April, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Oaks Winner Shedaresthedevil Faces Dunbar Road, Paris Lights In Friday’s La Troienne

Qatar Racing, Flurry Racing Stables and Big Aut Farms' Shedaresthedevil, upset winner of last September's Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1), headlines a field of seven fillies and mares entered Monday for Friday's 36th running of the $500,000 La Troienne presented by TwinSpires.com (G1).

Scheduled as the eighth race on Friday's 13-race Kentucky Oaks program at Churchill Downs, post time for the 1 1/16-mile La Troienne is 3:03 p.m. (all times Eastern). First post Friday is 10:30 a.m.

Trained by Brad Cox, Shedaresthedevil came off a five-month layoff to start 2021 with a victory in the Azeri (G2) at Oaklawn Park on March 13, defeating next-out G1 Apple Blossom winner Letruska in a battle to the wire. Regular rider Florent Geroux will be aboard and exit post two.

Two other Grade 1 winners will line up to challenge Shedaresthedevil: Peter Brant's Dunbar Road and WinStar Stablemates Racing's Paris Lights.

Trained by Chad Brown, Dunbar Road will be making her 2021 debut after closing out 2020 with a third-place finish behind champion Monomoy Girl in the Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) at Keeneland. Winner of the 2019 Alabama (G1), Dunbar Road will be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr. from post three.

Paris Lights, 2-for-2 at Churchill Downs in her career for trainer Bill Mott, won the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) last summer and opened 2021 with a victory in the Distaff Handicap (G3) at Aqueduct on April 2. Tyler Gaffalione has the mount from post five.

The field for the La Troienne, with riders and weights from the rail out, is:

Envoutante (Brian Hernandez Jr., 118 pounds)
Shedaresthedevil (Geroux, 123)
Dunbar Road (Irad Ortiz Jr., 118)
Bajan Girl (Luis Saez, 118)
Paris Lights (Tyler Gaffalione, 118)
Sanenus (CHI) (Javier Castellano, 120)
Finite (Ricardo Santana Jr., 118)

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Toast To Vino Rosso: Filly Out Of Twisted Adage Adds To Sire’s Growing Reputation

Throughout the breeding season, the Paulick Report will be sharing photos of foals from the first crop of Spendthrift Farm's Breeders' Cup Classic winner Vino Rosso in the “Toast to Vino Rosso” series.

This time around, we're taking a look at a filly from the first crop of Vino Rosso out of the Hard Spun mare Twisted Adage.

This filly was born on Feb. 25 at St. Simon Place in Lexington, Ky., bred by Robert Slack.

Tommy Wente boards the filly and her dam at St. Simon Place for the breeder, and he said Slack is a fan of the cross between Curlin and Hard Spun. As a son of Curlin, Vino Rosso fit the bill for the mating.

The ensuing foal got rave reviews from visitors, and as Wente asked around to others with Vino Rosso foals on the ground, he found he was far from alone in being happy with what they had.

“I said, 'Robert, this is just a fantastic filly. She's really nice,'” Wente said, recalling a discussion with the breeder. “She kept growing and growing, and he asked me which one's my favorite baby out there, and I said, 'It's gotta be the Vino Rosso, hands down.' Then, I started hearing more and more about the Vinos, and it seemed like everyone's getting good ones. You see pictures online, and they're all the same way. He's just really stamping his babies.”

Vino Rosso, a 6-year-old son of Curlin, stands at Spendthrift Farm for an advertised fee of $25,000.

Vino Rosso won won six of 15 starts and earned $4,803,125 on the racetrack. In addition to his signature Breeders' Cup Classic score, the stallion picked up victories in the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita Stakes, and the G2 Wood Memorial Stakes.

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Grade 3 Winner Ocho Ocho Ocho Sold To Stand In Peru

Grade 3 stakes winner Ocho Ocho Ocho will stand at Haras San Pablo in Lima, Peru, starting in the 2021 Southern Hemisphere breeding season.

By Street Sense, out of the Horse Chestnut (SAF) mare Winner, Ocho Ocho Ocho captured the Breeders' Cup day undercard Juvenile Turf Sprint Stakes impressively by 5 3/4 lengths (run on dirt due to weather conditions) and the 1 1/16-mile $1-million G3 Delta Downs Jackpot Stakes, beating Grade 1-placed Mr. Z in a tenacious fight, and showing the same E Speed Figure (105) as Goldencents and Gunnevara when they won the same race. Ocho Ocho Ocho remained undefeated as a 2-year-old and is, to date, the best 2-year-old Street Sense colt by earnings.

At three, he ran third to Carpe Diem in the 1 1/8-mile G1 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes, and he arrived 1 1/2 lengths behind stallion Force the Pass in the G3 Penn Mile Stakes. In the Blue Grass Stakes, he registered a faster E Speed Figure (102) than Vekoma, Brody's Cause, Flameaway, McCraken and Free Drop Billy; all active U.S. stallions that also ran that race in following editions.

At four, after two consecutive seven- and four-month periods away from the track, he came second in a Santa Anita allowance optional claiming race to stallion and elite sprinter Lord Nelson before the latter won three consecutive Grade 1 races during the following four months.

Ocho Ocho Ocho raced from ages two to five, and he completed a 3-1-1 record from 11 starts with earnings of $852,360. He holds the fifth-best Class Perfomance Index (CPI) registered by Street Sense colts, only behind McKinzie, Concert Tour, Hallowed Crown, and Maxfield.

Ocho Ocho Ocho is a half-brother to Private Ensign (by A.P. Indy), placed in the G2 Davona Dale Stakes.

His first dam, Winner, sold for $700,000 in 2014, and she is a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Animal Spirits. She broke her maiden in her debut by 7 3/4 lengths at Belmont Park, and she completed a record of 1-1-1 in only three starts at Belmont and Saratoga.

His second dam, Pennant Champion, a $700,000 RNA in 2006, is a full-sister to Grade 1 winners Miner's Mark and Traditionally, as well as multiple Grade 1-placed Our Emblem. She is also a half-sister to multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire My Flag, the dam of champion Storm Flag Flying.

Pennant Champion is an extraordinary second dam, having produced eight stakes winner/placed horses, among them Ocho Ocho Ocho, Divine Oath, Auntie Joy, and Interactif, from four different mares. Ocho Ocho Ocho has Hall of Famer and 1996 Kentucky Broodmare of the year Personal Ensign as his third dam.

“He is going to be an extraordinary match for our pool of mares during the following years” said Eduardo Villaran Gallagher, who runs Haras San Pablo. “Ocho Ocho Ocho showed both amazing sprint speed and stamina, with a pedigree geared towards stamina. He is a son of leading sire Street Sense, and has a very strong female family that will probably be represented in the 2021 Kentucky Derby by Dynamic One, who recently came second in the G2 Wood Memorial by a head, having Personal Ensign as fourth dam”.

Haras San Pablo, a leading stud farm in Peru, has bred over 55 Group 1 winners in its more than 40 years of existence, with seven winners of the Peruvian Derby and more than 60 Postin Awards (Peruvian equivalent to Eclipse Awards).

Ocho Ocho Ocho arrived late last year at Ocala Stud and covered 5 mares in 2020.

Bloodstock agent Carlos S.E. Moore brokered the deal.

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Industry Voices: Bob Feld On What it Means to Try

The man lying in the hospital bed silent and completely still was a good man and led a good life. A loving husband, amazing father and a relentless provider for his family was slipping closer to death. My dad was a man of conviction, integrity and faith and I try every day to be the man he was. I won't get there, but I try. It's all about trying. He lived a full life and gave up a lot of the freedoms of his youth when he got married, which included owning racehorses.

My mom and dad raised five children on very low incomes. We all grew up thinking we were a middle-class family but in hindsight we were far from it. My parents created a way of life for us so that we never questioned our status growing up. We were happy and lacked nothing, especially love. In his younger days, John Feld dressed well, drove fancy cars, loved to bet on the horses and his getaway was Las Vegas. He was quite the bachelor and lived a fun and adventurous single life and a bit beyond his means because he could.

On one fortuitous trip to Las Vegas, he made a nice chunk of change over the weekend by hitting number 17 on the roulette wheel multiple times. The number 17 became the “Feld family lucky number” and includes events like his first born son born on February 17. The number 17's karmatic showing continues to this day.

My dad had slowly but surely gone into a coma as he was slowly but surely dying in front of his family. My mom, brother, sister, brother-in-law and I were all in the room to be in his presence as he passed. The doctor had told us that his coma was so deep that we would not be able to communicate with him nor would we see any response from him. As the hours went by, it became very apparent that the end of his life was near.

My son Sean and his “Pop” were close because they shared the passion of horse racing. Pop was the quintessential two-dollar bettor who loved the puzzle of picking the winner more than the gamble. In the 1980's, the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita started a tradition of giving away a commemorative stein each year on Opening Day of the meet. Pop started his own personal tradition of taking his oldest grandson, Sean, to Opening Day each year to get his stein. Annually on a Wednesday, his Mom and I allowed him to ditch school each year to go with Pop to add to his collection of steins.

I decided since Pop's life was about to end, to call Sean on my cell phone to see if he would like to say goodbye to his grandpa. He agreed. The room was deafeningly silent as if a vigil for my dad had already started. I held my phone up to Pop's ear and I could hear Sean through the phone tell his grandpa, “We are going to win the Kentucky Derby for you Pop.”

At that moment, my dad made a grunting sound. Time stood still. All of us in attendance could not believe there was this fleeting moment of “life” coming from my father to his grandson as he was about to take his last breath. Teary-eyed, I hung the phone up and the silence continued. It wasn't much later when my dad did take his very last breath. It was 9:17 a.m. and of course, on April 17th.

During the past 21 years since Pop passed, like everyone else in the Thoroughbred business, we have “tried” to win the Kentucky Derby, not for ourselves really but for Pop. Our budgets have ebbed and flowed over the years but with any and all budgets we try. That's what we do, it's all about trying. We got close a few years ago when a $61,000 yearling purchase, Sueno, would have been the last horse “scratched” into the race but he chipped his ankle Kentucky Derby week and did not enter. This year, our (not kidding) $17,000 yearling purchase is second in the point standings and has the look of a real contender coming off an impressive win in the Louisiana Derby.

My brother Jude trained on the Southern California circuit for 20 years so Pop knew the game well and he knew how tough it was to win a race, any race. Hot Rod Charlie doesn't have to win on the first Saturday in May and he still has to get there. The fact we have come this far with a $17,000 horse while knowing that Pop was “with us” when we bought him at that price is a victory in itself. I know Pop is proud of us already for trying, but if a 14-year-old boy could keep his promise to his dying grandfather, that would be the most satisfying and greatest victory of all and I have a feeling time will stand still once again for Pop!

Bob Feld, posted on Facebook and published with his permission

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