Hard Spun

Some of the most highly anticipated races during the summer racing season are the 'baby' races during the boutique meetings, which attract its fair share of high-priced offspring from a variety of top national outfits. Summer Breezes highlights debuting and stakes-entered 2-year-olds at those meetings that have been sourced at the breeze-up sales earlier in the year, with links to their under-tack previews. Here are the horses entered for Thursday's program at Kentucky Downs: Thursday, September 5, 2024 KY Downs 1, $100k, 2yo, (R), 1mT, 1:25 p.m. ET Horse (Sire),...

Some of the most highly anticipated races during the summer racing season are the 'baby' races during the boutique meetings at Saratoga and Del Mar and at Ellis Park, which attract its fair share of high-priced offspring from a variety of top national outfits. Summer Breezes highlights debuting and stakes-entered 2-year-olds at those meetings that have been sourced at the breeze-up sales earlier in the year, with links to their under-tack previews. Here are the horses entered for Saturday at Saratoga and Ellis Park: Saturday, August 24, 2024 Saratoga 6,...

3rd-Ellis, $71,000, Msw, 7-22, 2yo, f, 5 1/2f, 1:04.81, ft, 2 1/4 lengths. PONDERING (f, 2, Hard Spun--Always Thinking {SW, $162,638}, by Street Sense) debuted as advertised, breaking as the 4-5 favorite facing six rivals of which five were fellow first-time starters. Close to the lead while pressuring Pax Americana (War Front) and Electrifying Lady (Practical Joke) to her inside, the homebred stayed three wide throughout, swept up past those runners off the turn and easily took to the front, finishing strongly while kept to task by jockey Luan Machado...

Getting Informed Patriot (Hard Spun) from Horseshoe Indianapolis to the sales ring at Fasig-Tipton in less than 48 hours was going to be quite the juggling act, but Hunter Houlihan and the rest of the Taylor Made team managed to keep all the balls in the air and then finish with a flourish when the late supplement to the Fasig-Tipton July Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale came out as a record-breaking sales topper. The morning that Informed Patriot was set to run in the GIII Indiana Derby, Hunter Houlihan,...

Good Lord Lorrie (Hard Spun) came back from a lengthy layoff to not only win his seasonal bow but also claim his first black-type in the Woodhaven S, When last seen, the chestnut broke his maiden in a turf dash at Saratoga last summer, defeating SP Smokey Smokey (Mendelssohn) and SP Ocean Mermaid (GB) (Kingman {GB}). Brushing with a rival after the jump, he was well-placed early in third and tracked the leading duo until late on the backstretch, where he took closer order. Called for a rally, he shifted...

The racing year is only just doing up its laces, but already Into Mischief is on the march. Last week we examined the GI Kentucky Derby candidature of his son Timberlake and now, with a little help from the evergreen Dettori, he has a 19th Grade I scorer in Newgate. I must admit that my heart went out to connections of Subsanador (Arg) (Fortify), who led every step bar the last, and would have been John Sadler's fourth winner of the storied Santa Anita Handicap-still dearly cherished by some of...

1st-OP, $115K, Msw, 3yo, f, 1 1/16m, 1:30 p.m. ET. Under the baton of Ken McPeek, MIDSUMMER MARCH (Mendelssohn) debuts for Walking L Thoroughbreds. The dark bay initially sold to Sycamore Hall for $280,000 at the 2021 Keeneland November Sale before hammering down for $425,000 during the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Sale, which was the highest priced yearling for her sire in 2022. Bred by David Fennelly's Mountmellick Farm, the filly is out of GIII Torrey Pines S. winner Munny Spunt (Munnings), who sold for $340,000 at Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale...

Gold Square's Drum Roll Please (c, 3, Hard Spun--Imply, by E Dubai), a very solid third going against the grain of the track in the GII Remsen S. at Aqueduct Dec. 2, took care of business as the 3-5 favorite while turning back in distance for Saturday's Jerome S. at the Big A. He trailed the field of five in the early going after exiting from the fence. Given his cue by Javier Castellano on the far turn, he made a three-wide bid approaching the quarter pole and came rolling...

Now we're really entering nosebleed altitudes for most breeders, between $30,000 and $50,000: a zone where you should feel that you're improving the odds of coming up with an elite horse. It tells you a lot about our business that the majority of the two dozen stallions operating at this level can only do so because they have yet to send a single runner into the starting gate. A quarter of these we immediately set to one side, as absolute beginners, because those received separate consideration in the opening instalment...

Fasig-Tipton has catalogued 308 entries for its December Digital Sale, which is now open through Tuesday, Dec. 12, at 11 a.m ET, the auction house said in a release Thursday. The catalogue, which is the largest ever offered on the Fasig-Tipton Digital platform, features more than 170 broodmares, as well as broodmare prospects, horses of racing age, yearlings and weanlings. The catalogue also includes a stallion share and lifetime breeding right in MGSW Flameaway (Scat Daddy), who is the current co-leading North American first-crop sire by black-type winners. "This is...

Elliott Walden has nothing but confidence in WinStar Farm's two new stallion recruits for 2024 and he has the numbers to show it. The speedy Two Phil's (Hard Spun) posted some eye-catching figures this year as a 3-year-old, including 105 Beyer Speed Figures in both the GIII Ohio Derby and his runner-up performance in the GI Kentucky Derby. Meanwhile his new studmate Country Grammer (Tonalist), winner of the G1 Dubai World Cup, retired as the third highest-earning North American-bred horse of all time--behind great company in Arrogate and Gun Runner--...

With a fee of $85,000, Nyquist (Uncle Mo) will lead the way among a total of 13 stallions who will stand at Darley's Jonabell Farm in 2024, including two new additions in GI winners Cody's Wish (Curlin) and Proxy (Tapit), according to Darley America. Cody's Wish, out of GI winner Dance Card (by Tapit), is expected to make his final start in the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile after winning the race in 2022. A winner of 10 of 15 career starts, Cody's Wish has never finished out of the...