Blame

We may bemoan the fact that Flat horses come and go in what feels like the blink of an eye, but this season we are fortunate to be welcoming back not just the Derby winner Auguste Rodin (Ire) but the four best fillies and mares in the world last year: Liberty Island (Jpn), Inspiral (GB), Emily Upjohn (GB) and Nashwa (GB). The last three named are all trained at John and Thady Gosden's Clarehaven Stables and both Emily Upjohn and Nashwa will make their return to the track next weekend...

Quite a few horses have lately nourished the illusion that we might, collectively, actually know what we're doing. Sierra Leone (Gun Runner), for instance, is threatening to make sense of the second-highest price paid for an American yearling in 2022; while Newgate (Into Mischief) is steadily working off a $850,000 debt of his own, while similarly bringing closer the real payday at stud. But last weekend we were given yet another reminder of the genetic powder-keg lit by a mating strategy that can only have prompted a supercilious smile in...

War Front (Danzig) will again lead the way at Claiborne Farm among their nine-stallion roster for 2024, with a fee of $100,000, the same price for which he stood in 2023. In 2023, War Front's yearlings sold for up to $800,000, and he is among the top 10 North American-based sires this season by percentage of black-type winners from starters (6.9%), black-type performers from starters (11.8%) and total graded stakes winners (six). War Front's GI Preakness S.-winning son War of Will will stand for $25,000. His first yearlings sold at...

Some of the most highly anticipated races during the summer racing season are the 'baby' races during the boutique meetings at both Saratoga and Del Mar and at Ellis Park, which attract its fair share of high-priced offspring from a variety of top national outfits. Summer Breezes highlights debuting 2-year-olds at those meetings that have been sourced at the breeze-up sales earlier in the year, with links to their under-tack previews. To follow are the horses entered for Friday at Saratoga, Ellis and Del Mar: Friday, August 4, 2023 Ellis...

1st-DMR, $82K, Msw, 2yo, f, 5fT, 7:00 p.m. Picked up for $550,000 at the OBS April Sale earlier this year following a sharp :21.1 breeze, SHE IS ROMANTIC (Blame) debuts Friday out of the Peter Eurton barn for owner C R K Stable. Already a half-sister to a pair of stakes-placed horses, the filly is out of a full-sister to MSW Frolic's Revenge and a half to GSW/MGISP Super Frolic (Pine Bluff) and MSW/GSP Stormy Frolic (Summer Squall). TJCIS PPS 4th-MTH, $57K, Msw, 2yo, 5 1/2f, 3:24 p.m. Debuting on...

Favored to earn her first taste of Classic glory in the GI Kentucky Oaks in May, Godolphin's Wet Paint (Blame) could only manage a fourth-place finish behind stablemate Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief). Fast forward through a runner-up effort in Ellis's Monomoy Girl S. last month followed by a trek to upstate New York, the bay finally bagged her own Grade I, taking Saturday's Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga. "She's a super consistent filly who always comes running," said trainer Brad Cox, who won the 2018 renewal of the Oaks...

LEXINGTON, KY - The Fasig-Tipton July Sale of Selected Yearlings failed to live up to its lofty 2022 levels, but concluded Tuesday evening with solid numbers and a filly from the first crop of GI Kentucky Derby winner Authentic leading the way when selling for $475,000 to Alex and Jo Ann Lieblong. "We had a very solid start to the 2023 yearling sales marketplace," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. "I think we all recognized that we were coming off a euphoric 2022 yearling marketplace that saw pretty significant increases across...

OCALA, FL - The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training continued its measured pace Wednesday with figures falling off the auction's record-setting 2022 renewal, while a colt by Blame brought the day's highest bid of $485,000 when selling to bloodstock agent Clay Scherer. The session-topping colt, who was consigned by Wavertree Stables, was one of four to sell for $200,000 or more during the day, bringing the total to reach that mark so far at the sale to seven. Eleven had reached that mark at the...

The under-tack show for next week's Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training reached its midway point Wednesday, with a colt by Blame (hip 430) and a filly by Bee Jersey (hip 495) sharing the session's quarter-mile bullet time of :20 3/5. Hip 495 was among the first horses to work Wednesday morning when she turned in her bullet quarter-mile drill. Consigned by Triple J Equine Sales, the chestnut filly is out of Tale of La Comete (Tale of Ekati). Her third dam is La Comete (Holy...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- In a division still crying out for a clear-cut leader, a full field of sophomore fillies will take centerstage in a deep renewal of Friday's GI Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. Trainer Brad Cox will have three chances, including the top two choices on the morning-line, to collect a third Oaks trophy following wins with Monomoy Girl in 2018 and Shedaresthedevil in 2020. After sweeping the Oaklawn Park series for 3-year-old fillies, Godolphin homebred and 5-2 Oaks morning-line favorite Wet Paint (Blame) shoots for a fourth straight...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Godolphin homebred Wet Paint (Blame), an impressive come-from-behind winner in three straight while sweeping the Oaklawn Park series for 3-year-old fillies headed by the GIII Fantasy S. Apr. 1, was tabbed as the 5-2 morning-line favorite for Friday's GI Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. Conditioned by two-time Kentucky Oaks-winning trainer Brad Cox, Wet Paint was assigned post seven in the full field of 14. Flavien Prat will ride. Cox will also saddle impressive Bourbonette Oaks heroine and 4-1 second-choice Botanical (Medaglia d'Oro) (post six), who tries dirt...

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis OCALA, FL - For the third straight day, the team of Bob Baffert and Donato Lanni, acting on behalf of Saudi businessman Amr Zedan, made the highest bid of the session, this time going to $2.2 million--top price of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training sale so far--to acquire a colt by Gun Runner from the de Meric Sales consignment as the Spring sale continued to produce figures largely in line with its record-setting 2022 renewal. Through three of four...