January, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Oaklawn’s March 13 Rebel The ‘Next Logical Spot’ For Smarty Jones Winner Caddo River

Caddo River returned to the track Tuesday morning for the first time since a record-breaking victory in the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes for 3-year-olds Friday at Oaklawn. At the same time, his trainer, Brad Cox, was plotting the next move for the speedy colt and his handful of other Kentucky Derby prospects, including probable Eclipse Award winner Essential Quality.

The road to Churchill Downs, at least regarding next-race plans for Caddo River and Essential Quality, will run through Oaklawn's lucrative series of Kentucky Derby points races, with Caddo River, a homebred for Hot Springs lumberman John Ed Anthony's Shortleaf Stable, probably making his next start in the $1 million Rebel Stakes (G2) at 1 1/16 miles March 13, Cox said.

Caddo River received a preliminary Beyer Speed Figure of 92, a career high, for his front-running 10 ¼-length victory in the Smarty Jones, the most lopsided result since the one-mile race was inaugurated in 2008. Anthony also became the first owner to sweep what are now Oaklawn's four Kentucky Derby points races.

“He's a very good colt, and we're hoping he can get us to the first Saturday in May,” Cox said. “This has been a very good path to take, through Arkansas, to get there. We'll let the dust settle and talk it over with Mr. John Ed (Anthony), but I'd say right now, given the timing and everything, it probably makes the most sense to run him back in the Rebel. Just based off the calendar, the Rebel would be the next logical spot for him.”

The Smarty Jones marked the two-turn, stakes and 3-year-old debut of Caddo River, a long-striding son of 2007 Kentucky Derby runner-up Hard Spun. After finishing second in his first two starts in New York, both at 7 furlongs, Caddo River closed his 2-year-old campaign with a front-running 9 ½-length maiden victory in a one-turn mile Nov. 15 at Churchill Downs.

“We have high expectations for him,” Cox said. “He's a good horse. Any time you can win a race by, say, 10 lengths – you don't really ever go into a race thinking you're going to win by 10. We think a lot of him. We have high hopes for this horse. He's one of three colts, three or four colts that we have in our barn, that we think can get us to the first Saturday in May.”

The Rebel is the final major local prep for the $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1) at 1 1/8 miles April 10. Oaklawn's four-race Kentucky Derby points series began with the Smarty Jones and continues with the $750,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) Feb. 15, which Cox said will mark the 2021 debut of unbeaten Essential Quality, who is now based at Fair Grounds.

Essential Quality (3 for 3) won the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) Nov. 6 at Keeneland in his last start for Cox, Oaklawn's third-leading trainer last year and a finalist for an Eclipse Award as the country's outstanding trainer of 2020. One Oaklawn-based horse pointing for the 1 1/16-mile Southwest is Keepmeinmind, who finished third in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile for trainer Robertino Diodoro.

Caddo River marked the first Smarty Jones starter for Anthony, who has won the Rebel a record five times (1980, 1984, 1987, 1992 and 1993). Three of Anthony's Rebel winners, Temperence Hill in 1980, Demons Begone in 1987 and Pine Bluff in 1992, also won the Arkansas Derby. Anthony has won the Southwest three times.

Like the Smarty Jones, the Southwest will offer 17 points on a sliding scale (10-4-2-1) to the top four finishers. The Rebel will award 85 points to the top four finishers (50-20-10-5), with 170 up for grabs to the top four finishers in the Arkansas Derby (100-40-20-10).

The Kentucky Derby is limited to 20 starters. Horses with the highest point totals accumulated in designated races like the Smarty Jones, Southwest, Rebel and Arkansas Derby will have starting preference at Churchill Downs.

Essential Quality tops the Kentucky Derby leaderboard with 30 points, according to Churchill Downs. Keepmeinmind ranks second with 18 and Caddo River is eighth with 10.

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Gosden To Saddle French Classic Winner Mishriff In Saudi Cup, Hopes For Wide Draw

Trainer John Gosden has his sights set on the $20 million Saudi Cup with last year's Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club hero Mishriff. The 4-year-old was runner-up in The Saudi Derby – run on the same dirt track as the world's most valuable race – at the inaugural meeting last year, before returning to Europe to complete a summer hat-trick of big-race wins.

Gosden, based in Newmarket, said at a Saudi Cup press conference: “Mishriff has always been a grand horse and he worked nicely going into The Saudi Derby last year. It was his first time on the dirt, so you never know but he did have the benefit of a wide draw.

“I think he's very much a 2000m (1 1/4 miles) horse – he's got a great stride, great tactical speed and a powerful finish. This is 1800m (1 1/8 miles) and, if you remember from last year, the American horses break – that's their game.

“They're very fast over the first 400m (half mile) and you really don't want to be getting in behind all of that. If you get a basin full of dirt in your face, that's what stops turf horses switching to the dirt as they're not used to taking all that kickback. That's why a wide draw would be advantageous.

“He's not a horse who requires a massive amount of work so, to that extent, he's the right type to be getting ready so early in the year.”

Gosden, who is also planning to send Global Giant over to run in the $1million Middle Distance Turf Cup and New Treasure in the $1.5million Saudi Derby on Feb. 20, was suitably impressed with the first Saudi Cup meeting last year.

He said: “The horses were looked after properly in every way – the facilities were great. The main track is exceptional – the American jockeys always say it's the best they ride on anywhere – and the turf course completely blew me away, it was stunning. We all had a superb experience.”

British trainer Roger Teal will run last year's July Cup winner Oxted on dirt for the first time in the $1.5million Riyadh Dirt Sprint.

He said: “He looks magnificent – he's really blossomed throughout the winter. His work has been stepping up weekly and we're very happy. He's got early pace – he travels strongly. It was a strongly-run race last year and that will suit him. We're hoping we'll be allowed to take him to Wolverhampton to have one good sprint around a turn as he's never raced around a bend.”

Dark Power, shock winner of last year's $1million 1351 Turf Sprint under Frankie Dettori, is expected to defend his crown for Bahrain trainer Allan Smith.

Smith said: “He finished third in his prep race last week but it was over a straight 1200m and he couldn't get much cover. After that he's pretty much spot on. I shall have a quiet word with Frankie but I'm almost sure the 'Italian Stallion' will be on board again.”

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Soft Whisper Headlines Thursday’s UAE 1000 Guineas For Godolphin

The second meeting of the 2021 Dubai World Cup Carnival (DWCC) at Meydan on Thursday evening features the first Classic of the season, the 1600m (one mile) Listed UAE 1000 Guineas presented by Longines. Saeed bin Suroor has a phenomenal record in the 3-year-old fillies' race and is seeking a 12th success since landing the inaugural event with Muwakleh in 2001.

The master of nearby Al Quoz Stables relies on Godolphin homebred Soft Whisper, winner of the 1400m (seven furlongs) UAE 1000 Guineas Trial three weeks ago. Frankie Dettori, seeking a fifth win in the race and fourth for Bin Suroor, takes the mount, replacing Pat Cosgrave who was aboard in the trial.

Second in her first two career starts, the daughter of Dubawi has won three in a row and will be looking to extend that streak on Thursday.

Bin Suroor said: “Soft Whisper won twice in Britain last year and did well to win the trial after a slow start. The extra 200m should suit and we are expecting a big run.”

Doug Watson saddled Super Chianti and Mnasek, both winners on their only start to date. The latter did remarkably well to win her 1400m maiden five weeks ago having totally missed the break under Dane O'Neill who again rides. Pat Dobbs again partners stablemate Super Chianti, the pair victorious in a 1200m maiden ten weeks ago.

Watson said: “Both are in flying form at home and we are really looking forward to trying them in this better class of race having just won a maiden apiece.”

Nicholas Bachalard saddles Nayefah, runner-up to both Watson fillies in her two outings to date. The mount of Ryan Curatolo will attempt to gain revenge and Bachalard said: “We deliberately missed the trial to give her more time between races. “She has done herself no favours with slow starts both times, so hopefully she can break on terms this time.”

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Bloodlines Presented By Diamond B Farm’s Rowayton: Knicks Go Serves As Rising Tide For His Connections

The Awesome Again stallion Paynter had an unusual result in the 2021 running of the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 23. He had two sons starting in the race, and they finished as bookends to the field. Favored Knicks Go won the race by 2 3/4 lengths in 1:47.89, and graded stakes winner Harpers First Ride was essentially eased to finish last of the 12 racers.

The winner is one of four graded stakes winners among the 15 stakes winners to date sired by Paynter, winner of the Grade 1 Haskell in 2012. Also second in the Belmont Stakes to the highly regarded young stallion Union Rags (Dixie Union), Paynter has gotten horses of good speed among his better stock, including the unquestionably fast Knicks Go.

The latter has won his last four races, including the G1 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, and he is among the best older horses in training. Following the gray horse's victory at Gulfstream, his sire Paynter catapulted to the top of the leading sires list for 2021 with nearly $2.1 million in earnings this year, with last year's leading sire Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday) lurking ominously in second. Third place on the leading sires list currently is Tapiture (Tapit), and it is not coincidental that Knicks Go and Tapiture's leading earner, Jesus' Team, were one-two in the Pegasus, just as they were in the Breeders' Cup.

In phenotype, Paynter is quite like his sire, the Deputy Minister stallion Awesome Again. Both are medium-sized horses with quality and refinement, and they clearly take after the physical type of Awesome Again's maternal grandsire, European champion Blushing Groom, more than Eclipse Award winner Deputy Minister, a towering figure of size and scope, allied with uncommon quality.

After surviving laminitis, Paynter came back to race at four but approached his previous form only with a second-place finish to subsequent Breeders' Cup Classic winner Mucho Macho Man (Macho Uno) in the G1 Awesome Again Stakes named for Paynter's famous father.

The bay horse went to stud in Kentucky at WinStar for an initial fee of $25,000 live foal, and in Paynter's second book of mares, foals of 2016, was the mare who produced Knicks Go.

Bred in Maryland by Angie Moore, Knicks Go is out of the stakes-winning Outflanker mare Kosmo's Buddy, who won a pair of stakes, the 2008 Maryland Million Turf Sprint and the Crank It Up Stakes, and placed second or third in a dozen more, earning $298,095.

A winner of five races from 37 starts, Kosmo's Buddy was claimed by Moore's Green Mount Farm for $40,000 out of her next-to-last start, when the mare finished third. She came back to race once more, finishing fourth in the 2010 Maryland Million Turf Sprint.

Sabrina Moore was co-breeder of the horses with her mother, recalling that the mare was claimed in her mother's name because “this was all her dream.” As the breeding and racing operation developed, “I was so young that it was simpler for us to use my mom's ID and all for the business.

“And as I grew up and became more involved in working with the horses, we decided to make Green Mount Farm a more commercial business. I became a partner in the breeding, including becoming a partner with breeding Knicks Go,” Sabrina Moore said. The Moores bred the first half-dozen foals out of the mare.

Knicks Go is the mare's fourth foal. Kosmo's Buddy has a gray 3-year-old colt by the good sire Broken Vow (Unbridled) who is unraced, has no 2-year-old, has a gray yearling filly by champion Justify (Scat Daddy), and is in foal for 2021 to Horse of the Year Ghostzapper (Awesome Again). Moore noted that the “Broken Vow is really nice and in training at Pimlico. He has a lot of substance, standing about 16 hands.”

When carrying Knicks Go, Kosmo's Buddy was consigned to the 2015 Keeneland November sale but was bought back at $37,000. After Knicks Go won a maiden, Moore recalled that “agent Jun Park had called about buying her, and as a small breeder, you make money where you can.” So the Moores sold the hefty gray in a private transaction through the same agent who had helped pick out Knicks Go as a yearling for the KRA.

After the gray colt won his first Grade 1, the 2018 Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland, the new owner decided to send the mare to the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November sale, where she was bought back for $195,000 when she was listed as “Not Bred” in the catalog.

After that sale, Hanzly Albina said: “Nick Sallusto and I had noticed that she had been bought back. We negotiated and got her for a very good price” on behalf of Newtown Anner Stud LLC, which is the breeder of the Justify filly mentioned above.

Albina continued: “When we bought this mare, we knew we were never going to sell her. So it didn't matter that she isn't the tallest or most attractive individual herself. She's a Grade 1 producer, and Newtown Anner is both a commercial and a racing operation; we try to offer all the yearlings at auction, but if we have one that doesn't bring a reasonable sum at a sale, we're happy to race on with it.”

In selecting a first mate for Newtown Anner's new mare, Albina said, “I had intended to send her to Ghostzapper, but with Justify retiring, you only get one chance at the first year to a Triple Crown winner. The result is that we have a nice filly. From what I've seen of the mare's foals, she translates the stallion through, and the Justify [yearling] has a lot of size, an extended hip, and is a very nice physical.”

In addition to sharing the gray color of her dam, the Justify filly has a gray half-brother who is one of the top horses in training in 2021.

When Knicks Go went through the ring for the first time at the 2016 Keeneland November sale as a weanling, he sold to Northface Bloodstock for $40,000 from the Bill Reightler consignment, as agent for Green Mount. The price for the colt was the seventh-highest for a weanling among the 24 sold by Paynter in 2016.

Ten months later, the gray colt went to the sales again with Woods Edge Sales and brought $87,000 (sixth among 67 yearlings sold by the sire) at the 2017 Keeneland September yearling sale, selling to the Korea Racing Authority. As I documented in an article about Knicks Go when he won the Breeders' Futurity, the KRA purchased Knicks Go and a handful of other prospects as an experiment in selecting good athletes that might be stallion prospects.

In Knicks Go, there's no question they have a winner.

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