Month: March 2023

Ryan Noffsinger Hired As Track Superintendent At Prairie Meadows

Prairie Meadows Casino, Racetrack, & Hotel in Altoona, Ia., is proud to announce the hire of Ryan Noffsinger as Track Superintendent.

Noffsinger is a third-generation horseman with work experience at tracks from California, Arizona, New Mexico and most recently in Florida.

“In my 18 years working in various roles with track maintenance, I've been able to gain valuable knowledge at tracks like Del Mar, Turf Paradise, Zia Park, Sunland Park, Gulfstream Park West and Palm Meadows which will serve me well as Track Superintendent for Prairie Meadows,” Noffsinger explained.

“Just in my short time here in Iowa getting settled in, I already feel a level of comfort and working with good people that are just as passionate about the racing industry as I am,” Noffsinger said.

Derron Heldt, Prairie Meadows Vice President for Racing, echoed the same aspects in hiring Noffsinger and looks forward to working together to provide a fair and balanced training and racing surface for both Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses each season.

“Ryan brings so much to the table with his experience, dedication and love of the industry as a third-generation horseman and having worked in various roles in track maintenance, I feel confident in his abilities to provide a solid and consistent racing surface for the horses, jockeys and racing industry participants that come to race in Iowa,” Heldt said.

The 2023 live racing season with 80 race days, begins with 20 days of Thoroughbred-only racing from May 12 – June 17 followed by a mixed Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse schedule of 60 race days from June 18 – September 30. The first condition book, stall application, stakes schedules and more are all available online through the Prairie Meadows website or by calling the Racing Office at 515-967-1205.

The post Ryan Noffsinger Hired As Track Superintendent At Prairie Meadows appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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‘He Has Always Acted Like He Was A Little Bit Special’: Harty Excited About Tampa Bay Derby Hopeful Groveland

Eoin Harty has had high expectations for his Godolphin-owned homebred colt Groveland since he began training him before his first career start last fall at Gulfstream.

“He has always acted like he was a little bit special,” Harty said of the son of 2007 Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense. “He has all the qualities you look for in a nice horse, and he has a wonderful disposition, which is probably his main strength.”

For all of his strong points, though, Groveland showed Harty a new aspect of his developing game in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs on Feb. 11: a determination to overcome adversity in his desire to win.

After getting shut off by pace-setter Zydeceaux just as he was launching a major move at the three-eighths pole, forcing jockey Daniel Centeno to hit the brakes, Groveland re-rallied to throw a scare into the eventual winner, Litigate, and rider Luis Saez.

Although unable to run down Litigate, Groveland was an impressive second at odds of 21-1, a length-and-a-half ahead of Classic Car Wash.

“If you had told me at the top of the stretch he'd be fourth, I would have been happy. If you had told me he would hit the board, I'd have been ecstatic. And if you told me he'd be second, I'd be delighted,” Harty said Friday morning from Santa Anita in California. “I went through a whole range of emotions in the last three-eighths of a mile.”

Harty is preparing Groveland – and himself – for another trip on the emotional roller coaster of big-time racing in the Grade 3, $400,000 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby on March 11. The mile-and-a-sixteenth main track contest is a 100-point “Road to the Kentucky Derby” race, with the winner receiving 50 points toward a guaranteed spot in the Run for the Roses starting gate on May 6 at Churchill Downs.

The Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby is part of a $1-million Festival Day 43 stakes bonanza which includes the Grade 2, $225,000 Hillsborough Stakes on the turf; the Grade 3, $200,000 Florida Oaks on the turf; the Grade 3, $100,000 Challenger on the main track; and the $75,000 Columbia Stakes on the turf.

While the makeup of the field for the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby is largely unknown, trainer Todd Pletcher has indicated he is pointing Litigate to the G2 Louisiana Derby on March 25 at Fair Grounds.

Groveland, who has made four of his five starts at Tampa Bay Downs, breezed five furlongs Tuesday in 1:01 4/5 with Centeno aboard.

“I let him gallop out a good three-quarters (of a mile), because I want to make sure he is plenty fit for next Saturday,” said Harty, who is planning one more work next week. “He won't be short of work if he gets beat.”

Harty credits exercise rider Jeanna Nicosia for playing a big role in Groveland's development.

“She gallops him and is a real key to my success overall,” he said.

While laden with promise and a pedigree to match (he's out of a Medaglia d'Oro mare, Lucknow), Groveland still has only one victory from five starts, with two seconds and two thirds.

“The best-laid plans of mice and men can go out the window when the gate opens,” Harty said.

Now, 16 years have passed since Street Sense used a victory in the Tampa Bay Derby as a springboard to his slice of racing immortality in Louisville. Harty – who trained Street Sense's sire Street Cry as a 2-year-old when the future Dubai World Cup winner finished third in the 2000 Breeders' Cup Juvenile – senses the pieces coming together for a trip to Churchill Downs in May.

“The fact that he is a nice horse is not a surprise to anyone who knows the family,” said Harty, who started three horses in the Kentucky Derby from 2008-2010 and was an assistant to Bob Baffert for victories by Silver Charm in 1997 and Real Quiet in 1998. “If we are fortunate enough to get to the Kentucky Derby with this horse, I won't have any reservations about him getting the (mile-and-a-quarter) distance.”

The post ‘He Has Always Acted Like He Was A Little Bit Special’: Harty Excited About Tampa Bay Derby Hopeful Groveland appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Japanese Horse To Come For Santa Anita Derby

Mandarin Hero (Jpn) (Shanghai Bobby), a winner of four of five career starts in Japan, will make his next start in the GI Santa Anita Derby Apr. 8 at Santa Anita.

Mandarin Hero races on the National Association of Racing (NAR) circuit, comprised of regional tracks predominantly offering dirt racing and widely considered to be a cut below the Japan Racing Association circuit. Mandarin Hero will be the first NAR horse to compete in the U.S., though Marche Lorraine (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) was a four-time black-type winner at NAR tracks before upsetting the 2021 GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff at Del Mar.

Mandarin Hero, one of 24 winners from the first Japanese crop of 2012 Eclipse Award-winning juvenile male Shanghai Bobby, was undefeated in four starts as a 2-year-old and won the Haiseiko Kinen (allowance) going a two-turn mile last November (see below, SC 9). He made his 3-year-old debut in an valuable 1800-meter [nine-furlong] test Feb. 23, finishing a close second. All of his races have come on the dirt at Ohi Racecourse outside of Tokyo, where he has earned the equivalent of $236,854.

 

 

 

“My goal of running in the Santa Anita Derby has come true, and I am determined to achieve good results,” said trainer Terunobu Fujita. “After a good run in the Santa Anita Derby, I hope to run in the Kentucky Derby. I have the experience of an overseas tour [in Korea] and I will do my best to do everything in my power.”

There are four races on the Japanese calendar win which points for the GI Kentucky Derby are awarded. Mandarin Hero has not run in any of them. Five Japanese horses are expected to take part in the G2 UAE Derby at Meydan Mar. 25, a race that offers Kentucky Derby points on a scale of 100-40-30-20-10 as does the Santa Anita Derby.

 

The post Japanese Horse To Come For Santa Anita Derby appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Ocala Stud’s First-Year Stallion Trio Has Mares Confirmed In Foal

Ocala Stud's three first-season stallions—Roadster, Colonel Liam, and Gretzky the Great—each have had their first mares confirmed in foal, the farm announced today.

Alotofappeal, a stakes-producing daughter of Trippi owned by Ocala Stud, has scanned in foal to Roadster. A Sunshine State product, Alotofappeal is the dam of stakes winner B C's Train, graded stakes-placed Talk Logistics, and stakes-placed Schivarelli, Sonoma Crush, and Big Rings. She is also represented by Commandant, a $300,000 OBS Spring Sale graduate a year ago and a subsequent maiden special weight debut winner at Gulfstream Park.

Roadster, a son of perennial leading sire Quality Road, was an impressive winner of the 2019 Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby. Named a TDN Rising Star following an emphatic 4 ¼-length score in a Del Mar maiden special weight in his debut, Roadster finished third in the 2018 G1 Del Mar Futurity in just his second lifetime start. In addition to his Santa Anita Derby victory, Roadster finished second in the G1 Malibu Stakes to Omaha Beach, second in the G2 San Carlos Stakes, and was runner-up to Grade 1 winner Mucho Gusto in the G3 Affirmed Stakes. He amassed earnings of $901,500, winning nine of 16 starts.

Oakleaf Farm's Florida-bred Sainted Dancer, a seven-time winner by Saint Anddan, is confirmed in foal to Colonel Liam.

Colonel Liam, a three-time Grade 1 winner and back-to-back winner of the G1 Pegasus Turf Invitational Stakes at Gulfstream Park, was a $1.2 million graduate of the OBS Spring Sale, where he was purchased by Jacob West on behalf of Robert and Lawana Low.

A son of Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Liam's Map, a half-brother to leading sire Not This Time, Colonel Liam is produced from the Bernardini mare Amazement and hails from the family of multiple Grade 1 winner Wonder Again, his second dam. All told, Colonel Liam banked more than $1.8 million.

JD Farms' Bold Rate, a Florida-bred daughter of Exchange Rate, has scanned in foal to Gretzky the Great.  Bold Rate is a half-sister to stakes-placed Rare Candy and Wings of Pegasus, and hails from the family of Grade 1 winner Salt Lake.

Gretzky the Great was a Grade 1 winner at two and son of champion and Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist. Campaigned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Gary Barber and trained by Mark Casse, Gretzky the Great recorded a scintillating score in Woodbine's G2 Summer Stakes at one mile on the turf as a juvenile. In addition to his triumph in the Summer Stakes, Gretzky the Great also won the Soaring Free Stakes and the Greenwood Stakes, and finished third in the John Battaglia Memorial Stakes.

Hailing from the family of graded stakes winners Saint Anddan, Love Theway You are, and Luftikus, Gretzky the Great is produced from the stakes-placed Bernardini mare Pearl Turn.

The post Ocala Stud’s First-Year Stallion Trio Has Mares Confirmed In Foal appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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