Robin Goodfellow’s racing tips: Best bets for Monday, August 9
Sportsmail's racing expert Robin Goodfellow dishes out his tips for Monday's meetings at Wolverhampton, Ayr, Windsor and Ripon.
Month: August 2021
Wicked Halo Much The Best In Adirondack For Asmussen, Winchell
Just like her dam Just Wicked, Wicked Halo crossed the wire first in the Grade 2 Adirondack Stakes, giving trainer Steve Asmussen another graded stakes winner a day after he passed Dale Baird as North America's all-time winningest trainer. The gray 2-year-old filly dueled with Microbiome early and made her rail-hugging trip a winning one at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
At the break, Tom Amoss-trained Microbiome was quickest out of the gate taking a short lead, with Wicked Halo just off her shoulder on the rail. Down the backstretch, the two dueled, Jose Ortiz moving the Asmussen filly to the lead before the first quarter-mile. Approaching the turn, Microbiome stayed with her into the stretch, but the daughter of Gun Runner and Just Wicked was too good for the Amoss horse. In the stretch, Wicked Halo drew away to win by 3 1/2 lengths. Interstatedaydream came on late to grab second, with Saucy Lady T third. The final time for the 6 1/2 furlongs was 1:17.99.
Mainstay, Microbiome, Ontheonesandtwos, J.L's Rockette, Shesawildjoker, and Boss Lady Kim rounded out the order of finish.
Wicked Halo paid $11.40, $6.00, and $4.80. Interstatedaydream paid $14.80 and $9.50. Saucy Lady T paid $12.80 to show. Find this race's chart here.
“Ron [Winchell, owner-breeder] giving us horses like this makes all the accolades possible. This filly, her mother won the Adirondack [Just Wicked, 2015], and what a great sire Gun Runner is proving to be. To duplicate what her mother did is very special,” Asmussen said after the race.
“In these 2-year-old stakes races there's going to be pace because a lot of them break their maiden wire-to-wire or are just sitting off it. A lot of times, the pace is going to be hot in races like this, and it was hot this time. Tyler [Gaffalione, aboard Microbiome, No. 9] broke better than me. I put her up there and she responded well,” jockey Jose Ortiz said after the Adirondack. “They were going fast, but she was ready. Steve had her ready to run.”
With the Grade 2 Adirondack in the books, Wicked Halo has two wins in three lifetime starts for career earnings of $144,650 for breeder/owner Winchell Thoroughbreds.
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Con Lima Box to Wire in Saratoga Oaks
Sunday, Saratoga
SARATOGA OAKS INVITATIONAL S.-GIII, $700,000, Saratoga, 8-8, 3yo, f, 1 3/16mT, 1:54.42, fm.
1–CON LIMA, 121, f, 3, by Commissioner
1st Dam: Second Street City (SW, $209,843), by Consolidator
2nd Dam: Trix City, by Carson City
3rd Dam: Always Nettie, by Vice Regent
($15,000 Wlg '18 KEENOV; $19,000 RNA Ylg '19 KEESEP;
$22,000 RNA 2yo '20 OBSMAR). O-Eclipse Thoroughbred
Partners, Joseph F. Graffeo, Eric Nikolaus Del Toro & Troy
Johnson; B-Lisa Kuhlmann (TX); T-Todd A. Pletcher; J-Flavien
Prat. $375,000. Lifetime Record: 13-7-5-0, $884,865. Werk
Nick Rating: A. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross
pedigree.
2–Higher Truth (Ire), 121, f, 3, Galileo (Ire)–Wannabe Better
(Ire), by Duke of Marmalade (Ire). (500,000gns Ylg '19
TATOCT). O-Michael J. Ryan, Jeff Drown, & Team Hanley;
B-Churchtown House Stud (IRE); T-Chad C. Brown.
$130,000.
3–Creative Flair (Ire), 121, f, 3, Dubawi (Ire)–Hidden Gold
(Ire), by Shamardal. O/B-Godolphin, LLC (IRE); T-Charles
Appleby. $70,000.
Margins: 3/4, 1 1/4, 1 1/4. Odds: 3.05, 7.40, 3.20.
Also Ran: Plum Ali, Gam's Mission, Out of Sorts, Messidor (Ire), Rocky Sky (Ire).
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' Con Lima was afforded an easy lead under Flavien Prat, opened up in the stretch and held sway late to annex the GIII Saratoga Oaks Sunday at the Spa.
Originally just a $15,000 Keeneland November weanling buy, the dark bay was privately purchased out of a sharp main-track graduation for trainer Carlos David last July at Gulfstream and was runner-up in the off-turf P.G. Johnson S. and Our Dear Peg S. Scoring a wire-to-wire 5 1/4-length success in her grass bow Dec. 12 at Gulfstream, she repeated in the Ginger Brew S. and was second in the GIII Sweetest Chant S. before being elevated into a GIII Herecomesthebride S. victory via disqualification. Taking one more crack on dirt in the GII Gulfstream Park Oaks, she faded to fourth after setting a slow pace, her only finish out of the exacta thus far, but bounced back when returned to the lawn with triumphs in the Honey Ryder S. and GIII Wonder Again S.
Just run down late when second in the GI Belmont Oaks Invitational S. last out, Con Lima was made a narrow favorite over Godolphin invader Creative Flair here and broke a bit outwardly. Easing her way to the front as no one else took the initiative, she clicked off comfortable fractions of :23.64, :50.02 and 1:14.34 with ears pricked. Turning aside a brief bid from Gam's Mission (Noble Mission {GB}) past the three-sixteenths pole, she skipped clear into the final furlong as Higher Truth came off the rail to take her shot. Jumping back to her left lead at the sixteenth marker, it briefly appeared that Con Lima was in danger, but Prat kept her to task to score by a fairly comfortable margin in the end.
“I was analyzing the race beforehand and we were the only speed but I wasn't 100% sure with a couple of the Euros if they would show some initiative,” said winning trainer Todd Pletcher, capping off a weekend that started with his Hall of Fame induction. “I left it in Flavien's hands and Plan A was to break well and see if anybody would try to take the lead away from us and if they didn't, we'd be happy to have it. It worked out really well. He just gradually got up there instead of having to hustle her and use her. She relaxed really well. You could see when she turned up the backside and her ears were flicking back and forth that she was in a happy zone.”
“The speed was pretty much me and the Godolphin filly and it seems she broke a step slow,” said Prat. “I broke better than her and I ended up on the lead. Going to the first turn I felt really comfortable. I was really pleased with the way she was traveling and I felt we were doing some easy fractions. She really kicked on well. I got her ready to kick and she really did. When she swapped leads, she responded well from that point.”
Pedigree Notes:
One of nine stakes winners and three graded stakes winners for 2014 GI Belmont S. runner-up Commissioner, Con Lima is the first foal to race out of her stakes-winning dam. She is followed by a yearling Point of Entry colt named Pico de Gallo and a weanling colt by Lord Nelson. Second Street City was bred to Game Winner this spring.
The post Con Lima Box to Wire in Saratoga Oaks appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
‘If I’m A One-Woman Show, I Brought The Right Filly’: Foreman Makes Her Saratoga Debut As Consignor
One's first trip to Saratoga is often unforgettable. That's why people keep coming back to the same spot in upstate New York every summer.
This is far from the first Saratoga sojourn for consignor Susan Foreman, but it'll be a memorable one nonetheless.
Foreman, born and based in Ontario, will consign her first horse at this year's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale. The single-horse consignment doesn't take up much room in Barn 3, but the right horse can fill a lot of space.
The Medaglia d'Oro filly, offered Monday as Hip 22, is out of the winning Fusaichi Pegasus mare Vulcan Rose, whose three foals to race are all black type earners, led by the Grade 3 winner and popular young stallion Flameaway.
Though many of Vulcan Rose's foals have been foaled in Canada, the filly offered Monday was born in Kentucky, bred by British Columbia-based Deborah Holmes' Phoenix Rising Farm.
“I've got a great owner who gave this filly to me to prep,” Foreman said. “She foals mares with me, so with this breeding, she needed to be with the best of the best. They sent her to me in mid-April for prepping, and here I am. She fits the bill. She's gorgeous, classy, with pedigree. I couldn't have asked for a nicer horse. If I'm a one-woman show, I brought the right filly.”
Monday's sale will mark a new milestone for Foreman, but that's no indication that any of this is new for the consignor. She has sold in Kentucky and Ontario for decades, and she'll have 15 horses in the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society (Ontario Division) Canadian Premier Yearling Sale on Sept. 1 at Woodbine, where she is no stranger to the top of the standings.
Foreman has a full-service farm in Tottenham, Ontario, with over two decades of experience with Thoroughbreds. However, her equine roots trace back to the show horse world with different breeds. The rigorous process of making sure a horse is pristine for judges made for a natural transfer when Foreman moved into the Thoroughbred realm, and the show ring was traded for the sales ring.
“I have done this since I was a little girl,” she said. “I've shown horses, conformation horses on the line, so I have a lot of attention to detail ingrained in me. Coming into the Thoroughbreds and showing them was uncomplicated for me, because since I was a small girl, it was so important for me to have them fit, muscular, shiny, clean, clipped properly.”
Even with a single-horse operation, Foreman acknowledged that she couldn't do it alone. She brought a pair of longtime friends and associates with her for her first Saratoga consignment: Amanda Hutchinson from Ontario, and Israel Romo from Kentucky.
Romo has worked in the WinStar Farm stallion operation, but her relationship with Foreman goes even further back.
“We've been friends for close to 20 years and he still shows horses for me,” Foreman said. “He's my go-to guy when I need extra help down here, he finds me all my help, so he's a key asset for me to show.”
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This year's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale has a considerable Canadian presence, with fellow Ontario-based outfits Cara Bloodstock and Sam-Son Farm also bringing consignments.
Though COVID-19-related restrictions aren't as tight as they were at the same time last year, Foreman said there were still plenty of administrative hoops to jump through to get from one side to the other.
“It's tough,” she said. “My easy access for me was I hauled her down here myself, so I go in the commercial lane, and have all my export papers done with my broker, no problem. But, to come without her would have been a problem. You'd have had to fly. For me, transporting her with all of my equipment and my groom was the easy way to get here.
“There's a lot of documents to cross – declaration of importation, who's traveling with me,” Foreman continued. “Every detail is not overlooked on who is coming back and forth: my vehicle, plates, VIN number, everything. But, once you get all that paperwork, it's just a barcode. They scan you, and away you go.”
It took the right horse to get Foreman to the Saratoga sale, and a potentially special one for her to endure the logistical headaches. Even though Foreman has high expectations for her Medaglia d'Oro filly, the consignor does not plan to rest on her laurels, regardless of how she performs on Monday. This may be her first Saratoga sale as a consignor, but she had no intention of making it her last.
“It was a goal of mine to get here,” Foreman said. “Hopefully I'm bringing this one's half-sister and some other nice, well-bred colts next year.”
The post ‘If I’m A One-Woman Show, I Brought The Right Filly’: Foreman Makes Her Saratoga Debut As Consignor appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
