Month: April 2022

‘Jackie’ Back in Count Fleet

Kirk and Judy Robison's Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) will make his 4-year-old debut and first start since being named 2021's champion male sprinter at the Eclipse Awards as the highweight in Saturday's GIII Count Fleet H. at Oaklawn.

Starting his career perfect in four starts, including convincing wins in the GI Runhappy Hopeful S. and GI Champagne S., the $95,000 Keeneland September buy suffered his first two losses in his only two-turn attempts to date, running fourth at 9-10 in the GI TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile and third in last February's local GIII Southwest S. The Steve Asmussen trainee has been kept around one turn since then, going four-for-six the rest of 2021, rattling off consecutive dazzling scores in the GII Amsterdam S., GI Woody Stephens S. and GII Gallant Bob S. That was enough to make him the biggest favorite of Breeders' Cup weekend at 1-2 in the Qatar Racing Sprint, but the bay was burned up on a quick pace and weakened in the final furlong to finish a disappointing sixth.

Jackie's Warrior returns with a sharp-looking worktab at Fair Ground and over this track, most notably going a bullet five furlongs from the gate at Oaklawn in :59 2/5 (1/45) Apr. 3.

The champ will likely have his hands full with an emerging Hot Springs talent, however, particularly if the fractions are swift. Michael and Patricia Feeney and Jennifer Grayson Taylor's Bob's Edge (Competitive Edge) won four of his first 11 starts from ages two to three, but failed to threaten in three stakes tries before having the proverbial lightbulb go on this winter. Debuting as a 4-year-old in the King Cotton S. here Jan. 29, the gelding blew to the front all the way from seventh just inside the quarter pole and kicked clear to a 2 3/4-length success, earning a career-best 97 Beyer. The Larry Jones pupil showed that was no fluke when passing every rival to repeat in the GIII Whitmore S. Mar. 19.

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Historic Maryland Timber Triple Kicks Off This Saturday

The historic Maryland Timber Triple gets underway this Saturday in Monkton, about 30 miles north of Baltimore, with the $50,000 My Lady's Manor Stakes, the marquee event on the four-race, $100,000 card.

The My Lady's Manor is the first of three grueling timber races at successively longer distances over a 15-day span. The second leg, the Grand National, will be contested on April 23 in Butler, at 3 ¼ miles. The crowning jewel is the 125th running of the Maryland Hunt Cup on April 30 in Glyndon, at 4 miles with a $100,000 purse.

The race has drawn an accomplished field of six, led by perennial powerhouses Upland Partners' Mystic Strike and Dolly Fisher's Schoodic, both 13-year-olds with 90 careers starts and 26 victories between them. Also entered is Leipers Fork Steeplechasers' Tomgarrow, who secured the 2021 timber championship with a score in the International Gold Cup at Great Meadow in Virginia. Also competing in the three-mile classic are Bruton Street-US' Preseli Rock, who finished second in both the My Lady's Manor and Maryland Hunt Cup in 2021; Michael A. Smith's Le Chevalier, who took the Grand National, the middle leg of the series last year; and Irv Naylor's Hooded, a maiden winner who takes a huge jump up in class.

Armata Stable's Vintage Vinnie, the 96-length, recording-setting winner of the 2021 Maryland Hunt Cup, had been listed among the starters in the overnights, too, but he's been rerouted to the fourth race on the card, the $10,000 John D. Schapiro Memorial allowance for apprentice jockeys. He'll be ridden by Teddy Davies, son of trainer Joe Davies.

Last year, Vintage Vinnie prepped for the Hunt Cup with a facile score in the My Lady's Manor. Since coming over from Europe early in 2018, the now-13-year-old Irish-bred son of Vinnie Roe has picked his spots carefully, running six times, with three victories, two seconds, and a third.

In addition there are two $20,000 maiden timber events on the day, the John Rush Streett Memorial and Thomas H. Voss. All of the races at The Manor are restricted to amateur or apprentice jockeys, and all are at 3 miles.

Returning to its usual slot on the Spring calendar following a schedule change to June last year due to Covid, the Tryon Block House meet at Green Creek Race Course in Columbus, N.C., offers four two-mile hurdle races that have drawn a total of 23 entries.

The feature is a $30,000 overnight handicap for horses rated 120 or less. There's a $20,000 handicap for runners rated at 110 or less, along with a maiden special weights hurdle and maiden claimer.

The main event offers a rematch between the first two finishers in the $30,000 Imperial Cup optional claiming allowance at Aiken on March 26. The race marked the U.S. debut of Paul and Molly Willis' Boulette, a four-year-old Irish-bred, trained by Keri Brion and ridden by Parker Hendriks, who led throughout and romped by 6 ¼ lengths. The runnerup, William Russell's Animal Kingston, put in a late rally to be second best, and last season captured two handicaps at a slightly lower level.

Allison Fulmer's The Happy Giant lost his rider early in the $50,000 Carolina Cup novice stakes two weeks ago, but was an impressive winner in a high-class handicap over this course last year. Irv Naylor's Mighty Mark makes his seasonal bow following a three-victory 2021 under the tutelage of trainer Kathy Neilson, who brought the son of Temple City from the claiming ranks to handicap winner at the 115 ratings level. Completing the field is Bruton Street-US' Bassmatchi, a French-bred son of Zoffany who after a 33-race career in his homeland relocated to the U.S. last fall, and competed against rising stars Historic Heart in the Harry Harris Stakes at Far Hills and Ritzy A.P., in the William Entenmann Novice Stakes at Belmont Park., finishing fourth in both. He completed his year with a third in an optional claiming allowance at Callaway Gardens.

For both meets, gates open at 10 a.m. and first-race post time is 1:30 p.m. If you are not attending the races in person, be sure to watch the live stream via the NSA's website. The live stream is sponsored by Brown Advisory, the Temple Gwathmey Steeplechase Foundation, Charleston's Post & Courier, and the Virginia Equine Alliance.

For the complete entries, click here.

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Zozos Leads Derby, Oaks Workers at Churchill

'TDN Rising Star' Zozos (Munnings), most recently runner-up to Epicenter (Not This Time) in the GII Louisiana Derby Mar. 26, continued his preparations for the May 7 GI Kentucky Derby with a five-furlongs work that was timed in 1:00.20 Friday morning at Churchill Downs.

Breezing in the company of his GI Longines Kentucky Oaks-bound stablemate Turnerloose (Nyquist), the Barry and Joni Butzow homebred was out at 5:30 a.m. and broke off about a length behind the GII Rachel Alexandra S. heroine before galloping along through fractions of :24 flat and :48.40. The move began at the half-mile pole and concluded with Zozos on even terms with Turnerloose at the seven-eighths marker. Zozos galloped out three-quarters of a mile in 1:13.60.

“He's a really smart horse,” said jockey Florent Geroux, who will ride Zozos's GI Arkansas Derby-winning stablemate Cyberknife (Gun Runner) in the Derby. “He's starting to come into his own and it was a really nice work this morning. I settled back of [Turnerloose] and he finished up nicely with her. Both horses worked well.”

 

 

 

Hidden Brook Farm and Black Type Thoroughbreds' Hidden Connection (Connect) came out shortly after the Cox pair and covered a similar distance in 1:00 flat, pulling up six furlongs in a strong 1:12.60 with ReyLu Gutierrez aboard, who said the work was “awesome.”

Secret Oath (Arrogate) will face her peers in the Oaks, having finished third to Cyberknife and Barber Road (Race Day) in the Arkansas Derby and returned to the tab Friday morning. The Briland Farm homebred was timed in a slick :59.20 (:12.40, :23.60, :35.20), and Luis Saez, who takes over from Luis Contreras for the Oaks, was in to put the filly through her paces.

“I talked to [jockey] Luis [Contreras] after the race and he was sort of surprised with how much of an explosive kick she had at the three-eighths pole,” said Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, whose last Oaks victory came courtesy of Overbrook Farm's Seaside Attraction (Seattle Slew) in 1990. “With that explosive kick at that point in the race, it was a little too much too soon. She got shuffled back at the start and got into contention but it was too much to ask. We ran in the Arkansas Derby for a million-and-a-quarter [dollars] and I thought we were the best horse going into the race and I still think we were the best.”

 

 

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Kentucky House Passes Resolution Requiring The Jockey Club To Testify Annually About Fees, Rule Changes

During the final day of the legislative session on Thursday, April 14, the Kentucky State House of Representatives passed a concurrent resolution to require The Jockey Club to testify annually about fees and rule changes that might affect Thoroughbred racing or breeding in the Commonwealth.

In February, a bill was introduced by Speaker of Kentucky's House of Representatives, David Osborne – along with co-sponsor Representative Matthew Koch – to prevent any “registrar of Thoroughbreds” from implementing a cap. The bill had strong support, and caused TJC to rescind its attempt to cap the total number of mares bred per stallion.

In addition, TJC increased its registration fees for 2022, announced in December of 2021.

The new resolution requires TJC to testify before either the Interim Joint Committee on Licensing, Occupations, and Administrative Regulations; or the House Standing Committee on Licensing, Occupations, and Administrative Regulations and the Senate Standing Committee on Licensing and Occupations.

Testimony is expected to include information about “a potential rule change or fee that has the potential to materially affect Thoroughbred breeding or racing in the Commonwealth such that the committee process for notice and comment on the proposed rule change or fee may proceed.”

In addition, “the committee or committees may request nonproprietary, nonprivileged information or data that is relevant to the proposed rule change or fee, which does not require the Jockey Club to breach a preexisting contractual obligation of confidentiality.”

A concurrent resolution does not require the signature of the chief executive, and does not have the force of law behind it.

Not passed during Kentucky's legislative session was a bill to legalize sports betting; according to the Lexington Herald-Leader, House Bill 606 was never heard on the Senate floor.

“Everywhere I go people stop me and ask 'why can't we pass sports betting,'” Senate Floor Leader Damon Thayer (R) told the Herald-Leader. “I can't make (lawmakers vote) for it if they don't want to be for it.”

Read more at the Lexington Herald-Leader (behind paywall).

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