Dark Angel’s Night Raider Another TDN Rising Star

Steve Parkin's Clipper Logistics have live Guineas contenders of both sexes in 2024 as the Karl Burke-trained Night Raider (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}–Dorraar {Ire}, by Shamardal) produced a sensational display to obtain TDN Rising Star status at Southwell on Wednesday evening. Off the mark in style by nine lengths this track and seven-furlong trip on debut in December, the 1-4 favourite tanked his way to the front under Danny Tudhope from the outset. Chased entering the straight by his only serious rival, last year's G3 Acomb S. fifth Cogitate (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}), the 155,000gns Tatts December Foal purchase simply extended away to score by five lengths, registering a penultimate split of 10.98 and a final three-furlong sectional of 34.12 in the process.
Burke, who is preparing the owner's G1 Moyglare Stud S. winner Fallen Angel (GB) (Too Darn Hot {GB}) for the May 5 G1 1000 Guineas, is planning on sending Night Raider for the previous day's Newmarket Classic. “He's a horse of huge potential, we know that and he's not fully wound up by any stretch of the imagination,” he said of the half-brother to Farhh's G3 Palace House S.-winning first-season sire Far Above (Ire).
“His weight was identical to first time out and all of ours improve for their first time. Nadir, who leads him up, said he has taken more of a blow tonight than he did the first time. He was a second-and-a-half faster this time and I don't know if that is down to ability or the track riding faster. The Guineas isn't the be all and end all for him and he's a horse with a big future.”
“He may have been on grass at the beginning of his two-year-old career, but he certainly wouldn't have been on grass in the last 10 months or so. The idea was to go to the Guineas with a racecourse gallop at the Craven meeting–I don't want to go a mile or go for the Craven itself and if we went for the seven-furlong race at Newbury [the Greenham], that only gives us two weeks before the Guineas–or there is a seven-furlong conditions race for horses that haven't run more than twice. I have to speak to connections, but if we do go anywhere, I would be pointing that way.”
“Danny [Tudhope] just said there he could do with another run. He's still green in front and was lugging away up the straight. Another run is probably the right way to go. Laurens was pretty good in her first two runs, but he's a lovely horse with a great temperament and there's a lot of scope there, so we've just got to look after him, do the right thing by him and hopefully he reaches his full potential.”
Night Raider, who was one of colleague Adam Houghton's Ten 2024 Three-Year-Olds To Follow, is the sixth TDN Rising Star for Dark Angel. The grey's best Rising Star so far is G1 Phoenix S. runner-up Dr Zempf (GB). The winner is out of a granddaughter of the G2 Ribblesdale S. scorer and G1 Oaks, G1 Irish Oaks and GI Flower Bowl Invitational-placed Bahr (GB) (Generous {Ire}). That links him to the Group 1-winning mother and son Nahrain (GB) (Selkirk) and Benbatl (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), with the latter also registering a wide-margin debut success before being thrown straight into the deep end. Also in the pedigree is the aforementioned talented sprinter Far Above, whose career was cut short by injury, and the precocious and tough Go Bears Go (Ire) (Kodi Bear {Ire}) who captured the G2 Railway S. and G3 Pavilion S. and was also placed in the G1 Phoenix S. and GII Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. Dorraar's 2-year-old full-brother to the winner is catalogued in next month's Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up.
1st-Southwell, £11,400, Novice, 3-20, 3yo/up, 7f 14y (AWT), 1:26.77, st.
NIGHT RAIDER (IRE), c, 3, by Dark Angel (Ire)
     1st Dam: Dorraar (Ire), by Shamardal
     2nd Dam: Dorrati, by Dubai Millennium (GB)
     3rd Dam: Bahr (GB), by Generous (Ire)
Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $12,306. O-Clipper; B-Linden Bloodstock Ltd (IRE); T-Karl Burke. *155,000gns Wlg '21 TADEWE. **1/2 to Far Above (Ire) (Farhh {GB}), GSW-Eng, SW-Fr. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

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First Mares in Foal for New Stallions at Pleasant Acres

The four first-year stallions at Pleasant Acres Stallions in Florida–Verifying, Doppelganger, Simplification, and Chess Chief–as well as Bodexpress, who is new to Florida after standing three years in California, all have had multiple mares confirmed in foal to kick off their stud careers.

“Since the breeding shed opened this season, we have had a very active stallion barn,” said Christine Jones, the farm's director of stallion services. “We have recently received confirmation that all five of our exciting new stallions have mares in foal, so we are off to a great start.”

The new stallions at Pleasant Acres were featured in a TDN video earlier this week.

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Jake Delhomme Joins TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

He's best known as a former NFL quarterback who nearly beat Tom Brady in Super Bowl XXXVIII. But Jake Delhomme, who starred for the Carolina Panthers, is also a passionate horse owner who, along with his father Jerry and his brother Jeff, operates Set-Hut Stable LLC. The Delhomme clan focuses on Louisiana-breds and this year they have come up with one of the best ever. Touchuponastar (Star Guitar) is 11-for-14 lifetime and will run this weekend at Fair Grounds, either against open company in Saturday's $500,000 GII New Orleans Classic or against state-breds the next day in the Star Guitar S.

To talk about Touchuponastar, his love affair with racing and even a bit about his NFL career, Delhomme joined this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland. He was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week.

The Delhommes bought Touchuponastar for $15,000 at the Texas Thoroughbred Association Yearling sale, which has turned out to be quite the bargain as the horse has earned $708,100.

Jake Delhomme Joins the TDN Writers' Room from Thoroughbred Daily News on Vimeo.

“He's been a dream come true, to be quite honest,” Delhomme said. “I was lucky enough to purchase him at the Texas yearling sale. He was one that I followed, along with the breeders, Coteau Grove Farms. They have done a marvelous job of bringing along some fine animals. Andrew Cary is their bloodstock advisor, and I've been involved with Andrew since 2007. The first time I went to Keeneland and bought my first mare there, off of Hill 'n' Dale Farms, he was the director of sales then. We developed a friendship over the years. We'll go to Coteau Grove and see the horses. There was something about this horse I always liked and I watched him grow up. He looks very much like his sire, Star Guitar, who was a great regional racehorse here in Louisiana. So this was one that I had my eye on. I try to buy a couple of yearlings every year, try to breed a couple. We're a fairly small stable, eight to 10 horses. So we went to the Texas sale and I bid just one time. I was watching the action and I was prepared to go a lot higher. It was just one of those good deals and we were lucky enough to get him.”

While his brother Jeff is listed as the trainer, Jake is very hands-on and works right alongside his brother and father.

“I do pretty much anything and everything,” Delhomme said. “I'd like to think we're a selfless stable, to be quite honest. Set-Hut is the owner and Dad and Jeff both train. But I'll be honest, it's all of us. We're there every day. It's a family affair. Had I not played sports, I have a pretty good inclination that I would have gone into racing right away.”

Like many retired athletes that have gone into racing after their careers are over, Delhomme said that the sport fills a need in his life and keeps his competitive juices flowing.

“Racing helps fill that competitive void,” Delhomme said. “I mean I retired when I was, what, 37 or 38 years old? But I retired from football, not from real life. At that age, you're just kind of getting started, so to speak. Racing has given me that avenue. I've never looked for anything else to do once I finished playing. You need something to do because you're used to just this lifestyle of work, work, work, work. I think anyone can attest that being in the horse racing business is just that, work, work, work. It's all the time.”

In our breeding spotlight section we took a look at the Coolmore stallion Jack Christopher and the WinStar stallion Global Campaign.

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders' Association, Coolmore, 1/ST Racing, West Point Thoroughbreds, WinStar and XBTV.com, the team of Randy Moss, Bill Finley and Zoe Cadman discussed the news that Nysos (Nyquist) has been sidelined and will probably miss all of the Triple Crown races and the latest developments in Maryland, where 1/ST Racing is donating Pimlico to the state. And they previewed the big weekend cards coming up at Fair Grounds and at Turfway Park, where 3-year-olds will vie for Derby points in the GII Louisiana Derby and the GIII Jeff Ruby Steaks S.

To watch the podcast, click here. To listen to an audio of the podcast, click here.

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Starspangledbanner’s Puchkine A New TDN Rising Star

Spring is in the air at last and with it came the first of several Jean-Claude Rouget Classic hopefuls at Toulouse on Wednesday evening. Step forward the unbeaten Alain Jathiere homebred Puchkine (Fr) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}–Vadyska {Ire}, by So You Think {NZ}), whose Prix Torrestrella tour de force created an exciting opening verse to the Pau-based maestro's 2024 address. “It's going to be a long season”, he quipped in his post-race analysis on the Equidia channel, but if this impressive new TDN Rising Star is anything to go by it will be another highly profitable one.
Puchkine, whose juvenile campaign consisted of successful forays to La Teste, this track and Pau, was re-entering the scene in a five-runner affair over a mile and was keen anchored last of the quintet by Jean-Bernard Eyquem early. Quickening out wide to take control 300 metres from the line, the 2-5 favourite who holds entries in the G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains and G1 Prix du Jockey Club drew away in impressive fashion to extend his tally by 3 1/2 lengths from Denisjonh (Fr) (Born To Sea {Ire}).
Rouget was on hand to witness the display and told Equidia, “He was fresh, but also a little bit tense, so this is encouraging. It wouldn't have been a big deal if he had been beaten today, because he was making his comeback. It's going to be a long season. The goal is to run the Poule d'Essai and before that, he will run the [Apr. 21 Listed] Prix Aymeri de Mauléon, as we can't let him go two months without racing. He has a lot of speed and I don't think he'll stay 2100 metres.”
 Puchkine, who becomes the fifth TDN Rising Star for Starspangledbanner alongside the G1 Cheveley Park S. runner-up Flotus (Ire), is out of an unraced half-sister to the Listed Diana-Trial winner Romina Power (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}). She is a daughter of Rockatella (Ire) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}), who was a listed winner placed three times in pattern races including the G3 Prix de Lieurey. Descended from Meon Valley's great Reprocolor (GB) (Jimmy Reppin {GB}), whose latest flagbearer was last year's G3 Hoppings S. winner and G1 Nassau S. runner-up Zeyaadah (Ire) (Tamayuz {GB}), she is also responsible for the listed-placed filly Slevka (Fr) (Shalaa {Ire}). Her 2-year-old colt by Fas (Ire) is named Zvokokiev (Fr).
4th-Toulouse, €30,000, Cond, 3-20, 3yo, 8fT, 1:37.60, sf.
PUCHKINE (FR), c, 3, by Starspangledbanner (Aus)
     1st Dam: Vadyska (Ire), by So You Think (NZ) 
     2nd Dam: Rockatella (Ire), by Rock Of Gibraltar (Ire)
     3rd Dam: Patrimony (GB), by Cadeaux Genereux (GB)
Lifetime Record: 4-4-0-0, €53,500. O/B-Alain Jathiere (FR); T-Jean-Claude Rouget. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. Video, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

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