January, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Pletcher’s Pegasus Turf Trio ‘All Have Very Good Records’ At Gulfstream Park

He's won the Florida Derby (G1) more times than any trainer in its history and led Gulfstream Park's Championship Meet standings a record 16 times, including a staggering 15 in a row from 2004-18. Now, Todd Pletcher is looking to add the Pegasus World Cup to a crowded Hall of Fame caliber resume that already boasts multiple Kentucky Derby (G1), Belmont Stakes (G1) and Breeders' Cup race victories as well as a record seven Eclipse Awards.

Pletcher, 53, has three contenders for the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1) Jan. 23 in graded-stakes winners Largent and Social Paranoia and recent Tropical Park Derby winner Colonel Liam. All three are coming off victories over Gulfstream's grass course.

“The good thing for us is they all seem to like this turf course. They all have very good records here,” Pletcher said. “We're pretty pleased with their final races over this course and the way they've been training, and the fact that their records are all good here gives us added optimism.”

Though he won't have a starter in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup (G1), Pletcher has enjoyed success in the event in past years, respectively running third and fourth with Neolithic and Keen Ice in the inaugural 2017 edition and fifth with Audible in 2019.

Pletcher is a five-time winner of the Pegasus' predecessor, the Donn Handicap (G1), with Harlan's Holiday (2003), Quality Road (2010), Graydar (2013), Constitution (2015) and Mshawish (2016).

“I'm a great fan of the Donn Handicap. It was a race that was very good to us over the years, but the Pegasus kind of brings it up a notch and makes it a must-see race,” Pletcher said. “It's always exciting to have horses running in big races.

“I think it's great that Gulfstream's done this with the two Pegasus races,” he added. “It gives us kind of marquee event at the meet where, maybe outside of the Florida Derby, we were missing that kind of marquee day.”

Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Twin Creeks Racing Stable's 5-year-old gelding Largent, winner of the Fort Lauderdale (G2) Dec. 12; The Elkstone Group's 5-year-old Social Paranoia, winner of the Appleton (G3) on the 2020 Florida Derby undercard; and Robert and Lawana Low's 4-year-old colt Colonel Liam are a combined eight-for-10 on the Gulfstream turf, with one second and one third.

Pletcher has won the Florida Derby five times between 2007 and 2018, with 2017 victor Always Dreaming going on to capture the Kentucky Derby. While better known for his prolific dirt horses, he has enjoyed success on the grass with horses such as 2007 turf champion English Channel and Grade 1 winners Honey Ryder and Wait a While, and he won the Pegasus Turf's predecessor, the Gulfstream Park Turf (G1), with Mshawish in 2015.

Other notable milestones Pletcher has reached at Gulfstream include career wins No. 1 (Feb. 25, 1996) with Majestic Number, No. 3,000 (Feb. 11, 2012) with Spring Hill Farm and No. 4,000 (March 18, 2016) with Eagle Scout.

While he figures in the mix for two of the five graded-stakes on the Pegasus undercard – the $125,000 Fred W. Hooper (G3) with Haikal and $125,000 La Prevoyante (G3) on turf with Always Shopping and Cap de Creus – Pletcher would like to add a Pegasus Turf win to his long list of Gulfstream accomplishments.

“I'd like to hope that it shows our versatility, that were able to be successful on turf and dirt, and with younger horses and older horses,” he said. “It'd be a fun win for any of the three that hopefully could do it.”

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Freshman Sire Showcase Returns To Fasig-Tipton July Sale

Fasig-Tipton will reintroduce the “Freshman Sire Showcase” as part of the company's 2021 July Selected Yearlings Sale, which will be held on July 13 and 14 at the company's headquarters in Lexington, Ky.

Fasig-Tipton will devote a section of the catalog exclusively to yearlings by stallions with their first crop of yearlings in 2021. Last held in 2010, the new sire showcase was a highly successful element of the July Sale for many years.

“We believe that 2021 is the ideal time to bring back the Freshman Sire Showcase,” said Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning. “The market has cycled back to a point where progeny of first-crop sires are in high demand once again, and this year's class of freshman sires is an exciting group from top to bottom.

“For many years, sellers had great success showcasing individuals by first-crop yearling sires in July when we offered a new sire showcase,” continued Browning. “This concept enables sellers to separate and showcase quality individuals by freshman sires at the first yearling sale of the year, and also provides opportunities for stud farms to market and promote their young stallions.”

The July Selected Yearlings Sale will once again be preceded by the July Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale on July 12. First held in 2013, the popular H.O.R.A. sale has benefitted the yearling sale, attracting a higher number of end-users and trainers to the sales grounds.

Nominations are now open for Fasig-Tipton's three summer selected yearling sales: the July Sale, the 100th Saratoga Sale, and the New York-bred Yearlings Sale. Prospective sellers can nominate and learn more at selectedyearlings.fasigtipton.com.

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Aqueduct Racetrack To Serve As State-Run COVID-19 Vaccination Center

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) opened the first floor of Aqueduct Racetrack on Monday to serve as a New York state run COVID-19 vaccination distribution center.

In doing so, Aqueduct has joined NYRA's other downstate track, Belmont Park, which is home to a vaccination distribution center operated by Northwell Health that opened earlier this month.

Over seven million New Yorkers – including doctors, nurses and health care workers, people age 65 and over, first responders, teachers, public transit workers, grocery store workers and public safety workers – are currently eligible for the vaccine. To determine eligibility and schedule appointments at New York State-run vaccination sites, visit https://am-i-eligible.covid19vaccine.health.ny.gov/.

Opened Sept. 27, 1894, Aqueduct has lived several lives beyond racing, often opening its doors to serve the local community during its venerable and varied 126-year-history.

New York State Senator Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr., a lifelong resident of Ozone Park who has represented the 15th Senate District since 2008, expressed his appreciation to New York state and to NYRA for selecting Aqueduct as a new distribution site, which is operating seven days a week.

“Aqueduct Racetrack is a landmark and an institution that is universally known to the constituents that I represent,” said Addabbo. “New York state selected a perfect location for this COVID-19 vaccination site and I applaud them for moving so quickly to transform a racetrack into a vaccination center. This is not the first time the men and women of the New York Racing Association have stepped up to support the community and I also thank them for their efforts to protect and support New Yorkers throughout the pandemic.”

Last spring, New York state officials identified Aqueduct as an appropriate location for an overflow hospital to serve the residents of Queens in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, the overflow hospital was not needed then or now.

“NYRA is pleased to be able to contribute to the mass vaccination effort underway across the state,” said NYRA President and CEO Dave O'Rourke. “New York state has led the way through this unprecedented public health crisis and we will continue to do our part to support this effort.”

Beginning in April 2020, the Big A parking lot has been the home of a drive-thru COVID-19 testing location, and it continues in that role. Information regarding COVID-19 testing can be found at https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/covid-19-testing.

NYRA racetracks have had many previous uses in the community. In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy in 2012, NYRA donated the use of the Aqueduct parking lot to the American Red Cross to operate a mobile feeding kitchen and relief supplies staging area.

In the days following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Belmont Park served as one of the staging areas for emergency vehicles and personnel. Less than seven weeks later, on October 27, 2001, Belmont Park was the site of the first major international sporting event post-9/11 in New York when it hosted the Breeders' Cup World Championships.

In 1944 during World War II, Aqueduct concluded a trio of War Relief Days in which all the net profits were donated to the National War Fund, American Red Cross and other causes, including three Long Island hospitals. The first two War Relief days were held at the old Jamaica Race Course and Belmont Park.

The day's featured race, the Carter Handicap, resulted in the only triple dead heat in a stakes race, with Brownie, Bossuet, and Wait A Bit hitting the finish line at the same time before more than 25,000 spectators on a rain-soaked Big A track. The event was heralded as a welcome break at a perilous, worrisome time in American history – all of four days after the D-Day landing in Normandy.

One of the track's finest moments came without a horse in sight. On October 6, 1995, Pope John Paul II said mass before 75,000, speaking from the 300-foot-wide papal platform in Aqueduct's infield, surrounded by 10 cardinals, three archbishops and 23 bishops. Though rain and wind had marred the first two days of the papal visit to New York, brilliant sunshine broke through just as the Pope began to speak. The crowd was Aqueduct's biggest ever.

The winter meet at Aqueduct Racetrack continues, without spectators, through Sunday, March 21. For additional information, and to access the current television broadcast schedule, visit NYRA.com.

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Independence Hall Training Well After Malibu Flop, Will ‘Take A Swing’ At Pegasus

When last seen at Gulfstream Park, Independence Hall was finishing fifth in the track's marquee race for 3-year-olds, the 2020 Florida Derby (G1). Ten months later, the son of Constitution returns for Gulfstream's most important race for older horses, Saturday's $3 million Pegasus World Cup Championship Invitational (G1).

Much has changed between trips to South Florida for the colt co-owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Twin Creeks Racing Stables, and Kathleen and Robert Verratti. Following his disappointing finish as the 3-1 third choice in the Florida Derby, he was given a sabbatical and later moved from the East Coast-based trainer Michael Trombetta to Michael McCarthy in California.

McCarthy won the 2019 Pegasus with City of Light.

The Pegasus will be the first start for Independence Hall since he finished fifth of six, nearly 10 lengths behind Charlatan in the Malibu (G1) on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita Park. McCarthy expected a much stronger performance in the seven-furlong Malibu on the opening day of Santa Anita's winter season.

“For one reason or another, which I can't put my finger on, he just did not seem to fire that day,” McCarthy said. “I have to draw a line through it. The horse has trained forwardly since.”

Independence Hall has had two breezes this month. The most recent was six furlongs in 1:12.60 at Santa Anita on Saturday.

“His work was very, very good,” McCarthy said. “If you bring a horse into a $3 million race, I think this is the kind of work you want to bring him in off.”

Jockey Flavien Prat will ride Independence Hall for the first time in the Pegasus.

Robert Verratti purchased Independence Hall as a yearling from Constitution's first crop for $100,000 at the 2018 Keeneland September sale as a pinhooking prospect. On the advice of his bloodstock agent Dennis O'Neill, Verratti decided to hold onto the colt, as a buy-back at the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale of 2-year-olds in 2019. After Independence Hall easily broke his maiden at Parx in September, Eclipse and Twin Creeks purchased interests in the colt.

Independence Hall promptly built his reputation as a Kentucky Derby prospect for his ownership group with a 12 ¼-length win in the Nashua (G3) and a 4 ½-length win in the Jerome at Aqueduct and was second as the 3-5 favorite in the Sam F. Davis (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs. The lackluster Florida Derby outing led to a pause in his career and a vacation at WinStar Farm.

“They just decided that he needed a little time off, a bit of a mental freshening more than anything. It seems to have done him some good,” McCarthy said. “The horse has come to me in very good order. The body of work he put together last year I thought was very good. We are just trying to go ahead and build on that.”

McCarthy said that Independence Hall arrived from Kentucky during the summer and was ready to resume training. He had his first breeze on Sept. 26 and won a 6 ½-furlong optional claimer on November 8.

“The horse fell into a pretty nice routine once he got here, was very straight forward,” McCarthy said. “The first race for us at Del Mar, obviously we were expecting a decent performance with him. I thought the way he won was more or less what we had been seeing in the morning. It was a perfect setup for a race like the Malibu.”

Though the Malibu did not work out as his connections had hoped, the colt came out of the race well and they decided the next challenge would be the nine-furlong Pegasus, which offers the highest purse in North America for older horses outside the Breeders' Cup.

“It was one of those things, as some of the invitees started falling by the wayside, this became more and more of an option,” McCarthy said. “It's $3 million. It's a good spot to take a swing at something like this. You may never get this chance again until Breeders' Cup time, nine months from now, for this kind of money. Why not?”

McCarthy welcomes the opportunity to join Hall of Famer Bob Baffert as a two-time Pegasus-winning trainer.

“That would be awfully nice,” he said. “I'm bringing a horse in who is training as well as I could ask him to be. We'll see what happens.”

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