Spendthrift Farm

So what happens when you keep pursuing the dream, keep persevering, only to find that it's taken you right to the cliff's edge? At some point you quit, right? Not if you're Ramon "R.J." Rangel, you don't. He was still working with yearlings at Dixiana when he leased his first 10 acres. His wife at the time had quit her own job at Dixiana to care for their little farm and he would come back in the afternoons to put in a second shift on the heavier work. Gradually they...

3rd-Woodbine, C$77,409, Msw, 5-12, 2yo, 4 1/2f (AWT), :52.57, ft, head. SOL DE VERANO (c, 2, Thousand Words--Thank You Note, by Uncle Mo) made his first start as a 6-1 shot here. The dark bay bounced out of the inside gate and immediately hugged the fence. Flashing some strong foot, the colt took the lead up the backstretch, but he felt the pressure as the rest of the field bore down on him. Bottled up just behind the leader entering the lane, Admiral Nelson (Lord Nelson) looked for running room,...

Eddie Plesa, Jr. secured his 2,500th career training victory with the 3-year-old gelding Raging Fury at Gulfstream Park Apr. 13. TDN's Senior Racing Editor Steve Sherack caught up with the highly respected 74-year-old conditioner for a wide-ranging interview to discuss the milestone victory, his trip to the 2-year-old sales in Ocala this spring, the future of the sport and much more. TDN: Let's start things off with your milestone victory. What does it mean to you to reach 2,500 wins? EP: When you hit a number like that, you take...

Charged Temp (Star Guitar), a full-sister to 'TDN Rising Star' GSW Manama Gold and 13-time winner GSW Ova Charged, has been added to the Fasig-Tipton May Digital sale as HIP 42, announced the auction house via release Friday. A four-time winner herself, Charged Temp is offered in foal with her first offspring by GISW Arabian Lion (Justify) on a 2024 cover. She hails from an active female line as her dam SW Charged Cotton (Dehere) is a half to MSW & GSP Walkwithapurpose (Candy Ride {Arg}), whose daughter Regulatory Risk...

If you're in this business, chances are you're seeking 'Saturday afternoon horses.' In this new series, we will select a stallion from the previous weekend whose runners particularly impressed. We start with the sire of the most coveted prize of all: this year's GI Kentucky Derby winner. Spendthrift Farm has long called Goldencents "Into Mischief's value sire." As a member of the five-time leading sire's first crop, he was conceived on a $12,500 cover and, while quietly plying his trade with solid runners and numbers that put him at or...

by Alexa Crament Alexa Crament is a Junior at the University of Kentucky majoring in Equine Science and Management. She recently completed an internship with the TDN's social media and video department where, among many other projects, she took lead on a TDNtv video series highlighting Visit Horse Country. Alexa is also a regular tour guide at Godolphin's Jonabell Farm. Seven years ago, I was planning my first trip to Lexington, Kentucky during my spring break week. I fell in love with the racing industry after Nyquist's Kentucky Derby win...

Coffee in Bed just got her neck in front of pacesetting Super Shine on the line to earn the first graded victory of her career in the GII Santa Maria S. at Santa Anita Sunday evening. The dark bay filly settled off the pace while shadowing favorite Desert Dawn as a four-way battle for the lead developed around the first turn. Super Shine asserted control into the backstretch as the quarter went up in :22.66. Desert Dawn and Coffee in Bed moved in tandem, four and five wide, to loom...

by J. N. Campbell Looking strong as an oak in the GIII Ben Ali S. at Keeneland, Kingsbarns (Uncle Mo) cleared professionally down the lane to take home his second graded stakes trophy for Spendthrift's case on Saturday afternoon. The 2023 GII Louisiana Derby winner finished 14th behind Mage (Good Magic) in the GI Kentucky Derby before completing his 3-year-old year when he was beaten only a neck as the heavy favorite in the Pegasus S. at Monmouth June 17. After a nine-month hiatus, Kingsbarns returned to Gulfstream Park Mar....

1st-SA, $54K, Msw, 3-5yo, f, 7f, 4:00 p.m. ET. JANE AUSTEN (Tapit) makes her first start for Muir Hut Stables and trainer Mark Glatt. A $750,000 purchase at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale, the gray is out of MGSP Shayjolie (Indian Charlie), who Speedway Stables acquired for $400,000 at the 2015 Keeneland November Sale. The filly's SP second dam produced GI Woodward S. runner-up Mythical Power (Congaree). Making her debut for trainer Richard Mandella is Quick Brown Fox (Justify). The Spendthrift homebred's dam MGISW Bast (Uncle) went to the...

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...