Special Reserve

Keeneland opens its highly anticipated fall meet Friday with a trio of graded stakes that each provide the winners with a spot in the gate for the Breeders' Cup World Championships to be held in Lexington the first weekend of November. The highlight of the day will be the GI Darley Alcibiades S., a qualifier for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. Ken McPeek and Brad Cox have taken turns the last few years, each winning two of the last four, and McPeek has the morning-line favorite in last-out GIII...

Special Reserve (Midshipman) started last season being claimed for $40,000 and ended 2021 as the National HBPA Claiming Horse of the Year. In between, the 5-year-old gelding won two graded stakes and three stakes overall, finished second by a half-length in Saratoga's GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H.and concluded the season with a fourth in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint. "It's been such a great experience, and he's such a great horse," said David Staudacher, who co-owns the Mike Maker-trained Special Reserve with Peter Proscia's Paradise Farms Corp. "This award means...

Fasig-Tipton has added two additional supplements, both dams of current black-type winners, to the November Sale, which will be held Nov. 9 in Lexington. Love Spun (Hard Spun--We Love Granny, by Home At Last) is the dam of Special Reserve (Midshipman), who has won or placed in five black-type events this year. The winner of Keeneland's GII Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix S. Oct 8 and second in this summer's GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H., Special Reserve is pointing to the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint Nov. 6. Love Spun, who is...

Reformed claimer Special Reserve pressed, pounced and held on late to earn a guaranteed spot in the starting gate for the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint Friday. Scooped up for $40,000 from Randy Morse and Doyle Williams out of an upset optional claiming tally at Oaklawn in February--good for what at the time was by far his best career Beyer Speed Figure of 92--the late-blooming 5-year-old won right back at that level (not in for the tag) in March before finishing second in the GIII Commonwealth S. over an additional furlong...

Undefeated as a sprinter this season, Cash is King and LC Racing's Mischevious Alex (Into Mischief) will turn back to six furlongs after being defeated in the one-mile GI Runhappy Metropolitan H. as a likely favorite in Saturday's GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. at Saratoga. Proving himself as an exciting sophomore prospect last season with back-to-back open-lengths scores in the GIII Swale S. and GIII Gotham S., but missed the triple Crown and failed to crack the trifecta in his last two starts for John Servis when fourth in the...