52nd Eclipse Awards | Horse Racing Free Tips

Dirt Sprinters Goodnight Olive, Elite Power Take Home Eclipse Hardware

Breeders' Cup Sprint champions in their races, both Goodnight Olive and Elite Power turned heads, as they rattled off a string of quality victories.

GOODNIGHT OLIVE
Goodnight Olive brought a salty four-race win streak into her stakes debut and then promptly reeled off two of the biggest Grade I prizes for female sprinters, making her a no-brainer choice for Eclipse champion female sprinter.

She debuted in 2021 with a runner-up finish in a Gulfstream maiden, then went to the sidelines for seven months, never to lose again. The dark bay reappeared at Keeneland's 2021 fall meet with an 8 1/2-length maiden score, followed it up with a nine-length allowance win at Aqueduct, and then took another seven-month break. She hadn't lost a step upon return this past June, smartly taking back-to-back allowances at Belmont and Saratoga by open lengths. Up against three Grade I winners, including reigning champion female sprinter Ce Ce (Elusive Quality), for her coming-out party in the GI Ballerina, Goodnight Olive was sent off at 5-1 but surged clear in the stretch to win with aplomb. Although lightly raced coming into the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, she again overpowered her foes, sizzled to a 101 Beyer Speed Figure, and kept her 2022 season flawless. In addition to her Eclipse as female sprinter, she was also a finalist for older dirt female.

Trainer Chad Brown has said Goodnight Olive is much like her Horse of the Year sire, not necessarily touted for soundness, but certainly for brilliance. Steve Laymon, founder of co-owner First Row Partners, won his second Eclipse as he also co-owned Dayatthespa (City Zip), champion grass mare of 2014.

Goodnight Olive got some time off following the Breeders' Cup and is gearing up for a 5-year-old campaign.

Early Impressions…
“A nice filly and a later-maturing type. We thought she would stand out in October and benefit from the additional time.” –John Moynihan, Stonestreet's bloodstock advisor

“Goodnight Olive really stood out to me at Fasig October. She was on the final day of the four-day sale, but once we saw her early on we knew we had to wait patiently to try and get her purchased. She was a bit offset but had so much athleticism in the way she moved and a lot of class with some edginess. She was on the smaller side (not anymore), but being almost a May foal and by Ghostzapper she was big enough. She had just enormous potential and she has certainly lived up to all of our expectations and then some.” –Liz Crow, agent for First Row Partners

–Jill Williams

ELITE POWER
A winner of five of his last six starts in 2022, Elite Power topped off his season with a defeat of both MGSW & MGISP C Z Rocket (City Zip) and last year's Eclipse champion Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) in the GI Qatar Racing Breeders' Cup Sprint.

Though he didn't break his maiden until June, Elite Power went on a hot streak through the summer, working his way up the ranks with two wins against allowance company before stepping up in dominating fashion to take the GII Vosburgh S. at Belmont's Aqueduct meeting by 5 1/4 lengths Oct. 8.

Drawn mid pack as a 5-1 shot behind heavily favored Jackie's Warrior in the Sprint, Elite Power took his time early on under jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., racing seventh as Super Ocho (Chi) (Dubai Sky) paced the field through tiring fractions of :22.12 and :44.99. Steadily advancing while three wide around the turn, Elite Power came running from the middle of the track to overtake the leaders with a sixteenth to run, hitting the wire 1 1/4 lengths ahead of his rivals.

“I had the perfect trip,” Ortiz, Jr. said of his Breeders' Cup ride aboard Elite Power. “He broke real sharp and I let him settle. I let the speed go. I was able to cut the corner around the turn. When I tipped him out, he was there for me. He kept going forward. He gave me a really good kick from the quarter-pole to the wire. He's a nice horse. I rode him with a lot of confidence.”

A $900,000 yearling for Juddmonte out of the Lane's End consignment, Elite Power beat out another son of Curlin and Mott trainee in Cody's Wish (Curlin) for the award. He remains in training for the 2023 season and most recently worked four furlongs in :48.80 (1/17) Jan. 25.

–Stefanie Grimm

The post Dirt Sprinters Goodnight Olive, Elite Power Take Home Eclipse Hardware appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Trainer Todd Pletcher and Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. Return To Hoist Eclipse Awards

This is trainer Todd Pletcher's eighth Eclipse Award and the fourth for jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., as the pair return to the stage to once again accept these respective honors.

TODD PLETCHER
It's not easy being Todd Pletcher. Not because it's difficult to employ a battalion of employees and run a vast operation across multiple jurisdictions. And not because he is graced with a power-packed group of runners that many of his contemporaries might offer their first borns to get even a single nugget from the expansive collection of equine jewels lining his shedrow. These days, it seems that the Hall of Famer's biggest obstacle is simply outdoing himself. Because what may be a career-defining season for most other trainers in the game, might only be considered par-for-the-course for Pletcher.

No stranger to the training title with seven prior wins (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2014), Pletcher found himself having to watch from the sidelines as Chad Brown and Brad Cox collectively took down six training titles since 2016. While finishing second in earnings behind Brown ($31,057,362) at the conclusion of 2022, Pletcher's season was nothing less than awe-inspiring regardless.

Buoyed by 36 graded stakes wins, 17 of those at the Grade I level, he showed his dominance at the Eclipse Awards, with his runners appearing in no less than five divisions. Headlining this year's championship class are Forte (Juvenile Colt), Nest (Curlin) (3-year-old Filly) and Malathaat (Older Dirt Female) (Curlin), in addition to Horse of the Year and Older Horse finalist Life Is Good (Into Mischief), who had the misfortune of running in the same season as superstar Flightline. Pletcher was also represented by a second Horse of the Year finalist, Malathaat.

Also notable in 2022, the Dallas, Texas native became the first trainer to sweep both legs of the Pegasus World Cup program with Life Is Good and Colonel Liam (Liam's Map), who took the turf division, in addition to landing his sixth American Classic while earning his fourth GI Belmont S. win with Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo), who led home a 1-2 finish for the trainer. While the 'big four' led much of the Grade I activity for the 55-year-old last year, he also earned top-level victories with Chocolate Gelato (Practical Joke) (GI Frizette S.), Annapolis (War Front) (GI Coolmore Turf Mile S.) and Mind Control (Stay Thirsty) (GI Cigar Mile H.).

–Christina Bossinakis

IRAD ORTIZ JR.
A three-win showing over Breeders' Cup weekend sealed the deal on a fourth career Eclipse Award for jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr.

Ortiz, a winner of this same award for three straight years between 2018-20, led the nation with 325 wins and also set a single-season earnings record of $37,075,772 in 2022. It was the eighth straight year that the 30-year-old topped the 300-win mark.

“Thank God first for keeping me healthy and sound and in one piece to be able to keep doing it every day, keep trying,” Ortiz said. “My agent, Steve Rushing, does a great job and the trainers and owners give me great opportunities, a lot of good horses. We've had an amazing year.”

Ortiz's Breeders' Cup hat trick of Forte (Violence) (Juvenile), Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper) (F/M Sprint) and Elite Power (Curlin) (Sprint) concluded a banner season for the reinsman, which also included a Classic victory aboard Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo) in the GI Belmont S.

In addition to aforementioned champions Forte and Goodnight Olive, Ortiz was also the regular rider of champion 3-year-old filly Nest (Curlin), a three-time winner at the highest level in 2022.

Ortiz finished 2022 with 80 stakes wins, 20 at the highest level, breaking the all-time record for stakes wins by a jockey in a calendar year. The late Garrett Gomez established the previous record of 76 stakes victories in 2007.

Ortiz's 2022 season also included memorable wins aboard Life Is Good (Into Mischief) in the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. and Colonel Liam (Liam's Map) in the GI Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational S. He also guided home Life Is Good to victories in the prestigious GI Whitney S. and GI Woodward S.

–Steve Sherack

The post Trainer Todd Pletcher and Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. Return To Hoist Eclipse Awards appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Godolphin LLC Scores Eclipse Double in Breeder and Owner Categories

Godolphin LLC goes back-to-back in the Eclipse breeding category, while this marks three wins in a row as 'Outstanding Owner.'

GODOLPHIN
For the third year running and for the fifth time overall, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum's Godolphin LLC was named America's outstanding owner at Thursday evening's Eclipse Awards ceremonies. And, having been honored for the first time as outstanding breeder in 2021, the operation doubled up with another championship trophy.

Overall, Godolphin campaigned the winners of 20 graded stakes in North America in 2022 and for the second year in a row, registered multiple winners at the Breeders' Cup, with champion Modern Games (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) in the Mile, Eclipse finalists Rebel's Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and Cody's Wish (Curlin) in the Turf and Dirt Mile, respectively, and Mischief Magic (Ire) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}) in the Juvenile Turf Sprint. Godolphin's other runners to strike at the top level included Speaker's Corner (Street Sense), Santin (Medaglia d'Oro), Matareya (Pioneerof the Nile), Eclipse finalist Nation's Pride (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), Mysterious Night (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) and Proxy (Tapit).

Horses bred by Godolphin struck at 17% in 2022 and their earnings of $18.6 million was nearly $1 million superior to second-placed Calumet Farm, who products made more than four times the starts as Godolphin. Horses bred by Stonestreet earned just over $13 million, the only other operation with eight-figure purses.

–Alan Carasso

The post Godolphin LLC Scores Eclipse Double in Breeder and Owner Categories appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Wonder Wheel and Forte Collect 2-Year-Old Eclipse Awards

Breeders' Cup Juvenile races produced both the 2-year-old filly and colt champions, with Wonder Wheel taking the filly statue and Forte leading the colts.

WONDER WHEEL
Each spring, as most trainers get their promising 2-year-olds ready to begin their careers, invariably one or two (or maybe more, depending on the conditioner) of these youngsters stand out. And just as invariably, these trainers hold their breath and cross everything they can cross to help ensure everything goes right enough that the end result–a Breeders' Cup win–produces the ultimate result–the Eclipse Award.

For Hall of Fame conditioner Mark Casse, Wonder Wheel was that horse in 2022. Some trainers cautiously follow the old idiom of playing cards close to their vest, but not Casse. Nobody didn't know how he felt about Wonder Wheel early on.

“This summer I was saying she's my next Classic Empire,” Casse said, comparing the daughter of Into Mischief to his 2016 juvenile champion. “And where I was putting her, why I was putting her in that category was he won our first 2-year-old Breeders' Cup. And I thought that she was that good. I told anybody who would listen.”

With one notable exception, Wonder Wheel turned in a classic championship-style season which garnered her two Grade I wins.

After breaking her maiden at first asking back in June, her first foray into stakes company produced a 6 3/4-length win in the Listed Debutante S. at Churchill Downs on Independence Day. That dominant performance earned her a spot in the GI Spinaway S. gate at Saratoga two months later and, though it wasn't the smoothest of trips for the filly that day–some would say she ran “greenly”–she still managed a decent runner-up finish to fellow Eclipse Award finalist Leave No Trace (Outwork).

She was a 4-1 lukewarm favorite in the GI Darley Aclibiades S. at Keeneland Oct. 7 in her next start and had to work for it, barely holding off the highly regarded Chop Chop (City of Light) by a diminishing nose in that wire-to-wire performance. And by the time those two met again in the Breeders' Cup, she was a 6-1 fourth choice while her Alcibiades runner-up carried favoritism.

And in a somewhat surprising move that day, Wonder Wheel wasn't anywhere near her preferred spot as the leader or among them, she was in front of just two rivals in the early going. In an effort expected from older runners rather than lightly raced 2-year-olds, the bay filly saved ground in the early going, quietly gained on her rivals on the turn, snuck through the narrowest of gaps at the quarter pole, took advantage with an eighth left to run and stormed home to win by three lengths.

“Two-year-olds can't do what she did. It's just very difficult to come from out of it,” Casse said. “She, on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being absolute class, she's a 10.”

Wonder Wheel is owned by Len and Lois Green's D J Stables, which also campaigned 2018 Breeders' Cup Juvenile fillies winner Jaywalk (Cross Traffic) in partnership with Cash Is King Stable. Len Green is a CPA and lecturer at Babson College and a graduate of the Harvard Business School. He regularly writes and lectures on financial issues affecting horse owners. He is undoubtedly an expert on profits and losses, rewards and risks. The next big risk for Wonder Wheel could perhaps be taking on the boys in the GI Kentucky Derby.

“I'm sure we'll be nominating,” Casse said.

Wonder Wheel was given a couple months off over the winter and has been back to work at Casse's Florida training center, with a 2023 debut yet to be determined.

-Margaret Ransom

FORTE
He may not have been the most expensive of the 43 yearlings Mike Repole and Vinnie Viola bought out of the 2021 Keeneland September sale when the hammer fell at $110,000 that day, but Forte certainly can claim the title of most successful when he capped off an impressive year by collecting the Eclipse Award trophy as the best 2-year-old colt or gelding of 2022.

Much has been made of the colt's name, which means “strong” in Italian and follows the Italian-themed pattern of names for other top Repole/St. Elias runners, like champion and 2019 GI Breeders' Cup Classic hero Vino Rosso (Curlin). But another meaning says the word denotes, “something in which one excels; a peculiar talent or faculty; a strong point or side; chief excellence.” Not much to argue against that meaning, either, where Forte is concerned.

Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher, who conditioned 2010 champion juvenile Uncle Mo for Repole and also Forte's sire, selected the colt for one primary reason.

“He looks like Violence,” Repole said.

Forte was the 1-5 favorite in his debut at Belmont Park May 27 off some incredible works and backstretch buzz, and he ran to his odds, dominating his opponents by 7 3/4 lengths to earn the 'TDN Rising Star' moniker. He also justifiably earned his position as a leading force to be reckoned with in the 2-year-old stakes ranks on the East Coast. For a little while, anyway.

As is more common than not with growing and maturing juveniles, that rolling boil of excitement cooled to a simmer when he turned in an unexpected and well-beaten fourth-place finish as the favorite in his stakes debut in the GIII Sanford S. at Saratoga July 16. His connections offered no excuses and continued to look ahead, the year-end goal of the Breeders' Cup always within their crosshairs.

Finding some added distance and a wet track to his liking for his next start, as well as no pressure as the near 7-1 fourth choice, was all he needed to put in a three-length romp in the sloppy GI Hopeful S. and return to the rank as the best 2-year-old based in New York.

While the logical and typical next move for the leading colt on the right coast as a last prep for the Breeders' Cup would have been the GI Champagne S. at Belmont Park, Forte's connections decided to call an audible since the Breeders' Cup would be held at Keeneland, choosing instead to use the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity as a springboard to the World Championships. Dismissed as the near 9-2 second choice, he rolled from way back to earn a neck win over 7-5 favorite Loggins (Ghostzapper).

Despite his impressive fall campaign of two Grade I wins, on Future Stars Friday, Forte was the 5-1 second choice to the highly regarded Bob Baffert-trained dual Grade I winner Cave Rock (Arrogate) at 2-5 when the gates sprung open. And just as it looked as though the win–as well as divisional honors–were slipping away as his chief rival led the field into the stretch, Forte found another gear and dug in, running down the favorite in deep stretch in a thrilling 1 1/2-length victory.

Forte turned in his first work as a 3-year-old, going an easy three furlongs at Palm Beach Downs Jan. 21. He is expected to make his 2023 bow in the GII Fountain of Youth S. at Gulfstream Park Mar. 4 and then use GI Florida Derby Apr. 1 or GII Toyota Blue Grass S. at Keeneland Apr. 8 as his final prep for the May 6 GI Kentucky Derby.

Early Impressions…
“I thought he was a gorgeous foal. I was really happy with him. I had had weanlings by Violence that I had pinhooked–I bought weanlings and sold yearlings–and I liked them, but they didn't really resemble the sire at all. So I was pleased to get a foal in Forte that looks a lot like Violence. He's a good blend of his sire and his dam.”
-Amy Moore, South Gate Farm Owner and Founder

–-Margaret Ransom

The post Wonder Wheel and Forte Collect 2-Year-Old Eclipse Awards appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post