Pin Oak Offerings at Fasig-Tipton Sunday

An offering of 24 broodmares, weanlings and horses in training from Josephine Abercrombie's Pin Oak Stud will be on offer through the Denali Stud consignment at Fasig-Tipton Sunday evening, with bidding slated to begin at 6 p.m.

“This sale provides people with an opportunity to access these wonderful families that have been cultivated and expertly maintained through Mrs. Abercrombie and Clifford Barry,” said Denali's Conrad Bandoroff. “You look through the catalogue, you have a lot of mares from good Pin Oak families and one of the main common denominators is that a lot of these mares could really run. Several are multiple graded stakes winners or graded stakes performers and graded stakes producers. Some of them have had some foals and may have a little age on them. But they could run and I think there is a lot of blue skies left with a lot of these offerings.”

Among the highlights of the offerings is Overheard (Macho Uno–Whisper to Me, by Thunder Gulch) (hip 2), who won the 2014 GII Dance Smartly S. and 2013 GIII Pin Oak Valley View S. She sells in foal to multiple Grade I winner McKinzie.

“She's really a testament to the Pin Oak program,” Bandoroff said of the 11-year-old mare. “She was sound and hard-knocking and she's in foal to a very exciting freshman stallion in McKinzie. This is a mare who would be a good addition to anyone's breeding program.”

Overheard's half-sister Tell All (Broken Vow) will be offered as hip 8 and the 9-year-old mare is in foal to red-hot freshman sire Gun Runner.

Gun Runner needs no introduction,” Bandoroff said. “So she's a half-sister to a multiple graded stakes winner from a great Pin Oak family and she's in foal to a freshman-sire phenomenon who couldn't have made a hotter start to stud. She's a young mare with a lot of potential and another one who could fit anyone's program.”

Gold Medal Dancer (Medaglia d'Oro–Bachata, by Kingmambo), winner of the 2015 GII Azeri S., will be offered as hip 23. Third in the 2015 GI Apple Blossom H. and GI La Troienne S., the 11-year-old mare is in foal to Munnings.

“She is another mare who could really run,” Bandoroff said. “She is a Grade II winner and multiple Grade I placed and she earned over $600,000. She is a young mare and a very commercial prospect for any breeder.”

Bandoroff continued, “Medaglia d'Oro is certainly starting to establish himself as an emerging broodmare sire and he will have plenty of opportunity moving forward. And this mare is in foal to Munnings, who has had an unbelievable year.

Bandoroff said the Pin Oak offerings are generating plenty of interest ahead of Sunday's auction at Fasig-Tipton.

“The interest has been strong because the Pin Oak program and the Pin Oak brand is something that everyone respects,” Bandoroff said. “We have been very fortunate to work with Pin Oak for as long as we have and when you are selling a horse that is bred by Pin Oak and people ask where the horse was raised, it's something that we take great pride in, letting people know that this horse was raised by Clifford Barry at Pin Oak Stud. That means something to people. And that is something that generates interest because everyone has a great respect for Mrs. Abercrombie and Pin Oak and for Clifford Barry.”

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Unique Trophies for Unique Meet

FRANKLIN, Ky.–Winners of the bulk of the races at the FanDuel Meet at Kentucky Downs–from maidens to graded stakes–receive a big chunk of purse money and a distinctive keepsake of their success at the track that is unlike any other in North America.

While it may be hard to put an autographed Fender acoustic guitar on a mantel, it sure is a conversation piece.

Allie Sclafani, the marketing director for live racing, spent eight months developing the project that features guitars for the six-day, $15-million meet contested over eight days close to the border with Tennessee.

“Kentucky Downs, year over year, has been experiencing growth,” Scalfani said. “Our co-owner, Ron Winchell–as a horse owner–wins a lot of trophies, so we didn't want to just offer folks the same Waterford bowl and decanter that we usually do.”

A total of seven guitars signed by Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Reba McEntire will be presented after the six graded stakes and the Music City S., which honors nearby Nashville, Tenn.

“The guitar came about last year for the Music City S., its namesake,” Sclafani said. “It was signed by George Strait and it was such a hit, similar to how Santa Anita used to present surfboards. For this year we decided if unique trophies are what the horse owners want, let's do a different trophy type for every type of races.”

For its non-graded races, Kentucky Downs presents hand-painted, customized decanters and glasses. Each one is personalized to include the winner's silks and a likeness of the winning horse.

Allowance race winners receive customized Bourbon barrel heads.

“One of the main goals this year was to embrace Kentucky Downs's location on the Tennessee line as the beginnings of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail,” Sclafani said. “That's one of the reasons why we have custom Bourbon bottles every day that are etched. We mirror that with our allowance races. They are mixed media. They've got metal and they will also be hand painted with their silks and shipped to the winning owners.”

Maiden winners go home with a piece of apparel, a cooler that is a walking advertising vehicle for Kentucky's famous equine industry.

“Since breaking your maiden in $135,000 races at Kentucky Downs is exciting, we wanted to honor that and make sure that the KTDF [Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund] gets a little love because we couldn't do it without them,” Sclafani said. “Those are titanium coolers from Fenwick. They are designed to improve circulation and help horses cool down after a race. They say, 'It Pays to Be a Kentucky-bred' and has the Kentucky Downs and FanDuel mark for 2021.”

Sclafani said that Kentucky Downs management was intent on putting together a clever and memorable marketing approach.

“For a race meet of only six days we want to generate as much buzz as we can,” she said. “We think that doing right by the horsemen is going to get our message out.”

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In Good Spirits Best In Ladies Sprint At Kentucky Downs

In Good Spirits drew into a spot in the Grade 3 Ladies Sprint, earning a chance to run for her first graded stakes win, and then sealed the deal with a late stretch rally at Kentucky Downs in Franklin, Ky. Jockey John Velazquez angled the 4-year-old daughter of Ghostzapper to the rail in the last sixteenth of a mile to draw away to a victory in the G3 sprint.

Breaking from the far outside, In Good Spirits was fastest out of the gate in the 6 1/2-furlong Ladies Sprint, but favorite Venetian Harbor made an early move to take over the front. Velazquez kept his filly on the outside of the favorite, whose time as the leader was short as Lagertha challenged on the race's only turn, taking over the lead as the field hit the long Kentucky Downs stretch. In Good Spirits stayed within striking distance on the straightaway.

As Lagertha drifted out slightly in her stretch run, Velazquez took In Good Spirits to the inside, finding ample room on the rail to bid for the lead again. In the last sixteenth, she took over for good, drawing away to a two-length win with Catch a Bid passing Lagertha late to take second.

The final time for the 6 1/2 furlongs was 1:15.35.

Bred by Stonestreet, In Good Spirits is out of the Arch mare Mon Arch Lass. She is trained by Al Stall and owned by Bal Mar Equine LLC. In Good Spirits was consigned by Warrendale Sales at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale and sold to Steven Young, agent, for $200,000. With her win in the G3 Ladies Sprint, the filly improves to two wins in four starts in 2021 for a lifetime record of four wins in 13 starts.

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Francatelli Hangs On To Win Rumson At Monmouth

As impressive as it was that Francatelli was able to make the lead from the outset of Saturday's speed-filled Rumson Stakes at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J., it was even more notable the way he maintained it to the wire.

Hounded early in the five-furlong dash, then facing a threat from both the outside and the inside coming out of the final turn, Francatelli held on gamely for a neck victory over Quick Tempo to win the $100,000 feature race.

Sagamore Mischief, who pressed Francatelli throughout, was another 1¼ lengths back in third.

“He's pretty quick away from the gate for such a big horse. He gets away from there almost like a quarter horse,” said winning trainer Cal Lynch, who owns the horse in partnership with Maribeth Sanford. “He has run in some very fast races against some very fast horses and he always gives us his best effort. He's as good on the turf as he is on the dirt. Just a game horse. He fights every race for us.”

The winning time was :57.26.

Ridden by Mychel Sanchez, Francatelli beat his five rivals to the lead and then resisted all of the challenges thrown at him, including a dual-pronged assault coming out of the final turn with Quick Tempo on the outside and Foolish Ghost shooting the rail.

“(Quick Tempo) looked like he was going to roll on by coming out of the turn and (Foolish Ghost was) coming up the rail and he just won a stakes race in New York,” said Lynch. “These were some nice horses in this race but I don't expect anything less from this horse every time he runs. He is just one of those warrior types, just as game as they come. We're very pleased with the way he ran.”

A 4-year-old gelded son of City Zip-Salary Drive by Mizzen Mast, Francatelli now has six wins, four seconds, and a third from his 13 career starts. He just missed in his last start, the Grade 3 Parx Dash, and has excelled on both dirt and turf.

“He broke like a rocket,” said Sanchez. “As soon as he broke like that I just let him go because I know he likes to fight and it was five furlongs. He was really game. There were horses everywhere coming out of the turn. Like I said, he's a fighter. He likes to run. He was ready to go.

“He runs on anything, grass or dirt. He's one of those horses who is very good on either surface.”

Francatelli, who boosted his career earnings to $330,999 with the victory, returned $6.20 to win.

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