Making the Grade, which will run through the 2021 Triple Crown races, focuses on the winners or top performers of the key races, usually from the previous weekend, who could make an impact on the Triple Crown. We’ll be taking a close look at impressive winners and evaluating their chances to win classic races based upon ability, running style, connections (owner, trainer, jockey), and pedigree.
Month: January 2021
Trio Of Graded Wins Nets Joel Rosario Jockey Of The Week Title
Joel Rosario captured all three graded stakes events at Santa Anita leading to Jockey of the Week honors for Dec. 28 through Jan. 3. The award, which is voted on by a panel of racing experts, is for jockeys who are members of the Jockeys' Guild, the organization which represents more than 950 active riders in the United States as well as retired and permanently disabled jockeys.
Rosario started the new year on Friday aboard Hembree in the Grade 2 Joe Hernandez Stakes for trainer Peter Miller. Racing last about 6-1/2 lengths off the lead in the turf contest, Rosario hugged the rail and slipped through a narrow opening three sixteenths of mile out and unleashed a powerful stretch run repelling a late challenge from True Valour to cover the 6-1/2 furlongs in 1:13.80.
“He broke well and I thought we were in a good spot, not too far off the lead,” said Rosario. “He made a nice move around the turn and when that other horse came to him, he tried very hard.”
“Brilliant, it really was just a fantastic ride by Joel, that's why he is one of the best,” said Miller.
Peter Miller again gave Rosario a leg up Saturday on Anothertwistafate in the G2 San Gabriel Stakes at 1-1/8 miles on the turf. Anothertwistafate took command in mid-stretch en route to a 2-1/4 length victory stopping the clock in 1:46.63.
“It was the first time with blinkers today and he broke really quick out of there,” said Rosario. “Having the blinkers helped, he was more focused today.”
Riding for trainer Bob Baffert in the G2 Santa Ynez aboard Kalypso on Sunday, Rosario and the newly turned three-year-old filly were in total command turning for home asserting her dominance over the field of six by 1-3/4 lengths in 1:23.42.
“She broke good and put me right into the race, a good position,” said Rosario who won his third stakes race through five days of racing. “I'm just happy to be on her.”
A native of the Dominican Republic, Rosario currently sits in second place in the Santa Anita standings through the first five days of their Winter-Spring meet.
Rosario posted a 30 percentage win percentage and was leading jockey by purse earnings with $554,900.
Rosario out-polled fellow jockeys Florent Geroux who won nine races from 20 starts, Mitchell Murrill who led all jockeys by wins with 10, Irad Ortiz, Jr. who won three stakes at Gulfstream Park and Juan J. Hernandez who won eight races during the week.
The post Trio Of Graded Wins Nets Joel Rosario Jockey Of The Week Title appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
Dubawi Leads Sires Of UAE Winners In 2020; Distorted Humor, Bernardini In Top 10
Dominant Dubawi once again topped the Thoroughbred sire statistics for 2020 in the UAE, landing an emphatic 25 winners for the 218-race year.
The Dalham Hall Stud resident, a multiple Group 1-winning son of Dubai World Cup champion Dubai Millennium, had 18 individual winners, undoubtedly topped by the world's top-rated horse, Ghaiyyath, who won the Group 3 at Meydan named after his grandfather.
Other standouts to win locally for the world's premier multi-surface stud included G2 Al Maktoum Challenge R2 and G2 Singspiel winner Benbatl, G3 Mahab Al Shimaal victor Wafy and late-blooming listed The Entisar winner Firnas.
A clear second was the recently deceased Shamardal, who had an impressive 11 individual winners scoring 13 times. G2 Zabeel Mile winner Zakouski topped the lot, while swift DWC Carnival-winning Almanaara and dual handicap winner Untold Secret added depth to his influence.
Catching the eye was Distorted Humor, who had five wins from five individual horses, while New Approach also did well for himself, scoring six wins with five individuals.
UAE's Top 10 Sires
- Dubawi (25 wins, 18 winners)
- Shamardal (13, 11)
- Sea the Stars (7, 5)
- New Approach (6, 5)
- Exceed and Excel (6, 3)
- (tie) Street Cry (6, 3)
- Distorted Humor (5, 5)
- Bernardini (5, 4)
- (tie) Teofilo (5, 4)
- Iffraaj (5, 3)
The post Dubawi Leads Sires Of UAE Winners In 2020; Distorted Humor, Bernardini In Top 10 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
Global Superstar Goldikova Dies At Age 16
Goldikova, one of the world's top racehorses of any sex or surface preference over the past decade and a half, has died at age 16, Racing Post and the French publication Jour de Galop report.
Pierre-Yves Bureau, racing manager for Goldikova's owner and breeder Wertheimer et Frere, made the announcement via text to Jour de Galop on Wednesday morning, which read after translation; “It is with immense sadness that we inform you of the death of our champion Goldikova on Jan. 5, 2021. Goldikova will be remembered as the best racing mare on the team with her 14 Group 1 victories, including a splendid Prix Jacques le Marois in 2009 and her historic treble in the Breeders' Cup Mile. ”
Goldikova was nothing short of a dominant force over the course of her five seasons on the racetrack, winning 17 of 27 starts for earnings of $7,176,551. She was trained by Freddy Head.
After winning her first two starts as a juvenile at Deauville in France, the daughter of Anabaa soon climbed up the ranks at three, finishing second in the Group 1 French 1,000 Guineas and third in the G1 French Oaks. She earned her first taste of group stakes success in the Group 3 Prix Chloe, which kicked off a four-race winning streak in major races that included Group 1 scores in the Prix Rothschild and Prix du Moulin de Longchamp before making her first international start in the 2008 Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita Park, where she bested male competition by 1 1/4 lengths.
Goldikova's 3-year-old campaign was just a taste of what the Irish-born filly had to offer, and that was proven the following season, when she locked down Europe's champion older horse honors with four Group 1 wins in France, England, and the U.S., capped off by her second Breeders' Cup Mile score, once again at Santa Anita. Though she only made one start in the U.S. that year, her campaign wowed voters enough to give her the Eclipse Award as champion turf female.
The mare's 5-year-old campaign saw more of the same, once again earning Europe's championship as champion grass mare, and the Eclipse in the same category. What made this campaign unique was her debut at the prestigious Royal Ascot meet, where she conquered the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes, adding to her five total Group 1 victories that season. Once again, the season finished in the Breeders' Cup winner's circle, this time 1 3/4 lengths at Churchill Downs.
Goldikova's final season came during her 6-year-old campaign, which saw her win her fourth edition of the G1 Prix Rothschild and her second renewal of the G1 Prix d'Ispahan, both in France. She finished second in that season's Queen Anne at Royal Ascot, and her chase for a fourth consecutive Breeders' Cup Mile in her career finale came up short, finishing third to massive upset Court Vision at Churchill Downs.
Her legacy in the U.S. is apparent by the mark she left in the Breeders' Cup. Her $3,508,200 in Breeders' Cup earnings ranks fifth all-time, and the most by a horse to have never won the Classic. She was third on the all-time earnings list when she retired.
Additionally, Goldikova is the only horse in the event's history to win the same race three times, and only champion Beholder joins her as three-time Breeders' Cup winners, with the latter having taken the Juvenile Fillies before winning two editions of the Distaff.
Those Breeders' Cup efforts, paired with her outstanding global resume, earned Goldikova admission into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame in 2017.
Goldikova was retired to the Wertheimer broodmare band in Ireland, where she produced six foals. She was not pregnant at the time of her death.
She has had two winners from four starters as a broodmare, highlighted by the Galileo filly Terrakova, who won the G3 Prix Cleopatre and finished third in the G1 Prix de Diane Longines, both in France.
Read more at Racing Post.
The post Global Superstar Goldikova Dies At Age 16 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
