November, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Space Blues Gets Another for Godolphin, Appleby and Buick

Following a bit of unwelcomed deja vu when Godolphin's rail-drawn Master of the Seas (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) was scratched after rearing up in the gate, stablemate Space Blues (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) became the shortest-priced winner on what became a pretty quirky day at the Breeders' Cup, coming away late to best pacesetting local Smooth Like Strait (Midnight Lute) in the GI Fanduel Breeders' Cup Mile, presented by the Permanently Disabled Jockeys' Fund. Ivar (Brz) (Agnes Gold {Jpn}), a well-backed fourth in last year's Mile, went a good race to finish a close third.

Smooth Like Strait, the lesser preferred of the two remaining California-based milers at 10-1–Hit the Road (More Than Ready) was scratched Saturday, while Mo Forza (Uncle Mo) was the 3-1 second choice–jumped straight into the bridle for Umberto Rispoli and although he had some early company in the form of the negatively ridden Blowout (GB) (Dansili {GB}), was allowed a fairly soft time of things from the front, negotiating the opening two furlongs in :23.51. Space Blues fell into the perfect spot from third, just to the inside of 2019 Mile runner-up Got Stormy (Get Stormy), and had the leaders in the crosshairs after a half in a moderate :47.38. Given the hurry-up by William Buick five-sixteenths of a mile out, Space Blues took up the chase in earnest, pushed away from the inside with a furlong and a half to travel, had dead aim on Smooth Like Strait at the eighth pole and surged past to register a cozy success. Ivar, worse than midfield and wide into the turn, switched out in upper stretch and was along late to grab third spot. Mo Forza never landed a blow, finishing last of the 13, a field that was covered by just over six lengths in the end.

Space Blues capped his 4-year-old campaign on a three-race winning streak, landing the G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville last August, then returned to action with a 3/4-length tally in the STC 1351 Turf Sprint Cup on the Saudi Cup undercard Feb. 20. Never truly in it when only ninth in the G1 Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan Mar. 27, the chestnut hinted at a return to his best form when a half-length fourth in the G2 Lennox S. at Goodwood July 27 ahead of a sparkling 1 1/2-length score in the G2 City of York S. Aug. 21. Space Blues proved that he was in no way ground-dependent when running out a two-length winner of the G1 Prix de la Foret at ParisLongchamp in heavy going Oct. 3, a race that has served as a useful pointer to the Mile.

“I had a good plan in my head how I thought it would work out and I wanted it to work out and it worked out a little bit better than what I hoped,” said winning jockey William Buick, who doubled up on Yibir (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) in the Turf two races later. “I was a little bit worried if I was going to be too close to a hot pace, but the horse, Blowout, she didn't go on today, and the leader set favorable fractions, so I was right behind him and I was very happy where I was.

He continued, “We had a perfect trip and I knew today was all about getting a trip for this horse, and the way the race panned out it really played to Space Blues' strengths, and I'm delighted that he could show everyone over here what he's all about. He's been a great horse for me personally and for everyone on this team.”

Pedigree Notes:

Space Blues was the second of three winners on Breeders' Cup weekend for the outstanding Dubawi, whose lone previous winner on championship weekend came courtesy of Wuheida (GB), ridden by Buick to victory in the 2017 Filly & Mare Turf here at Del Mar.

Space Blues is a half-sister to MGSW Shuruq, who has also left her mark on American racing as the dam of Godolphin's GSW & MGISP Antoniette (Hard Spun) and Javanica (Medaglia d'Oro), runner-up in this track's GIII Jimmy Durante S. last fall. This is also the female family of G1 English 1000 Guineas winner Virginia Waters (Kingmambo).

Miss Lucifer is the dam of the unraced 3-year-old filly Beautiful Future (Ire), a daughter of Dubawi's son Night of Thunder (Ire), and a yearling filly by Dark Angel (Ire).

Saturday, Del Mar
FANDUEL BREEDERS' CUP MILE PRESENTED BY PDJF-GI, $1,840,000, Del Mar, 11-6, 3yo/up, 1mT, 1:34.01, fm.
1–SPACE BLUES (IRE), 126, h, 5, by Dubawi (Ire)
               1st Dam: Miss Lucifer (Fr) (GSW-Eng, $193,403), by Noverre
               2nd Dam: Devil's Imp (Ire), by Cadeaux Genereux (GB)
               3rd Dam: High Spirited (Ire), by Shirley Heights (GB)
O/B-Godolphin, LLC (IRE); T-Charles Appleby; J-William T.
Buick. $1,040,000. Lifetime Record: 'TDN Rising Star',
19-11-3-1, $2,585,725. *1/2 to Shuruq (Elusive Quality),
Hwt. Older Mare at 4-UAE- at 7 – 9 1/2 f., MGSW-UAE,
GSW-Tur, GSP-Eng, $658,709. Werk Nick Rating: A. Click for
the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Smooth Like Strait, 126, c, 4, Midnight Lute–Smooth as
Usual, by Flower Alley. O/B-Cannon Thoroughbreds, LLC
(KY); T-Michael W. McCarthy. $340,000.
3–Ivar (Brz), 126, h, 5, Agnes Gold (Jpn)–May Be Now, by
Smart Strike. O-Bonne Chance Farm, LLC & Stud R D I, LLC.;
B-Stud Rio Dois Irmaos (BRZ); T-Paulo H. Lobo. $180,000.
Margins: HF, 1, 3/4. Odds: 2.10, 10.20, 24.90.
Also Ran: Raging Bull (Fr), Got Stormy, Pearls Galore (Fr), In Love (Brz), Casa Creed, Real Appeal (Ger), Mother Earth (Ire), Blowout (GB), Vin de Garde (Jpn), Mo Forza. Scratched: Hit the Road, Master of The Seas (Ire), Queen Supreme (Ire).
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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Gulfstream Rainbow 6 Jackpot Guaranteed At $400,000 Sunday

The 20-cent Rainbow 6 jackpot pool will be guaranteed at $400,000 Sunday at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., where the popular multi-race wager went unsolved Saturday for the 15th racing day following a $461,035.47 jackpot payoff Oct. 9.

Sunday's Rainbow 6 sequence will span Races 5-10, kicked off featuring three optional claiming allowances. Carlos David-trained Gatsby is rated as the 2-1 morning-line favorite in the Race 8 feature, a six-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds and up. Gatsby, who most recently followed up a win with a second-place finish, has a claim to fame of debuting with an April 17, 2020 upset victory over heavily favored Golden Pal, who captured Saturday's Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint in a romp.

The Rainbow 6 jackpot is paid out when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 70 percent of that day's pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners, while 30 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.

In Saturday's featured $65,000 Showing Up, King of Dreams followed up a victory in the $60,000 Oakland Park Handicap with an open-lengths triumph to run his record to 2-for-2 on Gulfstream's Tapeta track.

Owned by former MLB star Victor Martinez's Victoria's Ranch, King of Dreams ($16) chased pacesetter Moonlite Strike before taking over on the turn into the homestretch and drawing away to a comfortable score under Leonel Reyes.

The Florida-bred son of Air Force Blue ran a mile and 70 yards in 1:41.40 while prevailing over 11 other 3-year-olds. Fighting Force finished second after making a brief challenge at the top of the stretch. Siglioso finished third.

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Aloha West Nails Dr. Schivel On Wire In Breeders’ Cup Sprint

In one of the most white-knucke finishes of the weekend's meeting, Aloha West got the right side of a head-bob against Dr. Schivel after an intense stretch drive to win the Breeders' Cup Sprint on Saturday at Del Mar.

The 4-year-old Hard Spun colt settled in at the back of the field in the six-furlong race, as imposing 1-to-2 favorite Jackie's Warrior set a blistering pace on the rail, tracked closely by Special Reserve and longshot Matera Sky. As Jackie's Warrior clocked the opening quarter-mile in :21.91 seconds, jockey Jose Ortiz gradually brought Aloha West up through the crowd, and got him to the middle of the pack as the leaders hit the turn.

Jackie's Warrior continued to fend off a dogged challenge from Special Reserve through the bend, and they were joined three-wide by Dr. Schivel as they prepared to enter the stretch after a half-mile in :44.11 seconds. Following Sea also appeared poised to make a rail move, but his potential rally was cut off in the turn by a tight-cutting Jackie's Warrior.

After such a hot battle up front, Jackie's Warrior relented at the top of the stretch, leaving Special Reserve and Dr. Schivel to decide the leader, and Aloha West still several lengths behind. Dr. Schivel and jockey Flavien Prat appeared to have a clear path to victory with a furlong to go after disposing of Special Reserve, but Ortiz put Aloha West in the middle of the track, and got active in his urging, flipping between showing his mount the crop and the occasional right-hand strike.

Dr. Schivel still looked like he would survive the challenge as the wire drew near, but Aloha West drew even in the final two jumps. Even then, Dr. Schivel appeared to potentially have the forward head bob as they crossed the wire. The photo finish revealed that Aloha West had a nose over his foe when they passed the finish, while Following Sea recovered from his stunted rail move to finish third, 1 1/2 lengths behind the runner-up.

“I knew there was a lot of speed in the race and I had none, so I knew I was going to come from the back,” Ortiz said. “He was giving me a great run, but I didn't know if I was going to get there. Finally, we did. He put his head right on the wire. I was about 60 percent sure I won.”

Aloha West stopped the clock in the six-furlong race in 1:08.49 over a fast main track. Any horse was going to be an upset after heavy Jackie's Warrior conceded, but Aloha West was an especially lucrative one, paying $24.60 to win.

Wayne Catalano trains Aloha West for owner Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners. He was bred in Maryland by Robert T. Manfuso and Katharine M. Voss.

“I liked where we were at early in the race and the head-bob was a tough one,” Catalano said. “But you know when the results come this way we're happy. Right now, it's a good time to win a race like this. We are low on horses and have been around a long, long time. I have been reinventing myself so many times. Fifty years and counting. I just want to settle down and have a handful of nice ones in one spot and enjoy my life with my three grandkids and one more on the way.”

The victory in the Sprint improved Aloha West's record to five wins in nine career starts. It was his first stakes victory, and just his second graded stakes attempt, after finishing second by a neck in the Grade 2 Phoenix Stakes on Oct. 8 at Keeneland.

Quotes from other connections:

Jockey Flavien Prat (Dr. Schivel, second) – “That was a tough loss. He was running really strong and didn't see the winner coming as I did not look up.”

Trainer Todd Pletcher (Following Sea, third) – “He ran great. He had a good run up the rail and the door closed on him. He had to alter course and re-rally. Looked like he could have been right there if he could have snuck through.”

Trainer Mike Maker (Special Reserve, fourth) – “The horse ran big as always. Very taxing fractions. Proud of the horse.”

Trainer Steve Asmussen (beaten favorite Jackie's Warrior, sixth) – “He looks good. It wasn't his day.”

Jockey Joel Rosario (beaten favorite Jackie's Warrior, sixth) – “He broke really well and was running easy early on. Sometimes it is just hard to win all the time. He gave his best and we were just outrun. On the far turn, two horses came to me a little bit, I could see they were moving better than we were. He always fights but, as I said, you can't win all the time.”

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Hard Spun’s Aloha West Gets the Bob in BC Sprint

DEL MAR, CA – Aloha West (Hard Spun) rocketed down the Del Mar stretch to just nail Dr. Schivel (Violence) by a painful nose in an absolutely thrilling renewal of Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Sprint.

Shuffled between runners and outsprinted toward the back of the pack in seventh as heavily favored star sophomore Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) was hounded through fractions of :21.91 and :44.11, Aloha West was ready to pounce in sixth as they approached the top of the stretch.

The 1-2 favorite was the first to blink as they turned for home as Dr. Schivel, unbeaten in three previous attempts at Del Mar, including this summer's GI Bing Crosby S., rolled up to hit the front with a four-wide sweep. Dr. Schivel looked long gone from there, but Aloha West had other ideas. Still with plenty to do as they approached the final furlong, Aloha West produced an impossible run on the outside beneath Jose Ortiz and just got there to defeat Dr. Schivel by a whisker at odds of 11-1.

It was another 1 1/2 lengths back to last out GII Vosburgh S. winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Following Sea (Runhappy) in third. Jackie's Warrior, an ultra-game neck winner over Saturday's smashing GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile hero Life Is Good (Into Mischief) in Saratoga's GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S., tired to sixth.

It was a fourth Breeders' Cup winner for the easy-to-root-for trainer Wayne Catalano.

“I liked everything,” Catalano said. “I liked where we were at early in the race and the head-bob was a tough one. But you know when the results come this way we're happy. Right now, it's a good time to win a race like this. We are low on horses and have been around a long, long time. I have been reinventing myself so many times. Fifty years and counting. I just want to settle down and have a handful of nice ones in one spot and enjoy my life with my three grandkids and one more on the way.”

Sharing (Speightstown) gave winning owner Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners its first Breeders' Cup win with an 13-1 upset in the 2019 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita. Eclipse, quite impressively, has been represented in the two-day Championships in 11 straight years now since its inception in 2011. Eclipse has had its colors carried by GI Belmont S. winner Tapwrit (Tapit) as well as fellow Grade I winners Curalina (Curlin), Danza (Street Boss), In Lingerie (Empire Maker), et al.

“It's surreal to be here,” Eclipse frontman Aron Wellman said at the post-race press conference. “This is my home track. I live five minutes down the road from Del Mar racetrack, so to do it here with my family, this guy right here [Wayne Catalano], he's a treasure to the racing industry and a Hall of Famer in my book. And Jose [Ortiz] and I have had some incredible moments together. We won a Classic four years ago, and now to win a Breeders' Cup with him, I'm surrounded by class. And the horse, of course, deserves the most credit of all. He's an incredible specimen that there's no telling how good he can be.”

He continued, “Wayne has just done and incredible job developing this colt. He only ran for the first time in February this year as a 4-year-old, and 10 months later he's a Breeders' Cup Sprint champion. That takes master horsemanship to be able to accomplish something that monumental.”

Aloha West, purchased privately by this outfit earlier this season after making his first two starts at the age of four at Oaklawn, including a debut win Feb. 7, for Catalano clients Gary and Mary West, was fourth behind a pair of next-out winners while making his stakes debut in Churchill's Kelly's Landing S. June 25. He took his game to the next level, however, in a pair of wins at Saratoga this summer, including a breakthrough 102 Beyer Speed Figure performance in a seven-furlong optional claimer Sept. 2. He kicked home impressively, clocking an :11.82 final furlong, in his first try versus graded company, just coming up a nose short to the re-opposing Special Reserve (Midshipman) in the GII Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix S. at Keeneland last out Oct. 8.

“[Catalano] told me two weeks ago when this horse worked at Keeneland after he was the second in the Phoenix, and this man has had his hands on some pretty serious horse flesh in his day, 3,000 wins as a jockey, almost 2,000 as a trainer, this is his fourth Breeders' Cup win, and he told me this might be the best horse he's ever had his hands on,” Wellman said. “So we're coming in here with all kinds of confidence. The way he's managed and developed this horse is clearly brilliant, so we had so much confidence going in. [Aloha West] never even won a stakes race, so to do what he did today is just magical.”

Pedigree Notes:

Aloha West becomes the second Breeders' Cup winner for Hard Spun, also represented by GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile hero Spun to Run. He becomes the 15th Grade I winner/45th graded stakes winner/87th stakes winner for his sire. Aloha West's broodmare sire Speightstown– winner of the 2004 GI Breeders' Cup Sprint–is now responsible for five Grade I winners/14 graded winners/38 stakes winners. Island Bound, winner of the 2012 GIII Winning Colors S. for Robert Manfuso, produced a Good Samaritan filly of 2020 ($47,000 RNA '21 FTIOCT) and a Divining Rod filly of 2021. She was bred back to Golden Lad. Her 3-year-old filly Moquist is unbeaten in four career starts, most recently capturing an optional claimer for trainer Dale Capuano in the Laurel slop Oct. 29. Aloha West co-breeder Manfuso also bred GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Cathryn Sophia (Street Boss).

Saturday, Del Mar
QATAR RACING BREEDERS' CUP SPRINT-GI, $1,820,000, Del Mar, 11-6, 3yo/up, 6f, 1:08.49, ft.
1–ALOHA WEST, 126, c, 4, by Hard Spun
1st Dam: Island Bound (GSW, $277,790), by Speightstown
2nd Dam: Indy Mood for Luv, by A.P. Indy
3rd Dam: Lovington, by Afleet
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN,
1ST GRADE I WIN. ($160,000 Ylg '18 KEESEP). O-Eclipse
Thoroughbred Partners; B-Robert Manfuso & Katharine M.
Voss (MD); T-Wayne M. Catalano; J-Jose L. Ortiz. $1,040,000.
Lifetime Record: 9-5-2-0, $1,311,068. Werk Nick Rating: A+.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Dr. Schivel, 124, c, 3, Violence–Lil Nugget, by Mining for
Money. ($37,000 RNA Ylg '19 KEEJAN). O-Red Baron's Barn
LLC, Rancho Temescal LLC, Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and
Branch, William A.; B-William A. Branch & Arnold R. Hill (KY);
T-Mark Glatt. $340,000.
3–Following Sea, 124, c, 3, Runhappy–Quick Flip, by
Speightstown. O/B-Spendthrift Farm LLC (KY); T-Todd A.
Pletcher. $180,000.
Margins: NO, 1HF, 3/4. Odds: 11.30, 4.30, 20.70.
Also Ran: Special Reserve, Matera Sky, Jackie's Warrior, C Z Rocket, Firenze Fire, Lexitonian.
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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