigate (Blame) sustained a long, wide run and dug in gamely to stake his claims on this year's Triple Crown trail with a victory in Saturday's GIII Sam F. Davis S. at Tampa Bay Downs. Groveland (Street Sense) made good progress up the rail to be second ahead of Classic Car Wash (Noble Bird) in third. Bobbling ever so slightly as a steady rain began to fall across the Oldsmar oval, the $370,000 Keeneland September...

Classic Causeway (Giant's Causeway), winner of this year's GIII Sam F. Davis S. and GII Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby, has been transferred from trainer Brian Lynch to Ken McPeek, Daily Racing Form reports. One of just three members from his sire's final crop, the chestnut was a splashy Saratoga debut winner last September before finishing third to Rattle N Roll (Connect) in the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity and to 'TDN Rising Star' Smile Happy (Runhappy) in the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. Both winners are trained by McPeek. A...

Since he ran his first horse in 1994, Eddie Barker's routine has never changed. Every day, he gets up at an ungodly hour and heads to his work, which is his barn on the NYRA backstretch. The reward has been some winners here and there, but never more than 23 in a single year and not one of them a graded stakes winner. The GI Kentucky Derby? It's a race he watches on television. In a sport dominated by the likes of the Bob Baffert, Todd Pletcher, Chad Brown, Steve...

Studying political science at college, the only Constitution she might have expected to see put to the test right now was the one that opens with the words, "We the people..." As it is, Shannon Castagnola just feels relief that fate diverted her from her original vocation, to chronicle impeachments or caucuses, and instead afforded her a professional stake in one of the frontrunners for the highest sophomore office of 2020. Castagnola is the Director of Marketing and Client Relations at Woodford Thoroughbreds, the farm that bred and raised Independence...