Stars of Tomorrow

It was another banner weekend for trainer Brad Cox. His trainee, Further Ado (Gun Runner), passed a big test when winning the GII Kentucky Club Stakes at Churchill Downs. On the same card, he unveiled an impressive maiden winner in Cannoneer (Into Mischief), who romped by 7 1/4 lengths. Cox, who joined this week's TDN Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland, will try to keep his streak going Saturday at Aqueduct, where he will send out Bishops Bay (Uncle Mo), who is 8-for-12 lifetime, in the GII Cigar Mile Handicap....

3rd-CD, 120K, Msw, 2yo, f, 7f, 1:56 p.m. The second of two 'Stars of Tomorrow' days at Churchill Downs features a card loaded with promise. In a battle of homebred heavyweights, POWERED BY FAMILY (Quality Road) debuts for St. Elias Stable and West Point Thoroughbreds. Out of GI Personal Ensign winner Icon Project, who RNA'd at the Tattersalls December Mare Sale for 1,450,000gns in 2015, the filly is a half to GSW Fashion Business (GB) (Frankel {GB}). Out of a Grade I winner herself, Icon Project is a half-sister to...

A stakes schedule packed with $3.575 million in purses will headline this year's 14-day September Meet at Churchill Downs, which runs Thursday, Sept. 11 through Sunday, Sept. 28 and features 11 stakes contests over three weekends. Saturday, Sept. 13 sets the tone with five stakes races led by the $400,000 GII Fasig-Tipton Locust Grove and the first points events on the Road to the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks: the $300,000 GIII Iroquois and $300,000 GIII Pocahontas. The second Saturday of the meet on Sept. 20 includes four more stakes...

The annual Thanksgiving weekend "Stars of Tomorrow" card at Churchill Downs is designed to highlight aspiring 2-year-olds right before they launch into their sophomore seasons. An intriguing subplot to this year's edition, however, put the spotlight on several human rather than equine participants who could be on the cusp of bigger and better things. Eighteen-year-old jockey Axel Concepcion just might be on his way to winning an Eclipse Award as the nation's top apprentice for 2023 despite not starting racing at American mainland tracks until Feb. 19 and also having...

1st-Churchill Downs, $122,250, Msw, 10-30, 2yo, 5f, :57.87, sy, 2 3/4 lengths. TWO EAGLES RIVER (g, 2, Cloud Computing--Majestic Island, by Majestic Warrior) got his career off on the right hoof with a solid debut victory in the Stars of Tomorrow lidlifter Sunday at Churchill Downs. Under a bit of a Mitchell Murrill ride right out of the gate then held a spot at the fence in the slipstream of pacesetting Birthday Munnings (Munnings). The $32,000 Fasig-Tipton July yearling turned $220,000 OBS April breezer improved inside on the turn and...

The GIII Street Sense S.--graded for the first time in 2022--is one of 11 races for juveniles on Sunday's "Stars of Tomorrow I" card to kick off the Churchill Downs fall meeting. Winchell Thoroughbreds homebred Red Route One (Gun Runner) gets the tepid morning-line nod at 3-1. The chestnut broke through by daylight second out at Kentucky Downs Sept. 5, then switched to dirt to finish third from out of the clouds at almost 60-1 in the Oct. 8 GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland. Jace's Road (Quality Road), a...

Churchill Downs will host 26 stakes races worth $8.31 million during its upcoming September and Fall meets. The 14-day September meet, which runs from Sept. 15-Oct. 2, will include 11 stakes races worth a total of $3.36 million. The line-up is led by the $400,000 GII Lukas Classic for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/8 miles and the $300,000 GIII Ack Ack S. for 3-year-olds and up at one mile--a Breeders' Cup "Win and You're In" race for the GI Dirt Mile--Oct. 1. The meeting also hosts the first races...