Week in Review

You'd think the nine-furlong GII Remsen S. might be a good measuring stick for GI Kentucky Derby potential because it's the only top-level, 1 1/8-miles American dirt race for juveniles before they turn three. But only three horses in the last 61 years-Thunder Gulch, Go For Gin and Pleasant Colony-have parlayed wins in the Remsen into a blanket of roses at Churchill Downs. Instead, in recent runnings, the Remsen has evolved into a pipeline for progress deeper into the 3-year-old season. Remsen winners have captured two of the last three...

Bob Baffert told TDN via text last week it would be "exciting" to have a horse run at Churchill Downs for the first time in more than three years. Four months ago, on July 19, the gaming corporation that owns the track rescinded a ruling-off it had imposed upon the Hall-of-Fame trainer in 2021 because of a string of drug positives in horses Baffert trained, including one in Churchill's most prominent race, that year's GI Kentucky Derby. The colt who tested positive for an overage of betamethasone was Medina Spirit,...

Though he won the 2022 GI Florida Derby with White Abarrio (Race Day), Saffie Joseph, Jr. isn't necessarily thought of as someone to fear on the roads to the GI Kentucky Oaks and GI Kentucky Derby. His bread and butter remains claimers and tough older horses like the now 5-year-old White Abbario and Skippylongstocking (Exaggerator), who won this year's GII Oaklawn Handicap and the GII Charles Town Classic Stakes. But that may be about to change. It's early yet and Todd Pletcher has yet to send his first string to...

The number that best sums up this year's Breeders' Cup is :44.96. That's the sizzling opening half-mile split for the GI Classic, and 'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) utilized it to the utmost advantage on Saturday, propelling himself to the winner's circle with one of his customary, locomotive-like late kicks that had come up just shy of victory in three previous attempts at 10 furlongs. As a relentless long-strider with a penchant for leaning in and being a magnet for trip trouble during his stretch runs, Sierra Leone...

There's virtually no chance that Vinnie Viola would have bought a horse like Rated by Merit (Battalion Runner) at the sales. That's where he goes every year to spend big bucks in search of a star. At this year's Keeneland September sale alone, Viola bought 18 horses for $9.1 million. Rated by Merit is undefeated at 3-for-3 after winning Saturday's Affirmed S., the second leg in Gulfstream's series for 2-year-olds by Florida-based sires. An overachiever, he is by a stallion who stands for $2,500 and out a mare who was...

Subsanador (Arg) (Fortify) didn't get much respect at 6-1 in the betting when throttling between rivals to seize a three-horse photo by a head in Saturday's GI California Crown S., and he likely won't be favored for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic in five weeks, either. But make no mistake: There were no fewer than 10 aspirants for the Classic in the entries worldwide last week, and only Subsanador's score at Santa Anita resonated as a true status shifter that elevated this Richard Mandella trainee into the top tier among...

A generation ago, the Philip H. Iselin S. used to be the premier race of the summer at Monmouth Park. Even while cycling through several name changes, the then-handicap carried Grade I status between 1976 and 1996 and a purse that swelled to $500,000 for a few years. Its importance as an August fixture for top older routers merited regular broadcasts on national TV, and the race's roster of winners boasted such standouts as Spectacular Bid, Alysheba and Skip Away. In decline ever since, the Iselin had already levelled out...

The Week In Review by Bill Finley We are in the middle of the Saratoga and Del Mar meets, both of which bring together the best horses the sport has to offer. That was the case last weekend. The quality is there. The quantity? Not so much. There's an alarming trend in racing and it's only getting worse. The 10- or 12-horse field for a stakes race, especially on the dirt, is a thing of the past, no matter the venue, no matter the size of the purse. Even a...

The Boiling Springs Stakes at Monmouth, scheduled to be run Sunday, is contested annually at a mile-and-one-sixteenth on the turf and is for 3-year-old fillies. With those conditions, it should be an easy race to fill. Not this year. The racing office did not get enough entries and the race was scrapped. Not that any of this should come as a surprise. There is a glut of racing in the Mid-Atlantic states. When Colonial Downs opens on July 11, there will be eight Mid-Atlantic tracks running within a range of...

Approaching the start of the sixth week of the season at Delaware Park, a pair of apprentices--one a five-pound bugboy and the other still with his seven-pound allowance--are riding high atop the jockey standings. Through Saturday's racing, the Delaware win totals by Gabriel Maldonado (25) and Ederik Robles (18) matched the rookies' ages. Maldonado just finished a blast-off week that saw him winning nine races in a four-day span at three different tracks. On Wednesday, the five-pound apprentice tallied with the last of six afternoon mounts at Delaware, then traveled...

You have to root for the people who strive so hard to make a go of racing in Northern California after Golden Gate Fields shut its doors for good June 9. Racing has a rich history in Northern California and there are hundreds of people, from hotwalkers to grooms to trainers to breeders, and everybody in between, who depend on the sport to put food on the table. They deserve better than the uncertainty that has left most everyone worrying about their futures after The Stronach Group announced it was...

The Week in Review On a day when there were three stakes races, two of them Grade I's, at Santa Anita, the biggest draw on the Monday card was a maiden, Eagles Flight (Curlin). He drew more fans to the paddock than were there for any of the stakes. That's what happens when you're making your first start and are a half-brother to the great Flightline (Tapit). Crank up the hype machine. Eagles Flight, sent off at 11-10, won by 2 3/4 lengths, drawing away with ease inside the final...