Global superstar and 2025 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Forever Young is set to make his final start before retirement in the Dec. 29 Tokyo Daishoten at Oi Racecourse in Tokyo, trainer Yoshito Yahagi said Nov. 8.
Although the next Road to the Kentucky Derby qualifiers are nearly three weeks away, our Rookie Rankings continue to shift as lightly raced 2-year-olds rise and fall in lower-profile races.
The latest name to join the rankings is Bletchley in the No. 6 slot. He’s a beautifully bred son of 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner out of 2021 Beaumont Stakes winner Twenty Carat, a daughter of perennial leading sire Into Mischief.
Tap to Open scored a 3 1/4-length triumph in the $300,000 Grade 2 Mother Goose Stakes for 3-year-old fillies Nov. 7 at Belmont Park. It was a nifty way to gain graded stakes laurels and build some optimism for what the connections hope will be a productive 4-year-old campaign in 2027.
Every Sunday Noel Michaels will provide free full-card picks for a one racecard in North America. A veteran handicapper and tournament-play pioneer, Michaels also writes a weekly “Weekend Winners” blog for America’s Best Racing with a focus on key stakes races at marquee tracks. This feature will be straight-forward: full-card picks for one Sunday slate of races of his choosing.
Meadow Star surely enjoyed a stellar racing career.
She won her first nine starts. Eight of them were stakes and four were Grade 1s.
She was a decisive winner by five lengths in the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and the undefeated filly was a unanimous choice as the year’s champion 2-year-old female.
At 3, she was tested against colts in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial Stakes, in which she finished fourth and suffered her first defeat. Returned to distaff competition after that setback, she romped by six lengths in the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes.
.jpg?itok=StbNuO7x&c=bc6caef06e05c4f99e23243efd8f9a94 "Tap to Open, Ted Noffey, Stimulate, Belmont Park, 2026 Mother Goose Stakes, Dwyer Stakes")
