There Goes Harvard

By B. Jason Brooks The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearling Sale is less than two weeks away and potential buyers are marking up their sales catalogs while researching the accomplished families of those being offered. At the 2019 Saratoga Sale, four yearlings tracing back to Phipps foundation mare Blitey sold for a collective $4.05 million, one of them being an undefeated Tapit colt named Flightline who has become a multiple Grade I superstar. Thoroughbred Daily News columnist and pedigree expert Sid Fernando recently noted in story that the Phipps female "families...

Owner Michael Cannon woke up on Memorial Day with a gut feeling. Cannon Thoroughbreds was going to win a Grade I that day. His inkling didn't come without good reason. The stable's leading earner Smooth Like Strait (Midnight Lute) would be attempting to defend his title in the GI Shoemaker Mile and was slated as the 4-5 morning-line favorite. Of course as anyone in this business can attest, favoritism doesn't secure a trip to the winner's circle no matter how small the odds. So while Smooth Like Strait had to...

There Goes Harvard, the second-longest shot in a field of five, pulled off the upset under invading rider Irad Ortiz, Jr. in the GI Hollywood Gold Cup S. Monday at Santa Anita. Taking six starts to break his maiden, doing so on the Ellis turf last summer, the chestnut was second in the Runhappy Ellis Park Derby on the main track two tries later. Runner-up off a seven-month layoff in a local dirt optional claimer Mar. 19, the homebred dead-heated for the victory in a similar spot Apr. 17 before...