Tarifa

Good first impressions are a must in most professional situations, and Gin Gin (Hightail) stepped up in a big way for new trainer Brendan Walsh when she dominated the GIII Baird Doubledogdare Stakes at Keeneland Friday evening. Previously in the barn of Brad Cox, she had a stakes win in New York to her credit in 2024 by way of the Busanda Stakes at Aqueduct in mid-January, but went winless for the rest of the season including a start in the GI Kentucky Oaks. Running 12th in the premier spring...

Friday's GIII Baird Doubledogdare Stakes at Keeneland has all the trappings of a high-level race as a salty group of seven older fillies and mares have assembled to go a mile and a sixteenth on the main track. Made the 8-5 choice on Nick Tammaro's morning-line, Candied (Candy Ride {Arg}) makes her 4-year-old debut for trainer Todd Pletcher. In 2024, the filly finished off the board in only one Grade I race out of the five. She was last seen running third in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff at...

When Speedway Stables LLC spent $900,000 at OBS April in 2023 for a daughter of Nyquist, a 4-year-old campaign and perfect record probably weren't the first things on Peter Fluor and K.C. Weiner's minds. But, nearly two years later, it's likely the partners in Speedway are not upset with a little delayed gratification, as Cavalieri (Nyquist)'s victory Saturday in the $300,000 GI B. Wayne Hughes Beholder Mile Stakes at Santa Anita made her the newest Grade I winner in their barn. Off at even money, Cavalieri broke in an even...

All of us involved in this game tend to be exposed to its ups and downs on a scale proportionate to our means. That being so, there have unsurprisingly been some pretty wild extremes--for better and worse--in the story of the most lavishly funded program in its history. Just think back, for instance, to the last days of April 2001. Sheikh Mohammed had sent Street Cry (Ire) back to the United States, where he had been skillfully developed as a juvenile by Eoin Harty, with the mission of winning the...

The lesser-fancied and less-heralded of an uncoupled Godolphin-owned entry in Thursday's GIII Falls City Stakes at Churchill Downs, the beautifully bred Loved (Medaglia d'Oro) went through her gears in the final three-sixteenths of a mile to cause a mild upset. 'TDN Rising Star' Tarifa (Bernardini), the 7-4 favorite exiting a tough victory in the GII Mother Goose Stakes Oct. 26, boxed on for an alibi-free second while no match for the winner. Having earned her first black-type success in the Mari Hulman George Memorial Handicap at Horseshoe Indianapolis this past...

Trainer Brad Cox sends out the top two chances on the morning line for Friday's GII Clark Stakes at Churchill Downs, and those who support the duo from a pari-mutuel perspective will be looking for some positive cashflow to get a head start on their holiday shopping. Since being acquired privately by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani's Wathnan Racing earlier this season, Hit Show (Candy Ride {Arg}) has yet to taste defeat in three starts, including the GIII West Virginia Governor's Stakes in August, a neck defeat of Cooke...

Nobody should have been to surprised when Tarifa (Bernardini) won Saturday's GII Mother Goose S. at the Belmont at the Big A meet, turning the tables on the favored Gun Song (Gun Runner). The same goes for Saturday's GII Fayette S. at Keeneland, won by the Cox-trained Hit Show (Candy Ride {Arg}). Starting one month ago, on Sept. 27, he's been on a tear, winning 12 of the 17 (70 % percent) stakes races he has entered in. Overall, Cox is 20-for-63 (32%) for the month of October. He ran...

There was a time, not that long ago, when the Mother Goose Stakes was one of the most prestigious Grade I summer targets for sophomore fillies in North America. It may be a Grade II now late in the season while the division leaders wait another week for the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff, but Godolphin homebred and 'TDN Rising Star' Tarifa (f, 3 Bernardini--Kite Beach, by Awesome Again) did her part to honor that former glory at the Belmont at Aqueduct meet with an extremely game and tenacious victory as...

With less than a week until the Breeders' Cup World Championships, you can pregame with a bevy of graded stakes races across three tracks and two types of surfaces on Saturday. Heading up to the Belmont At The Big A meet, the New York Racing Association has carded a trio of graded contests. Chief among them is the GII Mother Goose Stakes for 3-year-old fillies going nine furlongs on the dirt. At first glance, this appears to be a street fight between the pair that ran second and third to...

With better than three months left on the racing calendar for 2024, 'TDN Rising Star' Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) has already locked up the 3-year-old filly championship, having dominated her peers in the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks, GI Acorn Stakes and GI Coaching Club American Oaks. She lost little in defeat when running fellow 'Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light) to a head in the GI Travers Stakes, but she returns to her own sex for Saturday's $1-million GI Cotillion Stakes, the first half of a Grade I double in...

'TDN Rising Star' Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) drew gate six in a field of eight and was made the 4-5 morning-line favorite when post positions were drawn Monday for Saturday's GI Cotillion Stakes at Parx Racing in suburban Philadelphia. Trainer Ken McPeek will once again give Brian Hernandez, Jr. a leg up on Thorpedo Anna, whose victories in the GI Kentucky Oaks, GI Acorn Stakes and GI CCA Oaks have virtually clinched the 3-year-old filly championship with better than two months of racing left in 2024. She covered herself in...

8th-CD, 134K, Alw/OC, 3yo, f, 6f, 4:22 p.m. Unraced since hitting the board behind Tarifa (Bernardini) in the GII Fair Grounds Oaks back in March, 'TDN Rising Star' V V'S DREAM (Mitole) returns to the races Sunday for trainer Kenny McPeek. Last year's dominant GIII Pocahontas Stakes winner spent her last six races in stakes company, on the board in the Rags to Riches Stakes and, most notably, second by a length in the GI Darley Alcibiades at Keeneland last October. The daughter of Mitole showed her readiness for Sunday's...