Kitten's Joy

Koji Maeda's Gendarme (Kitten's Joy) earned a new career high with a neck victory in Nakayama's 1200-metre G1 Sprinters S. on Sunday. The 7-year-old entire captured the race 20 years after his dam, Believe (Jpn) (Sunday Silence), who has thrown a trio of stakes winners including Gendarme. Sent off at 19-1, the eighth choice in the field of 16, the dark bay argued the early pace, but drifted back to stalk from third on the backstretch as T M Spada (Jpn) (Red Spada {Jpn}) set a harried tempo under pressure...

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Saturday's Observations features a son of Group 1 winner Alice Springs (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). 1.25 Curragh, Mdn, €17,000, 2yo, 8fT HIPPODROME (IRE) (Galileo {Ire}) is one of three Ballydoyle newcomers in this maiden won by TDN Rising Stars High Definition (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Duke De Sessa (Ire) (Lope...

In this instance, you really can't say that the grass is any greener on the other side of the fence. Take your dystopian pick: the floods of Kentucky, or the desiccation of Europe, where I've just returned from a vacation that seamlessly united the city parks of England and Italy in the same wasteland, with just a few bleached spikes still protruding from the baked, ashen earth. However illusory, then, it's a relief to find enough recognizable vegetation salvaged Stateside at least to host all three of Saturday's Grade I...

Polite but perfunctory. That was pretty much the tone in which people tended to praise Kitten's Joy while he was with us, and I guess it should be no different now that he's gone. Even so, it strikes me that his loss has been inadequately lamented. Not just in his own right, as an avowed turf stallion who freakishly contrived two general sires' championships in North America; but also, virtually unremarked, as a final straw in what has over the past nine months become an outright catastrophe for the enlightened...

Polite but perfunctory. That was pretty much the tone in which people tended to praise Kitten's Joy while he was with us, and I guess it should be no different now that he's gone. Even so, it strikes me that his loss has been inadequately lamented. Not just in his own right, as an avowed turf stallion who freakishly contrived two general sires' championships in North America; but also, virtually unremarked, as a final straw in what has over the past nine months become an outright catastrophe for the enlightened...

Juddmonte homebred Westover (GB)'s seven-length thumping of the G1 Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby field last month was the second consecutive Irish Derby victory by a son of Frankel (GB) after Hurricane Lane (Ire) in 2021, but his achievement was also a timely reminder of the potency of his late broodmare sire Lear Fan. Born in 1981, the dark bay has also featured as the broodmare sire of another prominent Sadler's Wells-line runner, the two-time U.S. Champion Sire Kitten's Joy (El Prado {Ire}), who died at Hill 'n' Dale Farm...

With the first week of the 2022 Saratoga meet in the books, NYRA and Fox Sports TV analyst Andy Serling joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland Tuesday as the Green Group Guest of the Week to talk about how Saratoga somehow continues to exceed its sky-high expectations, what track trends handicappers should look out for the rest of the summer, whether or not the sport needs fewer stakes races and more. "I'll be honest, I came into this meet concerned [about a drop in business], and I think...

Kitten's Joy (El Prado {Ire}--Kitten's First, by Lear Fan), twice the leading general sire in the United States and a perennial top-five turf sire, passed away from an apparent heart attack July 15 in his paddock at Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa, where he'd served mares since 2018. He entered stud in 2006 at his owners' Ken and Sarah Ramsey's Ramsey Farm. The blaze-faced chestnut was nearly sold, but was ultimately retained by the Ramseys after bidding stalled out at $95,000 at the 2003 OBS April Sale, and it proved...

Sarah Ramsey, who partnered with her husband Ken to become one of the leading owners in the sport, passed away Sunday at the family's Ramsey Farm, the Blood-Horse has reported. She was 83. Sarah Ramsey was a native of Artemus, Kentucky, and often went by the nickname Kitten. Originally, the Ramsey horses raced separately, under Sarah or Ken's name. Her first horse was Kitten's First and the best horse ever campaigned by the Ramseys was Kitten's Joy, the 2004 Eclipse Award male turf winner. That year, the Ramseys also won...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 3rd-DEL, $40K, MSW, 3yo/up, f, 1m 70ydsT, 1:30 p.m.   COME ON KITTY CAT, a 3-year-old Kitten's Joy home-bred for Alex Campbell, Jr., debuts at Delaware Park Thursday. Out of the Pulpit mare The Right Pew, Come On Kitty Cat is a half-sister to eight winners including two graded stakes performers: Karlovy Vary (Dynaformer), winner of the GI Central Bank Ashland S. who herself went on to produce both back-to-back GII New York S. winner Mean Mary (Scat Daddy), and Bye Bye Melvin (Uncle Mo),...

The GII Edgewood S. on the Kentucky Oaks undercard became a milestone victory for owner Marc Detampel when his 'TDN Rising Star' New Year's Eve (Kitten's Joy) rallied from last to first in a competitive 10-horse field to claim the $500,000 turf contest. Detampel, who hails from Chicago, doesn't get the chance to see his racehorses on a regular basis, but when he visited New Year's Eve two weeks ago at Brendan Walsh's barn, his anticipation for the filly's next start grew. "I hadn't seen her in a while and...

First-time blinkers did the trick for 'TDN Rising Star' New Year's Eve, who uncorked a very impressive last-to-first rally to upend Friday's GII Edgewood S. on the Churchill turf. A head-turning debut winner Dec. 10 at Fair Grounds over three next-out graduates, the blaze-faced chestnut added a narrow optional claiming tally there Jan. 29. She was bounced around in the stretch of the Mar. 12 Allen Black Cat Lacombe S. back in NOLA Mar. 12, and had to settle for third that day at 9-5. More or less ignored here...