Spendthrift Farm

Beach Faulkner was at Keeneland one day when John Williams called him over and pointed at a horse being led off a van a couple of barns down. "Look at this," Williams said. "Watch him walk. You might as well put your name on the side of that horse." Beach remembers the great horseman's compliment with a smile. He's been working on horses' feet for 57 years, more than half of that time with son Tyler alongside, until he too has come to share the same mastery. They are farriers,...

Spendthrift Farm homebred and 'TDN Rising Star' Tamara (Bolt d'Oro), sidelined with a fractured splint bone in her left hind leg after fading to seventh as the 4-5 favorite in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, has begun to gear up for her sophomore campaign. The talented daughter of Hall of Famer Beholder (Henny Hughes) has posted a pair of two-furlong breezes for trainer Richard Mandella over Santa Anita's all-weather surface this month, most recently stopping the timer in :23.80 (1/1) Apr. 10. How are the initial reports so far?...

A filly from the first crop of multiple Grade I winner Tiz the Law (hip 365) tied the track record when working a quarter-mile in :20 1/5 during the third session of the under-tack preview for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, while 17 juveniles shared the session's fastest furlong time of :9 4/5, Tuesday in Central Florida. "It was pretty special," consignor Tom McCrocklin said of the bullet quarter-mile work. "I have one disability that keeps me knowing that one will go that fast...

Repole Stable's Fierceness (City of Light), who was named a 'TDN Rising Star' after he broke his maiden at first asking at Saratoga last August, breezed five furlongs Friday morning at Palm Beach Downs in preparation for the GI Curlin Florida Derby Mar. 30 at Gulfstream Park, the track said in a release late Friday afternoon. The 2023 Eclipse Award 2-year-old champion, who finished third in the Feb. 3 GIII Holy Bull S., breezed in company with Spendthrift Farm's Tuscan Sky (Vino Rosso). The Todd Pletcher-trained duo was timed in...

4th-SA, $65K, MSW, 3yo, f, 6f, 5:32 p.m. QUICK BROWN FOX (Justify), the first foal out of MGISW Bast, debuts Saturday for owner/breeder Spendthrift Farm and trainer Richard Mandella. Spendthrift went to $4.2m, a top-four price, at FTKNOV in 2020 for the daughter of Uncle Mo who earned over $850,000 on the track for trainer Bob Baffert. Bast herself is out of $1.5m Eaton Bloodstock broodmare buy Laffina (Arch) and the family has plenty of graded-stakes caliber runners led by GISW and $1.2m FTKNOV broodmare Fault (Blame) and SW/MGSP South...

The GI Beholder Mile is being renamed the B. Wayne Hughes Beholder Mile in honor of the multiple champion's late owner, who passed away in August 2021. Hughes, the founder of the Public Storage company and whose silks carried the same purple-and-orange color scheme, owned horses for five decades and was the proprietor of Spendthrift Farm from 2004. Beholder, a daughter of Henny Hughes, was purchased for $180,000 at the 2011 Keeneland September sale and won a record 13 stakes races at Santa Anita, including the 2012 GI Breeders' Cup...

The TDN's popular annual series 'Mating Plans, presented by Spendthrift,' continues today in a conversation with Rob Tribbett, General Manager of Fred Hertrich's Watercress Farm. Comic City (8, City Zip--Comic Marvel, by Distorted Humor) will be bred to Olympiad. Comic City is a City Zip mare from a top Juddmonte family. Olympiad is the total package. He is a beautiful horse by a top sire, he was a Saratoga 2-year-old old winner himself over some fantastic horses, then showed the ability to consistently dominant at the top levels at four....

It wasn't the fanciest of jumps from the gate but it was the kick in the late stages which mattered, carrying Sedona (f, 3, Curlin--America {GSW & MGISP, $580,532}, by A.P. Indy) past her rivals to a first-out victory and on to 'TDN Rising Star' honors. The 8-5 favorite as the betting public set their sights on her royalty-befitting auction price and pedigree, the flashy chestnut took some time to find her feet as the entire field, save for one filly who never was involved, disputed affairs at the front....

6th-Gulfstream, $73,420, Alw (C)/Opt. Clm ($62,500), 3-2, 4yo/up, 7f, 1:22.47, ft, 1/2 length. KINGSBARNS (c, 4, Uncle Mo--Lady Tapit {GSP}, by Tapit), last year's GII Louisiana Derby winner, made his return to the races Saturday off nearly a nine-month layoff. A player on the Road to the Kentucky Derby, the son of Uncle Mo wound up 14th behind Mage (Good Magic) under the TwinSpires and finished his 3-year-old season beaten just a neck as the heavy favorite in the Pegasus S. at Monmouth June 17. Confidently bet at 3-5 in...

6th-GP, $62K, A/OC, 4yo/up, 7f, 1:44 p.m. ET. Last year as a 3-year-old colt, KINGSBARNS (Uncle Mo) kept his perfect record intact when he went gate to wire to win the GII Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds, which secured himself a slot in the GI Kentucky Derby. The Todd Pletcher trainee finished 14th in America's signature race and a bout with colic sidelined him before the GI Belmont S. He did return to be the runner-up in the Pegasus S. at Monmouth Park in mid-June and that was the last...

The TDN's popular annual series 'Mating Plans, presented by Spendthrift,' continues today in a conversation with Brendan Jacobson of Wimberley Bloodstock. HOLIDAY SOIREE (15, Harlan's Holiday--Try to Remember, by Include) to be bred to Gun Runner. Holiday Soiree was a talented racehorse who won the Shine Again S. at Saratoga and placed in the GI Humana Distaff at Churchill. She is the dam of Vahva (Gun Runner), who won the GII Raven Run S. and GIII Charles Town Oaks last year. She is a gorgeous filly with lots of tenacity...

3rd-Fair Grounds, $59,150, Alw (NW1X)/Opt. Clm ($100,000), 2-17, 3yo, 1 1/16m, 1:43.74, sy, 2 lengths. TUSCAN SKY (c, 3, Vino Rosso--South Andros {SW, $207,125}, by Sky Mesa) facing a field scratched down to just two other runners, backed up a big figure in his Aqueduct debut, also over a muddy surface, Jan. 13 with a defeat here of 'TDN Rising Star' and GIII Lecomte S. runner up Nash (Medaglia d'Oro). Letting that runner go up to set an uncontested lead in what wound up a two-horse race, Tuscan Sky stalked...