February, 2022 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Baltas Has Memorable Day With Three Wins, Two Exactas At Santa Anita

Richard Baltas enjoyed a banner at Santa Anita on Saturday, winning three races and finishing second twice to create personal exactas.

The three victories gave him 13 for the meet and moved him into fourth place in the trainer standings at the Arcadia, Calif., track.

Baltas ran one-two in the fifth race with Miss Costa Rica and She's Devoted noses apart for a $31.60 exacta, first and second in the seventh with Sterling Crest and Carroll Girl for an $8.20 exacta, and capped his day with a victory by Cover Me Up in the eighth at a $10.60 payoff.

But three wins in one day was not a personal best for the 60-year-old native of Gary, Indiana.

“I won four in one day once at Del Mar, and three in one day many times,” Baltas said. “But I never ran first and second twice in the same day.”

Baltas has two horses nominated to the Grade 3 San Simeon Stakes for 4-year-olds and up at about 6 ½ furlongs on the hillside turf course on Feb. 20 and plans to enter one but was undecided whether it would be Vanzzy or Whisper Not.

“I don't know which one, but I think one of them will run,” Baltas said. “The race could come up tough.”

There were 18 nominations to the $100,000 event. Vanzzy was a troubled fifth in the restricted Clockers' Corner on Jan. 22, his first race in four months, while the English-bred Whisper Not was seventh, beaten only 3 ½ lengths despite going wide in the Grade II Eddie D. Stakes last Oct. 1.

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Sacred To Remain In Training

Sacred (GB) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}), Cheveley Park Stud's winner of the G2 Hungerford S. and G3 Nell Gwyn S. last year, stays in training with William Haggas as a 4-year-old in 2022.

Sacred was among the top of her generation at two when runner-up in the G2 Queen Mary S., G2 Lowther S. and G2 Flying Childers S., and the only blip on her 2021 CV came when she was seventh in the G1 1000 Guineas.

“Sacred is to remain in training as she only raced on three occasions in 2021, so we would like to think she will be fresh for a full campaign this year which may start off at the Royal Ascot meeting,” said Cheveley Park Stud's Senior Manager John Marsh. “Her dam Sacre Caroline, who is a half sister to Lady Eli, is in foal to Frankel and will return to him.”

Another filly Cheveley Park has high hopes for in 2022 is champion 2-year-old filly Inspiral (GB) (Frankel {GB}), and her dam Starscope (GB) (Selkirk) is due late to Ulysses (Ire) and may be rested after foaling, however, Marsh said, “should she foal early there is every chance she will return to Frankel this year.”

Cheveley Park's 2021 Royal Ascot winner, the G2 Duke Of Cambridge S. winner Indie Angel (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), has been retired to the broodmare band and visits Frankel. Another Cheveley Park mare visiting Frankel is Furbelow (GB) (Pivotal {GB}), the dam of three-time Group 1-winning sprinter and young sire Advertise (GB) (Showcasing {GB}). Furbelow is currently in foal to Mohaather (GB).

Cheveley Park's G1 Falmouth S.-winning daughter of Frankel, Veracious (GB), is due to deliver her first foal by Dubawi this year and will return to him. Another Falmouth winner, the dual Group 1 winner and stakes producer Integral (GB) (Dalakhani {Ire}), is in foal to Blue Point (Ire) and visits first-season sire Palace Pier (GB), while G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. winner Persuasive (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) is in foal to Dubawi and visits Kingman.

GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf winner Queen's Trust (GB) (Dansili {GB}) will return to Kingman for the third consecutive season to begin her stud career. Marsh described the mare's first foal, a filly, as “quite simply stunning.”

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Brazilian Horse With Upper Airway Paralysis Aided By Permanent Tracheostomy

A 7-year-old mare was referred to the Federal Rural University of Brazil's Semi-arid Region because of shortness of breath and loud respiratory noises. The mare had had trouble breathing for 20 days prior to being sent to the clinic. She had been treated with clenbuterol, bromhexine hydrochloride and benzylpenicillin procaine-based treatments while on the farm, but had shown no improvement.

Upon arriving at the clinic, hospital staff reported that the mare had pale mucous membranes, a respiratory rate of 20 breaths per minute, and a heart rate of 68 beats per minute. Her appetite and intestinal sounds were normal.

Dr. Jéssica Monique dos Santos, the treating veterinarian, found that the horse was suffering from laryngeal hemiplegia – upper airway paralysis that decreases airflow to the lungs. Her condition was advanced and affected both sides of the throat.

Laryngeal hemiplegia can be caused by multiple factors, including the degeneration of the laryngeal nerve, a guttural pouch infection, or irritation in the region. However, the exact cause of the condition is often unknown; some research suggests the disease has a genetic component.

In an effort to alleviate the mare's respiratory distress, dos Santos and her team opted to give the mare a tracheostomy and a permanent metal cannula was placed in her neck. The mare was discharged 36 days after she was admitted to the hospital with no ill effects from the surgery.

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The tracheostomy area healed entirely, with no inflammation at the incision site. The mare's quality of life has returned to normal.

Read the study here.

From ‘Collector’s Item’ to Derby Trail Kingpin

The Week in Review by T.D. Thornton

Five months ago, when Classic Causeway (Giant's Causeway) caught bettors napping on the final Saturday of the Saratoga season by unleashing a 6 1/2-length, front-running smackdown at 13-1 odds in his first career start, trainer Bryan Lynch told TDN he knew he had a “collector's item” on his hands.

Although a shimmering debut didn't hurt, the significance of Lynch's appraisal was pegged to the colt being one of only three named foals from the abbreviated final crop of prolific sire Giant's Causeway.

Now, after a grace-under-pressure performance in the Feb. 12 GIII Sam F. Davis S. at Tampa Bay Downs that launched Classic Causeway into the elite-level tier of GI Kentucky Derby contenders, that assessment needs to be recalculated with the colt's sky's-the-limit potential carrying more weight in the equation.

The Sam Davis has never produced a Derby winner. Of late it's even gained a reputation as a “trap” race known for derailing some pretty decent Derby contenders. Going into this year's running, the last four favorites (and five of the last six) had lost the Davis. In fact, for one of them, the Davis was part of a dizzying 10-loss tailspin before an improbable mid-career turnaround. That would be the 2019 off-the-board chalk Knicks Go (Paynter), who last Thursday–three years and one day after his lackluster Davis defeat–got crowned as 2021's Horse of the Year.

The burden of favoritism had been too much to bear for Classic Causeway in his second and third lifetime starts, but each of those losing efforts left enough of a positive impression that the homebred for Kentucky West Racing (Patrick O'Keefe) and Clarke Cooper was capable of better things in his sophomore season.

In the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity S. Oct. 9, Classic Causeway ambitiously forged to the front from post 13 over Keeneland's short-stretch configuration for 1 1/16 miles when facing winners and attempting two turns for the first time. He lasted for third behind well-meant victor Rattle N Roll (Connect).

After Lynch schooled Classic Causeway to relax while still remaining a pace presence, the colt broke running from post one in the Nov. 27 GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. and showed he was capable of conceding the lead. Responding effectively in stalk mode, he tipped out to the three path on the far turn and was on the move with 'TDN Rising Star' and eventual winner Smile Happy (Runhappy) at the head of the lane. Classic Causeway couldn't match strides with a very impressive undefeated colt at Churchill Downs that day, but he gave Smile Happy a run for his money until the eighth pole and was hardly disgraced in defeat.

Off those efforts, a brief break, and a series of breezes up to seven furlongs at Palm Meadows, Classic Causeway was bet down to favoritism for the Sam Davis (his price actually drifted up twice during the running of the race, from 6-5 to 3-2 before closing at 8-5, which is something you rarely see happen to a front-running fave in a $600,000+ win pool). He flashed out of the gate like a pro, then was immediately confronted by a keyed-up long shot from the outermost post. Jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. didn't use Classic Causeway overly hard to maintain the lead, but he didn't back away from the fight, either, allowing his colt to spar spiritedly at the head of a closely bunched pack of pursuers.

Classic Causeway ripped through the first quarter of the 1 1/16-mile race in a sprint-like :22.66, then toned down the middle two fractions to a more sensible :24.01 and :24.84, briefly losing the lead for a stride or two at the half-mile chart call. Still confidently handled at the head of the homestretch, he spun out to the three path, with three legitimate win threats hot on his heels.

One right-handed crack of the crop was enough to elicit an energetic spurt out of Classic Causeway three-sixteenths out, and when the colt drifted out to the five path while still in control, Ortiz gave him several more right-handed reminders upon cresting the furlong grounds, which had the effect of producing a “Wow!” gear that punctuated a visually impressive burst to the wire. The winning margin was 3 3/4 geared-down lengths in 1:42.80, good for an 88 Beyer Speed Figure.

Classic Causeway's fourth quarter split was :25.31. Of particular note was his in-the-clear final sixteenth in :5.98, the only sub-six-seconds clocking among this season's Derby preps at 1 1/16 miles from the Breeders' Cup onward.

“The [early] fractions had me a little bit worried,” Lynch said. “But his body language, the way his ears were twitching down the backside, gave me the feeling [Ortiz] had plenty of horse,” Lynch said post-race.

Lynch said Sunday morning that Classic Causeway is likely to return to Tampa in four weeks for the GII Tampa Bay Derby. “He's doing great,” the trainer said from his Palm Meadows stable. “He never left an oat and looks happy and spunky.”

Only Phantom Jet (1987), Speedy Cure (1991), Marco Bay (1993), Thundering Storm (1996), Burning Roma (2001) and Destin (2016) have accomplished the Sam Davis-Tampa Derby double.

Classic Causeway's win underscores the Kentucky Jockey Club as the key juvenile race among the preps for the '22 Derby. Two other colts from that race also scored in stakes in their next starts: Third-placer White Abarrio (Race Day) won the GIII Holy Bull S. at Gulfstream Feb. 5; sixth-place finisher Call Me Midnight (Midnight Lute) upset the GIII Lecomte S. at the Fair Grounds Jan. 22.

Smile Happy, the Kentucky Jockey Club S. winner, is currently rated No. 1 on the latest TDN Derby Top 12. He'll be in action this coming Saturday in an absolutely loaded edition of the GII Risen Star S. at the Fair Grounds. Three other Top 12 horses are entered, and Smile Happy will almost certainly have to win—and win emphatically–to keep from losing his top-of-the-totem-pole spot to Classic Causeway.

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