Month: May 2023

Arrogate, Catalina Cruiser Juveniles Earn Bullets in Timonium Thursday

TIMONIUM, MD – A filly by Arrogate (hip 552) and a colt by Catalina Cruiser (hip 568) set the fastest furlong and quarter-mile times, respectively, during the final session of the under-tack show for the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale at the Maryland State Fairgrounds Thursday.

Both juveniles were stabled in Barn A, with the filly consigned by Hartley/DeRenzo Thoroughbreds and the colt in the L.G. consignment of longtime Hartley/DeRenzo employee Luis Garcia.

Hip 552 became the sixth juvenile of the under-tack show to work a furlong in :10 flat in the day's second set Thursday.

“I knew she was going to go fast,” Randy Hartley said. “I was hoping for a :9 4/5. It just depended on the track. But she's been the best filly on the farm all year. And when she prepped here, my kid said she was ready and she felt the best of all of them.”

Out of Twixy (Mutakddim), the chestnut filly is a half-sister to multiple stakes winner Twixy Roll (Roll Hennessy Roll) and is from the family of multiple Grade I winner Caleb's Posse.

The filly was purchased by Hartley and Dean DeRenzo for $255,000 out of Book 1 at last year's Keeneland September sale.

“To me, she was the best-looking horse in Book 1,” Hartley said. “Her pedigree was a little lighter for Book 1 and I think that's probably the reason we were able to buy her. It wasn't a big, Grade I mare or anything, but we just loved the filly. She's just a gorgeous filly. She looks like a colt.”

Bloodstock agent Donato Lanni purchased Faiza (Girvin) on behalf of Michael Lund Petersen for $725,000 at last year's Midlantic May sale and Thursday, a day before that undefeated filly goes postward in the GII Black-Eyed Susan S. at Pimlico, Lanni and Petersen stopped by Barn A specifically to look at the speedy Arrogate filly in Barn A.

Hip 568 matched the quarter-mile bullet set by a Hartley/DeRenzo consigned son of Justify Wednesday when he covered the distance in :21 2/5 during the first set Thursday morning.

The chestnut colt is out of Wicked Speed (Macho Uno) and is a half-brother to stakes-winner Freedom Speaks (American Freedom). Wicked Speed is a half-sister to Canadian champion Fatal Bullet (Red Bullet).

Garcia and partner Gina Fennell purchased the colt for $70,000 at Keeneland last September.

“I liked his body. He is a beautiful horse,” Garcia said of the colt's appeal last fall. “And I like Catalina Cruiser. I have a couple of them this year. They are really smart. They relax and they do everything perfectly.”

The colt will be making his second trip through the sales ring this year. He RNA'd for $85,000 following a :10 2/5 breeze at the OBS March sale.

“He worked in March, but he wasn't really ready for that,” Garcia said. “I took him out and brought him here. He is a big horse and kind of heavy. So I gave him more training and more time. And now he's doing everything on his own.”

Of the decision to go a quarter-mile Thursday, Garcia explained, “We had him in that sale in March and he was kind of a heavy horse. So I trained him more, gave him more two-minute licks, and he was ready to go a quarter.”

Garcia is just a few months short of his 16-year anniversary of working for Hartley/DeRenzo.

“If I left them, I'd feel lost,” he said with a laugh.

While the under-tack show's second session Wednesday featured a significant tailwind throughout the day, Thursday's session was held amidst an intermittent headwind, which seemed to increase throughout the day.

“The track seems all over the place,” Hartley said. “I think [Thursday] is a mixture between the first day and second day. I think it's not quite like the first day, and with the tailwind yesterday, today is kind of somewhere in between those two days.”

The fifth set of Thursday's session was briefly halted when hip 536 got loose on the track prior to his work for Two Oaks Equine. The gray colt began running up the track as hip 421, a filly by Connect, was finishing up her furlong work in :10 4/5.

Eventually corralled by the outriders, hip 536 returned to the track during the session's seventh and final set and worked a furlong in :10 2/5.

After a pair of strong, if top-heavy, juvenile sales in Ocala earlier this spring, Hartley is hoping to see a broadening of the middle market when bidding opens in Timonium Monday morning.

“It's like we are missing the middle–we are missing that $150,000 buyer,” Hartley said of the 2-year-old market this year. “It's all or nothing, it seems like this year. Maybe people, like Linda Rice, are doing more claiming and getting their horses like that. The purses are really good, but it just seems like we need that guy to spend $150,000 or $200,000. I don't know if his wife is telling him, 'Oh, no. We're not buying a horse right now.' But we are missing that market and I don't know if it's going to be here or not. I hope it's going to be here. I hope we have more New York people coming down to this sale. The Maryland people will be here–I don't know if they will be in that middle market. They seem to shop to try to find nice racehorses for $100,000 or less, although there are a couple who step up and spend a little bit more. But we need the guys from California to come.”

The Midlantic May sale will be held Monday and Tuesday with sessions beginning each day at 11 a.m.

The post Arrogate, Catalina Cruiser Juveniles Earn Bullets in Timonium Thursday appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Judge Denies Injunction To HISA Opponents; Anti-Doping Program To Begin May 22

A last-ditch attempt by the National HBPA and others to stop the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's Anti-Doping and Medication Control program from re-launching May 22 was denied by a federal judge in Texas on Wednesday.

Judge James Wesley Hendrix, who twice previously ruled that the 2020 law creating HISA is constitutional, denied a motion for an injunction sought by the National HBPA and other plaintiffs as part of a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, Lubbock Division.

“As detailed in its 55-page Memorandum Opinion and Order, the plaintiffs have not established a likelihood of success on the merits,” Hendrix wrote in Wednesday's order. “The plaintiffs misunderstand the correct standard for a district court considering a motion for injunction pending appeal.”

The plaintiffs in the suit won an appeal from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals last November after Hendrix originally found the federal law creating HISA constitutional. In its order, the Fifth Circuit remanded the case back to Hendrix, who ruled on May 4 that an amendment added to the HISA law in December satisfied the Fifth Circuit's concerns that the Federal Trade Commission was playing a subservient role to a private entity, HISA.

The plaintiffs have appealed that May 4 order to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals once again.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, asked to review a separate unsuccessful lawsuit from HISA opponents, similarly found that the amendment giving greater authority to the FTC answered those concerns expressed by the Fifth Circuit.

HISA's Anti-Doping and Medication Control program launched in late March, then a few days later was delayed until May 1 by a court order that found the FTC did not adhere to administrative procedures providing for a public comment period before approving regulations. The FTC then delayed the program's launch from May 1 to May 22 in order for the first two legs of the Triple Crown to be run under existing state regulatory rules.

“The resumption of the ADMC program is not only an important milestone in our mission to strengthen the integrity and safety of Thoroughbred racing but also a necessary step towards our collective goal of always prioritizing horse welfare,” Lisa Lazarus, CEO of HISA, said in a newsletter sent to racing participants on Thursday.

“After the program's successful initial rollout in late March, I am confident that the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU) is prepared to implement the modernized collection protocols, the centralized and efficient results management system and the intelligence-driven investigatory oversight racing deserves,” Lazarus continued. “Under the ADMC program, both Anti-Doping and Controlled Medication alleged rule violations will be made public within weeks of being detected in the lab, introducing heightened transparency and accountability to the results management and adjudication process. HISA is grateful to partner with HIWU under the leadership of executive director Ben Mosier in this critical undertaking.”

The post Judge Denies Injunction To HISA Opponents; Anti-Doping Program To Begin May 22 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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McGaughey Colt Primed for a Breakout Performance

At this year's GI Preakness S., Shug McGaughey is aiming to win his own version of the Triple Crown. The Hall of Fame trainer won the third leg of the series in 1989, when Easy Goer famously defeated Sunday Silence in the GI Belmont S., and then Orb (Malibu Moon) earned the Kentucky horseman a GI Kentucky Derby score in 2013.

This Saturday, McGaughey could claim his final Triple Crown jewel with a promising contender in Perform (Good Magic).

On Thursday morning shortly after eight, as Perform walked the Preakness stakes barn shedrow following an easy gallop, McGaughey reflected on the significance of a potential victory at Pimlico.

“It would mean a lot,” he said. “It's really at the top of my list. I'm very excited about the opportunity and if I could get all three of them it would really mean a lot. Then I could start all over again.”

McGaughey has not had a Preakness starter since Orb ran fourth here 10 years ago.

“I'm excited,” he said. “I like this weekend down here. I think it's a lot of fun. You see a lot of people that you don't see year-round. There's a lot of enthusiasm and I'm glad to be here. I've never won it and if he's standing in the stall, I'm still never going to win it.”

While Perform is coming into the Preakness coming off two straight wins, it took a few tries for the colt's true ability to shine through. After five starts all going a mile or less, he stretched out to a mile and 40 yards at Tampa Bay Downs on Mar. 11 and pulled away to win by 2 3/4 lengths.

“His maiden races going short were okay, but then when I stretched him out around two turns, it made a big difference,” McGaughey said. “We ran him at Tampa and Irad Ortiz rode him. He got him to relax really well coming off the sprints and he finished really well.”

McGaughey considered several spots for the colt's next start, but ultimately landed on the Federico Tesio S. going a mile and an eighth at Laurel Park. While Perform took the lead at the top of the stretch in his maiden win, he showed that he could work through traffic at Laurel. After stumbling at the start, the sophomore sat near the back of the field with Feargal Lynch aboard and then weaved through horses late to get up in the nick of time.

Perform acclimates to the track at Pimlico | Sara Gordon

“I listened to Feargul's interview [after the race] and he said it was too bad that the horse wasn't nominated to the Preakness because he's that kind of horse, but I knew something he didn't know,” McGaughey said with a laugh.

Perform is owned in partnership by Woodford Racing, Lane's End Farm, Phipps Stable, Ken Langone and Edward Hudson Jr. When McGaughey approached the group about supplementing their new stakes winner to the Preakness, it was an easy sell.

With 15-1 morning line odds, Perform drew the number six post position for Saturday's race. Local jockey Feargal Lynch retains the mount to take on his first start in the Preakness.

“He rode him great and knows the racetrack,” said McGaughey. “Why not?”

The conditioner explained that he was particularly impressed with Perform's final breeze at Belmont last Sunday going four furlongs in :48.09 (2/44).

Now that Perform has had a few mornings to acclimate at Pimlico, McGaughey said that the track and the distance should fit his colt's running style.

“It should be right in his bread basket,” he noted. “He seems to be getting over the track really well in his gallops and we'll see if he likes it on Saturday.”

Eddie Woods picked Perform out as a yearling, purchasing him for $230,000 out of the Beau Lane Bloodstock consignment at the 2021 Keeneland September Sale for his Quarter Pole Enterprises. The son of Good Magic is out of the Tale of Ekati mare Jane Says, whose second dam is Broodmare of the Year Leslie's Lady (Tricky Creek).

“He was a very strong, well-proportioned horse,” Woods recalled. “He was good-looking with a beautiful head and he was a good mover.”

A few months after the purchase, TDN visited Eddie Woods Stable in Ocala. When asked to predict who would be the top first-crop sires in 2022, Woods mentioned Good Magic as a leading candidate and pointed out the Good Magic colt out of Jane Says, who would later be called Perform, as evidence.

 

 

“The Good Magics are very nice horses,” Woods said in February of 2022. “Laid back, kind of Curlin-y type horses. We have a Good Magic out of Jane Says colt who is a beautiful-looking horse…we're real happy with him.”

While Perform went on to breeze in :10 1/5 at the OBS March Sale, he got sick soon after and was forced to scratch from the sale. He went home to the Woods base and had returned to breezing when David Ingordo visited the farm and purchased the colt for the current ownership group.

Eddie Woods Stable was represented by Preakness winner Big Brown (Boundary) in 2008 and this year, their program's graduates include two Preakness contenders in Perform and National Treasure (Quality Road).

Perform is one of three sons of Good Magic entered in the Preakness along with GI Kentucky Derby hero Mage and last year's GI Champagne S. victor Blazing Sevens. Good Magic currently leads the way as the leading second-crop sire.

“He looks like a top-end sire and rightly so,” Woods said of the red hot stallion. “They're all pretty good, high-energy horses. They train well and are very professional about everything.”

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