Adare Manor

At 84-1 odds, Boys and Bullets (Uptowncharlybrown) was lagging in 11th and last place nearing the quarter pole in last Wednesday's eighth race at Parx when 10-pound apprentice jockey Francisco Martinez patiently started picking off half the field. By the time Martinez set down his gelding at the eighth pole, Boys and Bullets was gathering momentum, but still five lengths behind the frontrunner. As the line loomed, the pack tightened. With a hustling hand ride Martinez gunned for an inside split, then deftly readjusted his aim for a better hole...

Michael Lund Petersen's Adare Manor (m, 5, Uncle Mo--Brooklynsway, by Giant Gizmo), who so often shows her best on the front end, took her California tactics on the road with a 5 1/2-length score in Oaklawn's $1.25-million GI Apple Blossom S. Saturday while conceding between one and six pounds to her rivals. Flying Connection (Nyquist), who shipped in from Sunland Park after three straight stakes wins in New Mexico for the red-hot Todd Fincher barn, closed late to nab second over Mar. 24 Shantel Lanerie S. winner Free Like a...

Facing a bevy of more experienced rivals, lightly raced SWEET AZTECA (f, 4, Sharp Azteca--So Sweetitiz, by Grand Slam) led every step of the way to capture the renamed GI B. Wayne Hughes Beholder Mile S. at Santa Anita Saturday. Last summer's GI Clement L. Hirsch S. winner and even-money favorite Adare Manor (Uncle Mo) was second, while 'TDN Rising Star' and Pumpkin Pie S. winner Green Up (Upstart), an East Coast shipper, was third. Final time for the mile was 1:36.40. A homebred for Pamela Cee Ziebarth, Sweet Azteca...

Trainer Chad Brown has started but three horses in the GIII Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby, none of which has finished better than sixth, but in the form of Klaravich Stable's Domestic Product (Practical Joke), he could very well be getting his picture taken Saturday afternoon. Having won his maiden over nine furlongs at second asking at Aqueduct in late October, the next logical step was the Dec. 2 GII Remsen S., but he caught a rain-affected strip he may not have preferred and faded through the final furlong to...

Michael Lund Petersen's Adare Manor (Uncle Mo) tuned up for Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Distaff with a four-furlong drill in :48.20 (22/69) Sunday at Santa Anita. The 4-year-old comes into the Distaff with a string of four straight stakes victories, including a 5 1/4-length score in the Oct. 1 GII Zenyatta S., but will have to step up her game to win Saturday, according to trainer Bob Baffert. "She'll be running against a different type of filly on Saturday," Baffert said. "She's a big, fast filly and she has a...

The dams of two recent Grade I winners and of a third elite-level scorer heading to the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff are among the latest supplemental entries to The November Sale at Fasig-Tipton. The stakes-winning Toni Tools (Roaring Fever), cataloged as hip 254 and selling with EliTE, is the dam of Candied (Candy Ride {Arg}) who ran her record to two wins from as many starts in the GI Darley Alcibiades S. and heads to California as a leading chance in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Nov. 3. Similarly,...

To see Adare Manor (f, 4, Uncle Mo--Brooklynsway, by Giant Gizmo) gallop out after Santa Anita's GII Zenyatta S. was to see a filly who looked like she was pretty proud of herself. Indeed, she should have been. The Zenyatta was Adare Manor's fifth straight win, as well as fourth consecutive graded win, and she took this one in the most facile manner possible, eased up as she cruised under the line a 5 1/4-length victress. Clearly the class of the field as the 1-9 favorite, Adare Manor ran like...

Talk about keeping good company. Kirstenbosch (Midnight Lute), a 4-year-old making her 17th lifetime start for trainer John Sadler, has not raced out of graded-stakes company since her third-place finish in the GI La Brea S. Dec. 26. Perhaps more impressively, she's been on the board in all but three of the eight starts since that post-Christmas trifecta. And though absent of the winner's circle since victory in the GIII La Canada S. Jan. 15, Kirstenbosch has run second or third to GISW Adare Manor (Uncle Mo) and a pair...

Just over 100 years ago, the Jockey Club's resident New York handicapper, William Vosburgh, knew the value of history and understood how it could be applied when he penned his magnum opus, Racing In America, 1866-1921. The turf wordsmith revealed his intent in the Preface when he said, "I shall show that, owing to want of popular support, racing had fallen so low, and so infrequent, as to excite little or no interest." What he was talking about was a sport in crisis, as progressive forces in America drove racing...

Several top horses trained by Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert were among 174 workers at Santa Anita Monday morning. Among those working four furlongs for Baffert on the main track were GISWs Adare Manor (Uncle Mo) (:46.40), Arabian Lion (Justify) (:46.80), Faiza (Girvin) (:49.20) and National Treasure (Quality Road) (:48.20). GI Starlet S. winner Faiza's drill was her first since being scratched from the Torrey Pines S. on Sept. 2 at Del Mar. National Treasure, winner of this season's GI Preakness S., had his second work since finishing fifth...

Sunday dawned emotionally overcast for a racing world still trying to process Saturday's stunning, life-ending injury to the unbeaten New York-bred filly Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic), who was steps from victory in the GI Test S. at Saratoga when she crashed to the track with a catastrophic injury to her right foreleg. She was euthanized on the spot, while jockey Joel Rosario escaped serious injury (three lip stitches) and was off his Sunday mounts. The very public, deep-stretch tragedy on a huge day of racing is comparable to the...

Adare Manor (f, 4, Uncle Mo--Brooklynsway, by Giant Gizmo), a big, rangy daughter of her Breeders' Cup-winning sire, made it four in a row and a first Grade I with a facile win in the $400,000 GI Clement L. Hirsch S. at Del Mar Saturday. The filly will likely attempt to win a Breeders' Cup of her own as the "Win and You're In" Hirsch offers a fees-paid berth to the GI Distaff, which will be held at Santa Anita in November. When the field broke in the Hirsch, it...