Ways and Means

With seven-figure mares coming fast and furious at Fasig-Tipton's Night of the Stars sale Monday night, Surge Capacity (Flintshire {GB}) set the early benchmark when realizing $3.6 million to the bid of Emmanuel de Seroux for Narvick International/Grand Stud. Consigned by Elite, agent as Hip 197, Surge Capacity won the 2023 GI Matriarch Stakes and was bred this past spring to Into Mischief for her first foal. Surge Capacity is a half-sister to GISW and 'TDN Rising Star' Ways and Means (Practical Joke) and a full-sister to GSW Highly Motivated....

DEL MAR, CA -- It's showtime. Featuring 14 Grade I races worth more than $34 million in purses, the Breeders' Cup World Championships, with an emphasis on World, return to the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club for a third time, beginning with the 'Future Stars Friday' program. Ideal conditions with sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 60s are expected. A total of 179 horses were entered for the two-day Championships, including a record 67 international participants from nine different countries as well as three previous winners. A stacked renewal of...

Chad Brown never arrives at the Breeders' Cup with a weak hand. But for a trainer who has won 19 Breeders' Cup races, this could be the best team he's ever sent to the Cup. His ammunition includes horses like Sierra Leone (Gun Runner), the 3-year-old filly sprinting sensation Ways and Means (Practical Joke), Turf miler Carl Spackler (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) and one of the top 2-year-olds in training in Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie). Joining us on this week's TDN Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland, Brown went through...

With the Del Mar Breeders' Cup officially less than two weeks away, trainer Chad Brown is continuing to oversee his string's preparations at Belmont Park, while the accomplished MGISW Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) puts in her final works for conditioner Ken McPeek upstate at Saratoga. Over the training surface in Elmont, Brown sent out two juveniles for half-mile works in 'TDN Rising Star' Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie) [:48.01] and Zulu Kingdom (Ire) (Ten Sovereigns {Ire}) [:48.63], who are targeting the GI FanDuel Breeders' Cup Juvenile and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf,...

Trainer Chad Brown sent out a quartet of Breeders' Cup aspirants to work over Belmont Park's dirt training track, led by GI Toyota Bluegrass Stakes winner Sierra Leone (Gun Runner), who covered a half-mile in :48.67. Runner up in the GI Kentucky Derby and third in the GI Belmont earlier this spring, the $2.3 million yearling purchase races for Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg, Rocket Ship Racing and Brant. "He looks super, and the horse is really training well," Brown said of the GI Breeders' Cup Classic...

When Jon Clay bought Strong Incentive for his Alpha Delta Stables for $2.15 million at last year's Fasig-Tipton November Sale, she had already produced Grade III winner and track-record holder Highly Motivated (Into Mischief), now a stallion at Airdrie Stud; two-time Grade III winner Surge Capacity (Flintshire {GB}); and an up-and-coming `TDN Rising Star' named Ways and Means (Practical Joke), who had run second in the Grade I Spinaway Stakes. Within a month of his purchase, Surge Capacity won the Grade I Matriarch, and by the following summer, Ways and...

The weather did not bother 'TDN Rising Star' Ways and Means (Practical Joke--Strong Incentive, by Warrior's Reward) as she skimmed the Aqueduct slop and easily took home the GII Gallant Bloom Stakes on Sunday afternoon. Last seen capturing the GI Test Stakes at Saratoga Aug. 3, that effort came on the back of a career best two back--at least on paper--over a Saratoga first-level allowance group June 6. She'd dominated those rivals by 8 1/4 lengths and earned a 104 Beyer, stronger than anything else this field had managed to...

If you didn't get your fill of stakes action on Saturday, this is the weekend for you. Five more graded stakes, including the 'Win and You're In' GII Miss Grillo Stakes, as well as the final leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, will take place on Sunday. 'TDN Rising Star' Virgin Colada (More Than Ready) will look to punch her ticket to the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf in a wide-open renewal of the Miss Grillo at the Belmont at the Big A meeting. A flashy come-from-behind debut winner...

There can't be many tracks that that deviate further from the standard American model than Goodwood. Even in Britain nobody today would dream of laying out a racecourse along a twisting ridge of downland, and we remain duly indebted to the militia officers who first eked out a little sport here 223 years ago. Not that the horses themselves share our appreciation for a gorgeous panorama of cornfields and woodland, focused as they are on keeping their balance over the swaying terrain and round sharp right-hand bends. Yet last week...

Saturday's big winners at Saratoga Race Course all came out of their races in good order Sunday. 4-year-old Arthur's Ride (Tapit), provided a timely update to his family tree for his breeders Joe and Helen Barbazon with a win in the GI Whitney Stakes. "Oh, we're just tickled to death," said Joe Barbazon. "We've got two of his half-sisters and of course this helps their value. We still have his mama here and it's a huge plus for us. It was very exciting, and there was a lot of yelling....

Klaravich Stables' 'TDN Rising Star' Ways and Means (Practical Joke) looked like a winner every step of the way with a comfortable victory as the 3-5 favorite in Saturday's GI Test Stakes at Saratoga. First to break the line for Flavien Prat, the homebred filly led through the opening exchanges, but was ultimately content to allow the rail-skimming Emery (More Than Ready) to come through and take up the running through fractions of :22.43 and :44.54 over the sealed, muddy main track. Held together into the final 2 1/2 furlongs,...

It's a Grade I bonanza Saturday afternoon at Saratoga Race Course, as the track plays host to a trio of elite-level races--short and long, turf and dirt. The richest of the three events is the $1-million Whitney Stakes, offering the winner a fees-paid berth into the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar on the first Saturday of November. National Treasure (Quality Road) is the 9-5 favorite on David Aragona's morning line and can further tighten his grip on the handicap division with a victory. The $500,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling...