Stay Hot

GSW Stay Hot (Summer Front) may have been the 6-5 choice in the GII Twilight Derby after finishing in front of Atitlan (c, 3, The Factor--Armanda {Ger}, by Acatenango {Ger}) in both a La Jolla Handicap win and a GII Del Mar Derby placing, but it was the latter who is an improving sort and inverted the results Saturday at Santa Anita to secure his first stakes win. Cathal (Ire) (No Nay Never) finished third in his first stakes try. With Curlin's Kaos (Clubhouse Ride) speeding to the front early...

With less than a week until the Breeders' Cup World Championships, you can pregame with a bevy of graded stakes races across three tracks and two types of surfaces on Saturday. Heading up to the Belmont At The Big A meet, the New York Racing Association has carded a trio of graded contests. Chief among them is the GII Mother Goose Stakes for 3-year-old fillies going nine furlongs on the dirt. At first glance, this appears to be a street fight between the pair that ran second and third to...

Formidable Man (City of Light), favored off a win in the Oceanside Stakes at Del Mar July 20, stormed to the lead and held off Stay Hot late to earn his first graded victory in the GII Del Mar Derby at the oceanside oval Sunday. The 6-5 favorite was away smartly before settling off the pace as longshot Sketchy (Uncle Mo) set a pedestrian pace. The tempo quickened noticeably on the far turn and Formidable Man rolled up three wide into the lane to hit the lead at midstretch. Stay...

You know how the quote reads directly from the handicapper's Bible, "Behold the pale horse with controlling speed." Heeding that warning arrives once again on Sunday. Halfway through the three-day holiday weekend of Thoroughbred racing, Saratoga and Del Mar card graded races. The Spa's GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes, the penultimate 'Win and You're In' pass to the Breeders' Cup Classic, sets the tone with a myriad of intriguing storylines woven into this fleece as a half dozen entries will try to catch that aforementioned 'pale horse' Arthur's Ride...

There was a slew of notable workers on a sunny Father's Day Sunday at Santa Anita. Working for Bob Baffert were Grade I winner Arabian Knight (5f, :59.20) and Reincarnate (4f, :49.20). Arabian Knight has been sidelined since a fourth-place finish in the Nov. 4 GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita. Reincarnate most recently was second in the GII Hollywood Gold Cup May 27. Trainer John Sadler worked Tapalo (Tapiture), who a seven-length winner of the May 12 Lazaro Barrera S. at seven furlongs. The ridgling drilled six furlongs...

Stay Hot rebounded from a 10th-place effort in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf with a late-flying victory in the GIII Cecil B. DeMille S. at Del Mar Sunday. The bay ridgling taken in hand and angled over from his outside post to be three wide into the first turn and was near the back of the field through an opening quarter in :22.00. The field bunched up approaching the far turn as the half went up in :46.30 and Stay Hot was last on the bend before darting into...

Stop us if you've heard this a time or a thousand. Horses trained by Chad Brown figure tough in the GI Matriarch S. on closing day of the Bing Crosby Meet at Del Mar. Undisputable though that is--he has, after all, sent out the winner all but once since 2017--Harris Farms homebred Closing Remarks (Vronsky) will look to have the final say Sunday afternoon. The chestnut has yet to strike in three tries at the top level, though she was runner-up in the 2021 Del Mar Oaks while finishing just...