Scottish Lassie

Four years ago this week, McKinzie was retired to Gainesway after a stellar racing career that netted four Grade I wins and 11 triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures. While it may have been difficult at the time for many to see past the ravages of the COVID pandemic--it was 2020, after all--those far-sighted breeders who patronized McKinzie the next spring are looking positively clairvoyant in 2024. As is becoming blatantly obvious, McKinzie isn't just starting strong as a freshman sire. Instead, McKinzie's beginning as a young sire has been the stuff...

It was another banner weekend for Godolphin as the stable swept the two Grade I races for 2-year-olds at Keeneland. The filly Immersive (Nyquist) won Friday's GI Darley Alcibiades Stakes and finished things off with a very impressive win by the colt East Avenue (Medaglia d'Oro) in the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity. Both will appear next in the Breeders' Cup where they could garner favoritism in their respective races. Leading the cheering section for Godolphin was its Director of Bloodstock, Michael Banahan, whose duties include overseeing the U.S.-based Godolphin runners....

What a way to tally a first career graded stakes. Both trainer Jorge Abreu and his charge, who entered Saturday with only a third-place finish under her girth, broke their graded maiden with a runaway score in the GI Frizette Stakes at Belmont at the Big A. Now Abreu and Scottish Lassie (f, 2, McKinzie--Bodebabe, by Bodemeister) have earned a fees-paid berth to the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies in four weeks. Abreu, a former assistant to Chad Brown, brought a longshot filly to the Juvenile Fillies last year and...