Volatile

However obvious it may now appear that the "real" Fierceness didn't show up for the GIII Holy Bull Stakes back in February, he was keeping tougher company than many assumed at the time. Of the pair, in fact, things went rather more blatantly wrong for Domestic Product, bumped early before wasting energy against a slow pace and coming home wide. Domestic Product still managed to get closer to the winner than did the juvenile champion, and even in scrambling home in the GIII Tampa Bay Derby next time left a...

SARATOGA SPRINGS--Travers Weekend has been good to Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. And not just because he has won the GI Travers Stakes twice--with Flower Alley in 2005 and Stay Thirsty in 2011. The annual blockbuster weekend on the Saratoga Race Course schedule is also known for the 2-year-olds. And Pletcher has had some good ones that have debuted at Midsummer Derby time. On Saturday, it was Tip Top Thomas (Volatile) that emerged as a horse to watch in the future when he won the day's seventh race, a...

SARATOGA SPRING, N.Y.--Three Chimneys Farm, LLC has a 'volatile' situation on their hands. And that is a good thing. Volatile, who had a pretty fair career as a racehorse, is continuing to shine in the breeding shed. That showed at Saratoga Race Course on Sunday when Volatile progeny Reliable Source gutted out a stretch drive with first-timer Margot's Angel (Practical Joke) and won a $100,000 maiden special event for 2-year-old fillies, the first race on the card. She is the sixth individual winner for her freshman sire (by Violence). Reliable...

Some of the most highly anticipated races during the summer racing season are the 'baby' races during the boutique meetings at Saratoga and Del Mar and at Ellis Park, which attract its fair share of high-priced offspring from a variety of top national outfits. Summer Breezes highlights debuting 2-year-olds at those meetings that have been sourced at the breeze-up sales earlier in the year, with links to their under-tack previews. Here are the horses entered for Sunday at Ellis Park and Del Mar: Sunday, July 28, 2024 Ellis 4, $71k,...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - When the seventh race at Saratoga Race Course was finished Saturday, Chad Brown, who deflects credit often, did it once more. The six-time leading trainer at the Spa had just won a $100,000 maiden special weight with the 5-2 favorite, Incentive Pay (Volatile). It was the first juvenile starter of the meet for Brown. Brown didn't want to pat himself on the back after this one. He wanted Pete Bradley, a longtime friend and respected bloodstock agent, to take the bows. At the 2023 Keeneland September...

Showcase (c, 2, Uncle Mo--Buy Sell Hold, by Violence) fired back-to-back bullets at Todd Pletcher's Saratoga base, including a four-furlong move in :48 3/5 (1/64) out of the gate over the Oklahoma training track June 21, and delivered as advertised as the 3-5 favorite to earn 'TDN Rising Star' honors on debut at the Big A Saturday. Drawn widest of all in post five, Showcase traveled nicely beneath Irad Ortiz, Jr. in an outside second, hit the front while racing in between rivals approaching the quarter pole and took off...

5th-Monmouth, $51,675, Msw, 6-16, 2yo, f, 5f, :58.82, ft, 4 1/2 lengths. AGUAS DE CRISTAL (f, 2, Volatile--Cedar Hall {MSP}, by Bayern) broke her maiden at first asking which handed her freshman sire (by Violence) his first winner out of 124 foals of racing age. As a 7-2 shot here, the filly pursued favorite Me Governor (The Factor) up the backstretch. As the pair separated themselves from the rest of the field, they began to trade blows into the lane. With a sixteenth left, it was clear Aguas de Cristal...

TIMONIUM, MD - Randy Hartley and Dean DeRenzo sent out two horses to work during the first under-tack show session for the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale Tuesday and came away with the bullet workers at a furlong and a quarter-mile, with a colt by Authentic (hip 59) covering his quarter-mile in :21 1/5 and a filly by Volatile (hip 12) going a furlong in :10 flat. The first of three sessions of the Midlantic May under-tack show began at 8 a.m. Tuesday under cloudy skies and with...

The whole point of the breeze-ups is that the functionality of a pedigree is on display. Nowadays, in fact, breeze times are treated as though rendering more or less redundant all the painstaking surmise of the yearling sales. Pinhookers, having seen so many offbeat sires achieve knockout sales, can prioritize "run"—knowing that lot of prospectors won't even bother looking at the catalogue until the lots have shown their wares. But it's for precisely that reason that European breeze-up consignors have increasingly been able to repair a dismal separation between the...

It's that time again. The first major 2-year-old sale, the March OBS sale, is in the books and the buyers, sellers and bloodstock agents have had their chance to evaluate this year's freshman sires. So who do they like? We asked the experts listed below to give us their pick for leading freshman sire and an under-the-radar stallion they expect will have a big 2024. Liz Crow: "I really liked the Improbables (WinStar) at the OBS March breeze show. It's very sad that he passed away. I thought he had,...

The year 2024 could be a defining season for Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa stallion Violence. Not only must he continue to make his mark as a sire with a limited book of 125 mares, but the son of Medaglia d'Oro will now take the first steps towards becoming a sire of sires. He got off to a fast start doing just that last year as his young son Volatile made headlines with his first crop of yearlings. From just a $17,500 initial stud fee, the Grade I-winning Three Chimneys...

Today we'll consider some of the sires standing between $10,001 and $19,999. For a long time, I called this the Lookin At Lucky zone. But don't worry, we won't be deploring his neglect yet again: he's staying in Chile, where they evidently appreciate him rather more. Plenty of horses in this bracket have recently relinquished their brief window of commercial opportunity, and are now hanging around to discover whether they might join the very small group whose first runners generate a fresh vogue. Even with the newcomers out of the...