Sandman

The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale marks a full decade as an open auction when it begins its three-day run Tuesday afternoon and, with a well-attended under-tack show last week followed by a busy weekend of showing, consignors are optimistic demand will be high for the first juvenile sale of the season. The sale, originally slated to begin at 11 a.m. Mar. 11, will now get going at 1 p.m. to allow horsemen more time in the wake of the consolidated under tack show....

Norman Stables' Coal Battle (Coal Front) scored one for the little guy Sunday at Oaklawn Park, overtaking pacesetting California invader Madaket Road (Quality Road) in upper stretch and leaving favored Sandman (Tapit) in his wake while striding home a 1 1/4-length winner of the GII Rebel Stakes. Sandman, who famously broke in a tangle before finishing a valiant second in the GIII Southwest Stakes a month ago, had most of the eyes on him as he broke professionally Sunday, but was unhurried and settled well off the pace as Madaket...

In racing as in life, good things come to those who wait. And while we have had to endure an extra 24 hours for Sunday's rescheduled GII Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park, the wait may just prove worth it as a full, competitive field of 3-year-olds line up with 50 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby on the line. The top three runners from the GIII Southwest Stakes face each other once again Sunday with Speed King (Volatile) taking top billing back on Jan. 25 over a hard-closing...

A veteran Hall of Fame trainer, Mark Casse knows that sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. The Casse-trained Sandman (Tapit) turned in a remarkable effort in his last start, the GIII Southwest S. at Oaklawn, finishing second after breaking in a tangle and dropping far behind the leaders. Once straightened out, he rallied furiously and finished second, missing by just a length. To talk about the Southwest and Sandman's next start, Sunday's GII Rebel S. at Oaklawn, Casse joined the team on this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast...

A veteran Hall of Fame trainer, Mark Casse knows that sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. The Casse-trained Sandman (Tapit) turned in a remarkable effort in his last start, the GIII Southwest S. at Oaklawn, finishing second after breaking in a tangle and dropping far behind the leaders. Once straightened out, he rallied furiously and finished second, missing by just a length. To talk about the Southwest and Sandman's next start, Sunday's GII Rebel S. at Oaklawn, Casse joined the team on this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast...

The Fasig-Tipton February Digital Sale, which runs from Feb. 20-25, will include the company's first online sale of 2-year-olds in training. The boutique offering of 16 juveniles, presented with gallop videos, but no timed workouts, are a "proof of concept," according to Fasig-Tipton's Director of Digital Sales Leif Aaron. "It felt like there was a large enough segment of the market that wanted to see more of an untimed sort of 2-year-old sale, so we felt the digital platform would be the perfect opportunity to provide those buyers with that...

We're inside the 13-week mark to the GI Kentucky Derby with no seismic changes to the running order at this early stage of the season. The rankings are fairly evenly distributed among contenders based on both coasts and in Kentucky, Arkansas and Louisiana. 1) FIRST RESORT (c, Uncle Mo-Fair Maiden, by Street Boss). O/B-Godolphin (KY); T-Eoin G. Harty. Lifetime record GSW, 4-2-1-0, $338,671. Last start: WON Nov. 30 GII Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. First Resort's 6-1 win in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes Nov. 30 rated as the most visually...

The catalogue for the OBS March sale has been released and is now available online. The three-day sale will run from Mar. 11 to Mar. 13 and each session will begin at 11:00 a.m. HIPS 1-272 will go through the ring Mar. 11, then 273-544 the day after, and lastly 545-814. The under-tack show will begin Mar. 5 and run through Mar. 8 starting at 8:00 a.m. each day. The show, and subsequent sale, will both be streamed live via the OBS website as well as the TDN. There will...

J. Stable, St. Elias Stable, West Point Thoroughbreds and CJ Stables' Sandman (Tapit), who overcame a tangled start in the Jan. 25 GIII Southwest Stakes before closing from the back to finish second under Cristian Torres, will make his next start in the Feb. 22 GII Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn, confirmed Mark Casse Sunday. Casse also said Sandman will remain at Oaklawn, where the trainer has a string in Hot Springs for the first time since 2019. The Rebel is Oaklawn's final major prep for the $1.5-million GI Arkansas Derby...

We're learning more every day about the relationship between horses and mankind and how people struggling with such things as PTSD so often thrive and recover when working closely with horses. But can it work the other way? Can a human have such a positive and calming effect on a horse that a bond and relationship develops that makes the horse prosper? In the case of GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational winner White Abarrio (Race Day) and his groom Eduardo (Lalo) Diaz, it looks like that might be the case....

The English polymath John Ruskin, who was always hard at work scribbling a well-timed observation for some future generation to co-opt, said when it came to the weather, "Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather." Well, bully for you Mr. Ruskin! Send him a going stick and put him to work on the nearest turf course. Some might care to offer quite a different observation after recent events. What...

We're inside the 16-week mark for the May 3 GI Kentucky Derby. That's roughly 168,000 minutes until post time, but who's counting? The initial Top 12 rankings are largely based on 2-year-old form, but a speculative element is baked into the equation with an eye toward projecting how these still-developing contenders will blossom over the winter and early spring. 1) FIRST RESORT (c, Uncle Mo--Fair Maiden, by Street Boss) O/B-Godolphin (KY); T-Eoin G. Harty. Lifetime Record GSW, 4-2-1-0, $338,671. Last start: WON Nov. 30 GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. This...