January, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

‘He Surprises Me Every Day’: Maryland-Bred Harpers First Ride Headed To Pegasus World Cup

MCA Racing Stable's Harpers First Ride, a four-time stakes winner in 2020 including the historic Pimlico Special (G3), is set to launch his 5-year-old season in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup (G1) Saturday, Jan. 23 at Gulfstream Park.

Based at Laurel Park with trainer Claudio Gonzalez, Harpers First Ride was among the invitees to the 1 1/8-mile Pegasus for 4-year-olds and up, being held for the fifth consecutive year. Also on the list is another Maryland-bred, 2020 Breeders' Cup Mile (G1) winner Knicks Go.

Harpers First Ride ended 2020 with back-to-back stakes victories at Laurel in the 1 1/16-mile Richard W. Small Nov. 28 and 1 1/8-mile Native Dancer Dec. 26.

“He came back really good after the last race, that's why we try to go to the Pegasus,” Gonzalez said. “It's a big race. It all depends. If he continues like how he's doing, we're going to go.”

The Pegasus will be the third time in graded-stakes company and first against Grade 1 competition for Harpers First Ride, who Gonzalez claimed for $30,000 out of a Sept. 14, 2019 win at Churchill Downs.

“The first time he ran over there he ran good, and he was a Maryland-bred. Why not bring him here?” Gonzalez said of the reason behind claiming the gelded son of Grade 1 winner Paynter. “What's he doing over there? So, we decide to claim the horse.”

Harpers First Ride won seven of 11 races in 2020 with two seconds, one third and $495,623 in purse earnings, growing his career bankroll to $573,055. He won the 1 1/16-mile Deputed Testamony Sept. 5 at Laurel as a prep for the 1 3/16-mile Pimlico Special, where he dueled up front with favored Owendale to win by two lengths.

“He surprises me every day. Every day he goes better,” Gonzalez said. “He comes back from the races like nothing. He's easy to train. He's a classy horse. He does everything right.”

Gonzalez said the plans call for Harpers First Ride to breeze at Gulfstream and have regular rider Angel Cruz aboard for the Pegasus. Cruz has been up for each of Harpers First Ride's last five wins and all four stakes.

“He knows the horse really good. And for me it's better that he rides, and I think that he will,” Gonzalez said. “The plan is to go 10 days before the race to give him a breeze over there and let him get to know the racetrack and get used to the weather change. Here it's cold and over there it's going to be hot. That's why we plan that. It gives him a couple of days to adjust.”

Claimed by Gonzalez for $30,000 out of a Sept. 14, 2019 win at Churchill Downs, MCA Racing Stable's Harpers First Ride won for the seventh time in 11 starts in 2020, four of those wins coming in stakes – the Deputed Testamony, Richard W. Small and Native Dancer at Laurel and Pimlico Special at Pimlico Race Course.

A gelded 4-year-old son of Grade 1 winner Paynter, Harpers First Ride has earned $495,623 this year, growing his career bankroll to $573,055. He will figure in the conversation for Maryland-bred Horse of the Year along with Knicks Go, who went three-for-three in the Midwest this year topped by a victory in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1).

“The horse surprises me every race he runs. Every race he runs better and better. He walked today and he walked like he knows he won. It's really good when you see that,” Gonzalez said. “He won four stakes, he won the Pimlico Special, and all the stakes he won he won good. It's the first time I've had a horse like that. With Harpers, every day is special. From the day we claimed him, he started doing good.”

Among the early 2021 stakes for 4-year-olds and up going a route of ground at Laurel are the $75,000 Jennings for Maryland-bred/sired horses at one mile Jan. 16, the $100,000 John B. Campbell at about 1 1/16 miles Feb. 13 and $100,000 Harrison E. Johnson Memorial at 1 1/8 miles March 13. Gonzalez said the connections will keep all their options open for the soon-to-be 5-year-old.

“He proved that he won his races easy and maybe he has to take the next step and race with the big guys and see how he does,” he said.

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Training Horses Is Still A Work Of Art For Sherman

The New Year is here and one of racing's undisputed good guys, Art Sherman, welcomed it in fine fettle as he prepares to turn 84 on Feb. 17.

In 2016, Sherman was named winner of the Big Sport of Turfdom Award, awarded annually by the Turf Publicists of America honoring a “person or group of people who enhance coverage of Thoroughbred racing through cooperation with media and racing publicists.”

Sherman, who gained fame and fortune most trainers can only dream about when California Chrome burst on the scene in 2013, is content with a more mundane pace these days.

On Sunday, he runs the 4-year-old filly Acting Out in the $75,000 Kalookan Queen Stakes for fillies and mares, four and up, over 6 ½ furlongs at Santa Anita Park.

She also was nominated to Saturday's Grade 2 La Canada Stakes, but with two G1 winners in the field (Fighting Mad and Hard Not to Love), Sherman felt the race came up too tough and opted for a softer spot.

A gray daughter of Blame, who handed the great Zenyatta her lone defeat by a diminishing head in a dramatic edition of 2010 Breeders' Cup Classic under the late Garrett Gomez, Acting Out won her last two starts in overnight races by a combined margin of just over 10 lengths, one on turf and the other on dirt.

“She's doing well and been running well on both surfaces,” said Sherman, who owns 50 percent of the filly with his son, Alan. Bobby Harkins and Zvika Akin share the remaining 50 percent.

Born in Brooklyn where he became street smart in his father's Runyonesque barber shop, Sherman later moved to Los Angeles and went to work for Rex Ellsworth, accompanying the great Swaps in May of 1955 to Churchill Downs where he won the Kentucky Derby, and on Aug. 31 to Washington Park in Homewood, Ill., 27 miles south of Chicago, for a historic match race with Nashua before a crowd of 35,262.

Sherman began a career as jockey in 1957, retired in 1978, and took out his trainer's license in 1979. Thirty-four years later along came California Chrome and the rest, as they say, is history.

Sherman is comfortable with a stable of “about 10 horses” at his Los Alamitos headquarters, and has no plans to call it a career.

“If people read that I might retire, nobody will want to give me any horses,” he said.

Winner of the Kentucky Derby in 2014 and a two-time Horse of the Year in 2014 and 2016, California Chrome became an international fan favorite and Team Sherman was aboard for the wild ride.

The California-bred son of Lucky Pulpit-Love the Chase retired with a 16-4-1 record from 27 races, earning $14,752,650. Now 10, he stands at stud in Japan for four million yen ($36,500 in Yankee dollars).

“The only time I get to see him is on Facebook,” Sherman said, “but I'd sure like to visit him. I have an open invitation to see him anytime.”

Aside from keeping tabs on California Chrome and winning races, Sherman's foremost priority is his health, which, knock on wood, is good these days. Presently he is cancer-free from a tumor that was discovered on his bladder and surgically removed in March of 2019.

“My last visit four months ago I was free of cancer,” Sherman said, “so I won't have to see the doctor again for a while.”

And that's the best news of this or any year.

The field for the Kalookan Queen, race eight of nine with a 12:30 p.m. first post time: Amuse, Drayden Van Dyke; Biddy Duke, Umberto Rispoli; Qahira, Joel Rosario; Acting Out, Abel Cedillo; Dynasty of Her Own, Ricky Gonzalez; and Mo See Cal, Flavien Prat.

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KEEJAN-Bound Union Rags Colt Earns ‘TDN Rising Star’

Sent off as part of an entry at odds of 13-4, The Estate of Paul Pompa Jr.’s Carillo (Union Rags) overcame a bit of a sluggish start and an overland run around the far turn to graduate at first asking, earning the ‘TDN Rising Star’ designation in the process.

Squeezed back a bit at the break, the homebred trailed early before improving in traffic to sit midfield as they hit the turn. Consigned to a wide trip around the bend, Carillo rallied deep into the stretch and sustained a long run to draw away by 2 3/4 lengths at the finish over the more-experienced and well-bet Al’s Prince (Cairo Prince) while covering an additional 23 feet (about 2 1/2 lengths), according to Trakus data. .

The late Pompa acquired Carillo’s dam, a half-sister to MSW & GSP Secret Someone (A.P. Indy) and to the dam of GISW Dunbar Road (Quality Road), for $185,000 carrying the colt in utero at Keeneland November in 2017. The colt’s third dam, the SW & GISP Private Status, was responsible for 2000 GI Kentucky Oaks and GI Mother Goose S. winner Secret Status (A.P. Indy). The sires of Carillo’s first two dams were Classic winners, while Alydar was famously second in each of the Triple Crown races in 1978. Union Rags, of course, was victorious in the 2012 GI Belmont S.

Carillo is set to be offered as hip 1566 as part of the complete dispersal of the Pompa bloodstock at Keeneland January next Thursday. Proper Mad sells as hip 793 near the end of Tuesday’s second session. Lane’s End is handling the dispersal.

6th-Aqueduct, $80,000, Msw, 1-8, 3yo, 1m, 1:39.67, ft, 2 3/4 lengths.
CARILLO, c, 3, by Union Rags
1st Dam: Proper Mad, by Bernardini
2ndDam: Private Gift, by Unbridled
3rd Dam: Private Status, by Alydar
Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $44,000. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton. Click for the free Equineline.com catalog-style pedigree.
O-The Estate of Paul Pompa Jr; B-Paul Pompa (KY); T-Chad C Brown.

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Hall Of Famer Javier Castellano Planning Mid-February Return To The Saddle

Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano, out since mid-November following leg surgery, said he expects to resume riding the second week of February at Gulfstream Park.

Castellano, 43, won a record five consecutive Championship Meet riding titles at Gulfstream from 2011-12 through 2015-16. He had arthroscopic surgery to clean up some debris in his right leg, near the hip, Nov. 16 in New York, where he remains in recovery.

“I'm doing physical therapy right now and I feel really good. It's a process,” Castellano said. “I want to come back 100 percent. I could have come back two or three weeks earlier, but there's no point to rush. When I made the decision to do this I wanted to do it 100 percent right.

“I plan to come back in February. In the beginning of February I'm planning to start getting on some horses, and we're pointing for the second week to start riding at Gulfstream,” he added. “I'm looking forward to it.”

The timing of Castellano's return would have him available for two of Gulfstream's biggest races, both for 3-year-olds with Triple Crown aspirations – the $300,000 Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth (G2) Feb. 27 and the $750,000 Florida Derby (G1) March 27.

Castellano won the 2014 Florida Derby with Constitution and the 2017 Fountain of Youth with Gunnevera.

“We want to go to the Fountain of Youth,” he said. “The main goal is to go to the Fountain of Youth and ride the good races and the Florida Derby, that's the second goal. Hopefully we can pick something up and move forward.”

Castellano ended 2020 with 108 wins and more than $12.4 million in purse earnings from 640 mounts, boosting his career totals to 5,328 wins and a bankroll of nearly $355 million. He said the decision to have his surgery in late fall came with the future in mind.

“We're looking at the long term and just be patient, not rush back and ride too quick. Thank God, knock on wood I've never had any surgeries in the past,” Castellano said. “I made the decision because I wanted to take care of my body and be able to ride 10 more years. I feel great. This surgery is to prevent something for the future.

“I could have kept riding four, five, six years and it wouldn't have bothered me, but the doctors were saying that at the end of my career I'd have to have big surgery like a hip replacement or something like that. I didn't want to end my career like that,” he added. “This was able to take care of little issues and be able to move forward. I will be able to ride longer and when my career is over, I'll have no pain. I can play golf, I can walk, everything.”

Castellano had 23 wins and ranked eighth with $1.458 million in purse earnings during the 2019-2020 Championship Meet. The four-time Eclipse Award winner said he and his medical team have been pleased with his recovery.

“The first week [in Florida] I'm going to go see the doctor and make sure that they give me the OK to come back to ride, but the physical therapist and the doctor have been communicating all the time,” he said. “Every week I've been reaching my goals quicker and that's good news. I recovered really quick, faster than an average person because a jockey's life is all about doing exercises and eating well and taking care of your body. I think that helped me progress quicker.”

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