Andy Serling & Sara Elbadwi take a look back at the Withers Stakes and the Toboggan Stakes at Aqueduct.

Report from Japan

The kitchen of the house that Lili Kobielski grew up in looks like the farmhouse kitchen of your dreams.

The product of late owner/breeder Stephen Brunetti’s love for horses will be on display when his family’s homebred grade 1 winner Unbridled Mo and her yearling colt by Curlin enter the ring Feb. 3 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale.

Since 1976, second-generation track photographer Lou Hodges Jr. has captured horse racing at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, and at age 76, he has decided to retire. 

A month into 2025, trainer Dan Blacker is back winning graded stakes in California, this time with My Way Racing’s El Potente, who blitzed a mile on firm turf in 1:32.39 in taking the $102,000 Thunder Road Stakes (G3T) Feb. 1 at Santa Anita Park.

A classic pace meltdown in the Feb. 1 $155,000 Forward Gal Stakes (G3) played right into the hands of a waiting Eclatant, who exerted her superiority late with a 1 1/4-length score.

A less-than-ideal break from the gate forced jockey Edgard Zayas to change his plan of attack with Whitham Thoroughbreds’ homebred Burnham Square, who nevertheless persevered to capture the $250,000 Holy Bull Stakes (G3) Feb. 1 at Gulfstream Park.

In defeating three tough runners from the Bob Baffert barn in the Santa Monica Stakes (G2), Kopion reminded her trainer, Richard Mandella, of her sire, Omaha Beach, also a Mandella trainee.

In winning his 13th Robert B. Lewis Stakes (G3) and seventh straight, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert best summed up the performance from Citizen Bull during a postrace television interview, saying, “The champ is back.”