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Noted Makes Successful Return To Turf In Pulpit, Caps Stakes Double For Irad Ortiz

Repole Stable's Noted, back on turf following a disappointing effort in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1), found running room late and held off fast-closing longshot Reminder to win Saturday's $100,000 Pulpit by a neck at Gulfstream Park.

The 10th running of the 7½-furlong Pulpit for 2-year-olds anchored an 11-race program as co-headliner with the $100,000 Wait a While for 2-year-old fillies – the first two stakes on Gulfstream's new turf course.

Noted ($4.40), beaten a nose in the 1 1/16-mile Bourbon (G2) Oct. 8 at Keeneland in his last try on grass, gave jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. a sweep of Saturday's stakes following Ozara's victory in the Wait a While. It was the second straight Pulpit win for trainer Todd Pletcher and third overall after Ari Gold (2022) and Tapwrit (2016).

“He had to work out a trip. I was a little worried at the eighth pole. It still looked like he was looking for room but once he got a seam to run at, he quickened nicely,” Pletcher said. “The only thing we wanted to be mindful of is it was 7½ [furlongs] and we didn't want to leave him with too much to do.”

Prevent, breaking from the rail, was pressed on the lead by fellow longshot Tocayo through a quarter-mile in :22.90 and a half in :45.91. Ortiz settled Noted, who began outside all but two of his nine rivals, in seventh along the rail, and still found himself blocked behind horses after six furlongs went in 1:09.36.

“It felt like they were running,” Ortiz said. “I had to try to stay close. I had good position. At the three-eighths to the quarter pole, I waited a little longer. But when I came out of there and asked my horse to go, he responded very well. He was ready.”

Ortiz tipped outside once straightened for home and then had to swing around Palm Tree inside the eighth pole to find a seam, then closed stoutly down the center of the track as Reminder, racing for the first time on turf after a win and four thirds on Gulfstream's all-weather Tapeta course, made his bid on the far outside.

Noted completed the distance in 1:27.30 over the firm course and now has two wins and two seconds in five tries on the grass. Reminder was a head in front of Palm Tree in third, with another half-length back to General Ledger in fourth.

In his other two races Noted, by 2014 Holy Bull (G3) winner Cairo Prince, won the Aug. 26 Sapling at Monmouth Park over Dornoch, a full brother to Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mage who won the Remsen (G2) last out, and was last of nine in the Juvenile behind Pletcher-trained stablemate Fierceness.

“I was a little concerned with the 7½ [today], but he seemed to come out of the Breeders' Cup well, he carries good condition and he's an easy horse to train, so I felt like he was ready to run back,” Pletcher said.

“We're not going to rule [dirt] out. If he trains really well we might give him another shot at some stage,” he added. “He's got that win in the Sapling that looks good on paper, but in the Breeders' Cup he didn't fire.”

Bred in Kentucky by the late Brereton C. Jones of Airdrie Stud, Noted is out of the Proud Citizen mare Sea View Millie. He was a $200,000 purchase at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, where his breeder offered him.

The Pulpit is named for Claiborne Farm's late Gulfstream-based homebred that won four of six starts in his only season of 1997, including victories in the Fountain of Youth (G2) and Blue Grass (G2) while also running second in the Florida Derby (G1) and fourth in the Kentucky Derby (G1). Injured in that race and retired to stud at Claiborne, Pulpit went on to the sire such horses as 2010 Florida Derby winner Ice Box, 2007 Met Mile (G1) winner Corinthian and 2004 Wood Memorial (G1) winner Tapit, now one of racing's most influential sires.

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Fashionably Fab Extends Win Streak In La Prevoyante

Fashionably Fab secured her fourth straight score courtesy of an impressive performance in Saturday's $100,000 La Prevoyante Stakes, at Woodbine.

Trained by Kevin Attard, the Terra Racing Stable homebred arrived at the 1 1/16-mile main track event for Ontario-sired fillies and mares off three consecutive wins, all in stakes events.

Sent off as the 1-2 choice in the five-horse La Prevoyante, Fashionably Fab once again looked stylish in victory.

Patrick Husbands guided the daughter of Silent Name (JPN) out of the Curlin mare Flashy's Legacy to the lead a few steps after the gates opened, but stablemate Strega crossed over from the outside to take control and held a three-length advantage over Fashionably Fab through an opening quarter mile in :25.37.

The Attard duo continued to show the way through a half in :50.32, as Strega's lead narrowed to two lengths over her stablemate. Tito's Calling sat third, followed by My Girl Sky and Talk to Ya Later.

Husbands gave Fashionably Fab her cue heading into the turn for home and the dark bay filly glided up to engage Strega briefly before seizing control and skipping away from her rivals. Ahead by two lengths at the stretch call, Fashionably Fab crossed the wire 2½ lengths clear of Talk to Ya Later, who was a head in front of Tito's Calling. My Girl Sky and Strega rounded out the order of finish.

The final time was 1:45.60 on the all-weather main track.

“She's relaxing off the bat,” said Husbands. “She's the type of horse that likes to be in the race, no fooling around. She showed me by the three-quarter pole, 'I can relax'. She showed that she was the best today.”

It was the seventh win, to go along with two thirds, from 11 lifetime starts for Fashionably Fab. She launched her current win streak with a victory in the Rondeau Bay Stakes on Sept. 12, followed by wins in the Eternal Search Stakes on Oct. 22 and Ashbridges Bay Stakes on Nov. 10.

“We were hoping to see this earlier in the year, when we were heading into the [Woodbine] Oaks, but things didn't go quite so well back then,” said Attard, of the ninth-place result in the country's premier race for Canadian-foaled 3-year-old fillies. “It's just nice to see her turn the corner now and be the filly we had hoped she was going to be.

“It's been a good season,” Attard continued. “I need to thank my staff, the people behind me who do a tremendous job day in and day out. Without them, I wouldn't be here.”

Fashionably Fab finished third in her Sept 2022 debut and then won her next three starts, including the Shady Well Stakes last December.

She paid $3 for Saturday's win.

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Joseph-Trained Pegasus World Cup Candidates Skippylongstocking, O’Connor Breeze

Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. supervised Saturday morning workouts at Palm Meadows for his two candidates for the $3-million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1).

Daniel Alonso's Skippylongstocking, who is coming off a third-place finish in the Nov. 4 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) at Santa Anita, breezed an easy three furlongs in :39.65. Michael Iavarone and partners' O'Connor, who captured the Fayette (G2) at Keeneland in his most recent start, was timed in :47.90 for a half-mile for a likely start in the Dec. 30 Harlan's Holiday (G3) at Gulfstream.

“That was Skippy's first work back, so he'll be on a weekly workout schedule from now on,” Joseph said. “It was O'Connor's second work. He'll probably run in the Harlan's Holiday. He didn't get a break like Skippy did.”

Skippylongstocking, who won last year's Harlan's Holiday and captured this year's $1-million Charles Town Classic (G2), is scheduled to train up to the Jan. 27 Pegasus World Cup, in which he finished seventh this year. O'Connor, who finished a fast-closing second behind Skippylongstocking in the Charles Town Classic, finished 11th in the 2023 Pegasus.

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Final Golden Gate Fields Meet Potentially Set For 25% Purse Cut

The overnight purses for Golden Gate Fields' final meet are potentially set for a 25% cut due to a longstanding overpayment of the purse account, according to Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC) president and CEO, Bill Nader.

The Bay Area racetrack is scheduled to race from Dec. 26 through June 9, 2024, after which, the facility is set to close permanently.

The purse account, said Nader, is overpaid by some $3.1 million.

“There's a pretty big overpayment that's been building,” said Nader. “They're looking to claw some of it back, but not all of it.”

While the TOC is still in negotiations with 1/ST Racing and Gaming, which operates Golden Gate Fields, about the proposed cuts, such a decrease in overnight purses was a “distinct possibility,” said Nader. He added that further details should be available Tuesday or Wednesday, when the condition book would be issued.

“You can increase and decrease purses pending purse generation at any point in any year, so, they're within their rights,” said Nader, who added that, as an example, Maiden Special Weights would drop from $30,000 to $22,500 under the proposed structure.

“But this thing's blown out to a big number,” he said, of the purse overpayment. “Handle was down in 2023. They haven't really cut purses at all. Frankly, they wanted to cut purses last fall—we told them no, and they didn't.”

Dave Duggan, Golden Gate vice president and general manager, confirmed that the track had been in discussions with the TOC to cut purses there “for quite some time.”

Santa Anita's overnight purses are also scheduled to be cut around 5% for its upcoming Winter/Spring meet, underway Dec. 26, with $2 million cut from the track's stakes schedule, said Nader.

Ed Moger is currently leading trainer at Golden Gate, with around 40 horses stabled there. The anticipated cuts to Golden Gates' purses could lead to some Northern California trainers relocating elsewhere, he said.

Officials for Arizona's Turf Paradise recently announced they hoped to operate a meet there from Jan. 29 through May 4, pending approval from the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority.

If the 25% purse cut is enacted at Golden Gate, “there would probably be some barns that move there,” Moger said, about Turf Paradise, adding that while he would not relocate to Arizona, such a purse decrease could see him shift a significant portion of his horses south to Santa Anita.

“But it's tougher to win a race at Santa Anita,” said Moger. “I'll have to play it by ear.”

When asked about the allure from other tracks to Golden Gate's current trainer colony, Nader suggested that even with a 25% cut, Golden Gate's purses would still compare favorably with Turf Paradise.

The Stronach Group (TSG) announced in July that it was closing Golden Gate Fields at the end of December with the goal of increasing field size and adding another day of racing a week at Santa Anita.

After pushback from industry stakeholders who argued that such an abrupt closure would pose an existential threat to the future of racing in Northern California, TSG officials left the door open to delaying the track's closure another six months. But they appeared to make such a deal incumbent upon a reshaping of the way simulcasting proceeds are allocated in the state.

The rule of thumb is that proceeds from wagers made in the “northern zone” stay in Northern California to pay for purses and operational expenses, while the proceeds from wagers made in the “southern zone” stay in Southern California for the same purposes.

Initially, various stakeholders in Northern California—including representatives of the California Authority of Racing Fairs (CARF)—voiced resistance to TSG's idea of moving these proceeds south.

In September, however, California lawmakers sought enough buy-in to pass legislation that meant if Golden Gate Fields is not licensed to operate beyond July 1 next year, proceeds from simulcast wagering in the north are funneled south when there is no live racing in the northern half of the state after that date.

When asked about recent turn of events involving Golden Gate Fields, Moger appeared resigned to the situation.

“I've been here for almost 50 years,” said Moger. “I'm not too happy about it.”

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