December, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Maiden Beauty Scores Fifth Win Of 2021 In Thursday’s Bay Ridge

John Grossi's Racing Corp.'s Maiden Beauty rounded out a five-win year with a gate-to-wire conquest in Thursday's $100,000 Bay Ridge for New York-bred fillies and mares going nine furlongs at Aqueduct Racetrack.

The 5-year-old Revolutionary bay mirrored her last winning effort from 11 days ago, where she defeated open company at a one-turn mile at Aqueduct.

Despite the short rest, Maiden Beauty still displayed winning ways with Kendrick Carmouche aboard for the fourth straight time.

“She came back out of the race really good,” trainer Robert Falcone, Jr. said. “The way she ran, that's how she acts around the barn – she's laid back and relaxed, but once she gets the lead just goes around there. That's how she acts. She wasn't blowing after that race, cooling out. She actually had more energy than she usually does the next few days when we took her back into training. We knew this race was coming up light and we decided to take a shot.”

Maiden Beauty broke sharp from post 2, leading the five-horse field through opening fractions of 24.74 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 49.76 for the half-mile with stakes-winner Ice Princess tracking to her outside in second.

Around the far turn, Jose Lezcano started to get busy aboard Ice Princess while Carmouche remained patient. In upper stretch, Carmouche asked his filly for more run with Ice Princess looming to her outside. Maiden Beauty never relinquished in the stretch drive, crossing the wire a 3 ¾-length winner in a final time of 1:51.76 over the sloppy and sealed main track.

Ice Princess finished three-quarter lengths to the better of third-place finisher Sharp Star. Byhubbyhellomoney and Amity Island completed the order of finish.

Maiden Beauty scored her first stakes triumph since taking the Lynbrook at Belmont Park in July 2018 in her career debut when trained by Gary Contessa.

This year proved to be Maiden Beauty's most successful season in racing, sporting a consistent ledger of 10-5-3-1, which included a second-place finish in the Saratoga Dew in August at the Spa. She now brags an overall record of 35-9-6-4 with a bankroll of $628,912.

Maiden Beauty returned $8.60 for a $2 win wager as the third choice in the field.

“That filly always runs one way for me – she runs really good on the lead,” Carmouche said. “The question today was going to be the mile and an eighth coming back so quick, but with a short field I pretty much dominated the race from the beginning. She did most of the work. She ran awesome. I'm just glad she got to repeat that effort off of the flat mile race [on December 19]. Rob brought her into the race good and I'm very happy that we went in this spot and made us all a winner before the first of the year.”

Falcone, Jr. tipped his hat to owner John Grossi, and said he had considered waiting a few more days to race Maiden Beauty in Sunday's seven-furlong $100,000 La Verdad for New York-bred fillies and mares.

“John Grossi is a really great owner. I said we could run in this race after she came back good, but she may not run until February after this. I don't like running horses back that quick, usually,” Falcone, Jr. said. “He's an amazing owner and I'm happy he won this race. He puts money into the game. He breeds horses. He has horses in Florida and he sent horses out to California last year. He's into claiming and a really good guy for the game to have. I'm happy to win a stakes with him.

“We were thinking about the La Verdad as well, but she's just completely different on the lead,” Falcone, Jr. added. “It's just that simple with her. If you look at her past performances – and now you can add this one on – the last five times she won, she's on the lead.”

Bred in New York by Sandy Glenn Stables, Maiden Beauty is out of the Eddington mare Alpha Charlie.

Live racing resumes on December 31 at the Big A with an eight-race program, featuring the $100,000 Alex M. Robb [Race 7, 3:36 p.m.] for New York-bred 3-year-olds and upward travelling nine furlongs over the main track. First post is 12:50 p.m. Eastern.

America's Day at the Races will present daily coverage and analysis of the winter meet at Aqueduct Racetrack on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/aqueduct/racing/tv-schedule.

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Friday’s Racing Insights: Bevy of Pricey, Well-Bred Runners Squeeze in ’21 Starts

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency

2nd-TAM, $26.5K, Msw, 3yo/up, 1m40yds, 1:08 p.m. ET
While their other four competitors are a combined 0-for-37, late-debuting newcomers Aussie Pride (Curlin) and Mint (Bodemeister) sport huge pedigrees and in one case, a massive price tag. The former, who carries the Godolphin blue for trainer Bill Mott, was the second topper at the 2019 Keeneland September sale at a gaudy $4.1 million. He's out of New Zealand champion sprinter Bounding (Aus) (Lonhro {Aus}), who is a half to G1 Investec Derby hero Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). Mint's dam Flawless (Mr. Greeley), meanwhile, was a $4.1-million FTKNOV buyback last year one day after her son Authentic (Into Mischief) completed his Horse of the Year campaign with a GI Breeders' Cup Classic score. Arnaud Delacour trains Mint for breeder Peter Blum. TJCIS PPs

7th-GP, $54K, Alw, (S), 2yo, 7f, 3:29 p.m. ET
Repole Stable and St Elias Stable's So Determined (Into Mischief) takes on a couple of stakes-placed runners in his first try against winners. The $875,000 Keeneland September yearling is out of a full-sister to SW Summer House (Tiznow) from the family of MGSW and successful Louisiana-based sire Custom for Carlos (More Than Ready). Second in his local unveiling Oct. 2, he broke through by 4 1/2 lengths going 5 1/2 panels Nov. 14. TJCIS PPs

4th-SA, $67K, Msw, 2yo, 6 1/2f, 5:00 p.m. ET
This first of two divisions of well-bred sprinting maidens features The Avengers' $625,000 Keeneland September buy McLaren Vale (Gun Runner). A $200,000 KEEJAN in utero seller and $325,000 Keeneland November weanling, the Bob Baffert trainee is out of a half-sister to the dam of Triple Crown winner and Horse of the Year Justify. Richard Baltas pupil Balladeer (Distorted Humor), who cost $355,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Select Yearling Showcase, is out of a Galileo (Ire) half-sister to GI Belmont S. and GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner Drosselmeyer (Distorted Humor). Several in here show solid running lines, including Doug O'Neill-trained last-out Del Mar third-place finishers Godsend (Midshipman, $80,000 OBSAPR {:20 4/5}); and B Dawk (Gormley, $425,000 FTMMAY {:10 1/5}). TJCIS PPs

6th-SA, $67K, Msw, 2yo, 6 1/2f, 6:00 p.m. ET
West Point Thoroughbreds and Talla Racing LLC's Got Thunder (Arrogate) will look to go one better here after finishing second at 19-10 to Newgrange (Violence), whose high-profile connections, nicknamed The Avengers, will be represented this time around by Wharton (Candy Ride {Arg}) and Armagnac (Quality Road). Got Thunder was a $155,000 Keeneland September yearling turned $750,000 OBSAPR grad off a :10 flat bullet breeze. He's half to MGISW turfer Heart to Heart (English Channel) and MGSP Lady Traveler (Quality Road). Click for Steve Sherack's 'Second Chances' feature on Got Thunder after his Nov. 28 unveiling at Del Mar.

Wharton was a $475,000 September buy and is out of GISW sprinter Her Smile (Include), making him half to MGSW Pink Sands (Tapit). Armagnac, who cost $210,000 at the same auction, is out of turf stakes winner Kitty Wine (Lemon Drop Kid), who also set a track record on the Keeneland Polytrack over the Beard Course. TJCIS PPs

8th-OP, $120K, Alw, 2yo, f, 1m, 6:00 p.m. ET
Muddy Waters Stables LLC's Hypersport (Blame) stretches out off a super-sharp and head-turning second-out score here Dec. 3 that earned an 87 Beyer Speed Figure and surely some phone calls to her connections. The $100,000 September yearling was previously runner-up at Keeneland Oct . 21. Three other fillies already own black-type: Brad Cox-trained Goldolphin homebred Matareya (Pioneerof the Nile) was second in Churchill's Fern Creek S. last time Nov. 27; Benedict Canyon (Midnight Lute) was third in Santa Anita's Anoakia S. Oct. 24 and makes the move from Bob Baffert to Steve Asmussen off a fifth-place run in the GI Starlet S.; and value buy Red Hot Mess (Shackleford), upset winner of the White Clay Creek S. at Delaware Oct. 13, comes in off a far-back finish in Belmont's Tempted S. TJCIS PPs

The post Friday’s Racing Insights: Bevy of Pricey, Well-Bred Runners Squeeze in ’21 Starts appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Honor Roll: The Best On Turf Went Through Kentucky Downs In 2021

The status of Kentucky Downs as one of North America's elite turf meets has done little else but rise over the past decade, and that upward trajectory continued in 2021, both in the prestige of the races on its stakes calendar and that of the horses that filled the starting gate.

Kentucky Downs hosted six graded stakes races during its six-day 2021 meet, and those races served as both a destination and a launching pad for some of the season's most exciting runners.

The growth that Kentucky Downs has experienced in relation to the short duration of its meet puts the track in the same stratosphere as the game's most recognizable venues.

Since the 2017 racing season, stakes races at Kentucky Downs have received seven individual graded upgrades by the American Graded Stakes Committee, meaning a race either received graded status or was promoted to a higher grade. This trails only Belmont Park (15) and Saratoga (11) in that span of time, and leads Churchill Downs at six.

The most recent boosts to that number for Kentucky Downs came this year with the Calumet Turf Cup and the Franklin-Simpson Stakes, which were both upgraded to Grade 2 status. Only one other North American graded stakes race was upgraded to Grade 2 status in 2021: The Red Smith Stakes at Aqueduct.

While the track's unique layout and undulating surface are unlike any other major track in the country, the results following this September's meet have shown that Kentucky Downs graduates are not strictly horses for courses.

Six horses that ran at Kentucky Downs' 2021 meet won stakes races at Keeneland's fall meet a month later, taking home half of the track's turf stakes during the boutique season.

The biggest triumph among that group was In Love, the Brazilian-bred gelding who parlayed a victory in the listed TVG Stakes at Kentucky Downs into a driving 1 1/2-length victory in the Grade 1 Keeneland Turf Mile Stakes.

It was the second consecutive year in which owner Bonne Chance Farm and trainer Paulo Lobo used a race at Kentucky Downs to prep for an eventual victory in the biggest turf race of Keeneland's fall meet. In 2020, Bonne Chance and Lobo saw Brazil native Ivar finish third in the listed Tourist Mile Stakes (which has since been upgraded to Grade 3 status and renamed the Mint Million Mile) before upsetting what was then the G1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland.

Looking ahead to the future, Tiz the Bomb proved that Kentucky Downs can serve as a launching pad for a prominent fall campaign for juveniles.

The son of Hit It a Bomb was a determined winner in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile Stakes, then stood toe-to-toe with the best youngsters on the grass with a next-start victory in the G2 Bourbon Stakes at Keeneland and a runner-up effort to Modern Games in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar, where he paid out as the winner after Modern Games was declared to be running for purse money only.

On the fillies side, California Angel exited Kentucky Downs with a maiden special weight victory, and went on to take the G2 Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland, leading to one of the most beloved underdog stories of this year's Breeders' Cup, where she contested the Juvenile Fillies Turf.

While these horses are recent examples of the “Kentucky Downs-to-Keeneland” angle in 2021, successful runners passing through Southern Kentucky as part of a high-end campaign or career is not isolated to a particular year or racetrack angle.

From 2019 to 2021, 105 individual horses made starts at Kentucky Downs with a prior graded stakes win on their record over the past two years. That group includes 18 Grade or Group 1 winners.

Kentucky Downs grads have also proven to be winners at the highest level after racing at the track as well. From 2019 to 2021, 10 horses have gone on to win Grade 1 races at some point in their careers after racing at Kentucky Downs.

Naturally, that list of Grade 1 triumphs includes some of the most notable grass races in the country. Four months after running in the Calumet Farm Kentucky Cup Turf Stakes, Zulu Alpha found himself in the winner's circle in the 2020 G1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes at Gulfstream Park. A month after finishing second in the 2020 Dueling Grounds Oaks, Harvey's Lil Goil usurped the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes at Keeneland.

Then, there is the mighty mare Got Stormy, who was a multiple Grade 1 winner against both males and females prior to a win in the G3 Kentucky Downs Ladies Sprint Stakes in 2020. A year later, she beat the boys once again in the G1 Fourstardave Handicap in Saratoga.

However, the list of elite graduates from Kentucky Downs is not strictly limited to turf specialists. A trio of horses that previously raced at the track earned Grade 1 victories on the dirt in 2021, with Art Collector taking the G1 Woodward Stakes, Kimari winning the G1 Madison Stakes, and Lexitonian taking the G1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap. A year earlier, Combatant added his name to that list with a win in the G1 Santa Anita Handicap.

With a diverse group of world-class horses entering and graduating from its races, and running for one of the nation's strongest purse structures, Kentucky Downs stands poised and deserving to host a Grade 1 race of its own, fitting of the high standard of quality it has established.

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‘Off Turf’ American Oaks Retains Grade 1 Status; AGS Committee Alters Grading Schedule for 2022

The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association's American Graded Stakes Committee said the Dec. 26 American Oaks – taken off turf and run on dirt because of wet conditions at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif. – would have its Grade 1 standing reinstated. Under the AGS Committee's rules, races run on a different surface than that originally scheduled are automatically downgraded and reviewed for possible reinstatement.

The American Oaks, won by Queen Goddess, drew 11 entries. Only one original entry was scratched from the race, and it was not surface-related.

The committee also reinstated the Grade 2 standing for the Santa Anita Mathis Mile Stakes, run the same day as the American Oaks. Law Professor won the race in a field of eight. One horse, Zoffarelli, scratched because of the surface change.

A third stakes run Dec. 26, the San Gabriel, will remain a Grade 3 race for 2021 after automatically being downgraded from Grade 2 when it was taken off the turf. Three of the original seven entries were scratched after the surface change, including morning line favorite Hit the Road.

The AGS Committee will meet Jan. 26-27 to assign grades for 2022. The timing is a departure from previous years when the committee would meet in early December, assessing races run after the previous year's Breeders' Cup through the current year's Breeders' Cup.

The new schedule permits the committee to assess races for the entire calendar year.

Andy Schweigardt, TOBA's senior director of industry relations and development and the secretary of the AGS Committee, said, “The committee made the change to a calendar year for its statistical measurements so that the important Grade 1 and Grade 2 races conducted after the Breeders' Cup and before Dec. 31 could be included in the grading session workbooks in a timelier manner. Under the former Breeders' Cup to Breeders' Cup statistical year, a race run Thanksgiving weekend and the stats earned by the horses in it would not be reflected in the workbooks until a year later.”

Schweigardt said the 2022 grades are expected to be announced Jan. 28 and will cover the period from Feb. 1, 2022, through Jan. 31, 2023.

For more information on how the grading process works, click here.

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