Sierra Leone

Chad Brown never arrives at the Breeders' Cup with a weak hand. But for a trainer who has won 19 Breeders' Cup races, this could be the best team he's ever sent to the Cup. His ammunition includes horses like Sierra Leone (Gun Runner), the 3-year-old filly sprinting sensation Ways and Means (Practical Joke), Turf miler Carl Spackler (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) and one of the top 2-year-olds in training in Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie). Joining us on this week's TDN Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland, Brown went through...

Bolstered by a record 80 entries from the connections of horses based overseas--smashing the previous mark of 60 set just last year--some 212 horses have been pre-entered for the 2024 Breeders' Cup World Championships to be held Friday and Saturday, Nov. 1 and 2. For the third time, the festival will take place at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, which hosted the event for the first time in 2017 and again in 2021. "The record number of outstanding international contenders pre-entered this year speaks to the truly global nature of...

With the Del Mar Breeders' Cup officially less than two weeks away, trainer Chad Brown is continuing to oversee his string's preparations at Belmont Park, while the accomplished MGISW Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) puts in her final works for conditioner Ken McPeek upstate at Saratoga. Over the training surface in Elmont, Brown sent out two juveniles for half-mile works in 'TDN Rising Star' Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie) [:48.01] and Zulu Kingdom (Ire) (Ten Sovereigns {Ire}) [:48.63], who are targeting the GI FanDuel Breeders' Cup Juvenile and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf,...

Who can forget the pulsating finish of this year's GI Kentucky Derby, when three noses hit the wire together in one of the tightest photo finishes we've seen in years? Other than the immediate connections of those three colts, it's hard to imagine anyone more invested in the result than Debby Oxley, whose beloved mare, Darling My Darling (Deputy Minister), is the granddam of two-thirds of that trifecta. While Mystik Dan (Goldencents) got his nose on the wire first, it was the Oxley-bred 'TDN Rising Star' and GI Toyota Blue...

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...

'TDN Rising Star' and GI Travers Stakes winner Fierceness (City of Light), owned by Repole Stables, has stayed in the top spot in the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic Rankings for the fourth consecutive week, in front of fellow 3-year-olds City of Troy (Justify) and Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steel {Jpn}) after the eighth week of voting. Fierceness, trained by Todd Pletcher, rose to the top ranking following his dramatic Travers Stakes win at Saratoga Race Course Aug. 24. Last year's GI FanDuel Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner and champion 2-year-old male...

Believe it or not, it was just three years ago this month--a mere 36 months ago--that Gun Runner got his first stakes winner as a sire. The Three Chimneys stallion shot to the top so quickly and has such a long list of elite performers that no one would be blamed for mistaking his tenure as far longer. To refresh all of our memories, that initial stakes winner for Gun Runner was a graded winner, as Pappacap won the GII Best Pal Stakes, only to be followed up the next...

Brook Smith and Carrie Brogden have been appointed to the board of directors of Thoroughbred Charities of America, the organization announced Wednesday. Current directors Marette Farrell and Marshall Gramm were named secretary and treasurer, respectively. Smith is a resident of Louisville, Kentucky. After graduating from Clemson University with a degree in finance, he returned to Kentucky and launched a career in the insurance industry, as a broker with his agency Smith Manus (now Acrisure) and as a partner in Lexon Insurance Group. He is a serial entrepreneur and big supporter...

If there was a knock on last year's champion 2-year-old and 'TDN Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light) heading into Saturday's GI Travers S., it was that he couldn't fire his best shot in back-to-back races. Seems awfully silly now, doesn't it? Off as the 7-2 third choice and just a dime shy of 4-1 in the highlight of the summer meeting at Saratoga, the Repole Stable homebred backed up his exceptional win in the local prep GII Jim Dandy Stakes July 27 with a dramatic head victory over the...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--There was a steady stream of people ambling over to trainer Kenny McPeek's barn at the Annex behind the Oklahoma Training Track Friday morning. They all wanted to send good thoughts to him and his 3-year-old filly, Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna), as Saturday's $1.25 million GI Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course quickly approached. McPeek, standing outside his office with his canine companion Sonny at his side, accepted all the positive vibes. Some lucky ones were even able to secure a pink Thorpedo Anna baseball cap, which were...

When 'TDN Rising Star' Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) enters the gate for Saturday's $1.25-million GI Travers Stakes at Saratoga, it'll be more than a sporting gesture on the part of the ownership group and trainer Ken McPeek. The conditioner is rolling the dice against a field that includes three other Grade I winners--an oft-brilliant, but sometimes unpredictable reigning Eclipse Award champion, a Classic winner over the course and distance and a seven-figure yearling whose full potential has yet to be realized. Sure, Thorpedo Anna could have faced her peers in...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--Appropriately enough, Senza Parole's (Gun Runner) name translates to "at a loss for words," which could describe the reaction to her jaw-dropping victory Friday in the first race at Saratoga Race Course. Not only did she finish 7 3/4 lengths ahead of 4-5 favorite Stunner (Girvin), Senza Parole completed the six furlongs in the $100,000 maiden special weight race for 2-year-old fillies in a sharp 1:09.84. She paid $9.40 as the 7-2 second choice in the field of seven. With Saratoga's leading rider, Irad Ortiz, Jr., pretty much...