War Like Goddess

With Breeders' Cup weekend at Keeneland right around the corner, 15 graded stakes--including seven 'Win and You're In' events--will take place throughout North America on an absolutely loaded day of racing Saturday. Five of those graded races will go down in Lexington, including a stacked renewal of the 'Win and You're In' GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity. The overflow field of 14 (plus two AE's)'s lone graded winner, GI Hopeful S. hero and 'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence), bypassed last weekend's GI Champagne S. in favor of this first attempt around...

There is no such thing as a sure thing in horse racing, but 'TDN Rising Star' Flightline (Tapit) will be bet as if Saturday's GI TVG Pacific Classic--a 'Win and You're In' qualifier for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland Nov. 5--is already the proverbial fait accompli. And why not, really? His four towering victories in as many trips to the races have come by an average winning margin of better than 13 lengths. His lowest Beyer Speed Figure is a downright pedestrian 105 earned for his debut just...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY--With a sterling race record that befits her very distinctive name all wrapped in an engaging story, War Like Goddess (English Channel) is an impossible-to-ignore race mare bidding for a championship. Though her late sire was a champion on the track and a top turf stallion for many years, the first foal out of Misty North (North Light {Ire}) brought a mere $1,200 at auction as a weanling and did not draw a single bid at the 2018 Keeneland September yearling sale. At the June 2019 OBS sale,...

In this instance, you really can't say that the grass is any greener on the other side of the fence. Take your dystopian pick: the floods of Kentucky, or the desiccation of Europe, where I've just returned from a vacation that seamlessly united the city parks of England and Italy in the same wasteland, with just a few bleached spikes still protruding from the baked, ashen earth. However illusory, then, it's a relief to find enough recognizable vegetation salvaged Stateside at least to host all three of Saturday's Grade I...

War Like Goddess, the $30,000 OBS June buy turned star turf marathoner, defended her title in Saratoga's GII Glens Falls S. with characteristic ease Saturday at the Spa, requiring little urging from Joel Rosario to pick up her eighth victory in 10 starts and sixth graded score in her last seven outings. Opening her career with a pair of triumphs going long on the Churchill turf in the fall of 2020, the Bill Mott trainee ran fifth making her stakes bow in the GIII The Very One S. last February...

Hall of Famer Todd A. Pletcher, currently sitting in second place in the Saratoga trainer standings, will be locked and loaded in a pair of Grade I events at the Spa Saturday, led by the 'Win and You're In' GI Whitney S. With the unbeaten sensation and 'TDN Rising Star' Flightline (Tapit) awaiting the GI TVG Pacific Classic at Del Mar Sept. 3, a pair of New York-based heavyweights in the handicap division will throw down in the 12-race card's feature. The uber-talented 'TDN Rising Star' Life Is Good (Into...

Those who swallowed the 1-5 on the comebacking War Like Goddess (English Channel) in Friday's closing-day GIII Bewtich S. at Keeneland were made to sweat it out, but the gaps finally came with time ticking away and the George Krikorian colorbearer proved best following a trip that can best be described as adventurous. With Joel Rosario somewhat controversially taking over at the controls from Julien Leparoux aboard the 2021 Eclipse Award finalist, War Like Goddess settled in third position in a scratched-down field of just five turf marathoners, but the...

Calumet Farm's perennial leading turf sire English Channel (Smart Strike--Belva, by Theatrical {Ire})'s health rapidly declined in the past 24 hours under the care of top equine specialists at Rood and Riddle and he passed away Thursday morning. "English Channel certainly went out on top," a release from Calumet Farm read. "He was the number one turf sire for the past two years and you could consistently find his progeny on the board in the top turf races across the country. English Channel has meant so much to Calumet throughout...

Once again, the Breeders' Cup reminds us how our whole business hinges on a delicate equilibrium. On the one hand, we need the kind of big plays made on barnmates Gamine (Into Mischief) and Corniche (Quality Road), who changed hands for $1.8 million and $1.5 million respectively, to come off sufficiently to keep the big spenders in the game. But we also need those Goliaths to be humbled, from time to time, by a little guy with a sling. If the Derby were won by a sale-topper every year, the...

The meteoric ascent of George Krikorian's War Like Goddess (English Channel) continued in Saturday's GI Flower Bowl S., contested at Saratoga for the first time and lengthened to 11 furlongs. Coincidentally, the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf will be contested over that exact trip the first weekend of November and with the victory, the 4-year-old has earned an all-expenses-paid trip to Del Mar, where she figures to take plenty of beating. Four of the bay filly's prior starts had come at a mile and three furlongs and farther,...

She keeps getting better, and Saturday, George Krikorian's War Like Goddess (English Channel) will get her first chance at a Grade I victory as a likely overwhelming favorite in the 1 3/8-mile GI Flower Bowl S., which will be run at Saratoga for the first time after a 43-year run at Belmont. Bought for just $30,000 at OBS June in 2019, the bay debuted going nine furlongs on the Churchill turf last September at Churchill and rallied from second-last to take over late, and she validated that explosive late rally...