Swiss Skydiver

DEL MAR, CA - Maiden Special Weight, for 2-year-old fillies that sold or RNA'd for $45,000 or less in their most recent sale. British Idiom (Flashback), a $40,000 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling graduate, met that criteria and successfully kicked off her career with a stylish, 3 1/2-length debut victory as the 7-2 favorite for trainer Brad Cox at Saratoga in the summer of 2019. The Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb and The Elkstone Group colorbearer, of course, followed up with a win in the GI Darley Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland and...

Keeneland has supplemented nine horses--including Diva Delite (Repent), dam of champion and $13.9 million earner Midnight Bisou, and Expo Gold (Johannesburg), dam of champion and $2-million earner Swiss Skydiver--to Book 1 of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Both Diva Delite and Expo Gold are in foal to Uncle Mo, and both are consigned by Hunter Valley Farm, agent. Grade III winner Diva Delite is also the dam of Grade III winner Verifying (Justify) and stakes winner Stage Left (Congrats). She is out of stakes-placed winner...

Trainer Kenny McPeek has the horse that all eyes will be on this summer because his 3-year-old filly Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) is taking on the boys in the GI Travers Stakes Aug 24. He talks about the experience of having a horse like this and what it's like dealing with all the people that want to see her. He also tells us about his four-legged friend Sonny and what his life is like away from the racetrack. Read all about it in this week's Saratoga Conversation. TDN: You have...

Kenny McPeek announced Saturday that his superstar 3-year-old filly Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) will make her next start in the Aug. 24 GI DraftKings Travers S. McPeek had kept the decision to himself for a few days, but no one should have been surprised when he picked the Travers. That's McPeek's style, to be bold, to embrace a challenge to think outside of the box. There's no trainer like him. He has pulled this trick off before, winning 2020 GI Preakness S. with the filly Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil). "I just...

Peter J. Callahan, a magazine publisher and decades-long Thoroughbred owner and breeder who campaigned the 2020 champion 3-year-old filly and GI Preakness S. victress Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil), died May 9 in a New York City hospital in the company of family members. He was 82. The cause of death was a brain tumor, his daughter, Carolyn Callahan, confirmed to TDN on May 15. A celebration of his life will be planned at a later date, she added. "Horse racing really was his passion," Carolyn Callahan said. "He was very practical...

Trainer Ken McPeek is considering the GI Preakness S. for Friday's GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna), who came out of the race in fine shape. "She left a little bit of grain last night, about half a scoop, but it's nothing to be worried about," McPeek said. "It's something we watch regularly, and she typically eats up every night. She's tired. She ran hard." He continued, "We're gonna look at the Preakness, but she's gonna have to show us in the next three or four days. We'll...

The TDN sat down with WinStar Farm President and CEO Elliott Walden for the next installment in this ongoing series presented in cooperation with the Consignors and Breeders Association (CBA). Through conversations with buyers and sellers, the series looks to contribute to the discussion on radiograph findings and their impact on racetrack success. Elliott Walden had already enjoyed Classic success as a trainer with 1998 GI Belmont S. winner Victory Gallop when he joined WinStar Farm in 2002. He has served as CEO of the operation-- which has produced success...

Call it going with his gut. Literally. They cut out a whole stretch of it, and with it went much of the caution, the aversion to risk, that seems to stifle so much of the adventure in other trainers. "The truth is that when I was younger, I was probably real conservative," Kenny McPeek admits. "Early in my career, I was mostly dealing with claiming horses, with the odd allowance or stake horse here and there. Then I had a misdiagnosed ruptured appendix. It walled off and they did emergency...

Champion Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) delivered her first foal, a filly by Europe's 2014 Horse of the Year Kingman (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) on Feb. 15 at Northern Farm in Japan, according to the farm's Twitter and Facebook accounts. The 6-year-old mare, who defeated males in the 2020 GI Preakness S. and also won the GI Alabama S. and GI Beholder Mile, was purchased for $4.7 million by Katsumi Yoshida at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Fall Mixed Sale and was then sent to England, where she was bred to Kingman at Juddmonte...

Fasig-Tipton has catalogued 143 entries for its December Digital Selected Sale, which may now be viewed at digital.fasigtipton.com. Bidding is open as of Thursday, Dec. 8 at 12 p.m. ET and closes Tuesday, Dec. 13 at 2 p.m. ET. The catalogue features selected horses of racing age, breeding stock, weanlings, and yearlings. There are offerings located throughout the United States, including California, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. "We have put together a very exciting catalogue for this inaugural December Digital auction," said Leif Aaron,...

Four of the previous five winners of the GI Beholder Mile were either already in possession of an Eclipse Award or would go on to become a champion later in their career. The Ken McPeek-conditioned 2020 champion 3-year-old filly Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) made light work of last year's renewal and the barn will look to defend their title this weekend with Walking L Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm's Envoutante (Uncle Mo). Same as she did during her 3-year-old season in 2020, the dark bay was kept busy with seven starts...

More so than perhaps any top trainer in the sport, Ken McPeek is always thinking outside the box. And he's at it again. McPeek is in the midst of a three-day excursion to Argentina, where he is shopping for yearlings. It's not at all uncommon for American trainers to buy yearlings overseas, but to do so in the Southern Hemisphere is largely unchartered territory. That's because Southern Hemisphere horses are born primarily in the months of August, September, October and November. For U.S. racing purposes, they turn a year older...