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Patriot Spirit, bred in Kentucky by Blue Heaven Farm, may not be as well known as some of his eight Vosburgh Stakes (G3) opponents, but he enters with all cylinders clicking in search of his first graded stakes win.

Turnover was up fully 51%, the average price rose 48%, and the median was up 54%. The financial details were underpinned by a rock-solid clearance rate of 93% as 440 yearlings found a buyer from 474 offered. 

R Disaster, who has been a hard-luck runner in graded stakes, will try to change her fortunes in the $250,000 Gallant Bloom Stakes (G2) Sept. 27 at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Ken Wilkins has previously run stallion operations at Spendthrift Farm, Adena Springs, and Vinery.

Millionaire Coal Battle looks to rebound in the $400,000 Oklahoma Derby (G3) Sept. 28 against seven other 3-year-olds going 1 1/8 miles at Remington Park.

The word for Locked is "pivotal." The Sept. 27 edition of the Woodward Stakes (G2) will be quite telling for Locked, the lone grade 1 winner in the field.

Last-start Moir Stakes (G1) winner Baraqiel will chase back-to-back Moonee Valley group 1s when he lines up in the Manikato Stakes (G1) Sept. 26.

Making his first start since traveling to the Middle East this winter, reigning champion male sprinter Straight No Chaser seeks a repeat win in the $200,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita Park Sept. 28.

There aren't too many turf graded stakes races from the mile to 1 1/2-mile range in Southern California that Gold Phoenix hasn't won yet, but the John Henry Turf Championship Stakes (G2T) is one of them.

Paco Lopez and his attorney Drew Mollica have been informed by the Horse Racing Safety and Integrity Authority that they will not grant Paco Lopez a stay of his six-month suspension for what HISA called a violation of the terms of his agreement stemming from a Dec. 4 incident involving the whip.

“We are in the process of evaluating all legal remedies including but not limited to an emergency application to a court of competent jurisdiction to seek not only injunctive relief, but sanctions for this unilateral unprecedented decision to breach the terms of our valid agreement,” said Mollica.

Lopez was issued a six-month suspension on September 23 by HISA, who said that “the suspension stems from Mr. Lopez's violation of the terms of his conditional reinstatement, related to a December 4, 2024 incident.” In that incident, Lopez struck his mount, National Law, on the head with his whip after the race had concluded. He was issued an indefinite suspension for that, which was later reduced to 50 days after agreeing to therapy and other conditions. The terms of the agreement are confidential.

Mollica had sought a stay of the six-month suspension while he appealed the decision.

When the suspension was announced, a HISA spokesperson explained, “Since Mr. Lopez returned from his suspension in January, 2025, he has been found by stewards to have committed 10 violations of HISA's riding crop rule, including eight violations in which the crop was raised with his wrist above his helmet when using the crop. The cumulative nature of the violations demonstrates a pattern of disregard for HISA's rules and presents risk of injury to Covered Horses.”

Mollica contended that none of those violations related to the National Law incident.

The post HISA Denies Paco Lopez Stay appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

The horse racing industry will gain access to advanced machine vision technology through a new partnership between Equius AI and global surveillance provider IREX AI, the former said via a Thursday press release.

The collaboration will deliver video intelligence platforms designed for racetracks, training facilities, and equine operations, utilizing IREX's existing security infrastructure currently deployed across 30+ countries at airports, government facilities, transportation networks, and major sporting venues.

The technology suite includes real-time security analytics, fire and smoke detection, crowd monitoring, and biometric access control. Racing-specific applications will encompass individual horse identification, barn entry logging, quarantine compliance monitoring, medication administration oversight, and race-day surveillance.

The release also said that Equius AI, founded by Sobhy Sonbol of Nile Bloodstock, and IREX plan to collaborate with horsemen, veterinarians, and industry professionals to ensure the technology addresses practical needs across the sport.

The post Equius AI And IREX Partner To Bring Machine Vision Technology To Racing appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

A HISA pilot program released results from a study of advanced cardiac monitoring of Thoroughbreds that shows atrial fibrillation (AF)–traditionally considered a benign, performance-limiting condition–can worsen during exercise, cause a more severe arrhythmia that leads to sudden death, according to a press release from HISA on Thursday. The group said that electrocardiogram data from affected horses that displayed AF both at rest and under exertion, underscores the need for early detection and highlighs the potential of integrating routine cardiac screening into pre-training and pre-race evaluations.

During the first six months of 2025, HISA's Exercise-Associated Sudden Death (EASD) Working Group–launched in October 2023–said that EASD accounted for approximately 8% of racing fatalities and 18% of training fatalities at racetracks subject to HISA rules (and training centers owned by them). Retrospective analysis of cases since HISA's inception shows that more than 50% of cases were likely related to cardiac issues, often classified as “Sudden Cardiac Death.” The majority of these EASD events occurred early in a horse's career, with the highest incidence occurring in horses with zero to five starts.

HISA launched its working group in recognition of the critical importance of addressing and better understanding these risks and preventing EASD. The pilot, led by Dr. Cristobal Navas de Solis, Associate Professor of Cardiology, Ultrasound and Internal Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, and Dr. Sian Durward-Akhurst, Assistant Professor of Genetics, Genomics and Large Animal Internal Medicine at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, is ongoing. The findings were presented at the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Forum in Kentucky in summer 2025, among other meetings of specialists in the field.

Dr. Navas de Solis and Dr. Durward-Akhurst partnered with leading experts to investigate underlying causes and develop prevention strategies. Program collaborators include Dr. Mary Durando (Equine Sports Medicine Consultants, U.S.), Dr. Grace Forbes (Racing Victoria, Australia), Dr. Laura Nath (University of Adelaide, Australia) and wearable technology specialists at Arioneo Equimetre (France).

“Integrating cardiac screening into routine evaluations–whether through wearable devices or veterinary exams–could allow trainers and veterinarians to identify at-risk horses before exercise,” said Dr. Karen Hassan, HISA's Compliance and Research Veterinarian and chair of HISA's EASD Working Group. “This opens the door to scalable monitoring protocols and standardized response strategies that could save equine lives.”

The next phase of the program will focus on scalability and the development of real-time cardiac monitoring protocols and risk-based screening criteria. Specifically, AF could be detected either via wearable devices, handheld ECG devices or auscultation by a veterinarian before exercise, allowing trainers to withhold exercise and work with their veterinary team to evaluate affected horses further.

Establishing optimal workflows and tools to be used for rhythm analysis with an emphasis on AF, defining the risk of arrhythmia other than AF and proposing and evaluating a standardized response protocol for cardiac adverse events during exercise will be key components of the next phase of work.

To further educate stakeholders on EASD, a series of educational webinars will be held for horsemen and veterinarians in the coming weeks.

HISA has issued an accompanying Equine Health Advisory on EASD, associated risk factors and what trainers and veterinarians can do to help prevent EASD, which can be found here.

The post HISA Study Finds AFib Can Contribute To Sudden Death; Early Detection Key appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Coming into the GI Pennsylvania Derby, Puca (Big Brown) may already have been the most valuable broodmare on the planet. But in the 1:48.03 it took to contest that race, she became worth even more. Baeza (McKinzie) won and is now the third son in a row out of Puca to capture a Grade I race.

Puca's owner is John Stewart's Resolute Racing, who announced in August that Puca will be sold at this November's Fasig-Tipton “Night of the Stars” sale. As much as he'd like to keep Puca, he said she will not be pulled from the sale.

“I go into the whole thing with a lot of reservation, just because she's the type of mare that literally loves on you when you go up to her,” Stewart said. “I am very attached to her. But at the same time as a business person, with what just happened with Baeza, there's probably not a better investment that I've made in the industry so far. I love her. I love all the horses on my farm. At the same time, when you make a good investment you have to capitalize on it. Still, It's going to be hard to sell her.”

Stewart bought Puca in 2023 at the Keeneland November Sale for $2.9 million. She had originally RNA'd, but Stewart picked her up post sale.

She had already made her mark as a broodmare as her second foal, Mage (Good Magic) won the 2023 GI Kentucky Derby. Stewart could not have known how much more there was to come.

Her third foal was Dornoch (Good Magic), who won the 2024 GI Belmont Stakes and the 2024 GI Haskell Stakes, increasing Puca's value. Dornoch and Mage have both retired to stud. That left Baeza to be the flag bearer. He had lost four straight, three times to Sovereignty (Into Mischief) and once to Journalism (Curlin). But he never missed by much and made the sport's two best 3-year-olds fight to get the victory. Baeza's win in the Pennsylvania Derby gave Puca three straight Grade I winners, two of them Classic winners.

Puca at Resolute | Sarah Andrew

Stewart said he used AI to look up other dams who have had three straight Grade I winners and said he could only find four worldwide.

“She is such a classy horse. She's fantastic,” Stewart said. “The money we make from this will be reinvested in the future of the farm. You look at what Curlin did for Hill 'n' Dale and what Sadler's Wells did for Coolmore. I'm just fortunate enough that I hit the lottery. That was the first year I bought any horses when I bought her and she RNA'd. There are a lot of people in the industry that should have known a lot better than me. They didn't pick her up when they could have bought her.”

What is Puca worth now? A lot more than $2.9 million. Stewart said he plans to put a $5 million reserve on her. She will not be in foal at the time of the sale. She was bred this year to Into Mischief, but the superstar match did not produce a live foal.

“She's empty right now, so if I were to keep her and breed her I wouldn't see any incremental income for two years,” Stewart said. “A lot can happen as we just saw with Wootton Bassett. She's 13 and if I kept her and bred her one more time then I'd be selling her as a 16-year-old after she had the baby. You have to look at those things. At the end of the day we are definitely sellers.”

Though Puca may soon belong to someone other than Stewart, he owns her next two foals after Baeza. She has a yearling colt and a weanling filly, both by Good Magic which makes them full-siblings to Mage and Dornoch.

“I own both of them, but we haven't named them yet,” he said. “The colt is the one we did the MyRacehorse collaboration with. I own 75% of the horse and the MyRacehorse people own 25%. So I own and control him. The filly, we won't take partners on her and she will not be sold. She's at the farm and we own 100% of here. That's one of the reasons that we look to sell Puca because we have this filly. She's a healthy mare and definitely done some special things.”

The post Stewart Is Sticking To His Guns, Puca Will Be Sold appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Ken Wilkins has been named Director of Stallion Operations for Gary Broad's Walmac Farm, the farm announced Wednesday.

Wilkins previously served as stallion director at Spendthrift Farm and has held similar positions with Adena Springs and Vinery. He is also a past president of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers' Club.

“We're thrilled to welcome Ken, who has vast knowledge and experience in the stallion market,” said Broad. “We're confident he'll help build on the strong foundation we have here as we look to a bright future and expanding our stallion roster.”

Upon his appointment, Wilkins expressed enthusiasm about joining the historic operation.

“I am excited and honored to step into this role at Walmac and eager to add another successful chapter to its storied past,” said Wilkins. “We will immediately seek to expand the roster with exciting young stallion prospects. I am also eager to see the progeny of the current stallions develop as we have weanlings, yearlings, and 2-year-olds–anything could happen!”

Walmac currently stands four young stallions–Core Beliefs, who is represented by his first crop to the races this year, Fulsome, Pappacap, and Pinehurst.

For more information about Walmac's stallions, contact Ken Wilkins at (859) 699-4887, by email, or visit the farm site here.

The post Ken Wilkins Named Director Of Stallion Operations At Walmac Farm appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

1,601 yearlings are set to go through the ring for next month's Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearlings Sale, to be held on October 20-23, in Lexington, Kentucky. The four continuous sessions, conducted Monday-Thursday, will begin each day at 10 am.

“Kentucky October is one of the most important yearling sales in the nation,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. “The quality on offer continues to rise each year, as evidenced by the sire power and strength of pedigree in this year's catalogue.”

Sires represented by multiple yearlings include Constitution, Candy Ride (Arg), Curlin, Flightline, Gun Runner, Justify, Quality Road, Into Mischief, Not This Time, Nyquist, Practical Joke, Tapit, Twirling Candy, and Uncle Mo.

“The sale's honor roll of graduates grew in 2024, with Thorpedo Anna named Horse of the Year and Champion Three-Year-Old Filly, and Soul of an Angel named Eclipse Champion Female Sprinter,” Browning noted. “Their wins in the Breeders' Cup Distaff and Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, respectively, were remarkably the fourth and fifth Breeders' Cup wins for October grads in the last three years.”

The list of recent graded stakes winning graduates is even more extensive.

“The sale has produced 17 graded stakes winners so far in 2025, including several household names like Chunk of Gold, 'TDN Rising Star' Nysos, Fondly, Margie's Intention, May Day Ready, Swift Delivery, The Queens M G, Thought Process, and 'Rising Star' Tip Top Thomas,” noted Browning. “Two new graded stakes winners in the past couple of weeks–Taken by the Wind and Ready for Candy–show that there are plenty more in the pipeline.”

The catalogue may now be viewed online, and will also be available via the equineline sales catalogue app. Print catalogues will be available on-site in Lexington.

Online bidding and phone bidding services will be available.

The post Fasig-Tipton Catalogues 1,601 Hips For Kentucky October Yearling Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Friday's GII Beldame Stakes at Aqueduct drew a compact field of five led by the wide-drawn Randomized (Nyquist) who looks to get back on track after a less-than stellar finish, winding up sixth and well beaten behind Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) as the early speed in the GI Personal Ensign at the Spa Aug. 23. Dangerous on the front if left alone however, the Klaravich Stables-owned 5-year-old will try and repeat the effort that saw her wire the GIII Molly Pitcher Stakes two back July 19 where she finished three lengths ahead of Majestic Oops (Majestic Harbor) who lines up just to her inside Friday.

The 5-year-old Dan Ward runner cut back to seven furlongs in style last out when third at long odds in the GI Ballerina Stakes Aug. 23.

“The Molly Pitcher was a tough test, a half-million dollar race against some Grade I-winning horses, and she ran really well,” Ward said. “We were going to wait out the time until the Beldame, but the Ballerina was right in the middle and she got a good race that served its purpose. It was seven-eighths, between races, with five weeks until the Beldame.”

By all accounts, Majestic Oops seems to be thriving in the Autumn weather of New York.

“She wasn't bothered by hot weather, but I think now that it is cooler outside, she's doing better,” Ward added. “She comes off the track bouncing, jumping, all of that. I think cooler weather will help her form, her numbers have been going up and we got a good sprint prep right in the middle now.”

Mark Hennig and owner Lewis Lee bring in Gun Song (Gun Runner), a 4-year-old who is still looking for her first win of 2025 having run second in the Obeah Stakes at Delaware and fourth most recently in the GII Shuvee Stakes at Saratoga July 18.

“She's doing super,” Hennig said. “After that race at Saratoga, we figured we would regroup and point to a race in September. We are giving her a shot. Let's see if she can earn her way somewhere. At a mile and an eighth, you know she can lay fairly close.”

The field's sole 3-year-old Margie's Intention (Honor A.P.) exits Grade I company having run third to Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro) in the GI Alabama going 1 1/4 miles Aug. 16 for Brad Cox. Her last win came on Preakness weekend in the GII Black Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico May 16.

The post Friday’s Beldame Runs Through Randomized appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

The Thoroughbred Education and Research Foundation is pleased to award $5,000 to Amplify Horse Racing to be used for enhancing education.

America's Best Racing's Bob Ehalt gives his "At a Glance" analysis of the $200,000 Vosburgh Stakes (G3) at Belmont at The Big A. The winner will earn an expenses-paid spot in the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) at Del Mar.

America's Best Racing's Patrick Reed gives his "At a Glance" analysis of the $400,000 Ack Ack Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs Sept. 27.

After just failing to catch sprint division leader Book'em Danno in the Forego Stakes (G1), LNJ Foxwoods' Scotland may finally get his moment in the sun in the $200,000 Vosburgh Stakes (G3) Sept. 27 at Aqueduct Racetrack.