Robin Goodfellow’s racing tips: Best bets for Monday, August 21
Mail Sport's racing expert Robin Goodfellow delivers his tips for Monday's racing from Brighton, Catterick, Bangor-On-Dee and Lingfield.
Month: August 2023
Front-Running Miss Dracarys Earns First Graded Win In Dance Smartly
Miss Dracarys broke alertly under Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano and controlled the pace throughout Sunday's Grade 2, $200,000 Dance Smartly Stakes, fighting off a brief challenge on the far turn and then holding off even-money favorite Moira to win by a length. Ready Lady nosed out Justify My Love for third, 3 1/4 lengths behind the runner-up, with Ephrata fifth, second betting choice Selimah sixth and Whimsical last of seven fillies and mares going a one-turn, 1 1/16 miles on a firm E.P. Taylor turf course.
The Dance Smartly was a prelude to Canada's biggest race, the King's Plate, highlight of a 13-race card at sold-out Woodbine in Toronto, Ontario.
Trained by Hall of Famer Neil Drysdale, Miss Dracarys was making her graded stakes debut in her 13th start. A 5-year-old mare by Malibu Moon out of Ask Me When, by Speightstown, Miss Dracarys was bred in Kentucky by Castleton Lyons and Kilboy Estate. She was purchased for Al Shira'aa Farms for $525,000 by Shawn Duggan, agent, at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale from the Paramount Sales consignment.
This was Al Shira'aa Farms' second Dance Smartly win following Mutamakina's 2021 victory. The latter was trained by Christophe Clement. This year's Dance Smartly marks the sixth consecutive year the winner was a U.S.-based horse.
Castellano previously won the Dance Smartly aboard Holy Helena in 2019.
Miss Dracarys came into the race off back-to-back front-running victories at Aqueduct last fall and trained up to the Dance Smartly at Belmont Park. Breaking from the outside post, Castellano put her on the lead quickly, setting fractions of :24.07, :47.91, and 1:11.02 through the first six furlongs. Justify My Love moved along the inside to challenge the front-runner going into the far turn, with Salimah making a three-wide bid. But Castellano was able to edge clear again, then had enough left in the long stretch run to hold off Moira, the 2022 Queen's Plate winner and Canadian Horse of the Year. She hit the mile marker in 1:33.57 and completed the distance in 1:39.60.
Winning for the fifth time in 13 starts, Miss Dracarys paid $10.70 to win.
The post Front-Running Miss Dracarys Earns First Graded Win In Dance Smartly appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
The Week in Review: When Derby, Preakness, Belmont Winners Meet at Spa, History Says Someone Else Will Steal Travers
As Tuesday's entry time looms, the GI Travers S. is shaping up as a rare showdown of the three winners of this season's Triple Crown races. That's happened only five times since 1978, and on no occasion during the last 45 years when the winners of those spring Classics all graced the starting gate for Saratoga's “Midsummer Derby” has any one of them emerged victorious.
That's a fairly daunting stat considering how the match-up of the GI Kentucky Derby, GI Preakness S. and GI Belmont S. winners is essentially what the public wants to see.
It's also a little surprising because of the presence of several high-profile horses on that list of Travers losers: Two of them had even swept the Triple Crown before getting derailed at the Spa–one crossed the wire first but was disqualified for interference, while the other endured the roughest trip of his career in his only loss at age three.
Adding to this year's intrigue, none of the winners of this spring's Triple Crown races are likely to be favored in the Travers. Derby upsetter Mage (Good Magic), Preakness victor National Treasure (Quality Road), and Belmont bloomer Arcangelo (Arrogate) all figure to be eclipsed in the betting by last year's 2-year-old champ, Forte (Violence).
Turn the clock back to 2017 to find the last Travers that lured all three Triple Crown race winners. Always Dreaming, first in the Derby, finished ninth in Saratoga's showcase race. Cloud Computing, the Preakness winner, ran eighth. Tapwrit, the Belmont winner, finished fourth, eight lengths behind the 6-1, wire-to-wire Travers outsider West Coast, who had broken his maiden in March, passed on the Triple Crown, and prepped with a score in the GIII Los Alamitos Derby.
In 2015, American Pharoah looked like a Travers slam dunk at .35-1 odds after dominating the division with powerhouse performances in the Derby, Preakness, Belmont, and GI Haskell Invitational. But the champ was boxed in, bounced around, and knocked off stride by 7-1 pace-presser Frosted in the Travers, softening him up just enough for the 16-1 Keen Ice to prevail by three-quarters of a length.
Before that, there had been a 33-year gap back to the last Travers that featured all three winners of that year's Triple Crown races.
The 1982 renewal only drew five entrants, but it was headlined by speedy Belmont stayer Conquistador Cielo, the 2-5 chalk who was looking to extend a seven-race win streak. Derby winner Gato Del Sol and Preakness upsetter Aloma's Ruler were the second and third favorites. But Aloma's Ruler and Conquistador Cielo dueled themselves into defeat, allowing the overlooked Canadian-bred gray Runaway Groom to eke out a half-length victory at 12-1 after prepping for the Travers with a score in Fort Erie's Prince of Wales S. Behind him, the Preakness, Belmont and Derby winners had to settle for second, third, and fifth, respectively.
The 1981 Travers also featured a Triple Crown triumvirate, consisting of Derby and Preakness winner Pleasant Colony, sent postward as the 8-5 fave, and Summing, who had beaten him in the Belmont. They were second and ninth, respectively, behind the 24-1 Travers party crasher Willow Hour, who splashed home by a head after refusing to get hooked into running too fast too early by a rabbit entrymate of Pleasant Colony's.
You have to go all the way back to 1978 to find the last time the Travers drew the winners of all three spring Classics and the first horse across the line was a winner of one of those races. But even that apparent victory was fleeting.
In this case it was the Triple Crown champ Affirmed, who was sent off the 7-10 favorite over the even-money Alydar, whom he had defeated in Louisville, Baltimore and New York. Yet in one of the most dramatic renewals in Travers history, Affirmed's 1 3/4-length victory was erased by a disqualification because he had dropped down near the rail nearing the far turn, cutting off his arch-rival and forcing Alydar into the fence. The stewards' reversal of the order of finish based on the foul elevated Alydar to the win.
Big effort from 'Cody's' Lil Bro
Hunt Ball (Into Mischief), the 2-year-old little brother of multiple Grade I-winning miler Cody's Wish (Curlin), didn't win his sprint debut Saturday at Saratoga. But his second-place effort in the first race Aug. 19 behind wire-to-wire favorite Risk It (Gun Runner) stamps him as a horse of interest moving forward.
The Godolphin homebred for trainer Bill Mott got pinballed at the break then rushed up into contention, losing momentum several times while trying to find a comfortable stalking spot chasing a well-meant winner over six furlongs. He leveled off with purpose under coaxing and was drawing a bead on Risk It in upper stretch before the favorite kicked clear by 4 1/2 lengths.
Keep an eye on Hunt Ball with a little bit more real estate to work with in start No. 2, whenever and wherever it comes.
Hunt Ball's dam, Dance Card, lost her sprint debut back in 2012 before racking up four straight wins over 1 1/16 miles and nine furlongs, including a Grade I win in that year's Gazelle S.
And Cody's Wish himself required four initial starts to find winning form in 2021, including twice being a beaten favorite as a juvenile at Saratoga before blasting through with three straight wins over one-turn miles at Churchill Downs.
Axel on a roll
If you have the drive and the talent, the mid-Atlantic region is a great region to launch a racing career as an up-and-coming jockey, because it affords opportunities to ride at both day and evening tracks.
Right now the 18-year-old apprentice Axel Concepcion is making the most of the roughly 75-mile commute between Laurel Park and Charles Town Races. In a span of just under 48 hours between Friday night and Sunday afternoon, he rode nine combined winners at those two tracks.
The weekend spree included the first stakes score for Concepcion, who turned pro Jan. 1 in his native Puerto Rico. He won 21 races there before earning his first mainland U.S. victory Feb. 19 at Fair Grounds. He shifted his tack to Laurel a week later. Riding with a five-pound allowance, he's currently Maryland's leading apprentice this year and is represented by agent Tom Stift.
Concepcion rode two winners at Charles Town Friday, Aug. 18. The next afternoon at Laurel he scored in four, including one aboard an 11-1 shot and another on the 4-1 Field Pass (Lemon Drop Kid) in the $75,000 Find S. for owner Three Diamonds Farm and trainer Mike Maker. Back at Charles Town under the lights Aug. 19, Concepcion made two more visits to the winner's circle. On Sunday, Aug. 20, he rode one winner at Laurel.
In between, he's at Laurel for morning training, honing his skills while trying to get noticed and pick up business on an ultra- competitive circuit.
“He's got to be there in the morning at 6 a.m.,” Stift said. “He's been doing it for months now. He's on a mission. Obviously, Mike [Maker]'s been watching the races and watching Axel ride. You don't put a bug boy on a [stakes] horse like that unless you've been paying attention.”
The post The Week in Review: When Derby, Preakness, Belmont Winners Meet at Spa, History Says Someone Else Will Steal Travers appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
Ness, Rodriguez Top Laurel Summer Meet Standings
Jamie Ness was the leading trainer and Jaime Rodriguez was the top jockey at the Laurel Park summer meet which concluded Sunday. Ness saddled 27 winners at the 33-day stand, while Brittany Russell was second in the standings with 22 wins. Rodriguez outdistanced five-pound apprentice Axel Concepcion, 39-29, to finish as leading rider.
Ness and Rodriguez put an exclamation point on their meet with a Sunday hat trick–Madison Avenue Racing Stable, Inc. and Jagger Inc.'s Liberty Star in Race 5, Double B Racing Stables' My Boy Colton in Race 6 and Morris Kernan Jr. and Jagger Inc.'s Borracho in Race 8.
“We've been on a pretty good roll this summer,” said Ness, who also tops the trainer standings in wins at both Delaware Park and Parx. “It's hard to win on one front, but to win on three is really hard. We spread it out pretty equally. We've got good horses and we've got a good operation here in the Mid-Atlantic. We've got horses at all three tracks, and we've got Fair Hill and I've got my farm. We fine-tuned the infrastructure to the Mid-Atlantic region, and it seems to be getting a little bit better every year.”
Ness' Jagger Inc.–named for his late dog–and Kernan finished as the meet's leading owners with 10 wins. Jagger also won five races with Madison Avenue Racing and another four as sole owner.
“That's another part of my business. I own a percentage of most of my horses. I like that and my owners like that, and it works well for us,” Ness said. “If I'm vested in the horse, then they feel more comfortable being vested in the horse. I've got some really good partners and they're really good people and it's been working out for us.”
The summer title is the second Maryland meet title for Rodriguez following Laurel's winter stand. Represented by agent John Weilbacher, he is also the two-time defending champion at Delaware where he currently has a two-win edge over Daniel Centeno.
“It's been awesome, amazing. We're having a great year,” Rodriguez said. “Thank God, he keeps me healthy, and my agent and everybody for giving me a chance, Ness and all the trainers and owners. To be the leading rider at two tracks, that's impressive.”
The post Ness, Rodriguez Top Laurel Summer Meet Standings appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
