Long Walk Hurdle: Champ holds off Thyme Hill to win at Ascot
Champ holds off a spirited challenge from 5-2 favourite Thyme Hill to win a thrilling Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot.
Month: December 2021
Optionality Gets Third Consecutive Win In Trapeze Stakes At Remington
Optionality has turned into a machine, winning her third race in a row, all by more than six lengths. Her win Friday night was trainer Steve Asmussen's second in the last three years in the $101,100 Trapeze Stakes for 2-year-old fillies going one mile at Remington Park in Oklahoma City, Okla.
Asmussen also won this race in 2019 with Princesinha Julia. It was the first win in the Trapeze for jockey Jose Ortiz and owner Winchell Thoroughbreds (Ron Winchell) of Las Vegas.
On Friday night, Optionality got home a city block in front of everyone. She cruised to the lead just past the half-mile marker in the race and the rest of the field never heard from her again as she drew off to an impressive 8-1/4 lengths victory.
This daughter of the prolific sire Gun Runner, out of the Pulpit mare Simplify, broke her maiden at Indiana Grand in Shelbyville, Ind., two races back on Oct. 26, a victor by 6-3/4 lengths. Her subsequent start was on Oct. 26 at Zia Park in New Mexico in stakes company. She won the $50,000 Zia Princess Stakes also by daylight, checking in 6-1/2 lengths in front.
“She's a very versatile filly,” said the country's all-time winningest trainer Steve Asmussen. “I'm so proud to have another Gun Runner that can do this. She's won at three tracks, at two distances with three different jockeys. This was a good effort at one mile.”
Ortiz was equally impressed. His brother, Irad Ortiz, No. 2 in the nation in earnings in 2021, was in the saddle for the Zia win.
“She broke good,” Jose Ortiz said, “and Steve really had her ready. She started looking around at the end with it being nighttime and the lights and the shadow at the wire, but she got the job done.”
Optionality was the second betting favorite in the race at 2-1 odds and paid $6.20 to win, $3.20 to place, and $2.80 to show. Golden Sights, a distant runner-up, was the 6-5 favorite, three-quarters of a length ahead of Hits Pricey Legacy (4-1) in third. Running time for the mile was 1:41.10 over the fast track, a tad faster (.13) than the Springboard Mile a race later. Interior fractions for the race were :23.91 for the first quarter-mile, :48.49 for the half-mile, 1:13.87 for three-quarters of a mile and 1:27.13 for seven eighths.
The remaining order of finish in the Trapeze was Ring Me Darling (4th), Rollin Chrome (5th), Morning Twilight (6th), Diamonds N Aces (7th), Lilly's Bidness (8th), and Brodie Baby (9th).
It took Optionality four tries to win for the first time, but she hasn't lost since. Her record improved to six starts, three wins, one second, and two thirds for $124,000 earned. She won $60,000 for the trip to the winner's circle in the Trapeze. She is a Kentucky home-bred for the Winchells.
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Sunday’s Racing Insights: Marr Time Takes on Winners
Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency
6th-GP, $60K, Msw, 2yo, f, 7f, 2:55 p.m. ET
Kelly Breen-trained firster American Pyramid (American Pharoah) is the first foal out of fellow Arlene London homebred Miss Sky Warrior (First Samurai), who started a five-race winning streak as a fall juvenile herself that included a local victory in the GII Davona Dale S. and culminated in a 13-length romp in the GII Gazelle S.
Emory Hamilton's Friendship Road (Quality Road) is out of GSP turfer Tokyo Time (Medaglia d'Oro), and a half to recent GI Cigar Mile H. fourth Olympiad (Speightstown). Her dam is a half to local GSW Soaring Empire (Empire Maker), MGSW/MGISP Hungry Island (More Than Ready) as well as the dam of GISW Preservationist (Arch).
Greatitude (Dialed In) was a $9,000 KEESEP yearling turned $230,000 OBSMAR grad off a :10 flat breeze. She was third beaten just a neck in her muddy Aqueduct unveiling going this distance Nov. 12, and was flattered when the runner-up came back to graduate decisively at the same level. She hails from a deep Ned Evans family.
Beravina (Munnings) looks to go one better off a runner-up outing at Churchill Nov. 13. The $55,000 KEESEP RNA owns a field's-best 71 Beyer Speed Figure. TJCIS PPs
6th-OP, $100K, Alw/OC, 2yo, 6f, 3:51 p.m. ET
Clarkland Farm's regally bred Marr Time (Not This Time) takes the next step here as one of two entered for Brad Cox. The bay homebred is a half to none other than super sire and GISW Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday), future Hall of Famer Beholder (Henny Hughes) and young sire and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy). She earned 'TDN Rising Star' status for a front-running 2 3/4-length score at Keeneland Oct. 28 over a next-out winner.
“Marr Time, she's obviously got a big pedigree,” Cox said. “Fast filly. Hopeful that this is the next step to stretching her out. We like her. She's pretty classy.”
Cox will also be represented by Shortleaf Stable homebred Como Square (Into Mischief), who took her Indiana unveiling in the mud Nov. 11. Out of SW and MGSP Pangburn (Congrats), she's a half to last year's local Smarty Jones S. winner and GI Arkansas Derby runner-up Caddo River (Hard Spun), who makes his first start since June two races later on the card.
Parlance (Maclean's Music) owns a standout 81 Beyer Speed Figure that she earned for a four-length second-out score at Churchill Nov. 13. The $100,000 KEESEP yearling was fifth on debut, and hails from the extended female family of GSWs Mission Impazible, Forest Camp and Spanish Empire. TJCIS PPs
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From Claimers To Classics For Aumonerie
While it was the multi-million Euro mares who stole the limelight at Arqana's December Breeding Stock Sale two weeks ago, there were successes to be celebrated beneath those top prices. Among the most remarkable of those has to be Haras de l'Aumonerie's Starspangledbanner (Aus) colt (lot 145), who was bought by Yeomanstown Stud for €170,000.
The colt, already named Captain Star (Fr), had plenty going for him on both sides of his pedigree, being by a popular sire and a brother to two stakes horses, including none other than this year's G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches victress Coeursamba (Fr) (The Wow Signal {Ire}). Captain Star and Coeursamba are out of the 15-year-old Marechale (Fr) (Anabaa), whose five foals thus far were all bred by Julie Mestrallet at her Haras de l'Aumonerie just outside Deauville.
With the recent high-end breeding stock sales still fresh in the memory, it is easy to become desensitized to mares commanding millions. But we are likewise reminded at every sale that there are diamonds in the rough, and Marechale certainly represents the latter scenario, having been bought by Mestrallet out of the claiming ranks for €2,500, having failed to win in 16 starts.
The path from claimer to breeding Guineas winners is not the most well-trodden one, but Mestrallet has done things her own way since taking over her mother, Francine Mestrallet's, Aumonerie 10 years ago and converting it from a reputable nursery for showjumpers and ponies into a Classic-producing Thoroughbred operation. An accomplished showjumper herself who also worked as a groom for Olympic-level riders, Julie Mestrallet then shifted her sights to the veterinary field, taking a job at a clinic. One of the clinic's clients was Haras du Quesnay, and it was through visits to the Head family's historic stud that Mestrallet got to know the accomplished sires Anabaa and Bering. With her interest in racing suitably piqued, Mestrallet went to work for trainer Jennifer Bidgood, and it was during a trip to the small racecourse Niort in the West of France on June 13, 2010, that Mestrallet laid eyes on Marechale for the first time.
“I found Marechale in a claiming race, and even though she had no performances, I was interested in her because she is by Anabaa out of a Bering mare and bred by Quesnay,” Mestrallet said. “I'm a huge fan of the Quesnay pedigrees and Alec Head.”
Marechale, a full-sister to the multiple listed winner Maxwell (Fr), had been raced by the Head family through her first 10 starts, after which she joined trainer Philippe Le Gal. She was upped in trip by her new trainer, but that did little to turn Marechale's fortunes around, and she finished fifth at Niort that day for a €5,000 claiming tag.
Mestrallet recalled, “I went to see the trainer on the day and asked him how much the mare would cost. He said he wanted to continue to run her in claiming races, but I gave him my phone number and said, 'the day you want to get rid of her, call me.'”
Just a month later, Mestrallet's phone rang.
“He said, 'I don't want her anymore,'” Mestrallet said. “He said he was going to race her one last time, and then he would let me buy her for €2,500.”
The reasoning behind Marechale's first mating was relatively straightforward: Mestrallet held a free nomination to Alexandros (GB), won through the French TBA's stallion seasons draw. The result was a filly, later named Comme Une Grande (Fr), that Mestrallet sold for €26,000 to Yohann Gourraud at Arqana's October Yearling Sale in 2014-not a bad return on an initial €2,500 investment. Meanwhile, Mestrallet's luck at the French TBA's stallion seasons draw had continued; she won a nomination to Mr. Sidney and sold the resulting filly out of Marechale, Lady Sidney (Fr), as a foal in 2014 for €8,500 to Fresnay Agricole.
In addition to turning a few tidy profits for Mestrallet in the sales ring, Marechale soon proved a hardy producer. Comme Une Grand was a winner who ran 35 times, while Lady Sidney, all told, would run 56 times for seven wins, including a third in ParisLongchamp's Listed Prix Zarkava. After Lady Sidney, Marechale foaled the winning La Grande Zame (Fr) (Zambezi Sun {GB}), sold for €8,000 as a foal. The following season, Mestrallet once again returned victorious from the stallion seasons draw, securing a covering for Marechale to Sinndar (Ire), and that resulted in the ultimately unraced filly Twelveoclock (Fr), sold for €5,000 as a yearling in 2017. By that time, Marechale was in foal to G1 Prix Morny and G2 Coventry S. winner The Wow Signal, a decision based not on a free draw, but on Mestrallet's intuition.
“I loved The Wow Signal's head, the way he walked, everything about the physical of the horse,” she said.
Despite a very successful start to life, The Wow Signal's second career proved star-crossed; he was subfertile, and after getting a very small number of mares in foal during two seasons, died as a result of complications from laminitis. Among his second crop was Coeursamba, who was born at Aumonerie on Mar. 25, 2018. Like Marechale's latest Starspangledbanner colt, Captain Star, Mestrallet soon had a name picked out for the filly.
“She was something special from the day she was born,” Mestrallet said. “I had named her, 'Wow She's Great,' but the people that bought her changed the name. When we saw Coeursamba, we liked her so much that we decided to breed the mare to Starspangledbanner immediately, because we were so happy with the filly that we thought the mare deserved to go to a good stallion.”
Coeursamba sold to Marc Antoine Berghgracht on behalf of Jose Delmotte's Haras d'Haspel for €24,000 at Arqana's December Sale of 2018, and was pinhooked to Jean-Claude Rouget for €40,000 at Arqana August the following summer, four months before Marechale's Olympic Glory (Ire) colt Senza Malocchio (Fr) sold for €14,000 to Marco Bozzi at the December Sale. Senza Malocchio is raced by Mike Pietrangelo and John D'Amato, who were also co-owners of Olympic Glory's best progeny, Grand Glory (GB). Grand Glory sold for €2.5-million at Arqana on the same night that Captain Star went through the ring.
A winner in her second start at two for owner Jean Louis Tepper, Coeursamba was twice Group 3-placed at two and fifth in the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac, the evening prior to which she had changed hands for €400,000 at Arqana's Arc Sale, bought by Abdullah bin Fahad Al Attiyah. Third in the Listed Prix du Louvre going a mile at ParisLongchamp in April, she shocked the G1 1000 Guineas winner Mother Earth (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) when winning the G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches at 38-1, and was later purchased privately by Katsumi Yoshida.
Coeursamba's Classic win provided the perfect springboard for her Starspangledbanner three-quarter-brother to be one of the top-priced foals at Arqana, and he is set to return to the ring next year as a Yeomanstown pinhook prospect. Marechale is currently in foal to another Group 1-winning sprinter, Haras d'Etreham's Hello Youmzain (Fr), and her foal's arrival will be keenly anticipated by not only Mestrallet but also her three young children; Mestrallet's daughter, Agathe, and twins sons Henri and Baptiste, born this past March. Agathe has been listed as co-breeder along with her mother and grandmother on Coeursamba, Senza Malocchio and Captain Star, but she will have to share Marechale's future progeny with her brothers.
“It was to pay for her car when she turns 18,” Mestrallet laughed. “I had twin boys this year, and they'll all be marked down as breeders in the future: the boys will get the colts, and Agathe will get the fillies.”
Today, Aumonerie is home to some 30 mares, the majority of which are boarders. Among Mestrallet's own mares are the 10-year-old Caramanta (Fr) (Zamindar), who Mestrallet bought for €7,500 from the Aga Khan Studs at the 2014 Arqana December Sale. Caramanta's third foal is Caracal (Fr) (Zelzal {Fr}), who was bought by Al Shaqab Racing for €25,000 at Arqana October last year. Caracal won a pair of races at Bordeaux Le Bouscat for trainer Jean-Claude Rouget this autumn and is reportedly highly regarded by the trainer. Mestrallet has also repatriated two of Marechale's daughters, Comme Une Grand and Twelveoclock, to Aumonerie, such is her belief in her foundation mare. Comme Une Grand had a colt by Seahenge this year, while Twelveoclock was purchased at this year's Arqana July Sale in foal to Recoletos (Ire). Mestrallet also has O'Keefe (Fr) (Peintre Celebre), a Wertheimer-bred mare that she purchased for €19,000 in 2012. Using her tried and true system of French TBA draw nominations, Mestrallet bred O'Keefe to Jukebox Jury (Ire) for her first mating, and the result was the G3 St Leger Italiano winner O'Juke (Fr).
And of course there is Marechale, the €2,500 former claimer turned Classic producer. Asked if she has considered cashing in on the mare's success and selling Marechale, Mestrallet was resolute in response.
“I have had offers for Marechale, but I am keeping her,” she said. “She has given everything to my farm.”
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