January, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Mishriff Training Well for Saudi Cup

French Group 1 winner Mishriff (Ire) (Make Believe {GB}), who ran second in the 2020 Saudi Derby in Riyadh on Feb. 29, needs a wide draw in the Feb. 20 $20-million Saudi Cup according to trainer John Gosden. The colt rebounded with a win in the Listed Newmarket S. on June 6 and won the G1 Prix du Jockey Club on July 5. His final win of the year was a victory in the G2 Prix Guillaume de Ornano at Deauville on Aug. 15 before an eighth in the G1 QIPCO Champions S. at Ascot in mid-October. The 4-year-old carries the colours of Prince Faisal and will be ridden by his retained jockey David Egan.

“He worked nicely going into it, but first time on the dirt, you never know. He did have the benefit of a wide draw last year and we were thrilled the way he ran,” Gosden told a Saudi Cup press conference. “I think he's a mile-and-a-quarter horse, very much so. He's got a great stride, great tactical speed and a powerful finish. I think that is his perfect trip. Whether we stretch him out to a mile and a half one day, I don't know.”

“This race is run on the dirt and at a very different tempo. You need a wide draw,” he said. “If it was a mile and quarter it would suit us a lot better, but it's very fast. The Americans go hard and it's not a race with any hiding places. He's had a nice down time building up to this. He's a genuine horse, he enjoys his training. He's not a horse who requires a massive amount of work, so to that extent he's the right type to get ready early in the year.”

Frankie Dettori will be aboard Global Giant (GB) (Shamardal) for Gosden in the Middle Distance Turf Cup. They were second in the Bahrain International Trophy last November.

“He came back in great order and breezed nicely this [Wednesday] morning,” Gosden added. “The horse was as frustrated as the jockey and the owner and the trainer, but he got too far back and got there too late. The wire came up a stride and a half too soon, but that's racing. He's fine, he's going for the Middle Distance. It will be a tough race. Distance-wise it's probably the top end of his range. He's got a very good chance and he's in good form right now.”

Gosden will also take another crack at the Saudi Derby and will send G3 Round Tower S. hero New Treasure (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}). The newly gelded chestnut was acquired for 90,000gns by Voute Sales on behalf of Najd Stud out of the Tattersalls Autumn HIT Sale after being sold by breeder/owner/trainer Jim Bolger.

“He was in the horses-in-training sale and Jim was selling, so you have to have a sense of reality about that. He didn't go for a great deal of money,” said Gosden. “The horse came here and the owners wanted to aim him at this race. “He won a Group 3 over six furlongs on soft ground. He's not run over a mile before, but we're hopeful he'll get it. He's on a one-way ticket. He races and stays there to race with the local horses. He's very genuine and is a giver. He's a fun horse to run in the race and it a great way of going down there–a Group 3 winner and going for the Saudi Derby.”

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American Runners Ready for Return to Riyadh

A year ago, a brigade of American runners dominated results in the inaugural running of the $20-million Saudi Cup, taking four of the top five placings in the world's richest race. Another top-level group of U.S.-based horses are set to return to Riyadh for the second running of the 1 1/8-miles race Feb. 20. Leading the group is Charlatan (Speightstown), who returned from a layoff to record a scintillating victory in the Dec. 26 GI Malibu S. last month. The newly turned 4-year-old worked six furlongs in 1:12.60 (1/5) at Santa Anita Wednesday and shortly afterward trainer Bob Baffert declared the colt “better than he's ever been.”

“I think the Saudi Cup is perfect timing for him,” Baffert told reporters during a conference call Wednesday afternoon. “It's a one-turn 1 1/8 miles and I think coming off the seven-eighths race, especially the way he did it, I think it is a perfect kind of distance. We know he ships well and he has a great mind on him. He's a good gate horse. It's very challenging to go to Saudi or Dubai. You need a really great mind and he has a really great mind. So I think that race fits the bill perfectly for him.”

Charlatan will be making just his fifth start next month at King Abdulaziz Racetrack, but his lack of experience doesn't concern Baffert.

“I think his talent makes up for his inexperience,” Baffert, who finished fourth with Mucho Gusto (Mucho Macho Man) in last year's race, said. “I think he has enough experience where he doesn't know what it's like to lose. I think that's a good trait.”

Charlatan will be piloted in the desert by Mike Smith, who rode the colt for the first time in the Malibu. Smith finished second aboard Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute) in last year's Saudi Cup, but received a nine-day ban and was issued a $210,000 fan–60% of his share of the purse–for violating the country's whip rules.

Of the Hall of Fame jockey's return to Riyadh, Baffert quipped, “He's fine. I think he just needs to count a little bit better.”

Knicks Go (Paynter), winner of last year's GI Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, earned a trip to Riyadh with his front-running victory in the Jan. 23 GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. and could prove Charlatan's toughest competition.

“They are sort of the same type of horse,” Baffert said of a potential match-up between the two front-runners. “Knicks Go, he likes two turns, he likes that better because he can get away from his competition. Speed horses like that are so dangerous going two turns, but going a one-turn 1 1/8 miles, it's a different story.”

The Juddmonte Farms homebred Tacitus (Tapit), fifth in last year's Saudi Cup, makes a return trip to Riyadh to fly the colors of the late Prince Khalid Abdullah, who passed away just two weeks ago.

“Any time we lead a horse over there in Juddmonte's silks it is very special,” Riley Mott, assistant to his father, trainer Bill Mott, said during the teleconference Wednesday. “Every trainer in the world desires to train for such an operation. Last year when we brought Tacitus, he had a nice little following locally due to the fact that he was a Juddmonte horse. He had a lot of fans there on race day. And just to be there in Prince Khalid Abdullah's home country was very special. To bring Tacitus back this year is something we are very much looking forward to and a big reason why we kept him in training this year.”

Tacitus has made a name for himself more for the races he almost wins than the ones he actually wins. The regally bred gray was third in the GI Kentucky Derby, as well as the 2019 and 2020 renewals of the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup S. He was runner-up in the GI Belmont S. and GI Runhappy Travers S. in 2019 and again in the GI Woodward H. last year.

“He's been a little frustrating,” Mott admitted. “He always flirts with winning a top Grade I. He has placed in a lot of prestigious races here in the U.S. and is just on the cusp of breaking through in one of those big ones. He's by a champion stallion out of a champion mare that Prince Khalid Abdullah bred himself, so for him to break through and win one of these big Grade Is would mean the world for him in his next career as a stallion. We think he is capable of it. No matter what race we run him in, whether it be a Group III or Group I, he is always liable to hit the board. So we are hoping he is good on the day.”

Also representing the Mott barn in Riyadh next month will be multiple Grade I winner Channel Maker (English Channel), who is expected to go postward in the $1-million Middle Distance Turf Cup. Now seven, the chestnut gelding set the pace before settling for third in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf at Keeneland last October.

“He's a horse we are very much looking forward to bringing over,” Mott said of Channel Maker. “We are confident in how he is doing and training. We will see how he stacks up against the competition, but he's been a really fun horse to have in the barn.”

Both Tacitus and Channel Maker could go on to engagements on the Dubai World Cup card in March if they exit their races in Saudi Arabia in fine fashion.

Despite the ongoing global pandemic, officials from the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia said it was all systems go for the Feb. 19 and 20 festival of races.

“We are going to get through this the same way as other big events before us,” said Tom Ryan, director of strategy and international racing for the Jockey Club said. “Whether that's Hong Kong in December, Bahrain in November or the Breeders' Cup, there is a template there internationally for us to follow. This will be the Saudi Arabian version of that.”

Of attendance on race day, Ryan added, “In terms of attendance on course, it will be greatly scaled back compared to last year's very positive and well-attended event–participants, a small number of ministers in an outdoor setting, very prudently arranged. That will be about it, I think.”

While Baffert was on hand for the Saudi Cup's inaugural running, the trainer said he would be staying home this time around.

“I'm going to send [assistant] Jimmy [Barnes],” Baffert said. “One of us has to stay back. If for some reason they don't let us back in, I have to be here to keep the ship going.”

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Ward Duo Target Royal Ascot

Group 1 winner Campanelle (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) and Breeders' Cup victor Golden Pal (Uncle Mo) are both targeting the 2021 Royal Ascot meeting trainer Wesley Ward has announced.

The filly, a Stonestreet Stables colourbearer, will line up for the G1 Commonwealth Cup during the Royal Meeting. In 2020, Campanelle captured the G3 Queen Mary S. and then returned to Europe to add the G1 Prix Morny to her haul later in the summer. Although she has been entered in the G1 1000 Guineas and Irish equivalent, it is more likely that the six furlongs of the Commonwealth Cup holds greater appeal.

“Barbara [Banke, owner of Stonestreet Stables] is really keen on Ascot and I think six furlongs–and that's a stiff six at Ascot for the Commonwealth–with a little weight break for being a filly, that will be our main target,” Ward said via Zoom to the British Horseracing Authorityi's 2-year-old classifications press conference. “I'm kind of working from that race backwards–the Guineas really don't come into play right now unless when she's at the farm, the team gets together and decides to go in another direction.

“Our main goal would be the Commonwealth. Barbara and her whole team are really looking forward to getting back [to Royal Ascot]. She worked last week for the first time at Barbara's farm at Ocala and she looked like she's ready to go, so we're all excited.”

Golden Pal, owned by Ranlow Investments, ran second in the G2 Norfolk S. in just his second start before successful efforts in Saratoga's Skidmore S. on Sept. 21 and the GII Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Keeneland on Nov. 6. The plan is the G1 King's Stand S. at Royal Ascot.

“We're really excited about this guy,” said Ward. “He will come back opening day at Keeneland, which is Apr. 1. Every year they have a straight, 3-year-old, $100-$150,000 stakes race over five and a half furlongs and that will crack off the season for him.

“He's doing fantastic–he came out of the Breeders' Cup in great shape and we're going to try the same route we did with Lady Aurelia (Scat Daddy) and go to the King's Stand with him. I think the five should see him right between the ears there. He's grown in height and he's broadening out–he's a really beautiful colt right now. I think he's going to be a tremendous sprinter this year.”

However, the King's Stand S. is not the only overseas goal for the colt. The G1 Nunthorpe S. against elders has been set as a longer-term target for Golden Pal.

“The Nunthorpe has eluded me and that will almost be the main goal for this guy,” Ward continued. “We're going back to the King's Stand [first], but as the summer progresses the 3-year-olds catch up to the 4-year-olds and I'm really looking forward to that race at York.

“This guy [Golden Pal] has proven he can go on all types of ground–he's a very exciting sprinter, one of the best I've ever trained and hopefully could be the best with the accomplishments we've set out for him this spring, summer and hopefully culminating in the fall.

“He's a really, really exciting horse to train, so we're looking forward to it. Battaash (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) is a very worthy opponent. The years are hopefully behind him, but I'm a big fan of his and when you get these good sprinters matched together, it just brings excitement to everyone involved in racing.”

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Second Chances: Salit

In this continuing series, TDN's Senior Editor Steve Sherack catches up with the connections of promising maidens to keep on your radar.

Salit (f, 3, American Pharoah–Scherzi, by Brahms) came flying home from far back to complete the trifecta in her promising unveiling over the Gulfstream lawn Sunday (video).

Some early trouble and a wide journey around the second turn weren't the only factors working against her that day.

“I really think she probably should've won first time out,” trainer Ken McPeek said. “She ended up with a cut in her mouth post race. We're not sure when or how, but it happened, and she'll need a little time for that to heal. It made [jockey] Jose Ortiz's job difficult. He did a good job just getting out of her what he did. Lots of ways to get beat. That is a very talented filly.”

The Lee Pokoik colorbearer had a trio of bullets on her worktab in Hallandale, including a five-furlong move in 1:00 (1/6) Jan. 12, and was well-backed at 4-1 from a 12-1 morning-line quote.

Salit took an early bump and was checked shortly after the start. The chestnut was a bit of a handful thereafter, tossing her head and fighting Ortiz some as she caboosed the field of 12 heading into the clubhouse turn.

No fewer than 15 lengths back through fractions of :23.54 and :47.87, she finally re-entered the picture as they rounded the far turn and quickly caught the eye with a four-wide blitz.

Widest of all and right in the mix as they straightened for home, Salit continued to roll down the center of the course in the stretch and came within 1 1/4 lengths of the winner Joy of Painting (Munnings).

Salit clocked her final quarter in easily a field-best :22.78 and earned a 60 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort.

McPeek also saddled Pokoik's 3-year-old homebred filly Tabor Hall (Candy Ride {Arg}) to a maiden victory going 1 1/16 miles on the main track earlier on the same card.

“I needed to keep Lee Pokoik's fillies split, but I think she'll handle the dirt no problem, too,” McPeek said of Salit. “She's done everything right. We're pretty excited about her. We'll get her mouth fixed up–maybe a week to 10 days–and let that heal. She should be locked and loaded next time out.”

Hailing from the second crop of Triple Crown winner and promising young stallion American Pharoah, Salit brought $175,000 as a Keeneland September yearling. Her 15-year-old dam Scherzi, a half-sister to GI Spinaway S. heroine So Many Ways (Sightseeing), was a 12-time winner and made 40 career starts. Salit was bred in Kentucky by John R. Penn.

Previous standouts featured in 'Second Chances' include: GI Runhappy Santa Anita Derby winner Honor A. P. (Honor Code), GII Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint winner and Royal Ascot G2 Norfolk S. runner-up Golden Pal (Uncle Mo), MGISW and 'TDN Rising Star' Paradise Woods (Union Rags), GII Los Alamitos Futurity winner and MGISP Spielberg (Union Rags), GSW Backyard Heaven (Tizway), and MSW and 'TDN Rising Star' Gidu (Ire) (Frankel {GB}).

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