November, 2022 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Keystone Field’s Jewel Win Gives Maker 22nd Claiming Crown Victory

Keystone Field, owned by Kirk Wycoff's Three Diamonds Farm, swept past early leaders Benevengo and Frosted Grace leaving the final turn and determinedly turned back a late charge by 2-1 favorite Intrepid Heart to win Saturday's $199,875 Claiming Crown Jewel at Churchill Downs – the most lucrative of eight starter allowance races for the nation's top claiming-level horses – by a half-length.

The Jewel, a 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and up that raced for a claiming price of $35,000 or less in 2021-22, headlined Saturday's 24th annual Claiming Crown Championship Series, which was staged at Churchill Downs for the first time. Inaugurated in 1999 at Canterbury Park in Minnesota, the Claiming Crown had been staged for the last decade at Gulfstream Park in south Florida. In its Louisville debut, the Claiming Crown lured blue-collar horses from around the country.

Keystone Field stopped the teletimer in 1:53.29 over the main dirt track that was rated “sloppy” following more than an inch of early morning precipitation in the Louisville area, which included snow flurries as temperatures dipped into the mid-30s.

“We knew when it came up sloppy that a son of Candy Ride should handle the surface great,” Wycoff said.

Gerardo Corrales rode the winner for trainer Mike Maker, who collected his second Claiming Crown win on the day and record-extending 22nd victory in the championship series. Earlier, Maker won the $109,850 Glass Slipper with Paradise Farms Corp.'s Invaluable ($8.18), who was ridden by Luis Saez.

“We knew this horse had good turf form but we thought we could improve him getting him on the dirt,” Maker said. “He had a great trip today and handled the sloppy track very well.”

Keystone Field earned $113,000 for the win and improved his record to 21-6-2-3—$391,529. He paid $15.78, $6.76 and $5.28 at odds of 6-1.

“When I bet he was 10-1 and got backed pretty heavily after that,” Wycoff said. “I left the (Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale) a few hours ago and it's a great sale but winning races is better. … (Intrepid Heart) ran well on his outside but we ended up getting the jump on him from the inside.”

Intrepid Heart, ridden by Tyler Gaffalione, returned $3.68 and $2.90. Benevengo, with Saez up, was another 7 ¼ lengths back in third and paid $4.20.

Tiz Rye Time, Digital, Decision Maker, Frosted Grace, defending champion Twelve Volt Man and Calibrator completed the order of finish. Ournationonparade was scratched.

Keystone Field became eligible for the Jewel while winning a Jan. 7 race at Santa Anita while running for a $25,000 claiming tag. Previously owned by Perry R. Bass II and Ramona S. Bass and trained by Richard Mandella, he was privately purchased following a fourth-place finish in a $25,000 starter allowance on March 19 and came to Kentucky. This marked his third victory in five dirt starts since the purchase.

“I was delighted to see the Claiming Crown come to Churchill,” Wycoff said. “We actually purchased this horse from California to run it back on the dirt. That usually isn't what we do, it's usually the other way around (dirt to turf).”

Keystone Field is a 7-year-old gelded son of Candy Ride (ARG) out of the In Excess (IRE) mare She's an Eleven and was bred in Kentucky by C R K Stables LLC.

Also on the Claiming Crown card, trainer Tom Van Berg and jockey Florent Geroux teamed to win their second Claiming Crown race of the day when The Queens Jules ($19.14) determinedly surged back from the inside rail to hang a nose on Divine Leader in the $138,755 Rapid Transit. Earlier, Petit Verdot ($6.42) won the $160,600 Tom Metzen Memorial. Both horses were owned by Van Berg's partnership Grit to Glory Racing. Van Berg also saddled the winner of the first race, an $8,000 claiming event, with Justin's Quest ($4.66) for three wins on the day.

Paco Lopez rode two winners to extend his Claiming Crown win record to 16. He won the $167,150 Tiara aboard Out of Sorts ($14.08) for owner John Fanelli and trainer Bobby Mosco, and concluded the program with a triumph aboard FAS Racing (Adis Smajlovic)'s Palace Coup ($4.14) in the $160,010 Emerald for trainer Joe Sharp, who also trains Intrepid Heart.

Out of Sorts was one of two horses who shipped in from Pennsylvania's Parx to win a Claiming Crown event. The other was Gregg O'Donnell's Hero Tiger ($10.32) in the $106,899 Ready's Rocket Express for trainer John Kirby and the second Claiming Crown win of the day for Saez.

All other Claiming Crown winners were based in Kentucky, including Jeff A. Hiles and Thorndale Stable LLC's Time for Trouble ($18.08), who won the $108,433 Iron Horse Kent Stirling Memorial for Hiles and jockey Joe Talamo.

The Canterbury Tom Metzen Memorial, Tiara and Emerald were transferred from turf to dirt because of snowfall.

Racing at Churchill Downs continues Sunday with a 10-race card that features a trio of $300,000 stakes: the Grade 3 River City for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/8 miles on turf; $300,000 Bet On Sunshine (Listed) for sprinters at six furlongs; and $300,000 Dream Supreme (Listed) for filly and mare sprinters at six furlongs. There also is a $36,023 carryover in the 20-cent Derby City 6 and a $6,987 carryover in the $1 Super Hi 5. First post is 1 p.m.

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$215,000 Weanling Filly By Vekoma Tops Saturday’s Keeneland Session

Frankie's Stable paid $215,000 for a weanling filly from the first crop of multiple Grade 1 winner Vekoma to lead Saturday's sixth session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.

Out of Truckstop Diamond, a winning daughter of Flat Out, the filly is from the family of Grade 2 winner Gold Meadow Dancer. She was consigned by Grovendale Sales, agent. Vekoma stands at Spendthrift Farm.

Keeneland sold 246 horses on Saturday for $9,596,900, a dip of 8.66 percent from the sixth session last year when 271 horses brought $10,507,100. The average of $39,012 is slightly above $38,772 from 2021, and the median of $30,000 is 15.38 percent higher than last year's $26,000.

Through six sessions, a total of 1,287 horses have sold for $192,033,900 to mark an 8.67 percent increase over the corresponding period last year when 1,391 horses brought $176,713,100. The average rose 17.45 percent from $127,040 to $149,210, while the median of $77,000 is 2.67 percent above $75,000 from last year.

Street Slayer, a 3-year-old filly by Street Sense who is a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Biddy Duke, was purchased by JCB Stables for $170,000. Consigned by Lane's End, agent, she is from the family of North American champions Folklore and Essential Quality and Japanese champion Contrail. Street Slayer's dam is the winning Ghostzapper mare Ghostslayer.

Lane's End was the session's leading consignor with sales of $1,459,500 for 34 horses.

Doc Girl, a 4-year-old winning daughter of Elusive Quality in foal to Frosted, sold to BBA Ireland for $165,000. A half-sister to stakes winner Doc Boy, she is from the family of champion Perfect Sting and Grade 3 winner Smart Sting. Doc Girl, who was consigned by Bluewater Sales, agent, is out of the Lemon Drop Kid mare Peggy May.

Two horses sold for $150,000 each.

Reeves Thoroughbred Racing paid the amount for a weanling colt by Liam's Map consigned by Lane's End, agent. Out of Bitter Lemon, by Lemon Drop Kid, he is from the family of Grade 2 winner Snit and Grade 3 winner Blind Date.

Grapevine, a 4-year-old winning daughter of Flatter in foal to Volatile, sold for $150,000 to Girvin's Girls. Consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent, she is out of the Grade 3-winning Indian Charlie mare Rumor and from the family of champion Phone Chatter and Grade 1 winners Dixie Chatter and In Lingerie.

The session's leading buyer was Pin Oak Stud, which paid $362,000 for four horses.

The November Breeding Stock Sale continues Sunday and runs through Wednesday, Nov. 16, with all sessions beginning at 10 a.m. ET.

On Thursday, Nov. 17, Keeneland will present the November Horses of Racing Age Sale. The auction starts at noon.

All Keeneland sales are streamed live on Keeneland.com.

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Bipartisanship Ships West For Motion To Win Kathryn Crosby Stakes

The eastern shipper Bipartisanship brought her running shoes with her and put them to good use Saturday at Del Mar as she came rolling in the lane to capture the afternoon's feature, the $83,700 Kathryn Crosby Stakes on the turf course. She ran the mile distance in 1:37.27 at the seaside oval north of San Diego, Calif.

The winner, a 4-year-old British-bred daughter of the Dansili sire Bated Breath, races in the silks of Fortune Racing LLC and is trained by top eastern conditioner H. Graham Motion, who has dabbled and then some at Del Mar before. This was his eighth local stakes tally.

Finishing a length behind Bipartisanship in the filly/mare test was Hronis Racing or West Point Thoroughbreds' Gold for Kitten, who was a neck better than Marsha Naify's Royal Address.

Bipartisanship was handled by Juan Hernandez, who also was the winner of the Let It Ride overnight stakes on Del Mar's opening day card Friday and is currently the meet's leading rider. He was Del Mar's top rider both this past summer and last fall.

The overnight stakes paid $49,320 to the winning connection and pushed their filly's bankroll up to $175,093. It was her third win in eight U.S. starts after failing to click in four outings in Ireland.

Bipartisanship returned $8.40, $4.80 and $3.60. Gold for Kitten paid $10.20 and $7.00, while Royal Address returned $7.80 to show.

Racing at Del Mar continues on Sunday with a nine-race program starting at 12:30 p.m.

JUAN HERNANDEZ (Bipartisanship, winner) – “Alice (assistant trainer Alice Clapham) told me that she is a real straightforward filly; that you could pretty much do whatever you wanted with her, that she'd put herself in the race. She pretty much did; she found a good spot and I just stayed there. Coming for home I saw some room on the rail and began to go there. But they closed that up pretty quick, so I went outside. Then she got it done.”

ALICE CLAPHAM (Bipartisanship, winner) – “She had a break and we ran her back at Keeneland. She ran fourth there and had a really tough trip that day. So, we knew she was ready for a nice run. She saved all the ground and waited and when she got the gap … she's got that nice little kick.”

FRACTIONS: :23.46 :48.16 1:14.47 1:25.97 1:37.27

The stakes win was the second of the meet for rider Hernandez, but first in the Kathryn Crosby. He now has 29 stakes wins at Del Mar.

The stakes win was the first of the meet for trainer Motion and his first in the Kathryn Crosby. He now has eight stakes wins at Del Mar.

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Maker, Van Berg Win Two Each on Snow-Tinged Claiming Crown

Trainer Mike Maker racked up his 20th and 21st Claiming Crown victories on Saturday, extending his lifetime lead among conditioners in that annual series by saddling Keystone Field (Candy Ride {Arg}) to a determined half-length win in the featured $175,000 Jewel.

But while Maker's familiar presence in the winner's circle underscored his resilience in the event often described as the “blue-collar Breeders' Cup,” a trainer taking his first crack at the Claiming Crown, Tom Van Berg, also registered two series victories and added a third on the undercard for a three-win afternoon.

The Claiming Crown, which began in 1999 as a way to showcase and reward horses who compete in the types of races that form the backbone of day-to-day American racing, is a partnership between the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association. After initially rotating among smaller tracks in its formative years, Gulfstream Park had evolved into the host track over the past decade.

But for 2022, the Claiming Crown switched sites to Churchill Downs, and the series was moved up from early December to the Saturday after the Breeders' Cup, a spot where it faced practically zero simulcast competition in terms of marquee events on the national calendar.

Speculation had been rife over the past several months about whether Churchill Downs would actually be able to host turf racing for the Claiming Crown because of the fragile condition of its slow-to-grow $10 million grass course. But Mother Nature interceded on the morning of Nov. 13 by dusting Louisville with early-season snow and freezing temperatures, making it a necessity for track management to move all scheduled turf races to the sloppy and sealed main track.

As if the gray, chilly conditions weren't enough to underscore the hardscrabble nature of the claiming event, Van Berg's two wins for his ownership outfit, Grit to Glory Racing, LLC, lent additional support in the form of an appropriate name: Not only because “grit to glory” is a catchphrase that epitomizes the Claiming Crown, but because those words were also the subtitle of a biography written about Tom Van Berg's father, the late, great Hall-of-Fame trainer Jack Van Berg.

“This is the first time we've participated in it as a stable,” Tom Van Berg said of the eight-race Claiming Crown slate that featured $1.05 million in guaranteed purses, plus additional funding from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund. “When we heard the news it was coming to Churchill, it made a big difference on who we ran and how many we ran. I think if it was in Florida, we'd probably have taken one down there. Instead we have five in today, so [the series being at Churchill] made a big difference for us.”

Another twist this year was that the Claiming Crown races, which have traditionally been conducted under starter allowance conditions but called stakes, couldn't technically be called “stakes” this year because the Claiming Crown would then be subject to no-Lasix restrictions that are required for stakes. But even though not designated as black-type, the races for the most part retained their traditional naming to keep continuity with previous editions.

In the featured nine-furlong Jewel, the Maker-trained Keystone Field opened up with a big move off the far turn and then grudgingly stayed on late at 6-1 odds in 1:53.29 under Gerardo Corrales.

The 7-year-old gelding is now 6-for-21 lifetime for owner Three Diamonds Farm (Kirk Wycoff).

“We knew when it came up sloppy that a son of Candy Ride should handle the surface great,” Wycoff said. “I left the [Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale] a few hours ago, and it's a great sale-but winning races is better.”

One of trainer Van Berg's two wins for his Grit to Glory partnership came in the $125,000 Rapid Transit over seven furlongs. The Queens Jules (Scat Daddy) provided the most exciting finish of the day by clawing back the lead when headed in deep stretch and scoring by the barest of nostrils with Florent Geroux up in 1:25.10 for seven furlongs at 8-1 odds. The 7-year-old gelding has switched barns via the claim box weight times in 59-race career prior to earning win number 12 on Saturday.

That same owner/trainer/jockey combo teamed for a win by Petit Verdot (Vancouver {AUS}) in the $150,000 Canterbury Tom Metzen Memorial, moved from the grass to 5 ½ furlongs over the slop and reduced to a field of five after six scratches. The 4-year-old gelding forced the issue near the front end to register a length-of-stretch, head-bob victory at 2-1 odds in 1:05.52. Petit Verdot had been claimed in his last three starts of 2021 prior to a four-win campaign so far this season, with eight in-the-money finishes from 10 tries.

On a day when Kentucky-based horses enjoyed a six-win, home-court advantage, Parx-based horses shipped in to snag two Claiming Crown races.

In the off-the-turf $150,000 Tiara for distaffers at 1 1/16 miles, Out of Sorts (Dramedy) demonstrated why she's now 3-for-3 on wet dirt tracks. She roared home by 10 lengths in 1:47.34 for trainer Robert Mosco and owner John Fanelli, with Paco Lopez up at 6-1 odds.

The 4-year-old filly had been claimed for $25,000 by those connections out of her most recent start, an Oct. 4 wire job back at Parx, and Saturday's blowout win returned nearly four times that investment in immediate purse dividends.

One race later, in the $100,000 Ready's Rocket Express, Philly connections struck again, with 6-year-old gelding Hero Tiger (Hero of Order) splashing past rivals at the sixteenth pole to tally by 1 ¼ lengths in the $100,000 Iron Horse Kent Stirling Memorial in 1:11.89 for six furlongs. Trained by third-generation horseman John T. Kirby for owner Gregg O'Donnell, it was the second Claiming Crown win on the day for jockey Luis Saez.

To win the Express, the 4-1 Hero Tiger had to run down 2-1 favorite Beverly Park (Munnings), who snatched the lead on far turn but couldn't sustain his bid, fading to fourth in an attempt to win his 13th race of the year from 26 starts. Beverly Park's 12 victories in 2022 are still good enough for winningest horse on the continent honors, with his next closest rival four wins behind.

In the $150,000 Emerald, the even-money Palace Coup (Bernardini) pressed the pace and drew away late for a two-length score for owner FAS Racing (Adis Smajlovic) and trainer Joe Sharp in 1:46.40 for 1 1/16 miles in an off-the-turfer, giving jockey Lopez his second Claiming Crown winner of the day.

The one-turn-mile $100,000 Glass Slipper was won by Invaluable (Include) for owner Paradise Farms Corp. (Peter Proscia), providing Claiming Crown doubles for trainer Maker and jockey Saez. Off at 3-1, the speed-centric 5-year-old mare won by 1 ½ lengths in 1:39.84. Claimed six times in her 24-race career, from $50,000 all the way down to $8,000, Invaluable is now 3-for-7 on wet tracks and was re-equipped with blinkers for first time in two years.

Time for Trouble (English Channel) won the $100,000 Iron Horse Kent Sterling Memorial for trainer Jeff Hiles, who also owns the 5-year-old gelding in partnership with Thorndale Stable, LLC (Paul Parker). Joe Talamo engaged in a long, grind-'em-down effort before drawing away late by 3 ¼ lengths in 1:46.79 for 1 1/16 miles. Since being claimed on June 18, 2021, for $8,000, Time For Trouble has won five of eight over varying surfaces and distances, including firm and good turf, plus fast and slop on the main track, all the way up to 1 3/8 miles in distance.

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