The race is on, and the finish line is almost here. This year’s U.S. presidential race is hotly contested, and like any horse race it is rife with speculation and interesting language. What you may not realize is just how many terms used during this year’s election cycle originated in one of America’s oldest pastimes: horse racing. Here you’ll find 11 terms that left the gate firmly entrenched in horse racing vernacular, but strayed from the course and are now often used during election season.
Author: News
Muth Takes San Vicente with Style
Announcer Frank Mirahmadi said it best: friends in the morning, but rivals in the afternoons. Muth (Good Magic) put away stablemate Pilot Commander (Justify) en route to an authoritative victory in the GII San Vicente S. to open his 2024 season.
First or second for all four starts in his juvenile season, including victory in the GI American Pharoah S. two back and a runner-up effort behind fellow Eclipse finalist Fierceness (City of Light) in the GI FanDuel Breeders' Cup Juvenile, the betting public heralded this contest as Muth's to lose.
Sent off the overwhelming 2-5 favorite, he was content to track Slider and Pilot Commander as that pair stepped out fastest to his inside. Still widest of all as :45.27 and 1:09.76 splits floated by, he challenged his stablemate coming off the bend from four wide, and cleared the embattled dup with a furlong to go. He was ridden out to a 2 3/4-length victory as Pilot Commander go the best of the photo with Slider.
“I was happy with their performance. I thought Muth was going to be up there early like he was at Del Mar, but the other horse (Pilot Commander) was quicker away from there. I thought he would be stalking but Juan, he just took back and rode Muth with a lot of confidence. He knows his horse really well. I'm just glad it worked out,” said Bob Baffert.
He added, “Zedan Racing, he gives us all this ammo to work with. He handles the wins and the losses the same way and he let me name this horse after my good friend Aaron Muth, so it is fun for him.”
Champion Two-Year-Old Male finalist #3 MUTH ($2.80) easily wins the $200,000 San Vicente Stakes (G2). The 3YO Bob Baffert trainee gets his second graded stakes victory with @JJHernandezS19 up. pic.twitter.com/yh53g2O76U
— TVG (@TVG) January 6, 2024
Pedigree Note
Muth is the first offspring to the races for the winning Hoppa, who has since produced two half-sisters to the Eclipse finalist–a 2-year-old by Violence and a yearling by Tacitus. She is due this spring with a full-sibling to the victor.
While his pedigree is quiet immediately up front as he and MSP March to Victory (Dixieland Band) are the only black-type earners, Muth does hail from the extended female family of GSW Wandering Star, who herself went on to produce G1SW-Eng War Command (War Front) and GSW-Fr Naval Officer. That extended family also includes New Zealand champion G1SW-NZ Rollout the Carpet (Aus) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}).
Saturday, Santa Anita Park
SAN VICENTE S.-GII, $200,500, Santa Anita, 1-6, 3yo, 7f, 1:23.01, ft.
1–MUTH, 124, c, 3, by Good Magic
1st Dam: Hoppa, by Uncle Mo
2nd Dam: Handoverthecat, by Tale of the Cat
3rd Dam: Frayne, by Red Ransom
($190,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP; $2,000,000 2yo '23 OBSMAR). 'TDN Rising Star'. O-Zedan Racing Stables, Inc.; B-Don Alberto Corporation (KY); T-Bob Baffert; J-Juan J. Hernandez. $120,000. Lifetime Record: GISW, 5-3-2-0, $716,600. Werk Nick Rating: A++. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Pilot Commander, 120, c, 3, Justify–Rebuke, by Carson City. 1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($145,000 RNA Ylg '22 KEEJAN; $700,000 2yo '23 OBSMAR). O-CSLR Racing Partners LLC; B-AR Enterprises, Inc. (KY); T-Bob Baffert. $40,000.
3–Slider, 124, c, 3, Jimmy Creed–Days Like This, by Congrats. 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($240,000 2yo '23 OBSAPR). O-Hall Racing LLC, Pearl Racing and West Point Thoroughbreds; B-Jason Hall, Stephen Baker, Herschel Martindale, and Mike Riordan (KY); T-John W. Sadler. $24,000.
Margins: 2 3/4, HD, 5 3/4. Odds: 0.40, 2.90, 8.00.
Also Ran: Boltage, Moonlit Sonata, Formidable Man.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
The post Muth Takes San Vicente with Style appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
Greatest Honour’s First Foal is a Colt
Spendthrift Farm's Greatest Honour sired his first reported foal Jan. 5 when KatieRich Farms in Midway announced that I Love Nola had delivered a colt by the well-bred son of Tapit.
“This colt has the longest legs we've ever seen on a newborn foal. He has an extraordinary hip and a beautiful head. This is the biggest foal the mare has had. We are very, very happy,” said Martha Rattner, whose Rattner Bloodstock LLC bred the foal.
Greatest Honour, hailing from a half-sister to champion Rags to Riches; Irish Highweight Man of Iron; GSW-US and G1SP-Jpn Casino Drive; GISW Jazil; and the dam of GISW Streaming (Smart Strike), covered 178 mares in his 2023 introductory season, and will stand his second at stud for a fee of $7,500 S&N.
The post Greatest Honour’s First Foal is a Colt appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
Belmont Stakes Winning Trainer Joe Cantey Passes at 82
Trainer Joe Cantey, who teamed up with owner John Ed Anthony to win a slew of major races, including the GI 1980 Belmont S., passed away Friday at the age of 82 in his hometown of Camden, S.C.
The news was confirmed by his ex-wife, Charlsie Cantey.
The cause of death was lung and mouth cancer.
“Everything he touched pretty much turned to gold,” Charlsie said. “When he set his mind to do something, he exceeded it by leaps and bounds.”
Cantey started out handling horses for Bert Firestone as they wintered in South Carolina. He would also go on to work for trainer Evan Jackson. He decided that he wanted to go out on his own and set his sights on coming to New York.
“Joe applied for stalls with Kenny Noe and he didn't get them,” Cantey recalled. “He got a plane and went to New York. He met with Noe and said I really want these stalls and I want to train horses in New York. Kenny was so persuaded by that he gave him some stalls. He got better owners and better horses and worked his way up going to work John Ed Anthony and Loblolly Stable and did a damn fine job there.”
With Cantey in charge, Loblolly Stable turned into a force on the New York circuit and at Oaklawn Park. Their best horse may have been Temperence Hill, who upset Genuine Risk to win the 1980 GI Belmont S. With wins that same year in the GI Travers S. and the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup, he was named 3-year-old male champion of 1980. Their other big star was Cox's Ridge, whose biggest win came in the 1978 GI Metropolitan H. They campaigned still another Grade I winner in Majesty's Prince, a star on the grass who won two runnings of the GI Rothman's International, two runnings of the Man o' War S. and two runnings of the Sword Dancer, one a Grade I race, the other a Grade II race.
“I think about him all the time and I always have,” said Eddie Maple, who was Cantey's primary rider. “He was such a big part of our lives back in the seventies and eighties. We were pretty tight. He was an all-around horseman. He picked it up from the guys who were around Camden, like Frank Whiteley. We had a good relationship and it spilled over into our personal lives. He would do anything for anybody.”
Cantey's last year of training was in 1987 while he was still in his prime. Charlsie Cantey said he decided to just walk away.
“He just said I've had enough,” she said. “When we first got married and were living in Camden, he said, 'Let's go to New York and try our hand at it and then come back to Camden. He loved this town and wanted to come back here. It's not like he got fired or anything. What I want people to know about Joe is that if he stayed in New York, I don't know how far he would have gone. He was a brilliant horse trainer. He just had had enough of New York.”
According to Equibase records, which go back only to 1976, Cantey had 444 career winners Charlsie Cantey said she believes he had his first winner in 1970 or 71.
Upon retirement he opened up his own gun club and got heavily involved in competitive sporting clay competitions and ran tournaments all over the world.
Cantey is survived by Charlsie Cantey, his wife Amy and children J.B. and Ashley. Funeral arrangements are incomplete.
The post Belmont Stakes Winning Trainer Joe Cantey Passes at 82 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
