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A well-established fixture in the lead up to the Triple Crown, trainer Todd Pletcher is attempting to secure a record 16th training title during Gulfstream Park's 2018-2019 championship meeting, while diligently working to unearth another jewel who can join his roster of five prior Classic victories. As recently as 2017, the seven-time Eclipse Award winning trainer employed his South Florida base of Palm Beach Downs as a launching pad for a pair of Classic wins: Always Dreaming (Bodemeister; GI Kentucky Derby) and Tapwrit (Tapit; GI Belmont S.). The TDN caught...

The Iowa Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association is currently conducting an online auction of seasons to more than 180 stallions from 16 states. Proceeds from the online auction will fund three stakes races for all 2020 offspring of stallions whose seasons are sold at this auction: the 2022 Stallion Futurity and two 2023 Stallion Stakes races for 3-year-olds, one for colts and one for fillies. The auction began Dec. 8 and closes Dec. 17 at 7 p.m. CDT. A list of the stallions donated and details of the auction are...

Renovation on the one-mile dirt racetrack at Indiana Grand Racing and Casino is currently underway and the $700,000 project is expected to be completed in March 2019 when the barn area opens for training. Gerry Porcelli, former track man for the New York Racing Association for more than 40 years and Butch Lehr, who served as track man for Churchill Downs for more than 45 years, are working in conjunction with Indiana Grand's track superintendent Roy Smith on the project. "We are right on schedule," said Smith. "We've been busy...

Anothertwistafate (Scat Daddy) may have disappointed in his first racetrack appearance at Santa Anita last month, but the juvenile made amends with an effortless four-length maiden victory at his home base of Golden Gate Fields Sunday. "I was actually relieved," trainer Blaine Wright said of the win Monday. "He didn't show a whole lot the first time we ran him, but that was probably my fault. Yesterday, he showed us the kind of horse we thought he was all along." Bidding on behalf of Canadian owner Peter Redekop, bloodstock agent...

The New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) voted by unanimous voice vote Monday to tweak a claiming price rule enacted in 2012 that had aimed to dis-incentivize owners and trainers from entering lame or uncompetitive horses in lower-level races that had been bolstered by gaming-inflated purses. The new rule will allow for some flexibility in setting claiming prices that are below the required 2:1 standard mandated by the NYSGC. It reads as follows, with the new language that was added to the existing rule highlighted in bold: "The minimum price...

I don't see how the Triple Crown winner cannot be Horse of the Year. I go back to the days before the Breeders' Cup was inaugurated and the Triple Crown is still the engine that fires this game. Justify did all that he needed to do to prove to me that he was the Horse of the Year. The Eclipse Awards are tough. I've had several that I thought deserved the accolade and didn't get it. If they don't win it with Accelerate, I'm going to know how John Sadler...

Last spring, consignor Kip Elser and a longtime client came into the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale with five horses and an old idea made new again. The five 2-year-olds bypassed the typical pre-sale breeze and instead galloped down the lane during the auction's under-tack preview show. The experiment proved enough of a success that the two men have purchased another group of yearlings this year intent on repeating the scenario at the 2019 Gulfstream sale. "We very happy with the first year," Elser said. "We were very well received--both in the...

As his odds of 1-5 make perfectly clear, there was nothing improbable about Improbable (City Zip)'s victory in the GI Los Alamitos CashCall Futurity. Nor was there anything improbable about a colt of his pedigree establishing a record of three wins from three starts as a 2-year-old. His sire, the ultra-tough City Zip, won five of his 11 juvenile starts, including the GI Hopeful S., and this son of the fast Carson City has also been represented by the Breeders' Cup 2-year-old winners Bulletin (2018 Juvenile Turf Sprint) and Catch...

When Improbable (City Zip) trounced his opponents in Saturday's GI Los Alamitos Cash Call Futurity he received much deserved rave reviews. He endured a brief scare from stablemate Mucho Gusto (Mucho Macho Man) before switching into another gear and drawing off by five. He is undefeated, a two-time stakes winner and now a Grade I winner. This is a very good horse. And he may not be Bob Baffert's best 2-year-old. He might not be his fifth best 2-year-old. There's nothing new about Baffert having a lot of quality juveniles...

Owner Chuck Zacney had quite the run in 2005 when Afleet Alex (Northern Afleet) won the GI Preakness S. and GI Belmont S. and was named champion 3-year-old male. He's had a good horse here and there over the next many years, but nothing like the duo he's ready to launch in the major races for 3-year-old fillies and colts next year. He's the co-owner of both GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Jaywalk (Cross Traffic) and undefeated GII Remsen S. winner Maximus Mischief (Into Mischief) and, yes, he's dreaming...