Cal-bred

At 34-1, Cal-bred Express Kid outran his odds in the Springboard Mile to close out Remington Park's Thoroughbred meet and in the process the colt took home 10 Kentucky Derby points on Saturday evening. The $2,000 buy out of the Arizona Thoroughbred Breeders Association Fall Mixed sale broke his maiden at first-asking at Canterbury in early July and was the runner-up in the Prairie Meadows Freshman Stakes in mid-August. Express Kid shipped to Oklahoma City to contest the Clever Trevor Stakes, but was well-beaten Sept. 28. Switching to the local...

Horses that win a California-bred first-level allowance race will enjoy expanded opportunities beginning with the Dec. 26 opening of the Classic Meet at Santa Anita, the track announced Friday. The Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC), in collaboration with Santa Anita, Del Mar, Los Alamitos and the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association (CTBA), have reached an agreement to broaden the available options to include two wins over the same surface in Cal-bred first conditioned allowance races. Under the existing policy, Cal-breds are entitled to two wins in the first level allowance if...

Maxfield's first stakes winner as a freshman sire comes in as Max Ciao takes the I'm Smokin Stakes at Del Mar on Friday. Unveiled as a third-place finisher at Santa Anita May 25, the colt was fourth, beaten seven lengths, July 19 by Friday's 3-2 second choice Thirsty Rebel. Max Ciao found himself in the winners circle in career start number three, a six-length victor back here at Del Mar Aug. 8. In his first stakes try, the son of Maxfield broke alertly, stalking just over a length off the...

Twenty stakes races worth $3.15 million, including the GI Hollywood Derby and the GI Matriarch Stakes, will highlight the 12th Bing Crosby Season at Del Mar which begins Thursday, Oct. 30 and runs through Sunday, Nov. 30. All told there will be 16 days of racing during the meet, including two days of Breeders' Cup races Friday, October 31 and Saturday, November 1. All told there will be 11 Graded races presented through the month as well as 12 stakes held on the turf course. There also will be four...

A Baffert pair looked to have the GIII Torrey Pines Stakes at Del Mar sewn up Saturday, but that's why a race needs to be run. She wasn't exactly a longshot at 4-1, but Om N Joy (f, 3, Om--Margie's Minute, by Hard Spun)--trained by Aggie Ordonez, not by Bob Baffert--proved best on the day and captured the first graded stakes of her career while extending her winning streak to five. It was only the second try in open company for the Cal-bred. Om N Joy broke smoothly and sharply,...

On Wednesday came the news that Fasig-Tipton will offer a digital auction, to run Aug. 14 through Aug. 19, of 90 horses owned and bred by the late John Harris, who passed away in July aged 81. Harris leaves behind a towering legacy of Thoroughbred breeding and ownership in the state. The sale signifies a major reduction of Harris Farms' bloodstock and not a total dispersal, however, with the operation expected to continue with a smaller footprint going forward. Harris's reduction sale will take place just over a month before...

California-breds have long been a staple of the state's racing product. Since 2014, CA-breds have represented between 45% and 50% of all starters at Thoroughbred race meets. Since the consolidation of racing in the south of the state, that trend has continued. From the start of the Santa Anita winter meeting through mid-March, Cal-breds made up about 47% of all individual starters, which includes both open races and those restricted to northern trainers. But with last year's foal crop (now yearlings) currently sitting at just below 1000 amid a breeding...

The Chosen Vron's (Vronsky) story will continue in 2024. Trainer Eric Kruljac will bring the 5-year old gelding back for another year he announced Thursday. The gelding started an eight-race win streak at Los Alamitos in September of 2022 which ended with his fifth-place finish in this year's GI Breeders' Cup Sprint. "I've put the Breeders' Cup behind me," said Kruljac. "He was kind of covered up. He might have had a little trouble getting out. I think he was behind a couple of horses and when they took off...

The hometown hero got it done. Facing an exceptionally deep field of sprinters in Saturday's 'Win and You're In' GI Bing Crosby S. at Del Mar, it was the California-bred The Chosen Vron (Vronsky) who got the money. He, however, is not nominated to the Breeders' Cup and would have to be supplemented for this fall's GI Breeders' Cup Sprint. With the victory, the 5-year-old gelding matched a bar set earlier in the day by Eclipse champion male sprinter Elite Power (Curlin) with both horses stretching their respective winning streaks...

One day on, the fallout from The Stronach Group's (TSG) announcement that it is closing Golden Gate Fields at the end of the year continues to reverberate around the state's beleaguered platoon of trainers, owners, breeders and other stakeholders. "It's like you're Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life, and you're losing your job right before Christmas," said trainer Tim McCanna Monday, while on the road to Del Mar for the track's summer meet. "It just really leaves things up in the air." The reason for the closure of Golden...

So long, old big head. Most who fit that description are good; just not quite as good as they think. But you showed an indomitability rooted, not in arrogance, but in an awareness that the odds of life are seldom easy; that the crown must be earned, not just ceremonially conferred. In your case, it just needed a little extra by way of circumference. The retirement from stud of Tiznow (Cee's Tizzy), announced this week, is poignantly timed. In a few days' time, a fresh name will be carved on...