Scylla

Whomever gave Soul of an Angel (Atreides) a Red Bull before Saturday's GI PNC Bank Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, go cash your ticket. The 5-year-old mare sprouted wings down the Del Mar stretch to open Breeders' Cup action with a 19-1 upset win for trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. and the ownership group of C2 Racing Stable, Agave Racing Stable and Ken Reimer. The most experienced runner in the field by far (her 40 starts are more than double anyone else), Soul of an Angel has been quietly knocking...

Who do you like? TDN's Senior Racing Editor Steve Sherack makes his picks for Breeders' Cup Saturday at Del Mar. Race 4: GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint--#10 Scylla (10-1) Scylla ran a very good second going two turns in Del Mar's GI Clement L. Hirsch, then returned to Bill Mott's Saratoga base and cut back to this distance with another solid second-place finish in the GI Ballerina just three weeks later. She's been freshened since, is drawn nicely on the outside and is more than capable of running...

Arthur's Ride (Tapit), a disappointing fifth in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes Sept. 1 after posting one of the more impressive performances of the year in the GI Whitney Stakes Aug. 3, remains on target for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar Nov. 2. The stunning gray breezed five furlongs in 1:02.87 (1/2) for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott over Saratoga's Oklahoma training track over a surface labeled as "good" on a rainy Sunday morning Oct. 13, his fourth workout since the Jockey Club Gold...

8th-CD, $120K, Msw, 2yo, 1m, 4:22 p.m. ET. Juddmonte homebred BURNING GLORY (Into Mischief) makes his first start for trainer Bill Mott. The 2-year-old colt is out of SP Hail (Tapit). This dam is a half-sister to 'TDN Rising Star' and champion older mare Close Hatches (First Defence), who herself produced offspring by Tapit such as current sire Tacitus, 'TDN Rising Star' Scylla and GSW Batten Down. Hail's other prominent sibling is MGISP Lockdown (First Defence), the dam of champion older dirt female Idiomatic (Curlin). From the same shedrow as...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Back at his office on the Oklahoma Training Track Wednesday morning, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott was trying to describe the four-furlong work he had just seen from his 3-year-old colt Batten Down (Tapit). "Wooosh," was one of the sounds he made. "Phhhffftt," was another. The cartoon melodies made by Mott were, supposedly, offered to show how impressive the grey/roan Batten Down looked to him. Batten Down was timed in :48 (2/13) in the move on the Oklahoma Training Track. It was his first work...

She did it again. Michael Lund Petersen's Adare Manor (m, 5, Uncle Mo--Brooklynsway, by Giant Gizmo), who was coming off wins in the GI Apple Blossom Handicap and GII Santa Margarita Stakes, made it three straight in winning the GI Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar for the second year in a row. She earned a 'Win and You're In' fees-paid berth to the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff, which will be contested over this same surface in three months. Adare Manor broke nicely in the Clement Hirsch, content to...

It's a Grade I bonanza Saturday afternoon at Saratoga Race Course, as the track plays host to a trio of elite-level races--short and long, turf and dirt. The richest of the three events is the $1-million Whitney Stakes, offering the winner a fees-paid berth into the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar on the first Saturday of November. National Treasure (Quality Road) is the 9-5 favorite on David Aragona's morning line and can further tighten his grip on the handicap division with a victory. The $500,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling...

Back on the hamster wheel, everybody. You know the drill. Usual freshman hype, please. Just remember to change the names--and not to dwell too unhelpfully on how things played out for those being talked up four or five years ago. But the legitimate, perennial challenge of the yearling circuit also abides, and likewise much of its color and character. Just not quite all. Not enough time has elapsed, certainly, to heal one aching void. For many of his compatriots, in particular, every barn we enter we still half-expect to hear...

Just a week after her younger brother Batten Down took the GIII Ohio Derby, 'TDN Rising Star' Scylla (Tapit) kept the family's good fortune going with a strong win in the GII Fasig-Tipton Fleur de Lis Stakes at Churchill Downs Saturday. The 4-5 favorite stutter-stepped slightly coming out of the gate and was at the tail of the field behind fractions of :24.07 and :48.83. Still last into the far turn, the bay filly made rapid progress while five wide approaching the stretch. She drifted in slightly in upper stretch,...

With the Breeders' Cup a little over four months away, the 'Win and You're In' tickets to the signature event, the GI Longines Classic, are definitely numbered. The road to Del Mar currently goes through Churchill Downs on Saturday as Classic hopefuls enter the starting gate for the GI Stephen Foster Stakes. Looking to punch his ticket to the seaside oval is Godolphin homebred First Mission (Street Sense). The 'TDN Rising Star' certainly burned brightest when he took home the GIII Essex Handicap by five lengths at Oaklawn Park in...

It is the typically interesting opinion of John Sikura that "a stallion's genetic switch is either on or off." The quality and quantity of his books may affect his profile, but his potency (or otherwise) will be operative the day he covers his first mare. Sure enough, six Grade I winners to date for Not This Time all belong to his first two books, conceived at just $15,000. Whatever he might yet achieve with his upgraded mares, paying $135,000 last year and now $150,000, he did not need their help...

While Ashford young gun Justify was busy making waves over the pond this weekend, it was Gainesway's time-tested sire royalty who quietly added to his legacy on American shores. No matter how you slice it, one stallion in North America--and only one--leads all active lifetime sires by every major category, be it earnings, black-type winners, graded winners, Grade I winners, and even lifetime starters and winners. Unmatched among living active sires, Tapit hasn't had bigger crops than the other stallions on the list (he ranks third among the top 10...