West Point Thoroughbreds

3rd-Keeneland, $109,550, Alw (NW1X), Opt. Clm ($100,000), 10-14, 2yo, 1 1/16m, 1:46.34, ft, 5 3/4 lengths. STRETCH RIDE (c, 2, Street Sense--Q Go Girl {SP}, by Quality Road) handled his first two-turn attempt with aplomb, drawing away to win clear Saturday at Keeneland. Off at 9-1 having graduated with a late-running victory over six furlongs at Churchill Downs Sept. 17, the bay colt took up a position from between rivals as Astronomico (Frosted) set a quick early pace at the fence while odds-on Lightline (City of Light) was trapped out...

It's a busy time at Keeneland. The September sale has just ended, the fall race meet is upon us and the November sale is right around the corner. With that in mind, the TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland called upon Keeneland Director of Sales Operations Cormac Breathnach to fill us in on the latest from one of America's favorite racetracks. Breathnach was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week. The foal crop keeps dropping every year, but that doesn't seem to affect the September sale. There were...

Officials at the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) and the Jockeys' Guild have announced that members of the newly formed Jockey Mental Health Steering Committee and Advisory Council have been appointed. An inaugural meeting of the new groups will take place Tuesday, Oct. 3 at Columbia University in New York City. The Steering Committee, led by Ambassador Earle Mack, was created with a collective goal of driving research, programming, and resources towards jockey mental wellness initiatives. The steering committee members are as follows: Ambassador Earle Mack; Denali Stud's Craig...

Next (Not This Time) isn't just winning races. He is destroying the competition. A marathon-race specialist, he did it again last week at Parx, when he won the GIII Greenwood Cup S. by an astounding 25 lengths. It's been quite a ride for his trainer, Doug Cowans, who claimed the now 5-year-old last year for $62,500. To talk about Next and to discuss his future plans, Cowans joined this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland. He was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week. Despite his horse's...

by Dan Ross & Jill Williams A $250,000 colt by late California sire Vronsky led Tuesday's one-session Fasig-Tipton California Fall Yearlings and Horses of Racing Age Sale, topping a dozen lots to sell for six figures. While the $5,751,500 gross for 185 head and $15,000 median (-11.76%) declined somewhat from the 2022 edition, average was up slightly from $30,522 in 2022 to $31,089 (+1.86%) this year. The buy-back rate, 25.7% in 2022, rose to 34%. "Buy-backs may be up a little bit," said Fasig-Tipton's California representative Mike Machowsky. "But the...

When Carson's Run (Cupid) won the GI bet365 Summer S. at Woodbine Racetrack this past weekend, earning a trip to the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita, the story was bigger than one horse and one race. The 2-year-old chestnut colt is named for the 31-year-old son of Wade Jost, who bought into the horse from his classmate at the United States Military Academy, Terry Finley, thorough West Point Thoroughbreds. Carson Jost continues to battle Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome. The story might sound familiar, as Cody's Wish (Curlin) is named in honor of...

With a win in the Grade I Summer Stakes, Carson's Run earned his way into the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf. On this week's TDN Writers' Room, Wade Jost, whose son Carson suffers from Wolf-Hirschorn Syndrome, tells the heartfelt story about why the horse named for his son means so much to a family struggling to care for their son.

7th-Churchill Downs, $118,425, Msw, 9-17, 2yo, 6f, 1:10.76, ft, 1/2 length. STRETCH RIDE (c, 2, Street Sense--Q Go Girl {SP}, by Quality Road), sold for a mere $5,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton October Sale, was consigned by Knockanglass Stables to this year's Arqana May Breeze-Up and made for a solid profit when hammering to West Point for €100,000 (under-tack breeze). Sent off at pennies shy of 14-1 for this first trip to the races, Stretch Ride led briefly after the break before allowing favored Handsome Herb (Practical Joke) to take...

Breeders' Cup winner Cody's Wish (Curlin) may be the sport's poster boy for feel-good racing stories, but there's another waiting in the wings as West Point Thoroughbreds and Steven Bouchey's own touching story about Carson's Run (c, 2, Cupid-Hot N Hectic, by Henny Hughes) keeps improving. The 2-year-old colt may be headed to the Breeders' Cup himself after capturing Saturday's GI Bet365 Summer S. at Woodbine, a "Win and You're In" event offering the winner a free berth into the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita Nov. 3....

Mike Talla and West Point Thoroughbreds partnered up to acquire a colt by Not This Time (hip 879) for $1.05 million from the St George Sales consignment Thursday at Keeneland. The yearling is out of Foreign Affair (Exchange Rate), a half-sister to multiple group winner So Perfect (Scat Daddy). He will be trained by John Sadler, who stood alongside West Point's Terry Finley during the bidding. The colt was the fourth seven-figure purchase of the auction for West Point, which teamed with Chuck Sonson and Woodford to acquire the sale's...

By Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis LEXINGTON, KY - The Keeneland September Yearling Sale's first Book 2 session continued right on from where the auction's elite Book 1 section concluded, producing strong results largely in line with last year's record-setting renewal. During Wednesday's session, 209 yearlings sold for $64,024,000. The session average of $306,335 and the median was $255,000. During last year's Book 2 opener, 219 head grossed $66,695,000 for an average of $304,543 and a median of $250,000. With 83 horses reported not sold, the buy-back rate was 28.42%....

As the sport continues in its efforts to drastically reduced the number of fatalities that occur in races and in morning training, there's little doubt that StrideSAFE is going to play an important role in preventing breakdowns. StrideSAFE is a biometric sensor mechanism that slips into the saddle cloth to detect minute changes in a horses's gait at high speed. Those changes can, and often do, signal that a horse is in the early stages of having a problem that could lead to a fatal injury. If the StrideSAFE data...