Quality Road

The TDN's popular annual series 'Mating Plans, presented by Spendthrift,' continues today in a conversation with Whisper Hill Farm's Mandy Pope.   Shedaresthedevil, 7, Daredevil—Starship Warpspeed, by Congrats. To be bred to Into Mischief. When we planned Shedaresthedevil's first mating, we chose Gun Runner because we loved the physical match and we also liked the Storm Cat and A.P. Indy in her pedigree for him.   She foaled January 29th, and the filly is everything that we had hoped and dreamed she could be! She is a big, strong chestnut filly...

9th-Fair Grounds, $57,000, Msw, 2-13, 3yo, f, 1 1/16m, 1:45.53, ft, 3/4 length. PRETTY ANA (f, 3, Quality Road--Quiet Giant {GSW, $405,389}, by Giant's Causeway), a half-sister to leading young sire Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}), Horse Of The Year, Ch. Older Dirt Male MGISW-USA, G1SP-UAE, $15,988,500, dug down gamely to earn her diploma at second asking here. Pretty Ana was previously third, beaten 5 1/4 lengths, as the even-money favorite after an eventful trip over this same course and distance on debut Jan. 18. Favored at that same price...

SF Bloodstock will send 15 mares to Lane's End's Quality Road this spring, according to a post on X from Tom Ryan, SF's managing partner. The news comes fresh off National Treasure (Quality Road)'s win in the $3 million Grade I Pegasus World Cup on Saturday. National Treasure is a 2020 colt from Treasure. "During the 2023 season, SF Bloodstock had 12 mares IN FOAL to him at Atlas Farm," Ryan said in the post, "and we plan to exceed that number this spring. If he starts the 2024 season...

Spendthrift Farm has acquired the breeding rights to MGISW National Treasure (Quality Road-- Treasure, by Medaglia D'oro), last year's GI Preakness S. hero and a thrilling winner of Saturday's GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream. "National Treasure is the kind of stallion prospect we all look for because he possesses every quality that excites you about his potential to become an important sire," said Ned Toffey, Spendthrift general manager. "He was precocious enough to place in a very good Breeders' Cup Juvenile, he's an American Classic winner at three...

National Treasure (Quality Road), last year's front-running GI Preakness S. hero and a latest painful second to Horse of the Year Cody's Wish (Curlin) in the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Santa Anita Nov. 4, gave trainer Bob Baffert a third victory in the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. and his sire a second Saturday afternoon at Gulfstream Park. "I'm proud of him. He ran his race. He showed up," said Baffert by phone from Southern California. "That's all you can ask for as a trainer. He was...

Named for the owner, an immigrant from Scotland who realized a Carnegie-kind of American Dream, it began as a 12-furlong turf race. Five years later in 1964 it was cut back to nine and moved to the dirt. The roll call of Donn H. winners through 2016 at Gulfstream Park reflects a roster of unique equine and human personalities, which is peppered with some magnificent performances that shouldn't be forgotten. Hall of Fame jockey Braulio Baeza won his first of three victories in 1969 aboard Funny Fellow and took home...

Favored in the betting right up until the final bit of money poured into the pools, Track Phantom (Quality Road) took control of Saturday's GIII Lecomte S. at a chilly Fair Grounds Racecourse right from the opening bell and never looked like losing, leading past every pole to pick up 20 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. Having earned 10 points for his victory in the local Gun Runner S. at the tail end of 2023, Track Phantom now sits atop the leaderboard with GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile...

6th-GP, $89k, Msw, 3yo, 6f, post time: 2:39 p.m. ET TURN UP THE TREES (Liam's Map) cost $100,000 as a foal at the 2021 Keeneland November Sale before St. Elias Stable paid $500,000 for the bay at Keeneland September less than a year later, the fourth-priciest of 58 of his sire's yearlings sold in 2022. A son of the Grade III-placed Clearbrook (Smart Strike), Turn Up the Trees descends from the family of stallions Sky Mesa and Bernstein. Sicilian Defense (Uncle Mo) is a maternal grandson of GSW/GISP Molto Vita...

Today we conclude our survey of Kentucky stallion options with a look at the apex of the pyramid, comprising a couple of dozen standing between $60,000 and $250,000--besides whatever it might take to secure your mare an audience with Justify. It feels presumptuous enough to offer counsel even on cheaper sires, when each mating should boil down to you finding an optimal fit for an individual mare that you know inside out. Still greater hesitation, then, must precede any attempt to discover "value" among this lot. No stallion has any...

Racing fans didn't have to wait long for the New Year's first 'TDN Rising Star' as Juddmonte homebred Impel (Quality Road) sat off hot early fractions and pounced into the lane to graduate at first asking Monday. Facing a field of mostly first-time starters, all making their 3-year-old debuts, Impel took money into the teeth of race favorite Tipsy Tammy (Arrogate), breaking at 7-2 and going right out to be three wide with that rival along with Golden Degree (Goldencents) on the rail. That trio sped through an opening quarter...

6th-FG, $52K, Msw, 3yo, f, 6f, 4:15 p.m. Starting the New Year off in Louisiana, WHO'S TICKET (Quality Road) is a daughter of champion 2-year-old filly Take Charge Brandi, a mare who has changed hands for sums of $6m, $3.2m and most recently in 2021 when Three Chimneys Farm went to $1.15m for her. Who's Ticket, herself a $450,000 weanling, is a half to SW Courvoisier (Tapit). Take Charge Brandi has seen her branch of the family tree grow more fruitful recently with the success of her half-brother, freshman sire...

Track Phantom (Quality Road) had 10 points deposited into his Road to the Kentucky Derby account by winning Saturday's featured Gun Runner S. at Fair Grounds in New Orleans. After a pair of good efforts to try and break his maiden in October at Churchill Downs, the bay got his picture taken with a front-running score by 4 3/4 lengths under the Twin Spires Nov. 25. As a 9-2 shot here, the colt came out firing from his outside post and dueled into the first turn with GISP Next Level...