Oscar Performance

On a quiet afternoon at Meadowbrook Farm in Shelbyville, Ky., mares and foals graze and stroll about while pregnant broodmares-in-waiting bask in the warmth of the sun's rays. And adjacent to all of them, in a small round pen set up alongside one of the main pastures, Surfside Stables' Kona Kai (Palace Malice) and her twin fillies enjoy a supervised turnout session. Though they were born within minutes of each other, the twin fillies—daughters of Oscar Performance—look remarkably different, seemingly representing both halves of their genetic makeup. Nicknamed 'Mary-Kate,' the...

8-year-old mare Kona Kai (Palace Malice) delivered surprise twin fillies by Oscar Performance Monday for Surfside Stables. "They're doing well and getting stronger every day," said breeder Debbie Appel. Kona Kai and her fillies are currently at Rood & Riddle in Kentucky where they will stay under observation for the near future. The mare was purchased as a yearling at Keeneland September by Surfside for $70,000 in 2018 and broke her maiden at Horseshoe Indianapolis in 2020, retiring after 11 starts with earnings of over $68,000. Kona Kai, a half-sister...

Based at his Mill Ridge Farm, Headley Bell and his Nicoma Bloodstock have been helping clients mate their mares since 1979. With such notable successes as Trempolino, Suave Dancer, Keeper Hill, Barbaro, Street Sense, Havre de Grace, Oscar Performance, Bricks and Mortar, and the 2024 Preakness winner Seize the Grey, it's no wonder that many of the clients he discusses below have been with him for over 40 years. "It's such a gift to be able to assist our clients in this manner because it's something I'm passionate about," said...

2nd-GP, 94K, Msw, 3yo, 7f, 11:30 a.m. Gulfstream Park will kick off it's Pegasus World Cup card with a pair of classy maiden special weight races headlined by DISRUPTOR (Gun Runner), a $1,150,000 KEESEP yearling out of the Todd Pletcher barn for the partnership group of Repole Stable, Spendthrift Farm, Big Easy Racing, Titletown Racing, Winners Win, Golconda Stable, Ali Goodrich and Mark Parkinson. The chestnut, out of a full-sister to MGSW Bridgetown (Speightstown), put in a drill at Palm Beach Downs Jan. 18, going four furlongs from the gate...

A turf horse launching his stud career at the age of nine might go against the stallion market grain in Kentucky, but Mill Ridge Farm has already shown a knack for bucking those trends and doing so successfully. After all, it was only three years ago that Oscar Performance was standing for just $12,500 and bred only 63 mares. This year, the 2024 leading third-crop sire of graded stakes winners by percentage of starters has a sold-out book heading into the season as he commands a fee of $45,000. So...

First let's salute two horses in this category just emerging from surely the most competitive freshman title race ever. The lead changed hands between both, as well as McKinzie (now $75,000), through the final hours of 2024, with VEKOMA ultimately seizing the crown--partly through belated processing of a son in Panama--by $22,939 from McKinzie, with TIZ THE LAW breathing down their necks $9,334 behind. In fact, his "extra" winner gave Vekoma a share of the North American record of 39 first-crop juvenile winners. Admittedly he was working from corresponding volume,...

Two years removed from the last time he won a stakes race, and at the same track no less, Rocket Can (Into Mischief) turned his fortunes around with a game victory in the GII Harlan's Holiday Stakes. The three-quarter-length victor of the GIII Holy Bull Stakes in 2023, his connections took a shot at the Derby trail and the race itself, but ultimately had to go on the sidelines after finishing ninth on the big day. Gone until March of this year, when he made a successful return to the...

Oscar Performance (Kitten's Joy) was an outstanding turf horse, winning four Grade I's on the grass. And he's been a quality stallion, with his progeny headlined by the likes of Grade I winner Trikari and four other graded winners. Like most horses labeled `turf sires,' Oscar Performance, who stands at Mill Ridge Farm, was always going to be up against it in a country where breeders and buyers aren't necessarily looking for grass horses. European buyers don't need to buy horses by American turf stallions when they have so many...

Sophomore turfers will enjoy the spotlight in the GIII Commonwealth Turf Stakes at Churchill Downs, one of three graded stakes races on tap Saturday. Frankly Speaking homebred Dashman (Oscar Performance) won two straight in Kentucky this summer, then was a solid fourth with trouble behind MGISW Carson's Run (Cupid) and next-out GIII Hill Prince Stakes winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Deterministic (Liams' Map) in the GIII Jockey Club Derby Invitational going 1 3/8 miles at Aqueduct Oct. 5. The 5-2 morning-line favorite turns back to 1 1/16 miles here. "He...

Mill Ridge Farm extends an invitation to join them starting on Thursday, Nov. 7 through Nov. 14, for their stallion open house from 12:00 to 2 p.m. ET daily, the farm said via a press release on Thursday. The three horse roster on display features MGISW Oscar Performance (by Kitten's Joy), whose stud fee is listed at $45,000 LF. The third-crop sire stands alongside millionaire GI Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Aloha West (by Hard Spun), who is listed at $8,500 LF. Newly-added to the slate this year is four-time Grade...

Casa Creed (Jimmy Creed), a two-time winner of the GI Fourstardave H. at Saratoga and GI Jaipur S. at Belmont Park, will command a $10,000 stud fee in his first season at stud at Mill Ridge Farm in 2025, it was announced Thursday. "He showed up for every race and was beaten only once more than four lengths in his (28) graded stakes--what a brilliant racehorse and one who will contribute to our breed," said Mill Ridge's General Manager Price Bell. With five graded stakes winners this year, Oscar Performance...

NEW KENT COUNTY, VA -- It would have been no surprise had trainer Graham Motion elected to run Amerman Racing's Trikari (Oscar Performance) in Sunday's rescheduled GI Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes as opposed to the GII Secretariat Stakes at Colonial Downs. After all, the long-barreled bay was exiting a victory in the GI Belmont Derby over a mile and three-sixteenths, but Trikari proved more than capable of handling the step back down in trip with a powerful victory in the eight-furlong Secretariat. The second betting choice when all was said...