The Derby Dispatch: Road to Kentucky Derby Championship Season Begins With Grade II, $400,000 Risen Star Feb 11, 2021 Kevin Kerstein
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The Road to the Kentucky Derby Championship
Series is set to kickoff Saturday in New Orleans with
a field of 13 horses that were entered in the $400,000 Risen Star presented by Lamarque Ford (Grade II) at Fair Grounds.
Over the next nine weekends,
3-year-old Thoroughbreds will continue their quest for points in select races
to secure a berth in the starting gate for the 147
Sponsored by:
Travel Column (Frosted) wins the Golden Rod at Churchill Downs on 11.28.2020. Florent Geroux up, Brad Cox trainer, Oxo Equine owner.
In horse racing, it s never too early to look ahead. Trainer Brad Cox started doing just that shortly after Travel Column s eye-catching Nov. 28 win in the Golden Road (G2) at Churchill Downs.
The path to the April 30 Kentucky Oaks begins in earnest Saturday at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, when Travel Column starts as what figures to be a strong favorite in the $300,000 Rachel Alexandra (G2) presented by Fasig-Tipton. Run at 1 1/16 miles, the Rachel Alexandra offers 85 qualifying points for the Oaks, with the winner getting 50 on a 50-20-10-5 scale.
Sponsored by:
City of Light
City of Light got off on the right foot commercially with a strong performance from his first weanlings during last year s November mixed sales in Kentucky. Now that we re on the other side of the flipped calendar, the Lane s End resident has continued to show up at the top of the lists with his debut yearlings at the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale, completed earlier this week.
The 7-year-old son of Quality Road was the leading first-crop yearling sire of the Keeneland January sale by both gross and average sale price.
Over the course of the four-day sale, City of Light saw eight newly-turned yearlings change hands for revenues of $1,225,500 and an average of $153,188. His average was more than double the next-closest first-year sire with more than one horse sold during the January sale: Mendelssohn, who moved five yearlings for an average of $67,800.
Enthusiasm For Dispersals Energizes Day Two Of Keeneland January Sale Sponsored by:
Hip 587, Danceforthecause from the Sam-Son Farm Dispersal, brings $925,000 at the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale.
Two prominent dispersals – 20 broodmares, yearlings and horses of racing age sold by Lane s End, agent for the Complete Dispersal of the Estate of Paul P. Pompa Jr., and 21 in-foal broodmares owned by Sam-Son Farm, the acclaimed breed-to-race operation in Ontario – fueled brisk commerce on Tuesday s second day of the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale.
A horse from each dispersal sold for $925,000 apiece to lead the session. Via phone bidding with a Keeneland representative, Peter Brant s White Birch Farm paid the amount for the third horse in the ring, Regal Glory, a multiple graded stakes winner for Pompa. Later in the day, Gainesway Farm purchased Danceforthecause, in foal to Twirling Candy, from Sam-Son to equal the price.
Blended Citizen To Enter Stud At Collett Equine Veterinary Service In Oklahoma Sponsored by:
Blended Citizen
Blended Citizen, a three-time graded stakes winner, has been purchased by DMW Racing Stables and will enter stud in Oklahoma for the 2021 breeding season. Mike Recio brokered the transaction on the 5-year-old son of Proud Citizen on behalf of owners Sayjay Racing, LLC, Greg Hall, and Brooke Hubbard.
At two, Blended Citizen broke his maiden at Del Mar around two-turns, defeating eventual Grade 1 winner River Boyne. In his second start at age three, Blended Citizen picked up his first graded stakes score in the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park, a qualifying points race for the Kentucky Derby. Just two starts later, switching back to the dirt in the Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes, Blended Citizen overcame a six-wide trip to win by open lengths to defeat a field that included eventual graded stakes winner Core Beliefs.