King Leatherbury knows how he wants his training career to be defined. He knows how he would like to be remembered. “If I wanted something on my tombstone,” he said, “it would just be, ‘He won races.’ ”
Month: August 2020
$1.35-Million Guaranteed Jackpot Thursday In Gulfstream Rainbow 6
The 20-cent Rainbow 6 carryover jackpot pool will be guaranteed at $1.35 million when racing resumes Thursday at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.
The popular multi-race wager went unsolved for the 19th consecutive racing program Sunday, when multiple tickets with all six winners were each worth $29,937.18.
There will also be a Super Hi 5 carryover Thursday of $5,110.12.
Thursday's Rainbow 6 sequence will begin with the fifth race, a 6 ½ furlong event for 3-year-olds up with a $30,000 claiming tag. The sequence will include two turf races.
The carryover jackpot is only paid out when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 70 percent of that day's pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners, while 30 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.
NOTE: Trainer Javier Morzan saddled his first winner at Gulfstream Sunday when Storm the Bridge won the 10th and final race of the afternoon, returning $22.40. Morzan claimed the 3-year-old gelding in his previous race for $6,250. Samy Camacho was the rider.
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Fighting Mad ‘Ran Them Off Their Feet’ In Del Mar’s Clement L. Hirsch
Gary and Mary West's homebred filly Fighting Mad bolted out of the gate to the lead Sunday in the $250,000 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes and then never looked back, outrunning five classy rivals to capture the first Grade I race of her career at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif.
Abel Cedillo was aboard the 4-year-old daughter of New Year's Day as she covered 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.46 for her half-length tally. She is trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert.
“I had the same instructions today that I had yesterday (for his victory on Thousand Words for trainer Bob Baffert in the Shared Belief Stakes),” said Cedillo. “Get her out of there and see if you can get to the front. She really broke sharply and want to go right away. I got her to relax some on the backside, then she went right on with it. She's just an amazing filly.”
Finishing second in the filly-mare headliner was Paul or Karen Eggert's Ollie's Candy, who had won this race last year. Running third was Bo Hirsch's Ce Ce. Hirsch is the son of the man the race is named for.
Fighting Mad picked up a check for $150,000 for the win and moved her bankroll up to $444,008 after her fifth win in eight starts. As the 9-5 favorite, she paid $5.60, $3.00 and $2.20 across the board.
Because she took the Hirsch, Fighting Mad is now a “Win & You're In” Challenge Race winner, meaning she gets a guaranteed spot in this year's $2-million Breeders' Cup Distaff along with all her fees paid for the championship race. The nine-furlong crucible runs Saturday, November 7, at Keeneland in Lexington, KY.
Baffert and Cedillo won the Shared Belief Stakes with Thousand Words in a very similar scenario to the Hirsch. He, too, was quickly sent to the front and made every pole a winner. The pair also teamed earlier in the session with the Wests' Maximum Security to win the San Diego Handicap.
“I was a little bit worried about her because she was getting pretty warm in the paddock,” said Baffert. “But Abel (Cedillo) knows her pretty well and he knows speed is her weapon. To look at her you wouldn't think she could go (a distance), but when she started opening up, I figured he must know what he's doing. Basically, she ran them off their feet. The way she acted in the paddock, she ran an incredible race. She was trembling and sweating and I was worried, but once the race started she was pretty serious. ”
Earlier on the card, C T R Stables' Positivity, ridden by Drayden Van Dyke, withstood a claim of foul and won the $100,500 Graduation Stakes for 2-year-old California breds by half a length. The Paynter colt ran five and a half furlongs in 1:05.49 and picked up a winner's share of $57,000.
J. Kirk and Judy Robison's Good With People made all the fractions in the race, but tired late and had to settle for second. KMN Racing's Scooby was third.
Positivity won his only other start – a straight maiden race at Santa Anita on May 22 – and now has $87,000 on his earnings ledger.
The victory for his trainer, Luis Mendez, was his second at Del Mar. Last year he won this same race with Big Returns via disqualification.
Positivity paid $13.20, $4.80 and $3.60 across the board.
Sunday's riding star was Van Dyke with three firsts. Flavien Prat and Juan Hernandez each won two races. Prat now leads the riders' standings with 18 first after 10 days of racing.
Racing returns to Del Mar Friday with first post at 2 p.m.
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Reversal Of Fortune For Top Two Finishers In Shared Belief
Approaching the track to greet his returning Shared Belief Stakes winner Thousand Words, Bob Baffert couldn't help but smile and say, “We don't need Uncle Chuck.”
Then, with his next breath: “That was weird. That was a weird run race.”
Statements that fairly well summed up the Shared Belief at Del Mar, a Kentucky Derby prep race for the first, and let us pray last, time ever. The COVID-19-necessitated move of the Run for the Roses to September 5 put the Shared Belief in line as a prelim for West Coast-based Derby hopes and made it a spot for Baffert to choose from his array of 3-year-old standouts and John Shirreffs to run Santa Anita Derby winner Honor A.P.
Baffert entered three – undefeated (2-for-2) Uncle Chuck and Cezanne plus Thousand Words, whose Derby stock had dipped with three straight defeats. He worked Uncle Chuck on Saturday morning in preparation for the $1 million Travers Stakes next Saturday at Saratoga and scratched him from the Shared Belief.
The race then unfolded strangely with 1-5 favorite Honor A.P. getting bumped at the start by Cezanne, moving up to press the pace set by Thousand Words on the backstretch before dropping a length behind, going three paths wide turning into the stretch and surging too late to catch the wire-to-wire leader and losing by three-quarters of a length.
“You wouldn't think a Baffert horse is gonna pay $20 (actually $20.40) in a four-horse field,” Baffert said with a wry grin. His assessment: something about Del Mar had brought out the best in Thousand Words.
“I thought he had a chance to win today,” Baffert said. “I could tell he was a different horse down here. His whole mind changed. His color changed. He had soured out on me, but we got him going the right way. I think he earned his way to the Derby.”
The 50 Kentucky Derby qualifying points from the Shared Belief increased Thousand Words' total to 83 and vaulted him to No. 7 on the list. The opportunity is there should the owners – Albaugh Family Stables of Dennis Albaugh and Jason Loustch, and B. Wayne Hughes' Spendthirft Farm – choose. It appears to be a logical path toward recouping more of the $1-million spent on the colt at the Keeneland September sale in 2018.
Thousand Words was accorded a Beyer Speed Figure of 104, which was 13 points higher than the son of Pioneerof the Nile's previous best in the Los Alamitos Futurity last December. Honor A.P. received a Beyer of 102, identical to his number in the Santa Anita Derby victory.
Honor A.P.'s 140 Derby points is third behind Belmont Stakes winner Tiz the Law (272) and Baffert's recent Haskell Invitational champ Authentic (200).
“If you liked Honor A.P. as your Derby horse before, it (Shared Belief) didn't change anything,” Daily Racing Form correspondent Brad Free said Sunday morning.
Mike Smith, aboard for all five of Honor A.P.'s starts, was quick to point out one change in the routine leading up to the race. Due to COVID-19 protocols, jockeys are prohibited from access to the stable area in the mornings and cannot ride workouts. Trainer John Shirreffs tried unsuccessfully to get an exemption so Smith could be aboard for the colt's final work a week before the race.
“I haven't been able to get on him in the mornings and I think that's made a difference,” Smith said. “He's just been going along there not doing much in the mornings. I need to be on him. But that's the way it is now; just the way it is.”
Shirreffs' comment, provided by text: “Horses know the difference between an exercise rider and a jockey so they respond differently in their work. Jockeys also have the acute awareness of the horses' effort. Trainers prepare horses by increasing workloads. The riders have to communicate to the horses in subtle situations of asking for a little more or saying that's enough for today.
“Why take the best we have and not allow them to help horses?”
Thousand Words and Honor A.P. both came out of the race well, their trainers said. Cezanne was “a little tired” after losing stamina in the 1 1/16-mile race.
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