December, 2022 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Mind Your Biscuits Colts Takes Derby Points Race at Kawasaki

Jockey Fuma Matsuwaka conjured up one final late surge from third favorite Derma Sotogake (Jpn) (Mind Your Biscuits) and was up on the wire to take out Wednesday's Zen-Nippon Nisai Yushun at Kawasaki Racecourse, earning 20 points to go to the head of the class on the Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby.

Settled in mid-division and well off the inside for the run up the backstretch, the chestnut still had several lengths to find as 6-5 favorite Perriere (Jpn) (Henny Hughes) went for home. The latter began to look for the line and was overtaken to his inside by Omatsuri Otoko (Jpn) (Vittorio d'Oro) in the dying yards, but Derma Sotogake finished over the top of that one for the victory.

Derma Sotogake, unplaced in a pair of turf tries, but two-for-three on dirt prior to Wednesday's race, is the second stakes winner for Mind Your Biscuits, who has been represented by no fewer than 27 individual winners from his first crop to the races and is a near lock to be crowned champion freshman sire.

The winner's dam, who took this track's Listed Kanto Oaks in 2013, is a half-sister to Group 3 winner Million Disk (Jpn) (Afleet) and MGSP Request Song (Jpn) (Symboli Kris S). Amour Poesie's weanling filly by New Year's Day fetched $240,138 at this year's JRHA Select Sale and she is due to foal a full-sibling to Derma Sotogake in 2023.

The next race on the Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby is the Listed Hyacinth S. going a mile at Tokyo Feb. 19.

Wednesday, Kawasaki, Japan
ZEN-NIPPON NISAI YUSHUN (Jpn-G1)-Listed (Second Leg Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby), ¥71,400,000, Kawasaki, 12-14, 2yo, 1600m, 1:43.30, yl.
1–DERMA SOTOGAKE (JPN), 121, c, 2, by Mind Your Biscuits
1st Dam: Amour Poesie (Jpn) (SW-Jpn, $543,569), by Neo Universe (Jpn)
2nd Dam: Happy Request (Jpn), by Tony Bin (Ire)
3rd Dam: April Sonnett, by Dike
1ST STAKES WIN. (¥18,000,000 Ylg '21 JRHAJUL). O-Hiroyuki Asanuma; B-Shadai Farm; T-Hidetaka Otonashi; J-Fuma Matsuwaka; ¥42,000,000. Lifetime Record 6-3-0-1, ¥59,734,000. *Second stakes winner for freshman sire (by Posse).
2–Omatsuri Otoko (Jpn), 121, c, 2, Vittorio d'Oro–Matsuri Bayashi (Jpn), by Smart Boy (Jpn). (¥14,300,000 Ylg '21 HOKSUM). O-Kohei Koreeda; B-Grand Farm; ¥14,700,000.
3–Perriere (Jpn), 121, c, 2, Henny Hughes–Soft Rime (Jpn), by Fuji Kiseki (Jpn). (¥11,000,000 Ylg '21 HOKSUM). O-Yuji Hasegawa; B-Champions Farm; ¥8,400,000.
Margins: HD, 1, 3. Odds : 4.60, 2.40, 1.20.

WATCH: Derma Sotogake gets up late at Kawasaki

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Pin Oak Stud Names Jeff Danford New Farm Manager

Former WinStar Farm broodmare manager Jeff Danford has been named farm manager at Pin Oak Stud near Versailles, Ky. The farm was sold earlier this year to Jim and Dana Bernhard after the passing of Josephine Abercrombie this January.

“Leaving WinStar was a difficult decision and I want to thank Kenny and Lisa Troutt for all they have done for me over the past nine years,” said Danford. “I am excited about this new opportunity and am thankful to Jim and Dana Bernhard for trusting me with the duties at Pin Oak. Pin Oak has such a great history and it is an honor to be part of this new chapter.”

Prior to his time at WinStar, Danford had also been at Overbrook Farm, Starwood Farm, Margaux Farm, and Crestwood Farm. Originally from Southern Illinois, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture from Missouri's Truman State University.

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Colonial Shifting To Weekend Racing For 2023

The 2023 racing dates at Colonial Downs will hold steady at the same 27-program level that the turf-focused track ran this year, but the full first season under the ownership of the gaming company Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), will see a shift to Thursday-through-Saturday racing instead of the Virginia track's traditional Monday-through-Wednesday slot.

The number of racing dates had been a concern for mid-Atlantic horsemen who were leery about CDI bloating the racing schedule beyond what the region's horse population might be able to sustain.

Those concerns were raised back in July, when Bill Carstanjen, CDI's chief executive officer, said during a quarterly earnings conference call that it would be CDI's intent to expand the current boutique-styled summer race meet from 27 to 50 dates, for the purpose of maximizing the number of historical horse racing machines (HRMs) that it can operate throughout Virginia. A state law requires CDI to run one race date for every 100 HRMs.

“Over the next two to four years we expect to grow to up to 50 race dates as we reach 5,000 HRMs,” Carstanjen said in that July 28 call.

At that time, Frank Petramalo Jr., the executive director of the Virginia Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, told TDN that given the current harmony among racing schedules in the mid-Atlantic, “it's important to continue a cooperative relationship between Virginia and Maryland and Delaware [and] certainly Pennsylvania….. We have a lot of racing [in the region] and a diminishing number of horses. We think the way to success is to try to rationalize racing programs.”

The July 13-Sept. 9 schedule for 2023 was approved unanimously Dec. 14 by the Virginia Racing Commission.

The highlight of the meet, the GII Virginia Derby, will be run on closing day.

The switch to Thursday-Saturday racing “will allow for more Virginians to attend and enjoy live racing,” Jack Sours, the vice president for CDI's gaming operations, said in a press release.

But nationally, Colonial's switch to different dates and a 1:30 p.m. Eastern first post will put it in direct competition with Saratoga Race Course, the nation's dominant summer simulcast signal, and up against another CDI-owned track, Ellis Park, on Saturdays and Sundays.

After being closed for six years, Colonial reopened under new management in 2019, ushering in the HRM-fueled purse era in Virginia and carving out a reputation as an independent “comeback” track whose niche was turf racing.

In February 2022, CDI commenced a deal to buy Colonial and its HRM network in a sale announced as $2.485 billion.

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World Cups Ruled Out For Cody’s Wish; Met Mile, Breeders’ Cup Named Primary 2023 Targets

Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Cody's Wish will not target the Pegasus World Cup, Saudi Cup, or Dubai World Cup in 2023, reports the Thoroughbred Racing Commentary. The 2022 Secretariat Vox Populi Award winner captured the hearts of the racing world for his relationship with young Cody Dorman and his dramatic victory at Keeneland in November, but it could be several months before he's seen on the racetrack again.

Godolphin's soon-to-be 5-year-old son of Curlin will be aimed at the premier one-mile races in the United States: the G1 Met Mile and a repeat in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.

“We know he is a specialist seven-furlong, one-mile, one-turn horse – I know at Keeneland he did the two turns – but we feel that's the best configuration of a racetrack for him and we can get more of those in America,” Michael Banahan, Godolphin USA's director of bloodstock, told TRC. “We are working back from the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita next year to try and repeat what he did already.”

Prior to the Met Mile, the Bill Mott-trained Cody's Wish could target the seven-furlong Churchill Downs Stakes (G1) on Kentucky Derby weekend.

In the meantime, Cody's Wish is taking a “working break” in Florida.

Read more at the Thoroughbred Racing Commentary.

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