Oscar Performance

Susan Moulton's Andthewinneris came flying late to win the GII Castle & Key Bourbon S. at Keeneland Sunday, leading home an exacta for his freshman sire while also becoming the Mill Ridge stallion's first stakes winner. The 4-1 shot broke from the far outside in the field of 12, angled over and settled near the back of the field. Still some 10 lengths back approaching the stretch, the bay made eye-catching progress leaving the turn and closed stoutly down the center of the course, hitting the front at midstretch and...

Was it divine intervention? As the story goes, sometime in late 1923 or early 1924, a Kentucky pastor, Rev. Dr. Thomas Settle, convinced some state legislators in Frankfort not to end legalized gambling in Kentucky by repealing parimutuel wagering, much to the relief of the Kentucky Jockey Club and other concerned horsemen. Most ministers may have taken the opposite tack at the time, but not Dr. Settle, and this made him stand out. A well-travelled Englishman who'd found his way to a small congregation on Main St. and Bell Ct....

The final week of the Saratoga meet kicks off Wednesday with a 10-race card highlighted by the GIII With Anticipation S. for juvenile turf colts. With the majority of the 10-horse field coming off maiden wins, horseplayers have a variety of ways to go in the betting. Freshman sire City of Light could get his first black-type winner with Battle of Normandy in this event. The $500,000 FTSAUG buy captured his course-and-distance debut Aug. 6 by 2 1/4 lengths after a wide trip. His dam Adorable Miss (Kitten's Joy) was...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - The momentum from last week's record-setting Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearlings Sale carried into the first of two sessions of the company's New York-bred Yearlings Sale in Saratoga Sunday night, with a colt by Hard Spun bringing a record-tying final bid of $600,000 from owner Al Gold. "It was an outstanding session tonight," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. "It was a great start to the New York-bred sale. The place was full of people and full of energy again, just like it was for the selected sale....

6th-Saratoga, $88,000, (S), Msw, 8-4, 2yo, 1 1/16mT, 1:44.44, fm, 1 1/4 lengths. LACHAISE (r, 2, Oscar Performance--Elusive Rumour {MSP, $140,050}, by Elusive Quality), made the 5-2 favorite for Thursday's start, came away near the front and settled three wide in third a length off of pacesetter Provision (Goldencents). Content to let the top pair go on with it, Lachaise took back a bit and raced two wide around the far bend. Commencing a rally  midway on the turn, he found himself three abreast for the lead at the top...

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...

Sent off the 2-1 second betting favorite, Meiner Vision (Jpn) sat three wide the trip and battled on bravely through the final furlong to become the first Japanese winner and third overall for Mill Ridge Farm's freshman sire Oscar Performance (Kitten's Joy--Devine Actress, by Theatrical {Ire}) in an 1800-meter maiden at Fukushima Racecourse. Drawn gate 11 in a scratched-down field of 12, the bay was nudged along early to take up a prominent position and landed three wide punching the breeze while firmly held by jockey Yukito Ishikawa. Settled nicely...

In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for this Sunday running at Fukushima and Kokura Racecourses: Sunday, July 24, 2022 3rd-FKS, ¥9,900,000 ($72k), Maiden, 2yo, 1800mT MEINER VISION (JPN) (c, 2, Oscar Performance--Songoficeandfire, by Dynaformer) turned in a very promising debut effort when tried over this distance at Tokyo June 25, finishing...

In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for this weekend running Saturday at Tokyo and Sunday at Hanshin. The latter venue plays host to Sunday's G1 Takarazuka Kinen, the final top-level event in Japan for three months and offering the winner a spot in the field for the GI Breeders' Cup Turf...

2nd-Keeneland, $76,240, Msw, 4-28, 2yo, 5 1/2fT, 1:03.85, fm, 2 lengths. ANDTHEWINNERIS (c, 2, Oscar Performance--Run Like the Boss, by Scat Daddy) was sent off the 4.10-1 second choice and showed a decisive turn of foot in the final eighth of a mile to become the first winner for his Mill Ridge-based freshman sire (by Kitten's Joy) at Keeneland Thursday afternoon. Void of early speed, Andthewinneris raced last but one early and improved by one position as they hit the turn. Traveling smoothly inside on the bend, he was angled...

Oscar Performance (Kitten's Joy), a four-time Grade I winner, including the 2016 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf, will stand the 2022 season at Mill Ridge Farm for $12,500 LFSN for first-time breeders, and $10,000 for repeat breeders or multiple mares. Bred and raced by Jerry and John Amerman and trained by Brian Lynch, Oscar Performance won Grade I stakes at two, three, and four, and broke a 20-year course record at Belmont Park, covering a mile in 1:31.23, all with no Lasix. Oscar Performance has proven outstanding fertility with 90%...

For a farm so steeped in heritage, and so properly respectful of it, there's no mistaking the vitality, the aversion to complacency, animating Mill Ridge with a sixth generation now at the reins. Back in April the Bell family grieved farm founder Alice Headley Chandler, a revered matriarch not just around their own hearth but among the whole Bluegrass community. But their loss, while poignantly refreshing their gratitude and sense of privilege, could only reinforce an engrained determination that her legacy be honored by all the ambition that had characterised...