Tom Clover takes inspiration from Kremlin House stables and eyes big race win
Trainer Tom Clover could be daunted when he thinks about the horses previously trained at his Kremlin House stables in Newmarket but instead he finds it inspiring.
Month: July 2020
Another Maker Claim Makes the Grade in UN
Mike Maker’s incredible success with turning claimers into graded winners on the turf is well documented, but that didn’t stop Aquaphobia from getting lost on the board and upending Saturday’s GI United Nations S. at 10-1 off a 9-2 morning line. Taken for $62,500 out of a fourth-place run at Gulfstream Jan. 26 for Drawing Away Stable and Robert Falcone, Jr., the bay immediately began repaying his new connections’ investment when he bested future stablemate and fellow UN competitor Muggsamatic (Any Given Saturday) in a Gulfstream starter stakes race Feb. 17. Fourth in the GII Muniz Memorial Classic S. at Fair Grounds Mar. 21, he was second in a listed event back at Gulfstream May 9 and most recently checked in a close fourth in the GII Wise Dan S. at Churchill June 20.
Aquaphobia settled into a ground-saving third as Paret cruised along through splits of :24.50, :48.90, 1:14.41 and 1:38.48. He looked loaded heading for home but was stuck in the pocket behind Paret and inside the coming-on Corelli. Rider Joe Bravo got busy on Aquaphobia in upper stretch, pushed him through a tight seam midway down the lane and that was that.
“Joe Bravo rode him beautifully,” Maker said. “We had a lot of confidence in the horse coming in and he didn’t let us down. He’s run a mile and quarter in the past in he was successful but he hasn’t had the opportunity to go that long or longer again. We felt this horse was better than we were getting out of him. I think the distance was the reason. He’d been training dynamite, so I was optimistic. Coming out of his last race, the Wise Dan, I thought that was a good race. He was beaten less than two lengths. So it looked like he was getting back to where we think he can be. He’s a classy, sound horse who makes it easy.”
Maker and co-owner Paradise Farms Corp. took the GII Pan American S. in March with $30,000 claim Bemma’s Boy (Into Mischief), who bested Maker trainee, former claimer (not by Maker) and GI Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational S. Presented by Runhappy hero Zulu Alpha (Street Cry {Ire}). Zulu Alpha took last Sunday’s GII TVG Elkhorn S. at Keeneland.
Saturday, Monmouth Park
UNITED NATIONS S.-GI, $315,000, Monmouth, 7-18, 3yo/up, 1 3/8mT, 2:12.63, fm.
1–AQUAPHOBIA, 125, h, 7, by Giant’s Causeway
1st Dam: Pussycat Doll (MGISW, $797,183), by Real Quiet
2nd Dam: Hookedonthefeelin, by Citidancer
3rd Dam: Prospective Joy, by Allen’s Prospect
1ST GRADED STAKES WIN, 1ST GRADE I WIN. O-Paradise
Farms Corp, David Staudacher, Hooties Racing LLC & Skychai
Racing, LLC; B-M Roy Jackson (KY); T-Michael J Maker; J-Joe
Bravo. $180,000. Lifetime Record: 36-9-6-6, $647,361. Click
for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick Rating: C+.
2–Paret (Aus), 125, g, 6, Harbour Watch (Ire)–Enduja (Aus), by
Encosta de Lago (Aus). (110,000 Ylg ’16 MMLJAN). O-Matthew
Schera & Orangella Racing Stable; B-Qatar Bloodstock (Vic);
T-James L Lawrence, II. $60,000.
3–Corelli, 121, g, 5, Point of Entry–Vignette, by Diesis (GB).
O-Augustin Stable; B-George Strawbridge (KY); T-Jonathan
Thomas. $30,000.
Margins: 1, HF, 3 3/4. Odds: 10.70, 10.50, 6.30.
Also Ran: Arklow, Muggsamatic, Current, Standard Deviation, Eve’s Medal, O Dionysus. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
Pedigree Notes:
Aquaphobia became the third consecutive generation on his dam’s side to add a Grade I victory to his name. Dam Pussycat Doll took down a trio of Grade Is in the mid-2000s and granddam Hookedonthefeelin won the GI La Brea S. in 1999 (which was later one of the races won by Pussycat Doll in 2005). In addition to Pussycat Doll, Hookedonthefeelin also produced 2012 GI Malibu S. winner Jimmy Creed (Distorted Humor). Both mares were also stellar in the sales ring, with Pussycat Doll bringing $2.3 million at the 2007 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November sale and Hookedonthefeelin bringing $2.9 million at the same sale in 2006. Aquaphobia is by Giant’s Causeway, a star on the track and in the breeding shed, and is one of 192 black-type winners–114 graded–by the late sire. He’s also one of 11 stakes winners out of mares by Real Quiet, including half-sister and listed English winner Forever Popular (Dynaformer). Pussycat Doll’s last reported foal is a juvenile colt by Uncle Mo.
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Hernandez: ‘You’re Always Thinking About The Derby’
Jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. has won America's richest horse race. Now the Ellis Park regular has his sights on America's most revered race, the Kentucky Derby.
That long-held dream took an important step forward when Hernandez guided Bruce Lunsford's Art Collector to a 3 1/2-length victory over the talented filly Swiss Skydiver in Keeneland's $600,000 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes on July 11. The triumph in the Grade 2 stakes was the first in a graded stakes for trainer Tommy Drury, a close friend of Hernandez. Drury has trained horses for 30 years, but a large part of his business has been getting 2-year-olds and horses coming off layoffs ready for other trainers.
Hernandez has won a slew of graded stakes races, capped by Fort Larned's score in 2012 in the then-$5 million Breeders' Cup Classic, North America's most lucrative race. He's only had two cracks at the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, in his adopted hometown of Louisville: finishing 12th in 2016 on Tom's Ready and eighth in 2017 with McCraken.
Had the Derby been in its usual First Saturday in May time slot, Hernandez would not be in this position with Art Collector.
“The most special thing about it is to be on this trail with Tommy,” Hernandez said. “The Blue Grass being his first graded-stakes win meant a lot. I've ridden at every little racetrack in the country, I think, for Tommy. Indiana, River Downs, Beulah, Ellis and now to win the Blue Grass for him is a special moment. Being friends like we are, it's more special to have this good of a horse. We've always talked about, 'Man, if we could ever get a really good one like this, the trip it would put us on.' It's meant a lot.
“…You're always thinking about the Derby. Every time we work these young 2-year-olds, you're always thinking, 'Hey, maybe this will be our next Derby mount.' Hopefully one day it will be the Derby winner. I've never won it, so I couldn't tell you what it takes to win it. I know just from riding it the few times we have, it does take a special horse. The year we went into it with McCraken, we went in thinking we had a really big chance. And we kind of lost our chance at the start that day. That just shows you how difficult a race it is.”
Drury said that if Art Collector needs another race before the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby, it will be the $200,000 Ellis Park Derby, at 1 1/8-miles on Aug. 9. The winner receives 50 points toward qualifying for the Kentucky Derby, enough to virtually secure a spot in the 20-horse field. But that's not an issue with Art Collector, who earned 100 in the Blue Grass.
Hernandez, the 2012 Ellis Park meet titlist, has ridden Art Collector in a race five times, including the past three when the colt won at seven furlongs, 1 1/16 miles and the Blue Grass' 1 1/8 miles — all by open lengths.
“He's just one of those rare, very intelligent horses that everything put in front him, he's jumped through all the hoops,” the jockey said. “He seems to be improving with each start.
“He's a top 3-year-old right now, and it's a different year with this whole Derby-in-September time. He was one of the late developers. It's a lot of fun, kind of hard to put into words. You're going into the Derby with one of the favorites, and you've just got to be excited about it.”
Lunsford and Drury are lifelong Louisvillians, while the 34-year-old Hernandez has lived in the Louisville area since he began riding full-time in 2004. That's the year the Louisiana product won the Eclipse Award as North America's outstanding apprentice jockey.
“I think we've lived in Louisville now just about as long as I did in Louisiana,” he said. “I guess now we're just Kentuckians. That's another fun part of the journey, being able to say, 'Hey, Tommy's from Louisville here, and Bruce is as well. It's all Kentucky guys. It just goes to show you how strong the Kentucky program is getting now. We're one of the top circuits in the country.”
Hernandez has been a shining example that riding at Ellis Park in the summer isn't a detriment to riding in the sport's biggest races (although this year, there's the COVID-19 wrinkle of tracks such as Saratoga closing its doors to outside jockeys).
The jockey won his first Grade 1 victory in Saratoga's 2012 Whitney Handicap with the Ian Wilkes-trained Fort Larned, then rode at Ellis Park the next day. Three months later, the jockey and Fort Larned won the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita.
“It's always worked well for us being at Ellis,” he said. “Like last year, we picked up a really good 2-year-old in Fighting Seabee. He broke his maiden at Ellis and in his very next start he won the With Anticipation Stakes at Saratoga. And just having that relationship with clients who run at Ellis during the summertime, we do get the opportunity to run at places like Saratoga and all the stakes out of town — most of the years.”
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Misty For Me’s Sister Unleashed at The Curragh
Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Sunday’s Insights features a full-sister to Classic heroine Misty For Me (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}).
1.40 Newbury, £6,400, 2yo, c/g, 6fT
MUJBAR (GB) (Muhaarar {GB}) debuts for Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum and Charlie Hills with more than an outside chance that he could be another sprinting star for the combination who enjoyed so many red-letter days with his sire. A half-brother to the G1 Commonwealth Cup hero Eqtidaar (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and to the G2 Hungerford S. scorer Massaat (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), the March-foaled bay meets nine rivals including the Richard Hannon-trained Pure Dreamer (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}), a granddaughter of the G1 Irish and Yorkshire Oaks heroine Pure Grain (GB) (Polish Precedent) who sports the famed Barnett silks.
2.00 Curragh, Mdn, €16,500, 2yo, f, 7fT
APRIL SHOWERS (IRE) (Galileo {Ire}) represents the Donnacha O’Brien stable and is a full-sister to the four-times Group 1 winner and Irish 1000 Guineas heroine Misty For Me (Ire) who is now the dam of the high-class War Front duo U S Navy Flag and Roly Poly. Carrying Susan Magnier’s colours, the March-foaled bay meets nine rivals including Ballydoyle’s Snowfall (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) , the relative of Found (Ire) who was unlucky here last month.
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