Sierra Leone

Domestic Product Follows Sire to Ashford

Ashford Stud's Practical Joke has enjoyed perhaps his strongest season yet with seven graded stakes winners so far this year. Only four stallions in North America can claim more, while both Quality Road and Not This Time also have seven graded stakes winners to their credit in 2024. Practical Joke, a three-time Grade I winner in his own right, retired to Ashford in 2018 and has produced four Grade I winners from his first four crops. In 2025, the son of Into Mischief's stud fee will increase from $45,000 to...

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David Ingordo Joins TDN Writers' Room Podcast

When bloodstock agent David Ingordo bought Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}) for just $60,000 out of the 2005 Keeneland September Sale he probably thought he had found that once-in-a-lifetime horse. Little did he know that the 2010 Horse of the Year, who was admitted to the Hall of Fame in 2016, might not be his very best purchase. Fourteen years after he discovered Zenyatta, he picked out Flightline (Tapit), paying $1 million for the future superstar. There was nothing coincidental about any of these selections. Over the years, Ingordo has solidified...

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Sierra Leone to Race at Four

Peter Brant, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg, and Brook T. Smith's Sierra Leone (Gun Runner), a $2.3-million Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling sale topper turned 'TDN Rising Star' turned $7-million GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner, will return to the races for a 4-year-old campaign, according to a post on X by Coolmore America Thursday afternoon. Sierra Leone arrived at Coolmore's Ashford Stud near Versailles, Kentucky from Del Mar--site of the 2024 Breeders' Cup last weekend--on Monday and will be freshened for 2025. The full text of Coolmore's post appears...

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Kevin Attard Joins TDN Writers' Room Podcast

It was quite a few days for Canadian-based trainer Kevin Attard. On Saturday, he won his first Breeders' Cup race with Moira (Ghostzapper) in the GI Maker's Mark Filly & Mare Turf and some 48 hours later she went through the ring for $4.3 million. Knowing he'd have plenty to say, we invited Attard to join us on this week's TDN Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland. He admitted that saying goodbye to the best horse he has ever trained was difficult. "Well, right now it's extremely difficult, no doubt...

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New Vocations' Breeders' Cup Pledge Raises Over $120,000

New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program estimates that the funds raised during its 15th annual Breeders' Cup pledge will exceed $120,000. Seven horses drove this year's total with their victories on Breeders' Cup Friday and Saturday, including winners Henri Matisse (Ire), Lake Victoria, Chasing Liberty, Moira, Sierra Leone, Citizen Bull and Thorpedo Anna. Johannes, Mullikin, Fierceness, Candied and Nitrogen also contributed by virtue of their placed efforts over the weekend. "SF is proud to continue our support of New Vocations, " shared Gavin Murphy of SF Bloodstock, part-owners of Juvenile winner...

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Thorpedo Anna Leads Final NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll

With her convincing victory in Saturday's GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff at Del Mar, 'TDN Rising Star' Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) displaced fellow 'Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light) atop the final National Thoroughbred Racing Association Top Thoroughbred Poll for 2024. The Ken McPeek-trained filly, who received 26 of a possible 30 first-place votes, should be a unanimous choice for champion 3-year-old filly and cemented her case for Horse of the Year with her front-running, 2 1/2-length defeat of Raging Sea (Curlin) in the Distaff, and combined with Fierceness's runner-up...

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Breeders' Cup Follow-Ups: Sierra Leone Well, Future Plans TBA

GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner 'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) has come out of the marquee race in good order, according to Chad Brown, and will return to Kentucky Monday morning. "Everything's all good," said assistant trainer Baldo Hernandez Sunday morning after showing the horse to the media. "He will ship tomorrow to Kentucky and maybe Florida after that. I don't know for sure, it's up to the boss." The connections are expected to announce future plans for the colt soon. Sean Flanagan of Flanagan Racing confirmed that...

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Week In Review: Hot Opening Half Yields Paint-By-Numbers Classic

The number that best sums up this year's Breeders' Cup is :44.96. That's the sizzling opening half-mile split for the GI Classic, and 'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) utilized it to the utmost advantage on Saturday, propelling himself to the winner's circle with one of his customary, locomotive-like late kicks that had come up just shy of victory in three previous attempts at 10 furlongs. As a relentless long-strider with a penchant for leaning in and being a magnet for trip trouble during his stretch runs, Sierra Leone...

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Prat Edges Moore For Shoemaker Award

Edited Press Release Flavien Prat, who guided two horses to Breeders' Cup victories Nov. 1-2 at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club during the World Championships, won the 22nd Bill Shoemaker Award as the outstanding jockey of the event. The Shoemaker Award goes to the jockey who rides the most winners in the 14 Championship races with the tiebreaker being a 10-3-1 point system for second- through fourth-place finishes. Prat and Ryan Moore each won two races but thanks to a runner-up effort on Raging Sea (Curlin) in the GI Longines Breeders'...

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Sierra Leone 'Guns' Down Fierceness in Classic

DEL MAR, CA -- Sierra Leone (Gun Runner), a painful second in the GI Kentucky Derby and a frustrating, beaten favorite in three subsequent efforts at Saratoga this summer, emulated his leading young sire with a victory on the biggest stage of them all in Saturday's GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar. The GI Toyota Blue Grass S. winner and 'TDN Rising Star' took advantage of a lightning-fast pace up front, picked off his rivals with an eye-catching, sweeping move on the final turn and outbattled favored 'Rising...

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Tuesday's Breeders' Cup Report: Classic Contenders Take the 'City' by Storm

DEL MAR, CA - With the rising sun attempting to make its way out of a dense cloud cover, contenders for Saturday's $7-million GI Breeders' Cup Classic were out in force during about a 30-minute window following the renovation break at Del Mar Tuesday morning. 'TDN Rising Star' Newgate and Pyrenees, a pair of blaze-faced, 4-year-old sons of the all-conquering Into Mischief, both entered on their toes and filled the frame nicely while training with good energy. Newgate, listed at a very generous 20-1 on the morning-line, adds blinkers for...

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Fierceness to Stand at Ashford Stud Upon Retirement; Repole Says Plans Call for Him to Race at Four

Champion juvenile and 'TDN Rising Star' MGISW Fierceness (City of Light) will join the ranks at Ashford Stud upon his retirement from racing, the farm announced via release Sunday. The champion juvenile from 2023 is a leading GI Breeders' Cup Classic contender and will likely be one of the favorites at post-time. Of the others, Coolmore will have two other rooting interests as well with 'TDN Rising Star' GISW Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) and 'TDN Rising Star' MG1SW-Eng City of Troy (Justify) in the race. That group accounts for three...

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