This feature provides a capsule look at three horses who are heating up on the Triple Crown trail and three horses whose chances for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve are not quite as strong as they were a week or two ago.
Month: February 2021
Derby Prep: Pletcher-Trained Pair Face Off With Capo Kane In Withers
The Road to the Kentucky Derby in the Empire State resumes on Saturday when a field of nine sophomores assemble for the 147th running of the Grade 3, $250,000 Withers at Aqueduct Racetrack.
The nine-furlong event over the main track is the second local prep of the calendar year for the Grade 1, $3 million Kentucky Derby on May 1 at Churchill Downs, and awards the top-four finishers points according to a 10-4-2-1 scale.
Trainer Todd Pletcher will be packing a one-two punch in pursuit of a fourth Withers victory, sending out maiden-winners Overtook and Donegal Bay, both of which will be making their respective stakes debut.
Owned by Repole Stable, St. Elias Stable, Michael Tabor, Mrs. John Magnier and Derrick Smith, Overtook graduated going a one-turn mile at Aqueduct on December 20. The son of multiple champion-producing sire Curlin was 10 lengths behind the pace before making a six-wide move around the far turn, making up considerable ground in the stretch to secure a two-length triumph while recording a 70 Beyer Speed Figure.
“There could be a good pace. Overtook wants to settle and make one run so we'll allow him to do that,” said Pletcher, who trained Withers winners Harlem Rocker (2008), Revolutionary (2013) and Far From Over (2015).
Overtook finished a distant third to stablemate and fellow Curlin offspring Known Agenda on Nov. 8 at the Big A in a nine-furlong maiden event. Known Agenda subsequently ran third in the Grade 2 Remsen and runner-up Greatest Honour was a next-out winner of the Grade 3 Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park.
Sporting blinkers in his first two career starts, Overtook raced without the hood in his maiden victory.
“I think he's learning. He's gained some confidence with the experience and we felt like the blinkers needed to come off,” Pletcher said. “He got a nice hot pace to run at which helped. He's an improving horse that is bred to get better with more distance and more time. We've seen him making progress throughout and fall and winter. This is a big step up, but hopefully he's up for it.”
The royally bred Overtook was purchased for $1 million from the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
Jockey Manny Franco seeks his third Withers triumph when piloting Overtook from post 6.
Donegal Bay will be diving into deeper waters as he makes his two-turn debut.
Owned by Jerry Crawford's Donegal Racing, Donegal Bay finished sixth on debut going 6 ½ furlongs at Saratoga. He showed a different dimension in his subsequent start, notching a front-running victory by 4 ¼ lengths going a one-turn mile at Gulfstream Park on Dec. 12.
“I think it was the additional time, having a start under his belt as well as having some good works leading into that,” Pletcher said. “He also got a better start which a lot of horses do in their second race. He has a pretty high cruising speed. Pedigree-wise, he's bred to go that far. It's a big step up from a maiden race, but we're hoping for a big run.”
Donegal Bay has been training forwardly along with Pletcher's string at Palm Beach Downs and went a half-mile in 49.03 seconds on January 29 in his most recent work.
“It's a bit of a tricky race,” Crawford said. “This is the time of year where some horses get better and some don't, and he needs to get better on Saturday if he can turn himself into a contender. Obviously, there's a fair amount of front-end speed and they'll be asked to go a mile and an eighth at the same time. Donegal Racing has always been treated exceptionally well in New York and have had some good success up there.”
A son of 2010 Champion 2-Year-Old and Pletcher alumna Uncle Mo, Pletcher said that he sees a lot of similarities between Donegal Bay and his champion-producing sire.
“Donegal Bay is a little more on the narrow side, but you can see the same head and neck that Uncle Mo stamps his offspring with,” Pletcher said. “What I like is that from the past summer, the horse is starting to fill out. He seems to be doing really well.”
Meet-leading rider Kendrick Carmouche vies for a sixth stakes victory of the meet when taking the reins aboard Donegal Bay from post 7.
Bing Cherry Racing and Leonard Liberto's Capo Kane returns to Aqueduct in pursuit of more Kentucky Derby qualifying points after capturing the Jerome on New Year's Day.
Trained by Harold Wyner, Capo Kane earned 10 points toward a spot in the starting gate on the first Saturday in May when taking the one-turn mile in gate-to-wire fashion under jockey Dylan Davis. After commanding moderate fractions up front, Capo Kane came under a drive at the top of the stretch and extended his advantage to a 6 ¼-length triumph.
The son of Street Sense, who sired 2018 Withers winner Avery Island, broke his maiden going two turns at Parx Racing in identical front-running fashion, hitting the wire a 4 ½-length winner.
With 10 qualifying Derby points from the Jerome, Capo Kane is currently 13th on the leaderboard.
Davis, who rode last year's Withers winner Max Player, will return to the saddle from post 3.
E.V Racing Stable's Eagle Orb will be seeking to turn the tables on Capo Kane after finishing second in the Jerome.
The two-time winning New York-bred captured a stakes win in the Nov. 14 Notebook at the Big A before the runner-up finish on New Year's Day.
Tracking in third from the three path out of the gate, Eagle Orb came under a drive around the far turn and attempted to confront Capo Kane around the three-sixteenths, but was kept at bay at had to settle for second.
Trained by Rudy Rodriguez, the son of Orb is 24th on the leaderboard with four points.
Breaking from post 9, jockey Jorge Vargas, Jr. has the mount.
Klaravich Stables' Risk Taking looks to capitalize off a winning performance at the Withers distance for trainer Chad Brown.
The son of Medaglia d'Oro made amends for two well-beaten performances in his first pair of starts when stretching out to two turns in a Dec. 13 maiden special weight at the Big A. Risk Taking settled in fourth along the rail into the first turn and maintained position behind horses before making a three-wide move at the top of the stretch and taking command outside the sixteenth pole to run home a 2 ¼-length winner.
Purchased for $240,000 from the Lanes' End consignment at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Risk Taking is out of the stakes-placed Distorted Humor mare Run a Risk and comes from the same family as champion-producing sire Seeking the Gold.
Jockey Eric Cancel will be back aboard from post 5.
Rounding out the field are Maryland invaders Shackqueenking [post 1, Trevor McCarthy] and Royal Number [post 2, Pablo Morales], as well as Mr. Doda [post 4, Luis Rodriguez Castro] and Civil War [post 8, Benjamin Hernandez].
The Withers is slated as Race 8 on Aqueduct's nine-race program which has a first post of 1 p.m. Eastern.
The Withers, named in honor of prominent 1800's owner and breeder David Dunham Withers, predates the Kentucky Derby by one year with its inaugural running taking place in 1874. Coincidentally, the following year's Withers was won by Aristides who also captured the very first running of the Kentucky Derby in 1875. Four other horses have both the Withers and Kentucky Derby on their resume including Triple crown winners Sir Barton (1919) and Count Fleet (1943) as well as Zev (1923) and Johnstown (1939).
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Hello Hot Rod Goes from Winner’s Circle to Fasig Sales Ring
Hello Hot Rod (Mosler), fresh off a gritty score in the Jimmy Winkfield S. at Aqueduct last Sunday, will make his next appearance in the sales ring during Tuesday's second session of the Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale. The 3-year-old (hip 672), owned by Dark Horse Racing and Brittany Russell and trained by Russell, was a late supplement to the two-day auction and will be consigned by Elite.
Russell and Dark Horse Racing's Jodi Quinn already had a favorable impression of the son of Mosler before they purchased him for $10,000 at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic October Yearling Sale. They had purchased his half-sister Hello Beautiful (Golden Lad) for $6,500 at the Midlantic December Mixed Sale the previous year.
“Hello Beautiful had just broken her maiden at the time he was being sold, but we really liked her and we knew she had some ability,” Russell said of the colt's appeal as a yearling. “He had good bone on him, he was a good-looking little horse. He had a few minor flaws that we could deal with, so it was nice we could get him bought for that price back then.”
Shortly after they purchased Hello Hot Rod, Hello Beautiful won the Maryland Million Lassie S. and the Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship. She has since added wins in the 2020 Maryland Million Distaff and Safely Kept S. and opened 2021 with a win in the What a Summer S.
Despite his half-sister's accomplishments, Russell kept her initial expectations for Hello Hot Rod in check.
“I think when you buy a horse like that for that kind of money, you don't have those high expectations,” Russell said. “You just hope you are going to have a useful racehorse. It's a nice price where, if they're going to be a lower level horse, you paid just $10,000. And if they are a nice horse, it's great because you only paid $10,000.”
But Russell's husband, jockey Sheldon Russell, knew early on the colt had talent.
“My husband does all the work on my babies in the morning and he had been on him in the morning and he liked him,” Russell said. “He said, 'This is going to be a pretty decent little horse, we'll have fun with him.'”
Hello Hot Rod got his racing career off to a promising start, closing to miss by just a neck in a six-furlong waiver maiden claiming race at Laurel Oct. 30.
“You'd love to win first time, but we were kind of just trying to give him a run and he nearly got his first start won,” Russell said. “Sheldon took him back and taught him something and he came with a run and nearly won it. He probably needed that race, anyway, from a physical standpoint.”
The dark bay colt came back to win by a front-running 4 1/4 lengths going seven furlongs in similar company Nov. 13 and added a one-mile optional claimer tally Dec. 13.
“We sort of expected for him to come back and win the way he did,” Russell said of Hello Hot Rod's second start. “And I thought he would like the mile and he did everything right in that allowance race as well.”
Hello Hot Rod jumped up to the stakes ranks for his sophomore debut and went wire-to-wire in the seven-furlong Jimmy Winkfield S., digging in gamely in the final strides to keep his nose in front on the wire (video).
“I loved him to be fair, but you don't love the one hole going seven-eighths, so that was a concern,” Russell said of expectations going into the race. “But [jockey] Trevor [McCarthy] and the horse handled it and got the job done. It's tough in the winter, these winter tracks are hard racetracks for horses to run on and he jumped out of there and he showed some speed and he kept going. He showed he's a tough racehorse and that's what you want.”
The idea of selling the colt had been percolating for some time before the final decision to enter him in the Fasig February sale.
“I had some interest [in buying him] after he broke his maiden,” Russell said. “Actually after both of his wins, we had some interest. It's kind of the goal in the game, right? To make a $10,000 horse into a more expensive horse. This is how you make money in the game, it's a tough game.”
She continued, “We own 50% of him and it was always in the back of our minds that we might try to sell him. I'd love to keep him in the barn, naturally, but I have some friends who work with Fasig and we bounced some ideas back and forth. After he won, it just seemed like maybe a smart business move.”
While the decision to sell may be a smart business move, Russell agreed it was still an emotional one.
“Oh absolutely, I love him,” she said. “He means a lot to us. We have his sister in the barn and he's our other big horse, so to see him go will be sad. But who knows, maybe we'll end up getting him back in the barn.”
Russell sees plenty of upside for potential buyers in the newly minted stakes winner.
“He's very easy to train and he's sound,” Russell said. “He's not a bleeder, so moving forward with what we are dealing with with Lasix, I think that's a huge attribute. And I think he'll go farther. He's smart, he has a good mind on him. He can go or he can sit, so as the races get longer, he has options. I think that's going to be a huge thing.”
Asked how Hello Hot Rod exited his first stakes win, Russell said, “Awesome. He's in great form.”
The Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale will be held next Monday and Tuesday at the company's Newtown Paddocks. Each session begins at 10 a.m.
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Perseverance Pays Off As Jockey Antonio Gallardo Celebrates 2,000th Winner At Tampa
Antonio Gallardo didn't throw in the towel after getting passed in deep stretch aboard 5-year-old mare Do What It Takes in today's fourth race at Tampa Bay Downs.
The jockey's perseverance paid off in career victory No. 2,000, as Do What It Takes rallied on the inside to post a nose victory from Exceed the Goal in the 7-furlong claiming race for older fillies and mares.
The 33-year-old Gallardo, who has won five riding championships at Tampa Bay Downs, received enthusiastic applause from spectators after his No. 5 was posted on the tote board.
“I love it,” Gallardo said, moments after being joined by his wife Polliana and their two children for photographs in the winner's circle. “(Exceed the Goal) blew past us, but I could see her ears were back and she was stopping. I said to myself 'I think I can get it,' and thank God my horse gave me a little bit more and got to the wire first.”
Do What It Takes is owned by Carole Star Stables and trained by Jose H. Delgado.
It was the 45th victory of the meeting for Gallardo, who trails only Samy Camacho in the 2020-2021 Oldsmar standings.
Gallardo, a product of Jerez de la Frontera in Cadiz, Spain, has won 837 races at Tampa Bay Downs. Only Daniel Centeno and Mike Manganello, with six apiece, have won more meeting titles here.
“Tampa is home for me. It's given me so much, and you feel great doing something like this at home,” Gallardo said. “I have to thank my family, all my agents, the trainers and owners and the fans who have supported me. This is something I never thought of doing when I first came to the United States.
“I just have to keep going.”
Gallardo also touched base with his parents in Spain, Paqui and Antonio, through FaceTime on Polliana's phone in the winner's circle. Children Carlos, 12, and Christa, who turns 7 next week, gave Dad a poster sign of congratulations they made at home.
Gallardo, who is the track's single-season record holder with 147 winners, set during the 2014-2015 meeting, has also won four riding championships at Presque Isle Downs in Erie, Pa. The jockey has won nine graded stakes, topped by his victory in the Grade I United Nations Stakes on the grass at Monmouth Park in 2018 on Funtastic, owned by Three Chimneys Farm and trained by Chad Brown. Gallardo won back-to-back editions of the Grade II Presque Isle Downs Masters Stakes on Hotshot Anna in 2018 and 2019.
Gallardo's career in the United States started slowly, with only seven winners from 175 mounts in 2009. By 2014, he was in full flight, riding 268 winners. He finished second in North America with 320 winners in 2015 and was second in 2016 with 332.
Gallardo has won five races on a single card at Tampa Bay Downs a record six times. Only Richard DePass, with seven in 1980, and Edwin Gonzalez, with six in 2017, have won more races on a single Oldsmar card.
Gallardo is one of 11 active Oldsmar jockeys with 2,000 or more victories. The others are Scott Spieth, 4,880; Jose Ferrer, 4,533; Ronnie Allen, Jr., 3,819; Daniel Centeno, 3,016; Roberto Alvarado, Jr., 2,750; Jesus Castanon, 2,610; Ricardo Feliciano, 2,288; Dean Butler, 2,287; Mike Allen, 2,099; and Huber Villa-Gomez, 2,083
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