January, 2022 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Brown Not Optimistic Jack Christopher Can Make Derby

Still recuperating from an injury that prevented him from running in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile, 'TDN Rising Star' Jack Christopher (Munnings) is about two weeks away from rejoining Chad Brown's Florida division. However, the trainer said he was not sure if he has enough time to get him ready to run in the GI Kentucky Derby.

“He's going to be up against it, that's for sure,” Brown said when asked about making the Derby. “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.”

Coming off a win in the GI Champagne S., Jack Christopher was expected to go off as the favorite in the Juvenile for Jim Bakker, Gerald Isbister and their new partners Coolmore and Peter Brant, who bought in after the Champagne. He subsequently had a screw inserted in his left shin to repair a stress fracture. The surgery was done by Dr. Larry Bramlage. Jack Christopher was then sent to WinStar Farm and Brown reports that he is now back under tack and should join his stable in “a couple of weeks.”

“It's been frustrating,” Brown said. “You hate to miss a race like the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, where he would have been the favorite. He was training so well. He's a really talented horse. The Derby is not the be all and end all, but it would be lovely to have one of the top contenders.”

Brown has another top 3-year-ld colt in Zandon (Upstart), who finished second, beaten a nose, in a roughly run GII Remsen S. He's had two recent four-furlong works at Payson Park and Brown remains high on him.

“He's worked really good both times and has settled in nicely,” he said. “He's possible for the [Feb. 5 GIII] Holy Bull. It's between the Holy Bull and the [Feb. 19 GII] Risen Star. I don't think I want to wait all the way to the [Mar. 5 GII] Fountain of Youth to run him. He's only had two starts and I think he would benefit from an extra race. I'm really pleased with him.”

Brown also believes that Early Voting (Gun Runner) is a potential Derby horse. Early Voting has had one start, winning a Dec. 18 maiden race at Aqueduct.

“Anything else I have will be a late bloomer,” Brown said. “Early Voting won first time out going a mile on the dirt at Aqueduct. He didn't earn a fancy figure or anything, but when you see a son of Gun Runner debuting at a mile on the dirt and winning first time out on kind of a dead track you have to take a little notice. I'm not one to have a horse cranked for their best number at that time of year. He's an interesting horse going forward.”

The post Brown Not Optimistic Jack Christopher Can Make Derby appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Weekend Lineup Presented By Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association: Say It Ain’t Snow

While most of the Northeast has been blanketed by snow and endured sub-freezing temperatures during the week, the horse racing action will help heat things up a bit this weekend with graded stakes action from coast to coast.

Saturday offers up a Grade 3 on the turf at Gulfstream Park, while older fillies and mares battle in the Pippin at Oaklawn and sophomore fillies go head-to-head in the G2 Santa Ynez at Santa Anita. Sunday's offerings include the G3 Las Cienegas at Santa Anita, an exciting down-the-hill turf race with a wide-open field of eight fillies and mares.

Here's a brief look at the graded stakes action (all times Eastern).

Saturday

3:37 PM – G3 Tropical Turf Stakes at Gulfstream Park

Grade 2 winner Largent, unraced since being beaten a neck in last year's Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1), returns to Gulfstream Park to launch his long-awaited comeback. The Tropical Turf would be Largent's first race in 351 days, but comes over a course where he has raced six times with four wins and two seconds. He broke his maiden in debut at Gulfstream in March 2019, won a pair of allowance races during the 2019-2020 Championship Meet as well as the Fort Lauderdale.

Value Proposition is a British-bred ridgling that won three of his first four career starts and has matched that total over his last nine, including victories in the one-mile Red Bank and seven-furlong Oyster Bay last fall. The 5-year-old was second in the 2021 Forbidden Apple (G3) and third in the 2020 Poker (G3), and enters the Tropical Turf having finished fifth in the six-furlong Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship Nov. 27.

Another graded winner in the field is Phat Man, who captured the 2020 Fred W. Hooper (G3) at Gulfstream. The 7-year-old gelding has two seconds in five lifetime tries on grass, but was last on the surface in the October 2017 Hawthorne Derby for previous connections.

Flying Scotsman will be making his second start off a layoff in the Tropical Turf. He ran fifth in a one-mile, 70-yard optional claiming allowance Dec. 19 that was moved off the Gulfstream turf to its Tapeta surface. Promoted winner of the 2019 Woodchopper at Fair Grounds, it was his first race since setting the pace before finishing sixth by 2 ¼ lengths in the Dinner Party (G2) at Pimlico Race Course.

7:06 PM – G2 Santa Ynez Stakes at Santa Anita Park

An impressive maiden winner in her most recent start, Bob Baffert-trained Under the Stars heads a field of six sophomore fillies going seven furlongs in this $200,000 contest. A respectable third, beaten three quarters of a length by the well regarded Tonito's in the 6 ½ furlong Desi Arnaz Stakes two starts back on Nov. 13, Under the Stars came back earn a Beyer Speed Figure of 80 when registering an impressive three-length maiden win at Los Alamitos going six furlongs on Dec. 11.

Reddam Racing's Awake At Midnyte, a close second in a one mile turf stakes on Nov. 27, also rates a big look, as do California-bred stakes winner Big Switch and recent turf maiden winner Miss Mattie B.

A $320,000 March 2-year-old in training sale purchase, Awake At Midnyte pressed the pace and came away a game neck first-out maiden winner going six furlongs on Oct. 31 here at Santa Anita and then stretched out to a mile on turf in the G3 Jimmy Durante Stakes at Del Mar Nov. 27. A close second early, she wrested control a sixteenth of a mile out but lost a desperate photo by a nose in a huge effort.

A California-bred by hot sire Mr. Big, John Sadler's Big Switch, a first-out maiden winner going six furlongs at Del Mar Aug. 20, followed that up with a 2 ¾ length win going seven furlongs in the Golden State Juvenile Fillies Nov. 5, earning an 80 Beyer Speed Figure. In what will be her first try in open company, she'll get the services of John Velazquez.

Trained by Bob Hess, Jr., Miss Mattie B rallied from far back to break her maiden going one mile on turf Nov. 27 and will hope to have a similar late kick as she switched back to dirt and shortens up a furlong. Miss Mattie B will be ridden back by Mike Smith.

Sunday

6:30 PM – G3 Las Cienegas Stakes at Santa Anita Park

A stakes winner over the course, Zero Tolerance heads a field of eight older fillies and mares going 6 ½ furlongs down Santa Anita's hillside turf this Sunday. Zero Tolerance stalked the pace and rallied impressively to take the ungraded Unzip Me Stakes over the course three starts back on Oct. 3 and was subsequently a close fourth going one mile on turf in the G3 Autumn Miss Stakes on Oct. 30. She sped to a 1 ¼ length win at 3-5 in a second condition allowance on Nov. 20 at Del Mar. Originally trained by Peter Miller, she'll be saddled by Ruben Alvarado on Sunday as she seeks her first graded win and her fourth overall from six starts.

Vladimir Cerin's Hear My Prayer and Bob Baffert's Ginja, a pair of distaffers in good recent form, also rate big chances in what will be their initial tries down Santa Anita's unique hillside layout. Throw in Baffert's classy comebacker Beautiful Gift and John Sadler's newcomer, Gold for Kitten, as well as his veteran stakes winner Constantia, and the Las Cienegas has the look of a wide open affair.

The post Weekend Lineup Presented By Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association: Say It Ain’t Snow appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Oxted On Course For 2022 Campaign

Trainer Roger Teal looks to have plenty of talented runners to look forward to this year, none more so than his stable star Oxted (GB) (Mayson {GB}), who is making good progress toward a return after missing the second half of 2021 due to injury.

Oxted looked a somewhat surprise package when winning the G3 Abernant S. and G1 July Cup in 2020 as a 4-year-old, and the gelding proved those victories were no fluke when returning last year to take the G1 King's Stand S. at Royal Ascot and place in the latest renewals of the July Cup, Abernant and G2 Duke of York S. He was benched following last year's July Cup, however, to have a bone chip removed.

“We knew it was there, it was a floating chip, but we had always monitored it and it has never really been too much of a problem,” Teal explained. “But when he hung across the track at Newmarket, we had an MRI scan because the X-rays weren't really showing where it was, and it had moved between the joint, so it was time to take it out.”

“Oxted is back off his holidays and doing a little light exercise at the moment, just tipping away quietly and we will see how he goes over the next couple of months and make a plan,” Teal added. “He has just had a long recovery, as much time as you can give him, and touch wood, that will give him every chance to have a full recovery. He looks amazing. He has come back and he looks like a bull. We are thrilled with the way he looks.”

Teal said Oxted's schedule will not look much different than it has the past two seasons.

“Obviously his main target will be the July Cup and the King's Stand again, probably,” he said. “The Abernant at Newmarket or the Duke Of York that we ran in last year will be his starting point. It will be either one of those two, I should think.”

Teal also has Oxted's 4-year-old full-brother Chipstead (GB) on the books. He capped a seven-race 3-year-old campaign last year with three successive wins over five and 5 1/2 furlongs at Bath and is rated 87.

“Chipstead came good at the back end of last season and the penny finally dropped,” said Teal of the colt. “He had a lot of ability, but his brain didn't really match his ability. But once the penny dropped, he got the hang of it and he came forward and finished the season on a high, winning three in a row, including the Bath Series Final. I went to see him the other day and he looks brilliant as well.”

Another sprinter that Teal is looking forward to for 2022 is Austin Whelan's Whenthedealinsdone (GB) (Dark Angel {Ire}), who won twice last summer at three, including at Glorious Goodwood, after being gelded and who was fifth when last seen in Doncaster's Portland H. in September.

“We are very excited about him,” said Teal. “He had a good season, winning at Glorious Goodwood. It was just unfortunate that the ground went against him in the Portland, but I'm very excited by him. Hopefully, he will progress into a pattern horse this year. He is on a rating of 96 at the moment. He was a big 3-year-old, probably too big for his own good, size-wise. He has just come back from Charlie Vigors's Hillwood Stud and he looks an absolute picture. He was always a big, rotund horse, but he has filled his frame now, and he and Oxted look like two peas in a pod.”

On the opposite end of the distance spectrum Teal has Ocean Wind (GB) (Teofilo {Ire}), who in three runs last spring was second to Sir Ron Priestley (GB) (Australia {GB}) in the Listed Further Flight S. and to Stradivarius in the G3 Sagaro S., and third as the favourite in the G3 Henry II S., since which he has been on holiday.

“Ocean Wind has had a nice long break and is due to come in shortly,” Teal said of the 6-year-old entire. “He is doing some light prep work. I'm not sure what we are going to aim at yet. We will wait until the programme book comes out and then we will start making a plan.”

The post Oxted On Course For 2022 Campaign appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Godolphin Topped Breeders’ List in ’21

Godolphin topped the list of individual breeders by North American earnings in 2021 at $18,447,150 according to statistics released by The Jockey Club Friday. Godolphin bred 172 starters who won 136 times with 126 seconds and 115 thirds from 804 total starts.

Calumet Farm, which topped the individual breeders list in both 2019 and 2020, was second in 2021 with $16,127,515 in earnings and 470 wins from 3,516 starts.

Godolphin also led the breeders list that includes partners with $20,705,957 in earnings and 195 wins from 1,297 starts. Calumet was second on that list. Calumet was again second with $16,216,072 in earnings and 475 wins out of 3,555 starts.

Rounding out the top 10 individual breeders were Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC, $13,188,853 (160 wins/880 starts); WinStar Farm, LLC, $9,146,093 (221/1,293); Kenneth L. & Sarah K. Ramsey, $7,113,597 (232/1,644); Gary & Mary West Stables Inc., $6,830,991 (156/1,010); Brereton C. Jones, $6,703,710 (176/1,327); Juddmonte Farms Inc., $6,432,063 (84/419); Angie Moore, $6,207,646 (14/41); and Spendthrift Farm LLC, $5,462,547 (135/884).

Completing the list of the top 10 breeders including partnerships were Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC, $13,415,180 (162 wins/906 starts); WinStar Farm, LLC, $12,074,918 (332/2,039); Kenneth L. Ramsey, $7,417,425 (238/1,722); Sarah K. Ramsey, $7,417,425 (238/1,722); Fred W. Hertrich III, $7,300,217 (165/1,109); Brereton C. Jones, $7,007,034 (191/1,425); Gary & Mary West Stables Inc., $6,831,934 (156/1,016); and Juddmonte Farms Inc., $6,432,063 (84/419).

A list of the top 100 breeders is available at equineline.com.

The post Godolphin Topped Breeders’ List in ’21 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post