Tapit Trice

With 'TDN Rising Stars' Sierre Leone (Gun Runner) and Fierceness (City of Light) extending their rivalry into 2025, and the GI Kentucky Derby winner also persevering to a third campaign, there's no denying that the new intake of Bluegrass sires has a fairly bunched look. A cluster of second-tier names can duly compete for mares that might otherwise have favored one of the sophomore leaders, with eight of the 23 newcomers targeting broadly similar budgets between $40,000 and $30,000. Whether that qualifies any of them as "value" can only be...

Gainesway's General Manager Brian Graves looks ahead to breeding season with a stallion roster that includes four new recruits on this week's TDN Writers' Room.

Four new sires have joined Gainesway's stallion barn for 2025, bringing their roster up to 12 members. Tapit still reigns supreme at the Paris, Kentucky farm and the leading sire's stud fee will hold steady at $185,000 next year. McKinzie, whose first crop of 2-year-olds include Grade I winners Chancer McPatrick and Scottish Lassie, is in a tight battle for leading first-crop sire and his fee has increased from $30,000 to $75,000. Also in 2025, Raging Bull, a son of Dark Angel (Ire), will be represented by his first 2-year-olds...

McKinzie (Street Sense), the sire of Grade I winners 'TDN Rising Star' Chancer McPatrick and Scottish Lassie from his first crop, will stand the 2025 breeding season at a fee of $75,000, according to Gainesway Farm, which announced additional stud fees on Tuesday. The first stallion since Mr. Prospector to account for the winners of the prestigious Champagne Stakes and Frizette Stakes in the same season, McKinzie has also proved successful in the sales arena, his yearlings having fetched as much as $975,000 while his first crop of 2-year-olds realized...

GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner 'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) has come out of the marquee race in good order, according to Chad Brown, and will return to Kentucky Monday morning. "Everything's all good," said assistant trainer Baldo Hernandez Sunday morning after showing the horse to the media. "He will ship tomorrow to Kentucky and maybe Florida after that. I don't know for sure, it's up to the boss." The connections are expected to announce future plans for the colt soon. Sean Flanagan of Flanagan Racing confirmed that...

Tapit, North America's all-time leading sire by progeny earnings and the leading active sire by lifetime Grade I winners and graded stakes winners, will again lead the 2025 Gainesway stallion roster at a fee of $185,000, according to a press release from the farm Thursday. The son of Pulpit is represented this year on the racetrack by GI Whitney Stakes winner Arthur's Ride, GII Woodward Stakes winner Tapit Trice, and additional graded winners May Day Ready, Scylla, and Batten Down. He continues to be in demand in the auction ring,...

GI Blue Grass Stakes winner Tapit Trice (Tapit--Danzatrice, by Dunkirk) will return to his birthplace, Gainesway Farm, to enter stud upon his retirement from racing, the Central Kentucky nursery and stud farm announced Tuesday afternoon. Tapit Trice's next scheduled engagement is Saturday afternoon in the $7-million GI Breeders' Cup Classic, where he will break from post 10. He races for the partnership of Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm, LLC and Gainesway Stable. "Winning the Grade I Blue Grass Stakes in partnership with Gainesway has been a real highlight for our...

Chad Brown was trackside Saturday to watch eight of his Breeders' Cup hopefuls breeze over the Belmont Park dirt training track, including GI Breeders' Cup Classic contender 'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) and the dual Grade I-winning GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile contender 'TDN Rising Star' Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie). The four-time Eclipse Award-winning conditioner is well positioned for more main-track success heading into next weekend's World Championships with Sierra Leone, Domestic Product (Practical Joke) (Dirt Mile), 'TDN Rising Star' Ways and Means (Practical Joke) (Filly & Mare Sprint), Raging...

Repole Stable's 'TDN Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light), expected to vie for favoritism in next Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar, turned in his final breeze Friday ahead of the $7-million centerpiece of championship weekend, going a half-mile in :48.98 over the Oklahoma training track. With his regular work rider Danny Wright in the irons, the homebred began his work slightly behind a workmate, drew alongside at the entrance to the stretch and was in front at the line before galloping out five furlongs in 1:02 1/5....

Jockey Dylan Davis joined this week's TDN Writers' Room to discuss his win aboard Tapit Trice in the GII Woodward Stakes and recap his memorable Saratoga season.

Godolphin's Highland Falls (Curlin) outdueled favored Arthur's Ride (Tapit) and strode home an easy winner of the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Sunday at Saratoga. The 4-year-old earned his first top-level victory, as well as an automatic berth in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, and gave jockey Flavien Prat his record-setting 13 graded win of the meeting. Arthur's Ride, coming off a win in the GI Whitney Stakes, rushed up and over from his outside post and had a clear advantage heading into the first turn through an opening quarter...

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...