Finite

With the 2022 breeding season right around the corner, we will feature a series of breeders' mating plans over the coming weeks. Today we have Taylor Made's Katie Taylor Whalen on behalf of Larry Best, owner of OXO Equine. Best retired two stallions to Taylor Made--GISW Instilled Regard (Arch) and GSW/GISP Instagrand (Into Mischief)--for their first seasons last year, with both represented by their first foals in 2022. A majority of his broodmare band, over 50 strong, will go to one of the two and are expecting foals by either...

Dual champion Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) makes her highly anticipated seasonal debut--albeit two weeks later than planned--Saturday in the delayed GIII Bayakoa S. at Oaklawn. Named champion 3-year-old filly after a sensational 2018 season, the chestnut was a perfect four-for-four last term after spending all of 2019 on the sidelines due to colic and a hamstring injury. Returning from an 18-month layoff at Churchill May 16, Monomoy Girl scored a decisive victory in a sloppy optional claimer and captured Belmont's GII Ruffian S. next out July 11. A facile winner of...

  Finite (Munnings), a leading contender for the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks earlier this year after capping a five-race win streak in the GII Rachel Alexandra S., returned to her best form Saturday to annex the GIII Chilukki S. over a one-turn Churchill mile that proved right up her alley. Backed as the even-money choice coming off a close second in the GII Lexus Raven Run S. at Keeneland going seven panels Oct. 17, the blaze-faced chestnut settled well off the pace early while drafting behind rivals. Asked for more after...

Venetian Harbor (Munnings) was hustled to the front by Manny Franco and made all the running, holding off Finite (Munnings) by a neck to lead home a one-two finish for her in-form, young sire in the GII Lexus Raven Run S. at Keeneland Saturday. The bay, favored at 8-5 while seeking her first win since a blowout victory in the GII Las Virgenes S. at Santa Anita back in February, led the field of eight through early fractions of :23.06 and :46.17, and was traveling nicely as they hit the...

After several weeks of inactivity, the 3-year-old filly division roared back to life last weekend as the GIII Fantasy S. at Oaklawn brought together a large and deep field that included five members of the TDN's GI Kentucky Oaks Top Ten. The race was dominated by two horses, Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) and Venetian Harbor (Munnings). As for the rest of the field, each one will need to regroup before they can be considered top candidates for the Oaks. On Saturday at Oaklawn, the highly regarded 'TDN Rising Star' Gamine (Into...

It's been more than a month since the last TDN Kentucky Oaks Top 10 appeared, and how things have changed in such a short period of time. The GI Kentucky Oaks will not be run May 1 but, hopefully, Sept. 4. The road to the Oaks is filled with uncertainty as, with so many racetracks closed, there is no clear path to the race. The only traditional prep for the Oaks that is left on the schedule is the May 1 GIII Fantasy S. at Oaklawn, a race that is...

No matter what he does, Lookin At Lucky (Smart Strike) seems condemned always to be the short guy in the back row of the team photo. In the private duel that defines his stud career, moreover, he has to endure Munnings (Speightstown) moving ever closer, year by year, to front and center. These two splendid sires, who started out together at Ashford in 2011, experienced rather typical fortunes last Saturday when dividing the big sophomore tests in New Orleans between them (along with those skilled gentlemen, Brad Cox and Florent...

Both the Winchell Thoroughbreds-owned Summerly (Summer Squall, 2005) and Untapable (Tapit, 2014) used a victory in the GII Fair Grounds Oaks as a springboard to success at Churchill Downs on the first Friday in May. That particular double will be delayed this year, but Finite (Munnings), bred by Winchell and campaigned in partnership, can take the first step as the likely heavy favorite in the Saturday co-feature in New Orleans. The current pole sitter on the TDN Kentucky Oaks Top 10, Finite enters the Oaks on a five-race winning skein,...

Off a modest initial stud of $12,500 back in 2011, Munnings (Speightstown) has written his own Cinderella story as he's worked his way to the top tier of the general sires list. But this year has potential to witness the sire's biggest breakthrough yet. With a 2020 fee set at $30,000 and five stakes winners already this year, many of the horses ranking beside Munnings in terms of black-type winners are standing at five and six times his fee. "He's a horse that really in the last two or three...

It was an eventful weekend for candidates for the GI Kentucky Oaks. The highly regarded Lake Avenue (Tapit) was a major disappointment, finishing fourth in the Busher Invitational at Aqueduct. She falls out of the Top 10. Donna Veloce (Uncle Mo) rolled to an easy victory in her 3-year-old debut in the GIII Santa Ysabel S. and Bob Baffert unleashed a potential monster in Gamine (Into Mischief). The $1.8-million purchase at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Old Sale romped in her debut Saturday at Santa Anita. The weekend ahead will be...

Since we were last heard from, Bast (Uncle Mo) has been retired due to a soft tissue injury and Tonalist's Shape (Tonalist) did it again, staying undefeated with a win in the GII Davona Dale S. at Gulfstream. Also in Florida, Eve of War (Declaration of War) couldn't get the job done in an allowance after winning her debut for the Todd Pletcher Stable by 7 1/2 lengths. A fourth-place finish likely knocked her off the road to the GI Kentucky Oaks. This coming weekend, the top 3-year-old fillies will...

A total of 116 nominations, led by reigning champion 2-year-old filly British Idiom (Flashback), were received by the Churchill Downs racing office at the first entry stage for the $1.25-million GI Longines Kentucky Oaks, to be held Friday, May 1 beneath the Twin Spires. Campaigned in partnership by Michael Dubb, The Elkstone Group, Madaket Stables & Bethlehem Stables, and conditioned by 2018 Oaks-winning trainer Brad Cox, British Idiom was the impressive winner of the GI Darley Alcibiades S. last October before following up with a neck defeat of Donna Veloce...