Long Range Toddy

A pair of graded stakes races will signal that the Gulfstream Park Championship season is officially underway on Saturday. First, the GIII Sugar Swirl S. for older females going six furlongs on the main track includes veteran mare Bluefield (Field Commission), who won by a neck against state-breds in a Tampa black-type race Dec. 9. "She went up to Tampa and it was nice to get a stakes win on her resume at this age," said trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. "She came to us late but she just keeps getting...

When Long Range Toddy (Take Charge Indy) won the eighth race at Gulfstream Park Sunday, the 7-year-old put to rest a losing streak that dated back to before the controversial 2019 GI Kentucky Derby, a race in which he earned historical footnote status by being the horse who was fouled in the only disqualification of a Derby winner for an in-race incident. Long Range Toddy's 2 1/4-length score in a seven-furlong allowance/optional claimer July 16 was his first victory since Mar. 16, 2019, when he took a division of that...

Saturday's running of the GII Risen Star S. at Fair Grounds seems unlikely to produce a colt of the caliber of the race's namesake. In 1988, Risen Star captivated New Orleans as the hometown horse owned by charismatic connections, parlaying a win in the then-GIII Louisiana Derby to Grade I scores in both the Preakness S. and Belmont S. before being voted 3-year-old champion colt at year's end. But $29.40 upset winner Angel of Empire (Classic Empire) at least fits the bill as a hard-trying underdog you can root for....

A total of 147 horses from 16 countries have been entered in the upcoming Dubai World Cup Carnival that begins at Meydan Racecourse on Friday, Jan. 6, 2023. The nine-week Carnival is a preview for the Dubai World Cup night festivities on Mar. 25 next year. Among the horses that have accepted their Carnival engagements are an 11-strong team from American-based trainer Doug O'Neill, who saddled four winners from just 19 runners in 2022. Grade II scorer Slow Down Andy (Nyquist), third in the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, is...

To twist an old saying so it best describes rock-steady GII Jim Dandy S. winner Epicenter (Not This Time), "The more things stay the same, the more they change." This is annually the time of the season when we start hearing from trainers of Triple Crown contenders how markedly their sophomores have improved and matured over the past couple of months. So it was a bit of a surprise when Steve Asmussen told DRF.com last week that he hasn't seen much change in the colt who ran second as the...

A three-judge panel of a federal appeals court Friday upheld a district court's decision from last November to dismiss a lawsuit by Gary and Mary West, the owners of Maximum Security (New Year's Day), which sought to overturn the colt's controversial disqualification from first place in the 2019 GI Kentucky Derby. "What should have been the fastest two minutes in sports turned into over a year of litigation," wrote Judge John K. Bush in the opinion accompanying the judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit....

Hot Springs has long been a sanctuary when people need to avoid New York. The mobster Owney Madden settled there in 1935; the following year, its casinos and obliging law enforcement made it an obvious place for Lucky Luciano to lie low. A relative concept, lying low: Luciano was swanking around the Hotel Arlington with his showgirl Gay Orlova, a Russian refugee described by Broadway impresario Earl Carroll as "the sexiest gal who ever worked for me." Luciano was dressed up for the races on Apr. 1 when he had...