Eclipse Award

Eclipse Award winner Maximum Security (New Year's Day) makes his first start for trainer Bob Baffert and first since the federal indictment of former trainer Jason Servis in Saturday's rescheduled GII San Diego H. at Del Mar. The homebred was a two-time Grade I winner during his championship campaign in 2019, taking the GI Florida Derby and GI Haskell Invitational S. around his disqualification from an apparent victory in the GI Kentucky Derby. He proved his versatility and did what no other horse of his generation could at the tail...

Victor Carrasco recorded the 1,000 victory of his career when he guided Justin Front (Justin Phillip) to a 1 1/4-length score Sunday at Laurel. "It's a great feeling," Carrasco said of the milestone. "After dealing with so many injuries and having some health issues and everything, it feels amazing." Carrasco won the Eclipse Award as the nation's leading apprentice rider in 2013. The 27-year-old, a native of Guyama, Puerto Rico, graduated from the famed Escuela Vocacional Hipica jockey school and won 11 races in his home country before coming to...

Repole and St. Elias Stable's Vino Rosso had his share of ups and downs throughout the 2019 racing season, however, he rounded out the year, as well as his racing career, in rousing fashion with an authoritative 4 1/4-length victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita Nov. 2. After launching 2019 with a score in the one-mile Stymie S. last March, the chestnut was fourth in the seven-panel GI Carter H., but showed his obvious affinity for the added yardage with a 3/4-length win over Gift Box...

The first foal for 2018 Eclipse Award-winning older dirt male Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky--Issues, by Awesome Again) arrived Jan. 21 when Sweet Congrats (Congrats) produced a colt in Lexington, KY. The foal is the first from her dam, a full-sister to the stakes-placed duo of Free Cover and Victory Is Sweet and from the female family of 2018 Woodbine Oaks winner Dixie Moon (Curlin). Accelerate stands at Lane's End Farm. "We're very excited about him, he's a very good-bodied foal, very much like his sire," said Bob McCann, whose McCann...

On New Year's Day, David Grening broke the news in the Daily Racing Form that Coolmore had purchased a 50% interest in the racing and breeding rights of Gary and Mary West's homebred Maximum Security (New Year's Day). (Disclosure: The Wests and their racing manager, Ben Glass, are retained clients of WTC, Inc.). The colt is to stand at Coolmore America (Ashford Stud) in Kentucky at the end of his career, but he is scheduled to race this year and has some major targets on his slate, including the new...