January, 2023 | Horse Racing Free Tips

‘Why Not?’ Kruljac Hopes Cal-Bred Clouseau Can Take Him To Preakness Stakes

Borrowing a tagline from the California Thoroughbred Breeders' Association, it pays to own a Cal-bred if you're the connections of 3-year-old Clouseau, who on Friday became the first two-time winner at the Classic meet at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif.

After earning his diploma against state-breds going six furlongs on dirt here Jan. 6, Clouseau returned in a first-level state-bred allowance going the same trip and scored at 7-1 for trainer Ian Kruljac. Clouseau's winning time of 1:10.52 was nearly equal that of the 1:10.47 posted later on the card by the hard-hitting 5-year-old Saffa's Day in a $32,000 claimer.

As for Clouseau, he is about as well-pedigreed a Cal-bred as you will find. Bred by PT Syndicate #1 LLC, the bay colt is by top Kentucky-based stallion Distorted Humor out of the winning mare English Garden, who herself is a daughter of classic winner Bernardini.

Clouseau went through the sale's ring at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton California Fall Yearlings and Horses of All Ages Sale where he commanded $150,000, which was among the highest-prices paid at the auction. The buyer? Eric Kruljac, a longtime Santa Anita-based trainer and Ian's father.

“I have a guy. He's got a pretty good eye,” Ian Kruljac quipped Saturday morning.

Last fall, Clouseau kicked off his career with two uneventful starts on turf, both while wearing blinkers.

“He's always had a great mind on him, but after that last start (as a 2-year-old) we took the blinkers off and completely started over with him,” Ian Kruljac said. “Then we sprinted him on dirt (for his maiden win), which looking back we should have done in the first place.”

In Friday's allowance win, Clouseau broke from the rail and stalked the pace on the inside under Geovanni Franco. Clouseau stayed on the rail in the stretch and at the sixteenth pole, drew alongside the two leaders and drove past to the wire to win by three-quarters of a length.

“I was happy he was not too far out of it,” said Kruljac, who operates a stable of seven horses at Santa Anita with Clouseau being one of two Cal-breds.

“I think he's going to be a versatile horse, so we wanted him to settle to help when he goes two turns.”

Clouseau is owned by an extensive ownership group that includes ISK Racing Stable, Doug Hames, Rebekah Lawless, Tom Lawless, Frank Lewkowitz and Karen Lewkowitz.

As you may have presumed, Kruljac confirmed the colt was named by Frank Lewkowitz as an ode to Inspector Jacques Clouseau from The Pink Panther series.

“Dr. Frank Lewkowitz is a longtime owner with our family and can be funny with his names like that,” Kruljac said.

As for what's next for Clouseau, Kruljac said “whatever Cal-bred stakes comes up.”

But that's not all Kruljac is thinking. He has even bigger game on his mind come spring.

“The Preakness,” he said of the second jewel of the Triple Crown.

The Preakness for a Cal-bred?

“Why not?”

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‘Stuff Does Not Fall In Your Lap In This Game’: Jockey Maddie Rowland Begins Journeyman Career

Sunday is the first day of the rest of Maddie Rowland's life.

Her new life, as a journeywoman jockey.

Today marked an entire year since her fifth career victory, meaning the 19-year-old can no longer ride with an apprentice weight allowance that has made her services valuable to a wide number of trainers.

It's typical for horsemen to flee from newly-turned journeymen and journeywomen riders, unless they're blessed with Steve Cauthen-esque talent. Rowland may have already discovered that truth, as she is named to ride one horse today and two on Wednesday.

Her business had already slowed during a zero-for-58 stretch at Tampa Bay Downs from mid-December through Jan. 22 (she won a race on Jan. 14 at Gulfstream aboard Bahamian Moon for owners Ridenjac Racing and David F. Kegley and trainer Carlos David).

Rowland finally broke her Oldsmar dry spell Friday in dramatic fashion, winning the eighth race on 67-1 shot Commander Keith for owner Jim Thomas and trainer Brian Lusk. Fans surrounding the winner's circle applauded warmly for Rowland, fans who remember how she took Tampa Bay Downs by storm last season by finishing ninth in the standings with 34 victories, earning a Jockey of the Month Award and riding four winners here on the May 7 Kentucky Derby Day card.

Fans who like rooting for a teenager who is not afraid to challenge the established forces.

Rowland described it as a “significant” victory, effectively bringing her apprentice career to an end. The memories of those successes will endure, but she knows it is time to move forward and show that the grit and the armor she's acquired through the recent tough times can make her a force to be reckoned with.

“The 'bug' (apprentice weight allowance) taught me what it is there to do. It gave me a year, the best and worst year of my life,” she said, laughing. “Mostly the best, but also hard. I'm really excited now to see how I do as a journeyman, because I want this to be the career of my life. I don't want to just settle. I want to keep improving, and the only way to improve is to go out of your comfort zone.

“For me, that's becoming a journeyman. (Business) might slow down and then pick back up, but I'm still riding for good people and am getting amazing opportunities that I'm thankful for.”

Rowland's agent, former jockey Eddie Joe Zambrana, is confident Rowland will find a new comfort zone and again be sought out by trainers who win races on a regular basis.

“I have a lot of confidence in her. I think that as soon as she wins two or three races without the bug, she is going to keep going,” Zambrana said.

Zambrana said the overall quality of riders at the track, along with the arrival of jockeys with 7- and 10-pound weight allowances (Rowland has had a 5-pound allowance this season), has made it harder for her to win races. Although she has won only three, 14 seconds and 15 thirds give her a respectable 33.3 in-the-money percentage.

Zambrana assures her fans there is much to believe in.

“She's going to be OK. She just has to work a little harder to show people she can keep doing well without the bug,” he said. “She's really, really smart and she knows what she's doing on a horse, so I don't think it's going to be a problem for her.

“She tries hard and she wants to do better, so that helps, too,” Zambrana said.

Rowland says her slump, if you want to call it that, has added a layer of steely armor to her psyche, which every jockey must nurture to bring out their best. She knows she has gotten better switching her stick from one hand to the other, being patient during a race, seeking out the best trip on the turf and being more aware of her competition.

But she also wants to stay strong mentally no matter what comes up, attaching herself to people who share her ambitions and can help her achieve them.

“You really just have to keep going,” Rowland said. “Stuff does not fall in your lap in this game. You want it to, but at the end of the day, you have to go for it. You have to be the one to show up at the barn with confidence and walk into the paddock with the mindset that 'You know what? I can do this because I know I'm a good rider.' ”

Rowland and Zambrana know she needs to prove, again, she is capable of producing more of those happy times like Friday on Commander Keith.

The fun for Rowland and her fans may be just beginning.

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Pick 6 Carryover Of $27,814 At Aqueduct On Thursday

Thursday's eight-race card at Aqueduct Racetrack will feature a Pick 6 carryover of $27,814 after the multi-race wager went unsolved on Sunday's nine-race card.

The $1 Pick 6 returned $178.25 to bettors who selected 5-of-6 horses correctly.

The sequence kicked off in Race 4 with the Linda Rice-trained Naked and Famous [No. 5, $10] graduating for a $20,000 tag under Jose Lezcano. Jockey Manny Franco scored his second of two wins on the card in impressive fashion aboard Asset Purchase [No. 4, $8.80], who graduated at first asking by eight lengths for four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown in Race 5.

Jose Gomez, who was recently named the 2022 Outstanding Apprentice Jockey at the Eclipse Awards, engineered a winning ride aboard the Rudy Rodriguez-trained Beautiful Karen [No. 4, $9.80] in Race 6, one race before Big Tony's Girl [No. 8, $14.40] provided the biggest upset in the sequence with Kendrick Carmouche up for trainer Jim Ryerson in Race 7.

Race 8 saw both Rice and Carmouche earn their second wins on the card as Tonal Impact [No. 1, $3.30*] rallied to a 4 1/2-length allowance score for the sixth victory of his career.

Kitten's Appeal [No. 5], the only horse covered in the final leg in Race 9, battled gamely down the lane but could not overtake the Lezcano-piloted Hot Fudge [No. 11, $8.60], who gave Rice a third win on the day to trigger the carryover.

Thursday's Pick 6 sequence begins in Race 3 [1:50 p.m. Eastern]. First post is 12:50 p.m.

America's Day at the Races will present live coverage and analysis of the Aqueduct winter meet on the networks of FOX Sports. For the broadcast schedule and channel finder, visit https://www.nyra.com/aqueduct/racing/tv-schedule.

NYRA Bets is the best way to bet every race of the Aqueduct Racetrack winter meet. Available to horse players nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at www.NYRABets.com.

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Old Friends: Longtime Resident Star Plus Dies At Age 20

Star Plus, an Argentinian Group 1 winner who later raced in the United States, died at Old Friends on Saturday night, Jan. 28, 2023, due to a paddock accident.

A reason for his death is unknown at this time. Necropsy results are pending to get an accurate cause of death.

Michael Blowen, founder and president of Old Friends, made the announcement on Monday, Jan. 30, 2023. Star Plus was 20 years old and had been at the farm for 11 years.

Bred by Claudio Javier Valle and Marc Valle, Star Plus, who is by Alpha Plus–Nannar (Arg), by Big Play, was foaled on July 18, 2003 in Argentina.

The bay stallion began racing as a 3-year old in Argentina in 2006. However, his biggest win there came in 2007 when he captured the Premio Joaquin S. de Anchorena (Arg-G1) at San Isidro.

After that racing season, Star Plus was purchased by Earle Mack and brought to the United States. He then raced him from 2008 to 2010. He was first trained in the United States by Ken McPeek, and later by Angel Penna, Jr.

Star Plus' best finishes were a win in an allowance race at Keeneland, and a second in the Turfway Park Fall Championship Stakes (G3). Then, following his last win, which came in an allowance optional claiming race at Gulfstream Park in March 2010, Star Plus came out of the race with a severe ankle injury and was retired with six wins, eight seconds, one third, and $176,503 in earnings in 26 career starts.

With his final race in the books, Mack's plan was to retire Star Plus so he could enjoy the rest of his life. However, the horse's road to retirement was a long and hard fought one to achieve.

It began when Mack was advised that there was some interest in Star Plus by a small breeding farm, and he agreed to let them have him. However, he made one major stipulation, which he put in writing in the contract that stated Star Plus was never to be raced again. And, if they no longer wanted the horse, Mack should immediately be notified so that a suitable retirement home could be found for him.

However, in 2011, Mack discovered that his horse's new owner/trainer, George Iacovacci, Sr., had put Star Plus back in training and planned to race him. And, so began Mack's quest to get his former horse back before he got hurt, or worse, while racing once again.

In all, Star Plus raced four times for Iacovacci at three different tracks, Mt. Pleasant, Mountaineer, and Parx Racing, and finished last in all four races.

In the meantime, every time Mack saw that Star Plus was going to race, he contacted horse racing officials in those states and tracks to let them know of the horse's medical condition and requested that the horse not be allowed to race. In addition, with the help of a number of people, including Maggi Moss, a well-known attorney and respected Thoroughbred owner, letters were also sent to officials saying the same thing and requesting that the horse not be allowed to race. However, all three tracks denied the requests.

Finally, Mack took matters into his own hands, and after the horse's fourth race, an allowance optional claiming race at Parx Racing on Jan. 28, 2012, negotiations were held, and with the help of some others, Mack purchased Star Plus back.

Then, with his horse safely back under his ownership, Mack made arrangements with Blowen, and donated his horse to Old Friends to enjoy his long-awaited, well-earned retirement. Star Plus arrived at the farm later in 2012, along with a generous donation by Mack to Old Friends to ensure the care of his horse.

“Star Plus was so much fun,” said Blowen. “We ran together (he always won, of course) and he seemed overjoyed with himself. Smart. Whimsical. Carefree. In short, a great role model.”

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