Blood-Horse

After taking on some of the best distaff sprinters throughout the year, Spiced Perfection will end 2019  on a longer yet easier note.

On Dec. 5 the regally bred daughter of Galileo (IRE)—Royal Delta, by Empire Maker, began to make good on her potential.

The Dec. 7 Los Alamitos Futurity (G2) lost its grade 1 status when downgraded this year, though perhaps not its significance as a late 2-year-old prep race for next year's Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1).

NYRA announced the stakes schedule for the 2020 spring meet at Aqueduct Racetrack Dec. 5. The 13-day meet, which follows its winter meet and is highlighted by the Wood Memorial Stakes (G1) April 4, will commence April 2 and conclude April 19.

Rewarded for wins by its progeny on three continents, Godolphin has repeated as the winner of the John Deere Award honoring the outstanding breeder of the 2019 Breeders' Cup World Championships and the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series.

Winning the $250,000 Remsen Stakes (G2) will not earn the victor an Eclipse Award. Yet in a year when the top 2-year-old males seem to become wallflowers whenever a spotlight has been shined on them, races like the Remsen take on added significance.

With 60 fewer lots offered than the previous renewal, the aggregate fell by 5% year on year. But the average climbed by 4% and the median showed a significant 32% increase. 

This week is a recap of the 1991 Gazelle (G1) and Maskette (G1) stakes. The story, written by Jenny Kellner, ran in the Sept. 7, 1991 issue of BloodHorse, carrying the headline "A Pair of Queens."

When star Japanese filly Almond Eye was withdrawn from the Longines Hong Kong Cup (G1) on the eve of her planned trip, the Dec. 8 race flipped from a potential star turn to a wide-open affair.  

With Hong Kong's veteran sprinters in a bit of disarray and the international raiders perhaps a cut below recent standards, the door is open for 3-year-old local sensation Aethero in the Longines Hong Kong Sprint (G1) Dec. 8 at Sha Tin.

After rallying to a third place-finish in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2) Nov. 1 at Santa Anita Park, Another Miracle will return to dirt racing Dec. 7 in the $100,000 Inaugural Stakes Dec. 7 at Tampa Bay Downs.

The Claiming Crown returns to Gulfstream Park Dec. 7 to celebrate the hard-knocking horses on the racetrack. Eleven races are scheduled at the South Florida track Saturday, nine of which are starter stakes for horses who have raced for a tag.

The Demoiselle Stakes (G2) and the Remsen Stakes (G2) are basically family.

After a narrow defeat in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1), Donna Veloce is back in action Dec. 7 in the $300,000 Starlet Stakes (G1) at Los Alamitos Race Course, the final North American grade 1 race for 2-year-olds this year.

In the years to come, it will take some wild twists of fate for another horse to have as controversial and eventful of a year as Maximum Security.

Park Paddocks was notably quieter Dec. 4 than it had been 24 hours earlier during the headline session of the Tattersalls December Mare Sale.

Delta's Royalty—the sole offspring of dual Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic (G1) heroine Royal Delta—will make her eagerly anticipated debut in the 2-year-old maiden fillies' stakes Dec. 5 over a mile at Kempton. 

The grade 1 winner, who covered 149 mares in his first book this year, leads the farm's roster with a $7,500 stud fee.

Karis Teetan eked out a late-running third-place finish in the final leg to win the Longines International Jockeys' Championship Dec. 4 at Happy Valley Racecourse over a field of reigning and former champions from around the globe.

During the last two weeks of November, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission issued multiple trainers suspensions due to medication violations, including Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen.