December, 2023 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Tenacious Remsen Winner Dornoch Has Gargan Derby Dreaming

After trainer Danny Gargan declared 2-year-old colt Dornoch the greatest horse he has ever trained earlier this summer, the talented son of Good Magic helped to confirm that assessment Saturday when battling back strongly in the stretch to capture the Remsen (G2) by a nose at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Owned by West Paces Racing, R.A. Hill Stable, Belmar Racing and Breeding, Two Eight Racing, and Pine Racing Stables, Dornoch led through swift splits of :23.09, :46.97 and 1:11.56 through six furlongs and appeared defeated a furlong from the finish when he bumped the rail before the Chad Brown-trained Sierra Leone swept past him to take the advantage. But Dornoch showed true heart along the inside and refused to lose the 1 1/8-mile test for juveniles, digging in under Luis Saez to stick his nose back in front and cross the wire first in a final time of 1:50.30.

“It's crazy. Usually when a horse hits the rail at the eighth pole like he did, they just stop running altogether,” said Gargan. “I can't believe he re-rallied after that. He did see the other horse and get running back at him, but hitting the rail knocked him off stride and then it took him a few jumps to get back going. I think if he doesn't hit the rail, he stays in front. I've never seen a horse get passed a length and then come back and win. It was a really good race.”

Dornoch, a full-brother to this year's Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mage, earned the first stakes win of his career on the heels of a dominant third-out graduation when taking a 1 1/16-mile maiden by 6 1/2 lengths on October 14 at Keeneland. He had previously finished a hard-trying second in the one-mile Sapling in August at Monmouth Park and in a 6 1/2-furlong maiden in July at Saratoga Race Course.

For his Remsen victory, Dornoch earned the maximum allotment of the 10-5-3-2-1 Kentucky Derby qualifying points available to the top-five finishers, respectively. With his name now on the list of top Derby prospects, Dornoch has his connections dreaming of the First Saturday in May.

“When you've got a horse like this, you can run second in a big prep and he's in,” said Gargan. “We just have to plan out the right arrangement to get him there.”

Gargan said one key to getting Dornoch into the Derby starting gate will be maturity.

“We need him to focus running. He kind of looks around playing a little bit, and that's why he hit the rail,” said Gargan. “He's got to grow up a lot, and he's still out there goofing off. He did dig in in this race in the end, but he kind of put himself in that situation running green early. I think if another horse is around him, he won't lose focus. What we'll probably do next time is bring him off the pace which he can do. He'll finish in the lane, so he'll get a little more out of the race and mature a little bit from it.”

Dornoch will now likely get a freshening in preparation for his sophomore campaign with potential targets including the Withers (G3) at Aqueduct or the Fountain of Youth (G2) on March 2 at Gulfstream Park, according to Gargan.

“We'll take him down to Palm Meadows and keep him with us. He'll tack walk for two or three weeks and then we'll figure it out from there,” said Gargan. “We'll probably see him around the Fountain of Youth. The Withers is always something you could win real easy if you wanted to win a race, it just depends who's where.”

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Remsen Win Has Gargan Thinking Derby for Dornoch

Dornoch (Good Magic)'s determined victory in the GII Remsen S. Saturday at Aqueduct has Danny Gargan mapping out possible paths to next year's GI Kentucky Derby, but the trainer admitted his charge has plenty of growing up to do if he is to make it to Churchill Downs on the First Saturday of next May.

Dornoch, who set swift fractions in the nine-furlong race Saturday, appeared defeated with a furlong to run when he bumped the rail and allowed Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) to surge past him. But Dornoch battled back along the inside and stuck his nose back in front in the final stride.

Dornoch, a full-brother to this year's Derby winner Mage, will head south to winter at Palm Meadows with possible early 2024 targets including the GIII Withers S. at Aqueduct or the GII Fountain of Youth S. at Gulfstream Park, according to Gargan.

“He'll tack walk for two or three weeks and then we'll figure it out from there,” said Gargan. “We'll probably see him around the Fountain of Youth. The Withers is always something you could win real easy if you wanted to win a race, it just depends who's where.”

Of what he would like to see from the colt over the winter, Gargan said, “We need him to focus running. He kind of looks around playing a little bit, and that's why he hit the rail. He's got to grow up a lot, and he's still out there goofing off. He did dig in in this race in the end, but he kind of put himself in that situation running green early. I think if another horse is around him, he won't lose focus. What we'll probably do next time is bring him off the pace which he can do. He'll finish in the lane so he'll get a little more out of the race and mature a little bit from it.”

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Saudi Cup Penciled In For Front-Running Cigar Mile Winner Hoist The Gold

Dream Team One Racing Stable's Kentucky homebred Hoist the Gold earned a career-best 109 Beyer Speed Figure for his front-running tour-de-force in Saturday's $500,000 Cigar Mile Handicap (G2) at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Trained by Dallas Stewart and piloted by Hall of Famer John Velazquez, the 4-year-old Mineshaft colt zipped through splits of :22.41, :44.88 and 1:09.04 en route to a 4 1/2-length score over the late-running Senor Buscador in a final time of 1:34.28.

Jim Culver is the President of Dream Team One Racing Stable which he previously operated as a syndicate but went private following the pandemic. Culver was unable to attend Saturday's race in person after hurting his back earlier in the week, but said the impressive performance got him up on his feet.

“I was jumping up and down in my living room like crazy watching it,” Culver said. “It was pretty exciting.”

It was Velazquez, who won the Cigar Mile for the fourth time, that picked out the race after Hoist the Gold finished a disappointing sixth in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Sprint in November at Santa Anita – an effort that came on the heels of sharp score out of the inside post in the six-furlong Grade 2 Phoenix in October at Keeneland.

“We finally figured out what he likes to do. He does not like to take dirt in his face – he shies away from it and it just kills him in a race,” Culver said. “He got him out front quick in the Phoenix and he won, but in the Breeders' Cup he got stuck on the rail behind the leaders and he just took too much dirt that day.

“Johnny said, 'He gallops out tremendously, so let's go a little longer and he'll win this race for fun,' ” added Culver. “Johnny picked the race for us and he was right. I was a little surprised when he got that five-length lead at the top of the stretch – wow. It was just a tremendous performance.”

Culver is best known as the original owner of multiple Grade 1-winning multimillionaire Mucho Macho Man, who he would campaign with Reeves Thoroughbred Racing through much of a tremendous career that included a third-place finish in the 2011 Kentucky Derby (G1). Dean Reeves bought the horse outright in 2012 and Mucho Macho Man went on to win the 2013 Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) as the highpoint of five career graded scores.

“I bought him as a yearling off the farm and raced him and then Dean bought a majority interest. We stayed in partnership with them for a long time and then sold out the rest of him later in his career to Dean, who ended up owning all of him,” Culver said.

Culver purchased Hoist the Gold's dam, Tacit Approval, for $62,000 at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky February Mixed Sale.

“She was owned by West Point and they decided to put her in the sale,” Culver said. “A couple of the West Point partners approached me about buying her with the hopes of racing her again.”

While Tacit Approval didn't show enough in training to move forward with their dreams of racing her, the Tapit mare has performed beyond expectations as a broodmare producing three foals to race thus far – all winners – including Hoist the Gold and Mucho Macho Girl, by Mucho Macho Man, who will race later today at Fair Grounds.

“We decided to breed her and about every three years we skip a year of breeding her just to give her a break. She's done well for us,” Culver said.

Culver said he was a big fan of Hoist the Gold's sire Mineshaft. The son of A. P. Indy earned honors as Horse of the Year and Champion Older Horse in 2003 for a seven-win campaign that included Grade 1 wins at Belmont Park in the Suburban Handicap, Woodward and Jockey Club Gold Cup.

“I loved Mineshaft when he raced,” Culver said. “He didn't even nick well with the mare, but I dismiss that type of analysis when there's a small percentage of horses that are used to evaluate.”

Hoist the Gold RNA'd at the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale in what has proven to be a fortunate turn of affairs for Culver as the 4-year-old dark bay has now banked in excess of $1.1 million through a record of 26-5-6-3.

“We didn't plan to keep him,” Culver said. “We were going to breed and race every other year's horse and he was on the list to sell. We put him in the sale but he didn't bring what we'd hoped. We put him in training and I guess we made the right decision.”

Culver said Hoist the Gold, who will have a couple of weeks off at a farm in Kentucky before returning to training, is likely to try and add to his bankroll with a trip to the $20-million Saudi Cup (G1) Feb. 24 at King Abdulaziz Racecourse.

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‘Unbelievable Mare’: Highfield Princess To Seek First Hong Kong Sprint Win For Great Britain

By Maddy Playle

A top sprint rarely takes place without Highfield Princess and, in missing this year's Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita, her trainer, John Quinn, hopes she can give Great Britain a first win in the Longines Hong Kong Sprint (G1) next Sunday at Sha Tin Racecourse.

It is a race local horses have dominated by winning all but six of the 23 runnings since 1999, and in that time the likes of Borderlescott, Sole Power, Society Rock, and Bated Breath have tried and failed for Great Britain. The most recent British runner, Sir Dancealot, finished last in 2018.

However, Highfield Princess, a 6-year-old French-bred Night of Thunder mare, has become one of the most versatile sprinters Great Britain has seen for many years, winning several Group 1s from five furlongs to 6 1/2 furlongs.

A golden spell last autumn saw her win top-level events in three different countries–the Prix de Maurice de Gheest in France, Nunthorpe Stakes in England and Flying Five in Ireland–in just 36 days. She ended her 2022 campaign with a respectable fourth in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1) at Keeneland, and Quinn believes choosing not to travel to the United States this year will pay off on his first visit to the Longines Hong Kong International Races next Sunday.

“It was a difficult decision, but we purposely skipped (the Breeders' Cup) in the hope we could give her the best chance to get to Hong Kong in top form,” Quinn said of his star, who arrived at Sha Tin on Saturday evening.

“She had a hard race last time, but she had a very easy week afterwards and she's a big mare, so she doesn't need too much time to recover between races.

“We were always thinking this year was going to be a lighter campaign. Her first run was in May and she turned up at every big gig all year and ran brilliantly.”

Those performances included a second and third in the two Group 1 sprints, the King's Stand and Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes just four days apart in June at Royal Ascot, while her first win of the season came in the King George Qatar Stakes (G2) at Glorious Goodwood in August.

The same month, she came within a length of becoming a consecutive winner of the Nunthorpe, and while an awkward start compromised to her chance in the Flying Five at the Curragh in September, she still persevered to finish fifth.

The resilient mare put that effort behind her with a brave success in the Prix de l'Abbaye (G1) three weeks later, which came on good to soft ground, but Quinn believes the conditions at Sha Tin will play more to her strengths.

“If you look in the form book, you'll have to say her best form is on fast ground,” he said. “She ran two wonderful races at Royal Ascot four days apart on quick going, and the ground when she won the Prix Maurice de Gheest was much quicker than the official description.

“I've been looking at racing from Sha Tin and it looks a beautifully manicured track.”

The trainer is also confident Highfield Princess can adapt to however the race will be run, with Thursday's official draw set to inform plans for jockey Jason Hart.

“During the race we'll let her go forward and find her feet,” Quinn said. “She's shown she doesn't have to make the running, she's very amenable and she can be ridden anywhere. That's a great thing in a racehorse because if you're one-dimensional the opposition knows how to beat you.”

While retaining belief in his mare, Quinn is respectful of the local opposition and their stranglehold on the race.

“I saw Lucky Sweynesse win the Jockey Club Sprint and despite being tardy away he won nicely enough,” he said. “There might be more to come from him. Wellington ran well and so did Victor The Winner.

“They're very good horses, but she's an unbelievable mare. Everything's got to go right, but I'm not afraid and she's not out of place. Horses like her don't come along very often and she's been phenomenal.”

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