Blood-Horse

The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearlings Sale hummed along at a stable pace during the Oct. 27 second session, with overall numbers mirroring last year's pre-pandemic auction.

Jane Chapple-Hyam secured Piranesi (Lot 675) with a bid of 300,000 guineas (US$410,237) as the progressive 3-year-old topped a day of international trade at the Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training Sale in Newmarket on Oct. 27.

Multiple graded stakes winner and millionaire Giant Expectations has been retired from racing with career earnings of $1,343,600. He will begin his next career at stud this upcoming breeding season with the location still to be determined.

Los Alamitos Race Course, which is currently housing 87 horses that had to be evacuated from their homes due to the Silverado Canyon Fire and Blue Ridge Fire currently blazing in Orange County, is prepared to assist 250 more displaced horses.

The financial impact of no crowds on tracks in Yorkshire has been presented in stark terms, with a report detailing how the nine courses in the region have lost over £100 million (US$130,257,000) since March.

Gift will match up to $60,000 in donations to the TRF's 2020 Hay Drive challenge.

Two winning horses at Charles Town Sept. 17 have been disqualified for Class 1 drug positives, but no action taken against their trainers due to mitigating circumstances, according to rulings issued by the West Virginia Racing Commission.

The California Horse Racing Board has filed a complaint against trainer Bob Baffert after his runner Merneith tested positive for dextrorphan after finishing second in an allowance optional claiming race July 25 at Del Mar.

The son of Medaglia d'Oro is a grade 1 winner of $1,534,648. He is being pointed for the Nov. 7 Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1).

The controversial therapeutic medication clenbuterol will soon face added restrictions in the Mid-Atlantic region, according to an Oct. 27 release from the Mid-Atlantic Strategic Plan to Reduce Equine Fatalities.

Swiss Skydiver could be joined by as many as four barnmates at Keeneland next month in the Breeders' Cup before she races in either the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) or the Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) Nov. 7.

Multiple grade 1-placed, grade 2 winner Gunnevera will enter stud at Joe and Helen Barbazon's Pleasant Acres Stallions near Ocala, Fla., the farm announced Oct. 27. He retired with a 6-5-3 record from 21 starts and earnings of $5,561,800.

This week's racing schedule for radio and television, as compiled by America's Best Racing.

The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearlings Sale, the final yearling auction of the COVID-19 impacted sales season, began on a solid note Oct. 26, with figures on par with last year's first session that was conducted under non-pandemic circumstances.

Travel restrictions may have meant that Tattersalls lacked some of the international hubbub that usually accompanies the Autumn Horses in Training Sale, but there was still plenty of action, and some punchy prices, in the Park Paddocks ring.

The 50-year-old Southern California native has ridden 3,933 winners (13%) and earned $129,082,338 since 1986.

While the nature of equine safety efforts never allow an opportunity to run up the victory flag, Santa Anita Park registered a milestone worth celebrating after completing its fall meet without a single on-track equine fatality.

Less than two weeks out from the Breeders' Cup World Championships at Keeneland on Nov. 6-7, there was little change in both the latest National Thoroughbred Racing Association Top 3-Year-Old Thoroughbred Poll and NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll. 

Wichita, the QIPCO Two Thousand Guineas (G1) runner-up and Bet365 Park Stakes (G2) winner for Aidan O'Brien this season, has died in Australia due to complications recovering from surgery.

WinStar Farm, China Horse Club, and SF Racing's Awesome Again Stakes (G1) winner Improbable heads Santa Anita Park's 2020 Autumn Meet Media Poll, which recognizes equine and human accomplishments in a variety of categories.