April, 2022 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Under New Ownership, Walmac Farm Welcomes Core Beliefs

Owner and breeder Gary Broad purchased Walmac Farm in 2018. With 250 acres sprawling along Paris Pike, the historic property has gone through a major restoration project since it was obtained by its new owner. Fences were mended, barns were remodeled and given a fresh coat of paint, and this year, a new stallion arrived at the farm.

Multiple graded stakes winner Core Beliefs (Quality Road – Tejati, by Tactical Advantage) has taken up residence at the farm that was once home to, among others, notable sires Nureyev, Miswaki, Alleged, Successful Appeal and Songandaprayer.

Out of a winning mare from the family of champion Hasten to Add (Cozzene) and GISW See How She Runs (Maria's Mon), Core Beliefs is one of just a handful of stallions by Quality Road in Kentucky. After Quality Road's son City of Light enjoyed an extraordinary year with his first crop of yearlings in 2021, the team at Walmac was encouraged to launch Core Beliefs' stud career.

“The main reason that we decided to stand Core Beliefs this year was because of the success of Quality Road and City of Light,” explained farm manager Dawn Carr. “All of their progeny seem to be doing so well and are well-accepted at the sales, so we felt like Core Beliefs would have a shot as another son of Quality Road and with the physical he has. If someone sees his physical, that is what's selling him. He's gorgeous.”

Broad purchased Core Beliefs at the 2017 Barretts March 2-Year-Old Sale at Del Mar, where advisor Scott Hansen was on hand for the juvenile colt's :10 work.

“The track was very demanding that day,” Hansen recalled. “There weren't a lot of horses that went :10 flat, and the thing about Core Beliefs was not only did he go :10 flat but his gallop out was really good. It was one of the best of the morning.”

Broad opted to give his $350,000 purchase a rest after the sale instead of sending him straight to the racetrack. The colt went through his early training with Hansen at San Luis Rey Training Center before transferring to Peter Eurton.

“Gary likes to give them a little bit of a break after the sale, so were really patient with him and gave him a month off at the farm before we started legging him up,” Hansen explained. “Our riders were really high on him from the beginning. He showed a lot of class and speed with the few works that we did with him.”

Core Beliefs placed in his first two starts as a 3-year-old, but broke his maiden by over three lengths when asked to stretch out to a mile and a sixteenth. The win was so impressive that from there, he made the jump to the GI Santa Anita Derby and finished a respectable third.

“We knew he could run long, and that's always a big plus with an early 3-year-old, so we threw him into the Santa Anita Derby against Bolt d'Oro and Justify,” said Hansen.”He tried very hard. He was coming off a maiden win going to the top of the bunch. We battled Instilled Regard (Arch), who turned out to be a pretty good horse, for third.”

After the Grade I placing, the bay ran second in the GIII Peter Pan S. and then claimed the GIII Ohio Derby.

“What was really impressive about him that day is he got a really wide trip,” Hansen remembered. “All the way around the track he was four or five wide, but he still had enough to finish and just get up to beat Lone Sailor (Majestic Warrior).”

Core Beliefs takes the 2019 GII New Orleans H. | Sarah Andrew

Core Beliefs won the GII New Orleans H. in his 4-year-old debut and went on to race through his 6-year-old season. He retired as his owner's leading earner with just short of $1 million in earnings.

“He showed a lot of speed and stamina and he never took a bad step,” Hansen noted. “He was a champ with everything we did with him.”

Core Beliefs has been busy throughout his first weeks of stud duty, with mares coming in from both outside breeders and from Broad's own broodmare band.

“Gary purchased several mares at the sale and we've also purchased mares privately for him,” Carr said. “A couple of the mares at the sale were blacktype and then Gary already had one Galileo mare that we're going to breed to him this year. We want to give him every opportunity as a stallion.”

As for the outside breeders, Carr said that people have only needed to see Core Beliefs in person before they inquire about breeding details for the stallion, who stands for $7,500 in his first year at stud.

“A lot of breeders have said they can't afford Quality Road and City of Light, but they heard about Core Beliefs and wanted to see him. They'll look at him and say he's gorgeous and that they didn't expect him to be that big. He is a nice size; he's a little over 16'2. He's very correct, too. We've had several people who have said he looks a lot like Quality Road and we've even had a couple say he looks more like Elusive Quality.”

Breeders who have come to visit Core Beliefs have also remarked on the many changes that have taken place at Walmac since Broad began resurrecting the farm.

“Gary has done a lot of work on the farm,” Carr said. “He has remodeled every barn and all of the tenant houses. He has taken really good care of it and he's trying to bring it back to what it was before or better.”

Core Beliefs resides in the barn that was once the home and breeding facility of leading sire Nureyev. Upon purchasing Walmac, Broad remodeled the building into his own stallion complex with the goal of adding more sires to Walmac's roster in the coming years.

“We took the arena apart and put in six stallion stalls, which we are hoping to fill,” Carr explained. “We still have Nureyev's stall that we could split so that we could have up to eight, but we'll see what happens. It's very exciting for [Broad]. He had previously mainly been on the racing side of it, but now he's enjoying this–seeing the new foals and seeing Core Beliefs' success.”

Fellow farm manager Manuel Hernandez began working at Walmac Farm in 1995. He has been present throughout the past decades as the farm has changed ownership and he is now looking forward to the future for both Walmac Farm and its new stallion.

“I have been around horses for many years and Core Beliefs has everything,” Hernandez said. “He has good bone, a good body and good balance. I am very happy to have this job working with the right people over here. We work like a family. The farm has changed a lot because we are trying to have everything look if not the best, then close to the best, and now the farm is ready to make that dream come true.”

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Discoveries The Next Classic Contender For Star Family

Despite the retirements of recent stable stalwarts like Group 1-winning juvenile and new Irish National Stud stallion Lucky Vega (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}), top-level performer and 2,000,000gns broodmare prospect Cayenne Pepper (Ire) (Australia {GB}), and last September's G1 Matron S. victrix No Speak Alexander (Ire) (Shalaa {Ire}), Jessica Harrington is still loaded for bear at the start of this Flat season.

Speaking confidently from her scenic base in Moone, she went through a list to savour with the regally-bred 3-year-old Discoveries (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}), a full-sister to the marvellous Alpha Centauri (Ire) who was triumphant in last September's G1 Moyglare Stud S., heading the list.

“All being well Discoveries will head to the English Guineas. I won't run her unless the ground is fast. Like her sister, she wants fast ground,” said the trainer.

Harrington outlined a series of promising prospects from her stable where quality fillies and mares outnumber their male counterparts two-to-one. Magical Lagoon (Galileo {Ire}), a thrice-raced juvenile who landed a Curragh Group 3 last August, is a half-sister to Novellist (Ire) (Monsun {Ger}, the Japan-based stallion who won Group 1 races in four different European countries.

She said, “Magical Lagoon will go for the Salsabil and has an entry in the English Oaks [as well as the Irish 1,000 Guineas and Irish Oaks]. She did a racecourse gallop the other day and we're very happy with her. She has done well and got very strong over the winter.”

In addition, Harrington spoke highly of Group 3-winning 4-year-old Forbearance (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) who “will go in fillies' races from a mile and a quarter to a mile and a half”.

She added, “Forbearance needs the ground quick, quick, quick so she'll likely be making a few journeys to England again.”

The twice-raced Killarney maiden-winning 3-year-old Caroline Herschel (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), named after the famed 18th century German astronomer who discovered several comets, was described as “a stakes filly on soft ground”, while Harrington declared herself “delighted” with the talented 3-year old Villanova Queen (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}), who rallied strongly when third in Leopardstown's G3 1,000 Guineas trial last Saturday.

“She's very relaxed,” said the trainer.

The stable's grand servant Barrington Court (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}), a tough and effective dual-purpose mare, returns for her 8-year-old campaign and “will run if ever, ever we get soft ground for her. She's in great order this year and I'm delighted with her also.”

Meanwhile, 4-year-old filly The Blue Brilliant (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) who “ran a blinder” in France last year when beaten by a narrow margin in a Deauville Group 3 is considered an “eight- to 10-furlong type, one mile if the ground is real soft.”

Real Appeal (Ger) (Sidestep {Aus}), a 5-year-old gelding who won the G2 Boomerang Mile last September before taking an unsuccessful crack at the Breeders' Cup Mile, returns for Harrington's longstanding and supportive owner Zhang Yuesheng.

She said, “Real Appeal heads for the Amethyst and hopefully returns to Group 1 races after that.”

Harrington retains excitement for the 6-year-gelding Leo De Fury (Ire) (Australia {GB}). She said of the Group 2 winner, “He is in a good place this year and will go for the Mooresbridge and then the Vintage Crop to see if he stays. I see no reason why he won't.”

The stable's 3-year-old colts and geldings are headed by Confident Star (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) and Cowboy Justice (GB) (Lope De Vega {Ire}), with Harrington saying of the former, the winner of a seven-furlong Cork maiden last September, “I think he's a miler and I think he's a stronger horse this year so he'll go to the (Irish 2,000) Guineas Trial.”

Cowboy Justice was gelded after an attack of colic last year and is being aimed at six- and seven-furlong contests.

Harrington is off to a flying start with her 2-year-olds and wins by both the colt Ocean Quest (Ire) (Sioux Nation {Ire}), a first winner for his freshman stallion, and Dundalk winning debutante It's Showtime Baby (GB) (Showcasing {GB}) prove that she has plenty of forward types.

“Training 2-year-olds is tremendously exciting because you just don't know what they are going to turn out like,” she said. “The ones that promise everything could end up doing nothing. You get surprises and you get disappointments and they can't all be good.

“We have a few here by first-season sires and I have to say I love the Saxon Warriors. I think they are very nice. I have four Saxon Warriors and we have two Sioux Nations. Ocean Quest won her maiden and we have a very smart colt by him as well. He's big and square and they all seem to have good temperaments. The Saxon Warriors are really laidback as well. I have a couple of Zoustars as well, and I like them. They look nice and they are sharp.”

In the coming months, Harrington's supporters can look forward to the debut of the colt Saturn (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}, the first foal of Alpha Centauri.

“We are getting a better class of 2-year-old every year,” Harrington said. “We have 75 this year. It's lovely to have some of the pedigrees that we have. You look down through the list and some of them really could be anything. They're not just early pedigrees, and the ones that we have run just came to hand, but they should continue progressing. We have a Kuroshio colt, called Panic Alarm (Ire), Keepingupwithmyempire (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}) and Slick Chick (Ire) (Belardo {Ire}), and they will be the next three to run for us.”

She added, “Alpha Centauri's first foal is called Saturn and he's pretty forward. Alpha Centauri made her debut in May and I don't think this fellow will take very long. It will depend on how he goes in the next couple of weeks. He's very mature in his mind and does everything very easily.”

Stable jockey Shane Foley also spoke of a particular affinity for the Yulong-owned unnamed Dubawi colt out of the Group 3 winner and Group 1-placed Spectre (Fr), a 410,000gns purchase at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

He said, “I love the Dubawi colt out of Spectre. He could be out in a seven-furlong maiden on Irish Derby weekend and should make up into a lovely middle-distance colt.”

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Baffert Banned in NY Through ‘At Least’ Early July

Citing Section 910 of the New York Racing, Pari-Mutuel Wagering and Breeding Law, the New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) has announced that it will honor the 90-day suspension handed down to trainer Bob Baffert and that the conditioner is “prohibited from participating in any New York State horse racing activity through at least July 2, 2022.”

Section 910 reads: “§ 910. Reciprocity of licenses. All license denials, suspensions and revocations imposed by the pertinent racing and gambling authorities of other jurisdictions, including states, United States territories, and Canadian provinces shall be recognized and enforced by the commission …”

According to a release from the NYSGC, Baffert is suspended in New York and may not enter any horses to run at any New York track, including Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga–run by the New York Racing Association–as well as Finger Lakes Race Track.

New York is one of 38 racing states that honors out-of-state suspensions issued by regulators.

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Seven Days: The Price Of Progress

Even at this early stage of the season, we can be forgiven for mentally fast-forwarding to the first weekend of June at Epsom. It is after all the best weekend of the year, featuring the best race of the year.

There are plans afoot in Newmarket – plans being mooted by the Jockey Club, no less – to dig up one of the best turf gallops on the Heath to install a new all-weather racecourse and training facility. At a time when there's concern as to having enough horses to fill races in the over-stuffed fixture lift–one which is already heavily reliant on all-weather fixtures–it seems a rather tone deaf approach from an operation whose raison d'être is supposedly the preservation of horseracing and all its glorious heritage.

Since attending a presentation of the Jockey Club's plans in Newmarket last week, and while watching our small string of horses skip over that perfect turf gallop in question on a beautiful spring morning a few days later, my thoughts have turned to how to oppose this idea. Lying in front of a bulldozer may be taking it a bit too far but considering the vast expanse of the Heath avoided being wrecked during World War II to provide food while the island was under siege, it would be a great sadness to see a chunk of it lost all these years later, even if it is for a racing-related scheme.

I feel the same chest-tightening dismay whenever I read a column suggesting that the Derby should be shortened in distance. Why? Having horses run a mile and a half is no hardship. In fact, it's a mere sprint compared to the four-mile heats of yore. It is of course progress that has brought us to the current Classic distances but we must beware any further limiting of the programme in the name of so-called progress. Where will it end? It seems reasonable to assume that it ends with the loss of one of the most absorbing elements of racing in this part of the world, which is the diverse nature of the Flat tests, for sprinters through to stayers and everything in between.

That should remain reflected in the range of stallions available to breeders, as it currently is. While being fully cognisant of the reasons behind commercial breeders' desire to breed for the market in which they wish to participate, a look at the range of yearlings buyers in Europe in recent years offer plenty of cause for hope that not everyone is looking for an early, fast horse. Add to that the fact that of the world's 22 top-rated races last year, only one was a sprint (Australia's TJ Smith S.) and one more was run at a mile (Ascot's Queen Elizabeth S.). The remainder were 10- to 12-furlong races, and breeding horses capable of getting that sort of trip should surely therefore continue to be the primary aim.

The rise of Galileo (Ire) as a supersire has, up to a point, helped to prop up the Derby in recent years, and as his influence wanes, in the first generation at least, it is heartening to see other Derby winners coming to the fore. In fact, the current top three in the betting for this year – Luxembourg (Ire), Reach For The Moon (GB) and Point Lonsdale (Ire) – are sons of the Derby winners Camelot (GB), Sea The Stars (Ire) and Australia (GB) respectively. Reason enough, surely, to give due credence to the horses good enough to pass the unique test of this special race when they end up at stud.

The Ascent Of Piz Badile

Bar some notes from recent stable visits, most of this year's Classic contenders remain firmly under wraps and in barracks. One to have shown his hand over the weekend is Piz Badile (Ire) (Ulysses {Ire}), who rallied tenaciously to hold off Buckaroo (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) in a battle between the O'Brien brothers to win the G3 Ballysax S. The race has been won 11 times by their father Aidan with such great names as Galileo himself, High Chaparral (Ire), Yeats (Ire), and Fame And Glory (GB).

Joseph O'Brien landed the 2017 running of the Balllysax with future Melbourne Cup winner Rekindling (GB) (High Chaparral {Ire}), but this year it was Donnacha's turn, with the Niarchos family's regally-bred Piz Badile, who became the first stakes winner for his sire Ulysses, a son of two Epsom stars in Galileo and the Oaks winner Light Shift (Kingmambo).

We looked at this family recently in a feature on Ulysses and his close relation Cloth Of Stars (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), who has his first juvenile runners this season. Piz Badile, who takes his name from a mountain in the Swiss Alps, has a double dose of these illustrious genes, being inbred to Lingerie (GB), by another Derby winner in Shirley Heights (GB), and whose G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup-winning daughter Shiva (Jpn) (Hector Protector) in turn produced Piz Badile's dam, the Listed winner and Group 2-placed That Which Is Not (Elusive Quality).

Enable's Family To The Fore

Andre Fabre could have an embarrassment of riches in the 3-year-old fillies' division this year with the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac winner Zellie (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), Sea The Sky (Ger) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), and the promising Raclette (GB) (Frankel {GB}) among his Classic hopes. This group also extends to Agave (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), one of three winners for the trainer at Saint-Cloud on Saturday when extending her unbeaten run to three in the G3 Prix Penelope.

Like Raclette, Agave is a Juddmonte homebred, emanating from a family which has brought the operation much success in recent seasons via its most celebrated member, Enable (GB). Agave's dam Contribution (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}) is Enable's half-sister and broke her maiden over 1m7f at Maisons-Laffitte as a 3-year-old as well as finishing third in the G2 Prix de Pomone.

With such stamina hints on her page, and having already won the Listed Prix Rose de Mai over 2,000m last month, it was no surprise to hear that Agave may go straight to the G1 Prix Saint-Alary at the end of May. A nomination for the Oaks, which closes on Tuesday, would also not be out of place.

Both group races on Saint-Cloud's Saturday card fell to the offspring of Dubawi, with the extremely likeable The Revenant (GB) adding yet another win to his tally, which now stands at 12 from his 19 starts, as well as five placed finishes.

There could hardly be a more consistent horse in training, particularly when he gets his favoured soft ground. The 7-year-old's victory in the G3 Prix Edmond Blanc was his sixth group win, that sextet including the G1 Queen Elizabeth S. of 2020.

Sly And The Family Rock

It is 16 years since Pam Sly notched the biggest success of her career when saddling Speciosa (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) to win the 1000 Guineas. The Classic heroine, who was retained as a broodmare, has been a stalwart for the Sly family and continues to give the stable plenty of cause for cheer.

Sly has had just two runners on the turf this season, and not only are they both winners, but Dark Spec (GB) (Dark Angel {Ire}) and Astral Beau (GB) (Brazen Beau {Aus}) scored with 40 minutes of each other at Leicester on Friday and are a son and grand-daughter of Speciosa respectively.

Dark Spec, now seven, must have tried the patience of his trainer, who bred and races him in partnership with her son Michael and Dr Tom Davies. Having made four starts as a 2-year-old, he was then off the track for almost four years until resuming last summer. Persistence has paid off, and he won at Pontefract on his final start of last season and again on his resumption at Leicester off a mark of 77. While he was sent off favourite on Friday, his 3-year-old 'niece' Astral Beau was one of the outsiders of the field at 50/1 for her debut in the seven-furlong novice event, but posted a professional performance to hint at plenty more to come. Her dam Asteroidea (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) was Speciosa's third foal and won over a mile and a half.

With the stable in such form, it is worth keeping an eye on the progress of Eileendover (GB) (Canford Cliffs {Ire}), another of Speciosa's grand-daughters who is a Listed bumper winner and has also won over 1m6f on the Flat. The late-maturing 5-year-old is entered in Wednesday's Listed Further Flight S. and though she will face only four rivals, one of them is Alan King's dual Group 1 winner Trueshan (Fr) (Planteur {Ire}).

Juveniles On The March

Trainer Michael O'Callaghan already has Royal Ascot ambitions for his first 2-year-old winner of the season, Crispy Cat (GB), who became the first runner from the second crop of Ardad (Ire). The Overbury Stud sire was himself a winner at the Royal meeting and provided last year's G2 Norfolk S. (and subsequent dual Group 1 winner) Perfect Power (Ire).

Crispy Cat was the subject of one of the feelgood stories of last year's yearling sales, having been bought for 7,500gns by policeman Leon Carrick and nurse Michelle Gibbons while they were lying in bed watching the the foal sales online during the pandemic. The couple brought him back to Newmarket 10 months later when Ardad's first runners had made a decent impression and the colt was resold for £105,000 to Amo Racing. Proceeds from the sale have been used to fund midwifery training for Gibbons.

The question which will loom large through the next few months is which of the freshman sires will follow Ardad's example with some sharp first-crop winners. Several Coolmore sires are already in the hunt, with Sioux Nation having been represented by the winner of the first juvenile contest of the Irish turf season in Ocean Quest (Ire), one of his three runners to date.

On Sunday at Le Lion d'Angers, Saxon Warrior (Jpn) followed suit with his first runner and winner, the smartly bred Ser Sed (Ire), who is out of a Frankel (GB) half-sister to Lope De Vega (Ire).

US Navy Flag was unlucky not to join his stud-mates in having a winner on the board when the Clive Cox-trained Kaasib (Ire) found trouble in running at Windsor on Monday but kept on gamely to take second. That same afternoon, Redcar's juvenile race went the way of Star Of Lady M (GB), from the first crop of Whitsbury Manor Stud resident Havana Grey (GB) and trained by David O'Meara.

Lemaire Takes Pride To Kentucky

“If I could choose one race, I would choose, of course, the Kentucky Derby because it's such an iconic race and the atmosphere is incredible, and the race itself with 20 runners is very unusual in America,” Christophe Lemaire told the website Japan Forward in April 2021.
Twelve months later, and the French-born multiple champion jockey in Japan appears to be on the cusp of being granted this wish. Lemaire has been given the nod to partner the G2 UAE Derby winner Crown Pride (Jpn) (Reach The Crown {Jpn}) in the 'Run for the Roses' on May 7, replacing Australian hoop Damian Lane, who was in the saddle for the colt's win at Meydan.
Lemaire did not go empty-handed on Dubai World Cup night, however, as he partnered Stay Foolish (Jpn) (Stay Gold {Jpn}) to victory in the G2 Dubai Gold Cup, having a month earlier ridden four winners on the Saudi Cup card.
With Lemaire having already won Classics in France, Britain and Japan, not to mention landing Australia's Melbourne Cup with Dunaden (Fr), the logical next challenge for the five-time Japanese champion is to conquer America.

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