Serengeti Empress

4th-BAQ, $85K, Msw, 2yo, 6fT, 2:37 p.m. ET. A $500,000 grad from the Fasig-Tipton October Yearling sale, FOURTH DIMENSION (Not This Time) makes his first start for Wathnan and trainer Bill Mott. Initially going for $200,000 during Keeneland January, the dark bay is out of Aureum (Medaglia d'Oro), who was a 220,000gns purchase at the 2021 Tattersalls July sale by Blandford Bloodstock. Aureum--who also produced current filly 3-year-old in-training Loveontheleftbank (Invincible Spirit {Ire})--is herself a half-sister to MGISP Nemoralia (More Than Ready), the dam of GII Lake Placid Stakes heroine...

8th-CD, $120K, Msw, 3yo/up, f&m, 1mT, 4:22 p.m. ET. MO EXPECTATIONS (Uncle Mo) makes the races for the first time under the care of trainer Brad Cox. Stonestreet went to $1.15-million during the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Fall Mixed Sale to acquire Havisham (Bernardini), who at the time was carrying their filly. Mo Expectations is a half-sister to Joel Politi's GI Longines Kentucky Oaks heroine Serengeti Empress (Alteration). That dam's first registered foal--the stakes placed Invictus (Into Mischief)--is also a member of Cox's shedrow. TJCIS PPS

This week, we debut a new feature: who were the five fastest maidens to race in North America last week, as measured by the Beyer Speed figures? We count them down. 5. TROUBLESHOOTING, KEE 4/10 - 5 1/2f (turf) Beyer Speed Figure: 86 (c, 3, Not This Time--Into Trouble, by Into Mischief) O/B-Donamire Farm; T-Greg Foley; J-Edgar Morales. Video Replay. After three losses as a 2-year-old, Foley did a little "troubleshooting" and switched this colt to grass--with immediate results. Morales positioned him in the rail pocket behind the Bill Mott-trained 5-2...

1st-Keeneland, $110,000, Msw, 4-8, 3yo, 7f, 1:23.51, ft, 2 1/2 lengths. INVICTUS (c, 3, Into Mischief--Serengeti Empress {MGISW, $2,175,653}, by Alternation) had not been seen since finishing a well-beaten seventh in the 6 1/2-furlong Saratoga maiden race won in 'TDN Rising Star' style by Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie) last July. The 8-5 second choice was hustled out to the early lead, but allowed favored Camp Hale (Mo Town) to take control and then settled in third as longshot Ship Ship Hooray (Midshipman) shot up the rail to lead as the quarter...

7th-SAR, $100k, Msw, 2yo, 6 1/2f, post time: 3:54 p.m. ET INVICTUS (Into Mischief), the first foal from 2019 GI Kentucky Oaks and 2020 GI Ballerina Stakes winner Serengeti Empress (Alternation), cost China Horse Club, Siena Farm and WinStar Farm $1.2 million at last year's Keeneland September Sale, and the Jan. 29 produce carries the WinStar colors for this first go. The bay, bred on similar cross to this sire's Grade I winners Life Is Good and Practical Joke, has been made the 3-1 choice on the morning line for...

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis LEXINGTON, KY - With the very first horse through the ring bringing $1.3 million, the second session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale was off to the races Tuesday and the action didn't slow down throughout the day as the second-to-last offering brought $1.25 million. In between, 13 other yearlings sold for seven figures, including a colt by Into Mischief who brought top price of $3 million from the partnership of Chuck Sonson, West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford. With eight million-dollar yearlings Monday, the...

Joel Politi was still a relative newcomer to racehorse ownership when Serengeti Empress (Alternation) took him to the winner's circle of the 2019 GI Kentucky Oaks. The dream ride could continue when the mare's first foal, a colt by Into Mischief (hip 309), goes through the sales ring Tuesday during the second Book 1 session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale through the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment. "I am excited, proud and nervous, how about that? Probably a lot of emotions," Politi said ahead of next week's auction. "Serengeti...

It felt like everything was up in the air; but actually everything was falling into place. Even as a kid, from nowhere obvious, Fred Seitz had discovered an affinity for horses. And the young man stepping onto the tarmac at Lexington airport had meanwhile learned resilience and adaptability with the Marine Corps. Sure enough, all the perplexity Seitz felt about his future was about to evaporate. "I was wondering what I was going to do when I grew up!" Seitz recalls in his gentle, humorous tones. (He was, by this...

Multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Alternation (Distorted Humor--Alternate, by Seattle Slew), a half-brother to Grade I winner and Darby Dan Farm stallion Higher Power (Medaglia d'Oro) and the sire of multiple Grade I winner Serengeti Empress, is being relocated from Pin Oak Stud to Darby Dan Farm by Steve Belford's Maccabee Farm for the upcoming breeding season, the farm announced today. Alternation is being re-syndicated and will stand for a fee of $7,500 S&N. "We're excited to bring a horse of Alternation's caliber to Darby Dan," said Ryan Norton, stallion director...

Taylor Made Farm welcomed dual Grade I winner Serengeti Empress (Alternation) home to her birthplace on Monday afternoon. The 2019 Kentucky Oaks victress will be bred to red hot sire Into Mischief. Shipping in from the Tom Amoss barn at Churchill Downs, Serengeti Empress will become barnmates with several other high-profile maiden mares, including Larry Best's recent $1.95 million Keeneland November purchase Concrete Rose (Twirling Candy). "It's just special," said Frank Taylor, the Vice President of Boarding Operations for Taylor Made. "When you get these Grade I winners come to...

Serengeti Empress (Alternation--Havisham, by Bernardini), second to Gamine (Into Mischief) in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint S. Saturday at Keeneland, has been retired and will be bred to Into Mischief, according to a tweet from trainer Tom Amoss's daughter Hayley Amoss Wednesday morning. "Said goodbye to Serengeti Empress yesterday with plenty of peppermints," tweeted Amoss, with a photo of herself and the filly taken in front of her stall Tuesday morning. "Sad that she will no longer be in the first stall at Tom Amoss's barn, but...

In a race that did not deserve a loser, Lothenbach Stables' Bell's the One (Majesticperfection) took advantage of the ultimate race flow for her one-run style and dropped her nose down on the wire ahead of a desperately unlucky 2019 GI Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress (Alternation) to win the GI Derby City Distaff S. at Churchill Downs. Taken back off the pace, as is her custom, Bell's The One laid fifth as Serengeti Empress, last-out winner of the GI Ballerina S. at Saratoga, dueled on a scorching pace inside...