April, 2023 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Saturday Preview: Charge It Gets Blinkers On For Oaklawn ‘Cap

He is the most talented horse–pound for pound–in a field of seven that was drawn earlier this week, but Whisper Hill Farm's 'TDN Rising Star' Charge It (Tapit) nevertheless has a fair bit to prove as the 8-5 morning-line favorite in Saturday's $1-million GII Oaklawn H. in Hot Springs.

The 23-length winner of last year's GIII Dwyer S., the homebred returned with a stylish Gulfstream allowance victory first off a seven-month absence Feb. 5, but exits a disappointing runner-up effort in the GII Gulfstream Park Mile Mar. 4. The blinkers go on for this return to nine panels.

“He's always been a little bit of a curious colt,” said trainer Todd Pletcher, a two-time winner of the race. “We contemplated putting blinkers on him after [finishing second in] the Florida Derby last year. We just didn't think doing in the Kentucky Derby was the right move and then came back and won the Dwyer so impressively. It's hard to make a change off that, but it's something that's been in the back of our mind. We've worked him with them since his last race and I think they may make a difference.”

Not since Gay Revoke in 1964 and 1965 has a horse gone back-to-back in the Handicap, but Last Samurai (Malibu Moon) has a shot to put pay to that streak Saturday. If anything, the 5-year-old is in even better form this time around, having bested next-out, big-figure GII New Orleans Classic romper West Will Power (Bernardini) and subsequent SW Law Professor in the GIII Razorback H. Feb. 18 before reeling in Classic Causeway (Giant's Causeway) last time in the GIII Essex H.

“We've gone from winning the Essex to probably fourth choice in the Handicap,” said Hall of Famer Wayne Lukas, who took over the training of Last Samurai from Dallas Stewart after last year's race and registered the most recent of his record four wins in the race with Willis Horton's Will Take Charge (Unbridled's Song) nine years ago. His first? Imp Society in 1985.

“It's a very, very tough race. But for a million dollars, it should be,” Lukas said.

Were Stilleto Boy (Shackleford) to emerge victorious Saturday, he would become the first horse since Best Pal in 1992 to complete the GI Santa Anita H./Oaklawn H. double. In addition to the presumable market leaders, he'll also need to hold off Godolphin's Proxy (Tapit), who came with a stinging late rally at the Great Race Place six weeks ago only to fall a neck short.

'Skippy' Looking Like A Million Bucks for Ben Ali

Handicap horses also head to the post at Keeneland for the GIII Ben Ali (ally as in friend, not the late pugilist) S., lengthened to a mile and three-sixteenths for the first time. The hard-knocking Skippylongstocking (Exaggerator) looms a warm favorite and would surge past the $1-million mark in career earnings if adding this to his latest comprehensive score in the GIII Challenger S. at Tampa Mar. 11.

“He came out of the Challenger well and gave us the confidence to put him in here,” said Beau Chapman, assistant to trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. “He has improved with age. He is a big, lanky horse and he has grown into himself and really developed.”

Keeneland also stages the GIII Elkhorn S. for male marathon turfers and attracts last year's one-two finishers, 9-year-old Channel Maker (English Channel) and 7-year-old Another Mystery (Temple City), who between them have made 84 career starts for 17 trips to the winner's circle.

In California, Big 'Cap third Defunded (Dialed In) squares off with 2021 winner Royal Ship (Brz) (Midshipman) in the GII Californian S., while top Cal-bred Brickyard Ride (Clubhouse Ride) takes on the progressive Anarchist (Distorted Humor) in the GIII Kona Gold S.

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Nancy Knott’s Two-Horse Stable Has Potential For Big Saturday At Oaklawn

Trainer Nancy Knott's one-horse stable has grown to two in recent months and both Sunset Paynter and Navy Seal are scheduled to run Saturday at Oaklawn.

Sunset Paynter is entered in the ninth race, the inaugural $150,000 Valley of the Vapors Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at 1 mile, and top Arkansas-bred Navy Seal is entered against open company in the 12th race, a $105,000 allowance sprint for older horses.

Lightly raced Sunset Paynter will try to give Knott, 57, a former jockey turned trainer/exercise rider/groom/equine massage therapist, her first career stakes victory.

“It would be really cool,” Knott said Tuesday morning. “I'm just hoping the distance will even make her better than she is.”

Knott has already had a noteworthy 2022-2023 Oaklawn meeting, going 28 years and two days between her first career training victory in Hot Springs – Budman Dude, Feb. 3, 1995 – and her second when Navy Seal toppled Arkansas-breds in a Feb. 5 allowance sprint. Knott's horses were running under her maiden name, Steenhuis, in 1995.

“It's very satisfying to do it yourself,” Knott said. “You can pay close attention to every single thing, pick up everything right away. So, you're right on top of everything. But it's very physically demanding and you have to wait, even if you win, another four weeks, five weeks until you run again. With a big stable, it's not as physically demanding. It's more managing everything. You've got your payroll and the issues that go along with owners, insurance and everything else. All of that is not so fun.”

Knott grew up in Atlanta, fox hunting and steeple chasing, before enrolling in Sweet Briar College in 1983. Sweet Briar, a private women's liberal arts school in Virginia, is known for its show jumping program. After two years at Sweet Briar, Knott decided to transfer to Louisiana Tech for its equine science program.

“I wanted to go the racetrack, but I didn't even know what the racetrack was, except for watching the Kentucky Derby and the Triple Crown,” Knott said. “My father said I could go to the racetrack, but I had to get a degree. When I went through that program at Louisiana Tech, it's an animal science degree with an equine specialty, but it was just like the track. You were at the barn at 5 o'clock in the morning and then you would go to classes at 8 and then you would go back and do horses up. Then I would break horses after that.”

Knott said she earned a trainer's license through the program – she graduated in 1987 – and had an internship in Pennsylvania with soon-to-be Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard. Knott moved to the racetrack in the late 1980s, initially galloping horses for trainer Carl Bowman. She later worked as an exercise rider for Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg and trainers Tom Bohannan and Edward I. Kelly Jr.

Knott, then Steenhuis, had two stints as a jockey. She rode nine races in 1992 and four in 1998, according to Equibase, racing's official data gathering organization.

“In the morning, I was working horses great,” Knott said, recalling her early experiences as a jockey. “But in the afternoon, I didn't feel good. I wasn't doing the horses justice. I got my feelings hurt and it was hard to reduce. Gave it up. Thought I gave it up.”

Knott said she was working as an exercise rider/assistant for trainer Britt McGehee when she decided to make a riding comeback in 1998. Her final career mount marked her only career victory when Jondalar ($52.60) beat $17,500 claimers in a Nov. 22, 1998, sprint at Hawthorne for McGehee.

“That was my 13th race and my last race, so I went out a winner,” Knott said. “We went to New Orleans (Fair Grounds) the next winter and it was like, 'Ride me or Julie Krone?' It just didn't pan out.”

Knott said she and McGehee took a small string of horses to Southern California in the summer of 1999. There, Knott said she “learned people massage” and believed those techniques could benefit horses. Knott said she traveled to Virginia to study equine massage.

“It's weird because my life took a different direction, toward massage,” Knott said. “Like I felt I was good enough at that point to get an agent. Instead of getting an agent and continuing to ride, my life took a different path.”

Knott said massage helps a horse's general health and can lengthen its stride because it “frees up their muscles.” Knott treats horses in their stalls. Navy Seal, for example, normally receives a massage after he works and before and after he runs.

“The massage definitely helps him,” Knott said. “Sometimes he gets a tender back, so it definitely helps him a lot.”

In addition to Navy Seal and Sunset Paynter, Knott said she's treated horses for trainers Tom Amoss and Mike Puhich at the 2022-2023 Oaklawn meeting. Knott's most famous massage subject, millionaire Grade 1 winner Cloudy's Knight, was honored with a Sovereign Award as Canada's champion grass horse of 2007. Cloudy's Knight now resides on a 51-acre farm two hours west of Chicago owned by Knott and her husband of 20 years, Oaklawn starter William “Blue” Knott.

Nancy Knott, in two training stints, has 13 career victories, according to Equibase. She had two victories in 1994 and 1995 and added 11 since she resumed training in 2015.

“Probably four horses is the most I've ever had,” Knott said. “I'm definitely hands on. I do it all.”

Knott trains Sunset Paynter and Navy Seal for Chicago-based KEM Stables. KEM privately purchased Sunset Paynter following a Jan. 21 career debut victory at Golden Gate. She ran fourth in her only other start, a starter/optional claiming sprint March 25 at Oaklawn.

Navy Seal, a half-brother to Oaklawn stakes winners Weast Hill and Usual Suspect, is using Saturday's race as a prep for the Arkansas Breeders' Championship Stakes May 6 at Oaklawn, Knott said. The Arkansas Breeders' Championship is for state-breds, 3 and up, at 1 1/16 miles.

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‘He’s Going To Have To Improve Again’: Wood Memorial Upsetter Lord Miles Breezes At Gulfstream

Vegso Racing Stables' Lord Miles returned to the Gulfstream Park worktab Friday morning, breezing a half-mile in 47.05 seconds in preparation for a scheduled start in the May 5 Kentucky Derby (G1).

The 3-year-old son of Curlin, who worked in company with stablemate Apocalypso over a freshly renovated surface shortly after 9 a.m., produced the second-fastest clocking of 33 workouts recorded at the distance in his first breeze since pulling off a 59-1 upset in the Wood Memorial (G2) at Aqueduct April 8.

“It was a good easy work but probably a tad faster than ideal, but he did it well within himself and he was moving well – that's the important thing,” said trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., whose Derby-bound colt was ridden Friday morning by exercise rider Andrew Thomas.

“He came out of the Wood well. He shipped back and he's held his weight. His weight and his energy seem to be in good order,” he added.

Video: https://www.xbtv.com/video/lord-miles/lord-miles-outside-and-apocalypso-worked-4-furlongs-at-gulfstream-park-on-april-21st-2023/

Lord Miles is scheduled to complete his serious preparation for the Derby at Gulfstream.

“He'll come back, all being well, and work next Friday. He'll go five furlongs and we'll ship Saturday or Sunday to Churchill Downs,” Joseph said.

Lord Miles sits sixth on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard based on qualifying points thanks to his victory in the Wood, in which he shook off bumping shortly after the start to grab an outside stalking position before getting the better of favored Hit Show by a nose following a heated stretch run.

“He won the Wood, but his race in the Wood isn't going to be good enough to win the Derby. He's going to have to improve again. But as we've learned, you've got to get there to for a chance to win. They're young horses who can improve. If he can make a leap forward again, he'll be right there. We want to think the distance is within his parameter.”

Lord Miles debuted impressively while closing from off the pace in a six-furlong maiden special weight race at Gulfstream Nov. 19 and drawing away to a 5 ¾ victory. He came back to finish third in the one-turn mile Mucho Macho Man Jan. 1 with a late surge to miss second by a neck. The Kentucky-bred colt disappointed with a sixth-place finish in the Feb. 4 Holy Bull (G3) at 1 1/16 miles that was compromised by an awkward start. He encountered bumping at the start of the March 11 Tampa Bay Derby (G3) before finishing fifth.

“The biggest drawback with him has been his inconsistency. Sometimes he comes off the bridle and gives himself too much to do,” Joseph said. “Hopefully, his race in the Wood will help him mentally and give him some confidence.”

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Canadian Triple Crown, Woodbine Oaks Nominations Released

Woodbine Entertainment has released the nominations for the 2023 OLG Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, consisting of The King's Plate, the Prince of Wales and the Breeders' S. Totaling 124 3-year-olds foaled in Canada, the list of nominees includes star performers from last season, winners south of the border over the winter and many preparing for the upcoming Woodbine meet. Contested over three different surfaces at two courses, the Canadian Triple Crown will kick off Sunday, Aug. 20 at Woodbine with the 164th running of The King's Plate followed by The Prince of Wales S. at Fort Erie Sept. 12 and the Breeders' S. Oct. 1 back at Woodbine. The full list of nominees is found here.

The list of contenders for the 68th Woodbine Oaks has also been released, totaling 63 Canadian-bred fillies, with last year's racing yielding eventual Canadian Horse of the Year Moira (ON) (Ghostzapper). The 2023 edition will run Sunday, July 23. The full nominee list for that race can be found here.

The post Canadian Triple Crown, Woodbine Oaks Nominations Released appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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