Fan Fest Returns for 2023 Breeders’ Cup

Pasadena Fan Fest, a special community gathering created to celebrate the 2023 Breeders' Cup World Championships, will be held Nov. 3. Presented by PNC Bank and hosted by the Breeders' Cup and Pasadena Convention & Visitors Bureau, Pasadena Fan Fest will feature live entertainment, local food trucks, cash bars offering signature Breeders' Cup cocktails, and more.

“We are very pleased to provide our fans and the local community with an opportunity to come together and enjoy a fun night out at Pasadena Fan Fest,” said Drew Fleming, President and CEO of Breeders' Cup Limited. “The opportunity to  engage with area communities in a celebration of racing is one of the truly unique aspects of the World Championships, and one we look forward to every year.”

Pasadena Fan Fest will take place at the plaza outside the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, where The Spazmatics, a four-piece 80's cover band, will kick off the action at 7 p.m. PT.

Tickets for Pasadena Fan Fest are available now on TicketMaster.

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Breeders’ Cup to Collab with Chef Curtis Stone

Chef Curtis Stone will curate exclusive menus for premium dining areas at the 2023 Breeders' Cup World Championships, to be held Nov. 3-4 at Santa Anita. The Michelin-starred chef's menus will be presented to approximately 9,000 attendees in the Silks Dining Room, Frontrunner Restaurant, Chandelier Room, Sportsbook Bar Seating, Trophy Lounge, Trackside Dining, Directors' Room, Luxury Suites, 100 to 1 Club Suite, Eddie Logan Suite, and Stretch Run Suites.

“Our collaboration with Chef Stone is a testament to the Breeders' Cup's commitment to providing top-tier food, hospitality, and entertainment offerings for our guests,” said Drew Fleming, President and CEO of Breeders' Cup Limited. “Chef Stone is incredibly talented, and we're thrilled to again give racing fans a world-class culinary experience as they enjoy the unparalleled excitement of Thoroughbred racing's championship weekend.”

Stone is a restauranteur who is also a New York Times bestselling author of several cookbooks and has appeared on a number of cooking television programs.

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Speightstown Filly Blazes Quarter-Mile at OBS Wednesday

A filly by Speightstown (hip 618) zipped a quarter-mile in a track record-tying :20 1/5, while six horses shared the day's fastest furlong time, during the fourth session of the under-tack show for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training in Central Florida Wednesday. Hip 618, who worked just after 11:30 a.m. and with temperatures approaching 80 degrees, is consigned by Juan Centeno's All Dreams Equine.

“You never know if they can go that fast, but she prepped pretty fast,” Centeno said. “I knew she could at least tie that prep or improve on it and obviously, she improved. But she's always been that filly who gives her all every time. She just has a natural talent. Every time she goes up there, it's all business. When she is in the stall, she's nice and relaxed. I think she has a brilliant future.”

The filly is out of the unraced Last Dance (Revolutionary), who is a half-sister to graded winner Speightster (Speightstown) and is out of a full-sister to Dance Smartly.

Centeno purchased the filly for $17,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale.

“She is not perfect,” Centeno said. “Her conformation wasn't perfect. That's probably why people passed on her last year. But we took our chances because she has a beautiful body. And you never know how they are going to come out. You have to play and see what happens. In the early days, you start seeing which ones really start shining from the rest and she was one of those. She was not that fast, but she was always better than the rest.”

The filly's :20 1/5 breeze ties the record for the fastest quarter-mile over the OBS surface, matching, among others, the time of future Grade I winner Princess Noor (Not This Time), who sold for $1.35 million at the 2020 Spring sale.

Asked what it was like to lead his speedy filly up to the track Wednesday morning, Centeno said, “Before you go, you feel sick. You just hope she doesn't take a bad step or anything. It's just nerve-wracking. And after it, you feel so proud for her. She's the one who did it all. It's just a special feeling in your heart to say, 'Wow. Look at these beautiful things.' They can make you feel so wonderful.”

A Day at the Beach for Wavertree

Six juveniles shared the fastest furlong time of :9 4/5 during Wednesday's session of the under-tack show and two were fillies from the first crop of Omaha Beach from the Wavertree Stables consignment, which also sent out a colt by the multiple Grade I winner to work the day's second-fastest quarter-mile time of :20 3/5.

“We went up there with high expectations,” said Wavertree's Ciaran Dunne. “They were horses who had trained really well all year and had advertised themselves in their works as fast horses. And I think they all showed up.”

Working during the day's first set, hip 532 was first to hit the :9 4/5 mark on the day for Wavertree. The bay filly is out of Intelyhente (Smart Stride), a full-sister to graded winner Bel Air Beauty and dam of stakes-placed Count Alexander (Scat Daddy), who Wavertree sold at the 2017 OBS June sale.

“She is huge,” Dunne said of the filly. “She looks like a colt. She's probably 16 hands, plus. We had her half-brother and that probably played a part in us being as strong as we were [in buying her last year]. We thought he was a very good horse. I think he was a better horse than his race record probably panned out to be–he was very unlucky in a couple of races. But she is a bigger, stronger version of him. You could have passed him off as the filly and her as the colt.”

Hip 667 turned in her :9 4/5 work around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. The chestnut filly is out of Malibu Pride (Malibu Moon), a full-sister to By The Light, who produced multiple Grade I winner By the Moon (Indian Charlie).

“She's a medium-sized filly,” Dunne said. “She's real compact and very well-balanced. She's been lightning fast since the first time we said, 'Go.' We spent the spring trying to slow her down. She's really, really quick with a beautiful female family underneath.”

Both fillies were purchased by Paul Reddam and Dunne's Red Wings Enterprises pinhooking partnership for $200,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale.

“Paul has been my partner in Red Wings for many years,” Dunne said. “He is a guy who really goes with his gut feeling. He was very high on Omaha Beach going into the yearling sales and his marching orders were to buy as many Omaha Beaches as I could. I think I called him at one point and said, 'Is that enough?' and the response I got was, 'no.' So we have to give him the credit–or the blame–for the number of Omaha Beaches we have.”

On behalf of Houston third baseman Alex Bregman, Wavertree sent out a son of Omaha Beach (hip 617) to work a quarter-mile in :20 3/5 in the opening minutes of Wednesday's session of the under-tack show. The bay colt is out of stakes-placed Lantiz (Tizway).

Bloodstock agent Mike Akers purchased the colt on behalf of Bregman Family Racing for $185,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton July sale.

“This is a lovely horse. He doesn't necessarily look fast, which is interesting for as fast as he is,” Dunne said. “He looks like a horse with a bit of stretch that will go a route of ground.”

Bregman was represented by a bullet worker by No Nay Never who worked in :20 4/5 during Monday's second session of the under-tack show.

“Mike Akers has done a really job for Alex sourcing racehorses and obviously now pinhooks,” Dunne said. “I think they are good team and they work together well.”

Omaha Beach now has three juveniles to work in :9 4/5 this week at OBS. Mayberry Farm sent out a colt by the freshman sire (hip 466, video) to work in that time Tuesday.

Omaha Beach, winner of the GI Arkansas Derby and GI Santa Anita Sprint Championship, was scratched as the morning-line favorite three days before the 2019 GI Kentucky Derby. He stands at Spendthrift Farm for $30,000.

“They are lovely horses,” Dunne said of the first-season sire's progeny. “They have a shape to them. They have a bit of size and scope. They move really well. Thankfully, all of those things have transferred as you would want them to from yearlings to 2-year-olds. Once we started training them, we were very pleased. They are nice horses to be around and mentally very easy to deal with. They thrive on work. The more we've done with them, the better they were and the happier they were. Obviously, I am a big fan today.”

Also working the furlong bullet Wednesday was a filly by Divining Rod (hip 544, video) who is a half-sister to GI Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Aloha West (Hard Spun) consigned by Best a Luck Farm; a colt by Maximus Mischief (hip 632, video) consigned by Kings Equine; a colt by Tapwrit (hip 634, video), who is a half to multiple graded-placed Dream Marie (Graydar) and consigned by Top Line Sales; and a colt by Solomini (hip 692, video), who is a half to graded winner Lookin to Strike (Lookin at Lucky) and consigned by Randy Miles.

The under-tack show continues through Saturday with sessions beginning each day at 8 .m. The Spring sale will be held next Tuesday through Friday. Bidding commences at 10:30 a.m. daily.

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Kentucky Downs’ Mint Millions Worth $2 Million in 2023

The GIII Mint Millions S. will become the first $2-million race ever run at Kentucky Downs, as well as the richest American turf race outside of the Breeders' Cup, when it is run Sept. 2 at the Franklin track. The one-mile Mint Millions offers a base purse of $1 million, with another $1 million from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF). Last year, the base was $600,000, with a $400,000 supplement from the KTDF.

The Millions was one of 17 stakes–including nine graded events–that was unveiled Wednesday for the track's upcoming boutique seven-day all-turf meet. With seven races worth at least $1 million, the stakes schedule offers $7.6 million available for all horses and another $6.4 million in KTDF enhancements earmarked for those horses foaled in Kentucky and sired by a Kentucky stallion.

The six other graded stakes offering $1 million in available purses are the GII Kentucky Turf Cup, the GII Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint, GII Franklin-Simpson S., the GII Mint Ladies Sprint, GIII Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf and the GIII Kentucky Downs Ladies Marathon. Those stakes, all carded for a blockbuster Sept. 9 program, will have base purses of $600,000 with another $400,000 available for KTDF-eligible horses, which reflect the vast majority of horses racing at Kentucky Downs.

“We are laser-focused on securing Grade I races for Kentucky Downs. Our 2023 stakes schedule is another step toward that mission,” said Kentucky Downs Vice President for Racing Ted Nicholson. “Our KTDF money allows us to run North America's richest two weeks of racing, including the potential to run more stakes worth at least $1 million during a meet than any U.S. track outside a Breeders' Cup host. But regardless of where horses are born, our base purses guarantee everyone runs for some of the largest purses on the planet.”

Ron Winchell, who with Marc Falcone are Kentucky Downs' co-managing partners, added, “We want the Mint Millions to be the pre-eminent launching pad to the Breeders' Cup Mile. Turf milers are among the biggest stars in Europe, and we're giving them a million more reasons to come to Kentucky Downs.”

Three other Kentucky Downs' stakes–the Sept. 2 GIII Music City S., the Sept. 2 Gun Runner S. and the Sept. 3 Dueling Grounds Oaks had their purses substantially boosted to $750,000, split evenly between the base purse and KTDF enhancements. The GIII Dueling Grounds Derby, also on Sept. 3, was raised to $750,000 last year.

The remaining six stakes will be worth $500,000, half from the base purse and the rest from the KTDF.

The overall purse structure for the meet is scheduled for $22.82 million–a track record for the 12th straight year since the advent of historical horse racing.

Kentucky Downs maiden races will be worth $150,000 for Kentucky-bred horses. And the track will once again offer a pair of $250,000 allowance races–one for 2-year-old fillies and one for 2-year-old colts–restricted to horses that went through the sales ring at Keeneland's 2022 September Yearling sale. Those 6 1/2-furlong races will be held opening day, Aug. 31, with all runners competing for the entire pot.

Kentucky Downs will run Aug. 31 and Sept. 2, 3, 7, 9, 10 and 13.

The entire 2023 Kentucky Downs stakes schedule is:

All stakes are on turf and include Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund supplements

 

Thursday Aug. 31  $500,000 Tapit Stakes, 3 year olds & up who have not won a stakes in 2023, mile and 70 yards.

 

Saturday Sept. 2 — $750,000 Music City (G3), 3-year-old fillies, 6 1/2 furlongs; $750,000 Gun Runner, 3-year-olds, one mile; $2 million Mint Millions (G3), 3 year olds & up, one mile.

 

Sunday Sept. 3 — $750,000 Dueling Grounds Derby (G3), 3-year-olds, 1 5/16 miles; $750,000 Dueling Grounds Oaks, 3-year-old fillies, 1 5/16 miles.

 

Thursday Sept. 7 — $500,000 One Dreamer, fillies and mares 3 years old & up who have not won a stakes in 2023, mile and 70 yards.

 

Saturday Sept. 9 — $1 million Franklin-Simpson (G2), 3-year-olds, 6 1/2 furlongs; $1 million Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint (G2), 3-year-olds & up, six furlongs; $1 million Kentucky Turf Cup (G2), 3-year-olds & up, 1 1/2 miles; $1 million The Mint Ladies Sprint (G2), fillies and mares 3 years old & up, 6 1/2 furlongs; $1 million Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf (G3), fillies and mares 3 years old & up, one mile; $1 million Kentucky Downs Ladies Marathon (G3), fillies and mares 3 years old & up, 1 5/16 miles.

 

Sunday, Sept. 10 — $500,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile, 2-year-olds, mile; $500,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies, 2-year-old fillies, mile.

 

Wednesday Sept. 13 — $500,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint, 2-year-olds, 6 1/2 furlongs; $500,000 Untapable Stakes, 2-year-old fillies, 6 1/2 furlongs.

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