Tag: Stellar Tap

Plainsman captured the Razorback Handicap by a neck in his last outing: the Grade 3 Razorback Handicap. He's the 5/2 second favorite in the Grade 3 Oaklawn Handicap, the final race in this week's Cross Country Pick 5. (Image: Coady Photography)

Oaklawn Provides Strong Stakes Bookends for Cross Country Pick 5

A deeply talented Grade 1 for fillies and mares and a contentious Grade 3 for older males bookend this week’s New York Racing Association Cross Country Pick 5 wager. The all-stakes Cross Country Pick 5 features races from Oaklawn Park – the site of the aforementioned Grade 1 Apple Blossom […]

Jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. guides Rattle N Roll to a 4 1/2-length victory in Saturday's Grade 1 Breeders' Futurity. (Image: Coady Photography)

Rattle N Roll Shakes Up Derby Prospect List With Breeders’ Futurity Win

Rattle N Roll entered the Kentucky Derby prospect picture, Saturday, doing so with a 4 ¼-length victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity on a busy opening weekend at Keeneland. Not only does this put Rattle N Roll into next month’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, courtesy of the Breeders’ Futurity’s “Win […]

A beaming Steve Asmussen escorts Stellar Tap and Ricardo Santana Jr. to the Saratoga winner's circle after the juvenile made the conditioner the winningest trainer in North American history. Stellar Tap is the 3/1 morning-line favorite to win the Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs. (Image: Chelsea Durand/Coglianese Photos)

The 2022 Kentucky Derby Trail Begins Here, With the Iroquois Stakes

The Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes open the gate for the 2022 Kentucky Derby trail. But perhaps winning the first points race on the Derby trail is a poisoned chalice. Win the 1 1/16-mile Iroquois, named after the first American horse to win the Epsom Derby – along with the Native […]

Trainer Steve Asmussen (center) celebrates with his family and connections of Stellar Tap, who gave the trainer his record 9,446th victory Saturday at Saratoga. (Image: Chelsea Durand/NYRA Photo)

Steve Asmussen Gallops Past North America’s Training Record

Steve Asmussen used Saturday’s Whitney Day at Saratoga as his record-breaking canvas, becoming North America’s winningest Thoroughbred trainer by claiming his 9,446th career race. That leapfrogged the 14-year-old mark of 9,445 set by the late Dale Baird. Stellar Tap did the honors for the Hall of Fame trainer. Owned by […]