Horse Racing

Santa Barbara won the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks in come-from-behind fashion Saturday. The Irish filly may be back for November's Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar. (Image: Elsa Lorieul/Coglianese Photos)

Irish Invaders Santa Barbara, Bolshoi Ballet Plan Breeders’ Cup Return

Bolshoi Ballet and Santa Barbara came across the Atlantic from their Irish home, arrived at Belmont Park, won their respective Turf Triple Series races, and returned to Ireland on Sunday. But expect to see the Irish colt and filly back in November for the Breeders’ Cup. “That’s the plan for […]

Chad Brown can afford to smile, after the 42-year-old trainer won his sixth consecutive Belmont Park Spring/Summer Meet training title. (Image: NYRA/Coglianese Photo)

Brown Sees Green Again, Wins Sixth Straight Belmont Park Training Title

Belmont Park continues to be Chad Brown’s world and the rest of the New York horse racing community is merely living in it. Brown clinched the Belmont Park Spring/Summer Meet training title for the sixth consecutive year, racking up 32 victories over the 48-day meet that ended Sunday. Jose Ortiz […]

Galileo was the European Champion 3-Year-Old of 2001. As a stallion, he won 12 British-Irish sire titles in 13 years. (Image: Coolmore)

Incomparable Champion Sire Galileo Euthanized At 23 After Foot Injury

Galileo, the most successful European sire in racing history, was euthanized early Saturday morning after suffering a chronic, debilitating injury to his left fore foot. The son of Sadler’s Wells was 23. Coolmore Farm, Galileo’s owners, announced the death after Galileo’s injury failed to respond to treatment. “It is a […]

Irish colt Bolshoi Ballet came across the Atlantic and grabbed favorite status in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby Invitational. The colt won two of his last three starts, including this score at the Ballysax Stakes. (Image: INPHO/Peter Mooney)

The Belmont Derby Gives You International Flavor, Domestic Depth

The Grade 1 Belmont Derby Invitational offers up a Kentucky Derby alum, along with a former Bob Baffert colt who may be the turf star of his generation. It also gives you one of Europe’s top turf terrors, straight from the barn of that continent’s top trainer – Aidan O’Brien. […]

Jesus' Team won December's Claiming Crown Jewel Stakes for his only stakes victory. The one-time claimer returns to the track as a millionaire for Sunday's City of Dania Stakes at Gulfstream Park. (Image: Lauren King/Coglianese Photos)

One-Time Claimer Jesus’ Team Returns to Action as Millionaire

Jesus’ Team, the plucky, one-time $35,000 claimer-turned-millionaire, returns Sunday, headlining the field for the City of Dania Stakes at Gulfstream Park. That one-mile test is for 3-year-olds and up. And should Jesus’ Team pass that test to the satisfaction of trainer Jose D’Angelo, next on his agenda is the Grade […]

Bonny South prancings took her around the Midwest and Eastern tracks, including this Keeneland victory in April. She runs at her eighth track Saturday in the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap. (Image: Anne M. Eberhardt)

Well-Traveled Bonny South Heads East for Delaware Handicap

If Thoroughbreds had passports that required stamps at every distinct race track, Bonny South’s would already need extra pages. Well-traveled? Bonny South checks that box. Meanwhile, she’ll check off another track Saturday when she comes into Delaware Park as the 3/2 morning-line favorite in the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap. The […]

Del Mar changed its traditional $2 Pick 6 to a 20-cent jackpot-style it calls the "Rainbow Pick Six." The new wager is an effort to create seven-figure pools for mandatory payout days. (Image: Del Mar Thoroughbred Club)

Del Mar Adds Rainbow Jackpot Pick 6 to Upcoming Wagering Menu

Joining the trend set by other tracks around the country, Del Mar announced it will add a 20-cent Rainbow 6 jackpot bet to its arsenal of wagers for its upcoming summer meet. The seaside track north of San Diego replaced its regular $2 Pick 6 with the 20-cent jackpot version, […]

Dayoutattheoffice won the 2020 Frizette Stakes during Belmont Park's Fall Meet. The Grade 1 Frizette is one of 20 graded stakes on Belmont Park's 2021 Fall Meet schedule. (Image: Coglianese Photos)

Four Grade 1s, 20 Graded Stakes Headline Belmont Park’s Fall Meet Slate

Bettors will have a veritable smorgasbord of options to choose from when Belmont Park’s Fall Meet takes to the track in September. In a schedule released by the New York Racing Association on Tuesday, organizers are featuring four, Grade 1 races and five Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” Challenge […]

Oaklawn Park's 2021-22 stakes schedule consists of a record 36 stakes. Included is a revamping of its Kentucky Derby trail stops. (Image: Coady Photography)

Oaklawn Park Boosts Arkansas Derby Purse, Remakes Derby Prep Trail

Oaklawn Park just shifted the landscape for the 2022 Kentucky Derby trail, boosting the purse for the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby to $1.25 million and moving the race up a week, to April 2, 2022. That moves the Arkansas Derby from its traditional spot as the last major Derby prep […]

Mr. Wireless broke his maiden with this March victory at Oaklawn Park. He is expected to provide competition to favorite Fulsome in Wednesday's Grade 3 Indiana Derby. (Image: Coady Photography)

Fulsome, Mr. Wireless Pick Up Favorite Lines for Indiana Derby

There will be no Fulsome-O Besos rematch at Wednesday’s Indiana Derby. So playing the part of Fulsome’s erstwhile rival in the Grade 3 event is one Mr. Wireless. Your 4/5 morning-line favorite, Fulsome, heads the seven-horse field in what is Indiana’s richest horse race. The $300,000 Indiana Derby at Indiana […]

The pinnacle to date of Simply Ravishing's career came when she and Luis Saez captured the Grade 1 Alcibiades Stakes at Churchill Downs last October. The 3-year-old filly came out of a three-month retirement after not going into-foal. (Image: Coady Photography)

Simply Ravishing Back in Training After Failed Breeding Attempt

Standout filly Simply Ravishing returned to training late last month, ending her quick retirement after she failed to get into foal to Into Mischief this spring. Trainer Kenny McPeek announced via Twitter that the Grade 1-winning filly will return to racing in the Aug. 4 Statue of Liberty Division at […]

Standout sprinter Yaupon won Sunday's Lite the Fuse Stakes at Pimlico. He was one of two favorites finding the winner's circle in Pimlico's Rainbow 6 mandatory payout day. (Image: Maryland Jockey Club)

Mandatory Rainbow 6 Payout Creates $5.1 Million Avalanche at Pimlico

Bettors piled more than $5.1 million into Pimlico Race Course’s 20-cent Rainbow 6 on Sunday, seeking a piece of the record jackpot carryover on the Maryland track’s mandatory payout day. There were no unique tickets holding all six winners. That meant those holding the most winners walked away with $31,028.08 […]

Gamine, seen here winning April's Las Flores Stakes by five lengths, goes for her third 2021 win and eighth overall in Los Alamitos' Great Lady M Stakes. (Image: Ernie Belmonte)

Gamine Gets Rare Company for Los Alamitos’ Great Lady M Stakes

Amazingly enough, standout filly Gamine didn’t scare away the majority of her competitors for today’s Grade 2 Great Lady M Stakes on Los Alamitos’ Thoroughbred Racing Festival’s closing day. There are seven would-be rivals awaiting the 4-year-old Champion Filly Sprinter in the gate for the marquee event on Los Alamitos’ […]

Defunded owns only this maiden special weight win in five starts. But the gelding is the 3/5 favorite to win Sunday's Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby. (Image: Ernie Belmonte)

As Usual, Los Alamitos Derby Discussion Begins With Baffert

Someone in this small, but scrappy, Los Alamitos Derby field is going to earn what has heretofore been a difficult achievement for them: a stakes victory.  And as usual in this race, Bob Baffert has the upper hand. Baffert sends out both 3/5 favorite Defunded and 5/2 second-favorite Classier into […]

Firenze Fire opened his 6-year-old campaign winning the Grade 3 Runhappy at Belmont Park. He goes for his third consecutive Belmont Park stakes victory and third win of 2021 in Sunday's Grade 2 John A. Nerud Stakes. (Image: Susie Raisher)

Firenze Fire Ready to Sizzle Again in Belmont Park’s Nerud Stakes

Good timing in one way or another plays an integral part in any horse race, but the good timing blessing Firenze Fire in his last race came from an outside source. Mother Nature. The favorite for Sunday’s Grade 2 John A. Nerud Stakes at Belmont Park, Firenze Fire won the […]

Undefeated Happy Saver nipped Mystic Guide (left) by less than a length to win last fall's Jockey Club Gold Cup. The two renew their rivalry in Saturday's Grade 2 Suburban Stakes at Belmont Park. (Image: Janet Garaguso/NYRA)

In-Form Stars Mystic Guide, Happy Saver Driving This Suburban Stakes

Mystic Guide comes into Saturday’s Grade 2 Suburban Stakes at Belmont Park riding a wave that crested during March’s $12 million Dubai World Cup. He’s fresh, rested, at the top of his game, and the No. 1-ranked Thoroughbred in the country, courtesy of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association poll. And […]

Ete Indien's last workout came here, in June 2020. The one-time Kentucky Derby prospect returns to action Sunday at Gulfstream Park after nearly 13 months off (Image: Dana Wimpfheimer)

One-Time Derby Prospect Ete Indien Returns After a Year On the Bench

For Ete Indien, it’s a trip back to his turf roots that brings the one-time Kentucky Derby prospect back after a year on the sidelines. Ete Indien’s first start in nearly 13 months comes in Sunday’s Bob Umphrey Turf Sprint at Gulfstream Park. The Black-Type Umphrey sends its runners on […]

Pimlico Race Course built up a record $1.351 million Rainbow 6 jackpot that must be paid out by Sunday. (Image: Maryland Jockey Club)

Maryland Record $1.35 Million Rainbow 6 Pot of Gold Up for Grabs

Horseplayers around the country are digging into Pimlico Race Course’s Sunday Independence Day card, hoping for financial fireworks firing from a record mandatory Rainbow 6 payout. Coming into Friday’s eight-race card, Pimlico’s Rainbow 6 sits at a Maryland-record $1,351,928.63. That left vapor trails over the previous record of $399,545.94, captured […]

After consecutive fourth-place finishes, Knicks Go seeks a return to his dominant form in the Grade 3 Cornhusker Handicap at Prairie Meadows. (Image: Derbe Glass Photo)

Knicks Go Looks for His Lost Form in Iowa’s Cornhusker Handicap

Brad Cox’s reasoning for taking Knicks Go from the bright lights of New York to the cornfields of Iowa is simple, even if the idea of running a multiple-Grade 1-winning, Eclipse Award candidate in the Grade 3 Cornhusker Handicap stopped most racing fans in their tracks. “I’m hopeful he’ll get […]