August, 2022 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Equibase Analysis: Spendarella, Txope Lead Full Del Mar Oaks Field

Saturday's Grade 1, $300,000 Del Mar Oaks drew a full field of 14 and promises to be an extremely exciting race considering half of the group has won a graded stakes in the U.S. or a group stakes in Europe.

Spendarella posted a pair of wins in the division in March and April when victorious in the Grade 3 Herecomesthebride Stakes and Grade 2 Appalachian Stakes before a bang-up second at Royal Ascot in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes in June. French-bred Txope, who leads the field in number of races run (12), makes her U.S. debut off a win in the Group 2 German One Thousand Guineas. Irish-bred Bellabel is undefeated in two starts since importing to the U.S. over the winter, the most recent being the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes over the Del Mar turf course.

Cairo Memories won the Grade 3 Providencia Stakes and Grade 3 Honeymoon Stakes in succession this spring before a fifth-place effort last month in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational. Great Britain-bred Tezzaray won the Grade 3 Jimmy Durante Stakes last fall at Del Mar and hopes to improve off a 10th-place San Clemente effort that followed eight months off. Lady T finished second in the Grade 2 Summertime Oaks in June before ending up fourth of 12 in the San Clemente in her first ever try on grass.

Irish-bred Island of Love won the Grade 3 Senorita Stakes in May before second- and third-place efforts in similar stakes so is yet another likely to be competitive in this field. Irish-bred Lucky Girl won the Lady Shamrock Stakes and China Doll Stakes this winter on the Santa Anita turf but has only managed a trio of fifth-place efforts since. Irish-bred Sixteen Arches was running in a stakes for the first time when closing fast from 11th to second behind Bellabel in the San Clemente and adds more depth to the field. Ballet Dancing finished third in the Honeymoon before dropping down to allowance company and flying home from 10th to second last month. That race was won by Gracelund Gray, who was returning from nearly three months off and is another who could be a factor. Irish-bred Rhea Moon rallied for third in that race and could be another filly with improving to do. Similarly, Great Britain-bred Lady Clementine finished second or third in all four starts in England before making her U.S. debut a winning one over the course just three weeks ago and although stepping up from the maiden ranks into Grade 1 competition is a big ask, she might also have what it takes to compete. Gold Dragon Queen rounds out the field, her best recent efforts were a third-place finish in the Providencia Stakes before sixth- and 12th-place efforts.

Analysis and main contenders:

Spendarella has always been cut out to be an exceptional horse on the grass, being a daughter of Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Mile winner Karakontie. She won the first three races of her career, one month apart in February, March and April of this year, the latter two stakes races in which she earned 104 and 102 Equibase Speed Figures, which are exceptional for a 3-year-old filly that early in the year.

In the first of the two stakes wins Spendarella led from start to finish beating 10 other horses in the Herecomesthebride Stakes, then one month later she relaxed off the pace to draw off late in the Appalachian Stakes. Sent to England for the prestigious Coronation Stakes, Spendarella wasn't disgraced one bit when second behind the strong four-length winner, gamely holding second by a nose and earning a field high 112 figure. She's been working very well since her return and jockey Tyler Gaffalione, who was aboard for the Appalachian, has the mount so we can expect a top effort good enough to win.

Txope is the biggest threat to Spendarella based on her race when last seen (in June) winning the German One Thousand Guineas and earning a 111 figure right there with the 112 Spendarella earned in the Coronation Stakes. She's now run 12 times, finishing first or second in eight of those, the last eight being stakes races as well. In training with John Sadler at Del Mar since the end of July, Txope has put in three consistent workouts on the Del Mar turf and appears to be handling it well. As such, she should be in a great position in the last quarter mile and has a big shot to add to her record in this year's Del Mar Oaks.

The rest of the field, with their best Equibase Speed Figures, is Ballet Dancing (94), Bellabel (95), Cairo Memories (108), Gold Dragon Queen (97), Gracelund Gray (98), Island of Love (99), Lady T (97), Lady Clementine (101), Lucky Girl (102), Rhea Moon (95), Sixteen Arches(95) and Tezzaray (88).

Top Win Contenders:

Spendarella

Txope (FR)

Del Mar Oaks – Grade 1
Race 8 at Del Mar
Saturday, August 20 – Post Time 8:30 PM E.T.
Fillies, 3-Year-Olds
1 1/8 Miles on Turf
Purse: $300,000

Ellis Starr is National Racing Analyst for Equibase

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Background Check: Alabama

In this continuing series, we examine the past winners of significant filly/mare races by the lasting influence they've had on the breed. Up today is the GI Alabama S., one of the oldest stakes races in the country.

Dating to 1872, eight years after the first Travers S. was run and 12 years after the first Queen's Plate (the oldest stakes race in North America), the Alabama is the last leg in New York's Triple Tiara following the GI Acorn S. and the GI Coaching Club American Oaks. The major-league 3-year-old filly contest was run at different distances early, but has remained a constant at 1 1/4 miles since 1917. It's a safe bet anyone with a good sophomore filly would love few things more than adding the Alabama to their win column. As with most races this old, a few years were skipped owing to various circumstances, but history has recorded 141 individual winners of the Alabama. How have they fared as broodmares?

Several Alabama winners through the years also won the GI Test S., GI CCA Oaks, GI Diana S., or GIII Schuylerville S.; please see those previous profiles for notes on broodmare phenomenons Sky Beauty, November Snow, Tempted, Busanda, Vagrancy, and Cleopatra. Following are the some of the other most important Alabama winners by what impact they have had on the breed through their sons and daughters.

Pretty Discreet (1992, Private Account–Pretty Persuasive, by Believe It): Her three stakes winners were all colts–GISWs Discreet Cat and Discreetly Mine, as well as MSW & MGISP Pretty Wild–and her three daughters to stay in this country are all stakes producers. She is also the granddam of GISW Awesome Maria, who sold for $4 million at the 2013 Keeneland November sale, and June 9 Astoria S. winner Devious Dame, the first black-type winner for freshman sire Girvin.

Heavenly Prize (1991, Seeking the Gold–Oh What a Dance, by Nijinsky II): One would expect a mare descended from Blitey and Lady Pitt to do great things and Heavenly Prize held up her end of the bargain. Her sons included MGISW Good Reward and GSW Pure Prize, while her descendants thus far include GISWs Persistently, Queen Goddess, and Instilled Regard, plus GSW & MGISP Stays in Vegas.

Versailles Treaty (1988, Danzig–Ten Cents a Dance, by Buckpasser): GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner George Vancouver is out of this mare, as is GII Remsen S. winner and GI Met Mile runner-up Saarland. Her daughters and granddaughters have produced GISW Mongolian Groom, MGSW Dragon Bay, and several other stakes performers.

Maplejinsky (1985, Nijinsky II–Gold Beauty, by Mr. Prospector): Her daughter, Sky Beauty, won the Alabama and the CCA Oaks in 1993, was named champion older mare in 1994, and captured a total of nine Grade I races before producing MGSW Hurricane Cat and a daughter who would later be granddam of GISW Violence. Maplejinsky didn't stop there. Other daughters and granddaughters have produced MGISWs Guarana, Point of Entry, Pine Island, and Tale of Ekati, as well as GI Breeders' Cup Distaff winner Pleasant Home and a slew of other high-quality stakes winners. Her great-granddaughter Magical World sold for $5.2 million at last year's Fasig-Tipton November sale, while Magical World's daughter Guarana brought $4.4 million at the same sale.

MG1SW State of Rest traces to 1979 Alabama winner It's in the Air | Sarah Andrew

It's in the Air (1976, Mr. Prospector–A Wind Is Rising, by Francis S.): This mare, often remembered as her sire's first of many champions, has had some very significant activity among her female descendants in the last year. Her MGISW granddaughter, Music Note, produced the 2021 G1 Dubai World Cup winner Mystic Guide, while another unraced granddaughter is the dam of 2021 GI Saratoga Derby Invitational S. winner State of Rest (Ire), who is also a G1 winner in England, France, and Australia. Other GI/G1 winners produced by her daughters include Musical Chimes and Storming Home (GB).

Lauries Dancer (1968, Northern Dancer–Its Ann, by Royal Gem II {Aus}): Although she didn't produce a stakes winner, this Canadian Horse of Year's daughters and granddaughters have produced MGISWs Will's Way and Tizway, as well as GISW Willa On the Move, and GISP and excellent Maryland sire Citidancer.

Fanfreluche (1967, Northern Dancer–Ciboulette, by Chop Chop): This Canadian Horse of the Year, even more famous for her abduction than for her race record, was also a remarkable producer with long-reaching influence on multiple continents. Honored as Canadian Broodmare of the Year in 1978, her own foals included two-time Canadian Horse of the Year and U.S. GISW L'Enjoleur, additional Canadian champions La Voyageuse and Medaille d'Or, GSW D'Accord, and MSW Grand Luxe. Her female-line descendants have thus far included French highweight and multiple G1SW Holy Roman Emperor (Ire), as well as European G1SWs Majestic Roi and Erupt (Ire); U.S. GISWs Aube Indienne (Fr) and Combatant; Australian G1SWs Russian Revolution (Aus), Flying Spur (Aus), Encosta de Lago (Aus), and Duais (Aus); and New Zealand G1SW Sherwood Forest (Aus).

Natashka (1963, Dedicate–Natasha, by Nasrullah {GB}): Named Broodmare of the Year in 1981, Natashka sports a long list of black-type winners tracing to her, including leading U.S. sire Elusive Quality and a number of champions.

High Bid (1956, To Market–Stepping Stone, by Princequillo {GB}): This Wheatley/Phipps mare is on this list for one very sound reason. Her first foal was Bold Bidder, not only a champion on the racetrack, but sire and broodmare sire of several luminaries. His two Kentucky Derby winners in a six-year span included one considered among the Top 10 runners of the 1900s: Horse of the Year Spectacular Bid.

Coolmore stallion Wootton Bassett is a descendant of 1931 Alabama winner Risque | Coolmore Stud

Parlo (1951, Heliopolis {GB}–Fairy Palace, by Pilate): Her daughters included 1969 Broodmare of the Year All Beautiful, who produced Horse of the Year Arts and Letters and is great-granddam of dual champion and five-time GISW Silverbulletday.

Salaminia (1937, Man o' War–Alcibiades, by Supremus): A number of stakes winners trace to this daughter of Man o' War, none more notable than English Horse of the Year and excellent sire Sir Ivor. He lives on particularly through his daughters, although his sire son, Sir Tristram (Ire), redefined the breed in Australia and New Zealand.

Risque (1928, Stimulus–Risky, by Diadumenos {GB}): 1980 Broodmare of the Year Key Bridge traces to her, as does U.S. Horse of the Year Fort Marcy and Canadian Horses of the Year Izvestia and With Approval. Champion Key to the Mint, MGISW Touch Gold, and excellent European sire Wootton Bassett (GB) are just a few on the long list of other high-class descendants of Risque.

Escutcheon (1927, Sir Gallahad III {Fr}–Affection {Fr}, by Isidor {GB}): In addition to producing Kentucky Oaks winner Mars Shield, this mare is the ancestress of Broodmares of the Year Levee and Delta, champions Shuvee, Slew o' Gold, Bayou, Smart Deb, Talking Picture, Sacahuista, Playful Act (Ire)–and many more.

Malachite (1913, Rock Sand {GB}–Miss Hanover, by Hanover): A number of stakes performers trace to this mare, most importantly 1943 Horse of the Year and Triple Crown winner Count Fleet. He was ranked among the leading sires and broodmare sires in the country for many years.

Sallie McClelland (1888, Hindoo–Red and Blue, by Alarm): This wonderful producer of yesteryear is the dam of 1904 Kentucky Oaks winner Audience and ancestress of Horses of the Year Whisk Broom II and Crusader, as well as dual champion Top Flight.

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Weekend Lineup Presented By NYRABets: All About The Fillies

This weekend's graded stakes action is highlighted by a pair of Grade 1 races for sophomore fillies, the Alabama on dirt at Saratoga and the Del Mar Oaks on turf at Del Mar. The filly trend continues on Sunday in the $1 million Queen's Plate, in which Woodbine Oaks winner Moira will take on 10 male rivals in the Canadian-bred feature.

The Alabama features the third meeting between Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Oath and CCA Oaks winner Nest, this time over 1 1/4 miles. Nest appears to be on the top of her game, but a better race setup could help Secret Oath rise to the top.

Graham Motion's Royal Ascot runner-up Spendarella is the undeniable favorite for the Del Mar Oaks, despite a 14-horse lineup in the nine-furlong turf contest. The talented filly shipped West earlier this week and has been said to be settling in well.

Sunday's highlight is the Queen's Plate, drawing a field of 11 Ontario-bred sophomores to challenge for the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown.

Also worth noting that Saturday's cards feature a couple big days for smaller tracks: the $250,000 St. Louis Derby at the former Fairmount Park, and the G3 Canadian Derby at Century Mile.

Here's a quick look at some of this weekend's graded stakes:

Saturday

4:26 p.m. – Grade 2 Lake Placid Stakes at Saratoga

With The Moonlight will look to build upon a strong win in the G3 Saratoga Oaks Invitational as she returns just 13 days later in the Lake Placid. The Lake Placid will mark the third American start for the daughter of Frankel.

Chad Brown has four chances to secure a fourth win in this event as he sends out Consumer Spending, Dolce Zel, Eminent Victor and Haughty.

Lake Placid Entries

5:35 p.m. – Grade 1 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga

Sophomore filly division leaders Nest and Secret Oath will go head-to-head for the third time this year, and second time this meet, in the Alabama. Both Nest and Secret Oath boast one victory over the other. After Secret Oath bested Nest in the G1 Kentucky Oaks on May 6 at Churchill Downs, the latter turned the tables on her foe in the G1 Coaching Club American Oaks on July 23 at Saratoga.

Nest earned a 104 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest for a 3-year-old filly this year, for her 12 1/4-length romp in the CCA Oaks for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. The astonishing score came following a run against the boys in the G1 Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets on June 11, finishing a game second to stablemate Mo Donegal.

Like Nest, Secret Oath also contested colts on the Triple Crown trail when running a troubled fourth in the Grade 1 Preakness on May 21 at Pimlico following her Kentucky Oaks conquest. She was brushed at the break and checked approaching the first turn before launching a wide a bid around the far turn, but flattened out in mid-stretch. Secret Oath fell victim to another unfavorable trip in the CCA Oaks, where she was four-wide down the backstretch and moved a path wide into the far turn. Despite drifting in at the eighth pole, she still managed to hold place honors.

Alabama Entries

8:34 p.m. – Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks at Del Mar

The bay filly Spendarella will be racing on her fourth different turf track Saturday in only her fifth start, but the way she's handled the traveling and racing so far in her brief career there's little doubt she's the one to beat in a 14-horse lineup of sophomore fillies in the Del Mar Oaks.

Spendarella, a New York-bred by the Japanese-bred sire Karakontie, has stakes wins at Gulfstream Park and Keeneland already on her ledger and she's coming into Saturday's race off a second-place finish to top European filly Inspiral in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 17. She is trained by one of America's foremost conditioners, H. Graham Motion, and will be handled by top eastern rider Tyler Gaffalione.

A trio of other fillies appear best suited to test Spendarella. They are Cairo Memories, winner of a pair of graded grass stakes at the recent Santa Anita meet; Bellabel, winner of the key prep for the Oaks, the G2 San Clemente Stakes, at Del Mar on July 23, and French-bred filly Txope, who comes into the race off a tally on June 12 in the G2 German One Thousand Guineas in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Del Mar Oaks Entries

Sunday

5:42 p.m. – $1 million Queen's Plate at Woodbine

Eleven hopefuls, including Woodbine Oaks winner Moira, and G3 Marine victor Rondure, will vie for top prize in the $1 million Queen's Plate, first leg of the OLG Canadian Triple Crown.

Trainer Kevin Attard, seeking his first Plate triumph, will be represented by Moira. Fashioning a record of 3-1-0 from four starts, including wins in the Stella Artois Fury Stakes in June and the Woodbine Oaks, the latter a 10 ¾-length romp, Moira arrives at the Plate at the top of her game.

Rondure, who will have Flavien Prat in the irons, has been equally impressive in the leadup to Sunday's race. Previously trained by Danny Vella, and now in the barn of Katerina Vassilieva, the Borders Racing Stable homebred turned heads after an emphatic 5 ½-length triumph in the G3 Marine on July 2.

Danny Vella, who won the 1994 Plate with Basqueian and the 2012 running with Strait of Dover, will go for the hat trick with The Minkster. The son of English Channel-Cabriole was undefeated in his three starts heading into the Plate Trial, when he suffered a setback dealing with heat exhaustion. Now, the bay colt, with regular rider David Moran once again aboard, will look to get back to his winning ways in the $1 million Canadian classic.

Queen's Plate Entries

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This Side Up: Baaeed News is Good News

I guess the whole point is that ours is a world apart, a sanctuary from the cares of the “real” one. But it still feels unnerving, to see a new cycle of the sales calendar open with such blithe indifference to a wider consensus that the global economy is scrabbling along the top of a precipice.

Both Saratoga and Deauville benefit from a heady atmosphere that might easily induce a perilous incaution when a yearling stands there shimmering on a sale rostrum. But it was ever thus, and the market at both Fasig-Tipton and Arqana exhibited remarkable buoyancy when measured against historic standards.

We know that bloodstock tends to lag somewhat behind other indices of recession, and conceivably this will prove to be some final, decadent flourish before the bulls start to draw in their horns. But it may also turn out, as when bloodstock showed such startling resilience during the pandemic, that the outlook simply looks different to the affluent elite on whom our industry so candidly depends. Inflation may be a bolting mustang; there may be wars and rumors of wars; political discourse may be ever more acrimoniously polarized. None of it seems to matter to these guys.

To be fair, in certain states American investors can increasingly entertain the possibility that their racetrack programs can aspire to something vaguely resembling viability–even if some benighted horsemen appear masochistically determined to erode that equation with their stubborn litigations. But the parallel strength of the market over the water suggests that a lot of people must also be animated by less tangible dividends.

(To listen to this column as a podcast, click the arrow below.)

That being so, we must always remember how destructive to our sport is the contamination of bad publicity. No shortage of that, of course, in an average week–and this one has been no different. Equally, however, we must acknowledge our debt to those priceless horses and horsemen that do succeed in capturing the public imagination; to those that intrigue outsiders, and inspire them to enter and contribute to our community, whether as fans and handicappers or as buyers of seven-figure yearlings. And it's also been a week, either side of the ocean, that has magnified those positives.

First and foremost, we have had a fresh reminder of the captivating grandeur within the compass of the Thoroughbred. Raised in distance for the first time, Baaeed (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) also raised his game anew to reach a pantheon lately shared, on European turf, perhaps only by his sire and Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}).

Someone as tediously insistent as me, on the importance of a transatlantic cross-pollination, is hardly going to neglect the opportunity to highlight the way Baaeed's pedigree combines gene pools that have since become disastrously bisected. No fewer than 11 of the 16 contributors to this grass titan's fourth generation were bred in North America. Mr. Prospector is sire not only of Baaeed's fourth dam; but also of his damsire, Kingmambo; and of Miswaki, whose daughter Urban Sea gave us Sea The Stars. And look who's here, as sire of the third dam: the great enigma himself, Arazi!

Galileo, half-brother of Sea the Stars, sire of leading stallion Frankel (GB) | Emma Berry

Sea The Stars, specifically, combines two transatlantic cocktails. Start with his sire Cape Cross (Ire). He's by Green Desert, himself a son of Danzig out of a daughter of Sir Ivor and Courtly Dee; and out of Park Appeal (Ire), whose genes (by Ahonoora (GB) out of a Balidar (GB) mare) are no less evocative of a completely different world. As for Urban Sea, the epoch-making dam of Sea The Stars (and Galileo, of course), she similarly blends a classic American brand (Miswaki was by Mr. Prospector out of a Buckpasser mare) with a mare whose parents both channelled doughty German blood.

Much the same kind of thing happens along Baaeed's bottom line. That Mr. Prospector fourth dam we just mentioned, for instance, is actually out of the British matriarch Height Of Fashion (GB), who was by Bustino (GB) and saturated with other indigenous influences. So, really, can anyone look at Baaeed's pedigree and still understand why most breeders, either side of the Atlantic, no longer want to mix turf and dirt lines?

So much for Baaeed's past. As far as his future is concerned, we must naturally yield to the judgement of those who have brought him this far with such skill. But it must be said that the horse stands in danger of leaving us with the same wistfulness as did Frankel, who similarly spent most of his career beating up proven inferiors at a mile before stepping up in trip only in his penultimate start–and in the same York race that Baaeed won this week. The plan has long been to remain in step with Frankel by also bowing out over 10 furlongs at Ascot, but the door is apparently still ajar to going to the Arc instead.

In declining to run either at Longchamp or at the Breeders' Cup, Frankel was left exposed to the charge that he never went looking for trouble. Suspecting him to be one of the best of all time, everyone was comparing him to specters past–yet he never measured himself against plenty of good ones then alive and well, and available for racetrack competition.

The fact is that Baaeed finished the new trip at York ravenously, and is a full-brother to a Group 1 winner at 12f (and Group winner at 14f). So let's hope that the desire to preserve his immaculate record does not discourage connections of another great horse from exploring the full range of his brilliance.

If a sporting gamble happened to misfire, it wouldn't take a cent off his value. In terms of his legacy, he has nothing to lose and much to gain. And, as we've been saying, there's a wider consideration–one might almost say, a wider obligation–to make this game as engrossing as we can; to showcase charisma, and retrieve the news agenda from the bad guys.

Happily, that is just what is happening at Saratoga this summer, with D. Wayne Lukas back on center stage Saturday with his latest Classic winner squaring up for her decider with Nest (Curlin). Last week we highlighted the way Lukas appears to be reversing the ageing process, as a rejuvenated force in the sales ring as well as on the racetrack. He promptly produced another exciting juvenile in Bourbon Bash (City Of Light), who won his second start by eight lengths and looks eligible to extend his trainer's record of eight wins in the GI Hopeful S.

This is the first foal out of a stakes-winning Violence mare named Buy Sell Hold. Sell or hold is an adequate conundrum for most people right now, trying to read the alarming runes in less singular markets. How long our own marketplace can remain insulated by such unquantifiable factors as horses like Baaeed, and horsemen like Lukas, remains to be seen. But history tells us that we will find out soon enough.

The post This Side Up: Baaeed News is Good News appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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