October, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Mo Forza Flies Late For Second Consecutive City Of Hope Mile Score

Unhurried early under Flavien Prat, Mo Forza closed with a furious rush to nail front-running Smooth Like Strait in the final strides of Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000 City of Hope Mile Stakes at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif. The 5-year-old horse by Uncle Mo out of Inflamed, by Unusual Heat, was winning his fourth consecutive graded stakes – including last year's City of Hope Mile – and eighth race overall from 14 starts.

Smooth Like Strait, who went to the lead under Umberto Rispoli, then allowed Red Storm Risen to head him in the run down the backstretch, edged a fast-closing Hit the Road for second as the 9-5 second choice. Hit the Road, off at 5-1, was well clear of Red Storm Risen in fourth and Order and Law completed the order of finish.

Trained by Peter Miller and owned by Bardy Farm and OG Boss, Mo Forza was bred in Kentucky by the late trainer Barry Abrams in the name of his Bardy Farm.

Mo Forza covered the mile on firm turf in 1:32.45 after fractions of :22.61, :46.66, 1:08.98 and 1:20.57. He paid $3.20 to win.

Mo Forza was coming off a hard-fought head victory over Smooth Like Strait in the G2 Del Mar Mile on Aug. 21, his first start since last year's City of Hope Mile. In this year's edition of the City of Hope, Prat settled Mo Forza at the back of the pack as Smooth Like Strait rushed up to take command early from the five post, holding a clear advantage while rounding the first turn.

In the run down the backstretch, Joe Bravo swung Red Storm Risen – who had broken from the rail post – to the outside and ranged up alongside Smooth Like Strait, taking a short lead into the far turn.

Prat, meanwhile, kept Mo Forza to the outside of Hit the Rail and Florent Geroux, and commenced a rally around the three-eighths pole. At midstretch, Smooth Like Strait looked home free, but in the blink of an eye Mo Forza pounced on the front-runner with Hit the Road racing to his outside.

Mo Forza closed with a rush, hitting the front in the final strides and looking like a serious contender for the G1 Breeders' Cup Mile to be held at Del Mar on Nov. 6.

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Munnings Colt Best of Strong Bunch in Champagne

Apparently, 'Jacks' are wild where it comes to the GI Champagne S., in the last couple years, at least.

Twelve months after Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) put on a show in the 'Win and You're In' qualifier for the GI TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile, Presented by TAA, 'TDN Rising Star' Jack Christopher (Munnings) turned in a dazzling performance of his own, racing away to a 2 3/4-length success to stamp himself as one of the favorites on Breeders' Cup Friday, Nov. 5.

Accorded 'Captain Obvious' Rising Star status after covering six furlongs in 1:09.85 to thrash a field of Travers Day maidens by 8 3/4 lengths Aug. 28, the chestnut–who bears a striking resemblance to his Ashford Stud-based stallion–was sent off as the 17-10 favorite in the Champagne. It was a field short on numbers, but high on quality that included GI Hopeful S. hero Gunite (Gun Runner), GSW, Hopeful runner-up and 'Rising Star' Wit (Practical Joke) and 10-length Saratoga maiden romper and 'Rising Star' My Prankster (Into Mischief).

In the end, Jack Christopher left them all eating his dust.

Away fairly, the $135,000 Fasig-Tipton October acquisition landed in third position early, but was angled out and around longshot Kavod (Lea) in the opening quarter-mile and assured that Gunite would not get away with cheap fractions. Just off the leader's flank through a half-mile in a solid :46.49, Jack Christopher traveled ominously well on the turn as the top two pulled well clear of the trailing quartet. The chalk claimed a hard-ridden Gunite under a hold at the five-sixteenths pole, opened an unassailable advantage and was ridden out to a comfortable victory. Commandperformance (Union Rags), runner-up in a muddy Spa maiden in his lone previous appearance Sept. 6, raced at the tail of the field with the notoriously slow-starting Wit, but made good overland progress into the stretch and was gaining late. Wit did manage to close up the fence for third while no menace to the top two. The disappointment of the race was My Prankster, who was niggled at fully five furlongs from home and never landed a blow in a distant fourth.

“We knew we had speed and Jose [Ortiz] and I agreed to not take that away from him. We just wanted to break out of there and get a good spot,” said winning trainer Chad Brown, whose previous Champagne winners include Practical Joke (2016) and Complexity (2018). “He was a horse that identified himself as early on as his first work. I was on the phone with the connections saying, 'This is potentially a really good horse. I can't believe what I just saw.' He's just been brilliant in every work. There was some buzz around him before he ran, and he lived up to it.”

The last horse to complete the Champagne/Breeders' Cup Juvenile double was Uncle Mo in 2011, though Brown's lone Juvenile winner, Good Magic (Curlin), was second to Firenze Fire (Poseidon's Warrior) in the 2017 Champagne before causing an upset at Del Mar.

Pedigree Notes:

Jack Christopher is the 52nd stakes winner, 21st graded winner and fourth top-level winner for the very reliable and versatile Munnings, joining dual GISW I'm A Chatterbox, this year's GI Madison S. heroine Kimari and GI A. G. Vanderbilt H. victor El Deal, a Louisiana-based stallion who has already been represented by two black-type winners from his first crop to the races this year. Jack Christopher is the first graded winner of any variety out of a daughter of Half Ours (Unbridled's Song), who passed away earlier this year.

A Jan. 30 foal, Jack Christopher is out of a daughter of Blushing Ogygian, the dam of MGISW and successful dual-hemisphere stallion Street Boss (Street Cry {Ire}) and to MGSP Habiboo (Unbridled's Song), who counts GSWs Bellera (Bernardini) and Life Imitates Art (More Than Ready) among her produce. Third dam Fruhlingshochzeit was a half-sister to the likeable handicap horse Running Stag (Cozzene).

Rushin No Blushin is the dam of a yearling Mo Town filly, a $5,000 KEENOV weanling last year, was empty to Munnings this year and was most recently covered by Complexity.

Saturday, Belmont
CHAMPAGNE S.-GI, $500,000, Belmont, 10-2, 2yo, 1m, 1:37.31, ft.
1–JACK CHRISTOPHER, 122, c, 2, by Munnings
1st Dam: Rushin No Blushin, by Half Ours
2nd Dam: Blushing Ogygian, by Ogygian
3rd Dam: Fruhlingshochzeit, by Blushing Groom (Fr)
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN, 1ST GRADE I
WIN. 'TDN Rising Star' ($145,000 RNA Ylg '20 FTKSEL;
$135,000 Ylg '20 FTKOCT). O-Bakke, Jim, Isbister, Gerald,
Coolmore Stud and Brant, Peter M.; B-Castleton Lyons & Kilboy
Estate (KY); T-Chad C. Brown; J-Jose L. Ortiz. $275,000.
Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $330,000. Werk Nick Rating: D+.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Commandperformance, 122, c, 2, Union Rags–Smitten, by
Tapit. ($220,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-Repole Stable and St. Elias
Stable; B-Damara Farm LC (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher. $100,000.
3–Wit, 122, c, 2, Practical Joke–Numero d'Oro, by Medaglia
d'Oro. ($575,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). 'TDN Rising Star' O-Repole Stable, St. Elias
Stable and Gainesway Stable (Antony Beck); B-Rosilyn Polan
(KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher. $60,000.
Margins: 2 3/4, 7, 4. Odds: 1.70, 12.60, 2.45.
Also Ran: My Prankster, Gunite, Kavod. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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Son Of Shamardal Another Rising Star At Newmarket

Newmarket's Sun Chariot card was a breeding ground for emerging talent on Saturday, with the MansionBet Best Odds Guaranteed EBF Maiden S. the scene of the arrival of another TDN Rising Star in Earle Mack's newcomer Cash (Ire) (Shamardal). Sent off at 8-1 for his debut in this mile contest, the grey broke slowly before being held up by Jamie Spencer in rear throughout the early stages. Threaded up the rail to enter contention approaching two out, he had three lengths to make up on the 11-8 favourite Al Nafir (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) there but produced a telling surge to cut back the deficit in just over a furlong. Overwhelming that full-brother to Ghaiyyath (Ire) with 150 yards remaining, the David Simcock-trained newcomer finished off strongly to deny the Godolphin blueblood a winning debut by 1 1/2 lengths as the 50-1 shot Laatansa (Fr) (New Bay {GB}) ended up a neck back in third.

“He is a big horse, but he did everything right today and he is a nice prospect for next year,” Simcock said. “The mare stayed a mile six and he's drifted through his work at home and has never got tired, which is a good sign for me. He is a big, strapping horse and he has sustained his run today. We don't get that many of that make of car, so it is nice to find one! If he got there today great, but if he didn't there then there was always going to be another day. It can make life harder when they win first time out and I don't think he will be doing anything else this season. He's a horse we like and is talented–we've found some nice 2-year-olds this year and ten furlongs will be the starting point for him next year.”

Spencer was impressed and said, “It's difficult to do what he did on this racecourse first time out–I wanted to get him in and to relax and heading to the two I thought he'd be fourth, but he took off and got to the front and idled. I'd ridden him in March before David bought him and loved him the first day I sat on him. I've ridden him a good bit at home and he's an exciting horse. David doesn't train them to peak first time out and he's a beautiful horse and very comfortable to ride–he skips over the ground. Sometimes the dip here can feel like a roller-coaster, but on him it felt comfortable and generally a good horse gets in and out of the dip easily here. He should stay at least 10 furlongs next year and if he stays a mile and a half it puts him in another stratosphere. I've been looking forward to him running for a month now and told my agent that wherever Cash runs I'm going there to ride him.”

Cash, who is the 12th Shamardal to attain TDN Rising Star status, is out of Lady Rosamunde (GB) (Maria's Mon) who was a useful handicap winner over 14 furlongs. She is a daughter of the Listed Prix de Thiberville winner and G3 Lancashire Oaks runner-up String Quartet (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) and is therefore a half to the G2 Park Hill S. scorer Meeznah (Dynaformer), who was disqualified after finishing a neck second to Snow Fairy (Ire) (Intikhab) in the 2010 G1 Epsom Oaks. Also a half to the G2 Princess of Wales's S. runner-up Shahin (Kingmambo), String Quartet is the second dam of this year's G1 Allan Robertson Championship winner Under Your Spell (SAf) (Capetown Noir {SAf}). This is also the family of the GI Canadian International heroine Sarah Lynx (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}). Lady Rosamunde has a yearling full-sister to Cash and a colt foal by Exceed and Excel (Aus) to follow.

1st-Newmarket, £10,000, Mdn, 10-2, 2yo, 8fT, 1:41.82, gd.
CASH (IRE), c, 2, by Shamardal
1st Dam: Lady Rosamunde (GB), by Maria's Mon
2nd Dam: String Quartet (Ire), by Sadler's Wells
3rd Dam: Fleur Royale (Ire), by Mill Reef
Sales history: 100,000gns Ylg '20 TATOCT; £140,000 2yo '21 ARQDEA. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $7,314.
O-The Honorable Earle I Mack; B-Rabbah Bloodstock Limited (IRE); T-David Simcock. Click for the Racing Post result or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO.

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Knicks Go Gallops In Lukas Classic, Sets New Stakes Record In Usual Front-Running Style

Knicks Go had things all his own way once again in the Grade 3 Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs on Oct. 2, paving the way for a trip to this year's Breeders' Cup Classic. Jockey Joel Rosario got the speedy gray out in front early and never looked back, setting a relaxed early pace and easily throwing off closing bids from Sprawl and Independence Hall to be geared down at the wire. The final time for the 1 1/8 miles was 1:47.85, a new stakes record and just missing the track record set in 1999 by Victory Gallop.

Independence Hall was second, followed by Shared Sense. Fractional times were :23.53, :47.27, and 1:10.90.

Brad Cox trains Knicks Go for the Korea Racing Authority, saddling him here in his third consecutive victory. Since switching from Ben Colebrook's barn in early 2020, Knicks Go has embraced an aggressive, pace-setting running style that has served him well. Earlier this year, he won the G3 Cornhusker, the G1 Whitney, and the G1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational. Cox also saddled Knicks Go for a win in last year's Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.

Knicks Go was bred in Maryland by Angie Moore and is by Paynter out of Outflanker mare Kosmo's Buddy. He was a $40,000 weanling at the Keeneland November Sale in 2016, where he was consigned by Bill Reightler and purchased by Northface Bloodstock. He sold at the Keeneland September Sale the following year for $87,000 from Woods Edge Farm to Korea Racing Authority.

Knicks Go was heavily favored at 1-9 and paid $2.20, $2.10, and $2.10. See the full chart here.

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