When Domestic Product (Practical Joke) bullied his way through traffic to get his nose in front in the GIII Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby Saturday, he not only earned valuable qualifying points to the GI Kentucky Derby, he also provided a timely update for his half-sister who is scheduled to sell during the first session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales' Company's March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale Tuesday.
“She's been very popular today, let's put it that way,” Becky Thomas said of the filly from the first crop of Complexity (hip 276) after a long day of showing Sunday in Ocala.
Thomas's Sequel Thoroughbreds bred the daughter of Goods and Services (Paynter) and she is consigned under the Sequel Bloodstock banner.
The tote delay that caused the Tampa Bay Derby post time to be pushed back a half-hour did, at least, allow Thomas to get home in time to watch the race.
“I was afraid he was not going to be able to move around because he was in tight there at the end,” Thomas said. “Those kind of horses are so impressive because he obviously had so much horse left, he just needed to be able to go. So it was very, very cool.”
Even before Domestic Product's win at Tampa Bay, Thomas was impressed with his 2-year-old half-sister, who worked a furlong during the OBS under-tack show in :10 flat and had shown even more promise when training over the dirt.
“I really love her on dirt,” Thomas said. “She was a filly that I slated for Maryland May [Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale] and I moved her up here because she was training so good. She's got a really quiet demeanor, so I originally put her for May because she is a big, stretchy filly and I thought I would give her a little bit more time. They kind of tell you when you start breezing them who needs to move up and who might need to move down. But she's been really solid.”
The dark bay filly is one of 19 juveniles by Complexity to work last week ahead of the OBS March sale. The son of Hill 'n' Dale stallion Maclean's Music won the 2018 GI Champagne S. and 2020 GII Kelso S. He stands at Airdrie Stud for a fee of $12,500.
“I am a Maclean's Music fan,” Thomas explained. “I ended up buying a share in [his sons] Drain the Clock and I bred to Jackie's Warrior. I am a John Sikura disciple. When you have those horses who have shown such brilliance and have been a Grade I-siring stallion like him, I really like those kind of horses. And this filly is a big tall leggy, two-turn looking filly that's got a lot of parts. You can see why she can go so fast and you can also see why she should go two turns.”
The large number of juveniles by Complexity in the March catalogue came as no surprise to Thomas.
“We are a land of pinhookers and if we actually bought horses, it's because all of us like the shape of them,” she said. “The fact that there are that many in here and so many of them are pinhooks, they are the type the pinhookers like. They look quick.”
Thomas purchased Goods and Services with the Complexity filly in utero for $37,000 at the 2021 Keeneland November sale.
“I couldn't be at that sale, but [bloodstock agent] Andrew Cary and my assistant Carlos Manresa sent me the link to her,” Thomas said. “So we decided to try on her. But it was all because of Andrew and Carlos.”
The 2-year-old is the mare's last foal.
“Unfortunately, she has passed away,” Thomas said of the mare. “We bred her to Drain the Clock and she was in foal, but she was really very laminitic. Unfortunately, even through our podiatrist, we were not able to keep her comfortable. This is the only baby we got out of her.”
The three-day OBS March sale begins Tuesday at 11 a.m.
The post Domestic Product Gives Complexity Filly a Big Update at OBS March appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
In a first Japanese Group win for her sire, Etes Vous Prets (Ire) (Too Darn Hot (GB)–Nahoodh {Ire} (GISW-Eng, G1SP-Ire, $443,612), by Clodovil {Ire}) stubbornly held on to her advantage in the final metres, and claimed Sunday's G2 Hochi Hai Fillies' Revue, a trial for the G1 Oka Sho on Apr. 7.
Twice the bridesmaid in a pair of maiden contests, she broke through by two lengths in her first start at this venue last September on her third attempt. From there she took another step forward to win the unlisted Fukushima Nisai S. by a nose over Kris Arthur (Jpn) (Big Arthur {Jpn}), and ran fourth Dec. 16 behind that familiar face in her seasonal close in the unlisted Sports Hochi Hai Chukyo Nisai S. at Chukyo.
Off in line with the field, but briefly outrun as the speed to her outside found a touch more foot early, the grey forged to the front not long after as G2 Keio Hai Nisai victrix and G1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies-placed Corazon Beat (Jpn) (Suave Richard {Jpn}) tucked in behind her.
Strong from that lead position, she'd given herself a narrow advantage entering the turn and coming through it as the field organised itself for the closing stages. Saving ground from the fence en route into the stretch, Yusuke Fujioka cut his charge loose and she responded eagerly, the top two kicking away from the rest. Corazon Beat tried valiantly but ultimately could not catch Etes Vous Prets, three-quarters of a length separating them on the line. Cecilie Plage (Jpn) (Bricks and Mortar) was produced in the final metres to claim third by a neck.
G2 1400m Hochi Hai Fillies Revue (G1 Oka Sho Trial) at Hanshin
Won by 3f 4. ETES VOUS PRETS
( Too Darn Hot x
Nahoodh (Clodovil)) under Yusuke Fujioka for
HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohd Al Maktoum1.20.1 for the 7F, gets a start in the Oka Sho!#JRA pic.twitter.com/sdR0uFrhdc
— Graham Pavey (@LongBallToNoOne) March 10, 2024
Pedigree Notes
Too Darn Hot (GB), a son of the venerable Dubawi (Ire), claimed his fifth Group winner from his first crop, and his first in Japan, with Etes Vous Pret's performance in this Japanese 1,000 Guineas trial. The filly's dam Nahoodh, an accomplished racemare in her own right with a win at the highest level in Great Britain when she claimed the G1 U.A.E. Hydra Properties Falmouth S., can also brag of a Group 1-placing in Ireland, runner-up at Leopardstown in the G1 Coolmore Fusaichi Pegasus Matron S.
As a broodmare, she's had some success as the dam of UAE stakes victor Hawkesbury (GB) (Shamardal) as well as three other winners, but Etes Vous Prets has firmly established herself as the most successful of those offspring thus far. Her placed half-sister Naturelle (GB) (Night of Thunder {Ire}) changed hands last month for 22,000gns at TATFEB to Broadhurst Agency. Nahoodh has a 2-year-old filly named Spicy Margarita (Ire) (Earthlight {Ire}) in the wings and a yearling Mehmas (Ire) colt.
Sunday, Hanshin, Japan
HOCHI HAI FILLIES'REVUE-G2, ¥100,540,000, Hanshin, 3-10, 3yo, f, 1400mT, 1:20.10, fm.
1–ETES VOUS PRETS (IRE), 121, f, 3, by Too Darn Hot (GB)
1st Dam: Nahoodh (Ire) (GISW-Eng, G1SP-Ire, $443,612) by Clodovil (Ire)
2nd Dam: Mise (Ire), by Indian Ridge (Ire)
3rd Dam: Misbegotten (Ire), by Baillamont
1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN, 1ST GROUP WIN. O-H.H.Sheikh Hamdan; B-Godolphin; T-Kenichi Fujioka; J-Yusuke Fujioka; ¥53,078,000. Lifetime Record: 6-3-2-0, ¥82,435,000. *Half to Hawkesbury (GB) (Shamardal), SW-UAE, SP-Eng, $138, 574. **Sire's First Group Winner in Japan. Werk Nick Rating: B+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Corazon Beat (Jpn), 121, f, 3, Suave Richard (Jpn)–Le Ciel d'Or (Jpn), by Orfevre (Jpn). O-Thoroughbred Club Ruffian; B-Big Red Farm; ¥21,308,000.
3–Cecilie Plage (Jpn), 121, f, 3, Bricks and Mortar–At the Seaside (Jpn), by King Kamehameha (Jpn). 1ST BLACK-TYPE, 1ST GROUP BLACK TYPE. O-Teruya Yoshida; B-Shadai Farm; ¥13,154,000.
Margins: 3/4, 1HF, NK; Odds: 34.20, 0.80, 41.20.
Also Ran: Bouncy Step (Jpn), Omega Wink (Jpn), Rose Flair (Jpn), Culture Day (Jpn), Dona Betty (Jpn), Mercy Run (Jpn), Lady Marion (Jpn), Poetry (Jpn), Chicago Sting (Jpn), June Blair, Oasis Doll (Jpn). Steward Scratch: Can See Angel (Jpn).
Click for the JRA chart & video.
The post Etes Vous Prets? Oui! Too Darn Hot Filly had Winning in Mind appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
It's still not clear exactly what went wrong Saturday when a tote failure impacted several tracks, including Tampa Bay Downs. The Oldsmar, Florida track took a huge hit when it was forced to run the GIII Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby as a non-wagering event and to also cancel the last race of the day. Tampa Bay Downs Vice President and General Manager Pete Berube estimates that the track lost as much as $4.5 million in handle because betting wasn't available.
There was a massive telecommunications network failure Saturday afternoon that affected much more than just the horse racing industry. Regardless of where wagers are placed, the transmission from the Amtote totalizator system to the host track's pools are redistributed via Roberts Communications Network. There was a telecommunications failure of several network carriers in the mid-Atlantic region, therefore Amtote and Roberts had no connectivity with the racetracks and therefore it was technically impossible to transmit bets. That it happened prior to Tampa Bay Downs' biggest race of the year and not the third race on a Tuesday was nothing more than an unfortunate coincidence.
Other tracks, among them Santa Anita, Oaklawn, Laurel, Aqueduct, Fonner Park and the Meadowlands experienced similar problems, but none of them were forced to run races as non-betting events.
On Sunday, Amtote and Roberts issued a joint statement, which read in part:
“The issues were not the result of a tote system failure. Rather, the communications network (both primary and backup) that connects the Amtote Mid-Atlantic hub to other wagering hubs failed. Roberts Communications Network (“RCN”) provides the communications network that connects Amtote's Mid-Atlantic hub to all other tote company wagering hubs worldwide. RCN designs and installs the communications network in a manner designed to prevent outages of this type. However, the unprecedented nature of the connectivity outage yesterday, which impacted the third-party providers from which RCN provisions bandwidth, took down both the primary and back-up networks.”
“Everyone needs to stop blaming Amtote,” said Todd Roberts, President and CEO of RCN. “This was an unprecedented failure in the primary and back-up connectivity provided to RCN by our third-party suppliers.
“When the communications links at Amtote's hub were disrupted, it caused a breakdown in the flow of wagering data between Amtote's Mid-Atlantic hub and all other wagering locations. The communications disruption was not caused by any failure in RCN equipment or operations. Rather, both the primary and back-up bandwidth providers to the RCN network failed. RCN has not yet received an official reason-for-outage report from its third-party providers specifying a reason for this failure. However, it is believed that the outage, which was much broader than just the racing industry, affected at least three major telecom/internet bandwidth providers in the geographic region that services the Amtote hub.”
The loss of the estimated $4.5 million in betting handle was a huge blow to Tampa Bay Downs, a racetrack that does not receive any revenue from casinos or slot machines and, therefore, can't afford a hit like it took Saturday. Berube says he wants some answers and has called for an investigation.
“Only bits and pieces are coming in and that's why I have asked for an independent investigation,” he said. “You have a couple different vendors involved, the tote company and RCN communications. I'm not getting a clear story as to what happened at this point and that's why I've asked for an independent investigation. This is unprecedented. I've been in this business for over 30 years and I've never experienced or seen anything like what happened yesterday.”
So who's to blame? That's the tricky part. Neither AmTote, which is owned by 1/ST Racing, nor Roberts nor Tampa Bay Downs apparently did anything wrong. This issue was caused by a utility company that provides network connectivity that carries the transmission of betting data. When that went down betting data could not be transmitted.
And Tampa did what it had to do.
“We waited as long as we could,” Berube said. “It wasn't fair to the horses, so we made the decision to go ahead and run the Tampa Bay Derby, even though it was not a profitable decision. But we needed to run the race and we were glad to run the race.”
Yet both Berube and 1/ST President Aidan Butler, expressed similar sentiments, that no matter how complicated this issue might have been and no matter who was at fault, these sort of things can't keep happening. Remember, it was only a few months ago that FanDuel experienced a situation where bettors were able to make huge wagers on a race and only the base price of their tickets was deducted from their accounts. There still hasn't be a credible explanation as to how that occurred.
“There needs to be a change and this should be a wake-up call for the industry,” Berube said. “I plan on being totally transparent once I get the information and the sequence of events, what happened and who was responsible. The customers need to have confidence in the system.”
“This truly was not an AmTote issue,” Butler said. “But that doesn't really matter. I am looking at it through a gambling lens, and it is really unacceptable. Going forward, it doesn't matter whose fault it was. It's the year 2024 and there's no reason something like this can go on. This can never happen again and can't happen again and that will take a lot of work.”
He's right. As with so many aspects of the game, racing can't afford these stumbles. They alienate the customers and make the sport look amateurish. It must do better.
The post The Week in Review: In Light of Saturday’s Tote Failure, the Industry Must Search for Answers appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
