Saturday’s $3 million, Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes is the biggest jewel on a crown studded with fantastic stakes races at Gulfstream Park this weekend, bringing together a stellar field of 12.
Month: January 2021
Aqueduct Partners With Oaklawn, Tampa To Host Year’s First Cross Country Pick 5 This Saturday
The first Cross Country Pick 5 of 2021 will feature action from Aqueduct Racetrack, Oaklawn Park and Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday as part of the wager hosted by the New York Racing Association, Inc.
Live coverage will be available with America's Day at the Races on FOX Sports. Free Equibase past performances for the Cross Country Pick 5 sequence are now available for download at https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/cross-country-wagers.
The Big A will commence the action with a nine-furlong allowance tilt for 4-year-olds and up in Race 8 at 3:50 p.m. Eastern. Stakes-winner Chestertown, trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, is the 8-5 morning-line favorite for the eight-horse field, looking to build on a win last out in December at Aqueduct. Chestertown won the Albany in September at Saratoga Race Course.
Oaklawn will then host the first of its three total races in the sequence when a full field of sophomores will be seeking their respective first career victories in a six-furlong maiden sprint in Race 5 at 4:06 p.m. Outasite, conditioned by Brad Cox and making his third career start, will try to show the form that made the Outwork colt a $380,000 purchase at the 2020 OBS March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training.
Tampa Bay will get in on the action with its 10th race finale, a one-mile turf test for 3-year-old maidens, at 4:52 p.m. The Ontario-bred Thru the Vine, trained by Graham Motion for owner-breeder Sam-Son Farm, will make his first career start as part of a 10-horse field.
Oaklawn will host the concluding two races, with an 11-horse field competing in a wide open six furlong allowance sprint in Race 7 at 5:09 p.m. The Cross Country Pick 5's lone stakes will be the last leg, as 12 fillies and mares 4-years-old and up will contest the one-mile $150,000 Pippin in Race 8 at 5:47 p.m. Asmussen will send out Wicked Whisper, winner of the Grade 3 Miss Preakness on October 3 at Pimlico, while Tom Amoss trainee Figure It Out returns to stakes company after posting a New Year's Day allowance win at Fair Grounds. Regal Beauty, 3-3-1 in nine career starts for trainer Bret Calhoun, and Our Super Freak for trainer Cherie DeVaux comprise a salty field.
The minimum bet for the multi-track, multi-race wager is 50 cents. Wagering on the Cross Country Pick 5 is also available on ADW platforms and at simulcast facilities across the country. Every week will feature a mandatory payout of the net pool.
The Cross Country Pick 5 will continue each Saturday throughout the year. For more information, visit NYRABets.com.
Cross Country Pick 5 – Saturday, Jan. 23:
Leg 1 – Aqueduct, Race 8: (3:50 p.m.)
Leg 2 – Oaklawn, Race 5: (4:06 p.m.)
Leg 3 – Tampa Bay, Race 10: (4:52 p.m.)
Leg 4 – Oaklawn, Race 7: (5:13 p.m.)
Leg 5 – Oaklawn, Race 8 – $150,000 Pippin: (5:47 p.m.)
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After 12 Years In Singapore, Top Trainer Shipping Out Due To Effects Of COVID-19 Pandemic
Top trainer Cliff Brown has become the latest handler to announce he is leaving Singapore to return to Australia, where he will be reunited with top sprinter Inferno. In another blow to the sport in Singapore, Brown has followed Lee Freedman in deciding to end his stay after 12 years training in Kranji, citing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic as a key factor.
“COVID-19 has crushed the [Singapore Turf] Club, just like it has damaged a lot of other racing jurisdictions around the world,” said Brown, 51. “No one is immune to its devastating effects.
“When I came to Singapore, my business model was to win as many races as possible. With the many changes we've seen in the last year, many things have been taken away as a result – my business model won't work any more.
“The number of races has dropped, we can't get a run for our horses. That has greatly affected our income and our bottom line.”
Brown said that because of travel restrictions and border closures he had not seen his two eldest children, both at university in Australia, for a year.
He also wants to continue to train Inferno, the winner of eight of his nine starts including two G1s in Singapore, who was due to tackle the Hong Kong Sprint in December only to be scratched after being found to be lame.
Inferno is in quarantine ahead of travelling to Australia and will return to Brown's care once he has established a new base.
“Inferno going back is a big thing,” said Brown. “Having him here now wouldn't make any sense and that's why we decided to send him to Australia. There's no guarantee that he'll be good enough in Australia, he may not be top level, but I'd really like to see him there, and be part of that new journey.”
Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Lee Freedman announced last December he would be returning home in March, when Brown will also depart once he has wound up his business.
Brown trained 13 G1 and G2 winners in Australia including the 1997 Rosehill Guineas, 2002 Adelaide Cup and the South Australia Derby in 1996, 1997 and 2000 from stables in Victoria before he moved to Singapore.
He has regularly finished in the top five trainers, sending out 566 winners, 34 at Group level, including 13 G1s. His most successful horse was the 2016 Singapore Horse of the Year Debt Collector, who won five times at G1.
“I'm leaving around mid-March, and will also serve my two-week quarantine,” he added. “If all goes well, I'm hoping to start training in May, during which time Inferno would have already had a few weeks of work.”
This story was originally published by Horse Racing Planet and is reprinted here with permission.
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Maker Hopes ‘Old Class Horse,’ Former Claimer Aquaphobia Steps Up In Pegasus Turf
The day after trainer Mike Maker won last year's $1 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational Turf (G1) with Zulu Alpha, the groundwork was laid for one of his 2021 runners – United Nations (G1) winner Aquaphobia.
Zulu Alpha and Aquaphobia are among six former claiming horses that have gone on to win Grade 1 races for Maker. The trainer also is running the stakes-winning, Grade 1-placed Cross Border in Saturday's 1 3/16-mile Pegasus Turf at Gulfstream Park. That 7-year-old horse was purchased by Three Diamonds Farm at auction in 2018 but before then was running in $40,000 claiming races.
Maker didn't spend much time basking in the glory of Zulu Alpha's Pegasus Turf victory. He was on a plane the next morning to Houston, where he was running Paradise Farms Corp.'s Bemma's Boy in the John B. Connally (G3).
Bemma's Boy finished second, but Paradise Farms owner Peter Proscia and Maker still scored big that day. As they were at Sam Houston Race Park handicapping races at various tracks, Proscia saw a horse he liked in an allowance race with a $62,500 claiming option at Gulfstream Park that afternoon. Maker was well familiar with the horse, the then 7-year-old Aquaphobia. He'd tried to claim the horse for Zulu Alpha's owner Michael Hui for $25,000 in 2017. They lost the shake that day, but the trainer kept up with the horse.
“We were at Sam Houston, sitting around a table, and he decided to claim him,” Maker said of Proscia. “He was an old class horse that we'd actually had our eyes on for a long time.”
“Basically I'm a speed handicapper and I also watch the replays,” Proscia said. “We have a good group of guys we bounce it off, but the ultimate decision is Mike's…. He knew the horse. I liked the horse, even though he was on the older side, (but) Mike has been doing very well with older, longer turf horses and getting the best out of them.”
Maker's Gulfstream team executed the claim. Aquaphobia finished fourth at odds of 32-1, but none of that bothered Proscia. Aquaphobia now is owned by four of Maker's stalwart owners: Proscia, David Staudacher, Hooties Racing and Skychai Racing.
“There's no one gamer,” Maker said with an appreciative laugh of Proscia's willingness to go in for high-priced claiming horses. “He keeps money in the account. He's ready to pull the trigger before the entries come out.”
Proscia, who is in the marine fuel business, met Maker a few years ago after he claimed one of the trainer's horses twice, with Maker claiming it back in between. When Proscia wasn't having much luck with the horse the second time around, a friend who knew Maker suggested sending the horse back to the trainer.
“I called him up and asked if it would be OK,” Proscia said. “It didn't work out that well; the horse got hurt. But those things happen. It wasn't his fault. I ended up buying a 2-year-old with him at a sale, and we started to claim a couple. Next thing you know, here we are today. It's been a good run, and I hope it continues.”
They won Gulfstream Park's Old Man Eloquent Stakes in their first start with Aquaphobia, then had a pair of fourths in Grade 2 races in their subsequent three races before taking Monmouth Park's United Nations. Aquaphobia is Proscia's first Grade 1 winner and one of three graded-stakes winners. He joins $30,000 claim Bemma's Boy, who in his next start after the Connally won Gulfstream' Kitten's Joy Pan American (G3), and Keeneland's Valley View (G3) winner Stunning Sky, who was claimed out of a $50,000 maiden-claiming race.
“He sees something in the past performances and the replays, and together with the speed figures, you put it all together and say, 'This horse has potential,'” Proscia said of Maker. “Then he has a training methodology that he does, and I give a lot of credit to his help and his staff. And Mike's got the patience.”
Zulu Alpha, an $80,000 claim, came into his Pegasus off a victory in Kentucky Downs' $1 million Kentucky Turf Cup (G3) and a good fourth in the $4 million Longines Breeders' Cup Turf (G1). In his three races since the United Nations, Aquaphobia was a distant third over soft turf in Saratoga's Sword Dancer (G1), seventh in Keeneland's Sycamore (G3) and sixth by a total of only two lengths in Aqueduct's Red Smith (G3).
“His last race was good,” Maker said. “He got beat a couple of a lengths with a wide trip, so it wasn't bad. At Keeneland, I think he was a little closer (early in the race) than we would have liked for him to be. Having said that, I think he'll appreciate a firmer course like Gulfstream has. And I really think he'll like the distance.
“Zulu had a better resume,” he added. “Though he wasn't yet a Grade 1 winner, he'd won more races than Aquaphobia. Aquaphobia has the Grade 1 United Nations to his credit. It's a big difference.”
Aquaphobia, who drew post 7 in the field of 12 for the Pegasus Turf, is 20-1 in the morning line. He's being reunited with Joe Bravo, whose 2-for-3 record on the horse includes the United Nations and Aquaphobia's first stakes victory as a 3-year-old.
After his purchase by Three Diamonds at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky's July Selected Horses of Racing Age sale, the New York-bred Cross Border did not race for almost a year. His 16 subsequent races for Three Diamonds and Maker include four wins, five seconds and a third, including victory in a New York-bred stakes, a second in the Sword Dancer (G1) and most recently a second by a head in the Fair Grounds' Buddy Diliberto Memorial.
Cross Border is 15-1 in the morning line and will be ridden by Tyler Gaffalione.
“He's won from 6 1/2 (furlongs) to a mile and a half for us,” Maker said. “Just a very versatile horse. You can place him wherever you need him. He's just a real quality horse.”
As for Zulu Alpha, he has been sidelined with a leg injury but is expected to resume racing later this year, Hui said.
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