Month: November 2023

Breeders’ Cup Friday Aftermath

All five of the 'Future Stars Friday' winners at Santa Anita appeared to emerge from the efforts unscathed, with connections looking forward to their Classics campaigns in 2024.

The very domination of the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light) will likely have put the colt at the head of the class for champion 2-year-old honors, and the Repole Stable homebred looked good Saturday morning.

“We were extremely happy with the way Fierceness ran,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “The race kind of unfolded the way we envisioned it would. We wanted to get involved and get to the first turn in good position, which he was able to do. Just a powerful performance.”

'Rising Star' Locked (Gun Runner) looked to be going nowhere at short odds on the Juvenile, but got going late to finish a respectable third.

“Locked got shuffled back a little more than we wanted and then got stuck inside,” Pletcher said. “There was a lot of kickback. I thought once he kind of got into the clear down the lane he started closing pretty well. At that point, the race had kind of gotten away from him. He was a couple strides away from being second, but he just had too much to do at that point.”
Pletcher said both colts will return first to Churchill Downs before shipping to the trainer's South Florida base at Palm Beach Downs to chart a course towards the new year.

There will be no such gray area where it comes to the Eclipse Award-winning juvenile filly after George Krikorian's Just F Y I (Justify) stamped her authority on her race Friday, lowering the colors of the previously undefeated divisional front-runner 'TDN Rising Star' Tamara (Bolt d'Oro). If he wasn't totally surprised that his filly proved best, he was slightly taken aback with the way she did it.

“She actually showed a bit more early speed than I expected,” Mott said. “She put herself right up there, which was great.”
The connections of Tamara confirmed that she emerged with a 'small knot' and the back of her rear hind.

“We'll take a look at it and see what it is,” said trainer Richard Mandella. “That will determine whether we may need to give her a rest. I could see at the half-mile pole that she wasn't running her race. I thought Mike (Smith) would have a tight hold on her.”

Chad Brown said that Hard to Justify, who gave her sensational young stallion a second straight Breeders' Cup winner on Friday in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, would get a rest with an eye on her sophomore season.

European horses unsurprisingly made their presence felt in the afternoon's other grass races. Big Evs (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}) gave her sire, trainer Mick Appleby and jockey Tom Marquand their first Breeders' Cup winner with their first starter.

“It hasn't sunk in yet, it really is a dream come true,” trainer Michael Appleby said. “I'm still pinching myself. It was the best day of my career and I'm just so proud of all my team at home, Tom Marquand and Big Evs's owners Rachael and Paul Teasdale.”

Trainer Aidan O'Brien was dealt a disappointing blow when River Tiber (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) was withdrawn from the Juvenile Turf Friday morning, but the team was mollified some when Unquestionable (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) validated favoritism in the final Breeders' Cup event of the day.

“It's very tough to win here, but I'm delighted for the lads as they put so much into it,” O'Brien said. “It's hard to explain because when things start bad like what happened with River Tiber as it usually goes down because there are a lot of areas you can't control.”

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Goodnight Olive Repeats In the Filly and Mare Sprint

ARCADIA, CA – You've got company Groupie Doll.

Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper) successfully defended her title at Santa Anita on Saturday and joined the 2012-13 champion female sprinter as the only repeat winners of the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. Longshots Yuugiri (Shackleford) and Three Witches (Into Mischief) collected the minors.

Favored at even-money, Goodnight Olive broke nicely from her rail draw and found a good spot beneath Irad Ortiz, Jr. in a joint third behind the first-time blinkered Eda (Munnings) and second-choice Society (Gun Runner) through an opening quarter in :22.29. Locked and loaded on the far turn, Goodnight Olive revved up with a menacing three-wide sweep and took over with ease passing the quarter pole. She turned for home in complete command and was kept to her task with a couple of needless left-handers from Ortiz, Jr. to win by 2 3/4 lengths dominating lengths.

Trainer Chad Brown picked up his third victory in the race and 18th Breeders' Cup victory overall. He also saddled Hard to Justify (Justify) to a win in Friday's GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

“It's very satisfying,” Brown said. “She trained perfect her last two works. Really beautifully. When she broke good and got behind Society, which I was really happy to see because we knew she was the second choice in the race and really fit on paper. If we could find her, she was going to take us at least to the quarter-pole. And I said to Irad (Ortiz, Jr.), it's likely that other horses will be tired around you at that point and when she got outside of her, she was able to put the race to bed. Rarely does 'Plan A' go into effect and actually finish all the way through. That was our plan and Irad executed it perfectly.”

“Beautiful trip,” Ortiz Jr. said of his 18th career winner at the Championships. “She was there for me every time I asked. She gives me confidence. I knew I was on the best horse. She did it again.”

The First Row Partners and Team Hanley colorbearer, a complete steal for $170,000 as a FTKOCT yearling, will head into the ring for Tuesday's Fasig-Tipton's 'Night of the Stars' November Sale.

“It was obviously the goal that we started after last year's win,” winning co-owner Steve Laymon of First Row Partners said. “A lot of folks were thinking we'd retire her, and it was never a consideration with this group. We're sad to see her go, but what a career for this mare.”

Goodnight Olive faced the starter four previous times since concluding her 2022 season with a powerful victory over Echo Zulu (Gun Runner) at Keeneland last fall. Goodnight Olive returned to the site of her first Filly & Mare Sprint victory and successfully launched her 5-year-old campaign with a win in the GI Madison S. Apr. 8. With absolutely nowhere to run down the stretch, her seven-race winning streak, however, came to a frustrating end after finishing a luckless third in the GI Derby City Distaff S. on the GI Kentucky Derby undercard. Goodnight Olive got there in time with a neck victory in the GII Bed o' Roses S. at Belmont June 17, then earned a career-best 108 Beyer Speed Figure while finishing 2 1/2 lengths adrift the aforementioned recently retired 2021 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies heroine while failing to repeat in the GI Ballerina H. at the Spa Aug. 26, a race she won impressively in 2022.

Pedigree Notes:

Horse of the Year Ghostzapper, an unforgettable winner of the 2004 GI Breeders' Cup Classic, is now a three-time winning sire of this contest. He is also responsible for 2014 Filly & Mare Sprint heroine Judy the Beauty. Goodnight Olive is one of 14 top-level winners for Ghostzapper. Goodnight Olive is one of two winners from three to the races out of dual Grade III winner Salty Strike, who was acquired by the Stonestreet team for $800,000 at the Keeneland January Sale in 2013. A half-sister to the stakes-winning Salty Response (Cozzene) and to the stakes-placed dam of MSP Mohawk Trail (Pioneerof the Nile), Salty Strike is also the dam of the unraced Katie's Keepsake (Medaglia d'Oro), who was sold for $250,000 in foal to Ghostzapper to D. C. Goff at this year's Keeneland January Sale. Goodnight Olive is two of three Breeders' Cup winners out of a daughter of the late Smart Strike, joining GI Filly & Mare Turf upsetter Shared Account (Pleasantly Perfect).

 

 

Saturday, Santa Anita Park
PNC BANK BREEDERS' CUP FILLY & MARE SPRINT-GI, $910,000, Santa Anita, 11-4, 3yo/up, f/m, 7f, 1:22.97, ft.
1–GOODNIGHT OLIVE, 124, m, 5, by Ghostzapper
          1st Dam: Salty Strike (MGSW, $485,266), by Smart Strike
            2nd Dam: Lake Huron, by Salt Lake
            3rd Dam: My Rainbow, by Lyphard
($170,000 Ylg '19 FTKOCT). O-First Row Partners and Team Hanley; B-Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC (KY); T-Chad Brown; J-Irad Ortiz, Jr.. $520,000. Lifetime Record: Ch. Female Sprinter, 12-9-2-1, $2,196,200. Click for the http://www.werkhorse.com/free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Yuugiri, 124, f, 4, by Shackleford
             1st Dam: Yuzuru (SW, $105,759), by Medaglia d'Oro
             2nd Dam: Macarena Macarena, by Gone West
             3rd Dam: Angelic Song, by Halo
1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. O/B-Sekie & Tsunebumi Yoshihara (KY); T-Rodolphe Brisset. $170,000.
3–Three Witches, 124, f, 4, by Into Mischief
             1st Dam: Layreebelle, by Tale of the Cat
             2nd Dam: Voodoo Lily, by Baldski
             3rd Dam: Cap the Moment, by For The Moment
1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. ($350,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-e Five Racing Thoroughbreds; B-Machmer Hall (KY); T-Saffie A. Joseph, Jr.. $90,000.
Margins: 2 3/4, 1 1/4, HF. Odds: 1.10, 26.20, 34.40.
Also Ran: Society, Kirstenbosch, Clearly Unhinged, Eda, Matareya, Meikei Yell (Jpn).
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by Fanduel TV.

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Sale-Topping Sierra Leone ‘Guns’ To Rising Stardom

When you sell for a sale-topping $2.3m as a yearling at Fasig-Tipton's New York Saratoga Sale to connections like White Birch Farm and M. V. Magnier, the expectations are going to be sky high. And while Sierra Leone (c, 2, Gun Runner–Heavenly Love, by Malibu Moon) proved he still has a lot to learn but still showed enough ability in the end to graduate at first asking and become the latest 'TDN Rising Star' for Three Chimney's super-stallion Gun Runner.

Facing a field of mostly more experienced runners, the 3-1 shot had to contend with another million-dollar purchase in Change of Command (Into Mischief) from the inside along with the younger half-brother to dual GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Cody's Wish in Hunt Ball (Into Mischief). A step slow from a middle gate, Sierra Leone was quickly outrun into the opening furlong and dropped back to beat only runner while taking dirt from nearly the entire field. Caught in tight quarters into the turn in this one-mile event, he had to back out and faced a wall of horses with a quarter mile to run. Jockey Manny Franco moved to angle his mount to the outside but Sierra Leone ducked out sharply on the wrong lead, lugged back in toward the rail and then drifted back out before finally swapping leads right at the furlong marker. Finally in the clear, he came sweeping past the inside leaders and won going away despite still needing to be straightened out when passing horses.

The second foal out of GI Darley Alcibiades S. winner Heavenly Love, Seirra Leone is from the extended female family of Japanese Horse of the Year Zenno Rob Roy (Jpn) (Sunday Silence) and from a third dam that also produced the dams of no fewer than three Group winners in Japan. The dam's yearling Nyquist colt brought $250,000 at last month's Fasig-Tipton October Yearling Sale and she returned to Gun Runner for a full-sibling to Sierra Leone in 2024.

7th-Aqueduct, $85,000, Msw, 11-4, 2yo, 1m, 1:36.94, ft, 1 1/4 lengths.
SIERRA LEONE, c, 2, Gun Runner
                1st Dam: Heavenly Love {GISW, $346,200},
                                by Malibu Moon)
                2nd Dam: Darling My Darling, by Deputy Minister
                3rd Dam: Roamin Rachel, by Mining
Sales History: $2,300,000 Ylg '22 FTSAUG. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $46,750. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
O-Mrs John Magnier, Michael B Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg, Rocket Ship Racing, LLC and Peter M. Brant; B-Debby M. Oxley (KY); T-Chad C. Brown.

 

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Dettori Magic Grants Frankel First Breeders’ Cup Winner With Inspiral In Filly & Mare Turf

Cheveley Park Stud homebred INSPIRAL (GB) (Frankel {GB}–Starscope {GB}, by Selkirk) became the first Breeders' Cup winner for her Juddmonte sire with a narrow victory over dual Group 1 winner Warm Heart (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in the $2-million GI Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf on Saturday. It was the second win in the race for Cheveley Park's Thompson family, who also took the 2016 edition with Queen's Trust (GB) (Dansili {GB}).

One of the back-markers crossing the dirt in the 1 1/4-mile contest, the 5-2 favorite found plenty of friendly cover in the master hands of Frankie Dettori who was looking for his 15th Breeders' Cup success. Glued to the rail into the clubhouse turn behind a half-mile in :46.90 as four-time Grade I winner and last year's runner-up 'TDN Rising Star' In Italian (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) showed the way, the filly was in a good rhythm on the backstretch. Creeping closer on the far turn, Dettori shook his filly up at the quarter pole and she produced a killer burst of speed to win coming over the top of the field in the lane to just pip stretch leader Warm Heart, who had saved all the ground, by a neck in the final two jumps. The Coolmore runner was a length better than the remainder. 2022 Canadian Horse of the Year Moira (Ghostzapper) just nosed out G1 Hong Kong Vase heroine Win Marilyn (Jpn) (Screen Hero {Jpn}) for third.

Dettori, who will not be retiring as originally planned and has instead relocated to the Southern California jockeys' colony, said, “She jumped good. I got squeezed out [after the break]. I really wanted to be where William [Buick on With The Moonlight (Ire) (Frankel {GB})] was, but he got there before me.

“She needs a quarter of a mile to get really in top gear. She was flying. For the team, this was always the plan. Give credit to everyone — John, Thady, and the Cheveley Park team that supplemented for this race. Coming in here this week, I thought she's my best ride, and she proved me right.”

Said John Gosden, “They [Cheveley] bred her, and the whole team there with Richard Thompson here, Patricia's son, it's a wonderful achievement for them.”

Added Cheveley's Richard Thompson, “This is such a special feeling, obviously, winning the Breeders' Cup with Inspiral. Chris is sitting next to me here. He runs the stuff for us, the family, my mother, et cetera. To have a homebred filly win the Breeders' Cup is just–six in Group 1, it's the pinnacle of everything we strive for at Cheveley, to breed a filly like this.”

Said Cheveley Park Stud's manager director Chris Richardson, “Pleased to say she stays in training, which is very exciting. I think her last performance in the Sun Chariot S. at Newmarket was one of the most impressive up until today.

“John has done a magnificent job in getting the filly, who is quite a high-strung filly — always has been, ever since she was a foal — to perform today at the highest level is a huge accolade to Patricia Thompson and the Thompson family.”

Unbeatable as a juvenile and named the Cartier Champion 2-Year-Old Filly after four victories by a combined 11 1/4 lengths including the G1 Fillies' Mile, Inspiral picked up right where she left off with another Group 1 victory, this time in Royal Ascot's Coronation S. in June of 2022. Second in the G1 Falmouth S. last July, she claimed her first of two G1 Prix Jacques Le Marois in France in August. At year's end, she became only the third filly to also be named the Cartier Champion 3-Year-Old Filly. This term, Inspiral missed in the G1 Queen Anne S. by a neck in June, and resumed with another Prix Jacques Le Marois score in August. Most recently, she landed the G1 Sun Chariot S. at Newbury on Oct. 7. Saturday's contest was her first start beyond a mile. Earlier in the day, the Cheveley colors had been borne by Regal Jubilee (GB) (Frankel {GB}) to victory in the Listed Montrose Fillies' S. at Newmarket.

Already a five-time Group 1 winner, the filly had been due to run on QIPCO British Champions Day last month, but the heavy ground put paid to that plan. Next year's Breeders' Cup at Del Mar is a possibility, as well.

Added Gosden, who trains with his son Thady, “She was poising for the Queen Elizabeth II S. at Ascot, but the rain arrived, and the terrain came too deep. She was in the race and we didn't even declare her to run. We said, right, we're coming here.

“The way she came and finished and the way she galloped out, she's probably saying that the trainer has been running her over the wrong distance the last year.

“Whether you go for the like of the [G1] Lockinge or the Queen Anne or she's meant to stay in training. I could see the [G1] Juddmonte International being a very key race for her next year. I think, if she's in great order next year, there will be no question but to consider Del Mar very seriously. Particularly since the trainer and his wife love coming back to California.”

Pedigree Notes:

Through the Filly & Mare Turf, Juddmonte's Frankel has only had five Breeders' Cup starters. She is one of his most decorated progeny, however, and one of 33 top-tier winners. With her victory on Saturday, she is tied with Frankel's 2022 G1 Prix de l'Arc de Tromphe winner Alpinista (GB) for most top-drawer victories at six.

Runner-up in the G1 1000 Guineas and G1 Coronation S. in the Cheveley red-white-and-blue, Inspiral's dam Starscope is a half-sister to listed winner Solar Magic (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) and has also foaled the stakes-placed Celestran (GB) (Dansili {GB}). Starscope's Ulysses (Ire) yearling colt brought 160,000gns from Stetchworth and Middle Park Studs out of Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale and has since been named Stetchworth Friend (GB). Her winning 8-year-old daughter Lunar Corona (GB) (Dansili {GB}) will be consigned by Cheveley in foal to Twilight Son (GB) (lot 1431) as part of the Tattersalls December Mares Sale next month.

Third dam Mystic Goddess, who won the Listed Sweet Solera S. and was placed thrice in Group 3s, is a half-sister to Italian champion and Group 1 winner Sanam (Golden Act), while she threw two-time Group 1 winner and eventual Cheveley Park stallion Medicean (GB) to the cover of Machiavellian. The Thompsons first got involved with the female family when they purchased Inspiral's fourth dam Rose Goddess (Ire) (Sassafras {Fr}) for $450,000 out of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale carrying to Diesis (GB) in 1988.

Saturday, Santa Anita Park
MAKER'S MARK BREEDERS' CUP FILLY & MARE TURF-GI, $1,840,000, Santa Anita, 11-4, 3yo/up, f/m, 1 1/4mT, 1:59.06, fm.
1–INSPIRAL (GB), 124, f, 4, by Frankel (GB)
                1st Dam: Starscope (GB) (MG1SP-Eng, $251,626), by Selkirk
                2nd Dam: Moon Goddess (GB), by Rainbow Quest
                3rd Dam: Mystic Goddess, by Storm Bird
O/B-Cheveley Park Stud Limited (GB); T-John H. M. Gosden; J-Lanfranco Dettori. $1,040,000. Lifetime Record: MG1SW-Eng, MG1SW-Fr, 13-9-2-0, $3,639,932. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Warm Heart (Ire), 120, f, 3, by Galileo (Ire)
                1st Dam: Sea Siren (Aus) (Hwt. Older Mare-Ire- at 5 – 7 f., 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)
O-Westerberg, Mrs. John Magnier, Derrick Smith and Michael Tabor; B-Coolmore (IRE); T-Aidan P. O'Brien. $340,000.
3–Moira, 124, f, 4, by Ghostzapper
                1st Dam: Devine Aida (MSW & GSP, $273,215), by Unbridled's Song
                2nd Dam: Passion, by Came Home
                3rd Dam: Rajmata, by Known Fact
($150,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-Madaket Stables LLC, SF Racing LLC and X-Men Racing; B-Adena Springs (ON); T-Kevin Attard. $180,000.
Margins: NK, 1, NO. Odds: 2.50, 4.20, 13.50.
Also Ran: Win Marilyn (Jpn), In Italian (GB), Lumiere Rock (Ire), With The Moonlight (Ire), Lindy (Fr), State Occasion (GB), Didia (Arg), Fev Rover (Ire), McKulick (GB).
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

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