November, 2020 | Horse Racing Free Tips

From The Horse’s Mouth: D’Amato Assesses His Hollywood Turf Cup Quartet

Phil D'Amato is ready to tee it up with a foursome and take a big swing hoping to find the 'Cup.

But, rather than golf, the Thoroughbred trainer is sticking to his primary game and saddling four horses for Friday's featured $200,000, Grade 2 Hollywood Turf Cup. D'Amato's quartet for the 1 ½-mile grass marathon, all with different ownership going as separate betting interests, is comprised of Red King, Say the Word, Gregorian Chant and Acclimate.

“They're all running,” D'Amato confirmed this morning. “They're all kind of uniquely different horses and have different running styles and they've all trained well for the race.”

A capsule look alphabetically, with D'Amato's comments.

Acclimate. A son of Acclamation and an Old English Rancho homebred, the 6-year-old gelding will be making his first start in over a year but last season here won the Grade 2, 1 3/8 mile Del Mar Handicap. “He had a bunch of little things to take care of and then it (comeback) got complicated by the COVID situation and the fires near Santa Anita,” D'Amato said. “One setback after another; but his last few works have indicated to me that he's back close to being his old self.”

Gregorian Chant. The 4-year-old English-bred hit the board in his last three starts for owners Slam Dunk and Old Bones Racing and comes in off a third-place finish in the Lure Stakes at Santa Anita that produced a career-best Beyer Speed Figure. “He was gelded (in May) and he's improved every race since,” D'Amato said. “We want to stretch him out (first time beyond 1 1/8 miles) and see what he can do.”

Red King. A victory this past summer in the Del Mar Handicap provided entrée to the $4 million Breeders' Cup Turf at Keeneland. But things didn't work out when he finished ninth of 10. “He needs some pace to run at and there was zero pace in the race,” D'Amato said. “We were stuck wide on a slow pace and couldn't kick with those other really good horses. He's back here now, happy and healthy and hopefully we'll get the kind of effort we did last summer.”

Say the Word. The 5-year-old gelded son of More Than Ready, owned in partnership and bred by Sam-Son Farm, is a newcomer to D'Amato's stable and comes in off a victory in the Grade 1 Northern Dancer at Woodbine. “He's worked twice here and looked very good,” D'Amato said. “We're looking forward to seeing what he can do.”

The field from the rail with jockeys and morning line odds in parenthesis: North County Guy (Mario Gutierrez, 15-1); Oscar Dominguez (Irad Ortiz, Jr., 15-1); Red King (Umberto Rispoli, 5-1); Say the Word (Flavien Prat, 5-1); Arklow (Joel Rosario, 5-2); Gregorian Chant (Ricardo Gonzalez, 20-1); Acclimate (Tyler Baze, 12-1); Laccario (Manuel Franco, 3-1); Ward 'n Jerry (Jose Valdivia, Jr., 20-1); Proud Pedro (Juan Hernandez, 20-1); Marckie's Water (Tiago Pereira 30-1), and Another Mystery (Mike Smith, 10-1). Listed as also eligible are Tartini (Tyler Baze 30-1) and Fivestar Lynch (Abel Cedillo, 30-1).

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Orglandes Flies Late To Capture Red Carpet; Del Mar Pick 6 Hit For $248,187

New York invader Orglandes turned it on late under champion jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. to take down honors by a half length in the Grade 3 Red Carpet Handicap at Del Mar on Thanksgiving Day at the seaside track north of San Diego, Calif.

The winner, who is owned by the partnership of Michael Dubb, Madaket Stables and Wonder Stables, is a 4-year-old French-bred filly by the Irish sire Le Harve and she ran the demanding 11 furlongs on turf in 2:15.85. As the 11-10 favorite, she returned $4.20, $3.40 and $2.80 across the board in capturing her initial stakes victory.

Finishing second in the seventh edition of the Grade 3 test for fillies and mares was Bederian, Kamberian or Nakkashian, et al's Going to Vegas and third was Hronis Racing's Quick.

Stewards lit the inquiry sign after Orglandes bumped with Blame Debbie in midstretch but unanimously ruled it did not affect the outcome of the race.

“I had no special instructions,” Ortiz said. “Just ride her. I liked where I was throughout the race. We thought this would be a better distance for her. The last time (winning allowance race at Belmont Park on October 9) it was too short for her (nine furlongs). She got 'racy' on me. But this distance is much better for her. She did well with it.”

Jose Hernandez, assistant to trainer Brown, said: “I wasn't really worried (about the inquiry). There was a little bump but nothing serious. Chad talked to the jockey in the morning. He said just to break and play off of it. It's a mile and three-eighth, a long race, so the jockey can do what he feels. The pace was good and he was in a really good position and then made a strong finish.”

Orglandes took home $60,000 from the $102,500 purse which pushed her career earnings to $154,772. She raced in her native France as a 2- and 3-year-old, then was purchased privately by American interests and her outing today was her third U.S. start. She's won four of 10 lifetime starts and now races out of the powerhouse barn of champion trainer Chad Brown.

Going to Vegas, off at odds of 15-1, paid $11.80 and $6.20, while Quick, who went postward at 8-1, returned $5.00 to show.

In the day's Pick Six wagering, a single ticket holder betting out of the Maryland hub was the only one to ring the bell with all six winners and took down a prize of $248,187. That fan had wagered $13,753 on his ticket.

Racing resumes at Del Mar Friday with first post at 12:30 p.m.

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Three Graded Stakes On Turf Highlight Saturday’s Blockbuster Card At Del Mar

Headed by the $300,000, Grade 1 Hollywood Derby, Del Mar will present one of the best racing cards seen at the Southern California shore oval in decades Saturday on the penultimate day of sport for the seventh Bing Crosby Season.

Nine races – averaging more than 10 horses apiece – including three graded turf stakes will make for a delightful afternoon of competition and wagering at the seaside oval with the fun kicking off at 12:30 p.m. PT.

The Hollywood Derby, run at nine furlongs on the turf, has drawn 13 3-year-olds – eight colts, four geldings and one filly. All the males will carry 122 pounds, while the filly gets a three-pound sex allowance. It will be run as the ninth and final race on the program.

A trio of Eastern-based trainers should have a big say in the headliner – Christophe Clement, Chad Brown and Thomas Bush. Clement has sent out a pair for the Grade 1 in Otter Bend Stables' Gufo and West Point Thoroughbreds, Freeman, Sandbrook or Manning's Decorated Invader. Brown has entered Klaravich Stables' Domestic Spending and Bush will be represented by the Mary Abeel Sullivan Revocable Trust's Get Smokin.

Here's the full field for the seventh local running of the race from the rail out with riders and morning line odds:

Wertheimer & Frere's Kanderel (Giovanni Franco, 30-1); Cannon Thoroughbreds' Smooth Like Strait (Umberto Rispoli, 7/2); Little Red Feather Racing or Naify's Scarto (Manny Franco, 10-1); Nguyen or Tran's Taishan (Jose Valdivia, Jr., 12-1); Exline-Border Racing, Bernsen, Hudock or Wilson's Storm the Court (Juan Hernandez, 8-1); Wachtel Stable or Gary Barber's California Kook (Ricky Gonzalez, 20-1); Roadrunner Racing or Sayjay Racing's Strongconstitution (Abel Cedillo, 20-1); Domestic Spending (Irad Ortiz, Jr., 5-1); Get Smokin (Mike Smith, 12-1); Decorated Invader (Joel Rosario, 3-1); R A Hill Stable or Reeves Thoroughbred Racing's Ever Dangerous (Victor Espinoza, 12-1); MyRacehorse.com or Spendthrift Farm's Lane Way (Drayden Van Dyke, 20-1), and Gufo (Flavien Prat, 4-1).

This actually will be the 79th edition of the Hollywood Derby with the first 72 presentations having taken place at the now-demolished Hollywood Park facility in Inglewood near LAX airport. When the race shifted to Del Mar in 2014, it got a big boost in its first local edition when soon-to-be Horse of the Year California Chrome won it smartly and thus ensured himself the first of his two HOY titles.

The chestnut colt Gufo, a son of the War Front stallion Declaration of War, shows four wins and a photo-finish second on his ledger for 2020. The stretch runner won the Grade I Belmont Derby last out on October 3 at the big New York track. Stablemate Decorated Invader has won five of nine starts and more than $500,000.

The Kingman gelding Domestic Spending has won three of four lifetime outings, including a tally in the Saratoga Derby Invitational in his most recent effort on August 15 at the upstate New York track.

Get Smokin, by Get Stormy, comes into the race off a score in the Grade 2 Hill Prince on the lawn at Belmont Park on October 18.

The local contingent is headed by multiple-stakes winner and $397,823 earner Smooth Like Strait and 2019 Juvenile champion Storm the Court, who has more than $1.3 million in the bank. That pair finished one-two in the Grade 3 La Jolla Handicap at Del Mar this summer, with the winner Smooth Like Strait coming back to capture the Grade 2 Twilight Derby at Santa Anita on October 18.

Earlier on the Saturday program there are a pair of grass stakes that also have drawn full fields.

The day's seventh race is the seventh local running of the Seabiscuit Handicap, a $200,000, Grade 2 offering that has drawn 13 older runners for a mile and one-sixteenth on the green.

Topweighted for the test is the eastern invader out of the powerhouse Chad Brown barn Flavius, a Juddmonte Farms homebred who'll pack 123 pounds and the nation's top money-winning jockey, Irad Ortiz, Jr., as he tries to add to his $541,151 bankroll.

Among his rivals are Agave Racing Stable, ERJ Racing, Madaket Stables or Rockin Robin Racing Stable's Bowies Hero, a multiple-stakes winner of more than $1.5 million; Sayjay Racing, Hall or Hubbard's One Bad Boy, last year's Queen's Plate winner; Peter Redekop's multiple-stake winner Anothertwistafate, who'll be making his first grass start, and Don't Tell My Wife Stables, Monomoy Stables or West Point Thoroughbreds' comebacking My Boy Jack, a now 5-year-old who was the buzz horse on the 2018 Derby Trail and who will be making his first start in more than a year.

Here's the full field for the Seabiscuit in post postion order with riders and morning line odds:

My Boy Jack (Victor Espinoza, 30-1); Paradise Road Ranch's Camino Del Paraiso (Tiago Periera, 15-1); Klaravich Stables' Spirit Animal (Manny Franco, 8-1); Bonne Chance Farm or Stud R D I's Imperador (Drayden Van Dyke, 15-1); Agave Racing Stable or Sam-Son Farm's Count Again (Juan Hernandez, 8-1); Lindley or Morton's Majestic Eagle (Mario Gutierrez, 15-1); R3 Racing or Calara Farms' Blitzkrieg (Abel Cedillo, 10-1); Anothertwistafate (Joel Rosario, 4-1); Baltas, Baltas, Ivarone, Ivarone, McClanahan, et al's Next Share (Jose Valdivia, Jr., 12-1); One Bad Boy (Flavien Prat, 12-1); Red Baron's Barn or Rancho Temescal's Tartini (Edwin Maldonado, 30-1); Flavius (5/2), and Bowies Hero (Umberto Rispoli, 6-1).

The afternoon's fifth race is for 2-year-old fillies and is named the Jimmy Durante Stakes. Fittingly, the $100,000 Grade 3 test is run at a mile on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course. Both the race and the grass course were named for the multi-talented entertainer who for many years made Del Mar his summer stop of choice.

Again, trainer Brown's entrant well could be the one to beat in the juvenile feature. That would be Head of Plains Partners' homebred Fluffy Socks, shipped in from Belmont and with a stakes tally on the grass – and a close miss in another – already on her ledger. Once again top rider Irad Ortiz, Jr. has the call and they'll break from Post 8 in the 13-horse lineup.

Here's the field for the Durante in post position order with riders and morning line odds:

Red Baron's Barn or Rancho Temescal's Inner Beauty (Tiago Pereira, 20-1); C T R Stables, Wonderland Racing Stables, Bambauer, et al's Plum Sexy (Juan Hernandez, 6-1); Harris Farms' Closing Remarks (Umberto Rispoli, 15-1); Altamira Racing Stable, CYBT, Lantzman or Nentwig's Nimbostratus (Ricky Gonzalez, 12-1); Godolphin's Javanica (Flavien Prat, 6-1); Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners or Winners' Consternation (Drayden Van Dyke, 20-1); Perry or Ramona Bass' Pizzazz (Mike Smith, 6-1); Fluffy Socks (5/2); Red Baron's Barn or Rancho Temescal's Quattroelle (Tyler Baze, 8-1); Bridlewood Farm's Bay Storm (Joel Rosario, 5-1); Breeze Easy's Polished Lady (Victory Espinoza, 30-1); Slam Dunk Racing's Magical Thought (Abel Cedillo, 12-1), and Ryan, Drown or Team Hanley's Invincible Gal (Manny Franco, 6-1).

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Uncle Mo’s Envoutante All by Herself in Falls City

Envoutante added to a big year for both her trainer and sire, turning in a dominant front-running performance under the Twin Spires Thursday. Wasting no time seizing the early advantage from her rail post, the dark bay doled out opening splits of :24.25 and :48.95. She shut the door on her competition heading for home, and cantered clear from there to assert her superiority. Odds-on Bonny South, who took the GII Fair Grounds Oaks earlier this term and was most recently second to Envoutante’s stablemate Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) in the GI Alabama S. before a narrow second in the GII Black-Eyed Susan S. Oct. 3, again had to settle for second best at odds-on.

“It was my first time on her for a race, but I’ve worked her and worked against her before, too, with Swiss Skydiver,” noted winning pilot Brian Hernandez, Jr. “She really kicked away from the field today and was very dominant. At the three-eighths pole I got her into the bit again and she just kicked away. Riding for [trainer] Kenny [McPeek] is easy and he didn’t really give a lot of instructions. When the gates opened, she put herself into a great spot.”

Envoutante was a romping third-out graduate at Gulfstream in April, and took a local allowance two starts later May 29. She was third in Keeneland’s GI Ashland S. July 11, and fourth in the Aug. 15 Alabama. She made the grade in the Sept. 27 GIII Remington Park Oaks, scoring from off the pace as a heavy favorite.

“She was one-for-one at Churchill coming into this race,” said McPeek, who has also been represented this year by a granddaughter of Envoutante’s sire Uncle Mo in GI Darley Alcibiades S. romper Simply Ravishing (Laoban). “We were very confident by the way she was working in the mornings and hoping she was going to put it together in the afternoon. She’s worked against Swiss Skydiver and has really done well in her training. She’s done a lot of traveling this year and got her graded stakes win in the Remington Oaks so winning another one was very special.”

Thursday, Churchill Downs
FALLS CITY S.-GII, $200,000, Churchill Downs, 11-26, 3yo/up, f/m, 1 1/8m, 1:49.11, ft.
1–ENVOUTANTE, 118, f, 3, by Uncle Mo
                1st Dam: Enchante (MSP, $154,172), by Bluegrass Cat
                2nd Dam: Wear, by Arch
                3rd Dam: Abrade, by Mr. Prospector
($250,000 Ylg ’18 KEESEP). O-Walking L Thoroughbreds, LLC &
Three Chimneys Farm; B-Jumping Jack Racing LLC (KY);
T-Kenneth G. McPeek; J-Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr. $120,280.
Lifetime Record: GISP, 9-4-1-2, $336,028. Werk Nick Rating: A.
   Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Bonny South, 120, f, 3, Munnings–Touch the Star, by Tapit.
O/B-Juddmonte Farms Inc (KY); T-Brad H. Cox. $38,800.
3–Another Broad, 121, m, 5, Include–Dynamic Deputy, by
Deputy Minister. ($340,000 4yo ’19 KEENOV). O-Farfellow
Farm, Ltd.; B-Fitzhugh, LLC (MD); T-Steven M. Asmussen.
$19,400.
Margins: 6, 3HF, HD. Odds: 2.60, 0.80, 24.70.
Also Ran: Our Super Freak, Smooth With a Kick, Over Thinking, Market Rumor, Cash Out. Scratched: High Regard. 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:
Envoutante is one of 14 graded stakes winners this year–tops in North America–for Coolmore’s Uncle Mo. She is one of six graded winners out of Bluegrass Cat mares. Dam Enchante was a hard-knocking MSP sprinter and hails from the female family of Forty Niner. She has an unraced 2-year-old filly named Marla (Frosted) and a yearling colt by Classic Empire. Enchante was bred to Uncle Mo’s son Nyquist for 2021.

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