January, 2022 | Horse Racing Free Tips

‘He’s Going To Be Up Against It’: Derby May Be A Longshot For Jack Christopher

Trainer Chad Brown told the Thoroughbred Daily News this week that Grade 1 winner Jack Christopher would be hard-pressed to make it into the field for this year's Kentucky Derby. The 3-year-old son of Munnings remains at least two weeks away from joining Brown in South Florida, the trainer said, as he's still recovering from an injury that kept him out of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.

A winner on debut at Saratoga, Jack Christopher returned to capture the G1 Champagne at Belmont Park before shipping West, where he would likely have been the favorite in the World Championships race. Instead, the colt was scratched and Dr. Larry Bramlage wound up surgically inserting a screw to repair a stress fracture in his left shin.

Brown is not optimistic about having Jack Christopher ready for the Run for the Roses.

“He's going to be up against it, that's for sure,” Brown told the TDN. “I don't want to rule anything out until I put my hands on him, but he's certainly behind. To get him to go a mile-and-a-quarter I'm going to need to have something under his belt. We'll see where he takes us and if he doesn't make [the Derby] we have several other races we'd love to target with him.”

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

The post ‘He’s Going To Be Up Against It’: Derby May Be A Longshot For Jack Christopher appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Honest Mischief Represented By First Foal

Sequel New York's first-year sire, Honest Mischief (Into Mischief-Honest Lady, by Seattle Slew) was represented by his first reported foal Jan. 4, at Cedar Ridge Farm in New York for breeder William “Buck” Butler The New York-bred filly is the first foal out of Tradeable (Exchange Rate).

“We are thrilled for this filly to be Honest Mischief's first foal”, said Butler who supported Honest Mischief with multiple mares. “It is so exciting to be on board from the beginning of his career.”

Honest Mischief covered 127 mares and will stand for $6,500 in 2022. The Juddmonte homebred won four of 9 starts, including the Force the Pass city of Laurel S. and placed in the GII Amsterdam S.

The post Honest Mischief Represented By First Foal appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Hall Of Fame Trainer Fighting Testosterone Positive For Harness Racing Champion

Perfect Sting, named 3-year-old male pacing champion of 2021 by the U.S. Harness Writers Association when Dan Patch Award winners were announced on Dec. 20, was subsequently found to have failed a drug test from the $148,332 Pennsylvania Sire Stakes at The Meadows that took place six months earlier.

The ruling, published at the United States Trotting Association website on Dec. 31 and reported at HarnessLink.com, stated that Perfect Sting tested positive for testosterone at a level of 3,765 pg/ml. A split sample subsequently confirmed the finding at a level of 3,635/pg/ml.

Trainer Joseph Holloway has been suspended 15 days from Jan. 17, 2022, through Jan. 31, 2022, and fined $500. Perfect Sting, who was elevated to first place in the Pennsylania Sire Stakes via disqualification of the original first-place finisher, has been disqualified from his win, with $74,166 in purse money ordered returned and redistributed.

Perfect Sting, also the champion 2-year-old pacer in 2020, was harness racing's richest performer in 2021 (prior to this ruling). Holloway, a member of the Harness Racing Museum Hall of Fame, was recipient of the Dan Patch Good Guy Award in 2021.

Holloway, who has appealed the ruling, contends Perfect Sting was never given testosterone, according to a report in HarnessLink.com. Instead, he suggests, the testosterone level of Perfect Sting – an intact horse – may have spiked naturally through proximity to an in-heat mare or other reason. Levels for testosterone for females and gelded males are more predictable than full colts and stallions.

“Stallions can have seasonal highs and lows for testosterone levels,” said Dr. Mary Scollay, executive director and chief operating officer of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium. “That's why RMTC does not recommend a threshold level for testosterone.”

Pennsylvania may be the only racing state that has a threshold level for testosterone for intact male horses, apparently set at 3,000 pg/ml.

Holloway told HarnessLink.com he has sent hair samples from Perfect Sting to a laboratory in the United Kingdom that he said “can tell whether the testosterone at that time was given to him, or it is just natural in his system at such a high level.”

Baffert Blue Blood Stops Santa Ynez

Coolmore's royally bred Under the Stars (Pioneerof the Nile) looks to become the third black-type winner for her impressive dam Untouched Talent (Storm Cat) as the morning-line favorite in the GII Santa Ynez S. at Santa Anita Saturday. A half-brother to Classic-winning sire Bodemeister (Empire Maker), the Bob Baffert pupil was third on debut behind the re-opposing Awake At Midnyte (Nyquist) in Arcadia Oct. 31. She filled the same spot behind stablemate and eventual GI Starlet S. winner Eda (Munnings) in Del Mar's Desi Arnaz S. Nov. 13 and broke through next out with a decisive score at Los Alamitos Dec. 11.

Awake At Midnyte followed that narrow first-out graduation on Halloween with a nose second in the turf GIII Jimmy Durante S. at Del Mar Nov. 27.

George Krikorian homebred Big Switch (Mr. Big) hopes to remain undefeated as she faces open company for the first time. A debut winner against fellow Cal-breds at Del Mar Aug. 20, the dark bay captured the Golden State Juvenile Fillies S. there Nov. 5.

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