Tag: Arcangelo

The Week In Review: The Legend Of ‘Red’-Trainer Saddles Winner At Age 96

Trainer Robert “Red” McKenzie doesn't get much ink south of the border here in the States, but he is a living legend on the western Canada racing circuit. With practically zero fanfare or notice, McKenzie added to his impressive list of lifetime accomplishments Friday night when he saddled Entitled Star (Roi Charmant), a 10-year-old mare he owns, to a 25-1 upset victory in a $4,000 claimer in the second race at Century Mile in Edmonton.

The win was significant because McKenzie is 96 years old.

The feat could very well be a record in Canada. It's shy, however, of what is anecdotally credited as the North American record for oldest trainer to win a Thoroughbred race. That honor goes to Jerry Bozzo, who saddled a winner on Oct. 11, 2018, at Gulfstream Park West, just two weeks before his 98th birthday. Bozzo died one month after winning that final race.

The prior record belonged to trainer Noble Threewitt, who visited the Santa Anita winner's circle about two months after celebrating his 95th birthday in 2006. He died in 2010 at age 99.

Entitled Star, who sports a robust 13-for-80 lifetime mark, was ridden by apprentice jockey Meagan Fraser. The two have a connection: Entitled Star was responsible for giving Fraser her first career win last September at Century Mile.

McKenzie has started two horses for a combined five starts this year, and the victory was his first of the season. Equibase credits him with 623 lifetime victories, but that database only goes back to 1976, when McKenzie was closing in on age 50 and already had four successful decades of horsemanship under his belt. Numerous published reports credit him with at least 1,000 more victories dating back to the 1940s.

An October 2022 profile by Curtis Stock in Canadian Thoroughbred noted that McKenzie is up at 5:30 a.m. every morning and “still pedals his bicycle around the Century Mile backstretch, acting like a guy half his age.”

McKenzie started getting on horses in 1937 at age 10 at an Edmonton riding academy. By 13 he had his first bush-track mounts on what was then known as western Canada's long-since-defunct “B” circuit of small-town half-milers and county fairs. By 17, he was the B circuit's leading jockey with 87 victories, scoring in stakes like the Red Deer Derby (twice) and Rimbey Derby.

With a knack for winning races in bunches while tacking just 93 pounds, McKenzie soon graduated to the “A” tracks of the old Western Canada Association. But young Red's body began sprouting faster than his career, and he outgrew riding after 300 wins as a jockey. Not wanting to go through the rigors of reducing, he turned to training, which he had already begun learning to do long before he got his license.

McKenzie cultivated a winning touch with everything from 2-year-olds to older horses, from claimers to stakes, gaining an advantage by shoeing his own trainees. Over the decades he won the Canadian, Saskatchewan, and Alberta Derbies, and although he sometimes ventured to the higher-profile Toronto tracks or occasionally to Northern California or New York with the right horse, western Canada was his home. His best horse was Grandin Park, an Alberta-bred who campaigned from 1972 through 1980, amassing a 29-17-14 record from 116 starts.

TDN could not reach McKenzie prior to deadline for this story to ask his thoughts on winning a race at age 96.

But 15 years ago, when McKenzie was 81, he told Horse Racing Alberta in a video interview, “Age is just a number. If you've got nothin' to do, you'll get old awful fast. Horses can keep you young, I think.”

Geaux Rocket Ride | Benoit Photo

On the western horizon…

With the reported injury to Two Phil's (Hard Spun), let's not forget the talent in the sophomore division currently parked out west. Three horses who had to be withdrawn from Kentucky Derby consideration because of fevers earlier in the spring are at various stages in getting back on track.

Geaux Rocket Ride (Candy Ride {Arg}) won the Affirmed S. at Santa Anita back on June 4. He's being aimed for the Haskell.

Skinner (Curlin), who was third in the GI Santa Anita Derby, will reportedly contest the July 8 Los Alamitos Derby.

Practical Move (Practical Joke), who beat both Geaux Rocket Ride and Skinner at Santa Anita, has yet to post a published workout since being scratched two days before the Derby.

There's also early-season phenom and 2-for-2 'TDN Rising Star' Arabian Knight (Uncle Mo), who is unraced since winning the Jan. 28 GIII Southwest S. He also appears Haskell-bound, with five published works since May 29 at Santa Anita, the last two of them bullet moves.

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The Week in Review: A Belmont Stakes at Saratoga and How to Make it Work

Just a few days after the running of this year's GI Belmont S., the final leg of the Triple Crown was back in the news. With the Belmont grandstand set to be torn down after the 2024 spring meet and with the new stands not expected to be ready until 2026, the 2025 Belmont S. will likely need a home. And after hinting that the race could be run in Saratoga, the New York Racing Association was more specific when the topic was addressed early last week. When asked by the TDN about plans for the race in 2025, NYRA's Vice President of Communications Pat McKenna had this to say: “Should the construction of a new Belmont Park require the Belmont S. to be run at a different venue, then NYRA's preference would absolutely be to hold the event at Saratoga Race Course.”

Why wouldn't it be? Running the race at Belmont amid a massive construction project won't work and neither will running it at Aqueduct. The Big A lost thousands of seats when the casino replaced a large portion of the grandstand and the place isn't, well, very nice.

So, get ready for a Belmont at Saratoga. But there is one major issue that needs to be addressed and that's the distance of the race. Traditionalists will want it to be contested at 1 1/2 miles, but that won't work. Equibase's list of Saratoga track records does not include one for a 1 1/2-mile race, which probably means there has never been a 12-furlong dirt race run there. It's easy to see why. The race would have to start at the three-eighths pole, which is at the entrance to the far turn. Especially if there is a large field, anyone drawing to the outside would be at a disadvantage, something you don't want in any race, let alone a Triple Crown race.

The only answer is to run it at a 1 1/4 miles. Think of it as a necessary adjustment, just like what happened in 2020 when the pandemic played havoc with the Triple Crown schedule and led NYRA to card the Belmont at a one-turn 1 1/8 miles.

As for the schedule, the smartest thing to do would be to start what would normally be the spring Belmont meet at Aqueduct. Belmont week at Saratoga would start on Thursday, June 5, the race would be held on Saturday, June 7 and the four-day mini-meet would end with a card on the following day. The meet could then return to Aqueduct before the regular Saratoga meet got underway.

Combining Saratoga's popularity, the importance of the Belmont S. and the uniqueness of holding the race at the mecca of Thoroughbred racing can only mean that a 2025 Belmont at Saratoga would be a smashing success and one of the most memorable Belmonts of all time.

“A Belmont S. at Saratoga is an event that would capture the attention of the entire sports world while driving tourism and economic impact for upstate New York,” McKenna said.

Doing so would mark for the second time in the modern era that the race was not run at Belmont Park. While the current Belmont grandstand was being constructed, the race was run at Aqueduct from 1963 through 1967. Here's a look at the 1963 Belmont, won by Chateaugay. In 1964, the race was won by Quadrangle.

Aqueduct and Belmont have not been the only homes to the race. While the GI Kentucky Derby has only been run at Churchill Downs and the GI Preakness S. has only been run at Pimlico, the Belmont has had four homes. It was first run in 1867 at Jerome Park, where it remained until moving to Morris Park in 1890. The race was first run at Belmont Park in 1905. Fifty-eight years later, it was moved to Aqueduct.

Thank You, Jena

This industry could not have asked for a better ambassador than Jena Antonucci, a role the trainer was thrust into after winning the Belmont with Arcangelo (Arrogate). Her story was just what a beleaguered sport needed after deaths and breakdowns dominated the news cycles through the first two rounds of the Triple Crown. Even on a day when there was another fatality, in the race run after the Belmont, the mainstream media couldn't get enough of the articulate plucky female trainer with the indefatigable spirit. She was the story Belmont day, and not all the bad news that had been hovering over the game.

Not everyone would have been comfortable with being turned into being a media darling the way she was, but Antonucci embraced it. She could have just gone about her business after the race, but, instead, honored every request from the media, knowing it was an opportunity for someone to convey a positive message about the sport to a large audience. The demands were so intense that she had to call in the NTRA to help her coordinate her schedule. Over a three-day period last week, Antonucci did 12 interviews, including one for Fox News. She was also the Green Group Guest of the Week on last week's TDN Writers' Room podcast.

Now, will the sport pay her back? It's great to have an Arcangelo in the barn, but the fact remains that Antonucci has a relatively small stable that has but one star. Aside from Arcangelo, she's had just one other graded stakes winner during her career. She won the 2016 GIII Turf Monster S. at Parx with Doctor J Dub (Sharp Humor).

How about some of the sport's major owners, ones who have dozens of horses and flock to the super trainers, give her a chance. There are so many trainers out there just like her, ones that are perfectly capable but have problems getting ahead because no one is willing to give them an opportunity. You don't have to have all 100 of your horses with Todd Pletcher, Chad Brown, Bob Baffert, et. al. Isn't there room to give five to Antonucci? She certainly deserves it.

HIWU Versus the Old Way of Doing Things

On June 11, the New York Gaming Commission posted a ruling on its website regarding a positive test for phenylbutazone in a horse trained by Todd Pletcher. Better late than never, I suppose, the alleged offense took place on July 30, 2022 at Saratoga. It was posted 316 days after the race occurred. It was pretty much the same story in the matter of Forte (Violence) testing positive for a banned substance following his win the 2022 GI Hopeful S., run on Sept. 5. That offense was made public on May 11.

How can it possibly take that long for a violation to be reported? Whatever the answer is, and there hasn't been a good one out of the Gaming Commission, it speaks to how dysfunctional the game has been when it comes to violations. It also tells you that there is a glaring lack of transparency.

Thankfully, that has changed. The Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU), an arm of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, took over, in most states, the process of drug testing and handing out penalties on May 22. Already, we are seeing that things are different under this body.

HIWU has posted three rulings on its website under the category of “pending violations.” Two involve the use of Levothyroxine. The third, a ruling against trainer Mario Dominguez, involves the use of cobalt. All of the rulings were posted within three weeks of the alleged offenses. In the case of Dominguez, his horse, Petulant Delight (First Dude), tested positive for cobalt after winning a May 24 race at Parx. Just 15 days later, the violation was made public on the HIWU website.

These people mean business. Good for them.

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Jena Antonucci Joins the TDN Writers’ Room

Prior to the running of the GI Belmont S., Jena Antonucci was hardly a household name, even within racing circles. Not anymore. The win she pulled off with Arcangelo (Arrogate) in the Belmont and the story it involved, a female trainer with a small stable and her $35,000 yearling creating history at Belmont Park, has energized an industry that was desperate for some good news.

How did she do it and what did the win mean to her? Those were among the questions we asked her when Antonucci joined the team for this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland. Antonucci was the Green Group Guest of the Week.

So far as why her story has been such a popular one, Antonucci believes people relate to someone who keeps going in the face of adversity.

“There have been opportunities that I have wanted or that I have been asking for and the answers were no. And no is two letters,” she said. “It doesn't define where you're going and what you're doing. It's a no right now, but it may be a yes later. So handle yourself appropriately. But if you're not happy with what's happening in your space, don't be a victim to that. It's up to you to take ownership of that and to pivot.”

 

It remains to be seen if the Belmont win will change the course of Antonucci's career and improve the type of horses she gets to train. Whether it does or not, the trainer said she will keep doing things the way she has always done them, focusing on surrounding herself with quality people and doing her best by the horses.

“My focus is to deal with good people,” she said. “When you deal with good people, good things will happen and our focus will never change with that. As for the horses, we're going to do our best to steward the best possible outcomes for the horses that come into our hands. That's always been a core foundation of who I am as a person. I've said it from day one–I'll never train a million horses, but any horse that comes through our hands, we're going to do our absolute best to make responsible decisions and steward the best possible outcomes we can no matter what those outcomes are.”

Antonucci has been on a whirlwind media tour since the Belmont and has been an ambassador for the sport. What is the message she wants to convey about racing?

“That it's amazing and it's full of amazing people,” she said. “I'll talk about the taboo topic and I don't have a problem talking about it. It's breakdowns and fatalities. I very clearly understand that the general public views our industry as [if] we're profiting from horses and we're killing them. That's the thread that we are all trying to navigate and do better with. So if we aren't telling our story and if we aren't sharing with people how we're doing better, whether you want to lean into HISA or not, we have to. We have to and we are. We are doing better and we will continue to do better. It's about setting realistic expectations and educating people on what amazing things happen and what amazing lives these horses have and how much they enrich life for so many people.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders, 1/st Racing, WinStar Farm, XBTV, Lane's End and West Point Thoroughbreds, the team of Bill Finley, Randy Moss and Zoe Cadman reviewed the Belmont and the races on the Belmont undercard and delved into the recent developments involving Linda Rice and Kent Desormeaux.

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Born for the Task: Five Pedigree Takeaways From Belmont Weekend

With a new cycle of yearling sales nearly upon us, nearly everyone will once again be deciding where they are most prepared to compromise. Would you prefer an athlete low on pedigree, or will you trust the genes to come through even if you're not wowed by the specimen in front of you?

Well, there's no mistaking which strategy is recommended by the story of the GI Belmont S. winner. Though from one of America's most aristocratic families, Arcangelo (Arrogate) lurked in the September Sale as Hip 1182 and was picked out of the Gainesway consignment by Jon Ebbert of Blue Rose Farm for just $35,000.

Apparently the colt had several of those familiar issues liable to keep a horse off shortlists. He was on the small side, immature. There was that ever-divisive quibble, a touch of sesamoiditis. He was a ridgling. And of course his sire had deceased, which the market tends to view as a discourtesy surpassed only by export to Turkey or Peru. Worse yet, Arrogate had only notched his first winner the week before the sale. The unraced dam, meanwhile, had made a poor start to her breeding career.

The pinhookers were out of the game, then, but Ebbert saw that a little patience might yet draw out genetic potential way in advance of the colt's cost. After all, Don Alberto Corporation had given as much as $2.85 million for his dam Modeling (Tapit), whose own racing career had been written off so early that her previous owners had her covered as a 2-year-old.

That's not to everyone's taste, it has to be said, and nor did the Distorted Humor colt she was carrying (result of that maiden cover) when acquired by Don Alberto at the 2014 Keeneland November Sale contribute a great deal as the only starter listed on her fifth foal's catalogue page. (He did win a maiden, but ended up beaten under a $12,500 tag at Belterra.)

But the rest of that page was simply spectacular. Modeling's dam was a Storm Cat half-sister to consecutive Belmont winners, Jazil (Seeking The Gold) and Rags To Riches (A.P. Indy), out of the broodmare legend Better Than Honour (Deputy Minister). And don't forget that the Japanese-trained Casino Drive (Mineshaft) might well have made it three in a row, judged on his impressive reconnaissance in the GII Peter Pan S., but for the injury that kept him out of “Big Brown's” Belmont.

Arcangelo, given due time by Ebbert and trainer Jena Antonucci, came to notice in that same race-and very aptly so. The Peter Pan, positioned between the first two legs of the Triple Crown as a latecomers' springboard to the third, is named for the champion sophomore of 1907. He missed the Derby and Preakness before winning the Belmont, and Arcangelo's revelatory performance last Saturday makes it quite feasible to aspire to the same laurels himself. His lamented sire, after all, was himself a late developer who picked up the pieces of the Triple Crown horses in the GI Travers S. Indeed, Arrogate only broke his maiden the week before the Belmont.

Those to have previously set up their Belmont wins in the Peter Pan include A.P. Indy, whose grandson Tapit this time enhanced his astonishing impact on the most grueling test of an American Thoroughbred in the guise of a broodmare sire. Besides the two starters sired by Tapit himself, Arcangelo was among four of the remaining seven to have been delivered by one of his daughters.
With Tapit as damsire and Better Than Honour as third dam, then, Arcangelo was born for the Belmont. And both sides of his pedigree virtually guarantee continued progress from here.

The dynasty spreading beneath Better Than Honour's granddam Best In Show (Traffic Judge) is too large and familiar to be condensed here, but it's worth reminding ourselves that it features a young stallion very closely related to Arcangelo's dam. By Tapit out of Modeling's half-sister by Street Cry, and far more talented than his final record suggests, Greatest Honour will surely have been in strong demand at just $7,500 during his debut season at Spendthrift.

Arrogate, meanwhile, is now launching his final juveniles. Having now produced Classic winners from both his first two crops, he has clearly demonstrated a genetic legacy worth preserving from his tragically confined opportunity. Cave Rock has disappeared from the radar for now but would have commercial mileage at stud, as a dual Grade I winner at two. But Arrogate's legacy might yet prove no less secure with a son who was not only among his cheapest yearlings, but among the very best-bred.

Curlin Cuts a Dash

Cody's Wish | Sarah K. Andrew

Another daughter of Tapit to be celebrated in New York on Saturday was Dance Card, dam of the brilliant GI Met Mile winner Cody's Wish (Curlin). She was a pretty fast horse by the standards of a stallion who has so dominated the Belmont Stakes, having started out as a $750,000 2-year-old and finished with a length defeat in the GI Filly & Mare Sprint at the Breeders' Cup. Her own mother was by a Belmont winner, however, and on paper it might seem baffling that his seasoned connections should be so hesitant to stretch out a son of Curlin with first two dams by Tapit and Editor's Note. Apparently a ninth furlong in the GI Whitney will at least be discussed, but speed is plainly considered his forte-just as it is, still more obviously, in another son of Curlin resident in the same barn.

Elite Power, too, extended his winning streak in the GII True North S. on Saturday, replicating their double score at the Breeders' Cup last fall. On that occasion, the Curlin procession also featured Malathaat in the GI Distaff, and this time her role was filled by Clairiere in the GI Ogden Phipps S. Another famous day, then, for a stallion who reiterates the most wholesome of hallmarks in the robust consistency of Cody's Wish and Elite Power, now on a roll of six and seven wins respectively. But this pair, while typically thriving with maturity, can also make us stop and think afresh about the Hill 'n' Dale patriarch, even at 19.

Elite Power's dam Broadway's Alibi represents a different line of Seattle Slew from the one that gave us Dance Card, as she is by his son Vindication. Again, on paper, you might expect a son of Curlin out of GI Kentucky Oaks runner-up by Vindication (albeit Broadway's Alibi also won the GII Forward Gal over 7f) to relish a second turn-much as Exaggerator did, as a son of Curlin out of a stakes-placed sprinter by Vindication. Okay, so it's a sharp family in behind: the dam of Broadway's Alibi was an Astoria S.-winning half-sister by Seeking The Gold to Dialed In (Mineshaft), out of a daughter of juvenile champion filly Eliza (Mt. Livermore). Nonetheless it does feel striking that Bill Mott is talking about his two Curlin dashers respectively stepping up and down in trip to meet over seven furlongs in the GI Forego S.

It just goes to show how different strands of pedigree come through in different horses. If you identified Stallion X as having Mr. Prospector as a grandsire and Deputy Minister as damsire, you'd be perfectly comfortable with the idea that he could pass on a ton of speed. The intrusion of Smart Strike, whose diverse portfolio included several that matched Curlin in thriving round two turns with maturity, has set a tone for much of Curlin's best stock. But that won't stop other flavors filtering through.

And if you'll permit an Englishman the observation, it doesn't help us that so much American blood tends to have been tested over such a narrow span of distance. How many of the names in Curlin's third and fourth generations, all indigenous and largely operating in a standard window, might have been at the limit of their fuel? Is the forgotten sire of Curlin's third dam, Wise Exchange, smuggling through more speed or stamina?

In broader terms, Curlin's dashers remind us that horses are made of flesh and blood, not software data. That being so, we should surely breed for balance and depth of quality, rather than seek some alchemy between a couple of coarsely interpreted sire brands (Curlin x Tapit; Curlin x Vindication). That way, it won't really matter which genetic ingredients end up coming through-it'll all be good stuff.

Lion Runs Up the Ensign for Justify

Arabian LIon | Sarah K. Andrew

It was his unusual precocity, by the standards of Curlin, that always set Good Magic apart. Happily, his stock is also emulating his own consolidation at three, and a Derby winner and a Preakness runner-up have helped him carry forward the fight after he narrowly lost out to Bolt d'Oro in that remarkable contest for the freshman title last year.

It's important for the other protagonists to hang in there, then, and Arabian Lion duly has the look of a very important horse for his sire.
Justify's breakout Grade I scorer in the Woody Stephens S. continues an exciting June for Arabian Lion's breeders at Bonne Chance Farm, who watched in amazement as another farm graduate, King Of Steel (Wootton Bassett {GB}), broke clear of the pack in the Epsom Derby on his first start in 224 days, only run down late by the winner.

Arabian Lion amply repaid Justify's opening $150,000 fee as a $600,000 OBS April purchase, by Zedan Racing from Hidden Brook. In turn, he brings a pedigree that would make that look a bargain, too, if he can keep progressing to a place at stud. His third dam is none other than Personal Ensign, who founded a dynasty commensurate with her elite racetrack status-starting with three Grade I winners among her own foals (plus a fourth beaten a nose in the Carter H.).

As it happens, Arabian Lion is out of a full-sister to the dam of Major Dude, whose recent GII Penn Mile success topped up his status as leading contributor to the coffers of Bolt d'Oro this term.

Bolt d'Oro has so far had four stakes winners this year (101 starters, earnings to date of $3.1 million), one more than Good Magic (who is certainly making his punches land where they count most, with 83 starters banking $4.8 million) and two more than Justify (85 starters, $2.1 million). As last year, however, we again need to congratulate Army Mule, who has also had four stakes winners and tipped $2 million from just 61 starters (just cents behind Mendelssohn, from as many as 110 starters).

Veterans Strike Gold

Gold Sweep | Sarah K. Andrew

Some people were doubtless a little irritated by my choice of a 25-year-old stallion standing at $80,000 for gold on our “value podium” among proven sires last winter; and no doubt those supervising the evening of his career at WinStar will have managed his book with all due sensitivity to his age. But Speightstown appears to have produced yet another brilliant talent in Gold Sweep, nine-length winner of the Tremont S. at Belmont on Sunday.

Bred in Kentucky by Joe Anzalone, Gold Sweep will get some iron out of his dam, who's by Giant's Causeway out of Canadian champion Ginger Brew (Milwaukee Brew). That makes him inbred 3 x 3 to Storm Cat, who gave us Speightstown's dam Silken Doll as well as Giant's Causeway.

Having learned plenty when missing by a neck on debut at Churchill, Gold Sweep looked worth every cent of the $285,000 he cost Mike McCarty from Indian Creek at Saratoga last summer. He smashed the time for the equivalent filly stakes earlier on the card, by over three seconds, and duly wears a 90 Beyer on his chest going into his next battle.

The disappointment of the race was Vitement, who bombed out after his debut success had promised to reward his breeders for their perseverance in using Speightstown's admirable contemporary, Mizzen Mast. The Juddmonte stalwart was pensioned after producing a single live foal from a few covers in 2021, leaving Vitement as one of 11 current juveniles with the chance to draw out the priceless genes of a son of Cozzene out of a Graustark mare.

With that compression to past glories in mind-the sire of Mizzen Mast's fourth dam was born before the First World War!-you could argue that Caravel was well bought at $500,000 at Fasig-Tipton in November 2021, simply as a breeding prospect. She was already a graded stakes winner, back then, but now she has supplemented her Breeders' Cup success last autumn with the GI Jaipur S.
Mizzen Mast has duly reserved some of his very best material for late in the piece, and maybe Speightstown, having lately given us Charlatan and Olympiad, is going to keep doing the same with Gold Sweep.

Extra Interest for the Winchells

Pretty Mischievous | Sarah K. Andrew

A good weekend for Tapit mares (and Godolphin homebreds) was kicked off by Pretty Mischievous, albeit only just, in the GI Acorn S. on Friday. That helped Into Mischief to a new landmark of $150 million in earnings, and also keeps him on track for another successful defense of his crown as champion stallion.

Away from Belmont, moreover, the Spendthrift phenomenon also showcased a rising force among the sophomores when Extra Anejo blew away his allowance rivals at Ellis Park on Saturday. This colt cost Winchell Thoroughbreds $1.35 million from Mt. Brilliant Farm (co-breeder with Orrin H. Ingram) at Keeneland in September 2021, and you could see why in his spectacular debut at the adjacent racetrack last fall. Unfortunately he was then sidelined by a minor injury, and while he did run at Churchill on the first Saturday in May, it was only in an optional allowance. He ran well there, just unable to reel in a sprinter, but this was something else again and he looks ready to make up for lost time.

Like Good Magic, Extra Anejo is out of a Hard Spun mare-and what an interesting mare she is. Superioritycomplex (Ire) brought 400,000gns from the ever astute Marette Farrell, on behalf of Mt. Brilliant, at the dispersal of the storied Ballymacoll Stud at Tattersalls in 2017. She had just finished a light career with a maiden win, but she was out of an unraced daughter of Galileo (Ire) and the Ballymacoll matriarch Hellenic (Ire) (Darshaan {GB}), dam of three Group 1 winners. So sending her to Into Mischief really was an attempt to combine the best of both worlds.

The second half of the campaign is looking pretty exciting for the Winchell family and their team, then, with their Derby fourth Disarm taking another step forward in a strong race for the GIII Matt Winn at Ellis Park on Sunday. Inevitably, given his breeders, that colt is by Gun Runner out of-you guessed it-a Tapit mare.

With nine graded stakes winners out of his daughters already this year, the Gainesway patriarch approaches serial new landmarks (he stands on 999 winners, 99 in graded stakes, for earnings of $198 million) from another fresh summit: the top of the broodmare sires' table.

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