Andie Biancone | Horse Racing Free Tips

‘This Is The Time’: Sole Volante Sharp In Five-Furlong Turf Breeze Ahead Of Kentucky Derby

Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and Andie Biancone's Sole Volante turned in a sharp five-furlong workout on turf Friday morning at Palm Meadows Training Facility in preparation for a scheduled start in the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby (G1).

The Patrick Biancone-trained son of Karakontie, who was ridden by jockey Luca Panici, was timed in 57.80 seconds, the fastest of four recorded at the distance on turf at Gulfstream Park's satellite training facility in Palm Beach County.

“He worked really well. We did a shorter work today to get a little speed into him,” said the trainer's daughter and assistant Andie Biancone. “He worked very well and came back great.”

Sole Volante is scheduled to ship to Churchill Downs Saturday at 6 p.m.

Sole Volante captured the Pulpit Stakes, in which he defeated Tampa Bay Derby (G2) winner King Guillermo on turf, and finished third in the Mucho Macho Man during Gulfstream's Championship Meet. He went on to win the Sam F. Davis (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs and finish second behind King Guillermo in the Tampa Bay Derby. He won a stakes-quality handicap at Gulfstream June 10 before sustaining his first out-of-the-money finish in the Belmont Stakes (G1).

Panici, who has worked closely with the Biancones in the development of Sole Volante, will ride in his first Kentucky Derby Saturday.

“I'm excited to be there. I'm thankful to the connections for giving me this opportunity with a good horse. I'm very, very happy to be a part of this team,” Panici said. “I'm very, very proud and proud of the people who work with me.”

The son of a jockey, Panici grew up playing soccer with Frankie Dettori across the street from the racetrack in Milan, Italy, Dettori, four years his senior, inspired Panici with his immediate success as a jockey at the age of 16, as well as the subsequent fame and fortune he earned in England and across the world. Panici went on to enjoy success while riding more than 500 winners in Italy, but racing in the U.S. first caught his attention in 1996, when he spent a winter in South Florida galloping for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott for free in exchange for one mount (fifth-place finisher Yokama in a Feb. 19, 1996 allowance at Gulfstream).

Panici, who returned to South Florida the following winter to gallop from trainer Gary Sciacca, moved permanently to the U.S. in 2009. He has won nearly 700 races in the U.S., none more important than Sole Volante's Sam F. Davis score that put him on the Triple Crown trail.

“When you work with a baby, you think always maybe they can take you to the Derby,” said the 46-year-old Panici, who will travel to Louisville following Sunday's Gulfstream program. “Finally, this is the time.”

Biancone also sent multiple graded-stakes winner Diamond Oops to the Palm Meadows turf course Friday morning to prepare for a start in the $250,000 Twin Spires Turf Sprint (G2) at Churchill Sept. 4. The 5-year-old son of Lookin At Lucky, who is Grade 1 stakes-placed on turf and dirt, was timed in 45.90 seconds, the fastest four-furlong turf work of 19 recorded.

Diamond Oops captured the seven-furlong Mr. Prospector (G3) before stretching out to finish a strong fourth in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) during Gulfstream's Championship Meet. He finished second in his first start back in a June 13 overnight handicap in his return off a layoff. Diamond Oops finished second back-to-back in last year's seven-furlong Alfred G. Vanderbilt (G1) at Saratoga and Shadwell Turf Mile (G1) at Keeneland before getting eliminated at the start of the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) at Santa Anita.

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Sole Volante Breezes On Grass In Advance Of Kentucky Derby

Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and Andie Biancone's Sole Volante breezed a mile Sunday morning on the turf at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream Park's satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, Florida, in preparation for a scheduled start in the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby (G1).

The Patrick Biancone-trained son of Karakontie was timed in 1:40 in his first breeze since finishing off the board in the June 20 Belmont Stakes (G1).

Sole Volante breezed in company, sitting off stablemate Shrewdness into the stretch before drawing clear without encouragement from Luca Panici.

“He worked really well,” said Andie Biancone, her father's assistant trainer. “He's doing great.”

Sole Volante captured the Pulpit Stakes, in which he defeated Tampa Bay Derby (G2) winner King Guillermo on turf, and finished third in the Mucho Macho Man at Gulfstream Park before capturing the Sam F. Davis (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs. He went on to finish second behind King Guillermo in the Tampa Bay Derby and win a stakes-quality allowance at Gulfstream before sustaining his first out-of-the-money finish in the Belmont.

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Belmont Stakes: Sole Volante ‘The Best He’s Ever Been’ Off 10-Day Turnaround

Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and Andie Biancone's Sole Volante will be coming off the shortest turnaround of any of the 10 contenders in Saturday's Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park, but his connections said having a prep race before starting the Triple Crown series provided a much-needed boost.

The ultra-consistent Sole Volante stalked the early speed and used his late-closing turn-of-foot to post a three-quarters of a length victory against allowance company at one mile on June 10 at Gulfstream Park. The victory netted the Karakontie gelding a 95 Beyer Speed Figure – exceeding 90 for a fourth consecutive race – and marked his first race in three months since running second to King Guillermo in the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby on March 7.

The Patrick Biancone trainee shipped to Belmont, where he alertly schooled in the paddock Wednesday mere hours before he drew post 2 and was listed as the 9-2 morning-line second choice behind 6-5 favorite Tiz the Law.

“He just came out of that allowance race so well and we did an open gallop with him on Monday,” said Andie Biancone, assistant trainer for her father in addition to being Sole Volante's co-owner. “We really waited for him to do the talking. He's behavior is great, and he came out of it so fresh and so happy and so well, we couldn't not go to this race.”

Sole Volante is 4-1-1 in six career starts. He began his career 2-for-2 on turf, including a win in the Pulpit in November at Gulfstream Park to cap his juvenile year. The elder Biancone moved him to dirt to commence his sophomore campaign and never looked back, with Sole Volante running third in the one-mile Mucho Macho Man before registering a 2 ½-length score in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis in February at Tampa Bay Downs, earning a personal-best 96 Beyer.

His come-from-behind running style was on full display in the 1 1/16-mile Tampa Bay Derby, where he was 11th at the half-mile mark before rallying second. With restrictions in place nation-wide to mitigate risk and combat the spread of COVID-19, Sole Volante continued to train in Palm Meadows, Florida awaiting his next start.

Andie Biancone said that next spot finally came last week. That victory at Gulfstream Park will now be used as a springboard to the 152nd running of the Belmont Stakes.

“We wanted to run him before the Belmont,” Andie Biancone said. “To go almost 100 days without a race, they're itching for it. They're athletes. Mentally, he wanted to do more. Once he got that race him, it was like he said, 'I'm all right, everything is OK.' They love to run. Mentally and physically, he's just perfect right now. We couldn't be happier.

“I think the rest did him well at the end of the day,” she added. “He's put on a lot of weight and grown. For any young horse, I think some time off can do them well. This situation hasn't been done before, but he came out of it well.”

This year's Belmont Stakes will be held at a one-turn 1 1/8 miles, marking the first time since 1925 the American Classic will not be held at its traditional 1 ½ miles. After posting wins at one mile and 1 1/16 miles, Biancone said the Kentucky-bred's late-closing speed could set up well down the stretch on Big Sandy.

“I think he's a closer. With a lot of speed in the race, hopefully he can sit back comfortably and pick his route from there,” she said. “Also, this is the best he's ever been right now, both fitness-wise and mentally.”

After making all six of his starts in Florida, Patrick Biancone said his charge shipped in well to New York and was getting comfortable in New York.

“So far, so good,” Patrick Biancone said. “He's very talented. He's been very good for us and trains his best all the time. We'll see how good he is Saturday. No question, Tiz the Law is the horse to beat, but he totally [deserves] this opportunity.”

Andie Biancone echoed that sentiment after riding Sole Volante under the sunshine in the Belmont paddock Wednesday.

“He was alert but not nervous,” she said. “I think that's something good to look for.”

Andie Biancone, a fourth-generation horsewoman, is the youngest of Biancone's four children. For her 22nd birthday last April, Patrick Biancone bought an interesting gift, purchasing the 2-year-old Sole Volante for $20,000. She now shares ownership with Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, headed by Dean and Patti Reeves, who campaigned Mucho Macho Man, who ran third in the 2011 Kentucky Derby and was the stable's only previous Belmont Stakes entrant, finishing seventh that year.

“When I first heard that Dean Reeves wanted to buy a part of Sole Volante, I was star-struck,” she said. “I was such a huge fan of Mucho Macho Man growing up. They are great ambassadors of the sport. To be partners with them is great. They are great people and great horsemen. His best interests is always with the horse. I admire that. They are fun to work with.”

If there's one thing New Yorkers appreciate, it's authentic Italian, and Andie Volante said in that spirit, the pronunciation of Sole Volante's name was authenticated by a stellar source: jockey Luca Panici, who was born in Milan and began his racing career in Italy before expanding into North America, where he's won more than 600 races multiple graded stakes, including the Sam F. Davis.

Sole Volante, Italian for “Flying Sun,” is a nod to his sire's name, with Karakontie Mohawk for “Flying Sun.”

As the exclusive broadcast partner of the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown, NBC Sports will present live coverage from Belmont Park on Belmont Stakes Day beginning at 2:45 p.m. Eastern.

Belmont Stakes Day June 20 will feature six graded races including four Grade 1 events led by the historic Belmont Stakes, which will offer 150-60-30-15 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the top-four finishers.

Rounding out the Grade 1 entertainment on Belmont Stakes Day are the $300,000 Acorn for 3-year-old fillies going one mile; the $250,000 Woody Stephens presented by Claiborne Farm, a seven-furlong sprint over Big Sandy for 3-year-olds; and the $250,000 Jaipur, presented by America's Best Racing, for 3-year-olds and up going six furlongs on turf, which offers a berth in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint. A pair of one-mile turf races for sophomores, previously contested at nine furlongs, completes a stakes-laden card with the Grade 2, $150,000 Pennine Ridge and the Grade 3, $150,000 Wonder Again for fillies.

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Reeves Confident in Belmont Contender Sole Volante

Dean and Patti Reeves, fourth with Tax (Arch) in last year’s GI Belmont S., will be represented in this year’s race by Sole Volante (Karakontie {Jpn}), who took the long route from Florida to New York Tuesday.

“He’s going by FedEx,” Dean Reeves said while the gelding was en route Tuesday. “Whatever kind of package, I guess they can do it. He had to go to Memphis and had a layover there and he should get into New York around 8 p.m. [Co-owner and assistant trainer] Andie [Biancone] is already up there, so she’ll be waiting on him when he gets to Belmont.”

Trainer Patrick Biancone purchased Sole Volante for $20,000 at the 2019 OBS April Sale and gave the bay to his daughter Andie as a birthday present. The gelding won his first two races, including the Nov. 30 Pulpit S., on the turf before hitting Reeves’s radar screen with a late-running third-place effort over the dirt in the Jan. 4 Mucho Macho Man S.

“I give credit for finding him to Jay Stone,” Reeves said. “He had watched the horse up there and he helps me a lot buying runners. He called me about the horse and he said this is really a turf horse, but he looked darn good in the Mucho Macho Man on the dirt. He was really closing on those horses. So we watched his back videos and I thought even if he doesn’t become a two-turn dirt horse, this will be a good horse on the turf because he has great closing kick. Jay set up a meeting and I met with Patrick for a couple of hours at Gulfstream Park and talked it through and we came up with a deal that worked for he and Andie. So that’s when we bought a majority interest in the horse.”

Sole Volante proved he was more than a turf horse when he won the Feb. 8 GIII Sam F. Davis S. in his first start for the Reeveses and he came back to prove he could be a bona fide Kentucky Derby contender with a runner-up effort behind King Guillermo (Uncle Mo) in the Mar. 7 GII Tampa Bay Derby. The form of that race was bolstered when King Guillermo returned to run second behind Nadal (Blame) in the May 2 GI Arkansas Derby.

“When we went to Tampa and he won that race, I really felt like this was going to be a nice horse,” Reeves said. “And even though we finished second, King Guillermo has turned out to be a heck of a runner himself. If he had gone to Arkansas and gotten beat by 20 lengths, then you’d rethink that some. But he ran big and he’s going to continue to run big. That’s a nice horse.”

With the reshuffling of Triple Crown races this year, connections decided to skip the trip to Arkansas with Sole Volante and chose to give the gelding some time off ahead of the extended Classic season.

“When we saw the Triple Crown races were going to be spread out all the way to October, we knew we would have to give him the time somewhere along the line,” Reeves said. “We took it at the start. So we skipped going to Arkansas and gave him the time, which has really helped him.”

That decision left Sole Volante potentially returning from a lengthy layoff to run in Saturday’s Belmont and, when rain forced a missed work, Biancone called an audible and started the bay in a Gulfstream Park allowance just a week ago. He came from last to first to win that one-mile race in a prep Reeves hopes sets him up for a trip to the Belmont winner’s circle.

“It had been over 100 days since he had raced, so we wanted to get him where he had to go through the motions. He had to go to the paddock, he had to get in the gate. He actually put up a good time and got a good Rag number and Beyer number. It couldn’t have worked out any better. If you wrote it up, that’s what you would have wanted to see from the horse.”

Reeves said Biancone has seen enough out of Sole Volante since last week’s race to take a tilt at this year’s first leg of the Triple Crown.

“After the race, we said we had 10 days to see how he was doing before we had to make a firm decision,” Reeves explained. “We started putting a plan together. We really left it up to the horse and we waited until the very last minute to see Monday how he galloped and Patrick said he was fabulous.”

The other option for Sole Volante would have been to wait for the July 11 GII Toyota Blue Grass S. at Keeneland, but with an eye towards the delayed Sept. 5 GI Kentucky Derby, connections decided to head to New York.

“We thought if we skipped the Belmont and pointed to the Blue Grass and then something happened, if he got a fever or a bruised foot, and for some reason you had to skip that, then you are squeezing the time getting to the Derby,” Reeves said. “We wanted to secure our points. We are 14 [on the Derby points board] now, but you never know another horse could come in and get a lot of points. We would feel a lot better if we had enough points and we didn’t have to worry about getting into the Derby. That was a little bit the reasoning going to Belmont. I think that will give us the opportunity to run in the [GI] Travers S. in August and that would set us up to run in the Derby. That’s our long-range plan.”

The 2020 Triple Crown will conclude with the Oct. 3 GI Preakness S., but for Reeves a Triple Crown win would be cause for celebration no matter the timing of the races or how the victor is judged by history.

“I’ll be glad to have an asterisk,” he said of a potential Triple Crown sweep in an unprecedented year. “I’ll have two or three, however many asterisks they want to give me. I’ll take all the asterisks they want to give me and be happy to win the Triple Crown.”

While Sole Volante carries his colors in Saturday’s Belmont, Reeves will be watching from afar as owners are still not permitted at the racetrack due to the ongoing pandemic.

“Us owners, we work our tails off to get to these races and when you finally get a horse that gets there and you have to stay home, it just kills you,” Reeves said. “But the worse side of it would be no race at all. So if that’s the best we can do, we understand everyone is under a lot of pressure and right now we just have to deal with it. We’re going to have a party [at home] and enjoy the day.”

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