Southwest Stakes

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....

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...

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....

Speed King (Volatile), second as the favorite in the Remington Springboard Mile Stakes Dec. 13, ran them off their feet in Saturday's GIII Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park, good for 20 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. Overlooked at odds of 14-1 while drawn widest of all in post nine, Speed King cleared the field beneath Rafael Bejarano heading into the clubhouse turn. He set fractions of :24.11 and :47.82, gave them the slip on the far turn and kept on finding down the stretch to pull off...

Godolphin homebred Maycocks Bay (Speightstown), forced to scratch from the GIII Southwest Stakes as the morning-line favorite in February, returned from 11 months on the sidelines to win a 1 1/16-mile allowance at Fair Grounds Saturday. "We're delighted to have him back," trainer Mike Stidham said. "He had been training so well coming up to this that anything short of that would have been a disappointment. Hopefully he comes out of it well and we can start looking for some bigger and better things." In his first race since a...

The GIII Southwest Stakes, won by subsequent GI Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan (Goldencents) this year, will be worth $1 million in 2025, Oaklawn Park announced Tuesday. The race was worth $800,000 this year. The second of four Kentucky Derby points races to be contested at Oaklawn, the Southwest will be run Jan. 25 and joins the $1.25-million GII Rebel Stakes and the $1.5-million GI Arkansas Derby as Oaklawn's seven-figure preps for the first race of the Triple Crown. Oaklawn's Derby prep series begins with the Jan. 4 $250,000 Smarty...

Looking to follow-up on a record-setting 2022 renewal, the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training opens its four-day run in Central Florida Tuesday morning, with bidding beginning at 10:30 a.m. "Once again the consignors have brought a quality group of horses," said OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski. "The breeze show went smoothly and those horses got to show themselves on the track. We are excited for the sale." The Spring sale has become a must-stop on the juvenile sales calendar for consignors and buyers alike....

We're still in the early part of the season where the rankings are largely based on juvenile form and a hefty dose of speculation. As we segue into February, the forecast calls for "frost heaves" that will likely shift the balance of power just enough to keep things interesting. But at 15 weeks out, everyone on the GI Kentucky Derby trail is still allowed to dream big. 1) ARABIAN KNIGHT (c, Uncle Mo--Borealis Night, by Astrology) 'TDN Rising Star'. O-Zedan Racing Stables, Inc.; B-Corser Thoroughbreds LLC (KY); T-Bob Baffert. Sales...

Just minutes after his high-profile ownership conglomerate suffered a relative disappointment when running second, third and fourth with 60% of the field in the GII San Vicente S. at Santa Anita, unbeaten Newgrange (Violence) found his best stride late to justify 3-2 favoritism in Oaklawn's $750,000 GIII Southwest S. Entering off a debut sprint win Nov. 28 and front-running GIII Sham S. tally at Santa Anita Jan. 1, the handsome dark bay broke well and took the first turn perched three deep. He dropped back a bit while still kept...

Bob Baffert has a chance to sweep Saturday's GI Kentucky Derby preps as he saddles three of the five runners in Santa Anita's GII San Vicente and the morning-line favorite in Oaklawn's GIII Southwest S. in Newgrange (Violence). A debut winner at Del Mar Nov. 28, the dark bay wired Santa Anita's GIII Sham S. next out Jan. 1, earning a field's-best 88 Beyer Speed Figure. Smarty Jones S. top three Dash Attack (Munnings), Barber Road (Race Day) and Ignitis (Nyquist) rematch here. Opening his account with a 1 1/4-length...

Birthdays with a zero on the end are supposed to be momentous occasions, and 20-year-old Tapit sure knows how to celebrate in style. On Saturday, the Gainesway stallion even supplied the party favors for a double-barreled bash in his honor on the GI Kentucky Derby trail. Exactly two decades after Tapit's Feb. 27, 2001, foaling date, two of his sons delivered sky's-the-limit performances as winning favorites in key 3-year-old prep stakes that firmly established both atop of the current crop of aspirants to wear a blanket of roses on the...