Tag: Swiss Skydiver

Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas (right on his exercise pony) takes aim at his record-tying seventh Preakness Stakes title with filly Secret Oath. The Kentucky Oaks winner would be the seventh filly to win the second jewel of the Triple Crown. (Image: Maryland Jockey Club)

Breaking Down the 2022 Preakness Stakes: More Filly Follies?

The 2022 Preakness Stakes comes to you with a paradox, a wagering quandary that pits one 21st century trend against one 2020s trend. The trend this century is the friend to chalk. Since 2000, 10 favorites found the Pimlico Race Course winner’s circle. Oxbow at 15.40/1 in 2013 is the […]

Envoutante captured her last race, the Grade 2 Falls City, by a geared-down six lengths. She makes her fifth attempt at an elusive Grade 1 win in the Beholder Mile at Santa Anita March 5. (Image: Coady Photography)

Envoutante Seeks Elusive Grade 1 Breakthrough in Beholder Mile

Envoutante has always been a filly who was good, but often not quite good enough to break through at the highest levels. Trainer Kenny McPeek attempts to change that by sending the now 5-year-old mare to Santa Anita Park’s Grade 1 Beholder Mile. “Envoutante is going to work next Friday […]

Swiss Skydiver won the Grade 1 Beholder Mile by nearly three lengths in March for her own 2021 victory in four races. She will go up for sale at the prestigious Fasig-Tipton November Sale Night of Stars. (Image: Ernie Belmonte)

Hard-Running Swiss Skydiver Goes on Shelf Before Going Up for Sale

The likely end of Swiss Skydiver’s stellar career is in sight, with the announcement that the 2020 Champion 3-Year-Old Filly will get time off before being sold this November. Swiss Skydiver will likely run in the Nov. 6 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar, then head almost immediately to the […]

Letruska has been the most impressive older female horse in 2021, as her last-out victory here in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis illustrates. She is the 6/5 favorite to win her fourth consecutive graded-stakes race in Saturday's Grade 1 Personal Ensign at Saratoga. (Image: Coady Photography)

Letruska Brings Formidable Form Into a Deep Personal Ensign Field

Say this for the 2021 Personal Ensign; Letruska may be the clubhouse leader as Champion Older Filly of the Year, but her rivals for that title don’t scare easily. That explains why the Grade 1 Personal Ensign – one of Saratoga’s six Grade 1s on Saturday — features a deep, […]

Essential Quality nipped Keepmeinmind to win last month's Grade 2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga. The two tangle again in Saturday's Travers Stakes, one of six Grade 1s on Saratoga's Saturday card. (Image: Susie Raisher/NYRA Photo)

Saturday at Saratoga: One of Racing’s Biggest Days of 2021

The names of those racing on Saturday’s Travers Day at Saratoga sound like a Thoroughbred all-star team: Essential Quality, Gamine, Letruska, Tribhuvan, Jackie’s Warrior, Life Is Good, Whitmore, Swiss Skydiver. All of them – and others you may have heard of – are set to run in one of Saratoga’s […]

Leave Knicks Go and Joel Rosario along and they wire the field, as they did in last year's Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile. The 5-year-old is the 6/5 favorite to beat a small but deep field in Saturday's Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga. (Image: Coady Photography)

The Whitney: Quality Over Quantity Makes This the Year’s Best Race

The cliché “quality over quantity” washes over this year’s Grade 1 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga like the wake from Knicks Go’s last race. It floods the zone like Maxfield’s last two outings and Silver State’s last trip around Belmont Park. If you’re going to send only five horses around Saratoga’s […]

Trainer Kenny McPeek is not smiling after seven of his horses were denied entry into various Saratoga races this week. His stable emerged from a 21-day quarantine Monday. (Image: Sarah Andrew)

McPeek Files Request for Hearing After Several Entries Denied

Even with the quarantine for Equine Herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) lifted on Monday, trainer Kenny McPeek filed a hearing request with the New York State Gaming Commission after several of his horses were denied entry into early-week races at Saratoga. BloodHorse reported that attorney Andrew Mollica filed the request on McPeek’s behalf […]

One of the most forthright trainers in the game, Kenny McPeek never blinks from a challenge. This is one reason why he's sending start filly Swiss Skydiver into the Grade 1 Whitney Aug. 7 at Saratoga. (Image: Kenny McPeek)

McPeek Sending Swiss Skydiver Against Colts Again in the Whitney

One of the ways Kenny McPeek made his bones as a trainer was to never doubt himself or his charges. This explains one reason why he plans on running star filly Swiss Skydiver in the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga. “Someone brought up the word ‘can’t’ to me the […]

Swiss Skydiver owns stakes victories at five tracks, including two here at Santa Anita Park. She attempts to add Belmont Park to her stakes resume in Saturday's Grade 1 Ogden Phipps. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Swiss Skydiver Finally Lands at Belmont Park for Deep Ogden Phipps

Somehow, the Swiss Skydiver Stakes Tour bypassed Belmont Park. Somehow, the Champion 3-Year-Old Filly missed the biggest racing sandbox of them all – Big Sandy. How did a filly who won six graded stakes races over five racetracks miss America’s largest racetrack, Belmont Park? An oversight? Well, it’s an oversight […]

The nose -- in this case, Letruska's -- knows victory. The mare held off champion Monomoy Girl by a nose to win the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap. It marked Letruska's first Grade 1 win in the US. (Image: Coady Photography)

New Distaff Star Letruska Basks in the Shine of Her Apple Blossom Upset

Plans for horse racing’s newest female star – you know her as Letruska – remain fluid entering the week, less than 48 hours after the 5-year-old mare’s stirring Apple Blossom Handicap victory. ‘I think we’re going to take a little bit more time with her,” trainer Fausto Gutierrez told Oaklawn […]

Swiss Skydiver is the 2/1 second favorite in Saturday's Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park. (Image: Coady Photography)

Monomoy Girl vs. Swiss Skydiver Brings Fans a Tasty Apple Blossom

You could make a credible case the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park is the clubhouse leader for the best race of 2021. The reason you can make that case leads you to make cases for the two principals in Saturday’s Oaklawn headliner. Even-money favorite Monomoy Girl vs. […]

Swiss Skydiver had no company in deep stretch, winning Saturday's Grade 1 Beholder Mile by four lengths. (Image: Benoit Photo)

A Beautiful Finish Was in Swiss Skydiver’s Eye in the Beholder

Bring the jury in on Swiss Skydiver. Throw out whatever doubts you may have held on the Champion 3-Year-Old Filly impressing as a 4-year-old. Swiss Skydiver didn’t exactly pick up in 2021 where she left off in 2020 after stumbling out of the gate at the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Her […]

Authentic carried jockey John Velazquez to a Kentucky Derby title in September and his connections to an Eclipse Award as 2020 Horse of the Year. (Image: Gregory Shamus/Getty)

Authentic Runs Away With 2020 Horse of the Year Eclipse Award

Authentic rarely won his big races by big margins. But, he won his final “race” – the Eclipse Award for 2020 Horse of the Year – by a Secretariat at the Belmont-esque 31 lengths on the track. The Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic champion garnered 224 out of a […]

Winning the Breeders' Cup Classic two months after capturing the Kentucky Derby likely made Authentic the Horse of the Year. The 50th Eclipse Awards will be announced Jan. 28. (Image: Horsephotos.com)

Authentic, Improbable, Monomoy Girl Head Eclipse Awards Finalists

Horse of the Year candidates Authentic, Improbable, and Monomoy Girl headline the finalists for the 2020 Eclipse Awards, announced Saturday by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters (NTWAB), and the Daily Racing Form. The Eclipse Awards get their name from the iconic 18th-century racehorse and […]

Maximum Security emerged victorious from this stretch drive in the 2020 Saudi Cup. More than 100 horses from nine countries were nominated to the second edition of the $20 million race. (Image: Reuters)

Charlatan, Knicks Go, and Swiss Skydiver Headline Saudi Cup Nominees

Swiss Skydiver, Charlatan and Knicks Go are three names you’d expect to find in the world’s richest race – the $20 million Saudi Cup. And those three American stars headline a lengthy nominee list for the Feb. 20 Saudi Cup. The 1 1/8-mile Saudi Cup drew 109 nominees from nine […]

In a year of amazing moments, Swiss Skydiver's Preakness victory was near the top of the list. The standout 4-year-old returned to the track after a two-month break. (Image: AP Photo)

Swiss Skydiver Returns to Track, Virus Knocks Maxfield Out of Pegasus

As one 2020 standout returned to training, another one returned to the shelf – albeit temporarily. Swiss Skydiver hit the track, running for the first time since November’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff, while a report said Maxfield suffered a virus that will keep him out of the Pegasus World Cup Invitational. […]

John Velazquez and Authentic sat atop the Thoroughbred world in 2020. The pair won the Breeders' Cup Classic, Kentucky Derby and three other races this year. (Image: Michael Conroy/Associated Press)

OG’s Eclipse Award Candidates Cover Some of 2020’s Greatest Races

Yes, it’s time for the Eclipse Awards, which in 2020, were brought to you by a scrambled Triple Crown schedule, along with tracks closing, reopening – and closing. Also featured were few – if any – fans in the stands and a rash of retirements. But the horses running in […]

Monomoy Girl and Florent Geroux stood tall in the 2020 Breeders' Cup Distaff. just as they did in this 2018 Distaff victory. Even after selling for $9.5 million, the standout mare returns to the track in 2021. (Image: Darron Cummings/AP Photo)

Not Every Horse Retired in 2020: Here are the Stars to See in 2021

Now that we’ve bid farewell to the Thoroughbred standouts who retired in 2020, which horses will we greet as the returning equine stars worthy of attention in 2021? We bid farewell to Authentic, Improbable, Maximum Security, Vekoma, Tom’s d’Etat, War of Will, McKinzie, Serengeti Empress, Enable, and Ghaiyyath in recent […]

Breeders' Cup Distaff favorite Monomoy Girl knows Keeneland from her Ashland Stakes victory in 2018. She owns the most consistent speed figures in the Distaff field. (Image: Keeneland)

Breeders’ Cup Speed Figures: Everyone Chases These Two in Distaff

Preakness Stakes champion Swiss Skydiver will bypass the Breeders’ Cup Classic and run with her gender in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. And with that, she and 2018 Distaff champion Monomoy Girl will separate themselves from the rest of the field, according to their speed figures. The $2 million Breeders’ Cup […]