Three-year-fillies got equal time with their male counterparts this weekend, as the 2015 Kentucky Oaks Championship Series made its debut in New York, Florida, and Louisiana. The final stage of official Kentucky Oaks prep races as designated by Churchill Downs, Championship Series races offer 85 points to the top four finishers (50-20-10-5). The top 20…
The weekend’s Kentucky Derby preps, the first in this year’s Champion Series, saw familiar faces get their pictures taken in New Orleans and Hot Springs, but an upstart in Florida knocked the horse of the same name out of the winner’s circle at Gulfstream Park, via a controversial disqualification. In the oddly-run Grade II Besilu…
Gulfstream Park: The Grade II, $400,000 Fountain of Youth at 1 1/16 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points 50-20-10-5) by Brian Nadeau #1 Juan and Bina (20-1): Price player won’t get much tote respect but actually ran quite well when fourth to today’s leading trio in the local prep, the GII Holy Bull last month, and,…
The roads to the Kentucky Derby and the Oaks resume this weekend, with six races at four racetracks nationwide. In the points system initiated by Churchill Downs in 2012, this weekend’s races represent the beginning of what Churchill calls the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks “Championship Series” of prep races, each race offering a total…
When Upstart won the Funny Cide Stakes at Saratoga last summer, a race restricted to horses bred in New York State, his owner Ralph Evans knew that the then-2-year-old was good enough to win against open company. It took five months before Upstart got that win, but got it he did, in the Grade II…
Gulfstream Park: The Grade II, $400,000 Holy Bull at 1 1/16 miles by Brian Nadeau #1 Frosted (5-2): The first of two heavy hitters for Godolphin tipped his hand with a rousing win at Aqueduct to break his maiden in October then followed that up with a game second-place finish going two turns when Lasix…
Though they seldom get the attention lavished on their 3-year-old male counterparts at this time of year, the 3-year-old fillies are turning in some impressive performances as they prep for the Longines Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on Friday, May 2. An event in and of itself, Oaks Day is much more than the appetizer…
In Derbies held half a world apart from each other on Saturday, two horses making their stakes debuts earned enough points to run in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 3. Over the synthetic surface at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai, the Kentucky-bred Toast of New York, racing for English connections, won the UAE…
“…those close to Camille…witnessed her fiery temperament, her tendency to dominate, her caustic wit and, later, the terrifying violence of her strange, eccentric and provocative character, as well as her legendary, savage gift for mockery…” –Musée Rodin Gifted, tempestuous, and headstrong, sculptor Camille Claudel shared a life and her art with Auguste Rodin for 10…
Gulfstream Park: The Grade I, $1 million Florida Derby at 1 1/8 miles, by Brian Nadeau of Horseplayer Now. #1 Wildcat Red: Lightning-quick runner stretched out after his local 7F win in the GIII Hutcheson to blaze to a wire-to-wire win over fellow hard-hitter General a Rod in the local prep, the GII Fountain of…
Brooklyn Backstretch 