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Cannonball explodes in Pebo's Guy; NY-breds place in 3 graded stakes by Rab Hagin
Dropped back to six furlongs on grass for the first time since breaking his maiden by four lengths last September, Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey's homebred CANNONBALL confirmed in Belmont's Pebo's Guy Stakes for New York-breds on Saturday that he just might be the best three-year-old turf sprinter-miler in North America. The quick-striding lawn-burner was boxed in next to the rail and under wraps during most of the well-contested event for state-bred three-year-olds and up, in which he was the 4.50-to-1 third choice among nine starters with two-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey John Velazquez on board. At mid-stretch, Cannonball looked like a third-place possibility at best as 2.55-to-1 favorite Southern Prince and 5.50-to-1 fifth choice Redefined continued their front-end duel through a 56.71 five-furlong fraction over the "good" turf, but Southern Prince suddenly gave way just as Cannonball exploded into action. Weaving around and through traffic like an all-pro running back and then deftly cutting over to the rail, the Ramsey homebred quickly accelerated towards the finish, pushing his nose in front of a stubborn Redefined in the final jump. Cannonball's winning time over the still-damp sod was an impressive 1:08.94. He was one of only two three-year-olds in the $77,250 event, which also marked his second career outing under jockey Velazquez, who had been in the irons for the Catienus gelding's six-furlong maiden special win over Belmont's firm lawn in 1:08.77 on Yom Kippur Eve. One month after Cannonball's maiden-breaking victory, he had captured Belmont's one-mile King Cugat Stakes against open two-year-olds and five days later had placed third among 12 in the $1-million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf going a two-turn mile at Monmouth Park. The gelding had placed third in Florida turf stakes in January and February but had seemed unable to accelerate in Turfway Park's Lane's End Stakes on Polytrack in March and was in tight and bumped in Churchill Downs' Crown Royal American Turf Stakes 29 days prior to the Pebo's Guy. Those four 2008 outings -- two third-place efforts and two unplaced efforts -- had all been at two turns going a mile and a sixteenth or a mile and an eighth. In addition to possessing proven speed on turf, Cannonball can also stretch out his speed when racing luck allows it. Trained by Wesley Ward, who had given him a half-mile "bullet" workout over Keeneland's Polytrack eight days prior to the Pebo's Guy, Cannonball is a homebred for the Ramseys of Kentucky, who had stood Catienus at Carl Lizza Jr.'s and Joseph Bartone's Highcliff Farm from 2004 through 2007. Victory in the Pebo's Guy -- named for Peter DeStefano's New York homebred three-time turf stakes winner during 1998-2001 -- boosted Cannonball's earnings to $252,049 while improving his record to three wins and three third-place efforts (all six top-three outings on turf) in 10 career starts and seven grass competitions. Cannonball is among 16 New York-bred three-year-olds that have won or placed in open black-type stakes events in 2008. Cannonball is the second offspring and second winner by Catienus that the Ramseys have bred in New York from another of their homebreds, two-time turf winner No Deadline, who is a half-sister to turf stakes winner Silent Emotion ($209,993 and dam of 2007-2008 stakes winner Unspoken Word, also by Catienus). Kenneth Ramsey had purchased the dam of No Deadline and Silent Emotion, a stakes-winning mare named Coax Classic ($195,084), for $77,000 at Keeneland's 1994 November sale when she was carrying her first foal, future six-time dirt route winner Classic Tuxedo ($274,777). Cannonball's victory over older rivals highlighted the New York-bred 2005 crop, which was further enhanced by state-bred three-year-olds placing in subsequent graded stakes: Keep the Peace in Churchill Downs' Grade 3 Dogwood, I Lost My Choo in Belmont's Grade 2 Sands Point, Z Fortune in Thistledown's Grade 2 Ohio Derby. Gary and Mary West's Keep the Peace led at mid-stretch but missed by a half-length in Churchill Downs' one-turn mile Dogwood Stakes for three-year-old fillies for her third runner-up effort -- beaten by margins totaling less than a length in all three events -- in graded 2008 stakes. The Berkshire Stud-bred filly has a never-worse-than-fourth record of two wins and three seconds in six career starts with earnings of $145,650. Flying Zee Stable's homebred I lost My Choo placed third -- nosed out for second on a head-bob -- in Belmont's Sands Point for three-year-old fillies going a mile and an eighth on turf, registering her second consecutive graded-placing and boosting her earnings into six figures at $104,990. The improving daughter of Western Expression has three consecutive wins at Gulfstream Park, followed by third-place efforts in graded events at Keeneland and Belmont, in her five outings of 2008. Zayat Stables' Z Fortune placed third among eight in Thistledown's $300,000 Ohio Derby, boosting his earnings over $400K to $416,600 off a record of 3 - 2 - 1 in eight starts. The Delehanty Stock Farm-bred colt had won Fair Grounds' Grade 3 LeComte Stakes in January and had placed second in the Grade 3 Risen Star Stakes at that track in February and in Oaklawn Park's $1-million Grade 2 Arkansas Derby in April. The Ohio Derby winner, Smooth Air ($575,500), is a son of New York-based Smooth Jazz and has scored two Grade 2 victories in 2008. In 2008 through May, 35 New York-breds have registered 55 top-three efforts in black-type stakes events outside state-bred competition -- at 20 different tracks and racing facilities in 10 U.S. states plus England and Japan. |
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Stud Muffin startles foes with late rallying win in Noble Nashua S. by Rab Hagin
As the only participant in Belmont's mile and a sixteenth Noble Nashua Stakes that had never finished first in or even placed in a previous stakes, STUD MUFFIN rallied from seventh-to-first among nine New York-breds on Friday for his second victory since being claimed 78 days earlier for $35,000. The four-year-old had captured an open N1X allowance going a mile and an eighth at Aqueduct on April 12, but that accomplishment earned him no better than 19.10-to-1 sixth-choice odds among eight wagering interests and nine starters in the one-turn Noble Nashua for state-bred three-year-olds and up. Among the better-considered contenders was 3.10-to-1 second choice Stormin Normandy, who as anticipated tried to extend his proven sprinter-miler speed by setting the pace through ambitious early splits of 23.20 and 22.92 that were followed by decelerating intervals of 24.01 and 25.33. Stud Muffin, with two-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey John Velazquez on board for the first time in competition, raced in seventh place for a half-mile before improving his position on the turn, advancing to within about 2-1/2 lengths of still-leading Stormin Normandy at mid-stretch. In the final furlong, Velazquez altered his stretch-running mount's course sharply towards the rail, and in the final sixteenth Stud Muffin quickly overtook Stormin Normandy, who had turned back previous challenges from favored (as half of an entry) Dr. V's Magic and 6.70-to-1 fourth choice R Clear Victory. It was Stud Muffin's first win at Belmont since breaking his maiden at a one-turn mile a year earlier, and he was the second New York-bred four-year-old winner sent out on Belmont's Friday card by trainer David Duggan. The gray/roan colt had been one of four starters claimed for $35,000 in an open mile and a sixteenth contest at Aqueduct on March 13, in which he had placed third and was haltered by Duggan on behalf of Louis Zito and other partners John Crean and James Romanelli. Thirty days later, Stud Muffin had scored his open N1X allowance victory at Aqueduct, and on May 11 he had finished fifth among 10 in Belmont's Kingston Handicap on yielding turf. The Raffie's Majesty colt has earned $80,361 of his current cumulative bankroll of $197,198 since being claimed for $35,000 about 2-1/2 months ago and has an overall record of 5 - 2 - 3 in 20 starts. Bred by the Majesty Stud of Digby Barrios of Ridgefield, Connecticut, Stud Muffin had raced for his breeder until being claimed and is the sixth stakes winner -- and second this year from the crop of 2004 -- sired by Raffie's Majesty, in which Majesty Stud is a major partnership owner. Raffie's Majesty, who stands at Howard Kaskel's Sugar Maple Farm in Poughquag, was the New York Thoroughbred Breeders Champion Three-Year-Old Male for 1998. He has over 80 percent winners from starters, and Stud Muffin's victory in the Noble Nashua -- named for the multiple Grade 1 winner who had stood at Schoenborn Farm and at Highcliff Farm and sired near-millionaire New York-bred Ballindaggin -- pushed Raffie's Majesty's cumulative progeny earnings to over $4.8-million. Stud Muffin is the fourth winner and third New York-bred winner produced from Saratoga Princess, a daughter of Seattle Dancer and a half-sister to Grade 1-placed five-time winner Weekend Money ($200,922). His two older full siblings are Prince Raffie ($111,601), who has won on Aqueduct's inner track and captured a turf allowance at Saratoga, and first-out Belmont winner Raffamuffin, who is now a broodmare. Dam Saratoga Princess arrived in New York after being purchased for $20,000 at Keeneland's 2000 November sale. |
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Commentator is 20th NY-bred millionaire with 2nd in G1 Met Mile by Rab Hagin
Pushed into an accelerated pace and challenged to the top of the stretch, Tracy Farmer's top-weighted COMMENTATOR led to the final furlong in Belmont's Grade 1 Metropolitan (Mile) Handicap on Memorial Day Monday before placing a weary second, elevating his earnings over $1-million to become the 20th New York-bred millionaire. With $120,000 in second-place purse money from the Metropolitan Mile, the seven-year-old Grade 1 winner established his record at 11 - 1 - 2 in 18 starts and advanced his bankroll to $1,091,936 (see New York-bred Millionaires Club). He is the fourth New York-bred millionaire from the 2001 crop that has produced other state-bred seven-figure-earners Fleet Indian (Eclipse Champion), Friendly Island, and West Virginia plus other Grade 1 winners Behaving Badly and Friends Lake. Breaking on top from the eighth post as the 1.15-to-1 favorite among nine starters and eight wagering interests, Commentator set a 22.48 opening quarter-mile but could not immediately get clear of 6.50-to-1 fifth choice First Defence on his inside. Two-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey John Velazquez -- who had ridden Commentator to two victories in two previous 2008 starts -- allowed the gelding to accelerate his second quarter to 22.04, but First Defence remained only a length back. On Belmont's big turn, which again induced Commentator to switch to his right lead before reaching the stretch, First Defence challenged from the outside and poked his nose in front near the quarter pole, but Commentator regained command and finally separated from that rival inside the final furlong. By the final sixteenth of a mile, the threat was no longer a fading First Defence but instead an emerging star miler, 2.25-to-1 second choice Divine Park, who under five pounds less weight than Commentator drove past the New York-bred to get the victory. Jockey Velazquez, who in addition to being a two-time Eclipse Award winner also was voted New York Thoroughbred Breeders (NYTB) Jockey of the Year for 2002, praised Commentator's effort: "He tried so hard, it was unbelievable, but it set up for someone else," Velazquez explained. "He put out everything I asked him to give. The way the race set up, that's what I was afraid of. He kept running, and by the sixteenth pole, he flattened out." Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito, who has been Commentator's exclusive conditioner, echoed Velazquez's comments: "It was a great race; we just got a bad break," Zito observed. "(Jockey Javier) Castellano (aboard First Defence) put a lot of pressure on us -- first inside to make us three-wide, and then outside. It was just too much pressure on us. It took him out of his race, and carrying top weight didn't help. But I'm not complaining. He's a great horse and I'm very proud," concluded Zito, who indicated that Saratoga's Grade 1 Whitney Handicap at a mile and an eighth on Saturday, July 26 -- an event that Commentator won in 2005 -- would possibly be the gelding's next start. Winning trainer Kiaran McLaughlin readily conceded one of Zito's observations: "The five pounds (from Commentator) helped us out a lot," acknowledged McLaughlin, who also was not sorry that an undefeated Grade 1-winning Metropolitan nominee, New York-bred Bustin Stones, skipped the event because a fever had interrupted his training schedule. Winner of Gulfstream Park's Grade 2 Richter Scale Sprint by 13-3/4 lengths in March and a track record-holder at both that facility and at Belmont, Commentator is owned by Farmer of Shadowlawn Farm in Kentucky, who had purchased the gelding for $135,000 at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky's 2002 July yearling sale. He was bred by Michael Martinez of Meriden, Connecticut and was foaled and raised at Thomas J. Gallo III's Blue Stone Farm in Cambridge. The son of Distorted Humor has won three NYTB championships -- one in 2004 and two (Horse of the Year and Champion Older Male) in 2005. He has two full sisters -- a yearling and a suckling -- but is the first offspring produced from Outsource, who is by Storm Bird and is a half-sister to multiple turf stakes winner Cogburn. Commentator's runner-up effort in the Metropolitan was the 52nd top-three finish by a New York-bred in a black-type stakes on the flat and outside of state-bred competition in 2008. Those 52 top-three finishes have been registered at 19 different tracks and racing facilities in nine U.S. states plus England and Japan. Johnie Bye Night wins third straight $50,000 George W. Barker Handicap by Matt Church
Charlton Baker's owned and trained JOHNIE BYE NIGHT turned back stablemate Mr. Bourbon Street and proved best for the third straight year in the $50,000 George W. Barker Handicap. Carrying highweight of 122 pounds and John Davila Jr., Johnie Bye Night now five wins over this oval and $185,830 in winnings here. Johnie Bye Night had a trip over this upstate oval back on April 19 but could not catch Fifty Seven G and wound-up finishing second beaten a length. That test was a $26,500 overnight Handicap at four and one-half furlongs. Today's contest was restricted to three year olds and upward bred in the state of New York going six furlongs. Six tough competitors were set to go with Johnie Bye Night the favorite at $1.35 to 1. Also taking plenty action at the windows as the second choice at $1.50 to 1 was Maurice W. Miller and Thomas F. Van Meter's What a Tale. What a Tale had never seen this track and last raced at Belmont Park on May 3, where he wired of field of 11 NW2X state-breds by six and one-half lengths. The Bruce N. Levine trained runner has been lightly raced with a record of three wins, two seconds and one third in only nine career starts. Johnie Bye Night and the H. James Bond trained Zipperoo rushed out and got the opening quarter in a very quick 21.52 and a solid three length lead over Mr. Bourbon Street. Johnie Bye Night disposed of Zipperoo leaving the backstretch and opened up a commanding four and one-half length cushion while getting the half mile in a sizzling 43.72. Mr. Bourbon Street was let loose by Dennis Carr and only had a length and one-half to make-up with a furlong to go. Johnie Bye Night responded readily to Davila's urging and the pair turned back Mr. Bourbon Street for a three-quarters of a length score. Zipperoo held on well to secure the show. What a Tale ducked in sharply at the start bothering Goldispretty and was disqualified by the stewards from a well beaten fourth to fifth. Johnie Bye Night covered the distance over a fast track in 1:10.65 and earned $30,000. Bred by Kristen LeBlanc, the six year old gelded son of Langfuhr out of Romantic Interlude by French Deputy now has eight career wins out of 16 starts and a whopping $264,688 in money won. Also the running machine qualified for $3,000 in breeders' awards. |
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By the Light is 5-for-5 following '08 debut win in Belmont's Pearl City by Rab Hagin
Despite breaking flat-footed and trailing the early pacesetter by 6-1/2 lengths, Jay Em Ess Stable's unbeaten New York-bred BY THE LIGHT charged from last-to-first among five to win Belmont's six-furlong Pearl City Stakes for open three-year-old fillies by a length and a half on pre-Memorial Day Saturday. The talented filly was the only starter in the Pearl City making her 2008 debut, but she still was odds-on (.90-to-1) in her first outing since early December while being ridden for the first time in competition by jockey Edgar Prado -- her fourth rider in five starts. By the Light is the latest 2008 open stakes winner from a New York-bred three-year-old filly crop that also includes recent Grade 2 winners Sweet Vendetta and Sherine as well as Weathered and Love Co. This was the first time By the Light ever had broken dead last -- and at the finish, it did not seem to matter, but early on the New York-bred seemed out of it, trailing the double-digit-odds last choice whose closest pursued rival was four lengths ahead. Advancing to be positioned right behind the leaders on the turn, Prado's mount was sent outside at the top of the stretch and then closed relentlessly, going from fourth at the eighth pole to first and pulling away with ears pricked at the finish. She was the first of two winners piloted by Prado at Belmont for the day and the first of two New York-bred open company non-claiming victors on the Big Sandy's Saturday card. Multiple stakes-winning sprinter Throbbin' Heart, who had gained the lead at mid-stretch, placed a clear second in the Pearl City. By the Light's almost casually confident style of closing through the stretch and not driving hard after gaining command was reminiscent of one of her great-great-great-grandsires, Hall of Fame member Buckpasser. By the Light races for the Jay Em Ess Stable of Samantha Siegel of Santa Monica, California, who watched the Pearl City on the Television Games (TVG) network from her California home and afterwards commented: "When she (By the Light) turns for home, she knows what her job is." Siegel, who had purchased By the Light for $190,000 at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic's 2006 October yearling sale in Timonium, Maryland, indicated that future plans for the bay filly had not been finalized but that her previous outings had been determined by eligibility for certain lucrative stakes purses. By the Light has won her five starts by a total of 21 lengths, including Finger Lakes' $269,200 New York Breeders' Futurity against males by 2-3/4 lengths and $137,825 Lady Finger Stakes by 5-1/4 lengths plus Delta Downs' $300,000 Boyd Gaming's Delta Princess Powered by Youbet.com Stakes by 5-1/4 lengths. The one-mile Delta Princess around Delta Downs' six-furlong bullring on December 7 was the New York-bred filly's only effort beyond six furlongs thus far, but she has the running style and pedigree of a potential router. Siegel also revealed that By the Light's conditioner, New York Thoroughbred Breeders (NYTB) 2002 Trainer of the Year Richard Dutrow Jr., had been reluctant to send the filly against colts in the New York Breeders' Futurity but relented because of the generous purse money available to the runner-up. The career bankroll for By the Light, whom Dutrow had given three moderate and well-spaced workouts at Aqueduct from March 25 to May 18 in preparation for the Pearl City, currently totals $497,565. She was voted NYTB Champion Two-Year-Old Filly for 2007 (see 2007 NYTB Divisional Champions). Bred by Paul Rothfuss of Winter Springs, Florida, By the Light had a history of steady appreciation in value as she passed through three different sales rings over a span of less than nine months during 2006. She was a $120,000 "winter yearling" at Keeneland's January sale, failed to meet her reserve despite a $145,000 bid at Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga select yearling sale, then fetched $190,000 at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic's October yearling sale from Jay Em Ess Stable. The Malibu Moon filly is the third offspring and third multiple winner produced from eight-time winner Dixie Tempo, who had been purchased for $30,000 by Thoroughbreds International, agent, at Keeneland's 2004 November sale when that mare was carrying By the Light. Dixie Tempo is by Major Impact and is a full sister to graded-winning mare and dirt and turf stakes winner Queen of Wilshire ($441,102). This is the female family of 1980 Eclipse Champion Juvenile Filly Heavenly Cause and also of 1983 Wood Memorial winner Bounding Basque ($1,256,258), who had stood in New York in the early 1990s. By the Light is the 14th New York-bred to win an open black-type stakes on the flat in 2008, and the Pearl City was the 16th open black-type stakes event captured this year by a runner bred in the Empire State. She is the ninth three-year-old open stakes winner of 2008 -- five fillies and four colts -- bred in New York and conceived during the breeding season that followed Funny Cide's Kentucky Derby-Preakness-Eclipse Award-winning campaign of 2003. About 3-1/2 hours after By the Light's Pearl City win, another New York-bred three-year-old filly, William Gilmore's Great Precision, rallied from next-to-last out of the ninth post among 10 to place second in her stakes and turf debut, Louisiana Downs' five-furlong Beach Party Stakes for sophomore fillies on grass. The April 30-foaled chestnut was coming off back-to-back main track wins at Delta Downs (by 5-3/4 lengths) and Evangeline Downs (N1X allowance) in March and April and placed second to a stakes veteran that was 71 days older but carrying two pounds less weight. Trained by John Gelner, Great Precision has a never-worse-than-fourth record of two wins and one second in four starts. The daughter of Precise End was bred by the NYTB three-time Breeder of the Year, Richard Simon's Sez Who Thoroughbreds in Stillwater, and is the fourth winner produced from five-time winner Satans Lullaby, who is a half-sister to five-time stakes winner and Grade 2-placed River of Sin ($408,642). Great Precision is the 35th New York-bred to finish in the top three in a black-type stakes outside state-bred competition in 2008, and her runner-up effort in the Beach Party was the 51st top-three performance in an open (to horses bred anywhere) black-type stakes on the flat this year. Those 51 top-three open stakes performances by state-breds in 2008 have been registered at 19 different tracks and racing facilities in nine U.S. states plus England and Japan. |
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Pays to Dream romps in G2 Dixie - Icabad Crane 3rd in G1 Preakness - Be Certain wins G2 National Hunt Cup by Rab Hagin
(5/17) It was a lucrative Preakness Day for New York-breds at Pimlico. In the Grade 2 Dixie Stakes for three-year-olds and up going a mile and an eighth on turf, December Hill Farm's New York homebred PAYS TO DREAM shocked most of the 112,222 fans by charging from last-to-first among nine to win by 7-1/2 lengths as the 19.20-to-1 seventh choice. In the $1-million Preakness two races later, Earle Mack's state-bred Icabad Crane also advanced from last, squeezing through traffic on the second turn and then angling outside to close between rivals for a third-placing among 12 -- keeping intact his record of never finishing unplaced. Both of those Pimlico efforts were registered at double-digit odds and were good for six-figure purse paychecks totaling $260,000. And on the same Saturday at the Radnor Hunt Races in Malvern, Pennsylvania, recently-honored New York Thoroughbred Breeders 2007 Steeplechase Champion BE CERTAIN captured the Grade 2 $75,000 BNY Mellon National Hunt Cup in a game victory over seven older and more seasoned rivals. For Pays to Dream, it was his biggest winning margin ever and seemed to come with almost ridiculous ease even though the four-year-old gelding was taken up by jockey Javier Castellano when encountering a wall of traffic on the second turn while trying to advance from last place. Within a quarter-mile, the New York-bred went from ninth-to-first with a freakishly fast move along the rail before darting outside and leaving his competition, registering easily the widest winning margin on Pimlico's Preakness Day card with easily the longest odds of any of the winners. For Castellano, who in his last previous (attempted) race aboard Pays to Dream almost seven months earlier had fallen off when the gelding stumbled badly at the start of Monmouth's $100,000 Rutgers University Stakes, the Dixie seemed easy: "I had a beautiful trip today, a dream trip," the jockey reflected. "I took my time. The track (course) is a little soft today (officially classified as "good"). I had to follow the best horse in the race. I thought that (horse) was Shakis (the 1.10-to-1 favorite) and (jockey) Ramon Dominguez. I saved ground all the way around. Turning for home, I followed Ramon, but then I saw the hole, and I went through because I had so much horse. He passed the others and went by them so easy. He really exploded. I liked the way he opened up on the field," concluded Castellano, who had two turf stakes-winning rides on Pimlico's Preakness Day card and has now ridden Pays to Dream in seven starts and three wins. Winning trainer David Donk seemed somewhat surprised at the outcome (Pays to Dream had never previously won on a less-than-firm turf course) and obviously impressed: "It was a soft course. I wasn't sure if he'd handle it or not. Horses with that (stalking) style usually don't do that well when the turf is soft, but I was impressed. That was wonderful." Victory in the $250,000 Dixie increased Pays to Dream's earnings to $337,741 and improved his record to 5 - 1 - 3 in 14 starts, which includes a length-and-a-half victory in Saratoga's Glow Stakes (for non-winners of an open turf stakes but outside state-bred company) at a mile on turf last August. After the stumbling start and Castellano's fall, Donk had given the New York-bred six months off and brought him back in Aqueduct's graded Fort Marcy Handicap on April 27, in which Pays to Dream had finished unplaced. Donk subsequently had given the bay stalker a half-mile workout over Belmont's training track on May 11 and six days later sent out what looks like a major turf star for 2008. A homebred for December Hill Farm (managed by Chris Dragone of Saratoga Springs) and foaled at John Hettinger's Akindale Farm in Pawling, Pays to Dream is among six winners produced from Changing Ways, who won Saratoga's 1994 Grade 2 Schuylerville by four lengths in the mud for December Hill Farm. The son of currently French-based Grade 1-winning Storm Cat stallion High Yield is a half-brother to Grade 2-placed filly/mare Hot Attraction ($149,123), who placed in stakes at both Santa Anita and Belmont as a three-year-old in 2005. He is the first of two turf winners out of Changing Ways, who is a half-sister to graded winners Jacodra's Devil ($271,627) and Jacodra (set Hollywood Park track record) and to the dam of Grade 2 winners Tejano Run ($1,166,842) and More Royal ($291,588 in North America, England, and France). Pays to Dream is the seventh New York-bred graded winner (on the flat) of 2008 -- surpassing the total number of state-bred graded winners for all of 2007 -- and he is the 13th Empire State-bred to win an open black-type stakes event this year. Icabad Crane closes from 12th-to-3rd in traffic-hindered Preakness
At five different distances ranging from 6-1/2 furlongs to a mile and three-sixteenths -- on Aqueduct's muddy outer track, fast inner fast track, Turfway Park's Polytrack, twice at Pimlico, three times in open stakes -- Earle Mack's New York-bred Icabad Crane has never finished unplaced and retained that distinction following the Preakness. The dark bay colt's traffic-hindered effort in Saturday's $1-million Preakness boosted his earnings by $110,000 to $235,400 off a record of three wins and two thirds in five starts. He and Preakness runner-up Macho Again would already have been graded winners just over a decade ago with wins in Churchill Downs' Derby Trail and Pimlico's Federico Tesio respectively, but those events lost the Graded Stakes Committee's whimsical blessing, so the two currently are just promising open stakes winners. Sent off the fourth choice at 22.20-to-1 among the dozen Preakness starters, Icabad Crane trailed the field after the opening half-mile. Following a subsequent quarter-mile, he was ninth, and after seven furlongs his jockey, Jeremy Rose, was looking for running room out of the second turn but encountered the hindquarters of tiring former front-runners Gayego and Riley Tucker. Rose, who had ridden Icabad Crane to victory in Pimlico's mile and an eighth Tesio four weeks earlier, steadied his New York-bred mount and steered him outside, where the colt split rivals and closed late to place third. Rose was complimentary of Icabad Crane's performance afterwards: "My trip was good to the quarter pole," Rose acknowledged. "I went after (winner) Big Brown, but he just threw dirt on me. My horse ran his heart out, and with a little better trip, I may well have gotten second." Trainer Graham Motion, who conditions Icabad Crane, agreed with Rose: "What can I say? I thought he ran huge," remarked Motion. "I thought really he was unlucky not to be second. He got stopped pretty bad at the top of the stretch when the frontrunners started backing up. He really had to get going again, which I thought was really impressive -- that he got back up to be third." Owned by real estate developer Mack of Fort Lee, New Jersey and Palm Beach, Florida, Icabad Crane was bred by and foaled at Marlene Brody's Gallagher's Stud in Ghent, which had consigned him to Fasig-Tipton's 2006 Saratoga New York-bred preferred yearling sale. The colt was pinhooked by Crupi's New Castle Farm of Ocala, Florida, which had purchased him for $65,000 at Saratoga and had sold him for $110,000 six months later at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's 2007 February sale of selected two-year-olds. Icabad Crane is the fourth offspring and fourth winner produced from Gallagher's Stud's New York homebred winner, Adorahy, whose six-figure-earning half-siblings include graded winner Adcat ($435,597), stakes winner Adorydar ($231,425), and stakes-placed stakes producer Adoryphar (granddam of Grade 1 winner Rutherienne). Icabad Crane's female family has been in New York for generations. Another of Adorahy's half-sisters, the late Adorable Minister, foundered as a foal and never raced but produced New York-bred stakes winners Gratiaen ($288,164) and Cute Cognac -- the latter after having been purchased privately by Thomas J. Gallo III of Parting Glass Stable, LLC and Blue Stone Farm in Cambridge. Adorable Minister's three-year-old son (Separatist) and two-year-old daughter are both owned by Parting Glass Stable -- the former by the same collection of partnerships that also owns recently-named New York Thoroughbred Breeders Champion Turf Male for 2007, Dave. Icabad Crane's third-placing in the Preakness was the 49th top-three finish by a New York-bred in a black-type stakes event outside state-bred company in 2008. Those 49 top-three stakes finishes have been registered at 18 different tracks and racing facilities in nine U.S. states plus England and Japan. Be Certain wins National Hunt Cup by Joe Clancy
Alnoff Stable's Be Certain, recently crowned New York Thoroughbred Breeders Association Champion Steeplechaser of 2007, outran heavy favorite Planets Aligned (a seven-year-old son of Gold Fever) to win the $75,000 Grade 2 BNY Mellon National Hunt Cup at the Radnor Hunt Races on Saturday in Malvern, Pennsylvania. The two horses completed a Tom Voss-trained one-two sweep and finished together, as Be Certain rallied in the final yards to edge his more accomplished stablemate by a head. Matt McCarron rode the winner, who scored for the third time in six career steeplechase starts and covered the 2 3/8 miles in 4:54. The Price Of Love finished third in the eight-horse field. A four-year-old son of Thunder Gulch and the youngest (only four-year-old) in the National Hunt Cup, Be Certain sat off a quick early pace set by Sunshine Numbers and moved to second when Planets Aligned took over at the top of the stretch. Second over both fences in the stretch, Be Certain gradually closed on Planets Aligned and got up in the final strides. McCarron, on board for the first time, was impressed with his horse's determination late. "He was as game as he could be," said McCarron. "He's a horse with limited experience, he's running against a real class horse in Planets Aligned, who tightened it up on us coming to the last fence. For a four-year-old to pick up for me, lock on to the other horse, and dig in again is pretty special." Bred by Howard Kaskel's Sugar Maple Farm, Be Certain made two flat starts in state-bred maiden company last year (placing seventh and eighth) for trainer Roger Horgan before being transferred to Voss's barn with jump racing in mind. The chestnut finished third in his debut and won his second start last November. He came into the Radnor race off an allowance victory at the Virginia Gold Cup on May 3. The National Hunt Cup completed the Steeplechase Triple Crown with three horses gaining victories -- Imagina in the Carolina Cup on March 29 and Planets Aligned in the Temple Gwathmey on April 19. Arthur Arundel's Irish import Monte Bianco won the co-feature, the $40,000 Bellevue Radnor Hunt Cup, over timber for trainer Jack Fisher and jockey Xavier Aizpuru. Them There Eyes rallies 5-wide to win Belmont's Mount Vernon H. by 3 by Rab Hagin
(5/18) Scoring her second consecutive mile and a sixteenth turf victory in 24 days, Akindale Farm's homebred THEM THERE EYES rallied from seventh-to-first within three-sixteenths of a mile in Belmont's Mount Vernon Handicap for New York-bred fillies and mares on Sunday, drawing off to a three-length win. Although an open grass stakes winner at Aqueduct last November and coming off an impressive open allowance/optional turf tally at the Big A, the four-year-old filly was half of an overlooked entry that was the 6.90-to-1 co-fourth choice among seven wagering interests and eight starters. Her jockey for the second successive time was Jose Espinoza, who allowed the gray/roan stalker to settle in seventh place while longshot Tamberino (39-to-1) set a catch-me-if-you-can pace (24.36, 23.51, 24.27) over the "good" turf under pursuit from Them There Eyes' entry-mate and three-year-old half-sister, My Dinah. On the only full turn in the Mount Vernon, My Dinah -- the lone three-year-old in the event -- briefly poked her head in front, but at that juncture Them There Eyes was launching her five-wide move to seize command by mid-stretch. The Akindale homebred collared top-weighted favorite Factual Contender (1.35-to-1) just as that rival looked ready to take the lead, and although the favorite separated by more than two lengths from 2.45-to-1 second choice Rewrite, who placed third, she could not stay with Them There Eyes. The top three finishers in the rain-sprinkled $111,400 Mount Vernon -- Them There Eyes, Factual Contender, and Rewrite -- all had captured open NYRA turf stakes. For jockey Espinoza, it was his third winning ride in the Mount Vernon. Winning trainer Kathleen Faron observed what should have been common knowledge following Them There Eyes' daylight-margin win in Aqueduct's open Scoot Stakes at double-digit odds in November only a week after a main track allowance win at the Big A: "This is a nice filly," the trainer understated. "She beat Factual Contender in this race -- and she (Factual Contender) was the (NYTB) champion (turf) filly (female) in New York last year. That says a lot about Them There Eyes. I had her (half) sister in the race, My Dinah, but not as a 'rabbit.' It just worked out that way. I really thought she would love the soft turf. "They are both good fillies," Faron continued. "Them There Eyes is the better one. We gave her a little layoff (20 weeks from November to early April), and she came back great. I'm very proud of her." Victory in the first Mount Vernon in a dozen years run at a virtual one-turn mile and a sixteenth over Belmont's Widener Course boosted Them There Eyes' earnings to $265,944, improving her record to 6 - 2 - 1 in 14 starts, with five wins and two seconds in 10 turf starts. A homebred for John Hettinger's Akindale Farm in Pawling -- and foaled at Akindale about a month and a half before Saturday's Grade 2 Dixie Stakes winner at Pimlico, Pays to Dream, was foaled there -- Them There Eyes is the second Mount Vernon winner bred by Hettinger. She and half-sister My Dinah, who had placed third in Belmont's $109,300 Bouwerie Stakes for state-bred three-year-old fillies going seven furlongs on dirt two weeks earlier to gain her first black-type, are the first two offspring produced from Hettinger's New York homebred So Long Dearie. The gray/roan Holy Bull filly is the latest in a series of stakes winners bred by Hettinger from descendents of Avichi, a winning Damascus mare that Hettinger had purchased for $102,000 at Keeneland's 1986 January sale. Dam So Long Dearie is a full sister to New York-bred multiple Grade 2 dirt winner Lady D'Accord ($590,138) and a half-sister to New York-bred graded turf winner Missymooiloveyou (dam of graded winner Ommadon, who stands at Quiet Woman Farm Training Center in Germantown). |
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Sweet Vendetta picks G2 Black-Eyed Susan for first graded victory by Rab Hagin
Using ground-devouring strides to collar a Grade 2-winning rival in the final sixteenth, Team Penney Racing's and David Cassidy's New York homebred SWEET VENDETTA captured Pimlico's Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes for three-year-old fillies by a length and a half on Friday in her first outing away from Aqueduct. The big bay had won her latest previous start 58 days earlier, taking Aqueduct's open Andover Way Stakes at a mile and 70 yards on a sloppy inner track by four lengths and now clearly ranks as one of North America's top two-turn sophomore fillies on dirt. Although Pimlico's horseplayers apparently had overlooked Sweet Vendetta somewhat, making her the 7.70-to-1 sixth choice among seven wagering interests and eight starters in the mile and an eighth Black-Eyed Susan, jockey Channing Hill and trainer Gary Contessa obviously knew what they had. Allowed to settle back in seventh place going around the first turn, Sweet Vendetta barely advanced from that position until reaching the second turn, as another New York-bred, 6-to-1 fifth choice (as half of an entry) and recent Grade 2 winner Sherine set the early pace. As Sherine -- who previously had never raced on a wet track and might prefer one turn to two -- began fading over the muddy surface, jockey Hill sent Sweet Vendetta from sixth-to-second in the fourth quarter-mile, while 3.40-to-1 third choice Shes All Eltish suddenly gained a 2-1/2-length mid-stretch lead. Shes All Eltish, a daughter of New York-based Eltish, had won Gulfstream Park's Grade 2 Bonnie Miss Stakes at a mile and an eighth by 6-3/4 lengths in late March, so stamina was no question mark with her, but Sweet Vendetta's giant strides made the difference. Covering her final furlong in close to 12 seconds, the New York-bred powered to victory in 1:49.60, which despite the track condition was the first Black-Eyed Susan run in under 1:50 since two-time Eclipse Champion Silverbulletday had captured the event nine years earlier. Shes All Eltish placed second, followed by recent Bay Meadows Oaks winner Seattle Smooth, the 3-to-1 second choice. Jockey Hill, who has ridden Sweet Vendetta in her latest three outings -- two stakes wins and a stakes runner up -- and is the son of the rider of the 1975 Black-Eyed Susan winner, spoke in superlatives: "What a tremendous filly," Hill marveled. "She broke great. The race unfolded exactly the way I figured it was going to. I figured I was going to be a little more off the pace than I was in her previous race (the Andover Way at Aqueduct). I think she's enough filly to handle anything. It (winning the Black-Eyed Susan) ranks right up there. I was fortunate enough to win the (Grade 2) Barbara Fritchie (at Laurel in February) this year. This is equal to that." Gary Contessa, the New York Thoroughbred Breeders three-time Trainer of the Year who had given Sweet Vendetta five workouts following her March 19 Andover Way win, was always confident about the distance and was not sorry to see rain: "I loved the mile and an eighth for her," Contessa remarked. "She was training up a storm. I know she's a natural at this distance. She's almost 17 hands and has that big loping stride. I thought this was a good fit here. When the heavens opened up last night, that added more icing to the cake. We know she loves the mud as well. This is what we'd envisioned. This race, and maybe on to the Alabama (Grade 1, $600,000 guaranteed, for three-year-old fillies going a mile and a quarter at Saratoga on Saturday, August 16)." Winning co-owner-and-breeder Cassidy, the television and singing star who seems to have changed little from his teenage days on the musical sit-com, The Partridge Family (broadcast 1970 to 1974), commented that, "It's just a thrill to have bred a filly like her -- especially since I don't have that many mares." Sweet Vendetta is the first New York-bred winner of the Black-Eyed Susan since Grecian Flight (see New York-bred Millionaires Club) captured the event in 1987. It was the big filly's third win in her last four starts, which includes a runner-up effort in Aqueduct's open Busher Stakes in February, and it boosted her earnings well into six figures at $206,596. New York-bred Sherine, who was bumped at the break before gaining her pace-setting lead, had to be steadied in the upper stretch when she shied at the infield-parked starting gate and then faded out of contention, but she increased her bankroll to $226,662. Bred by Cassidy in partnership with Edward Lipton of Fort Lauderdale, Florida and raced by Cassidy with the Team Penney Racing of Shirl Penney of Weehawkin, New Jersey, Sweet Vendetta is the fifth offspring, fifth New York-bred winner, fourth top-three stakes performer, and third stakes winner produced from Sand Pirate. The daughter of Grade 1 winner Stephen Got Even is a five-generation outcross (no inbreeding) -- as is seven-time winning dam Sand Pirate, who is by Desert Wine. Sand Pirate, a Canadian-bred, had raced in western Canada and Washington state, winning six times at distances ranging from six furlongs to a mile and a sixteenth before heading to the southern California circuit, where in November of 1999 she was claimed for $9,000 at Hollywood Park. In January of 2000, the then seven-year-old mare won her final start by three lengths going a mile at Turf Paradise in Arizona with a $12,500 tag under Cassidy's colors before shipping to Dr. Jerry Bilinski's Waldorf Farm in North Chatham to begin her broodmare career. Sand Pirate is out of a graded winner, Wayward Pirate, but what initially enhanced her female family after Cassidy's acquisition of her was the emergence of one of her half-sister's offspring, Continental Red ($1,383,788), a late-developing Grade 2-winning turf router who also was a stakes winner on dirt. Sweet Vendetta is the sixth New York-bred graded winner of 2008 -- equaling the number of New York-bred graded/group winners for all of 2007 -- and she is the fourth three-year-old state-bred (two fillies, two colts) to capture a graded event this year. The New York-bred crop that was conceived during the breeding season following Funny Cide's Kentucky Derby-Preakness-Eclipse Award-winning campaign might be one of the Empire State's best ever. |
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NY-bred Heathersdaddysbaby gains 1st black-type with 2nd in Long Beach S. by Rab Hagin For a mare that two years ago was running with an $8,000 tag at Charles Town, New York-bred Heathersdaddysbaby has graduated into fairly elite company, placing second among six -- four of them established stakes winners -- in Hollywood Park's Long Beach Stakes on Wednesday, May 14 to gain her first black-type. The five-year-old mare had won on Santa Anita turf in January and March with $50,000 tags and was haltered by Ellis and Noone Capen following the second of those victories. For the $67,870 Long Beach, a one-mile turf event for fillies and mares that were non-winners at a mile or longer in competition other than closed, maiden, claiming, or starter since December 1, Heathersdaddysbaby was made the 4.30-to-1 third choice. Her chief rival under the convoluted conditions was the 1.30-to-1 favorite, multiple English group winner Wake Up Maggie. Breaking from the fifth post in her first outing under jockey Rafael Bejarano, Heathersdaddysbaby cleared her inside competition rounding the first turn and led for a half-mile but allowed an inviting rail path on the second turn for a stalking Wake Up Maggie, who slipped through for a ground-saving victory. Heathersdaddysbaby held off stakes winner I Can See to place second while also beating multiple stakes winner Spenditallbaby and Grade 2 winner Mistical Plan. The effort increased the earnings for the New York-bred daughter of Badge to $227,519 off a record of 9 - 6 - 4 in 28 starts, which includes six wins on turf and three on dirt. The mare's fourth and current trainer is Mike Mitchell. Bred by James Vena, Heathersdaddysbaby was purchased by her first trainer, David Rose, for $3,000 at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's 2005 April sale of two-year-olds. She is the first of two New York-breds among four multiple winners produced from Bonzo's Baldski, who is by Baldski and is a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Dice Dancer ($404,492) and to the dam of stakes winner and Mexican champion Abraham Champion. The dark bay mare is the 32nd New York-bred to win or place (second or third) in 2008 black-type stakes competition outside state-bred company, and her runner-up effort in the Long Beach was the 46th top-three stakes finish this year by a New York-bred outside the state-bred ranks. Those 46 top-three finishes have been registered at 18 different tracks and racing facilities in nine U.S. states plus England and Japan. |
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Please click here for profiles of this year's champions |
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Banrock battles Dave in $113,700 Kingston - scores 1st stakes victory by Rab Hagin
Competing just 18 days after his 2008 debut, Nyala Farm's homebred BANROCK advanced from seventh among 10 to edge Grade 2 winner Dave in the final strides of Belmont's Kingston Handicap for New York-breds going a mile and a sixteenth on turf on Sunday, scoring his first stakes victory. The five-year-old gelding had finished multiple lengths behind Dave in stakes outings during the summer and fall of 2007 but had won his final start of the season, a late November open N1X allowance going a mile and three-eighths on Aqueduct turf, by 2-3/4 lengths. He appears to have come back stronger than ever, beating the 2007 Kingston winner (Dave) as well as the event's 2006 winner (3.95-to-1 third choice Red Zipper, who was unplaced) plus graded winner Mission Approved and multiple stakes winners Retribution and Classic Pack. A year earlier, Banrock was still struggling to graduate from the restricted N2X allowance level. Breaking from the ninth post as the 9.70-to-1 fourth choice with Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux on board for the second time in competition, Banrock stayed off the pace set by Retribution and Hammock, whose accelerating splits (24.37, 23.76, 23.65) over the yielding turf belied their double-digit odds. After three-quarters of a mile in 1:11.78, Dave -- the top-weighted 2.70-to-1 second choice -- was within a half-length of a folding Hammock on his inside, with Banrock a length and a half back in fourth place after having circled five-wide into the stretch. By mid-stretch, Dave held the lead even though Banrock had cut the gap between them to a length, and approaching the wire the two were virtually dead even before Banrock pushed his head in front in the final few strides. Favored Spurred (2.20-to-1), who also had been finishing significantly ahead of Banrock in stakes competition last fall, placed 2-3/4 lengths behind Dave to be third. The winning time over the yielding course -- in the Kingston's first running at a near one-turn mile and a sixteenth in a dozen years -- was a surprisingly fast 1:42.51. Winning jockey Desormeaux, who had ridden Banrock to a second-placing almost a year earlier in a restricted N2X allowance turf mile at Belmont, seemed to have enjoyed his Kingston trip despite tacitly admitting he had misjudged the first turn: "It was exciting out there on the first turn," Desormeaux revealed. "I was trying to shuffle Eibar (Coa, aboard Dave) back, but he said, 'No way.' When we hit the wire, I said, 'You should've let me.' (Actually) I shouldn't have even tried that. Dave made the perfect target. It was a good stretch run. My horse had to find another gear in the final 70 yards. I'm excited to be back in New York and happy to ride for (trainer) Mr. Bush again." Winning trainer Thomas Bush, who had given Banrock a moderate half-mile Belmont workout on May 5 following the gelding's third-placing in an open N2X allowance/optional claiming contest going a mile and a sixteenth on Aqueduct turf on April 23, spoke admiringly of the five-year-old: "He's one tough hombre, isn't he? All we could say to Desormeaux was that this horse wants to move late, so wait as long as you can. That's what he did. The owners (Nyala Farm) have no problem with giving a horse time, and we gave Banrock the winter off in South Carolina. He's a grass horse anyway, so the timing was perfect. "We ran him on April 23, and we ran back a little close today," Bush continued. "I was worried about that, but he came off that last race so fresh, we decided to try it. Now, we'll give him plenty of time before his next start." Victory in the $113,700 Kingston increased Banrock's earnings to $249,064 and improved his record to 5 - 3 - 3 in 18 starts, which includes two Aqueduct grass wins (mile and mile and three-eighths), one at Saratoga (mile and a sixteenth), two at Belmont (mile and an eighth plus the Kingston). A homebred for the Nyala Farm of Kathleen O'Connell of Easton, Connecticut and Ruth Bedford of Greens Farms, Connecticut, he is a half-brother to Nyala Farm's New York homebred multiple stakes-winning filly of 2006, Finlandia ($326,015). The son of New York-conceived Kentucky Derby winner Go for Gin (broodmare sire of two other New York-bred turf winners on Belmont's Sunday card) is the third winner produced from Nyala Farm's New York homebred It's a Gherkin, who won three times on Belmont grass -- twice in restricted allowances. It's a Gherkin, who is by deceased New York sire Ends Well, is a full sister to two stakes-placed winners, including New York-bred Bien Sucre ($124,206), dam of New York-bred stakes winners Homerette ($251,817 through 2007) and Dulce de Leche ($195,324 in U.S. and France). With a dosage profile of 6-1-12-3-4, Banrock is theoretically bred to run all day. He is inbred 3 x 4 x 5 to 1968 Belmont Stakes winner Stage Door Johnny, to whom dam It's a Gherkin is individually inbred 3 x 4. |
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Groomedforvictory wins Screenland in 1st stakes outing despite adversity by Rab Hagin
In his first stakes start at a distance which is probably too short for him, Sure Thing Stables' homebred GROOMEDFORVICTORY had just about everything go wrong but won anyway, capturing Belmont's 6-1/2-furlong Screenland Stakes for New York-bred three-year-olds on Wednesday for his second consecutive victory in 40 days. The Screenland outcome also gave Groomedforvictory's dam, Minigroom, her second stakes winner in 17 days, since the Screenland winner's five-year-old full brother, R Clear Victory ($217,398), had captured Aqueduct's Kings Point Handicap by four lengths on April 20. One difference between the two brothers is that R Clear Victory, who has won twice on turf and four times on dirt and now seems to be improving daily, never even tried stakes competition until this year. Groomedforvictory's future possibilities appear to be almost boundless. Heavily favored at 70 cents to the dollar among six starters with jockey Javier Castellano on board for the third consecutive time in competition, Groomedforvictory stumbled shortly after the break from the inside post and got boxed into extremely close quarters in fourth place going down the backstretch. Castellano kept the chestnut gelding under tight restraint around most of the turn -- especially after Groomedforvictory had prematurely switched to his right lead and clearly wanted to bear out against his jockey's hard left rein. Entering the stretch, Castellano allowed his mount to angle out five-wide for room to run at pacesetter Megapixel, the 5-to-1 third choice who was drawing out to a four-length mid-stretch lead, but then Groomedforvictory lurched over to his left lead and looked like he wanted to lug in. Although gaining steadily, Groomedforvictory did not start closing rapidly on Megapixel until after switching back to his right lead near the sixteenth pole, but then he advanced quickly, covering his final sixteenth of a mile in less than six seconds to win by a half-length going away. It was the second stakes-winning ride on Belmont's Wednesday card for Castellano, who earlier had piloted another homebred to victory in the Sabin Stakes on turf for the same conditioner of Groomedforvictory, New York Thoroughbred Breeders 2003 Trainer of the Year Barclay Tagg. Three horses won for Tagg at Belmont on Wednesday -- two of them New York-breds. Victory in the Screenland -- named for Earle Mack's New York-bred four-time stakes-winning filly in 1979, 1980, and 1981 who beat colts and later became a multiple stakes producer -- increased Groomedforvictory's earnings to $88,500 and advanced his never-unplaced record to 2 - 2 - 1 in five starts. The gelding had placed second as a juvenile at Aqueduct and Calder last November and December before shipping to Gulfstream Park, where following a 76-day mini-layoff and minus blinkers for the first time he had won his second three-year-old outing -- a one-turn mile -- by 5-1/2 lengths on March 28. Trainer Tagg subsequently had given Groomedforvictory four workouts from April 10 to May 1 -- the last three at Belmont and the most recent of those being "bullet" drills going a half-mile on April 24 and five furlongs on May 1. Groomedforvictory's dam, Minigroom, privately changed hands after foaling R Clear Victory but remained in New York, with Groomedforvictory being her fifth winner and second stakes winner but her first New York homebred for the Sure Thing Stables, LLC of Michael McGuire, who bred the Screenland winner under both names. Both R Clear Victory and Groomedforvictory are sons of Eclipse Champion and 1998 Belmont Stakes winner Victory Gallop. Minigroom, whom Questroyal Stable had purchased for $23,000 at Keeneland's 2001 November sale when she was carrying her future third winner, is a half-sister to a Group 2-placed French winner and from the female family of two French Group 1 winners and a North American Grade 1 turf winner. Minigroom's pedigree shows an outcross (no inbreeding) through five generations, and Groomedforvictory's pedigree also is a five-generation outcross. In Belmont's open Sabin Stakes for fillies and mares going a mile and a quarter on turf five races prior to the Screenland, Daddie's Girl's Stable's New York-bred Borrowing Base closed to place third as the 26.50-to-1 last choice among six despite being strung out four-wide on the first turn. It was the five-year-old mare's fourth stakes-placing since last August at Saratoga and her second third-place effort going a mile and a quarter against open stakes company, but it was her first stakes-placing on turf. Borrowing Base became the 30th New York-bred to win or place (second or third) in open black-type stakes competition in 2008, and her third-placing in the Sabin was the 44th top-three finish by a state-bred in an open black-type stakes event this year. Those 44 top-three performances in open 2008 stakes races have been registered at 17 different tracks in eight U.S. states plus England and Japan. Borrowing Base, whose earnings increased to $274,712 off a record of 4 - 9 - 9 in 33 starts as a result of her third-placing in the Sabin, races for the Daddie's Girl's Stable of Lisa Aracri and was bred by Marlene Brody's Gallagher's Stud in Ghent. Trained by Patrick Quick, the daughter of the late New York-based stallion Personal Flag is steadily enhancing her potential value as a future broodmare -- especially since her dam is a three-time stakes winner of $299,522. |
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Northern Netti shatters Bouwerie stakes record in 9-1/4-length romp by Rab Hagin
Not even future Grade 1 winners Grecian Flight and Carson Hollow were this dominating while winning the Bouwerie Stakes for New York-bred three-year-old fillies, so what Jim and Susan Hill's still-unbeaten NORTHERN NETTI might accomplish after her 9-1/4-length Bouwerie romp in stakes record time at Belmont on Sunday is intriguing. Although two-for-two in previous starts as a two-year-old and three-year-old at Woodbine, the fleet filly was virtually overlooked among seven Bouwerie starters that included previously unbeaten multiple stakes winner Dance Gal Dance, stakes winners Weathered and Expect the End, and graded runner-up Meriwether Jessica. What transpired in the stretch of the $109,300 seven-furlong Bouwerie, where 10.40-to-1 next-to-last choice Northern Netti suddenly pulled away effortlessly from favored (1.55-to-1) early front-runner Dance Gal Dance at equal weights, had Belmont fans shaking their heads in disbelief. Ridden for the first time by pickup jockey Eibar Coa, whose regular mount, two-turn Aqueduct stakes winner Love Co, had been scratched, Northern Netti broke from the sixth post and closely tracked Dance Gal Dance through quarter-mile splits of 22.28 and 22.97. Those two fillies entered the stretch almost dead-even, but Coa's mount seemed unaffected by the fairly quick early pace (comparable to Belmont's graded Nassau County at seven furlongs for three-year-old fillies the day before), pulling away to a 1:08.96 six-furlong fraction and finishing in 1:21.24. That clocking knocked more than a second and a half off the previous Bouwerie record of 1:22.81 held since 2003 by Golden Damsel and also dwarfed Zaftig's winning time of 1:22.74 in Belmont's Nassau County 24 hours earlier under six pounds less weight than Northern Netti's Bouwerie impost. Runner-up multiple stakes winner Dance Gal Dance, who incurred her first loss in five starts, did not appear to be off her form, placing 2-1/4 lengths ahead of her closest pursuer. Coa, the New York Thoroughbred Breeders (NYTB) 2006 Jockey of the Year who had four winning rides aboard fillies on Belmont's Sunday card -- three at the controls of New York-bred three-year-old lasses -- seemed pleasantly surprised at the Bouwerie outcome: "I knew nothing at all about the horse," Coa confessed. "She finished up well. I am glad she was outside so she could break and sit. She was very professional." Winning trainer Reade Baker, who had given Northern Netti a pair of five-furlong workouts on Woodbine's training track following the filly's five-furlong allowance victory on Woodbine's synthetic main track four weeks prior to the Bouwerie, seemed surprised on two fronts: "Well, she's undefeated, and she can run," observed Baker. "There was nothing for her at home, and we saw this race, and we wanted to win a stakes with her. I am kind of surprised at the price ($22.80 for a $2 win wager). I thought on paper she stacked up with the rest of them. We are going to come back for the Acorn (Grade 1, at a one-turn mile for three-year-old fillies on Belmont Stakes Saturday, June 7). She's fast, she's impressive, and she deserves a chance." Northern Netti's Bouwerie victory increased her earnings to $139,903 with a three-for-three record that began with five-furlong wins on Woodbine's synthetic track -- the first by 4-1/4 lengths in 57.08 in October followed by a slightly rusty April allowance outing in which she rallied to a half-length score. The chestnut speedster has made all of her starts for her current owners, the Hill couple, who race primarily in Canada. A $90,000 purchase at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's 2007 March sale of two-year-olds after being "not sold" for $37,000 at Fasig-Tipton's 2006 Saratoga New York-bred preferred yearling sale seven months earlier, Northern Netti was bred by NYTB member Prentiss Hallenbeck of Bristol, Tennessee. The daughter of City Zip is the third runner and third winner bred by Hallenbeck from New York-bred Run With Netti ($243,024), an "iron mare" that also raced for Hallenbeck, winning 19 times, including stakes at Finger Lakes going six furlongs (twice) and a mile and a sixteenth. Run With Netti has two six-figure-earning half-sisters, including stakes-placed five-time winner Run for Little Bit ($135,577). Later on Sunday at Turf Paradise in Arizona, Shawn Haggstrom's New York-bred Chestertown Slew ($171,826), who had placed third in Belmont's 2005 off-the-turf Mohawk Handicap on New York Showcase Day, placed third in the open black-type Hasta La Vista Handicap at a four-turn mile and seven-eighths on grass. The six-year-old had never tried that extended distance in previous competition on any running surface, and he led for a mile and a quarter against eight rivals before being overtaken but still hung in for the third-placing. Bred by Chester and Mary Broman of Chestertown Farm in Chestertown, Chestertown Slew has won four times on turf and once on Keeneland's synthetic Polytrack (last October) and currently campaigns under the care of trainer Dana Vannorsdel. He is the 29th New York-bred to win or place (second or third) in open black-type stakes competition in 2008, and his effort in the Hasta La Vista produced the 43rd top-three finish by a state-bred in an open black-type event through the first 125 days of the current year. Those 43 top-three finishes have been registered at 16 different tracks in New York, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Arkansas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Arizona, England, and Japan. |
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Mohegan Sky tops Rice-trained exacta in Big A's Music Prince - Keep the Peace close 2nd in G3 La Troienne at Churchill by Rab Hagin
The only female facing nine males in Belmont's Music Prince Stakes for New York-breds going six furlongs on turf on Saturday, Larry Enterline's MOHEGAN SKY, advanced from seventh along the hedge to edge out fellow gray Silver Timber, as the two Linda Rice-trained five-year-olds finished one-two in their 2008 debuts. Mohegan Sky was exiting a 226-day layoff in her first start for new owner Enterline and was race-ridden for the first time by jockey Alan Garcia, who allowed her to settle behind ambitious fractions (21.66, 44.60, 56.76) set by 1.75-to-1 favorite Southern Prince over the "good" turf. Well into the final furlong, she looked likely to finish fourth, but as 7.30-to-1 fourth choice Silver Timber rallied to overtake a tiring Southern Prince, the gray mare closed quickly on the inside despite appearing to be briefly blocked at mid-stretch. In the final strides, Mohegan Sky pushed her head in front of Silver Timber just as that Saratoga course record-setter was overtaking Southern Prince, reaching the wire in 1:09.66 to score her first stakes victory as the relatively overlooked 8.60-to-1 sixth choice among 10. It was the second winning ride in a six-furlong grass sprint at Belmont on Saturday for Garcia -- both aboard five-year-olds trained by Rice, who had given Mohegan Sky six turf workouts at Palm Meadows in Florida from March 12 through April 16 -- the last two half-mile "bullet" drills. Rice-trained runner-up Silver Timber ($193,717), the 7.30-to-1 fourth choice who had set a Saratoga course record in 2006 and had sprinted the fastest six furlongs (1:07.43 on Belmont's lawn) in New York for 2007, also was exiting a layoff -- but shorter than Mohegan Sky's hiatus. Victory in the Music Prince -- named for Bette Karlinsky's winner of the inaugural (1983) General Douglas MacArthur Handicap at Aqueduct -- increased Mohegan Sky's earnings to $213,500 and improved her record to 5 - 4 - 2 in 16 starts, which includes two wins at Belmont, one at Saratoga, two at Gulfstream. Last May and June, the stretch-running lawn sprinter had placed second in Belmont's restricted Stage View Stakes at seven furlongs on turf and third in grass stakes at Monmouth (5-1/2 furlongs) and Tampa Bay Downs (five furlongs). Inbred 3 x 4 to Nijinsky II, Mohegan Sky was bred by Michaelyn Scott, James Scott, and Adam Staple and was foaled at Liberty Stud, LLC in Ghent. The daughter of Straight Man is a half-sister to stakes-winning filly Vous ($227,905), 2008 open stakes-placed three-year-old filly Deities Day, and to 15-time dirt-turf winner Salty O'Rourke ($204,430) among six winning half-siblings, and she had been sold for $180,000 at Fasig-Tipton's 2004 New York-bred preferred yearling sale. Mohegan Sky's winning stakes-placed dam, Seattle Moon, is out of a stakes-winning mare and is a half-sister to a graded-placed winner and to the winning dam of an Australian group stakes-winning filly. NY-bred Keep the Peace places close 2nd in Churchill Downs' G3 La Troienne by Rab Hagin
Stretched to 7-1/2 furlongs in Churchill Downs' Grade 3 La Troienne Stakes for three-year-old fillies on Derby Day, Gary and Mary West's New York-bred Keep the Peace was carried four-wide on the turn but battled 1.80-to-1 favorite Game Face to the wire, leading briefly before missing victory by a neck. The chestnut filly went off as the 4.30-to-1 fourth choice among seven in the $168,450 La Troienne -- named for one of her own great-great-great-great-granddams -- with Hall of Fame jockey-elect Edgar Prado on board for the fourth consecutive time in competition. She stalked 2.80-to-1 second choice pacesetter Secret Gypsy through accelerating fractions of 22.61 and 22.35 before that off-the-rail rival starting drifting out, leaving an inviting inside route for eventual winner Game Face, who had won a 6-1/2-furlong Grade 2 event at Gulfstream in January. The six-furlong fraction, which Keep the Peace appeared to set, was 1:08.89, and Game Face's winning time was 1:28.44. Jockey Prado praised his New York-bred mount's effort: "She was game," Prado remarked. "She tried hard all the way. You have to like it when they give you an effort like that. She couldn't win today, but I am very happy with the way she tried."
Keep the Peace boosted her earnings into six figures at $124,068 in five starts, which includes a runner-up nose miss in Gulfstream Park's Grade 2 Forward Gal at seven furlongs on a sloppy track in February and big-margin wins at Churchill Downs last November and at Gulfstream in January. Keep the Peace is the latest New York-bred standout to race for the West couple of Omaha, Nebraska, whose previous state-bred winners have included stakes winners Entepreneur ($441,214) and Shaky Town ($253,767). A former $65,000 Keeneland September yearling sale purchase in 2006, the Eddie Kenneally-trained filly is the fifth New York-bred to win or place in stakes competition that Dr. Douglas Koch's Berkshire Stud in Pine Plains has bred from the same female family over the past two decades. Keep the Peace is by Touch Gold and is out of New York-bred stakes-placed winner Look Upon ($144,960), who is a half-sister to stakes winner Give Notice (dam of stakes-placed winner Never Give In) and to graded-placed winner Royal Ruby ($270,363). Keep the Peace's La Troienne placing was the 42nd top-three finish by a New York-bred in an open 2008 black-type stakes and the second by a state-bred filly in graded competition at Churchill Downs within three days -- following two-year-old filly Dream of Kaylee's third-place debut in Thursday's Grade 3 Kentucky. Those 42 top-three stakes finishes have been registered at 15 different tracks in seven U.S. states plus two overseas continents. |
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NY-bred 2yo Dream of Kaylee is graded-placed in debut at Churchill Downs by Rab Hagin New York-bred two-year-old Dream of Kaylee placed third as the only first-time starter among six participants in Churchill Downs' Grade 3 Kentucky Stakes, a $163,000 five-furlong juvenile event on Thursday afternoon, May 1, and among the winners he beat was Keeneland 3-1/2-length debut winner Merkel, the 2.50-to-1 second choice. Ridden by jockey Kent Desormeaux, Dream of Kaylee was bumped in the first furlong and trailed in fifth place before advancing rapidly on the turn while four-wide, entering the stretch widest of all but overtaking early front-runner Merkel in the final 100 yards. Also among the first-out winners finishing behind the New York-bred, who went off as the 10.50-to-1 fifth choice, was Laurel Park 8-1/4-length debut winner Essenceofthemoon. Dream of Kaylee races for Schroeder Farm LLC, Cathy Schroeder, Martha Borchetta, and Alberta Boran and is trained by Robert Hess Jr. He was bred by the JM Stables, Inc. of John and Joseph Marino of Saugerties and was sold for $50,000 at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky's 2007 July selected yearling sale to apparent pinhooking specialist Off The Hook LLC, which consigned him to the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March 18-19 juvenile sale. Despite a $140,000 bid after working a pre-sale under tack show quarter-mile in 21-2/5 seconds, Dream of Kaylee was "not sold" at the Ocala sale. The son of juvenile graded winner and second-crop sire Cactus Ridge is the ninth starter produced from JM Stables' Witchkin, and his eight winning half-siblings include stakes-placed New Yo rk-breds Eddie White Sox ($148,160) -- who scored six of his seven wins at route distances -- Bella Dorato, and Jovanna. Dam Witchkin, a winning daughter of Salem and a half-sister to multiple stakes-placed six-time winner Sir Wexford ($116,178), had been purchased by JM Stables for $1,700 at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic's 1998 December mixed sale in Timonium, Maryland when she was carrying Eddie White Sox. Dream of Kaylee is the 28th New York-bred to win or place (second or third) in an open black-type stakes in 2008, and his third-placing in the Kentucky was the 41st top-three finish by a state-bred in an open black-type event through May 1. Those 41 top-three finishes have been registered at 15 tracks and racing facilities in New York, Kentucky, Florida, Maryland, Arkansas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Japan, and England. |
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