Claiming Horse of the Year

Turf specialist Kitodan, who went from being claimed twice last year to winning Kentucky Downs's GIII $750,000 Big Ass Fans Dueling Grounds Derby, has been selected the National HBPA's 2022 Claiming Horse of the Year, the group announced Friday morning. "We are blessed that we were able to claim that kind of horse compared to where we were just a few years ago," said western Kentucky-based trainer Eric Foster,  whose wife Brooklyn's Foster Family Racing and partners Doug Miller and Bill Wargel campaign the now 4-year-old colt after claiming him for...

Special Reserve (Midshipman) started last season being claimed for $40,000 and ended 2021 as the National HBPA Claiming Horse of the Year. In between, the 5-year-old gelding won two graded stakes and three stakes overall, finished second by a half-length in Saratoga's GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H.and concluded the season with a fourth in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint. "It's been such a great experience, and he's such a great horse," said David Staudacher, who co-owns the Mike Maker-trained Special Reserve with Peter Proscia's Paradise Farms Corp. "This award means...