Power Squeeze

Reigning GI Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan (Goldencents) breezed five furlongs in :59.98 on his own over a 'good' Gulfstream Park main track Saturday morning, his final serious piece of work ahead of next Saturday's GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes. Robby Albarado was aboard for the move. "What I'd call a happy five-eighths," trainer Ken McPeek said. "It was just a maintenance breeze. I didn't have a horse I really felt good about him being in company with, and I don't think he needed the company. But he took...

GI Kentucky Derby hero Mystik Dan (Goldencents) and GISW Power Squeeze (Union Rags) went through their preparations Saturday morning at Gulfstream Park for the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational. The Ken McPeek trainee was out to breeze five furlongs Saturday morning, covering the distance in a bullet move of :59.48 (1/35). Depending on how he does during the week, and after one more work next week, the conditioner says a decision will be made at that point as to whether or not Mystik Dan will be entered in Gulfstream's marquee...

Windy Walk, the longest shot in the five-horse field, upset her more-fancied Grade I-winning foes with a wire-to-wire victory in the Rampart Stakes Thursday at Gulfstream Park. The chestnut filly was quickly at the head of affairs and was under a snug hold while setting a dawdling opening quarter of :25.82 as GI Alabama Stakes winner and 5-2 second choice Power Squeeze and GI Breeders' Cup F/M Sprint winner and 2-5 favorite Soul of an Angel were second last and last, respectively. Power Squeeze rolled up three wide on the...

With better than three months left on the racing calendar for 2024, 'TDN Rising Star' Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) has already locked up the 3-year-old filly championship, having dominated her peers in the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks, GI Acorn Stakes and GI Coaching Club American Oaks. She lost little in defeat when running fellow 'Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light) to a head in the GI Travers Stakes, but she returns to her own sex for Saturday's $1-million GI Cotillion Stakes, the first half of a Grade I double in...

'TDN Rising Star' Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) drew gate six in a field of eight and was made the 4-5 morning-line favorite when post positions were drawn Monday for Saturday's GI Cotillion Stakes at Parx Racing in suburban Philadelphia. Trainer Ken McPeek will once again give Brian Hernandez, Jr. a leg up on Thorpedo Anna, whose victories in the GI Kentucky Oaks, GI Acorn Stakes and GI CCA Oaks have virtually clinched the 3-year-old filly championship with better than two months of racing left in 2024. She covered herself in...

There were two Grade I races last weekend in North America, one at Saratoga and one at Del Mar. One was on the dirt and one was on the turf, one at 10 furlongs and the other at nine furlongs. Other than both being carded for 3-year-old fillies, what did they have in common? Each was won by a daughter of a Lane's End sire. Union Rags captured the GI Alabama Stakes with Power Squeeze, while Twirling Candy took the GI Del Mar Oaks with Iscreamuscream. To add to the...

Once again American investors have shown an increasing receptivity to European bloodlines, this time at the big yearling sale in Deauville. For now, however, we're still only talking about a minority even among those with the resources required to import elite yearlings. But with a reciprocal curiosity also growing in Europe--thanks to Justify, in particular, but also to those breeze-up pinhookers now preparing their next raid on the September Sale--it does feel as though the overdue renewal of transatlantic traffic is beginning to gain commercial traction. We still have a...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--A long-term plan and a recent decision brought California-based, Indiana-prepped Chatalas (Gun Runner) the rest of the way across the continent to run in the GI $600,000 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. Feeling that she is better on dirt, her owners and trainer Mark Glatt decided last winter to avoid grass racing and point her to 3-year-old filly stakes in the Midwest and East. In her first start in seven months, Chatalas won the GIII Indiana Oaks by a head on July 6. Four weeks later, when...

Exiting a distant third to divisional leader Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) in the GI Acorn Stakes at Saratoga June 7, Power Squeeze called on her considerable class to hold off odds-on Sidamara to take out Monday's rescheduled GIII Delaware Oaks. One of the first away, the baldy-faced chestnut was fourth of the five runners turning up the backstretch and was trapped out five deep passing the half-mile. Asked to take closer order while deep on the turn, Power Squeeze was off the bridle as longtime leader Ringy Dingy (Dialed In)...

Winner of three of his four starts on the grass last season, including two at the Grade III level, Amerman Racing's Endlessly (Oscar Performance) returns to the grass for the first time as a 3-year-old as the 6-5 morning-line favorite for Saturday's $750,000 GI Belmont Derby. Typically contested over 10 furlongs at Belmont Park, this year's renewal takes place over a mile and three-sixteenths at Aqueduct. Victorious in the GIII Del Mar Juvenile Turf and GIII Zuma Beach Stakes, Endlessly was a wide-trip eighth in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY--It didn't seem possible for trainer Kenny McPeek to be any more confident in his filly, 'TDN Rising Star' Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna), as he was prior to her win in the GI Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs five weeks ago. But a short chat with the Kentucky-based trainer earlier in the week spoke volumes as to her ability to repeat in Friday's GI DK Horse Acorn S. Giving the afternoon's 27,529-strong crowd no real cause for concern at any point during the race, she unleashed a tour-de-force...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY -- It sounds a little like a fairy tale. A fire-breathing creature descending on several unsuspecting ladies in search of a prized acorn. In this story, however, the role of the fearsome creature is played by GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna), who while not grotesque, gives eight other GI Acorn S. rivals cause for concern nonetheless. "The boys are lucky she is not running," said trainer Kenny McPeek with a chuckle. "I mean she's good." After an emphatic win at Keeneland last October, she...