Rachel Alexandra

Raise your hand if this sounds familiar: a 3-year-old filly in the Godolphin blue captured the GII Rachel Alexandra S. at Fair Grounds to earn 50 points on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks. So far, Tarifa (f, 3, Bernardini--Kite Beach, by Awesome Again) is following the script laid out last year by Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief) perfectly. Like her year-older fellow Godolphin homebred, she, too, was named a 'TDN Rising Star' on debut. In a replay of last year, she, too, won the Rachel Alexandra for her first graded...

Jess's Dream (Curlin), the first foal out of Hall of Fame mare Rachel Alexandra, succumbed to laminitis Sunday. The news, reported by Stonestreet Farm, was posted to social media. A maiden special weight winner and 'TDN Rising Star' at Saratoga in his first and only start, Jess's Dream entered stud in 2017 and stood for several years at Ocala Stud in Florida. He was pensioned from stud for reasons unrelated to the laminitis in Oct. 2023 and was being pointed towards a third career under saddle as a track pony...

Jess's Dream (Curlin), a son of Hall of Fame mare Rachel Alexandra, has been retired from stud duty at Florida's Ocala Stud and gelded accorded to a social media post from Stonestreet Farm. Posted to X, the message reads: "Jess's Dream (Curlin x Rachel Alexandra) has been retired from duty & is healthy & happy at the Stonestreet Training Center where he will begin his third career as our track pony. He has been gelded & we look forward to restarting him under tack in the new year." A winner...

Celebrating 40 Years of the Breeders' Cup with Living Legends There are great racehorses and there are great sires. One doesn't always equal the other. Sometimes, but not always, a horse is equally adept at both. "It's rare for world-class racehorse to become a world-class sire. It's two different resumes, two different achievements," said John Sikura, owner of Hill 'n' Dale. Rarely, ever so rarely, a top racehorse becomes a sire so good and so prolific in generating top-class horses that his own championship race record becomes almost an afterthought....

At the close of 2022, Turfway Park's Holiday Meet concluded with jockey Gerardo Corrales, trainer Paulo Lobo and Larry Best's OXO Equine winning their respective titles. Corrales tabbed 30 wins from 104 mounts--a stout 29% win clip. His mounts tallied $1,115,484 in purse earnings. Corrales' meet was highlighted by a victory in the $125,000 Prairie Bayou Stakes aboard the Lobo-trained In Love (BRZ) (Agnes Gold {Jpn}). The 26-year-old rider also won the $125,000 Holiday Inaugural Stakes aboard Ready to Venture (GB) (Kingman {GB}). Corrales finished eight wins in front of...

Bret Jones is the vice president at Airdrie Stud located in Midway, KY, a 2,500-acre breeding operation founded in 1972 by his parents, Governor Brereton Jones and his wife, Elizabeth. He is a graduate of the University of the South (Suwanee) and has formally been a member of the team at Airdrie since 2006. He also serves on the Board of the Breeders' Cup, a position he's held since 2011, and was a commissioner on the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission from 2016-2020. He currently serves on the board of trustees...

1st-CD, $120K, Msw, 2yo, 7f, 1:00 p.m. EDT Whisper Hill Farm and Three Chimneys Farm homebred SHOPPER'S REVENGE (Tapit) is one of several well-bred juveniles debuting on this card. The gray is out of three-time Grade I winner and multi-millionaire Stopchargingmaria (Tale of the Cat), whose career highlight was a win in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff. Three Chimneys acquired the mare for $2.8 million at the conclusion of her career at the 2016 FTKNOV sale and re-offered her at that auction two years later carrying a Tapit colt. Mandy...

For its 150th anniversary racing season, Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots will boast 59 stakes worth a combined $7.795 million--up more than $600,000 from last season--during its 80-day, 2021-22 Thoroughbred meet, which is set to begin Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 25. "Fair Grounds Race Track is embedded in the history of New Orleans," said Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots president Doug Shipley. "We have always been very proud to be part of such a great city and this year marks the 150th anniversary of our inaugural season. We...

Three years ago, Mick Ruis purchased the 330-acre former Woodford Thoroughbreds outside Lexington and revamped his entire broodmare band with the sole focus on supporting his recently retired multiple Grade I winner Bolt d'Oro. With the stallion's first yearlings hitting the sales ring this summer to wide appeal, the decision is paying off in spades. Ruis was rewarded by two yearlings at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale and will offer a filly by Bolt d'Oro during the first session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale Monday. "I would say 100% of...

Shortly after selling an $800,000 Quality Road colt (hip 114), Larry Best's OXO Equine put those funds to good use, landing a Bolt d'Oro half-brother to none other than Hall of Famer Rachel Alexandra for $1.4 million. The colt's MGISW sire is by Medaglia d'Oro--just like Rachel. The Mar. 2 foal was consigned to the sale by Hill 'n' Dale Sales Agency as hip 132 on behalf of Dr. Dede McGehee's Heaven Trees Farm.

It was back in the late seventies and early eighties, well before Steve Asmussen had his trainer's license, that the foundation was being set for what was to become a historic career. He was studying under his parents, Keith and Marilyn Asmussen, the multi-talented Texas-based team that did a little bit of everything, including breaking dozens of babies that would go on to stardom on the racetrack. Their youngest son, just a teenager then, saw what it took to be successful, the can't-miss combination of hard work, skill, devotion to...

Don't get me wrong. I respect Monomoy Girl (Tapizar). She's right up there among the best fillies and mares to compete in any of our lifetimes. But there was something routine about her victory in Sunday's GIII Bayakoa S. at Oaklawn Park. It was the 16th chapter in what has essentially been the same story from the start. In 15 of her 16 races, she has crossed the wire first, always against fillies and mares while winning in a manner better described as professional rather than breathtaking. There were some...