Debutante Stakes

After the FanDuel Limestone S. was taken off the grass, Hot Beach (Omaha Beach) did not mind a wet main track one bit as she rolled home a winner at Keeneland on Friday. The dark bay began her career last summer at Ellis Park with a runner-up finish and then won the Debutante S. at the Pea Patch in mid-August. A well beaten third behind 'TDN Rising Star' V V's Dream (Mitole) in the GIII Pocahontas S. at Churchill Downs a month later, Hot Beach was last seen running second...

Behave Virginia (Unified), the first winner for Unified when dueling free and airing on debut beneath the Twin Spires May 28, became her freshman sire's first stakes winner in Saturday's $150,000 Debutante S. at Churchill Downs. The 4-1 chance bobbled slightly at the start and sat behind the leaders in an inside fourth. She split horses as they turned for home and ran to the money to stay perfect. The winner's dam, a $25,000 purchase by Arif Kurtel at the 2019 KEENOV Sale, had a colt by Tamarkuz in 2020....

He was hardly the first horseman who couldn't afford to be wrong, and he won't be the last. And he knows that another day, with another horse, the high-wire might not have taken the weight of the gamble. But if John Ennis duly needed a share of luck to make it across, then everything that has happened since suggests that he did so principally through his own dexterity. The trainer remembers trembling as he signed a $7,000 docket for a Yes It's True colt at the Fasig-Tipton October Sale in...