‘Starting Point’: Fingal’s Cave Faces Tough Task Returning From Year-Long Layoff In Bay Ridge

Alifyfe Racing's Grade 2-placed Fingal's Cave is poised to return from a more than one-year layoff in the $100,000 Bay Ridge, a one-turn mile for New York-bred fillies and mares 3-years-old and up slated for Thursday, December 28, at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Trained by David Donk, the 4-year-old Carpe Diem bay won her first four outings, spanning a state-bred maiden win traveling six furlongs against elders in May 2022 at Belmont Park to a half-length score in the state-bred Fleet Indian going nine furlongs that August over a muddy and sealed main track at Saratoga Race Course.

Fingal's Cave was last seen finishing a game second in the Grade 2 Raven Run in October 2022 at Keeneland where she was bumped at the break and squeezed back before closing from last-of-9 and 9 1/4-lengths off the pace to finish second, defeated four lengths by Wicked Halo.

“It was a big effort at Keeneland which was a speed-favoring racetrack at the time,” Donk recalled. “Once she broke, I didn't think she had any chance to hit the board so I thought it was a really huge effort.

“We put her away and later on she was diagnosed with a little bone bruising,” added Donk. “She was back in training in Kentucky over the summer/fall and had some foot bruises, so she was a little delayed getting to me but she came in great shape. She's done really well since she's been here.”

Fingal's Cave has worked four times over the dirt training track at Belmont Park, including a bullet five-eighths breeze from the gate Saturday in 1:00.66.

“She went in a minute and three-fifths which is a fast time over that track and she galloped out really well,” Donk said.

Fingal's Cave utilized prominent trips to win against elders in both a seven-furlong state-bred allowance in June 2022 at Belmont and an open-company allowance traveling nine furlongs one month later at the Spa.

Donk said he is confident Fingal's Cave will handle a one-turn mile on her return to racing action.

“She has a really nice cruising, tactical style,” Donk said. “It's a starting point, but the way she breezed I'm pretty comfortable with her going a mile.”

The $75,000 purchase from the 2021 OBS Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training is out of the winning Mineshaft mare Barbie On a Budget, who is a full-sister to multiple stakes-winner Mineralogist. Fingal's Cave's second dam is Grade 2-winner Seeking the Ante, a half-sister to Grade 1-winner Friends Lake.

Fingal's Cave, assigned 121 pounds, will exit post 2 under Jose Lezcano.

Trainer Jorge Abreu will saddle a pair of contenders in stakes-winner Cairo Sugar [post 1, Isaac Castillo, 120 pounds] and the multiple graded stakes-placed Venti Valentine [post 3, Manny Franco, 126 pounds], who will look to defend her title in this event.

NY Final Furlong Racing Stable and Parkland Thoroughbreds' Venti Valentine has banked $701,600 through a record of 16-6-2-4 that includes graded placings traveling nine furlongs at the Big A in the 2021 Grade 2 Demoiselle [2nd] and 2022 Grade 3 Gazelle [3rd], as well as a last-out third behind the victorious Dr B in the Grade 3 Go for Wand on December 2 traveling a one-turn mile over a muddy and sealed main track.

The 4-year-old Firing Line chestnut, bred by Final Furlong Racing Stable and Maspeth Stable, is a four-time stakes winner with scores last year here in the one-mile Busher Invitational versus open company and a dominant 3 3/4-length win over returning rival Know It All Audrey in last year's Bay Ridge contested over a muddy and sealed main track.

Venti Valentine, who finished third to the victorious Know It All Audrey in the nine-furlong Empire Distaff in October here, added state-bred scores in the Spa's Johnstone Mile Handicap and the 1 1/16-mile Jack Betta Be Rite at Finger Lakes to her ledger this year.

Dan Zanatta, co-managing partner of Final Furlong Racing Stable, praised Venti Valentine for her trademark consistency.

“Coming out of Saratoga, we put together a long-term plan for her to run in the Empire Distaff, Go for Wand and come back to defend her title in the Bay Ridge,” Zanatta said. “So, we've been able to meet all those challenges and compete well.

“I thought she ran a very strong race in the Go for Wand,” added Zanatta. “I think she was definitely running against the bias of the racetrack last time. I think that track was favoring speed on the front end and she was obviously coming from off-the-pace. She never really got to be on the outside of horses and was stuck on the rail the whole time, but she still got up for third as the longest shot on the board, so we were happy with the effort.”

Venti Valentine, out of the winning Medaglia d'Oro mare Glory Gold, is a half-sister to multiple stakes-winning New York-bred Espresso Shot, a Mission Impazible bay who banked $516,625 through a 24-5-3-4 ledger while campaigned by NY Final Furlong Racing Stable in partnership with Maspeth Stables and Parkland Thoroughbreds.

Espresso Shot, who won three one-turn mile stakes at the Big A as well as a seven-furlong score in the NYSSS Staten Island, sold for $300,000 at the conclusion of her 5-year-old campaign at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Mixed Sale as part of the “Night of the Stars” showcase.

On Saturday here, Landed, a 2-year-old half-sister by Omaha Beach, graduated by 5 1/2-lengths at second asking when stretched out to a one-turn mile. The Wesley Ward trainee, bred by Final Furlong Racing Stable and Maspeth Stable, was purchased by Lael Stables for $500,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale.

Zanatta, who noted the family's impressive talents at a one-turn mile, said the team plans to bring back Venti Valentine for a 5-year-old campaign and then sell her at the Night of the Stars program in 2024.

“They all seem to do their best running at a one-turn mile. Regardless of their breeding, that seems to be what they want to do,” Zanatta said. “Espresso Shot fooled us and showed some ability [at other distances] at various times of her life, but always ran her best at a one-turn mile. Venti has shown the same as well, although she has been able to get two turns more successfully than her older sister did – but it seems a one-turn mile is where she does her best running and where she gets her best speed figures. That's why running in the Go for Wand and coming back in the Bay Ridge was very enticing for us.

“I would never have thought Landed would be another one-turn mile horse, but she really seemed to improve on the stretch out yesterday,” Zanatta added. “She was a different-looking foal. She was more athletic and a little smaller, better balanced and had a better head than Espresso and Venti did. I thought she might be a better sprinter, but to see her stretch out and win so impressively was nice to see.”

AP Stable's Cairo Sugar posted a 27-1 upset in the state-bred Maddie May here in February, scoring by 1 1/4-lengths in gate-to-wire fashion in the one-turn mile with Andrew Wolfsont up for her former conditioner Alan Bedard.

The sophomore daughter of Cairo Prince, bred by Kaz Hill Farm, joined the Abreu barn following back-to-back victories against open-company winners when besting elders at Parx in July and Delaware Park in October. Cairo Sugar has made two starts here for Abreu, landing fourth in the state-bred Iroquois on October 29 and fifth in an open optional-claimer on December 1.

Trainer Linda Rice, who leads the Big A fall meet with 16 wins, will saddle the multiple stakes-placed Bustin Bay [post 5, Kendrick Carmouche, 121 pounds].

Winning Move Stable's Bustin Bay, a 5-year-old Bustin Stones dark bay, was last seen on December 3 finishing second to Morning Matcha in the NYSSS Staten Island contested at seven furlongs over a sloppy and sealed Big A main track.

Bred by Robert D. Rosenthal, Peter Rosenthal and Martin Greenberg, Bustin Bay boasts a career record of 38-11-8-5 for purse earnings of $616,960 with six of those wins on the Big A main track

Rice, in search of her first Bay Ridge win, is enjoying a tremendous season with 161 NYRA circuit wins on the year. With four racing dates left on the NYRA calendar in 2023, Rice is chasing the record of 164 wins set by conditioner David Jacobson in 2013.

Know It All Audrey [post 6, Dylan Davis, 126 pounds], who was scratched from the Grade 3 Go for Wand here on December 2, will make her first start since her aforementioned Empire Distaff score on October 29.

Trained and co-owned by Oscar Barrera, III with Three Player's Stable, the 4-year-old Shackleford bay, bred by Geraldine Mazza, provided the conditioner with his first stakes win with the 2 3/4-length victory over Ichiban.

All seven of Know It All Audrey's wins have come on the Big A main track where she boasts a 16-7-5-1 record.

Rounding out the field is Marjorie Krohn's stakes-placed Sweetie [post 4, Romero Maragh, 121 pounds] for trainer Gary Sciacca; and Gallagher's Stud's homebred Sweet Mystery [post 7, Trevor McCarthy, 121 pounds], a three-time winner for trainer Pat Quick.

The Bay Ridge is slated as Race 7 on the eight-race Thursday, December 28 card. First post is 12:50 p.m. Eastern.

America's Day at the Races will present daily coverage and analysis of the fall meet at Aqueduct Racetrack on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/aqueduct/racing/tv-schedule.

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What Was Your Favorite Moment of 2023: Jared Shoemaker

As 2023 draws to a close, the TDN is asking industry members to name their favorite moment of the year. Send yours to suefinley@thetdn.com.

The most memorable moment of 2023 was our Keeneland September yearling class assembling at the sale. I always look forward to that two-week stretch and the excitement surrounding all the new horses we bring into the stable. Twice this year, I thought we were finished buying…once after picking up the Caracaro filly and again after we bought the War of Will filly we were (and still are) thrilled with. Then, on the last weekend of the sale, Marc [Wampler] calls me and says “Well, I bought another one.” We ended up with six yearlings and I couldn't be happier with any of them, especially the surprise Temple City filly.

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New York Regulators Won’t Permit Appeal Of ‘Baffling’ Stewards Decision

“I keep waiting for them to show the video evidence.”

Dean Reeves, whose Brick Ambush was disqualified from second and placed last in Saturday's $500,000 New York Stallion Series Stakes/Great White Way division at Aqueduct racetrack, was denied an appeal of the controversial stewards decision by the New York State Gaming Commission on Monday, and still doesn't know what his horse did to warrant a disqualification.

Drew Mollica, who filed the appeal on behalf of Reeves, said the decision to not conduct a hearing on the matter “speaks volumes about what is wrong with New York racing.”

The disqualification of Brick Ambush left many in racing scratching their heads.

“It's really a little bit baffling how this whole thing panned out, played out and was adjudicated,” said retired jockey Richard Migliore, an analyst on NYRA's Fox Sports telecast.

The race was won by Antonio of Venice, ridden by Manny Franco, who according to the Equibase chart footnotes “was blocked nearing the quarter pole, came out and bumped with a rival” while racing behind the front-runner, Heavyweight Champs, at the top of the stretch. The horse Antonio of Venice bumped was The Big Torpedo, whose rider, Javier Castellano, had to check hard. Solo's Fury, to the outside of the The Big Torpedo also was bumped in the chain reaction and wound up being eased.

Brick Ambush, according to the Equibase chart, was making a four wide bid at that stage “while being bumped in the hind end.”

The stewards lit the inquiry sign and the only number flashing on the board was that of the winner, Antonio of Venice. Castellano said he lodged a claim of foul, but it apparently was not relayed to the stewards.

Migliore, on the Fox Sports telecast, said Brick Ambush was not the one responsible for the bumping. “The horse from the inside (Antonio of Venice) came out…and I feel created the problem.”

Migliore added, “I have a hard time understanding the decision process.”

So do a lot of others.

Reeves said he's received a steady stream of emails, text messages, and telephone calls about the DQ. “It hasn't stopped,” he said. “People I don't even know are contacting me. I don't know that I've ever seen this much response from the racing community on a single disqualification. I've yet to see one person say, 'Maybe your horse did cause it.'”

At least one person, New York State Gaming Commission steward Braulio Baeza Jr., did see it that way. He told Daily Racing Form's David Grening “the outside horse (Brick Ambush) caused the pressure.”

On Monday, the following statement was posted on the New York Racing Association website in the section explaining stewards decisions: “At the ¼ pole #12 Brick Ambush (Junior Alvarado) came in, causing a chain reaction. The #11 Solo's Fury (Jose Lezcano) pushes down into the #7 The Big Torpedo (Javier Castellano). After reviewing the video and speaking with the riders, the stewards disqualified the #12 Brick Ambush for interference and place him behind the #11 Solo's Fury.”

The explanation does not mention Antonio of Venice, whose number was blinking during the lengthy inquiry as stewards reviewed video of the incident.

On Sunday, adding salt to the wound, Alvarado, Brick Ambush's jockey, was given a three-day suspension by NYSGC steward Baeza, who wields more power than the stewards from the New York Racing Association and The Jockey Club.

“In New York, the only steward who can act is the state steward, Mr. Baeza,” said Mollica. “The other two stewards are merely advisory.”

The connections of The Big Torpedo also filed an appeal, which was denied by the NYSGC.

On Monday, the NYSGC issued the following statement:

“On December 17, 2023, the New York State Gaming Commission received correspondence from the connections of two horses that participated in the 9th race at Aqueduct Race Course on December 16, 2023. Specifically, the connections and/or their representatives sought to appeal the stewards' disqualification of the horse Brick Ambush and the stewards' declination to find interference by the horse Antonio of Venice. The correspondence collectively states disagreement with the decision of the stewards.

“The Commission responded to the connections today, advising them that the decisions to disqualify Brick Ambush and to not find interference by Antonio of Venice were judgment calls “based on questions of fact, which the stewards are empowered to make pursuant to Commission Rule 4039.20 (9 NYCRR §4039.20), and the decision(s) (are) therefore not appealable to the Commission, pursuant to Rule 4039.5. New York Courts have long held that stewards' placement decisions are questions of fact that cannot be appealed. See, e.g., In the Matter of the Seventh Race of June 12, 1996 at Belmont Park [May I Inquire] (NYSRWB 1996), confirmed, Matter of Moshera v. Bilinski, 244 A.D.2d 555 (2d Dep't 1995); see also Discenza v. N.Y. Racing Ass'n, 134 Misc. 2d 3, 7-8 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. 1986); Shapiro v. Queens County Jockey Club, 184 Misc. 295, 300 (N.Y. Mun. Ct. 1945). For these reasons, the stewards' decision is final and the New York State Gaming Commission cannot consider your appeal.”

Mollica said the agency regulating New York racing has allowed previous appeals on stewards decisions.

“They are like ostriches,” Mollica said. “They want to stick their head in the sand like it didn't happen. Their argument is, 'We can do what we want because we can do what we want.' How can they not want to have an official review?”

The disqualification cost Reeves nearly $100,000 in lost purse money for second place. If Antonio of Venice had been disqualified instead of Brick Ambush, Reeves would have received $275,000 in first-place money.

Reeves said he hopes NYRA CEO David O'Rourke will take the matter seriously.

“I'm really disappointed New York racing, NYRA, would have incompetency at the stewards level for the type of racing they want to have,” Reeves said. “If I was David O'Rourke, I would at least go in to the stewards and have them show me on the film how that call was justified.

“I keep waiting for them to show the video evidence, to say, 'Here's the pictures.' I don't think they will because they can't – it's not there, so we get no explanation.”

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This Week In History: Fair Grounds Goes Up In Flames, Again

Every racetrack operator's worst nightmare is a fire, and the Fair Grounds has lived through two of them.

This week in December 1993, neighbors of the New Orleans track came out of their houses around 7 p.m. to see flames coming from the racetrack's historic grandstand. Racetrackers and locals gathered in the parking lot, some crying, watching with horror as the local landmark became completely engulfed in a matter of hours.

Ty Ezell was working in the track's video department back in 1993; he's still there as a contractor today.

“It was after racing; we were setting up a microphone on the third floor of the Jockey Club for a party the next day,” Ezell remembered. “We left to go to a drugstore to get something to drink. We weren't gone ten minutes and the whole place was … you could see it glowing in the distance.”

Investigators later determined that faulty wiring near the jockeys' room sparked the blaze, which ripped through the wooden grandstand rapidly. In the end it would be a seven-alarm fire that brought 170 firefighters and 53 trucks to the scene.

At the time, the wooden Fair Grounds structure was the third-oldest in the country, having been put in place after another fire destroyed the original in 1918.

Eclipse Award-winning writer Ronnie Virgets was on-site that day. His ode to Fair Grounds ran alongside the news coverage of the fire in the Blood-Horse. Virgets recalled his youth at the track, which became his home base through the years.

“Forget Plato, skip Aquinas, shun Descartes. It's horse racing that proves the existence of God, and racetracks, plain and simple, are temples,” he wrote. “Only now the temple is being profaned by the ultimatum of change. The firehoses are working hard, but when fire reaches this intensity, it chortles at those who try to tame it. Windows pop, TV monitors explode, roofs fall, and a racetrack's history goes flying to hell somewhere in the sky.

“With each collapse, each structural yielding, comes a new revealing, a shameful disrobing of an old friend.”

Ezell remembered arriving at the track the next day by sunrise (there was no power on the front side) and seeing the metal safety rail had melted from the heat of the flames. He and friends sifted through the rubble looking for the New Orleans Handicap trophy, which had been in the building, but never found it.

If anything can be considered fortunate about a fire, the timing of the event minimized the potential for the loss of life. The barns are situated on the other side of the racing oval from the grandstand, and racing had finished for the day. There were a few customers on-site for off-track betting, but they were quickly cleared and no employees or patrons were injured, although The Blood-Horse reported two firefighters were.

Quick-thinking racing officials dragged out the fire-proof cabinets that stood in the racing office and held almost all the foal papers for the 3,000 horses on the grounds, avoiding further challenges for their trainers and owners.

The 1993 fire also hadn't been the first time racing at Fair Grounds had faced adversity – it was sold to developers in the 1940s and saved by a group of investors in the eleventh hour. Before that, racing had been banned in New Orleans between 1908 and 1915.

But racing people are tough folk, and don't let legal, financial, or natural disasters stop them in their tracks.

By the time the Christmas edition of The Blood-Horse was mailed to its subscribers, the Fair Grounds was already planning its comeback. The fire was estimated to cause $26 million in damages but within days, track ownership met with a consultant who staged the annual jazz festival at the Fair Grounds to generate some ideas.

Three days after the fire, the Blood-Horse reported a tented clubhouse was being constructed along with bleachers, while additional tents could hold a paddock area and trailers were being brought in to serve as office space and jockeys' quarters. Autotote sent a mainframe computer to the site and 100 mutuel machines were installed.

Racing restarted 19 days after the blaze and a new grandstand was opened in 1997, with its current enclosed and air-conditioned design.

“Everybody missed the old building; it had character,” Ezell said. “The old grandstand, it had these huge windows, they were wooden and glass. But they were mechanical with chains. On a nice day, half would go underground, half would go up. That was something you can't replace.

“They designed the new track so you can see the paddock from every floor, which is awesome. It's more fan-friendly, the new track.”

This local news clip features on-site reporting from Hoda Kotb in her pre-Today Show days.

Virgets and Ezell teamed up for this video piece looking back on the fire:

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