Country Grammer

Life Is Good (Into Mischief) and Country Grammer (Tonalist), both multiple Grade I winners co-owned by WinStar Farm, are enjoying a freshening at WinStar's training and rehabilitation facility in Versailles, Ky. before they return to the racetrack for their summer campaigns. Rivals in their last start in the G1 Dubai World Cup, the duo now shares the same daily routine on the farm. After training at 6:30 every morning, they keep company together as they enjoy the grass and sunshine in side-by-side round pens. "Life Is Good and Country Grammer...

Australian sprinting king Nature Strip (Aus) (Nicconi {Aus}) won the G1 T J Smith S. in Australia recently and moves to the top of the Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings with a mark of 124 shared with GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. hero Life Is Good (Into Mischief). Next on the rankings list is Speaker's Corner (Street Sense), the 4 1/2-length victor of the GI Carter H. at 123. Hong Kong superhorse Golden Sixty (Aus) (Medaglia d'Oro) returned to the winner's circle in the G2 Chairman's Trophy S., and...

Before the G1 Dubai World Cup, Country Grammer (Tonalist) was already a Grade l winner in North America, but that race that he won on May 31, 2021, the Gl Hollywood Gold Cup S. at Santa Anita, was worth only $180,000 to the winner. Since then, Country Grammer has made only two starts, both abroad and both fruitful: he was second in the G1 Saudi Cup, a $20-million race in Riyadh on Feb. 26, earning $3.5 million; and he won the $12-million Dubai World Cup Saturday, collecting almost $7 million,...

Following their performances in the GI Dubai World Cup, beaten favorite Life Is Good (Into Mischief) and race winner Country Grammer (Tonalist) are on their way to WinStar Farm for a freshening before they return to serious training. WinStar President and CEO Elliott Walden estimated that their stay at the farm will last from 30 to 45 days. WinStar is the co-owner of both horses. Colonel Liam (Liam's Map), who finished ninth in the GI Dubai Turf, is also being sent to WinStar. The heavy favorite in the wagering, Life...

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- On paper, it was horseracing's version of the 'Dream Team.' Trainer Bob Baffert, a three-time winner of the G1 Dubai World Cup, and the charismatic Frankie Dettori, still riding at the peak of his powers into his early 50s, also with three World Cup trophies to his name. Each of those victories was achieved as the retained rider for Godolphin and Saeed bin Suroor, but the Italian maestro hadn't hoisted the hardware since Electrocutionist (Red Ransom) took the 2006 renewal at old Nad Al Sheba...

First things first: let's give their chance to the guys off the bench. Okay, so there are going to be plenty of eyeballs rolled now that three of Bob Baffert's four Derby migrants are joining a former assistant, on the same circuit, with a total of 38 starters to his name this year—especially as it was the handling of another Baffert medication violation that reportedly caused the scuffle between this same gentleman and a fellow trainer at Clocker's Corner one morning last April. (Both were fined $500.) The wiseguys will...

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- In a Thursday morning presser at Meydan Racecourse, Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher suggested that a good deal of the allure of running in a race like the G1 Dubai World Cup is that it brings together a smorgasbord of horses from a variety of jurisdictions with patriotic pride at play. "I think part of it is the international competition aspect of it," he offered. "I said this when Coal Front (Stay Thirsty) won the [G2 Godolphin] Mile [in 2019], it almost takes on...

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- With the exception of host Sheikh Mohammed, who has won the G1 Dubai World Cup no fewer than nine times, and the late Sheikh Hamdan (two), no other owner has managed to post more than one victory in the event, now worth $12 million. That could all change in the space of a little more than two minutes Saturday afternoon when Kenny Troutt's WinStar Farm sends out a pair of runners consisting of different partnerships. On a rating of 124, 'TDN Rising Star' Life Is...

WinStar Farm and China Horse Club's Life Is Good (Into Mischief), who won the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. in dominating fashion, has drawn gate one in the $12-million G1 Dubai World Cup. The 4-year-old colt is six for seven, with five of his wins at the graded level. Elliott Walden, president and racing manager of co-owner WinStar Farm said, "It's an 11-horse field. He has enough time to get over, and has enough speed to put himself in a good position. It's...

A total of 1,231 2-year-olds in training have been cataloged for the Ocala Breeders Sales Company's Spring Sale, to be held Tuesday through Friday, Apr. 19-22 at the auction house's Central Florida complex. Gracing the cover of the 2022 catalog is 'TDN Rising Star' Corniche (Quality Road), who topped last year's renewal on a bid of $1.5 million from Marette Farrell, agent for Speedway Stables, and who went on to cap an undefeated championship season with a victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Del Mar. OBS April graduates...

In the long story of the breed, there has never been a week's work remotely approaching the one Mandaloun (Into Mischief) bids to complete in the desert on Saturday. It opened with his formal elevation as winner of America's most prestigious race; and could conclude with him banking the biggest prize anywhere on planet Turf. As has come to seem wearyingly inevitable, nobody imagines that the first leg of this dazing double was necessarily concluded by the disqualification of Medina Spirit (Protonico). We proudly advertise the GI Kentucky Derby as...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia--Amr Zedan has a runner in the world's richest race staged Saturday in his home country of Saudi Arabia. The Bob Baffert-trained Country Grammer (Tonalist), whom he part-owns with WinStar Farm and Commonwealth Thoroughbreds, was not however the horse he had hoped to be running. Zedan's original intention was for Medina Spirit (Protonico) to be lining up in the country from which his name is derived, but the horse who finished first past the post in the last year's Kentucky Derby collapsed and died in December. On Monday...