July, 2020 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Grade 1-Winning Sprinter Hog Creek Hustle To Try Grass At Ellis Park

Hog Creek Hustle will have a homecoming of sorts when the 4-year-old colt runs in Sunday's $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Tourist Mile at the RUNHAPPY Summer Meet at Ellis Park.

Something Special Racing's Hog Creek Hustle started off his racing career with a bang two years ago at Ellis Park, rallying from near-last at five-eighths of a mile to win his debut. That proved a banner 2-year-old crop of Ellis-raced horses in 2018, with Hog Creek Hustle the next year taking Belmont Park's Woody Stephens to join Serengeti Empress (Kentucky Oaks), Knicks Go (Claiborne Breeders' Futurity) and Henley's Joy (Belmont Derby) as the winners of Grade 1 races, those designated as the best races in America. (Volatile, another current 4-year-old, didn't race at Ellis at 2 but won his career debut at the track last year and recently won Saratoga's Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt.)

“He broke his maiden there — it's going to be old-home week” at Ellis Park, said Patty Tipton, Hog Creek Hustle's co-owner who grew up in Hog Creek, Ky. and now lives in Lexington. “I hope Como's is open.”

(Yes, House of Como is open for business, though the iconic Evansville eatery just a few furlongs from Ellis Park is closed on Sundays.)

Hog Creek Hustle will try to gain his first victory since the seven-furlong Woody Stephens, which provided trainer Vickie Foley with her first Grade 1 victory. The colt has run well in most of his starts since then while tackling some of the toughest sprinters and milers in the country. That includes his nose defeat in Saratoga's Grade 1 Allen Jerkens last summer.

In search of regaining the Hog Creek karma, Foley is trying the colt on the grass for the first time in the Preview Tourist Mile. The stakes' winner gets an entry fees-paid spot in Kentucky Downs' $750,000 Tourist Mile on Sept. 7. Sunday's Preview Day features five $100,000 turf stakes that all are automatic qualifiers for the corresponding races at Kentucky Downs, for which the fields will be set Thursday. The Ellis Park stakes are funded by purse money generated at Kentucky Downs as part of an arrangement with the tracks' horsemen's group, the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association.

Hog Creek Hustle will be racing around two turns Sunday for the first time since he finished eighth in last year's Louisiana Derby, ending any Kentucky Derby aspirations that had been fueled by his second- and fourth-place finishes in a pair of earlier prep races in New Orleans. Both those graded stakes were won by War of Will, the eventual Preakness winner who several weeks ago became a Grade 1 winner on dirt and turf after taking Keeneland's Maker's Mark Mile on grass.

“We've been wanting to try him on turf,” Foley said. “I think that's a good place to try him and see how he handles it. If we're ever going to try him, this is the time…. He kind of has some high action. We're hoping he'll like it. And if he's going to like it at all, I think he'll like it at Ellis, because you don't have to be a true turf horse to run on that track.”

Tipton, one of five partners in the horse, is hoping grass does for Hog Creek Hustle what it did for War of Will in a career reboot.

“He ran right behind War of Will, and War of Will took to the turf,” she said. “We're excited to see what he can do.”

Hog Creek Hustle will be ridden by Rafael Bejarano, whose 12 victories lead the Ellis meet, with Miguel Mena second in the standings with eight.

The 130-mile ship from Churchill Downs Sunday might seem like a mere jog around the block to the well-traveled Hog Creek Hustle, who this year has left his home base to run in Florida, Arkansas and most recently New York. While the Big Apple previously was very good to the colt, that was not the case in Belmont Park's prestigious Metropolitan Mile, when he was last of eight but still lost by only a combined 6 1/2 lengths to the impressive front-runner Vekoma.

“He stumbled pretty badly out of the gate and pulled a back shoe off,” Foley said. “The jock took him to the inside, which the instructions were to stay on the outside. He still ran a good race against those kind of horses.”

Hog Creek Hustle has a 3-5-2 record in 18 starts for earnings of $638,967 along with priceless experiences for his crew.

“It's just been a very exciting adventure,” said Tipton, who with her partners purchased Hog Creek Hustle for $150,000 at Keeneland's 2017 September yearling sale. “We had no idea this horse was going to take us here. But he has. We want him to win again, because he hasn't won since the Woody Stephens. He's done really well as far as being second and third and he's been to every racetrack in America, almost. He's been a hard-knocking horse. I think this horse can run on the turf. I think he will love the mile on the turf. I think he'll be happy to be back home where he broke his maiden.”

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Fancy Blue Battles To Nassau Success

Fancy Blue (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), fresh from a thrilling victory in Chantilly’s G1 Prix de Diane earlier this month, doubled up in battling fashion and continued to lead the way for the freshman stable of Donnacha O’Brien with a second Group 1 success in Thursday’s G1 Qatar Nassau S. at Goodwood. Accepting a tow from Aidan O’Brien trainee and G1 Mackinnon S. victress Magic Wand (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) into the straight, the 11-4 chance inched closer to launch her challenge at the quarter-mile marker and was driven out once taking control soon after to withstand the late charge of last month’s G3 Blue Wind S. victress One Voice (Ire) (Poet’s Voice {GB}) by a neck, providing Ryan Moore with a 50th Goodwood festival success. Nazeef (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) finished a further 2 3/4 lengths adrift in third. “That was a lovely performance from Fancy Blue, she is unbelievable and it is massive as you never believe you will get one like her in your first year of training,” said conditioner Donnacha O’Brien. “When you have the pedigrees that Coolmore have, you always have a chance and I am very lucky. I was given Fancy Blue as a yearling and you don’t really expect these kind of things, but when they come along it is more unlikely that the majority will be up to this sort of Group 1 class. You do right by them so that they will fulfil their full potential and thankfully she has reached that class. It is unbelievable that I get a filly like her in my first year. People go a lifetime without getting a filly like her and I am no under no illusions as to how lucky I am, and I just need to do the best I can with her. I was looking after her as a yearling and I was responsible for her, but I didn’t have my licence so she was not under my name.”

The homebred bay was unbeaten in two juvenile outings for Aidan O’Brien, backing up a Naas debut success with victory in The Curragh’s Listed Staffordstown Stud S., and her first official start for O’Brien junior was a runner-up finish to Peaceful (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas on seasonal debut before turning the tables on that former stablemate at Chantilly last time. “I was hopeful of a good performance due to the weight she was getting [from the older fillies], and this race fitted in well after her win in the French Oaks,” O’Brien commented. “Every race she has won she has had to battle for and work for it. Jessie [Harrington]’s filly [One Voice] came at her today and if she had got into a proper battle with her, I think she would have found more. She is a very tough, high-class filly who has shown how good she is today. We came here today unsure as to what she would think of the ground. I was speaking to Dad during the race that she was swapping and changing her lead leg coming down the hill. She didn’t look particularly comfortable and I think a little bit of juice in the ground won’t be any harm for her in the future.”

Looking ahead to targets over a variety of distances, the rookie trainer revealed an extensive agenda. “We will give her a little break now as she has had a busy start to the year,” he announced. “We might look at Irish Champions Weekend to bring her back and that could be in the [G1] Matron [over one mile at Leopardstown], which I know is back down in trip, or in the [G1] Irish Champion [over 10 furlongs]. She’ll then go to Arc weekend where she has the option of the [G1] Prix de l’Opera [over 10 furlongs] or the Arc itself. After that, it will probably be the Breeders’ Cup or a trip to Japan for the Queen Elizabeth, where there is big money on offer over a mile-and-three and a bonus for winning the Prix de Diane. We’re not really sure what is going on with America at the minute, but they are the options. All the people in Japan are massive supporters of racing and I know myself from riding Saxon Warrior, and him being by Deep Impact, that we got a good following from the Japanese fans. It is always somewhere I have wanted to go and, whilst it is not set in stone, she could go there. Arc weekend fits nicely so whether it is the Opera or the Arc, we will sit down and speak with the owners. Taking in the [G1 Prix] Vermeille [over 12 furlongs] could maybe be a possibility, but we will have to see. There are a lot of good races around and I think she would be competitive anywhere from a mile to a mile-and-a-half. With her allowance in the Arc, I wouldn’t be writing her off either so we’ll have to see how strong the Opera is. Coolmore could have Love for the Arc too so nothing is set in stone.”

Fancy Blue is one of six winners produced by Chenchikova (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells), herself a winning full-sister to MG1SW sire High Chaparral (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells) and G2 Dante S. victor and GI Secretariat S. runner-up Black Bear Island (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells). She is a kin to stakes-winning G1 Dewhurst S. third Smuggler’s Cove (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) and stakes-winning G3 Prix de Lutece placegetter Casterton (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}). Fancy Blue is also a half-sister to the placed 2-year-old filly Miss Chess (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), a yearling filly by Caravaggio and a 2020 filly by Saxon Warrior (Jpn). Chenchikova, kin to the dam of MGSW GI Belmont Derby Invitational third Hunting Horn (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) and MGSW G1 Dewhurst S. placegetter David Livingston (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), is also a granddaughter of MGSW French champion and G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and G1 Prix du Moulin placegetter Kozana (GB) (Kris {GB}). The latter produced a quartet of stakes performers which includes G1 Premio Parioli (Italian 2000 Guineas) and GI Oak Tree Turf Championship runner-up Khoraz (The Minstrel).

Thursday, Goodwood, Britain
QATAR NASSAU S.-G1, £250,000, Goodwood, 7-30, 3yo/up, f/m, 9f 197yT, 2:04.99, gd.
1–FANCY BLUE (IRE), 124, f, 3, by Deep Impact (Jpn)
1st Dam: Chenchikova (Ire), by Sadler’s Wells
2nd Dam: Kasora (Ire), by Darshaan (GB)
3rd Dam: Kozana (GB), by Kris (GB)
O-Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith & Susan Magnier; B-Coolmore (IRE); T-Donnacha O’Brien; J-Ryan Moore. £141,775. Lifetime Record: G1SW-Fr, SW & G1SP-Ire, 5-4-1-0, $666,724. *1/2 to Smuggler’s Cove (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}), SW-Ire & G1SP-Eng, $137,682; and to Casterton (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}), MSW & GSP-Fr, $163,024. Werk Nick Rating: C+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–One Voice (Ire), 124, f, 3, Poet’s Voice (GB)–Zaaqya (GB), by Nayef. (€55,000 Ylg ’18 GOFSPT). O-Craig Bernick; B-J Lenihan (IRE); T-Jessica Harrington. £53,750.
3–Nazeef (GB), 133, f, 4, Invincible Spirit (Ire)–Handassa (GB), by Dubawi (Ire). O-Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum; B-Shadwell Estate Company Limited (GB); T-John Gosden. £26,900.
Margins: NK, 2 3/4, HF. Odds: 2.75, 20.00, 3.30.
Also Ran: Queen Power (Ire), Magic Wand (Ire), Lavender’s Blue (Ire), Deirdre (Jpn). Click for the Racing Post result or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

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Half-Brother To Tepin Set To Debut Friday In Ireland

Harvard, a half-brother to Eclipse Award winner Tepin, will make his debut on Friday at Leopardstown in Ireland, Racing Post reports.

The 2-year-old Galileo colt will race for the Coolmore partnership of Derrick Smith, Susan Magnier, and Michael Tabor, and he is trained by Aidan O'Brien. Wayne Lordan will have the mount.

The entries for the race can be viewed here.

Coolmore has invested heavily into the accolades of Tepin and her bloodline since the mare's Hall of Fame-caliber racing career. The group privately purchased her dam, the unraced Stravinsky mare Life Happened, in 2016. A year later, they dropped $8 million to take Tepin herself back to Europe, where both mother and daughter have joined the broodmare band of Coolmore's all-world sire Galileo.

In addition to Tepin, Life Happened is the dam of multiple Grade 2 winner Vyjack and Grade 2-placed Prime Cut. She was a finalist for Kentucky Broodmare of the Year in 2016.

Tepin, a 9-year-old Bernstein mare, was named champion turf female in 2015 and 2016, with notable victories in the 2015 Breeders' Cup Mile at Keeneland, as well as the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile, Jenny Wiley Stakes, First Lady Stakes, and Just a Game Stakes. Arguably her greatest achievement, though, came when she traveled to England for the world-class Royal Ascot meet and beat the world's best turf milers – male or female – in the G1 Queen Anne Stakes.

Tepin retired with 13 wins in 23 starts for earnings of $4,437,918. She sold to Coolmore in 2017 pregnant to leading sire Curlin, and she produced a filly for Coolmore the following year.

Harvard is the second Irish-born foal out of Life Happened to reach the racetrack, following the War Front filly Repossession, who sold to LNJ Foxwoods as a yearling for $750,000 and finished out of the money in her lone start as a juvenile last year.

What The Beep Provides ‘Emotional’ Upset In Colonial’s Camptown Stakes

On Wednesday at Colonial Downs, What the Beep pulled off an upset with a one-length victory over heavy favorite Tan and Tight in the $60,000 Camptown Stakes for Virginia-bred or -sired fillies and mares. The homebred daughter of Great Notion was ridden by Forest Boyce for trainer Karen Godsey, who bred and broke the 5-year-old mare on her Eagle Point Farm.

“This is very emotional for me,” said a tearful Godsey. “Her mother (Toccoa) was my first winner. To win a race like the Camptown, which my grandfather helped to start, is important to me. We mainly race here and the rest of the year I am breaking horses on the farm.”

What the Beep won the M. Tyson Gilpin Stakes here last summer but hasn't raced since an off-the-board finish in an allowance race at Laurel last October.

“She got a little cut on her leg and we almost missed that last race,” Godsey explained. “So she came home and got to spend the whole winter being a horse, hanging out, and ran around an 80-acre field with all her brothers. It's nice she gets to do that, come back here and run like this. It's kind of what her momma did. I would take her home every winter and come back here and win every summer. She's a happy horse.”

The bay mare led every step of the way getting the 5 ½ furlongs over firm turf in 1:02.95 after setting fractions of 22.38 seconds, 44.37 seconds and 56.31 seconds.

The Camptown was the fourth victory in 16 starts for What the Beep who could race next to defend her title in the M Tyson Gilpin Stakes. She earned $36,000 for the tally to boost her bankroll to $189,503 and paid $15.20, $4 and $2.20.

Tan and Tight, the 2-5 post-time favorite, stalked the pace and made a mild rally in the stretch but was no threat to the winner returning $2.20 and $2.20. Bella Aurora ($2.20) finished third in the six-horse field, followed by Solarte, Determined Love and Chasing Midnight to complete the order of finish.

A compact field of four went to the gate in the $60,000 Edward P. Evans Stakes for Virginia-bred or -sired runners with heavily favored Largent, owned by Twin Creeks Racing Stables and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners. The son of Into Mischief covered the mile over firm turf in 1:36.14. He was trained by Todd Pletcher who picked up his third victory in the first two nights of racing at Colonial this season. Tyler Conner had the winning ride.

“I wanted to be a little closer than I was (early in the race),” Conner said. “I let him settle where he's happy. My man Trevor (jockey McCarthy) had me in a little tight. I didn't want to take back and go around. So I just went with the momentum and hoping he's split somewhere and I could get through.”

Largent's tally was his fourth in six starts and the $36,000 winner's share boosted his bankroll to $134,670. He paid $2.40 and $2.10. There was no show wagering in the race.

Embolden, the 2019 Jamestown winner, was beaten just a length in the mile race and paid $2.10. Carbon Data and River Deep completed the order of finish.

Also of note on the card was the 3rd race, a first-level allowance race won by Robert LaPenta, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Chrysalis Stable's Farmington Road, who was making his turf debut after racing on the Triple Crown trail earlier this year. Pletcher and Conner partnered here as well with the son of Quality Road who had last raced in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes, finishing eighth in a 10-horse field.

Colonial Downs will race a special make up card this Sunday at 5:30 PM.

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