After a fantastic night of racing beneath the Twin Spires, the equine stars of Stephen Foster Handicap Night at Churchill Downs were reported by their connections to be in good order. With one of the top performances of the year, Janis Whitham's homebred Fort Larned scored a 6 1/4-length victory in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap and trainer Ian Wilkes said he came out of the race well...

Janis R. Whitman's Fort Larned entered Saturday's Grade 1, $536,300 Stephen Foster Handicap struggling to vindicate his victory in last year's Breeders' Cup Classic. The E Dubai five-year-old lost jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. in his seasonal opener, the Gulfstream Park Handicap, then ran fifth in the Oaklawn Handicap in mid-April.Whitman, Hernandez and trainer Ian Wilkes never lost faith in their...

In 2012, owner Mort Fink and trainer Charles LoPresti started off Wise Dan's campaign with a 10 1/2-length victory in Keeneland's Ben Ali at Keeneland, followed by a close head second in the Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs. The Wiseman's Ferry gelding would go on to take three Grade 1s, including the Breeders' Cup Mile, en route to being named Horse of the Year. On Saturday, Fink and...

The Breeders' Cup has announced that Santa Anita Park has been selected as the site for the 2014 Breeders' Cup World Championships. The 31st Breeders' Cup, consisting of 14 races with purses and awards totaling $27 million, will be held on October 31 and November 1, 2014, and brings the event to Los Angeles for the third consecutive year. Santa Anita Park, which is the site of this year's...

Both Dogwood Stable's Palace Malice and trainer Todd Pletcher were feeling good Sunday morning following the colt's 3 1/4-length victory over Preakness winner Oxbow and Kentucky Derby victor Orb in the Belmont Stakes Saturday at Belmont Park. "He is a remarkable horse," said Pletcher, who was celebrating his second Belmont victory. "He bounces out of his races really well. It was a tough race...

Belmont runner-up Oxbow, who won the Preakness three weeks ago, departed Belmont Park early Sunday morning and was expected to arrive at Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas' Churchill Downs barn by 6:30 p.m. (EDT). "Everyone was tickled with his performance," said Leigh Bentley, assistant to Lukas. "He ran super and seemed to come back great. Everyone was quite pleased." Oxbow, who ran...

Four contenders for the $500,000 Stephen Foster Handicap on June 15, including Successful Dan and Take Charge Indy, worked Saturday in preparation for the 1 1/8-mile race at Churchill Downs.Successful Dan, winner of the Ben Ali in his lone start of the year, breezed a half-mile on the Polytrack at Keeneland in :48 2/5. The worked ranked 20th of 66 at the distance."He worked well and galloped out...

Dogwood Stable's Palace Malice earned his first stakes win in style on Saturday when holding off the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winners to take the 145th running of the $1 million Belmont Stakes under jockey Mike Smith by 3 1/4 lengths. The bay colt actually scored just his second victory, following a 3 1/2-length maiden win at Saratoga last August, for trainer Todd Pletcher when finishing 1 1/...