Category: Horse Racing News

Saturday’s Marine, Selene Stakes Serve As Preps For Woodbine’s Queen’s Plate, Oaks

A pair of Grade 3 events, the $125,000 Marine Stakes and $125,000 Selene Stakes, share the spotlight this Saturday at Woodbine in Toronto, Ontario.

A key prep on the road to this year's Queen's Plate (September 12, at Woodbine), the 1 1/16-mile main track Marine, for 3-year-olds, has attracted some noteworthy Canadian-breds hoping for a spot in the Plate starting gate.

Queen's Plate eligibles Dotted Line (18-1 in the Queen's Plate Winterbook), Glorious Tribute (40-1), and Perfect Revenge (40-1) are set to contest to the Marine. 

The 65th running of the Marine will be complemented by the 67th edition of the Selene, a 1 1/16-mile race over the Tapeta for 3-year-old fillies, an important fixture ahead of the Woodbine Oaks presented by Budweiser, on August 15. 

Merveilleux (25-1 in the Queen's Plate Winterbook) and Owlette (30-1) are among the Selene notables.  

John Oxley's homebred Lucky Curlin chases his second straight win, this time in the Marine, after a sharp score on June 14 at Woodbine.

The Mark Casse trainee, in his ninth career start and first test on the Toronto oval Tapeta, rallied from fifth at the stretch call of the seven-furlong race to win by a length under Kazushi Kimura.

It was the second win for Kentucky-bred chestnut son of Curlin, who broke his maiden last December at Fair Grounds.

The well-traveled colt, who has raced at Churchill Downs, Saratoga, Keeneland, and Fair Grounds, appears to feel right at home on the Woodbine Tapeta.

Casse hopes the trend continues.

“He's a horse that's disappointed me, to be honest. We were always thinking, 'If he ever gets his act together…' He was a horse early on that we thought was as good as Enforceable. And of course, Enforceable is going to the Kentucky Derby.

“His last race, from a Beyer standpoint, was very good. I wasn't surprised, but it was pleasant. He's been extremely frustrating for us because we've had high hopes for him. There are horses whose abilities are limited. He hasn't been that way. So, we'll see how he handles two turns. I'm still not positive that he isn't a come-from-behind sprinter. But we're going to give it a try.”

Casse's other Marine starter is Untitled, a Florida-bred son of Khozan, owned by Gary Barber and Michael Sebastian.

The bay colt is 2-3-0 in seven starts.

In his first Woodbine appearance, on June 13, Untitled was second to Newstome in the Woodstock Stakes.

“He's kind of a mystery horse,” offered Casse, who won the 2017 Marine with Souper Tapit. “He won very impressively first time out and he's run some good races. I think watching him run… we didn't have the luxury of getting a breeze over the track before his last start. He got up there and we ran him. I didn't think he cared for it that much. In fact, I was thinking about running him on the grass, but there really wasn't a grass race for him. He trained so well afterwards on the synthetic, so we thought we'd give him a try.”

 Other Marine contenders include trainer Barb Minshall's improving Glorious Tribute.

The Ontario-bred son of Congrats has one win and a pair of thirds from seven starts.

“His last race as a two-year-old [a maiden-breaking win at one mile and 70 yards on the Woodbine main track], he got a good trip and we got to stretch him out,” said Minshall. “I thought he ran really well. I took him down south all winter so I knew he was good and fit. I ran him once, on the turf, but the race was just a little too tough at that given time for him. But, I've always liked him.”

Minshall, Canada's champion trainer in 1996, remains a big fan of the dark bay.

“I wanted to make sure he was good and fit because I really had a good feeling that he would get a mile and a quarter [Queen's Plate distance]. He's got a nice stride and a good mind. He's a very laid-back horse. I'm pretty happy where he is right now. He's a big, sound horse, so I figured let's get him in, see how he is, get another race, and hopefully from that step go on to the Plate Trial [August 15] and hopefully we end at the Queen's Plate, and we've got a bit of a shot.”

Sam-Son Farm has the most Marine wins (six) for owners, while Sandy Hawley holds the riding record with five Marine crowns. The most recent horse to notch the Marine-Plate double was Shaman Ghost, who achieved the feat in 2015. Last year's winner, Global Access, went on to earn year-end divisional honours at the Sovereign Awards.

Ten Broeck Farm's Owlette, a bay daughter of Frac Daddy, goes after her fourth Woodbine stakes crown in the Selene.

The Wesley Ward trainee took last year's Shady Well and Victorian Queen, and then added another stakes title to her record with a win in this year's Star Shoot on June 13.  

Merveilleux, owned by Al and Bill Ulwelling, seeks her first added-money win in what will be her seventh start. 

The daughter of Paynter lost by a neck to Cool Shadows in last year's Princess Elizabeth and by a head to Curlin's Voyage in the Ontario Lassie.

Owlette and Merveilleux will be tested by five other rivals, including the Casse trio of American Tap, Diamond Sparkles, and Two Sixty.

A Florida-bred daughter of Uncaptured, Two Sixty, owned by Gary Barber, finished fourth in the Star Shoot Stakes.

“She's another one since that race who trained much better after being there for a little while,” noted Casse.

Diamond Sparkles, a Kentucky-bred daughter of War Front, made her North American debut in last year's Grade 1 Natalma Stakes, finishing fourth to Abscond.

The bay's most recent race, seven furlongs on the Woodbine main track on June 13, yielded a second-place finish.

“She came over from Europe, ran pretty good in the Natalma, and then struggled a little bit through the winter,” said Casse, of the filly owned by Barber and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners. “I thought her last race was good and she's training well. We're going to give her a shot.”

American Tap, bred by Tall Oaks Farm, is also owned by Barber.

Casse and Barber teamed to take the past two runnings of the Selene. Miss Mo Mentum won in 2018, while Power Gal was victorious last year.

A victory by any Casse starter would tie him with Yonnie Starr for the most Selene wins by a trainer, with six.

The Marine is Race 3 on Saturday's 10-race card and the Selene is scheduled as Race 8. First post time is 1 p.m. Fans can watch and wager on all the action via HPIbet.com.

FIELD FOR THE $125,000 GRADE 3 MARINE
POST – HORSE – JOCKEY – TRAINER
1 – Lucky Curlin – Kazushi Kimura – Mark Casse
2 – Glorious Tribute – Leo Salles – Barbara Minshall
3 – Lookinatamiracle – Patrick Husbands – Sandra Dominguez
4 – Dotted Line (S) – Justin Stein – Sid Attard
5 – Perfect Revenge – Daisuke Fukumoto – John Charalambous
6 – Untitled – Emma-Jayne Wilson – Mark Casse
7 – Shirl's Speight – Rafael Hernandez – Roger Attfield 

FIELD FOR THE $125,000 GRADE 3 SELENE
POST – HORSE – JOCKEY – TRAINER
1 – Owlette – Luis Contreras – Wesley Ward
2 – Saratoga Vision – Simon Husbands – Alexander Patykewich
3 – Livin in the Six – Justin Stein – Mike De Paulo
4 – Diamond Sparkles (S) – Kazushi Kimura – Mark Casse
5 – American Tap – Kazushi Kimura – Mark Casse
6 – Two Sixty – Emma-Jayne-Wilson – Mark Casse
7 – Merveilleux – Rafael Hernandez – Kevin Attard

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Brown’s Success a Constant at Unorthodox Saratoga Meet

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY–While most everything looks and feels different at spectator-less Saratoga Race Course this summer, trainer Chad Brown has maintained standard form. Brown has won three of the last four meet training titles–in 2019 by a whopping 20 victories over Todd Pletcher–and led the standings through the first four days of the 40-day season.

It is pretty much standard Saratoga stuff for Brown, 41, who grew up about 17 miles away in the small city of Mechanicville and was schooled in the sport at the historic track. Brown won with six of his first 16 starters this meet and his in-the-money figure was a eye-catching 81%. Three of the wins came in stakes, starting with Country Grammer’s score in the GIII Peter Pan S. on opening day. Country Grammer is headed to the Aug. 8 GI Runhappy Travers S., a race that Brown has often said is more important to him than the GI Kentucky Derby.

After completing an interview and heading toward the Oklahoma training track to watch a set of his horses train Wednesday morning, Brown laughed, threw his arms into the air and said, “What if I win the Travers and nobody is here? I might have to retire.”

Brown is a long, long way from calling it a career. He is the three-time defending Eclipse Award winner as outstanding trainer and picked up his 100th career Grade I victory in June. At Saratoga, where he won with his very first starter in 2008, he has 329 victories.

Saturday, he sends out 2018 female turf champion Sistercharlie (Ire) (Myboycharlie {Ire}) in the GII Ballston Spa S. It will be the first start for Peter Brant’s 6-year-old mare since she finished third as the 4-5 favorite in the GI Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf in November at Santa Anita.

“She’s just a special horse,” he said. “We have a great team working with her. She’s a very special individual talent. She shows up whenever we run her, particularly off a layoff and at all different distances. We’re excited to get her back racing.”

Since she was imported in 2017, Sistercharlie has won seven Grade I races in 10 starts for Brown and has never been worse than third.

“She’s not a difficult horse to train,” he said. “She’s very straightforward. She’s all class. We’re not doing anything miraculous with her. We set the proper schedule for her and she goes ahead and she does what you ask her to do.”

With his deep personal connection to the region, Brown understands the impact of the rules put on place during the COVID-19 pandemic that have kept the popular track eerily quiet. He started a program on his Twitter account to give away some of his branded merchandise. The challenge for opening weekend was to correctly select the stable’s total of winners. A drawing was held to determine which one of the 44 people who guessed six would receive the prize.

“I feel really bad for the local fans,” Brown said. “Not only my family and friends, but people I don’t know who might yell at me at the races. To be up here prior to the meet and seeing different fans outside the gate trying to watch training when you are pulling in and out of the gate is really something to see.

“It really shows you how much this meet and horse racing in general means to the community. It really means something to me to see that. It’s what got me into the sport as a local fan growing up here and wanting to get into the sport. I see people of all ages outside the gate during training. I wish I could do more. Giving away some hats and masks is a small thing to do, but I am thinking of different ways to try keep people’s interest in what we are doing here. I hope everybody still follows the meet closely. Even if, unfortunately, they are not allowed to come in the entire meet–and I hope that’s not the case–that everyone is back here next year in the same numbers and people don’t lose interest in the sport or this meet in particular with the year off. ”

Brown said the stable gear was ordered for his 250 employees then he decided it would be nice to spread some of it around through social media.

“It’s not hard for us to do it,” he said. “Obviously, we are very busy, but we’re trying to sort of recognize the individuals that I am speaking about, who are either outside the gate here or who can’t come to Saratoga but are still watching religiously from afar and are following our meet and the sport. We’re going to try and do it, but we’re also running the meeting. But we’re trying. ”

Brown said he is pleased with how his stable got rolling early at the Spa.

“I think that is always important, particularly for this meet,” he said. “For any meet, or any major weekend of racing when you have a lot of starters, if you can get off to a good start it puts everybody in a very focused, composed manner to continue to execute their jobs.”

Despite his success at Saratoga, Brown said that he doesn’t take anything for granted and maintains a business-as-usual philosophy.

“We’re taking the same approach that we always have here: day to day and week to week,” he said. “We have nice horses each week coming up to run in all types of different spots. My team, so far, is doing what they have been doing for a long time, executing our plan.”

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7-Year-Old Whitmore Returns To Saratoga For ‘Tough’ Edition Of Alfred G. Vanderbilt

Six-time graded stakes-winner Whitmore will return to historic Saratoga Race Course for the first time since winning the 2018 Grade 1 Forego when the veteran son of Pleasantly Perfect looks to notch his third straight victory during his 2020 campaign in the Grade 1, $250,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt on Saturday.

Owned by Robert LaPenta, Southern Springs Stables and Head of Plains Partners, Whitmore has been a model of consistency in a career that started with a debut win in the fall of 2015. The 7-year-old is 14-10-3 with earnings of more than $3.14 million in 34 starts for trainer Ron Moquett. He came to prominence on the 2016 Kentucky Derby trail, where he ran second in both the Grade 3 Southwest and the Grade 2 Rebel while finishing third in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby before a 19th-place performance in that year's Run for the Roses.

As he's gotten older, Whitmore has earned repeated trips to the winners' circle and has come close on other occasions, such as his runner-up effort to Roy H in the 2018 Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Sprint, and third behind champion male sprinter Mitole and Shancelot in last year's Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Sprint at Santa Anita.

Whitmore enters the Vanderbilt off back-to-back wins in the Hot Springs [which he captured for the fourth consecutive time] and a three-quarter length score last out in the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint in April at Oaklawn Park. Moquett said the layoff's benefit could be more pronounced near the end of the campaign with what he hopes is another Breeders' Cup appearance, scheduled for November in Keeneland.

“I don't think it's as beneficial for this race as the rest of the year,” he said. “It'll show up that we gave him a breather around October or November. He's doing good, now. He looks happy.”

Competing at the Vanderbilt's six-furlong distance, Whitmore is 12-6-2 in 21 career starts, with his only off-the-board finish coming when eighth in the 2017 Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Sprint at Del Mar. He will carry the co-highweight of 123 pounds on Saturday.

“Options are limited for a sprinter in North America this year due to the COVID-19 and all the changes, so we're adjusting. We always wanted to compete in this race with him,” Moquett said.

Whitmore's 2018 Forego win featured him besting City of Light, who would come back to win the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and the Grade 1 Pegasus the following January.

“It was a great race and one my favorite races of all time,” Moquett said. “I'd really would like to win the Vanderbilt now. There's a ton of quality horses running in it, so it's going to be a tough, but fun, race.”

Joel Rosario, aboard during Whitmore's runner-up finish in the Grade 2 Phoenix in October at Keeneland, as well as his seventh-place effort in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile in December at Aqueduct Racetrack, will return to ride from post 2.

“I try to stick with familiarity with him as much as I can, and Joel is a quality rider,” Moquett said.

Mr. Amore Stable's Firenze Fire has four wins in his last five starts dating to November. Off a nearly four-month layoff, and with Kelly Breen taking over the training duties, the 5-year-old son of Poseidon's Warrior ran fourth in the Grade 1 Carter, a seven-furlong sprint on Belmont Park's main track on June 6, before roaring back three weeks later to win the Grade 2 True North on June 27.

After registering his 10th career stakes win, Firenze Fire, who ran fifth in last year's Breeders' Cup Sprint, will get another crack at the Vanderbilt after running fourth in last year's edition won by Imperial Hint. He will carry 122 pounds.

Irad Ortiz, Jr. has won his last three starts aboard the veteran with $1.93 million in earnings, having piloted him to the True North score as well a four-length win in the Grade 3 in February at Laurel Park and the Fabulous Strike in November at Penn National. He will exit from post 3 on Saturday.

“We got Irad back, everything is doing well,” Breen said. “We just need things to keep going smooth. I believe the distance will suit him really well. He's doing as well as he was into his last race.”

Volatile has shown the form that made him a big-priced purchase for the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, winning four of his first five career starts. Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen saw the Violence colt win two of his three starts as a sophomore. After a 7 ½-length win against allowance company started his 4-year-old year on April 24 at Oaklawn, the $850,000 purchase was moved up to stakes company for the first time, where he dominated the six-horse field for an eight-length win in the Aristides at the Vanderbilt distance on June 6 at Churchill Downs, garnering a 112 Beyer Speed Figure.

Owned by Phoenix Thoroughbred Partners and Three Chimneys Farm, Volatile will make both his Saratoga and graded stakes debut, carrying 121 pounds from post 4 with Ricardo Santana, Jr. retaining the mount for the fifth straight start.

Red Oak Stable and Madaket Stables' Mind Control has the potential to post a Grade 1 win as both a juvenile, 3-year-old and now a 4-year-old if he can win the Vanderbilt for trainer Gregg Sacco.

Both of the Stay Thristy colt's Grade 1 scores have come at Saratoga, starting with the seven-furlong Hopeful in 2018 and last year when he edged Hog Creek Hustle by a nose in the H. Allen Jerkens on Runhappy Travers Day. After starting 2020 with back-to-back Grade 3 wins at Aqueduct in the Toboggan and Tom Fool, respectively, Mind Control returned off a three-month layoff to run sixth in the Grade 1 Runhappy Carter.

Sacco will ship him up from his base a Monmouth Park to the friendly confines of Saratoga. Drawing the outermost post 5 carrying the co-highweight of 123 pounds, Mind Control will look to reach a special accomplishments for his connections, including the Brunetti family and Sol Kumin.

“He's 2-for-2 there, so he does have an affinity for Saratoga and we're excited to get him back there and hope he performs well,” Sacco said. “To go for Grade 1 wins at 2, 3 and 4 would be special for him and our team and the Brunettis and Sol Kumin. It's very exciting to bring him back, but we expect a very tough race and we're just hoping Mind Control gives us his top performance.”

Hall of Famer and three-time Vanderbilt-winning jockey John Velazquez will be in the irons.

Calumet Farm's Lexitonian, winner of the 2019 Grade 3 Chick Lang at Pimlico, will be making his first Grade 1 appearance since running 10th in the 2019 Woody Stephens at Belmont.

Trained by Jack Sisterson, Lexitonian defeated optional claimers last out on May 29 at Churchill and will cut back from seven furlongs. The 4-year-old Speightstown colt will carry 116 pounds, drawing post 1 with Tyler Gaffalione aboard.

The 36th running of the Vanderbilt is slated as Race 10 on Saturday's 11-race card, which will also offer the Grade 2, $200,000 Ballston Spa for older fillies and mares on the turf in Race 3. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern. Saratoga Live will present daily television coverage of the 40-day summer meet on FOX Sports and MSG Networks. For the complete Saratoga Live broadcast schedule, and additional programming information, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule.

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