September, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Jersey Derby Winner Vanzzy Returns To Monmouth For Red Bank Stakes

After seeing Vanzzy run one of the better races of his career in winning last year's Jersey Derby at Monmouth Park, trainer Michael Pino is hoping to recapture some of that magic when he sends the colt out in Saturday's $150,000 Red Bank Stakes.

Now a 4-year-old, Vanzzy heads into the one-mile grass race that serves as the feature on Monmouth Park's 12-race card off two solid efforts to start his 2021 campaign.

“He was a little unlucky in his first start of the year (a third-place finish at Pimlico on July 11),” said Pino. “He threw a shoe in the paddock and got a little too keyed up. After he broke he wanted to run off with the rider and never settled at all.

“But he ran well all things considered and then came back and won his second time out (at Delaware Park on July 31) despite some trouble.”

Pino said the son of Verrazano “is a stronger horse this year.”

He will have to be Saturday, despite the short field. Among the six entered for the turf are the Mark Casse-trained Proven Strategies, who comes off a strong third-place finish in the Grade 2 Connaught Cup at Woodbine on July 18, and the Chad Brown-trained Value Proposition, listed as the 4-5 morning line favorite. Value Proposition ships in from New York for the race, with Paco Lopez listed to ride.

“Mark Casse's horse has speed but Vanzzy should be forwardly placed,” said Pino. “Obviously, Chad Brown's horse off the numbers looks like the horse to beat in the race. But you've got to run against that kind every now and then.

“Vanzzy is definitely a more mature horse this year and a stronger horse. I know we're going to see some strong races out of him. I'm planning and hoping that happens.”

Vanzzy, owned by Smart Angle LLP, has generally held his own through his 14-race career, with five wins, a second and a third and career earnings of $280,364. He shows two wins and two thirds in seven turf tries, the most notable being at a mile and a sixteenth in the 2020 Jersey Derby last year.

Pino has also entered Bird King in the race, with the 4-year-old gelding looking to make his turf debut after 16 dirt races.

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Reach For The Moon Camp Eyes Champagne

Progressive colt Reach For The Moon (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) is a likely starter in the G2 Champagne S. at Doncaster on Sept. 11. The John and Thady Gosden-trained colt, who carries The Queen's silks, was a last out winner of the G3 Betway Solario S. at Sandown on Aug. 21.

“Reach For The Moon is in really good form,” said The Queen's Racing Manager John Warren after Reach For The Moon's stablemate Saga (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) won at Ascot on Friday. “He had a good blow yesterday [Thursday] and I think we're all just getting our heads around his next start.

“He's got an entry in the Champagne S. next week, so I think we'll be looking strongly at that to see whether or not that's where he ought to go next. He's a horse that needs keeping on top of himself as he's full of himself.”

Second in his first two starts, including the Listed Chesham S. behind top G1 Derby contender Point Lonsdale (Ire) (Australia {GB}), Reach For The Moon drew off by four lengths to win a novice stakes over seven furlongs on July 16. The colt is second choice for next spring's Derby at this stage.

Warren added, “I think John and Thady and Frankie [Dettori] think it wouldn't do him any harm to come out again and get a bit streetwise if he's going to be a Group 1 horse–the more education going into Group 1s the better. There's a strong possibility that we'll take a good, hard look at the Champagne.”

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Breeders’ Cup Challenge: NBC Sports To Present Live Coverage From Saratoga On Saturday

The “Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In – presented by America's Best Racing” returns this Saturday, Sept. 4 on NBCSN from 6-7 p.m. ET from Saratoga Race Course with live coverage of the $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) and the $600,000 Flower Bowl (G1).

Saturday's program marks the fifth telecast this year in the “Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In – presented by America's Best Racing” on NBC and NBCSN from some of North America's most iconic racetracks. The series leads to the 38th Breeders' Cup World Championships at Del Mar racetrack in Del Mar, California, to be held Nov. 5-6 on NBC and NBCSN. The complete series TV schedule can be accessed here.

NBC Sports' coverage will feature commentary and discussion from its International Broadcast Center in Stamford, Conn., led by host Britney Eurton, and analysts Randy Moss and Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey, who won 15 Breeders' Cup races including five victories in the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1). Reporter Laffit Pincay and handicapper Matt Bernier will be on-site at Saratoga.

The Jockey Club Gold Cup, which had been run at Belmont Park and Aqueduct Racetrack since 1919, and the Flower Bowl, which had been held at Belmont since 1978, will be run at historic Saratoga Race Course for the first time. The Jockey Club Gold Cup winner will gain an automatic berth into the $6 million Longines Breeders' Cup Classic, and the winner of the Flower Bowl will earn a free berth into the $2 million Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf.

Run at 1 ¼ miles, the Jockey Club Gold Cup drew a six-horse field and is led by Wertheimer and Frere's Happy Saver, who won his first five races before finishing third in the Suburban Stakes (G2) at Belmont Park in his last start on July 3. The 4-year-old son of Super Saver concluded a 4-for-4 first season of racing when he won the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont last year for trainer Todd Pletcher, who opted to bypass the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland and point to a 2021 campaign.

George Hall and SportBLX Thoroughbred Corp.'s Max Player upset Happy Saver in the Suburban and received a free berth into the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic. Trained by Steve Asmussen, the 4-year-old Max Player, who ended a six-race losing streak in the Suburban, is 3-for-10 lifetime.

Don Alberto Stable's Forza Di Oro, a winner four times in six starts, easily captured his lone start of the year in a local allowance optional claiming race on July 21 for trainer Bill Mott. A son of 2004 Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Speightstown, Forza Di Oro won Aqueduct's Discovery Stakes (G3) in November before going on an extended layoff. The Estate of James J. Coleman Jr.'s Chess Chief won the New Orleans Classic Stakes (G2) at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans in March for trainer Dallas Stewart.

The Flower Bowl, run at the Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf distance of 1 3/8 miles, is headlined by George Krikorian's War Like Goddess. The 4-year-old daughter of 2007 Breeders' Cup Turf winner English Channel has won two straight graded stakes at 1 ½ miles for trainer Bill Mott, and also won the Orchid Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park in March at 1 3/8 miles. War Like Goddess is 5-for-6 lifetime and enters off an easy win in the Aug. 7 Glens Falls Stakes (G2) at Saratoga, in which she unleashed a devastating turn of foot that saw her go from last-to-first while looping the field through the far turn.

Trainer Chad Brown has won the Flower Bowl six times and will look to add to that mark with Peter Brant's My Sister Nat (FR) and Alpha Delta Stables Great Island. My Sister Nat finished second, defeated by a head, in the Flower Bowl last year before running ninth in the Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Keeneland. Seeking her first win this year, My Sister Nat finished second in the Glens Falls. Great Island is two for three this year, winning the Grade 3 WinStar Matchmaker Stakes at Monmouth Park in her most recent start on July 17. Brant also has an international starter in the race with American Bridge (GB). Trained by Jean-Claude Rouget, American Bridge won the 1 1 /4-mile Premio del Giubileo (G3) by 2 ¼ lengths at Milan on June 27.

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Middle Park Remains Target For Ebro River

The Sept. 25 G1 Middle Park S. at Newmarket remains the main goal for Group 1 winner Ebro River (Ire) (Galileo Gold {GB}), Hugo Palmer confirmed on Friday. Racing in the Al Shaqab silks, the colt will bid to add to his Group 1 haul after taking the G1 Keeneland Phoenix S. at The Curragh on Aug. 8.

Said Palmer, who trained Ebro River's sire Galileo Gold to wins in the G1 2000 Guineas and G1 St James's Palace S., “I've left him in the [Sept. 18 G2] Mill Reef [at Newbury] just in case it looks like being soft there and it looks like being firm ground at Newmarket, but I'm not sure many have carried a Group 1 penalty in that race.

“He is very unlikely to go to the [G1] National S. [at The Curragh on Sept. 12] and the [G1 Prix] Jean Luc Lagardere [at ParisLongchamp on Oct. 3] is a possibility, but I think six furlongs is his trip. The Middle Park is the main aim and that is where we want to go but we have kept the other options just in case.”

Successful at second asking at Doncaster in May, Ebro River added the Listed National S. at Sandown on May 27. Only fifth in the G2 Coventry S. at Royal Ascot, the chestnut reported home fourth in the G2 Tattersalls July S. and July 29 G2 Unibet Richmond S. prior to his top-level score.

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