Triple Crown

2023's Eclipse champion 2-year-old Fierceness (City of Light) leads a list of 346 nominations to the 2024 Triple Crown according to a Tuesday release by the Kentucky Racing Communications Office. Last weekend's GIII Holy Bull S. third is one of 20 nominees owned by Repole Stables and one of 54 trained by Todd Pletcher to lead their respective categories. A further 18 horses were nominated by Bob Baffert and Brad Cox respectively. While the total number of nominees is down from last year, there are a record 47 potential runners...

NBC Sports analyst Randy Moss will join the Super Bowl's Radio Row to talk racing from Feb. 6-8, the NTRA announced Tuesday. Moss, a member of the TDN Writers' Room podcast and a well-known face on major racing broadcasts for NBC, will cover subjects such as the upcoming 150th running of the GI Kentucky Derby and how the sport is working to make strides in equine safety.

Undefeated 'TDN Rising Star' Nysos (Nyquist) uncorked the type of "Wow!" performance in the GIII Robert Lewis S. on Saturday that rightfully should be the big story out of a weekend that featured four prep stakes for the GI Kentucky Derby. This 3-for-3 son of 2016 Derby winner Nyquist from trainer Bob Baffert's barn has now won at six, seven and eight furlongs by a combined 26 3/4 lengths while earning upward-trending Beyer Speed Figures of 96 and 97 (at age two), plus a sizzling 105 for his sophomore debut....

General admission tickets, hospitality offerings and reserved seats for the Belmont S. Racing Festival at Saratoga Race Course will go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. EST Thursday, Feb. 15, the New York Racing Association announced via press release Thursday. Tickets may be purchased here, with advance pre-sale opportunities available by signing up here. "The 2024 Belmont Stakes Racing Festival will be a four-day celebration of world class thoroughbred racing at the sport's most historic and exciting venue," said NYRA President & CEO David O'Rourke. "NYRA is thrilled...

When Perry Ouzts wired the field aboard an 8-1 maiden filly named Caberneigh (Munnings) at Turfway Park last Wednesday night, the 69-year-old jockey established a milestone that garnered little notice in the racing world. The victory extended Ouzts's remarkable streak of having ridden at least one winner in a calendar year to 52 consecutive seasons. Think about the scope of that accomplishment for a moment. On Apr. 2, 1973, Ouzts, then 18, rode his first lifetime winner on just his second day as a licensed apprentice, guiding home an Ohio-bred...

The year 2023 was a pretty rough one for the sport of horse racing, and there was little to suggest that this year would be any different. The sport seems to be caught in a downward spiral as we move from one crisis to another and are left to wonder "what next?" So far this year, the answer to that question is that maybe things will be better in 2024 than we might have thought. There have been several recent positive developments for the sport, many of them having to...

Early nominations for 3-year-old Thoroughbreds to become eligible to compete in the 2024 Triple Crown are now open and suspended trainers have until Jan. 29 to move their horses, Churchill Downs said in a release Friday afternoon. The early nomination phase will close Monday, Jan. 29 with the $600 payment only available to be made online. Horses not nominated by Jan. 29 can still enter with a $6,000 payment due Monday, Apr. 1. Last year's early Triple Crown nominations attracted 369 horses and 13 late nominees. Horses under the care...

'The Week in Review', by T.D. Thornton A few items that stand out after sifting through Friday's "Pimlico Plus" report issued by the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority (MTROA). The ambitious $400-million plan, which is subject to legislative approval, re-imagines the state's racing consolidated at one publicly funded track in Baltimore, the closure of Laurel Park, the construction of a new training facility in the state, and 1/ST Racing and Gaming ceding control of day-to-day Maryland racing to a non-profit entity. Triple Crown traditionalists who are already in a tizzy...

The remaining days in 2023 dwindled to a few last week, a welcome development considering the year that it was. Yes, there was some good news. Arcangelo (Arrogate) winning the GI Belmont S. for trainer Jena Antonucci was as good a story as we've seen in some time. The saga of Cody's Wish (Curlin) continued to tug at our heartstrings. The sales continue to post huge numbers. Purses have soared in Kentucky and at Oaklawn, with maidens running for pots in excess of $100,000. But for every good story there...

Last week's announcement that the 2024 GI Belmont S. will be migrating north to Saratoga Race Course for 2024 because of the $455-million extensive renovation of Belmont Park made official a move that the New York Racing Association (NYRA) has been openly discussing for months. But since the press release from the New York governor's office came out during a slow time of the year for racing news, it rekindled speculation about the ramifications of tinkering with the historical significance of the third jewel of the Triple Crown. The debate...

The long-running battle to decide whether or not Justify (Scat Daddy) should have been disqualified from his win in the 2018 GI Santa Anita Derby seems to have come to a conclusion last week when the team representing Mick Ruis, the owner and trainer of runner-up Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro), obtained an order from Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff, directing the California Horse Racing Board Stewards to set aside their Dec. 9, 2020 decision and issue a new ruling disqualifying Justify from the 2018 Santa Anita...

NBC Sports commentator Randy Moss, whose career in racing has spanned nearly 45 years, will deliver the keynote address at the 2023 Global Symposium on Racing Dec. 5. Seen working events like the Triple Crown series and the Breeders' Cup World Championships, Moss will take a retrospective look at his career in the industry and share his insights on the future of the sport. The Global Symposium on Racing is hosted by the University of Arizona's Race Track Industry Program and will be held in Tucson, AZ from Dec. 4-6.