Scalding, who won a pair of Grade 3 races earlier this year, has been retired from racing due to injury, BloodHorse reports.
According to owner Robert Clay of Grandview Equine, the 4-year-old son of Nyquist suffered a leg injury while training toward a start in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes on Sept. 3 at Saratoga Race Course.
Owned by Grandview Equine in partnership with Cheyenne Stable and LNJ Foxwoods, Scalding won four of seven starts, and he earned $325,800. Shug McGaughey trained the colt.
Scalding was experiencing a career season in 2022, starting off with a maiden victory at Gulfstream Park in January. He shipped to Tampa Bay Downs a month later to take an allowance optional claiming race, then he tested graded stakes company for the first time and emerged victorious in the Grade 3 Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay. The colt then shipped to Keeneland, where he won the G3 Ben Ali Stakes.
His final start came in the listed Blame Stakes on July 4 at Churchill Downs, where he finished third.
Some of the most highly anticipated races during the summer racing season are the 'baby' races during the boutique meetings at both Saratoga and Del Mar and at Ellis Park, which attracts its fair share of high-priced offspring from a variety of top national outfits. Summer Breezes highlights debuting 2-year-olds at those meetings that have been sourced at the breeze-up sales earlier in the year, with links to their under-tack previews. Already this year at Saratoga, City Man (Mucho Macho Man), Mo Strike (Uncle Mo) and Empress Tigress (Classic Empire)–each a graduate of the 2-year-old sales–have already struck at stakes level, while the likes of juvenile purchases and 'TDN Rising Stars'Taiba (Gun Runner), We The People (Constitution) and Onesto (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) have also left their mark on graded/group competition this season. To follow are the horses entered for Saturday:
Saturday, August 6, 2022 Saratoga 1, 12:35 p.m. ET Horse (Sire), Sale, Price, Breeze Moonflyer (Good Magic), FTMMAY, $45,000, click C-Scanlon Training & Sales, agent; B-Rudy Rodriguez (PS)
Ellis 3, 2:46 p.m. ET Happy Is a Choice (Runhappy), OBSAPR, $160,000, click C-de Meric Sales, agent; B-Hooties Racing LLC Level Up (Uncle Mo), OBSMAR, $210,000, click C-de Meric Sales, agent; B-Tropical Racing Inc Pace (Dialed In), OBSAPR, $90,000, click C-Niall Brennan Stables, agent; B-Calumet Farm Webslinger (Constitution), OBSJUN, $50,000, click C-Blue River Bloodstock Inc, agent; B-D J Stable LLC
Del Mar 5, 7:04 p.m. Air Kenney (Goldencents), FTMMAY, $60,000, click C-Grassroots Training & Sales, agent; B-Meah/Lloyd, agent Dr. Soulfire (West Coast), FTMMAY, $300,000,see below C-Wavertree Stables Inc (C Dunne), agent; B-Dennis O'Neill Heartbreak Kid (Good Samaritan), OBSMAR, $65,000, click C-Little Farm Equine, agent; B-Bob Feld Bloodstock Mucino (Nyquist) (AE), OBSAPR, $115,000, click C-Wavertree Stables Inc (Ciaran Dunne), agent; B-Doug O'Neill, agent for Alejandro Mercado Storm the Night (Midnight Storm), OBSAPR, $70,000,click C-S G V T'breds (Steven Venosa), agent; B-G Papaprodromou
The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame is a great place to summon goosebumps from devoted race fans, and Friday's Hall of Fame induction ceremony was no exception. It's easy to forget, as the racing season goes on, just how much a great horse thrilled you, but Beholder reminded even the most experienced owners and trainers of that feeling on Aug. 5.
Before the acceptance speech for each inductee, the Hall of Fame plays a video highlighting of the horse or human's career. A replay of Beholder's dramatic dogfight with the previously-undefeated Songbird in the stretch of the 2016 Breeders' Cup Distaff drew thunderous applause from the attendees at the Fasig-Tipton pavilion, even in an audience that had certainly seen it many times before.
Beholder won four Eclipse Awards in her remarkable career for trainer Richard Mandella and Spendthrift Farm, collecting 18 wins from 26 starts, 11 of which were Grade 1s. She has three Breeders' Cup victories — two in the Distaff, one in the Juvenile Fillies — and beat the boys in the 2015 Pacific Classic.
Spendthrift Farm owner Eric Gustavson accepted the Hall of Fame honor on behalf of Beholder and took the time to thank each person who worked with her in her journey, from her breeder Clarkland Farm to the people who started her under saddle, consigned and sold her, cared for her on lay-up and conditioned her on the track. There was one person, Gustavson said, who was really key in her journey but missing from the auditorium — Spendthrift founder B. Wayne Hughes, who died in August 2021.
“He should be standing here right now instead of me,” Gustavson said. “Wayne never really got too attached to racehorses. They meant a lot to him, but he just wasn't one to let his emotions come along for the ride. Until Beholder, that is. She changed him in that regard. Following her impressive win in the Pacific Classic against the boys he said, 'I've had a few good horses in the past. She's the first horse who makes me feel lucky to be the owner. I've never had that feeling before. I think it's called pride.'”
Robert Masterson, owner of fellow inductee Tepin, was also grateful to the people who made his journey with the big filly a special one. Masterson particularly recalled the fan following she inspired, from the family wearing homemade t-shirts to the crowds chanting her name at Woodbine and Santa Anita, to the couple who named their child after her.
“She just had a way of capturing people,” Masterson said.
Additional honorees on Friday included historical entrants Hillsdale, Royal Heroine and Oscar White, and Pillars of the Turf James Cox Brady, Marshall Whiting Cassidy, and James Ben Ali Haggin.
Cassidy was known for creating or improving a number of innovations that impact the way we view racing today, including the modern starting gate, photo finish technology, medication testing, electronic timing, and pre-race veterinary examinations. Cassidy's great-granddaughter, Cindy Hlywa, recalled that the great honor of the Hall of Fame induction added to the legend of a fascinating, adventurous life. Hlywa recalled stories from her father (also named Marshall Cassidy) about the elder Cassidy, including tales of his capture and escape from Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa in Juárez, his stint as a frequent taxi driver to Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, and the time he decided he wanted to fly his plane to work and landed in the infield of Belmont Park. (Local police showed up to the track to arrest him for violating air traffic control laws, but since Hlywa says “the story ends there, we gather he talked his way out of that one.”)
You can watch the complete induction ceremony, including the traditional gathering of Hall of Fame trainers and jockeys at the beginning of the event, below.
Whisper Hill Farm homebred Charge It (Tapit) took another step forward for the GI Runhappy Travers S. with a half-mile breeze Friday at Saratoga. He was clocked in :48.77 for his second drill since a 23-length win in the GIII Dwyer S. July 2 at Belmont for trainer Todd Pletcher.
“He went really well, five-eighths by himself in 1:01 and change. He had a super strong gallop out, pulled up the mile in 1:42,” Pletcher said. “Essentially, we're trying to follow the same program we did leading up to the Dwyer and he seems to be doing everything the right way.”
Later, Pletcher sent Nest (Curlin) to work in company with champion Malathaat (Curlin) for a half-mile breeze. Working on the outside, Nest went in :49.78 seconds in her first breeze since taking the GI Coaching Club American Oaks July 23. She is on target for the GI Alabama S. Aug. 20 at Saratoga, but Pletcher said the filly is still possible for the Travers.
“She worked well this morning and we're targeting the Alabama at the moment,” Pletcher said. “We haven't ruled anything out ye,t but right now we're leaning towards the Alabama.”
