Making the Grade, which will run through the 2021 Triple Crown races, focuses on the winners or top performers of the key races, usually from the previous weekend, who could make an impact on the Triple Crown. We’ll be taking a close look at impressive winners and evaluating their chances to win classic races based upon ability, running style, connections (owner, trainer, jockey), and pedigree.
Tag: Racing
The Best Trainers Who Haven’t Won the Kentucky Derby
Every trainer dreams of winning the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve. Since the first edition in 1875, 114 trainers have won the run for the roses, with Ben Jones and Bob Baffert tied for the most at six wins apiece.
America’s Best Horses for April 12
Each week members of the media around the country vote on the nation's top contenders on the Triple Crown trail in the NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll. The poll will run weekly through June 5. Find out the latest 2021 top 3-year-old rankings below. AMERICA’S TOP THOROUGHBREDS FOR APRIL 12, 2021
Half-Brother To Justify, Stage Raider Impresses In The Slop At Keeneland
The half-brother to 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify, Stage Raider made an impressive picture when breaking his maiden at second asking Saturday at Keeneland. Racing as a homebred for John Gunther's Glennwood Farm, the 3-year-old son of Pioneerof the Nile dominated the seven-furlong dirt event by 10 3/4 lengths despite racing greenly in the stretch. The final time was 1:22.62 over a course rated sloppy, earning a Beyer figure of 95.
Defeated in his first outing on Jan. 23 at Gulfstream Park by the highly-regarded Prevalence, Stage Raider is trained by Chad Brown and was ridden Saturday by reigning champion jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr.
Stage Raider is out of the 2018 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year Stage Magic, a Ghostzapper mare who is the dam of three winners from four foals to race.
Stage Magic's star offspring is Justify, a son of Scat Daddy who went undefeated in six career starts, winning on debut, then taking an optional claiming race and the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby before sweeping the Triple Crown. He finished the year earning Eclipse Award honors as champion 3-year-old male and Horse of the Year.
Justify now stands at Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky., where his first foals will be yearlings of 2021.
The mare has also produced The Lieutenant, a Grade 3-winning son of Street Sense who stood one Northern Hemisphere season in New York, but was killed during a raid at Haras Barlovento in Peru while standing the 2019 Southern Hemisphere breeding season. His first foals are also yearlings.
Stage Raider was offered at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale by the Glennwood Farm consignment, but the Gunther family elected to hold on to the colt, after he hammered below his reserve with a final bid of $950,000.
Stage Raider!! latest @theTDN rising star ⭐️ is by a Triple Crown 👑 👑👑 producer ( Pioneer Of The Nile), out of a Triple Crown 👑 👑👑 producer ( Stage Magic).
— john d gunther (@johndgunther) April 11, 2021
WATCH → (7) Stage Raider much the best in #Race11 over (11) Harvard and (9) Cronus! pic.twitter.com/OL0wfxVRba
— Keeneland Racing (@keenelandracing) April 10, 2021
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