News

  • 'Road to Kentucky Derby' Championship Series Continues With Saturday's Gotham

    Overanalyze, who nosed out Normandy Invasion to win the Remsen (Grade II), will make his 3-year-old debut and break outside 11 other sophomores in Saturday’s $400,000 Gotham (GIII), which continues the “Road to the Kentucky Derby” Championship Series.

    The Top 4 finishers in the Gotham, which is scheduled as Race 10 on the 11-race Aqueduct program at 5:02 p.m. (all times Eastern), will be awarded points on a 50-20-10-5 scale as part of the First Leg of the Championship Series.

  • Shuruq turns tables, tops Godolphin trifecta in U.A.E. Oaks

    Beaten narrowly by fellow Godolphin runners Music Chart and Lovely Pass, respectively, in her first two Carnival appearances, Shuruq exacted revenge in emphatic terms in Thursday's Group 3, $250,000 U.A.E. Oaks at Meydan. The Saeed bin Suroor filly relished the step up in trip to about 1 3/16 miles, and the addition of cheekpieces, to surge well clear of the Mahmood al Zarooni duo of Lovely Pass and Music Chart.

  • Las Virgenes features top West Coast fillies

    The top three from the January 26 Grade 3 Santa Ysabel and the top two from the January 21 Grade 2 Santa Ynez will join three others in the Santa Anita starting gate Saturday for the Grade 1, $250,000 Las Virgenes. The one-mile contest has drawn some of the top sophomore fillies on the West Coast and will be a chance at redemption for some and vindication for others.

  • Kentucky Derby Report -- Feb. 28

    Saturday's Fountain of Youth turned out to be a thriller, with a pair of talented three-year-olds, Orb and Violence, battling to the wire at Gulfstream Park, but any post-race excitement proved short-lived after it was announced that Violence had sustained a career-ending injury. He will be okay, with a future at stud, but it served as another brutal example of the highs and lows in horse racing.

  • Overanalyze drawn wide in Gotham

    Overanalyze, another in trainer Todd Pletcher's seemingly endless arsenal of classic prospects, will have is sophomore unveiling in Saturday's Grade 3, $400,000 Gotham at Aqueduct. The 1 1/16-mile inner dirt test attracted a dozen entries, and if all start Overanalyze will have to overcome the widest post as champion Hansen did in winning the 2012 Gotham.

  • Champion Beholder, Array of Rising Stars Head 2013 Kentucky Oaks Future Wager

    Churchill Downs Racetrack’s only Kentucky Oaks Future Wager (“KOFW”) betting pool for 2013 features reigning 2-year-old filly champion Beholder; major stakes winners Dreaming of Julia, Executiveprivilege and Live Lively and an array of rising 3-year-old filly stars, but fans are expected to settle on the Mutuel Field (#24), also known as “All Others”, as the favorite in this week’s three-day betting pool.

  • Six Pletcher Stars, Five Baffert Hopes Top Pool 2 of Kentucky Derby Future Wager

    Five-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher lost a major contender for the 2013 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (Grade I) when the impressive Violence suffered a career-ending injury last weekend, but Pletcher’s barn remains so well-stocked with Derby candidates that six of his horses are listed among the 24 betting interests for the second pool  of Churchill Downs’ 2013 Kentucky Derby Future Wager (“KDFW”).

  • McGaughey delighted by Orb's progress

    Trainer Shug McGaughey reported Sunday that Orb exited his stretch-running victory in Saturday's Grade 2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park in good order.

    "He came back fine. He's at Payson Park -- that's where he lives," McGaughey said. "I was with him when he got on the van (Saturday) night, and he was fine. And they tell me he's fine today."

  • Beholder, Fiftyshadesofhay work for Las Virgenes

    Eclipse Award winner Beholder worked five furlongs on Santa Anita's fast main track Sunday in :59 3/5 under regular rider Garrett Gomez.

    "Beautiful," Richard Mandella said of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner's work in preparation for Saturday's Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes at one mile.

    Beholder was upset by 20-1 shot Renee's Titan in the Grade 2, 6 1/2-furlong Santa Ynez Stakes on January 21, losing by three-quarters of a length in her three-year-old debut, and the Henny Hughes filly will get a rematch on Saturday.

  • Desormeaux 'having fun' with Ive Struck a Nerve

    One day after Big Chief Racing's Ive Struck a Nerve rewarded a few of racing's eternally-grinning optimists with a $272.40 return on a $2 win wager in the Grade 2 Risen Star at Fair Grounds, the Yankee Gentleman colt's trainer, Keith Desormeaux, was already having Kentucky Derby dreams, but with an important intermediate dream.

    "We'd be crazy not to run in the (Grade 2, $1 million) Louisiana Derby," said Desormeaux, still in the afterglow of the biggest stakes score of his career. "Plus, we have to represent the home team."

  • Overanalyze heads Gotham probables

    A trio of graded stakes winners are expected to head a deep field of Kentucky Derby hopefuls in Saturday's 60th running of the Grade 3 Gotham, a 1 1/16-mile race that serves as Aqueduct's primary prep for the Grade 1 Wood Memorial on April 6.

  • Violence sidelined with fracture, off Derby trail

    Grade 1 winner Violence has been sidelined after sustaining a fracture to his right front medial sesamoid.

    The fracture was detected after the Medaglia d'Oro colt suffered his first career loss when second in Saturday's Grade 2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park.

    Resting comfortably at Gulfstream Park, the dark bay colt will ship to owner Steven Marshall's Black Rock Stable's Farm near Versailles, Kentucky, this week for further evaluation and recuperation.

  • Orb rallies past Violence in Fountain of Youth

    Stuart S. Janney III & Phipps Stable's homebred Orb took advantage of a blistering pace in Saturday's Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth, rallying to edge Violence by a half-length in the 1 1/16-mile test at Gulfstream Park. The Shug McGaughey trainee likely secured a spot in the Kentucky Derby starting gate while making his stakes debut, earning 50 points in the new "Road to the Kentucky Derby" scoring system, and John Velazquez was up on the well-bred son of Malibu Moon.

  • Unlimited Budget remains perfect in Rachel Alexandra

    Repole Stable's Unlimited Budget moved her record to an unbeaten three-for-three on Saturday when capturing the Grade 3, $200,000 Rachel Alexandra at Fair Grounds by 3 3/4 lengths. Jockey Rosie Napravnik guided the Todd Pletcher trainee through the 1 1/16-mile contest in 1:45 1/5 on the fast main track, and Unlimited Budget paid $5, $3.60 and $3 as the 3-2 favorite in the 10-strong field.

  • Live Lively holds Dreaming of Julia to take Davona Dale

    Lee Lewis' Live Lively was making her stakes debut in Saturday's Grade 2, $245,000 Davona Dale at Gulfstream Park and proceeded to lead all the way home as the 2-1 second choice under jockey Joel Rosario. Trained by Mark Hennig, the Medaglia d'Oro filly set splits of :23 2/5, :46 3/5, 1:10 1/5 and 1:35 1/5 before finishing 1 1/16 miles on the fast main track in 1:42 1/5.

  • Ive Struck a Nerve shocks Risen Star

    The 135-1 longshot Ive Struck a Nerve lived up to his name in Saturday's Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star at Fair Grounds. Trained by Keith Desormeaux and ridden by James Graham, the locally-based colt came from the clouds to down his better-fancied rivals from high-profile barns, and earned 50 points toward the Kentucky Derby.

  • Itsmyluckyday breezes at Calder

    Itsmyluckyday worked a half-mile in :48 4/5 Saturday morning at Calder for trainer Eddie Plesa Jr., his first workout since his stunning two-length victory over previously undefeated juvenile champion Shanghai Bobby in the Grade 3 Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park.

    "It was exactly what I was looking for," Plesa said later in the morning.

    "I got him galloping out (five furlongs) in 1:01. He's right on schedule. He'll probably work about every seven days, although I might change it up on him one of those times with an easy mile work. I haven't decided."

  • TwinSpires.com Offers $1-Million Top Prize in Road to the Derby Contest - Starts Saturday, Feb. 23

    TwinSpires.com, the official advance-deposit wagering service for Churchill Downs Incorporated (NASDAQ: CHDN), is offering its players an opportunity to turn $20 into a $1-million prize by betting the Kentucky Derby preps and the Triple Crown with TwinSpires.com. 

  • 'Road to Kentucky Derby' Championship Series Begins with Fountain of Youth, Risen Star

    Over the next 10 weeks, compelling drama will be plentiful as the new “Kentucky Derby Championship Series” begins in earnest and horses attempt to earn their way into the May 4 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands beginning with Saturday’s Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park and the Risen Star at Fair Grounds

    To have a horse draped in the garland of roses while raising the solid gold trophy high atop the Kentucky Derby winner’s stand is the Holy Grail for horsemen around the world.

  • Kentucky Derby Report -- Feb. 21

    The final weekend of the "Prep Season" in the new Kentucky Derby scoring system featured a pair of stakes, Saturday's El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate and Monday's Southwest at Oaklawn Park, and the latter played like a movie we've seen before, with Bob Baffert sending out the winning Super Ninety Nine.