August, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Raging Bull Headlines Talented Field Readying For ‘Win And You’re In’ Fourstardave

Peter Brant's Raging Bull will be out for redemption against an all-graded stakes winning field for Saturday's 37th running of the Grade 1, $500,000 Fourstardave for 4-year-olds and upward going one mile over the inner turf at Saratoga Race Course.

Raging Bull, who finished second in 2019 and fifth a year ago, will look to give trainer Chad Brown his first win in the Fourstardave, a “Win And You're In” event offering an automatic entry into the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders' Cup Mile on November 6 at Del Mar.

Four of the last ten editions of the Fourstardave were captured by the subsequent winner of the Breeders' Cup Mile with World Approval [2017], Tourist [2016] and Wise Dan [2012-13] securing the Fourstardave-Breeders' Cup Mile double.

This year's Fourstardave field has won a cumulative 22 graded stakes races, which will see Raging Bull attempt a fourth graded stakes triumph.

Raging Bull, a three-time Grade 1-winner with earnings in excess of $1.5 million, secured his top-flight triumphs over three different ovals. At three, he shipped to Southern California to capture the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar after earning graded stakes triumphs at the Spa in the Grade 2 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame and the Grade 3 Saranac. The French-bred 6-year-old son of Dark Angel commenced his last two seasons in Grade 1-winning fashion with victories in the Shoemaker Mile in May 2020 at Santa Anita and the Makers' Mark Mile on April 9 at Keeneland.

Raging Bull enters off a troubled second in the Grade 3 Poker on June 20 at Belmont Park, racing in fifth along the rail down the backstretch while four horses battled up front. Lacking racing room in upper stretch, he made an inside rally at the eighth-pole but was unable to catch in-the-clear outside runner Oleksandra, losing by a head.

“I'm hoping he can stay off the inside with a better trip,” Brown said. “His turn of foot seems to be his best characteristic. He's in as good of form as he's ever been in. I love the way he's been training. He's a remarkable horse, very consistent.”

Jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. retains the mount from post 1.

Raging Bull will face seven other challengers, including stablemate and fellow Peter Brant color-bearer Blowout, who is one of three accomplished distaffers taking on males in the Fourstardave.

Known for her frontrunning fashion, Blowout was a last-out pacesetting winner of the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile on May 1 at Churchill Downs. Never worse than third – and never beaten more than three-quarters of a length in 11 lifetime starts – the daughter of Dansili made her lone Grade 1 start when second beaten a nose to stablemate Viadera in the Grade 1 Matriarch in November at Del Mar.

Both Raging Bull and Blowout were bred by Dayton Investments. Raging Bull is out of the Mr. Greeley mare Rosa Bonheur. Blowout is out of the Group 1-winning Deep Impact mare Beauty Parlour.

Jockey Joel Rosario, a two-time Fourstardave winner, rides Blowout from post 8.

Jim and Susan Hill, who owned 2015 Fourstardave winner Grand Arch, will be represented by four-time Grade 1-placed Daddy Is a Legend, who makes her first start against males for trainer George Weaver.

The 6-year-old daughter of Scat Daddy was a late-closing third in the Grade 1 Longines Just a Game on June 5 at Belmont Park behind the Godolphin-owned Althiqa and Summer Romance who replicated said exacta in the Grade 1 Diana on the Spa's opening weekend.

Also third in the 2019 Just a Game behind Rushing Fall and Beau Recall, Daddy Is a Legend notched Grade 1 black type with runner-up efforts in the Matriarch at Del Mar in 2018 and 2019.

“I think a mile is her best distance,” Weaver said. “We were looking at this race after she ran big in the Just a Game and those two fillies came back and ran well here. If she takes another step forward, we're hoping that Saturday can be her day.”

Daddy Is a Legend made the grade in December 2017, capturing the Grade 3 Jimmy Durante in November 2017 at Del Mar. She won the following year's Grade 3 Lake George at Saratoga.

“She's a very good racehorse. She's talented but the other thing she has that all good racehorses have is the fact that she shows up. She gives what she has,” Weaver said. “Right now, she's doing well, she's happy and she's all business. We're looking forward to running her.”

Jockey Manny Franco rides from post 3.

Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse will send out Got Stormy, who seeks a non-consecutive victory in the Fourstardave. Owned by MyRacehorse Stable and Spendthrift Farm, the outstanding daughter of 2010 Fourstardave winner Get Stormy faced males for the first time off one week's rest in the 2019 Fourstardave, which she won by 2 ½ lengths in a track record 1:32 flat while recording a career best 109 Beyer. A six-time graded stakes winner, Got Stormy boasts the highest bankroll in the field with earnings in excess of $2.1 million.

A victory would make Got Stormy the first dual Fourstardave winner since two-time Horse of the Year and recent Hall of Fame inductee Wise Dan [2012-13].

Breaking from post 6, Got Stormy will be ridden by regular pilot Tyler Gaffalione.

Trainer Brad Cox will carry momentum from recent victories with Grade 2 Jim Dandy winner Essential Quality and Grade 1 Whitney winner Knicks Go when saddling Juddmonte's Set Piece for his Grade 1 debut. The Dansili homebred brings three straight wins to Saturday's engagement. After Churchill Downs stakes victories in the Opening Verse on April 29 and the Douglass Park on May 29, Set Piece defeated graded stakes winners Somelikeithotbrown and Ride a Comet in the Grade 2 Wise Dan on June 26 over the Louisville oval.

“He's a Grade 2 winner and obviously he has a good pedigree that all Juddmonte horses do, and it helps some of the siblings that come up from the broodmare band as well,” Cox said. “He deserves the opportunity to take a swing at a Grade 1 and we'll see what he can do.”

Florent Geroux returns to the saddle from post 5.

Following a victory in the Grade 1 Jackpocket Jaipur on June 5 at Belmont Park going six furlongs, Casa Creed will stretch back out to one mile for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. The 5-year-old Jimmy Creed bay, third in last year's Fourstardave, took the Grade 2 Hall of Fame in August 2019 going one mile over Saratoga's inner turf.

Owned by LRE Racing and JEH Racing, Casa Creed looks to became a fifth Fourstardave winner for Mott, who campaigned Hap [2000], Silver Tree [2007], Seek Again [2014] and Tourist [2016].

Jockey Junior Alvarado will ride from post 4.

Three Diamonds Farm's Field Pass is a four-time graded stakes winner at four different tracks for trainer Mike Maker. The gray or roan son of Lemon Drop Kid won the Grade 3 Baltimore Washington International Cup on July 24 at Pimlico last out. During his sophomore season, he won the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park and the Grade 3 Ontario Derby at Woodbine – both over synthetic surfaces. He also won the Grade 3 Transylvania last July over the Keeneland turf.

Jockey Ricardo Santana, Jr. rides from post 7.

Rounding out the field is Electric City Racing, Madaket Stables, Christopher Dunn and Jeremy Peskoff's Whisper Not, who won the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile two starts back for trainer Richard Baltas.

Jockey Jose Ortiz picks up the mount from post 2.

The prestigious Fourstardave honors the “Sultan of Saratoga” who earned his nickname by winning at least one race at the Spa from 1987-94. Trained by Leo O'Brien and owned by Richard Bomze and Bernard Connaughton, Fourstardave's signature Spa wins included the 1988 Albany Handicap as well as two non-consecutive wins in the West Point [1989 and 1991]. Fourstardave secured two triumphs in his namesake race when run as the Daryl's Joy [1990-91].

The Fourstardave is carded as Race 9 on Saturday's 11-race program at Saratoga Race Course, which also includes the Grade 2, $200,000 Saratoga Special presented by Miller Lite, a 6 ½-furlong sprint for juveniles over the main track. First post is 1:05 p.m. Saratoga Live will present daily television coverage of the summer meet on FOX Sports. For the complete Saratoga Live broadcast schedule, and additional programming information, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule.

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TOBA Names Officers, Three New Trustees to Board

Brant Laue has been re-elected as chairman of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association Board of Trustees, TOBA announced Wednesday. Also joining Laue on the Board of Trustees to serve three-year terms as new members are Barbara Banke, Carrie Brogden and Tim Cohen. Re-elected to three-year terms were current trustees Greg Bensel, Robert Edwards Jr., Tanya Gunther and Walker Hancock.

“I thank the trustees for their support,” Laue said. “Racing has fared well through the pandemic and some positive trends are continuing in 2021, but the pandemic has created new challenges for the industry that TOBA plans to be a part of the collaborative effort to address.”

Following its annual members meeting, the TOBA Board of Trustees met to elect officers for the association. Officers named for 2021-2022 are: Brant Laue, chairman, David O'Farrell, vice-chairman, Dan Metzger, president; Doug Cauthen, secretary; and Garrett O'Rourke, treasurer.

The TOBA Board also approved the appointment of Dr. J. David Richardson and reappointments of Everett Dobson and Walker Hancock to the American Graded Stakes Committee. The 2021-2022 committee is comprised of TOBA members Everett Dobson (chair), Barbara Banke, Reynolds Bell, Jr., Craig Bernick, Walker Hancock, and DJ. David Richardson and racing officials Rick Hammerle (Oaklawn Park and Kentucky Downs), Ben Huffman (Churchill Downs and Keeneland), Chris Merz (Santa Anita Park), Martin Panza (NYRA) and Thomas Robbins (Del Mar).

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Feds Call Navarro A ‘Reckless Fraudster,’ Say Drugs Have ‘Corrupted Much Of The Horse Racing Industry’

It turns out Jorge Navarro really was “The Juiceman,” and contrary to remarks on a 2017 video captured by a horseplayer at New Jersey's Monmouth Park, it was anything but vegetable juice.

In federal court on Wednesday, Navarro acknowledged his role in a racehorse doping scheme that involved multiple performance-enhancing substances, including imported clenbuterol and blood-building drugs he both admitted giving to his horses and distributing to others.

As the Department of Justice stated in a press release, Navarro was a “reckless fraudster whose veneer of success relied on the systematic abuse of the animals under his control.”

Furthermore, Audrey Strauss, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York who is prosecuting the cases against more than two dozen trainers, veterinarians and suppliers, said performance-enhancing drugs “have corrupted much of the horse racing industry.”

The guilty plea by Navarro and last week's admission of guilt by veterinarian Kristian Rhein, Strauss said, “demonstrate the continued commitment of this office and our partners at the FBI to the investigation and prosecution of corruption, fraud and endangerment at every level of the horse racing industry.”

Navarro admitted to doping numerous horses, including Sharp Azteca, winner of eight of 17 races, including the Grade 1 Cigar Mile in 2017. He now stands at stud at Three Chimneys Farm.

Among the horses veterinarian Rhein admitted doping was Jason Servis-trained Maximum Security, who won four Grade 1 races and was disqualified from first place for interference in the 2019 Kentucky Derby. Transferred to Bob Baffert after Servis was indicted at the same time as Navarro (Servis has pleaded not guilty), Maximum Security won two of his final four starts before retiring to stud at Coolmore's Ashford Stud.

Just as Major League Baseball's record book is littered with the accomplishments of steroid cheaters like Barry Bonds, so too does horse racing now have a tainted database, with major races won by horses associated with convicted or indicted dopers. Even the Stud Book is polluted.

What happens next?

Can we really take Strauss at her word that the feds will continue their investigation? We know that the more guilty pleas there are, the greater likelihood that the convicted cheaters will cooperate with the government, widening the investigation and likely resulting in more trainers and veterinarians being charged. Prosecutors have collected massive amounts of information via computer and phone records, and cooperating witnesses can help connect some of the dots.

It probably comes down to how much more time and resources the Southern District of New York wants to commit to expose further corruption and cheating in this game.

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Racing has been exposed as a sport with weak or non-existent leadership at the racetrack and regulatory level when it comes to integrity issues. Track executives care more about filling the entry box than they do about the ethics or character of the trainers and owners who are supplying those entries.

Regulators concern themselves more with finding the cheapest testing laboratories than hiring the ones that have proven to be most effective at finding illicit drugs. And then they brag about how clean the game is because there are so few positive tests.

One example: In 2015, Truesdail Laboratories was found during a blind sample audit conducted by the Indiana Horse Racing Commission to have missed multiple positive tests, including a Class 1 drug – the most severe. Indiana fired Truesdail and moved their testing to another lab. It took years for a number of other racing commission to follow suit, even though Truesdail's failures were widely reported. Those racing commissions, from Maryland to New Jersey to Arkansas, simply didn't care.

Regulators also have known (or should know), based on the March 2020 indictments, that a representative for one of the owners of the Navarro-trained Nanoosh (according to Equibase, he was owned by Zayat Stables, Rockingham Ranch and David Bernsen) was on a conference call with the trainer discussing the horse's poor performances. According to the federal indictment, that person asked whether Navarro was “giving them all the shit,” and, “Is this horse jacked out? Is he on f – – king pills or what or are we just f – – king…” Navarro said, “Everything … he gets everything.”

Has a single racing commission or board of stewards – in California where the indictment said the stable is based or in any other state – called in the horse's owners to discuss this phone call with Navarro?

I doubt it. The last thing many commissions want to do – especially those rife with conflicts of interest – is hold owners accountable. To repeat: Racing commissions do not care.

There is a reason The Jockey Club – which has no official role in regulating horse racing – hired 5 Stones Intelligence, the private investigation firm that began the doping probe eventually turned over to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. There was plenty of smoke coming from certain stables: incredible form reversals off the claim or private purchase, win percentages that defied logic and runners that would routinely re-break at the eighth pole. Jockey Club officials assumed there was fire associated with that smoke, and they were right.

There is also a reason The Jockey Club has been so adamant in pushing for federal legislation that would turn over medication, integrity and safety issues to a group like the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that oversees Olympic athletes and the UFC, among other sports. It is because state racing commissions are not capable of policing the sport adequately.

It remains to be seen whether the March 2020 round-up was just the tip of the iceberg of corruption and cheating in our game. Some people should be very nervous going forward. Others should be ashamed for letting it get to this point.

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Trainer Doug Nunn Continues Overcoming Physical Setbacks In What May Be The Best Year Of His Career

The worst year physically of trainer Doug Nunn's life is heading toward being his best one professionally. Whether that's coincidence or just a matter of everything coming together after 29 years as a trainer he can't say for sure.

But he does have a theory.

“I think it's because I'm off the horses right now,” he joked.

Nunn, a former jockey who has been Monmouth Park-based since 2000, has always exercised the horses he trains, doing so from the time he launched his second career in 1992. That changed on May 3.

Nunn was getting on a horse when he slipped on a bag of shavings. From the fall he snapped his right quadriceps muscle and had to undergo a complicated re-attachment surgery. That left him in a cast and a boot for two months.

“I've ridden horses my whole life. I've always exercised my own horses,” said Nunn. “This is the first time I haven't been able to do that. After you've done it for 30 years that way, just from being on them I can tell you anything about a horse after getting on one. So it's a whole new perspective to see them from the ground and train them from the ground.

“It's hard for me. It's a big adjustment. I learn something new every day.”

The new perspective hasn't had an impact on his results – unless a year that could wind up as the best of his career counts. Nunn is currently 8-for-32 at the Monmouth Park meet and has 11 winners overall from 61 starters. His winning percentage is the highest it has ever been, as is the average earnings per start.

He can now take dead aim at a career-best 17 wins that he recorded in 2011 – again in large part because of his injury.

Nunn, 52, has annually headed to nearby Overbrook Farm to break horses in the winter after the Monmouth Park meet ends. This year, because of his physical limitations, he can no longer do that. So he will ship to Tampa Downs with a division for the first time when Monmouth Park closes.

“Usually at this time of year I'd have 17 or 18 of my own horses and I would start to think about the 20 or so yearlings I would be breaking in another few months on the farm,” he said. “I can't break the horses anymore because of my leg so we'll try to keep things going and try to keep the momentum going by going to Tampa for the first time.”

Nunn, whose twin brother David retired as a trainer this year, comes from a racing family. Both of his parents were trainers at Finger Lakes, where he grew up, and his sister, Michelle Harris, was an accomplished jockey.

So he understands that running a 27-horse stable requires a lot of help.

“My help has been the difference, since I couldn't do anything for quite a while,” said Nunn, citing assistants Kendall Wyszynski, Rafael Aguilar, Fernando Arellano and Melissa Iorio as professional lifesavers when he was incapacitated. “I had to depend on them and they have done a great job. My wife (Maria van Sant) keeps me grounded. So it's a good mix.”

Nunn's stable, which consists mostly of claimers, Jersey-breds and some allowance-quality horses, will look to add to its success during Friday's twilight card at Monmouth Park. He has entered Postino's Idol, an 8-year-old mare recently claimed off a win by Winner Circle Stable, and Ask Around, a 3-year-old coming off a maiden special weight win, in the $71,875 allowance optional claimer that will serve as the feature.

Nunn expects to be able to saddle both, but isn't sure yet since he is scheduled to undergo a procedure on Thursday to remove kidney stones that have plagued him for more than a month.

“It's just one of those years. You learn to take the bad with the good,” he said.

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