Florent Geroux

Crude Velocity (Beau Liam), already named a 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' for his debut win over course and distance March 7, stepped up to face winners Saturday for the first time. Racing without his blinkers as the 1-2 favorite, the Triple Crown-nominated colt had early traffic to deal with as he sat off the pace from just behind a leading pair past the half-mile pole. Circling the field under his own power, he easily headed For All Mankind (Into Mischief) off the far turn and opened up in...

Mike Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman's Weekend Princess (Vekoma), a $235,000 Keeneland November weanling turned $625,000 Keeneland September yearling, argued a good pace inside of firming favorite Confidentiality (Complexity) and found more in the final furlong and a half to graduate by a space en route to being named a 'TDN Rising Star' presented by Hagyard. The even-money choice, drawn widest of a field reduced to six by a couple of scratches, pinged the stalls and led them through the opening exchanges, but Florent Geroux was urging Weekend Princess...

The year 2025 was not a good one for jockey Florent Geroux. A jockey who had won at least 100 races for 11 years in a row, and won 217 races in 2016, he won only 75 races last year. The start of 2026 was no better. When he left Fair Grounds after the Feb. 14 card, he had only seven winners on the meet. Worse yet, after going 5-for-5 on Disco Time (Not This Time), he lost the mount on the 3-2 favorite in the GI Pegasus World Cup...

Last year's G1 Dubai World Cup winner Hit Show (Candy Ride {Arg}) sat a little closer to the front than usual and just got up to nail the wandering pacesetter 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' Accelerize (Omaha Beach) by a head in Saturday's GIII Mineshaft S. at Fair Grounds. Time to Win (Not This Time) was third. The even-money favorite tracked in a three-wide third through an opening quarter in :23.53. Back a spot into fourth through a half mile :47.04, Hit Show was asked to quicken three furlongs...

Mrs. John Magnier, Derrick Smith, and Michael B. Tabor's Plutarch (c, 3, Into Mischief--Stellar Wind, by Curlin) was bred to be a star--he is out of 2015's champion 3-year-old filly turned $6-million Keeneland-topping mare Stellar Wind--and he made good on that promise Saturday in the $101,000 GIII Robert B. Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita. The race was worth 20-10-6-4-2 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert won his eighth consecutive Bob Lewis and 14th overall, going back to 1999. In 2007, the race,...

Jockey Florent Geroux, based at Fair Grounds this winter, is expected to shift his tack to Santa Anita this week, according to the DRF on Sunday. According to DRF, the rider is set to arrive in California on Thursday and is scheduled to ride on Friday. Representing Geroux during his California sojourn, Matt Nakatani is also the agent for Umberto Rispoli, recently sidelined after falling during a race at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 24. "I went to visit [Rispoli] in the hospital," Geroux told DRF Sunday morning. "We talked it...

HONG KONG, CHINA -- There is likely never a bad time for a horse racing fan to visit Hong Kong, which conducts racing twice a week alternating between a pair of breathtakingly beautiful racetracks, but the action is extra special this week. It kicked off Wednesday night with the Longines International Jockeys' Championship at Happy Valley--a racetrack which fairly glitters against a backdrop of skyscrapers--and will conclude Sunday with four Group 1 races comprising the Longines Hong Kong International Races at Sha Tin. Even before the jockey championship--which pitted 12...

3rd-Keeneland, $120,000, Alw (NW1X), Opt. Clm ($100,000), 10-11, 2yo, 1 1/16m, 1:45.94, ft, 1/2 length. RANCHO SANTA FE (c, 2, Tapit--Family Tree {MGSW & GISP, $733,387}, by Smart Strike) ran his record to two wins from as many trips to the races with a cozy success in a two-turn allowance Saturday afternoon at Keeneland. A debut winner going the one-mile configuration at Ellis Park on Aug. 24 and thereby possessing a key experience advantage over favored Infiltrate (Oscar Performance), who was trying a route of ground for the first time,...

Godolphin homebred Immersive (f, 3, Nyquist--Gap Year, by Bernardini), the unbeaten Eclipse champion 2-year-old filly of 2024, got back on track with her first visit to the winner's circle as a 3-year-old. It's not that she was ever far from it: two months after her GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies win, Godolphin announced she would be given some time off due to bone bruising. Immersive returned to the races in June at Churchill, finishing a neck behind MSW & GISP Take Charge Milady (Take Charge Indy) in the Monomoy Girl...

Overlooked at the windows to the tune of 22-1, Plensa (Caravaggio) fired a big shot in the Exacta Systems Gun Runner Stakes and landed in the winner's circle at Kentucky Downs on Saturday. After finishing as the runner-up in two tries last fall to break his maiden, the dark bay finally graduated on his fourth attempt June 15 under the Twin Spires. The colt was last seen running third against optional claimers over the Spa turf July 18. Plensa was in the mix early before dropping towards the rear of...

It's not often the winner of a global $12-million Group 1 event just four months ago gets his next victory in a listed black-type race in West Virginia, but that's exactly what happened with Hit Show (h, 5, Candy Ride {Arg}--Actress, by Tapit), who parlayed victory in the G1 Dubai World Cup in April into a repeat win in the West Virginia Governor's Stakes at Mountaineer Sunday evening. It may not have been the most conventional move, but it was a hard-fought return to the winner's circle for the gray,...

Fionn (Twirling Candy) launched an impressive last-to-first rally to win Saturday's GIII Regret S. at Churchill Downs. The favored pacesetter Classic Q (Classic Empire) tired at the top of the stretch as Totally Justified (Justify) took over at the three- sixteenths. Fionn tipped out to the center in the stretch and powered home from there for a career high. Fionn capped a three-race winning streak in the Allen Black Cat LaCombe Memorial S. at Fair Grounds Mar. 8 and rallied for third behind next-out GII Edgewood S. heroine Nitrogen (Medaglia...