Champagne Stakes

Edited Press Release Darby Dan Farm has set 2026 stud fees for its roster of 11 stallions that will stand the upcoming breeding season, led by Blazing Sevens, Flameaway, and Dialed In, who will each stand for $10,000 S&N. Blazing Sevens, winner of the stallion-making GI Champagne Stakes at two and runner-up by just a head to subsequent Eclipse Award-winning champion older male National Treasure (Quality Road) in the GI Preakness Stakes, hails from the first crop of leading sire Good Magic. Blazing Sevens broke his maiden at Saratoga in...

Despite a dominant 6 1/2-length history in the GI Champagne S. at Aqueduct Oct. 4, Napoleon Solo (Liam's Map) will skip the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Napoleon Solo is owned by Al Gold's Gold Square LLC and is trained by Chad Summers. The story was first reported by the Daily Racing Form's David Grening. "Unfortunately , the Breeders Cup is in California every year," Summers said. "Hopefully, that will change. It's a lot to ask of these 2-year-olds. We weren't really sure what we wanted to do after the race...

The final round of preps for the Breeders' Cup took place this weekend and there was no shortage of stories or races. There were 26 graded stakes run from Friday through Sunday and nine of them were Grade I's. As always, this weekend helped to clear up the Breeders' Cup picture. Here's a look at what happened: GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile: You had three races, the GI Champagne, the GI Breeders' Futurity and the GI American Pharoah and each race featured a potential superstar in Ted Noffey (Into Mischief), Desert...

by TDN Editorial Staff Buckle up, race fans, it's going to be a wild ride on Saturday, as no fewer than 16 graded stakes from New York to Lexington, from Los Angeles to Toronto are scheduled, with horse racing's championship weekend now officially less than four weeks down the road. Without further ado, let's jump into the always-productive card at Aqueduct. Champagne, Frizette Share Spotlight at Belmont at the Big A A quartet of graded stakes, headed by the 'Win and You're In' GI Champagne S. and GI Frizette S.,...

The New York Racing Association (NYRA) will partner with FOX Sports to present live television coverage of Sunday's €5-million G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe from ParisLongchamp. The telecast will air on FS1 from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. ET, with the main event to jump at 10:05 as the fifth event on a 10-race program. The Arc, Europe's weight-for-age championship, is run over 2400 meters. The Arc is part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge series and offers the winner an all-expenses paid trip to Del Mar for the GI Breeders'...

 When they run Saturday's GI Champagne Stakes at Aqueduct, It's Our Time (Not This Time) will be the heavy favorite. How could he not be? The Tom Amoss-trained 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' won his debut at Saratoga by 17 3/4 lengths while earning a 94 Beyer and quickly became one of the most talked-about maiden winners at the meet. The performance went well beyond what Amoss was expecting. "It was a race where there was a horse (Hero Declared) that was super hyped and when they left the...

Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie--Bernadreamy, by Bernardini), a dual Grade I winner at two, is expected to make the final start of his career in the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile before entering stud in 2026 at Eric and Tamara Gustavson's Spendthrift Farm. "We are excited about Chancer McPatrick," said Spendthrift General Manager Ned Toffey. "We've had good luck with precocious Grade I winners from the first crop of emerging sires--of course, that was the formula with Into Mischief when he came to stud. "It takes a pretty special 2-year-old to win...

Four years ago this week, McKinzie was retired to Gainesway after a stellar racing career that netted four Grade I wins and 11 triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures. While it may have been difficult at the time for many to see past the ravages of the COVID pandemic--it was 2020, after all--those far-sighted breeders who patronized McKinzie the next spring are looking positively clairvoyant in 2024. As is becoming blatantly obvious, McKinzie isn't just starting strong as a freshman sire. Instead, McKinzie's beginning as a young sire has been the stuff...

'TDN Rising Star' Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie) ran by them all to remain unbeaten and provide his freshman sire with a rolling Grade I double in Saturday's 'Win and You're In' GI Champagne Stakes at the Belmont at the Big A meeting. McKinzie's Scottish Lassie, a debut third as the favorite at Saratoga, broke her maiden in style with a runaway success in the GI Frizette Stakes one race earlier on the card. Favored at 1-2, Chancer McPatrick broke like a shot from his outside draw--not the case in either of...

Saturday is one of those 'burn the candle at both ends' kind of days for horseplayers, as no fewer than 17 graded stakes take place within a six-hour window. Eight of those events serve as 'Win and You're In' qualifying events for various Breeders' Cup races, and even those races that don't offer a free pass are liable to toss up a runner or two or three at Del Mar in four weeks' time. Keeneland Race Course brands its opening three days of racing as 'Fall Stars Weekend' and who's...

John Kimmel had $25,000, and wanted an Exclusive Native filly. But he had to pass up his first choice, at Fasig-Tipton in 1978, after she went to $32,000. She turned out to be Genuine Risk. A first experience to put most people off, right? Kimmel gives a wry chuckle and shakes his head. "I'd have been ruined," he says. "I was a sophomore in vet school. Can you imagine? I'd have been wrecked." As it was, he had proved his eye. He continued absorbing the bittersweet lessons routinely dispensed by...

The Belmont at the Big A fall meeting will feature 50 stakes races worth $10.35 million, officials at the New York Racing Association (NYRA) announced Thursday. Thirty-one days of racing are scheduled at Aqueduct Racetrack, which will once again stage the meeting due to the ongoing construction at Belmont Park. The meet begins on Friday, Sept. 13 and runs through Sunday, Nov. 3. Three Grade I contests for on the flat and six Breeders' Cup Challenge races are to be run, including the first of the elite-level events, the $500,000...