The SIM Turf Route Lineal Championship

[Stormy Peak]

Congrats on the win, Danny, and in defending the title. : )

Stormy

[Danny Derby]

Yay! And he also pulled off a hell of a title defense.

He made me proud. Probably won’t be putting the title on the line again until W14.

[Dan Kauffman]

Yay! And he also pulled off a hell of a title defense.

He made me proud. Probably won’t be putting the title on the line again until W14.

Yeah I assumed the Arc is next on the turf.

[Dan Kauffman]

BREAKING: Longbird defends title with gate-to-wire Desert Turf victory
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Longbird (Danny Derby) defied history on Friday night, becoming just the second Turf Route Lineal Champion to successfully defend the title in the Desert Turf Classic when he led from gate to wire, holding off hard-charging former champion With Drama (Glenn Larson).
Longbird joins Kareem Abdul (Year 30) as champions who successfully defended the title in the Desert Turf Classic. Sixteen other champions have lost the title in the race.
With Drama, last year's Arc de Triomphe champion — when he won the title before dropping it to Moulay El Hassan in last year's Steward's Cup Turf — saw his late run come up a neck short, though he ran a sharp 93 speed figure. Longbird posted a 95 in victory.
Two-time champion Manic (Nena Olson), winner of the Pegasus Turf earlier this year, finished third another 1 1/4 lengths back.
Derby currently plans to have Longbird try out the dirt, probably for his next two races, before returning to the grass for the Arc in Week 14.

[Dan Kauffman]

Looks like Longbird is returning to the turf route ranks sooner than expected in the Chicago Million on Monday. Mal, Manic and Roughian will try to dethrone him (Manic and Roughian are former champions). And if The Same Path wins, it might be the biggest stunner in TR history (sorry, Tim).

[Danny Derby]

Looks like Longbird is returning to the turf route ranks sooner than expected in the Chicago Million on Monday. Mal, Manic and Roughian will try to dethrone him (Manic and Roughian are former champions). And if The Same Path wins, it might be the biggest stunner in TR history (sorry, Tim).

Still 50/50 on running here or the Oceanside Classic on dirt Friday. I’ll decide tomorrow.

[Dan Kauffman]

Looks like Longbird is returning to the turf route ranks sooner than expected in the Chicago Million on Monday. Mal, Manic and Roughian will try to dethrone him (Manic and Roughian are former champions). And if The Same Path wins, it might be the biggest stunner in TR history (sorry, Tim).

Still 50/50 on running here or the Oceanside Classic on dirt Friday. I’ll decide tomorrow.

Ah OK. I'd seen you had scratched him from Oceanside so I thought the decision had been made. But no biggie, good luck either way.

[Danny Derby]

Chicago it is

[Dan Kauffman]

BREAKING: Mal becomes 148th Turf Route Lineal Champion with Chicago Million victory.
CHICAGO — Mal, a 4-year-old colt owned and bred by Stormy Peak, became the 148th horse to win the SIM Turf Route Lineal Champion when he edged two-time former champion Manic by a head in Monday's Chicago Million.
Mal and Manic (Nena Olson) both came from the back of the six-horse field to contest the finish, with Mal holding off Manic's last charge to hit the wire in front with a 91 speed figure. Manic posted a 90 in defeat.
Defending champion Longbird (Danny Derby) had an off day, placing fifth. Another former champion, Roughian (Stormy Peak), also did not run her best and settled for fourth.

[Dan Kauffman]

BREAKING: Yang Wenli wins loaded Arc, earns TRLC title
PARIS — Before this year, Danny Derby had never had a Turf Route Lineal Champion in his stable. Now he has two.
Eight weeks after multi-surface superstar Longbird won the title in the Desert Turf Classic, Yang Wenli brought Derby back to the winner's circle with a star-making performance in the loaded $6 million Arc de Triomphe.
Yang Wenli, a 4-year-old colt, edged former champion Moulay El Hassan (Nick Gilmore) — who won the title in last year's Steward's Cup Turf — by a nose in a thrilling finish to boost his earnings to almost $5.7 million and his record to 15: 5-5-3.
Yang Wenli is the 149th horse to be crowned as the Turf Route Lineal Champion.
Defending champion Mal (Stormy Peak) finished ninth in the 16-horse field. Among other former champions, Manic (Nena Olson) placed fourth, With Drama (Glenn Larson) was seventh and Longbird and Roughian (Stormy Peak) tied for 11th.

[Danny Derby]

Yang's looking to win it again next year, look out!

[Dan Kauffman]

I updated the OP to reflect With Drama's SC Turf win and retirement. Never got the time to write up a "story" but congrats to Glenn.