Horse Racing News by Staff

Grade 1 winner Paddy O'Prado, who sustained a sesamoid injury in his May 21 victory in the Grade 2 Dixie Stakes, has been retired after a career in which he posted five wins, three seconds, and three thirds from 15 starts, with earnings of $1,721,297.

Joyful Victory, runaway winner of Oaklawn Park's Grade 2 Fantasy and Grade 3 Honeybee in her past two starts, tops a stellar cast of 13 fillies entered in Friday's 137th running of the $1 million Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs.

In keeping with the twists and turns of the Kentucky Derby trail this spring, Saturday's Lexington at Keeneland served up another upset, as Ken and Sarah Ramsey's homebred Derby Kitten surged past the entire field to win going away by 1 1/2 lengths.

Team Block's Never Retreat, coming off her first graded coup in the March 5 Grade 3 Honey Fox at Gulfstream Park, made it a double against a considerably higher-caliber of opposition in Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland.

Aikenite rallied to the lead in deep stretch and drew clear to a 2 1/4-length decision in Saturday's Grade 2 Commonwealth.

While Sullimar Stables' homebred Get Stormy would have appealed to hunch players on a rainy Friday at Keeneland, the multiple Grade 2 hero had more tangible credentials to recommend him in the Grade 1, $300,000 Maker's Mark Mile.

Multiple Grade 1 winner Court Vision, an earner of more than $2.6 million during his 26-race career, will open his six-year-old season as the horse to beat in Friday's Grade 1, $300,000 Maker's Mark Mile Stakes at Keeneland.

A strong effort in the Blue Grass is still imperative for the Eddie Kenneally trainee as his graded earnings of slightly more than $240,000 is very close to the cut-off point to make the May 7 Run for the Roses.

Evening Jewel and Dr. Zic will each attempt to earn their second top-level score over the Keeneland Polytrack when squaring off in Thursday's Grade 1, $300,000 Madison Stakes over seven furlongs.

Morning Line, who was denied in a heartbreaker in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile last November, broke through with his first top-level victory in Saturday's Grade 1, $250,000 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct.