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Fasig-Tipton Raising Upset Price For All Future Sales

Beginning with the upcoming March Digital Sale, Fasig-Tipton is raising the upset price for all of the company's live and digital auctions from $1,000 to $2,500. The upset price, or the minimum bid that can be made for a Thoroughbred offered at Fasig-Tipton auctions, has been in place since 2000. "The $1,000 upset price was instituted 25 years ago, and the time has come for it to be raised in support of our industry's long-term commitment to Thoroughbred welfare," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning.  "The value of the dollar has...

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Vekoma's Mi Bago Takes Them Coast To Coast in Colonel Liam

Mi Bago (Vekoma) completed a turf stakes double for his 2024 leading freshman sire with a powerful, all-the-way success in Saturday's Colonel Liam Stakes at Gulfstream Park. Earlier in the program, Vixen validated odds-on favoritism with a narrow victory in the GIII Herecomesthebride Stakes. The public's pick off a front-running success in a rained-off renewal of the Dania Beach Stakes, the two-time Fasig-Tipton graduate was kicked straight into the lead from an outside barrier and had his mind on running from the bell, tugging pretty hard at Irad Ortiz, Jr....

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Fair Grounds' Photographer Lou Hodges, Jr. Announces Retirement

Lou Hodges, Jr., a second-generation photographer who has captured horse racing images at the Fair Grounds since 1976, has announced his retirement. Hodges, Jr., who took over the family business in 1978, will now hand the reins over to his daughter, Amanda Hodges Weir. "Fair Grounds has been lucky to have Lou Hodges," Senior Director of Racing Jason Boulet said. "Our racetrack, our horses, and our horsemen have come to life through the fantastic photos he has taken. We are very grateful for everything he and his family has given...

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Off Strong 2024 Edition, Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale Keeps Momentum Rolling Into Breeding Season

Coming off of a strong 2024 renewal which saw a record three seven-figure mares go through the ring, the 2025 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale kicks off in a consolidated single session at Newtown Paddocks Monday morning with bidding set to begin at 10 a.m. 414 catalogued hips are on offer including exciting late supplemental adds such as 14-year-old broodmare Athenian Beauty (Corinthian), the dam of this year's GIII Southwest Stakes winner Speed King (Volatile), who sells in foal to Caracaro from the Taylor Made Sales Consignment. "That's a great...

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Mystic Lake Hits The Million-Dollar Mark With Inside Information Win

Talk about a tried and true stakes horse. Since breaking her maiden at Woodbine in Sept. 2023, Mystic Lake (Mo Town) has contested nothing but stakes or graded stakes races and, with her win in Saturday's GII Inside Information Stakes, has earned over $1,000,000 while also winning such races as the GIII Miss Preakness Stakes and the GII Charles Town Oaks both last year. 5 3/4 lengths behind Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) in the 1 1/16-mile GI Cotillion Stakes at Parx in September, the daughter of...

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Sierra Leone, Laurel River, Senor Buscador Among 28 Top-Level Winners Entered For Saudi Cup

A total of 1,123 entries, including 81 Group or Grade I winners from no fewer than 21 racing jurisdictions from all over the world were received for the 2025 Saudi Cup meeting, to be held Friday and Saturday, Feb. 21 and 22 and King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh. The entries were released Friday by the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia (JCSA). (See TDN Europe for the entries to the meeting's turf events) Some $38.1 million in prize money will be on offer over the course of the weekend, headed up...

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Opening-Day Attendance, All-Sources Handle Up at Santa Anita

An announced on-track crowd of 41,562 welcomed the return of live racing to Santa Anita Thursday afternoon, the largest non-weekend or holiday crowd on opening day since 1990 and biggest opening-day crowd in eight years, track officials said late Thursday. Total all-sources handle of more than $21.4 million was the third-highest in track history for an opening-day program and marked a 17.4% increase over 2023. It was the fourth time in the last seven years that handle exceeded $20 million. "Our Racing Office offered an exceptional program, the owners and...

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J B Strikes Back Upsets Inaugural Laffit Pincay, Jr. Stakes

Longshot J B Strikes Back (Goldencents) upset the inaugural running of the GII Laffit Pincay, Jr. Stakes (previously run as the San Antonio Stakes) Thursday in his first try facing stakes company for trainer Doug O'Neill. The 3-year-old gelding, understandably one of the least experienced runners in the field and the second longest wagering price, broke his maiden in his third start in a $20,000 claimer at Del Mar and was claimed out of that start from these same connections who promptly bought him right back in a $25,000 conditioned...

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Ruth, Full To Mopotism, Debuts A Winner At Gulfstream

6th-Gulfstream, $40,000, Msw, 12-13, 2yo, f, 1m, 1:41.21, ft, 1 1/4 lengths. RUTH (f, 2, Uncle Mo--Peppy Rafaela, by Bernardini), bet down to 3-5 favoritism for Todd Pletcher and owner/breeder Frank Batten, was a close-up third behind early pacesetter Queen in the Deck (Cairo Prince) through the opening quarter in :24.81. Fanned out widest of the group around the far turn and relegated back several slots, Ruth responded in kind to urging from jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. and found a high gear coming to the line, powering past the leader...

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How Drayden Van Dyke Became the Comeback Kid

About a year before Drayden Van Dyke won the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint aboard Soul of An Angel (Atreides), no one would have thought he was about to win any sort of major race. His career in shambles, he went 5-for-136 in 2023, and he knew it would not be easy to bounce back. But the story changed. It's now about perseverance. Van Dyke is in Florida, getting ready for the Championship Meet at Gulfstream. His mental health has improved dramatically and, most importantly he is winning...

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National Treasure Out Of Dirt Mile, Musical Chairs Ensues

National Treasure (Quality Road), who gave eventual Horse of the Year Cody's Wish (Curlin) everything he could handle before going down grudgingly in last year's GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, will miss this year's event with a foot issue, Daily Racing Form reported Friday afternoon. Winner of this year's GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. and GI Metropolitan Handicap either side of a close fourth in the G1 Saudi Cup, the 4-year-old may have struggled with an off track when sixth to Arthur's Ride (Tapit) in the GI Whitney Stakes...

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Fierceness Completes Classic Preparations At Saratoga

Repole Stable's 'TDN Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light), expected to vie for favoritism in next Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar, turned in his final breeze Friday ahead of the $7-million centerpiece of championship weekend, going a half-mile in :48.98 over the Oklahoma training track. With his regular work rider Danny Wright in the irons, the homebred began his work slightly behind a workmate, drew alongside at the entrance to the stretch and was in front at the line before galloping out five furlongs in 1:02 1/5....

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