Yorkshire Oaks: Warm Heart edges Free Wind in thrilling finish
Warm Heart edges out Free Wind to claim a thrilling victory in the Pertemps Network Yorkshire Oaks at York Racecourse.
Month: August 2023
NYRA Relocates Remains Of Ruffian To Claiborne Farm, Timely Writer To Old Friends
The New York Racing Association, Inc. today announced that the remains of Hall of Fame filly Ruffian have been transported from Belmont Park to the grounds of Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky., where the 1970s-era champion was foaled and raised.
Ruffian was buried on Thursday at Claiborne's Marchmont Cemetery, the final resting place of numerous legends of the sport. The move to Claiborne will dramatically expand public access to her gravesite, in contrast to Belmont Park, where Ruffian's site was clearly visible from the grandstand but inaccessible to fans.
The move to Claiborne will ensure the preservation of Ruffian's remains, buried shortly after her death in 1975 at the base of the flagpole near the finish line at Belmont Park, where NYRA is beginning the installation of a one-mile synthetic track.
Bred by Stuart Janney, Jr. and his wife, Barbara Phipps Janney, owners of Locust Hill Farm in Glyndon, Md., Ruffian was sired by Reviewer, a son of Bold Ruler, out of the Native Dancer mare Shenanigans. In her brief two-year career, Ruffian won all 10 races she finished, including the Acorn, Mother Goose and Coaching Club American Oaks, then known as the American Triple Tiara.
“I'd like to thank NYRA for preserving and protecting Ruffian's gravesite at Belmont for close to 50 years,” said Stuart Janney, who made the decision to move the remains jointly with Claiborne and NYRA, where he is a board member. “We have been working with NYRA and Claiborne for months, and this is a wonderful outcome that will increase the public's ability to visit the site and pay tribute to Ruffian and her incredible legacy. Claiborne is one of the most beautiful and revered thoroughbred farms in America and the home of some of the greatest horses in racing history, and the ideal place for Ruffian.”
Ruffian was dominant from the beginning, winning her first start as a 2-year-old by 15 lengths and equaling the Belmont Park track record for 5 1/2 furlongs. She led the field at every post in every race she ever ran and set records in each of her eight winning stakes races. Named champion filly as a 2-year-old in 1974 and as a 3-year-old in 1975, Ruffian died in July 1975 from injuries sustained in a race at Belmont Park, where she was buried that month. In 1976, she was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
“We are honored that Ruffian will be returning home,” said Walker Hancock, president of Claiborne Farm. “She is known throughout racing as one of the greatest fillies of all time and it's only fitting that she returns to her birthplace and will lie alongside other great mares such as Personal Ensign, Inside Information and Moccasin, among others, in our Marchmont Cemetery.”
In the 48 years since her death, Ruffian's legend has flourished. BloodHorse ranked her 35th in its list of the top 100 U.S. Thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century. She is the highest-rated filly or mare on the list.
Since 1976, NYRA has hosted the Grade 2 Ruffian Handicap for fillies and mares, 4-year-olds-and-up, at one mile on the dirt. Just outside Belmont Park, the Cornell Ruffian Equine Hospital provides medical services ranging from acute care for race-related injuries to preventative and primary care. At Aqueduct, an oversized mural of Ruffian and her regular jockey, Jacinto Vasquez, greets visitors at the Clubhouse entrance.
NYRA has also relocated the plaque from Ruffian's gravesite at Belmont Park to Claiborne Farm.
In addition, the remains of Timely Writer, winner of the 1981 Hopeful and Champagne, will be transferred from the infield area at the top of the stretch at Belmont Park to Old Friends Farm in Georgetown, Ky.
Owned by Peter and Francis Martin, Timely Writer began his career as a claimer at Monmouth Park and at year's end was named the 1981 Florida bred Horse of the Year. In 1982, at age three, he won the Florida Derby but missed the Triple Crown due to injury. For his career, Timely Writer won nine races from 15 starts, earning $605,491.
The post NYRA Relocates Remains Of Ruffian To Claiborne Farm, Timely Writer To Old Friends appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
Warm Heart Prevails In Yorkshire Oaks Thriller Becoming The 99th Group 1 Winner For Galileo
Coolmore and Westerberg's G2 Ribblesdale S. heroine Warm Heart (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}–Sea Siren {Aus}, by Fastnet Rock {Aus}) was unable to land a telling blow when fifth behind stablemate Savethelastdance (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in last month's G1 Irish Oaks and stepped out of the shadows to claim a career high in a thrilling renewal of Thursday's G1 Pertemps Network Yorkshire Oaks, becoming the 99th Group 1 winner for her sire.
The 9-1 chance, who had earlier outbobbed Irish Oaks runner-up and 'TDN Rising Star' Bluestocking (GB) (Camelot {GB}) in Newbury's May 20 Listed Fillies' Trial, settled into a comfortable rhythm racing four lengths off the searching tempo pounded out by Savethelastdance on the front end and inched closer once into the long home straight. Making her presence felt when looming large on the bridle approaching the quarter-mile marker, she seized a narrow advantage with 1 1/2 furlongs remaining as Free Wind (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) threatened out wide and was resolute under a James Doyle drive in the closing stages to outpoint that rival by a head in a thrilling ding-dong tussle. Savethelastdance stayed on gamely once headed and finished 2 1/4 lengths adrift in third, providing her sire with yet another Group 1 trifecta.
“She's a very good filly who won very well in Ascot and then she just got back in a slowly-run race [at the Curragh] and it was hard to make up ground,” said Aidan O'Brien after claiming a seventh success in the contest. “She loves fast ground, she's a very slick filly and I think she's probably made for the [GI Breeders' Cup] Filly & Mare Turf. She's a nice size to her, she's strong and has tactical speed as well. She could go straight there [to Santa Anita] or she could run on Irish Champions Weekend or Arc weekend, but she likes nice ground and maybe we shouldn't overface her. The lads do keep horses in training as 4-year-olds, including fillies, so I'd say they'll definitely think about it at the end of the year. She's progressing from run to run.”
Reflecting on the performance of Savethelastdance, the trainer added, “Ryan [Moore] wanted an even pace for his filly as she stays well. We were worried about the [faster] ground for her today. When the ground gets slow it helps her as it makes it tougher for the others, but she still ran a great race. She always runs her race, but she's better on soft ground. Whereas most horses struggle, she improves. She definitely could be an Arc filly as, on softish ground, she grows another leg. She has the choice of the St Leger or the Arc. If she ran in the St Leger the Arc comes up two weeks after that, so it's a little bit tight and she'd probably have to do one or the other. We'll probably give her an easy time now and see. We always felt she could be a filly for the Arc, especially if the ground got soft.”
It was a case of so near yet so far for rider Frankie Dettori after he was narrowly denied a Group 1 double at the meeting on his season-long lap of honour. “She's run a super race, but I couldn't get out when I wanted to. I had to wait an extra half-furlong and that meant James [Doyle] had all the momentum. I got to him, but I just wish I'd been able to get my filly rolling beforehand. That nine-pound [weight-for-age] pull just took its toll in the end. I think the pocket I got stuck in cost me.”
Ground conditions were a direct factor in Bluestocking's defeat, according to trainer Ralph Beckett. “She's just not quite as effective on that quicker ground as she is on slower ground and that's all it is,” he said. “She's run her race, she's run well and she's run through the line, but she's just not quite as good on quicker ground. Come the autumn, I'd like to think there will be a few nice targets for her.”
Galileo: In Numbers
With the victory of Warm Heart, the late Coolmore supremo Galileo sired his 99th individual Group 1 winner worldwide. A total of 44 of his top-level winners are fillies, with Warm Heart the 41st British Group 1 winner for her sire. He is also represented by 40 Irish winners of top-tier races, as well as 26 in France and 15 in America. His most decorated British runner is undoubtedly his undefeated champion son Frankel (GB), who garnered 10 Group 1 laurels.
From a distance perspective, Warm Heart joins 30 other top-level winners to have won between 11 furlongs and 12 furlongs, the most of any distance category for Galileo. However, he did sire Clemmie (Ire) to take the Cheveley Park S. over six furlongs. An additional 22 have prevailed at distances beyond one-and-a-half miles.
Warm Heart is also the second Group 1 winner out of a Fastnet Rock mare, joining Hong Kong Gold Cup and dual Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup hero Russian Emperor (Ire).
The majority of Galileo's Group 1 winners have done their best work as 3-year-olds (67), with 23 juvenile Group 1 winners to his credit and 38 have triumphed at the highest level at four.
Pedigree Notes
Warm Heart is the fifth of seven foals and one of four scorers produced by G1 Manikato S., G1 Doomben 10,000 and G1 BTC Cup heroine Sea Siren (Aus) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}), herself kin to the pattern-race winners Oratorio (Aus) (Stravinsky) and Lady Dehere (NZ) (Dehere). The February-foaled bay, whose third dam is G1 Karrakatta Plate heroine Hold That Smile (Aus) (Haulpak {Aus}), is a full-sister to G3 Derrinstown Stud Fillies S. runner-up Celestial Object (Ire) and the winning 2-year-old colt Bremen (Ire). She is also kin to a yearling colt by Camelot (GB). Sea Siren has returned to Australia and just foaled a colt by Coolmore's Home Affairs (Aus) (I Am Invincible {Aus}).
Doesn't it WARM the HEART…
What a battle to the line in the Yorkshire Oaks… #EborFestival
— World Horse Racing (@WHR) August 24, 2023
Thursday, York, Britain
PERTEMPS NETWORK YORKSHIRE OAKS-G1, £500,000, York, 8-24, 3yo/up, f, 11f 188yT, 2:25.86, g/f.
1–WARM HEART (IRE), 126, f, 3, by Galileo (Ire)
1st Dam: Sea Siren (Aus) (MG1SW-Aus, SW & MGSP-Ire, $1,743,772), by Fastnet Rock (Aus)
2nd Dam: Express A Smile (Aus), by Success Express
3rd Dam: Hold That Smile (Aus), by Haulpak (Aus)
1ST GROUP 1 WIN. O-Mrs J Magnier, M Tabor, D Smith & Westerberg; B-Coolmore (IRE); T-Aidan O'Brien; J-James Doyle. £283,550. Lifetime Record: 7-4-1-0, $603,423. *Full to Celestial Object (Ire), GSP-Ire. Werk Nick Rating: A. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Free Wind (Ire), 135, m, 5, Galileo (Ire)–Alive Alive Oh (GB), by Duke Of Marmalade (Ire). 1ST GROUP 1 BLACK TYPE. (325,000gns Ylg '19 TATOCT). O-George Strawbridge; B-Mrs Sue Ann Foley (IRE); T-John & Thady Gosden. £107,500.
3–Savethelastdance (Ire), 126, f, 3, Galileo (Ire)–Daddys Lil Darling, by Scat Daddy. O-Mrs J Magnier, M Tabor, D Smith & Westerberg; B-Daddys Lil Darling Syndicate (IRE); T-Aidan O'Brien. £53,800.
Margins: HD, 2 1/4, 1. Odds: 9.00, 5.00, 3.33.
Also Ran: Bluestocking (GB), Sea Silk Road (Ire), Stay Alert (GB), Novakai (GB), Poptronic (GB), Al Husn (Ire), Rosscarbery (Ger).
The post Warm Heart Prevails In Yorkshire Oaks Thriller Becoming The 99th Group 1 Winner For Galileo appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
RoR Racing To Cricket Auction Lots Announced
Retraining of Racehorses Racing to Cricket event will also feature 11 lots set to be auctioned to support the racing charity.
The event is set for Wormsley Cricket Ground as eight racing teams will square off to win the trophy on Sunday, Sept. 3. The live auction will be held at 1:30 p.m. earlier that day, with charity auctioneer Martin Pope signed on. Bids can be made in advance by 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 2 by email to rorauction@ror.org.uk.
Among the auction items are stallion nominations in Group 1 sire Aclaim (Ire) and young sire Lope Y Fernandez (Ire); a trip for four people to the renowned Punchestown Festival in May 2024 with a tour of the Irish National Stud and overnight stay at The Club; a two night stay is offered in the luxury B&B Aylworth Manor in the Cotswolds along with tickets and hospitality for two at the November Meeting at Cheltenham on Sunday, Nov. 19; a behind-the-scenes day with former jockey Luke Harvey at a televised race meeting; a week's stay at Southdown Barns, located in the National Trust coastal hills of Devon accommodating up to 12; and Corney & Barrow has offered with the Tack Room a wine tasting event for up to 20 people at the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket.
David Catlow, RoR Managing Director said, “RoR has an important role in leading the development and delivery of an overarching strategy for the aftercare of former racehorses. To date, RoR has made a real difference to the lives of many thousands of former racehorses and funds raised at the RoR Racing to Cricket day will help towards the development of activities which support the charity's vision 'For all former racehorses to enjoy a good life'.
“We are so grateful for the generosity and support of donors, who have given RoR these wonderful auction lots, as well as individuals and businesses who are supporting the day and raising valuable funds for the charity.”
For more information on the charity event and auction, please visit the Retraining of Racehorses website.
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