October, 2020 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Wicked Strong Relocated To Pin Oak Lane Farm In Pennsylvania

Grade 1 winner Wicked Strong will move to Pin Oak Lane Farm in New Freedom, Pa., for the 2021 breeding season, where he will stand for an advertised fee of $3,500, Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred reports.

The 9-year-old son of Hard Spun previously stood at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky, where he entered stud in 2016.

From two crops of racing age, Wicked Strong has been represented by 64 winners, led by Puerto Rican Group 2 winner Wicked Runner, stakes winner Evil Lyn, and stakes-placed runners including Wicked Warrior, Secretly Wicked, Myawaya, Wicked Slider, and Brooklyn Strong.

Wicked Strong won three of 19 starts during his on-track career for earnings of $1,994,460. He broke his maiden at two, then became one of his division's top 3-year-olds with victories in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial Stakes and G2 Jim Dandy Stakes, and a runner-up effort in the G1 Travers Stakes. At four, he earned in-the-money finishes in the G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes and Woodward Stakes.

Wicked Strong is out of the winning Charismatic mare Moyne Abbey. His extended family includes Grade 1 winner Student Council, Grade 2 winner Classic Kris, and Grade 3 winners Gulch Approval, Rusty Slipper, Classic Value, and Gradepoint.

Lope De Vega Stars On Track And In The Ring

DEAUVILLE, France—The second part of the Arqana October Yearling Sale concluded on Wednesday with consistent results across the two-day section. Again, the clearance rate was encouragingly high at 82%, with 131 horses sold for €3,179,000 at an average of €24,269 and median of €20,000.

Lope De Vega (Ire) had been represented by his fifth juvenile stakes winner of the season when Godolphin’s unbeaten Parchemin (Ire) landed the listed Prix Isonomy at Deauville and several hours later across the road at Arqana, another of the stallion’s young chestnut sons led the third day of trade.

Bred by Framont Limited and offered through Haras de Castillon, lot 465 joined a large intake of sales yearlings for Al Shaqab Racing this season after Paul Hensey and Nicolas de Watrigant went to €95,000 to secure the half-brother to the stakes-placed Mohab (GB) (Sir Percy {GB}).

“He was a lovely individual and Lope De Vega is a proven sire who does it day in and day out. He’s also out of a mare by Mr Greeley, which always adds a bit of brilliance to a pedigree,” said Hensey of the son of the unraced Princess Aurora, a half-sister to American listed winners Willard Straight (Lion Cavern) and Jesse’s Justice (Lear Fan).

Commenting on the increased activity by Al Shaqab at the yearling sales this season, Hensey, who was appointed chief operating officer in June, added, “We’ve bought almost 40 yearlings. We were keen to support our own stallions and Sheik Joaan is very conscious of the fact that times are hard for breeders.”

Al Shaqab also bought lot 452, a filly by its freshman stallion Al Wukair (Ire) and from the family of another of its former stallions, Style Vendome (Fr), from the Fairway Consignment for €60,000.

Owner Manfred Schmelzer enjoyed success over the weekend in Germany with a French-bred when his juvenile filly Noble Heidi (Fr) (Intello {Ger}) won the G3 Preis der Winterkonigin and he sent his trainer Henk Grewe in pursuit of the day’s second-top lot, a Rajsaman (Fr) colt who is closely related to that sire’s dual Classic winner Brametot (Ire). The latter is now standing in Germany at Gestut Ebbesloh after spending his first two seasons at Haras de Bouquetot.

Lot 436, offered by his breeder Haras de la Perelle, is a son of the unraced Morning Sun (Ger) (Law Society {Ire}), who is a full-sister to the dam of Brametot as well as being a half-sister to Germany’s pre-eminent stallion of the modern era, (Monsun {Ger}). This same family was represented in the one of the opening day’s top lots, as Matauri Pearl (Ire) (Hurricane Run {Ire}), the dam of the €450,000 Sea The Stars filly, is a grand-daughter of Morning Sun’s half-sister Morning Queen (Ger) (Konigsstuhl {Ger}).

Born To Sea (Ire) has undergone a semi-reinvention since being relocated from Ireland to Haras des Faunes in France, with a number of his offspring enjoying successful careers over jumps. Francois Nicolle, one of the country’s leading National Hunt trainers, has added a yearling filly to his string in the shape of lot 514, a grand-daughter of the classy sprinter Superstar Leo (Ire) (College Chapel {GB}), whose family has featured prominently in France of late via the treble G1 Prix de la Foret winner One Master (GB) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}).

Nicolas de Watrigant, who bought the filly for €70,000 on behalf of the trainer said, “Francois Nicolle has had success this year with offspring of Born to Sea, such as [listed hurdle winner] Born to Hold (Ire). He had seen her at Haras des Faunes and really wanted to buy her.”

The daughter of Speed Song (GB) (Fasliyev) was bred by the Tsui family’s Sunderland Holdings and was consigned by Haras des Faunes, where Born To Sea covered a book in excess of 150 mares this year.

Among those stallions with first yearlings this season is the Derby winner Wings Of Eagles (Fr), who spent one season at the stud where he was born and bred, Haras de Montaigu, before being switched to Coolmore’s National Hunt roster in Ireland. A member of his debut crop will be heading to the Melbourne stable of Danny O’Brien after being bought by Jeremy Brummitt for €60,000. The same trainer/agent combination has enjoyed notable success with northern hemisphere-bred Russian Camelot (Ire) (Camelot {GB}), the winner of two Group 1 races in Australia and favourite for this Saturday’s G1 Cox Plate.

Bred by Mathieu Daguzan-Garros of Haras des Granges, the Wings Of Eagles colt (lot 432) is out of the Red Ransom mare Mix-feeling (Ire) and his 2-year-old half-brother Mexico City (Fr) (No Nay Never) was recently third in the G3 Killavullan S. for Aidan O’Brien and the Coolmore team.

“He wasn’t just my pick of the day, he would have fitted in very well on day one,” said Brummitt. “He didn’t need the update to make us follow the horse strongly. It is inconceivable that a horse who was good enough to win the Derby cannot command a full book of Flat mares in his first season, particularly when you look at some of the stallions he was up against.”

Brummitt has bought two colts in partnership with O’Brien at Arqana this week, the other being a colt by Intello (Ger) (lot 47) during Monday’s opening session. The pair also bought eight yearlings at the Tattersalls October Sale.

Tina Rau was another to sign for a yearling by Wings Of Eagles, also at €60,000. The first foal of the Medicean (GB) mare Sajida (Fr) (lot 485) hails from the family of Arc winner Sagamix (Fr) and also that of Newsells Park Stud’s star broodmare Shastye (Ire), whose Galileo (Ire) yearling colt recently topped Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Sale at 3.4 million gns.

Rau said of the February-born colt, who will be trained in Chantilly by Nicolas Clement, “He was my pick of the day, an absolute star horse. Overall I have been very impressed with the yearlings by Wings Of Eagles. I didn’t necessarily have him on my list of horses to follow but they all seem to have a lot of quality to their coat and skin, and I always think that’s a good sign. This one was the easiest-moving of the Wings Of Eagles bunch and his pedigree makes easy reading too. He’s obviously going to take a little bit of time but I am very glad we got him.”

Part 3 of the October Sale gets underway from 2pm on Thursday, and the sale concludes on Friday.

The post Lope De Vega Stars On Track And In The Ring appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

After Raising Purses, NYRA Hoping For Strong Winter Run at Aqueduct

It’s racing during the frigid winter months at a blue-collar racetrack, so Aqueduct may not always be the easiest sell. But New York Racing Association (NYRA) officials are expecting a strong five-month run once the track opens Nov. 6, counting on robust purses to convince owners and trainers to choose the Big A over options like Gulfstream and Oaklawn.

Typically, purses decrease once the fall meet at Belmont is over. Racing at Aqueduct handles less than it does at Belmont and there is a drop off in the quality. But this year, that won’t happen. Thanks to robust handle of late and the reopening of the casino at Aqueduct, NYRA was put in a position to raise purses. The higher purses went into effect Oct. 18 at Belmont, but will carry over to Aqueduct. NYRA Senior Vice President, Racing Operations Martin Panza said NYRA will dedicate about $2.5 million more to purses at Aqueduct than was the case a year earlier.

“If owners are struggling or looking to justify why they are in the game, I hope they realize that the purses are going to be pretty significant in New York this year,” Panza said. “Before we raised the purses, our claiming purses were pretty much higher than anyone else’s in the country. Now, we are going to spend an extra $2.3 to $2.5 million from Dec. 7 through the end of March. That is a lot of money and a lot of money for owners.”

While Aqueduct has always had good purses, the competition for horses in the winter has never been more fierce. With purses exploding thanks to the success of its casino, Oaklawn’s racing gets better every year. The success of Historical Horse Racing machines has helped Turfway Park improve its product. Gulfstream may not be able to compete with New York when it comes to purses, but its warm weather and abundant sunshine are powerful draws.

“With what has taken place in Arkansas and in Kentucky over the last year, year and a half, we’re going to pivot on a lot of our purses,” Panza said. “We want to be more competitive on the overnight purses or at least as competitive as those other facilities.”

Rather than raise purses across the board, Panza and his team have picked out certain categories to accentuate. The purse for a maiden special weight race has gone from $64,000 to $80,000, the pot for a $25,000 claiming race has been raised to $50,000 and a $40,000 maiden claimer will go for $43,000.

“How do you get owners to say ‘I’ve got 12 horses and instead of having all 12 at track XYZ, because of the purse levels, I’m going to send four or five to a trainer who will be running in New York in the winter?” Panza said. “That’s what we are hoping to accomplish with this.”

Field size at Aqueduct can be a problem and while that is not good for handle, Panza said it’s another reason why horsemen might want to chose New York.

“With our dirt racing, we average small fields and there is an opportunity for people to come in and take advantage of that, especially at these purse levels,” he said.

NYRA is so intent on keeping horses in New York and attracting new ones for the winter that it is about to embark on a marketing campaign to get the message out about the purses. It’s something, Panza says, that should have been done before.

“In the past, we have probably done a poor job of explaining the value of being here in the winter,” he said.

Panza is hopeful there will be a domino effect, that higher purses will lead to bigger fields which will result in a bigger handle.

“What we are doing will be an experiment to see if higher purses drive larger field size and if larger field size drives more handle,” he said. “Trainers here have asked us to take a look at this and we’re going to try it and see if it makes a difference.”

In March, there were justifiable fears that the purse levels at the NYRA tracks would eventually take a big hit. Revenues from VLT machines, which account for about 38% of the total amount of purse money, were cut off when the Aqueduct casino shut down Mar. 16 due to the coronavirus. Three days later, racing was halted in New York.

Once Belmont resumed racing in June, the handle numbers have been impressive. They were up during the spring meet at Belmont and were, essentially, even during Saratoga, even though there was almost no on-track wagering. During the first 17 days of the Belmont fall meet, handle has averaged over $10 million a day, a 27% increase over 2019 numbers.

Panza believes that the handle has been impacted by the extensive coverage NYRA now receives from the FOX Sports networks.

“A lot of what is happening here has to do with our TV strategy,” he said. “People are staying at home, working from home. Getting on FOX and having our signal out there allows us to reach a lot of people. We’re not on TVG, like we used to be, for five minutes every hour. We are on FOX and talking about our races for four, five, six hours a day and that has paid tremendous dividends. It’s no longer a case where they go to Belmont for a race when they are loading in the gate and then the race is over and they go to another track before you even know what the running order was. Because of FOX, we are able to give a much better presentation of our product.”

Panza said that if the handle numbers continue to go up, there may be another purse increase come the spring. For now, though, he is focused on Aqueduct.

“There is going to be a great opportunity for people to race for a lot of money here this winter,” he said. “The message we want to get out is that we have made a serious commitment to winter racing.”

The post After Raising Purses, NYRA Hoping For Strong Winter Run at Aqueduct appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

D/M Racing’s Carmen McShane Named Finalist for Leadership Award in Racing

Congratulations to Carmen McShane, one of three finalists in the Leadership Award in Racing category of the Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards (TIEA), presented by Godolphin. McShane has been in the racing industry for more than three decades and currently serves as assistant trainer at D/M Racing, which is headed by her husband, Dave McShane. She has also been a jockey, exercise rider, outrider, and farm worker.

“She is the first one to the barn and the last one to leave,” said her daughter, Michelle McShane. “If there were more hours in the day, I believe she’d spend those at the barn as well.”

Click for the video feature on McShane done by TIEA.

Other finalists for the Leadership Award in Racing are Cindy Hutter of George Weaver Racing and Roy Smith of Indiana Grand Racing and Casino, who will be recognized on these pages in the coming days. The Leadership Award in Racing is presented annually to an individual who is part of a Thoroughbred racing stable in a managerial or supervisory role and displays exceptional leadership qualities.

A total of seven award categories will be honored by TIEA for 2020. Maria Cristina Silva of New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (NYTHA) has already been announced as the winner of the Community Award, while the winners in the other categories will be announced live in a virtual ceremony hosted by Jill Byrne and streamed at the TDN homepage Thursday, Nov. 5, at 12:00 p.m. ET. All finalists will be spotlighted in TDN in the days leading up to the ceremony.

The post D/M Racing’s Carmen McShane Named Finalist for Leadership Award in Racing appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post