Month: October 2022

Grade I Winner Happy Saver to Stand at Airdrie

Wertheimer and Frere's homebred Grade I winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Happy Saver (Super Saver–Happy Week, by Distorted Humor) will retire to Airdrie Stud in Midway, Kentucky following this year's GI Breeders' Cup Classic, Airdrie Stud announced Friday. He will stand for an initial fee of $12,500 LFSN.

Undefeated in his first five starts, Happy Saver's signature victory came in the historic GI Jockey Club Gold Cup, where he won the race as a 3-year-old in his fourth career start. Most recently, Happy Saver has finished second in each of the last four Grade I races he has contested. Those efforts include runner-up finishes to Flightline (Tapit) in the GI Metropolitan H. and Life Is Good (Into Mischief) in the GI Whitney S., races in which he finished in front of GISWs Olympiad (Speightstown), Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow), Speaker's Corner (Street Sense) and Aloha West (Hard Spun), among others.

Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher throughout his career, Happy Saver will take a lifetime record of five wins and six graded stakes placings from his 12 lifetime races and earnings of nearly $1.2 million into an expected start in the $6,000,000 GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland Nov. 5.

A regally bred son of the multiple Eclipse Award-winning sire Super Saver, Happy Saver's female family stands as one of the breed's most important. Out of the sprinting black-type Distorted Humor mare Happy Week, Happy Saver's third dam is Broodmare of the Year Weekend Surprise, dam of the champion racehorse and leading sire A.P. Indy, as well as Classic winner Summer Squall.

(Watch Happy Saver's Keeneland work Friday morning)

“Happy Saver has been a priority for our farm since the day we watched him break his maiden in his debut at Belmont,” said Airdrie's Bret Jones. “He won by five lengths that day and ran the same 1:21 and two-fifths as the seven-furlong Grade I Woody Stephens run on the same card at the same distance. It was a `wow' performance and he has validated that early impression by becoming one of the best racehorses in America. He's a direct descendent of Weekend Surprise and when you combine his female family with that of Super Saver's, it's as rich a genetic bank as any horse that will ever retire to stud. He exemplifies the Wertheimer family's best-in-class breeding program and we are so grateful that they have allowed us to partner with them on a stallion that has the speed, class and charisma to be a really special sire.”

“Winning the Jockey Club as an undefeated 3-year-old takes a very special horse, and that's exactly what we've always believed Happy Saver to be,” added Pletcher. “He's a tremendous talent and runs with as much heart as any horse we lead over. He has all the characteristics I think any breeder would look for in a young stallion.”

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Pair Can Add To Deep Impact’s Kikuka Sho Grab

With the winners of the first two legs of the Japanese Triple Crown–G1 Satsuki Sho hero Geoglyph (Jpn) (Drefong) and G1 Tokyo Yushun victor Do Deuce (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn})–targeting upcoming spots versus open rivals, Sunday's G1 Kikuka Sho (Japanese St Leger) looms a competitive affair, with a pair of colts from the penultimate crop of the last Deep Impact (Jpn)–who completed his own Triple Crown here in 2005–looming especially large. Deep Impact is already the sire of four Kikuka Sho winners.

Justin Palace (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) was Group 1-placed over 10 furlongs as a juvenile, but did not make a serious impact in the first two legs of the Triple Crown, finishing ninth in the Guineas and in the Derby. Given a four-month break, the half-brother to the GI Belmont S. hero Palace Malice (Curlin) made a smashing return to action in the G2 Kobe Shimbun Hai Sept. 25, defeating Yaminin Zest (Jpn) (Symboli Kris S) by a resounding 3 1/2 lengths, with Boldog Hos (Jpn) (Screen Hero {Jpn}) another half-length back in third.

 

 

 

“They did a good job with him at the farm before the Kobe Shimbun Hai,” said trainer Haruki Sugiyama, who will also saddle the well-fancied Gaia Force (Jpn), a son of 2015 Kikuka Sho hero Kitasan Black (Jpn). “The jockey also had some good contact with the horse before the race. In his last run, he easily got into a good position, and getting a good start does seem to be one of the keys with him.”

A ¥190 million (about $1.77 million) purchase out of the 2020 JRHA Select Yearling Sale, Justin Palace will need to be on his best gate behaviour from barrier 17.

Gaia Force is one of the fresh faces in the Kikuka Sho and is drawn at the other end of the stalls. Narrowly second to the Derby winner on debut last September, the gray has since won three of his last four, a track record-setting conditions success at Kokura (2000m in 1:56.80 July 3) and a head defeat of Ask Victor More (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) in one of the Leger trials, the G2 Asahi Hai St Lite Kinen (2200m) at Nakayama Sept. 19.

 

 

 

“After winning in record time at Kokura, the switch to Nakayama with the extra distance and strong opposition was never going to be easy, but he ran above my expectations,” Sugiyama said. “We gave him a break at the farm afterwards, as it must have taken a lot out of him, but he seems fine on his return to the stable.”

Ask Victor More got the better of Do Deuce in the G2 Deep Impact Kinen in March before finishing a respectable fifth in the Satsuki Sho and third in the Tokyo Yushun. He was just held by Gaia Force last time, but can certainly improve for that first-up run.

The post Pair Can Add To Deep Impact’s Kikuka Sho Grab appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Reach For The Moon Returns At Saint-Cloud

One-time Derby favourite Reach For The Moon (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) will return to action at Saint-Cloud on Saturday.

Connections of the John and Thady Gosden-trained colt opted to sidestep the Derby after he picked up a mid-season setback.

Instead, Reach For The Moon was aimed at Royal Ascot, where he was beaten as a 2-5 favourite behind Claymore (Fr) (New Bay {GB}) in the Hampton Court S.

Now owned by the King, he is back in action over a mile in Paris for the Group 3 Prix Perth, with Robert Havlin in the saddle.

The King's racing manager John Warren said, “We think the ground and trip should be just what we have been looking for. He needs to get back racing again and it's a shame we are nearly at the end of the season as John Gosden is very happy with him.

“We are hopeful of showing his best form, especially as his form with Bayside Boy (Ire) (New Bay {GB}) looks very solid.”

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