Even that lavish investor in the yearling market, Mike Repole, won the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile with a homebred. Except for a couple of European turf juveniles, the rest of the show was a parade of champions raised by “end users”: a couple apiece for Godolphin and Juddmonte, plus one each for the programs operated by Coolmore, Cheveley Park Stud and George Krikorian.

Now, to be fair, they all reached that coveted winner's enclosure with the help of stallions beyond most pockets, with Curlin the most radiant example. And, besides, we're obviously peering through a narrow and fairly random window on the overall state of the game.

That said, if this meeting is where we all want to end up, it would be very hard to look at this sample and conclude that the commercial market is functioning very effectively.

That won't bother most people, so long as they can keep eking out some kind of profit from a fiendishly precarious trade. But perhaps it's a useful context to remind ourselves of the fundamental equilibrium on which the whole market depends: namely, that you need to retain sufficient mystery for the little guy still to have a chance; but values meanwhile have to stand up enough for the big investors to feel as though they can get some kind of edge. Put it another way: if the sale-topper won the Derby every year, the whole business would collapse overnight; but if a Rich Strike won every year, well, the whole business would collapse overnight.

Anyway, the point is that every now and then the industry needs a 'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) to come along and make sense of what, in his case, was the second highest price paid at an American yearling auction in 2022.

His first three dams are, respectively, a juvenile Grade I winner, a dual Grade I runner-up (also at two) and a Grade I sprint winner; and, as luck should have it, he belongs to the third crop of what has meanwhile proved the most phenomenal young sire of recent times. When you spend $2.3 million on a colt that has never had a saddle on his back, you're obviously wagering primarily on a potential stallion career. And, with those Twin Spires taking tangible shape on the horizon, the partners who placed this particular bet are still very much in the game.

Sierra Leone was bred by Debby M. Oxley from her homebred GI Darley Alcibiades S. winner Heavenly Love (Malibu Moon), whose dam Darling My Darling (Deputy Minister) had been bought by Oxley's husband John for $300,000 as a Keeneland September yearling in 1998.

Darling My Darling's own mother, GI Ballerina H. winner Roamin Rachel (Mining), was sold in the same ring that November, to Nobuo Tsunoda for $750,000–a price vindicated the following summer when Darling My Darling (her second foal) won on debut at Saratoga before consecutive runner-up finishes at Grade I level.

Roamin Rachel had been sold carrying a Storm Cat filly, who managed a single start, but has since produced three group winners in Japan; Roamin Rachel, for her part, was sent for her next cover to Sunday Silence, and came up with Japanese Horse of the Year Zenno Rob Roy (Jpn).

Heavenly Love's half-sister by Congrats, herself Grade II-placed, has meanwhile given the family tree additional Japanese luster through her son Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steel {Jpn}), who is about to try to give the family a second consecutive weekend in the sophomore spotlight in the G3 Saudi Derby.

Even without that later boon to his page, then, everything was in place for Sierra Leone on paper. Heavenly Love herself admittedly proved unable to build on her juvenile success, albeit she did manage third in the GIII Regret S.; while her first foal by Uncle Mo did little more than retrieve the covering fee. Sierra Leone must have been a very different physical proposition, then, to be topping the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale.

It had been prescient of his breeders, of course, to persevere with Gun Runner at precisely the point most commercial breeders back off from exposure by a stallion's first runners on the track. The Three Chimneys top gun would take the customary trim in fee the following year, from his opening $70,000 to $50,000, but his numbers held up throughout: 156 mares kept the faith in 2020, leaving Sierra Leone among 120 live foals in his third crop. These also include the fillies who consolidated another stellar weekend for their sire by finishing second and third in the GII Rachel Alexandra S. and first and second in the Sunland Park Oaks.

We have long since got over any surprise that Gun Runner's first crop should have been so precocious, making him not just champion freshman but leading sire of 2-year-olds, despite himself having thrived with maturity. As a result, however, fewer people remarked how his second crop actually made precisely the kind of tepid start that might have been readily indulged in their predecessors. In fact, as juveniles they didn't muster a single stakes success between them. Four, however, proceeded to win graded stakes as sophomores last year.

Gun Runner's third crop tilted the balance back the other way. Of 45 entering the gate as juveniles last year, four won graded stakes–including Locked, already his seventh Grade I winner and himself about to resume the Derby trail.

Sierra Leone missed becoming the crop's fifth juvenile graded winner by just a nose, in the GII Remsen S., but has now emulated his sire by winning the GII Risen Star S. off a layoff. Whether his focus was aided by blinkers, or he's simply becoming more professional with experience, he saw the race out rather better than when worried out of the Remsen, despite that wide sweep for home and runner-up Track Phantom (Quality Road) having controlled the tempo at his leisure.

Track Phantom had cost $500,000 at Keeneland September, where the third Catching Freedom (Constitution) was similarly found in Book 1, for $575,000. Given that Catching Freedom looked like a horse still learning his trade, this proved a race to give fresh credibility to the yearling market. Perhaps we don't have to tear up those catalogues just yet.

'Beach'-Combers Share Godolphin Success

As already acknowledged, breed-to-race programs are only so dominant because they tend to match their patienc–such a rare commodity in the commercial sector–with similarly uncommon financial resources. But they still need discipline, and the fatalism to accept that the culls essential even to the most lavish operations will occasionally convert years of work and expense into an overnight dividend for somebody else.

The Godolphin team's delight over the success of 'TDN Rising Star' Tarifa (Bernardini) in the GII Rachel Alexandra S. is presumably tempered somewhat by the fact that they sold her young dam Kite Beach (Awesome Again), carrying a full sister, just nine months after she had delivered this first foal. Mind you, a good deal more regret is doubtless being experienced by the people who bought Kite Beach at the Keeneland November Sale for $100,000, because just weeks later they “flipped” her for $115,000 at Fasig-Tipton February. That must feel like a pretty marginal gain now.

Ultimately Kite Beach was bought by Calumet, who sold Tarifa's sister at Fasig-Tipton last July for $105,000. While that sale nearly cleared their investment in one hit, congratulations must in turn go to purchaser Matthew Davis. Both he and Calumet, with their different stakes in her success, must be watching Tarifa's rise with due excitement.

Because for Kite Beach to produce a talent like this, at the first attempt, revives a rather dormant branch of an extremely famous family tree. She's a daughter of Tizdubai (Cee's Tizzy)–whose own mother Cee's Song (Seattle Song) must be counted one of the most remarkable producers of modern times.

Tizdubai was bought for Sheikh Mohammed as a weanling by John Ferguson for $950,000 at the 2001 Keeneland November Sale, a price that reflected her brother Tiznow's second consecutive success in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic just days previously. Cee's Song and Cee's Tizzy had already produced his brother Budroyale to finish second in that race, besides winning multiple graded stakes; and Tizdubai herself would duly proceed to win the GII Sorrento S.

Cee's Song was herself sold at the same November Sale as Tizdubai, for $2.6 million, inevitably in foal to Cee's Tizzy. The resulting filly, Tizamazing, never made the track but later produced Classic winner Oxbow. Unfortunately, the new owners of Cee's Song evidently decided that she was doing all this despite Cee's Tizzy, and not because of him, and instead favored her with serial $500,000 dates with Storm Cat.

These did not work out so well. Meanwhile another of the Song–Tizzy crew, Tizso, was sold for $625,000 despite an unproductive track career, and then produced Paynter to win the GI Haskell S. (Tizso also produced a couple of seven-figure yearlings so it was disappointing, shall we say, to see her sent into the ring at the age of 25 and sold for $62,000).

Tarifa | Hodges Photography

Both Paynter and Oxbow were by Awesome Again, and it was resorting to that ageing patriarch for Tizdubai's 2016 cover that produced Kite Beach. By then Tizdubai had come to seem a disappointing producer, despite serial elite covers.

Kite Beach did nothing to improve matters, being unraced, while her siblings that did make it to the racetrack showed little. One Shamardal filly did win on debut in England, but ended up struggling in a low grade and was sold for 45,000gns. Her son by Pioneerof the Nile is Cabo Spirit, latterly a dual graded stakes winner on turf in California, but Tizdubai's overall record as a producer makes it easy to understand why Kite Beach should have been culled.

But Awesome Again has served the Deputy Minister brand very well, as a broodmare sire; and of course Tarifa is by an outstanding such influence in Bernardini. So you'd have to be optimistic for Tarifa's prospects in her next career, as Mr. Davis can be about her sister.

Remarkable to see, meanwhile, that Calumet's first choice for Kite Beach was Paynter's son Knicks Go. The resulting colt, now a yearling, is inbred to an exceptional degree: his dam is by Awesome Again out of Tizdubai, and his grandsire is by Awesome Again out of Tizdubai's full sister Tizso. Plenty of egg in that pudding!

Patience Pays On Both Sides For Stronghold

As just noted, Awesome Again has contributed to a cluster of successful broodmare sires under Deputy Minister (himself sire of Sierra Leone's second dam). And among others to do so is his own son Ghostzapper, most conspicuously as damsire of Justify.

We have also credited Ghostzapper as one of those few sires to get a commercial yearling into the winner's circle at the last Breeders' Cup. So his prowess as a distaff influence must now augur well for the lady in question, Goodnight Olive, in her maiden cover by Not This Time (who sired Up to the Mark from a Ghostzapper mare).

Ghostzapper has now turned 24 but continues to rebuke the (largely self-fulfilling) mistrust among some breeders regarding older sires. Over the years he has also paid for a lack of precocity in his stock but nonetheless accounted for perhaps the most brilliant juvenile of last summer in Rhyme Schemes, unfortunately sidelined since.

Last weekend another member of the same crop, Stronghold, won the GIII Sunland Derby, the 100th worldwide stakes winner for Ghostzapper. Either way, how well he has steadied the ship after enduring some wild tides early in his stud career. Launched at $200,000 after one of the definitive speed-carrying displays of the modern breed, Ghostzapper was slashed from $125,000 to $30,000 (and soon $20,000) in one go after his first juveniles blew out. It was a long road back, but he fully merits a fee that has settled at $75,000, with career ratios that make him a very similar sire to Uncle Mo.

Stronghold himself is another of those homebreds to advertise the merit of playing the long game. Eric and Sharon Waller bought his fourth dam after she was a $12,000 RNA at Barretts in January 1998, and from her bred Swiss Diva (Swiss Yodeler) to win her first three starts including the California Breeders' Champion S. by eight lengths. Swiss Diva's first foal (a filly by Henny Hughes) was unable to race because of injury, but she would redress that misfortune as dam of Spectator (Jimmy Creed), winner of the GII Sorrento S. and twice Grade I-placed.

Spectator has now given the Wallers a run at the Derby with Stronghold, who managed to elude Bob Baffert in New Mexico and so elevated himself to fourth in the points board. He had previously counted the Risen Star runner-up and fourth among his pursuers when breaking his maiden over the Churchill surface.

Little Legacy Is On The Money

Marvin “Junior” Little was a man I would have loved to interview. He evidently knew plenty about the “real” world–never finished school, served in the Navy and was set for a factory job until a steel strike intervened–but proved a special talent when finding his way into our magical little one. Eventually he worked his way up to become manager of Newstead Farm, Virginia, until presiding over its $47-million dispersal in 1985. This was crowned by the homebred star Miss Oceana, in foal to Northern Dancer, at what was then a record price of $7 million.

Moving back to his native Kentucky, Little showed no less flair in managing his own, rather more modest program, which notably produced champion Hansel. And while he was sadly lost in 2017, his legacy of horsemanship endures through his children Marilyn, Jeff and Teresa. For they are listed as co-breeders with William Lynn of Money Supply (Practical Joke), who continued his transformation for Joe Sharp in the GIII Mineshaft S.

This horse achieved a good yield as a yearling, selling to Klaravich Stable for $400,000, but last summer he had reached a point where Chad Brown dropped him into a $32,000 claimer at Saratoga. For his new barn, Money Supply is now on a streak of five, reaching a new peak in a race that has lately drawn attention to others thriving with maturity in Olympiad and Maxfield.

As his original cost indicates, Money Supply was bred for this kind of caliber–even though co-breeder Lynn signed a docket of just $30,000 for his dam Evita's Sister (Candy Ride {Arg}) (in foal to the young Into Mischief) at the Keeneland November Sale of 2013. She owed her name to full-sister Evita Argentina, who had won the GI La Brea S., while their dam was out of an unraced half-sister to Trippi.

A few seams of gold there, then, for Practical Joke to be mining. Albeit aided by conspicuous volume, the Ashford sire is clinging to the slipstream of Gun Runner more tenaciously than the rest of their intake, earning a further hike to $65,000 this year. Money Supply is already his fourth stakes winner of the year, and watch out for another of them, the flying Skelly, in the desert this weekend.

A $5,000 Sire Showing Elite Potential

Having long recommended the horse, I make no apology for highlighting the fact that something really does seem to be afoot with Preservationist. Last weekend the Fair Grounds maiden winner Antiquarian, incidentally a $250,000 yearling off a $10,000 cover, became his ninth scorer since the turn of the year. Among second-crop sires, only Audible (12) has more–and they have respectively had 52 and 28 starters.

Preservationist had the commercial odds stacked against him, as a son of Arch who had won his Grade I at the age of six, but he has a sensational shape to his pedigree, posing fourth dam Too Chic opposite his sire's third dam Courtly Dee. Even so, only a farm as enlightened as Airdrie would have given him an opportunity, and his books have been on a predictable slide since he mustered 102 mares for his debut season.

So he had to make his one chance count, and he appears to be doing just that. An interesting template is In a Jam, who took as many as eight starts to break his maiden but posted a big number when doing so and again when following up in allowance company. It looks like people with the patience to let a horse gain a little maturity and experience are going to be very well rewarded, and they can now get to Preservationist for just $5,000.

He even has a filly on the Kentucky Oaks trail, with Martha Washington S. winner Band of Gold heading to the GIII Honeybee S. on Saturday. Her late breeder, Airdrie's founder Brereton C. Jones, was synonymous with that Classic. But he was also celebrated for producing top-class stallions somewhat out of left field–and perhaps we're already seeing that legacy being extremely well-“preserved.”

Band of Gold | Coady

The post Breeding Digest: High Stakes Paying Off With Sierra Leone appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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The Awesome Again highlights an Oct. 1 card that also includes the $200,000 GII Eddie D S.; the $200,000 GII John Henry S.; the $200,000 GII Santa Anita Sprint Championship; $200,000 GII City of Hope Mile; and the $85,000 Unzip Me S.

The Oct. 2 card features the $200,000 GII Zenyatta S.; $100,000 GIII Chillingworth S.; the $100,000 Speakeasy S.; the $100,000 Tokyo City Cup; and the $100,000 Senator Ken Maddy S.

The Golden State Juvenile and the Golden State Juvenile Fillies have had purses increased from $150,000 to $175,000, while the Unzip Me and the Anoakia S. have purses of $85,000, up from $75,000 last year. Additionally, two restricted stakes, the Swingtime S. and the Lure S., now offer purse money of $80,000, an increase of $10,000 each.

The post Santa Anita Autumn Meet to Offer 26 Stakes; Five ‘Win and You’re In’ Races appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Count Again was content to caboose the field early as 2-5 Smooth Like Strait was forced to stalk through splits of :22.54 and :45.58. The chalk blew the race apart on the turn, but Count Again immediately caught the eye in the scan for potential challengers. Having been guided out into the clear and already into second as noses pointed for home, Count Again's momentum could not be stopped as he took over at the eighth pole and built his advantage to 2 1/4 lengths at the line. Masteroffoxhounds (War Front) gave trainer Phil D'Amato the first and third finishers. The winner stopped the clock in a snappy 1:32.40.

“I just followed instructions,” said Ortiz. “Phil told me to let him do his thing and don't rush him. He has a big turn-of-foot. The horse was ready to run today, was ready to win.

“They went a little fast, but I wasn't too far [back]. Honestly, I was happy where I was with my horse. Most of the time, he comes from off the pace. I just wanted to be in contact with the field and when he put me right there in the first turn…I said, 'Why not', let him be there and he responded really well. When I went through horses at the quarter pole, Phil told me to make sure to keep him outside down the stretch. In the clear and that's what I did. When we were in the clear, I asked him and he took off.”

A Grade III winner over 10 panels at Woodbine in 2020 for his breeder Sam-Son Farm and trainer Gail Cox, Count Again was bought into by Agave Racing and transferred to D'Amato ahead of a last-to-first score in that November's GII Seabiscuit H. The gelding's form had been somewhat in and out since then, but he kicked off his 7-year-old season with a course-and-distance victory in the Feb. 5 GIII Thunder Road and doubled up in the GI Frank E. Kilroe Mile Mar. 5. Count Again was most recently sixth in a slow-paced running of Keeneland's GI Maker's Mark Mile Apr. 15, finishing one spot ahead of next-out GII Dinner Party S. winner Set Piece (GB) (Dansili {GB}). Smooth Like Strait was third that day after setting the pace.

“He was in great position today and turning for home, he had the leader measured,” D'Amato said. “He was sitting on a big race today. This puts him in a position to win the Breeders' Cup Mile in November.”

Monday, Santa Anita
SHOEMAKER MILE S.-GI, $500,500, Santa Anita, 5-30, 3yo/up, 1mT, 1:32.40, fm.
1–COUNT AGAIN, 126, g, 7, by Awesome Again
            1st Dam: Count to Three (SW & GSP, $398,651),
                                by Red Ransom
            2nd Dam: Countus In, by Dancing Count
            3rd Dam: Cloudy and Warm, by Cloudy Dawn
O-Agave Racing Stable & Sam-Son Farm; B-Sam-Son Farm
(ON); T-Philip D'Amato; J-Irad Ortiz, Jr. $300,000. Lifetime
Record: 17-7-1-4, $1,069,915. *1/2 to Ransom the Moon
(Malibu Moon), MGISW, $884,829. Werk Nick Rating: B+.
   Click for eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Smooth Like Strait, 124, h, 5, Midnight Lute–Smooth as
Usual, by Flower Alley. O/B-Cannon Thoroughbreds, LLC (KY);
T-Michael W. McCarthy. $100,000.
3–Masteroffoxhounds, 122, h, 5, War Front–Outstanding (Ire),
by Galileo (Ire). 1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. O-Rockingham Ranch;
B-Orpendale/Chelston/Wynatt (KY); T-Philip D'Amato.
$60,000.
Margins: 2 1/4, 3HF, 1. Odds: 2.50, 0.40, 6.30.
Also Ran: Heywoods Beach, Restrainedvengence, Dance Some Mo. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

Pedigree Notes:
Count Again's half-brother Ransom the Moon was purchased privately from Sam-Son by Mark Martinez's Agave Racing and Jeffry Wilke before going on to take back-to-back renewals of the GI Bing Crosby S. in 2017 and 2018 for D'Amato. The Calumet Farm resident has first 2-year-olds this season, with his top seller fetching $375,000 at the recently concluded Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale.

Count Again is one of 15 Grade I winners for the late fellow Ontario-bred Awesome Again. He has an unraced 3-year-old half-sister by Pioneerof the Nile who breezed a half-mile at Woodbine Sunday in :47.60 (190/87); and a Malibu Moon 2-year-old half-sister purchased for $30,000 at KEEJAN '22 by Shannondoe Farm. Count to Three was bred to Not This Time for 2022 but a foal has not yet been reported. Count Again's second dam won the GI Matriarch S. on this same circuit.

The post Count Again Locks Up BC Berth in Shoemaker appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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“It took him a little bit to get going, but once he did, he did well,” said winning rider Flavien Prat. “I had a good trip and it worked out well. He got himself into the race and the pace was pretty hot. I was traveling super well and I thought I was behind a good horse. I was able to track him all the way. Once I got to the outside, I was able to run him down.”

Count Again spent time in three prior barns while owned solely by his breeder Sam-Son Farm, taking the 2020 GIII Singspiel S. and finishing fourth in the GI Northern Dancer S. over longer trips for Gail Cox. Agave Racing Stable subsequently bought in, and Count Again shipped West to join the Phil D'Amato barn and immediately reward his new connections with a last-to-first score in Del Mar's GII Sea Biscuit H. He went winless in his next five outings, including in the Kilroe and when fourth amidst a tough bunch in Churchill's GI Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic S. on Derby Day, but broke through again last out after a freshening since August.

“He's just one of those dream kind of horses,” D'Amato said. “You know if you have dead aim at the top of the lane with him, he's going to give you his late kick pretty much every time. He's just a fresh happy horse now and Flavien fits him well.”

The conditioner added, “This is probably one of my favorite races growing up and I've had pretty decent luck winning this race [before in 2018], but this horse being a 7-year-old, he was just one of those horses knocking on the door for the Grade I and to get it done today…for him and [Agave's] Mark Martinez and Sam-Son Farms it means a lot.”

Saturday, Santa Anita
FRANK E. KILROE MILE S.-GI, $503,000, Santa Anita, 3-5, 4yo/up, 1mT, 1:33.24, fm.
1–COUNT AGAIN, 122, g, 7, by Awesome Again
1st Dam: Count to Three (SW & GSP, $398,651), by Red    Ransom
                2nd Dam: Countus In, by Dancing Count
                3rd Dam: Cloudy and Warm, by Cloudy Dawn
1ST GRADE I WIN. O-Agave Racing Stable and Sam-Son Farm;
B-Sam-Son Farm (ON); T-Philip D'Amato; J-Flavien Prat.
$300,000. Lifetime Record: MGSW, 15-6-1-4, $763,665. *1/2 to
Ransom the Moon (Malibu Moon), MGISW, $884,829. Werk
Nick Rating:B+.Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Space Traveller (GB), 120, h, 6, Bated Breath (GB)–Sky Crystal
(Ger), by Galileo (Ire). (85,000gns Ylg '17 TAOCT). O-Clipper
Logistics; B-El Catorce Partnership (GB); T-Brendan P. Walsh.
$100,000.
3–Subconscious, 122, g, 4, Tapit–Sweet Dreams, by Candy Ride
(Arg). 1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. ($380,000 Wlg '18 KEENOV). O-LNJ
Foxwoods; B-Buscar Stables, Inc. (KY); T-Richard E. Mandella.
$60,000.
Margins: HD, HD, 3/4. Odds: 2.30, 3.20, 3.20.
Also Ran: Beyond Brilliant, Law Professor, Flavius, Delaware (GB), Bob and Jackie, Whisper Not (GB), Tell Your Daddy, Team Merchants. Scratched: Vanzzy. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

Pedigree Notes:
Count Again's half-brother Ransom the Moon was purchased privately from Sam-Son by these same connections before going on to take back-to-back renewals of the GI Bing Crosby S. in 2017 and 2018. The Calumet Farm resident has first 2-year-olds this season.

Count Again becomes the 15th highest-level winner for the late fellow Ontario-bred Awesome Again, whose stand-outs also included three-time Big 'Cap winner Game On Dude.

Count Again has an unraced 3-year-old half-sister by Pioneerof the Nile and a Malibu Moon 2-year-old half-sister purchased for $30,000 at KEEJAN '22 by Shannondoe Farm. Count to Three was bred to Not This Time for 2022. Count Again's second dam won the GI Matriarch S. on this same circuit.

The post Count Again Up in Time in Kilroe Mile appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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With longshot Sniper Kitten showing the way to the far turn, Count Again was next to last in a field of six older horses, about four lengths off the lead heading into the far turn. Heavily favored Subconscious took control at the top of the lane while Count Again was on the move, while fourth and three-wide. In a ferocious stretch rally he inhaled the leaders late to win easily.

“The (time off) did him a ton of good,” said D'Amato. “He told me in his last race at Del Mar (a fifth place finish in the G2 Del Mar Mile), 'Hey, I've had a long campaign, maybe it's time to give me a freshener.' And we did that. The owners have been great. Sam-Son Farms, Mark Martinez of Agave Racing, they just told me to give him all the time he needs, and we brought him back fresh and happy.

“I think Flavien got acquainted with him, breezing him the last couple of times and I think that helped him with his timing. He's a horse that just takes him a while to get in gear, but once he does, he's got a pretty impressive late turn of foot.”

A Grade 2 winner in his first start for D'Amato six races back on Nov. 28, 2020, Count Again, who is out of the Red Ransom mare Count to Three and was bred in Ontario, Canada by Sam-Son Farm, was off at 5-2 and paid and paid $7.60, $2.80 and $2.40.

“I've been on this horse a few times in the morning, so I got to know him,” said Prat, who notched his meet-leading 10th stakes victory. “We had a good trip and he put me in the race. He was traveling super all the way around there and when I asked him to run, he gave me a good kick.”

A Grade 3 winner at Woodbine in Toronto, Count Again is now a three-time graded stakes winner and is 14-5-1-4 overall. With the winner's share of $60,000, he increased his earnings to $463,665.

The 3-5 favorite with Juan Hernandez, Subconscious appeared to be in control approaching the furlong pole, but he was no match for the winner close home while finishing three lengths in front of Ready Soul. Idle since Nov. 27, Subconscious returned $2.20 and $2.10.

Ready Soul, who is also trained by D'Amato, was off at 7-1 with John Velazquez and paid $2.60 to show.

Fractions on the race were 23.32, 47.41, 1:11.16 and 1:22.65.

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In a crowded field of 14, Jelgo and Collective Force were the fastest out of the gate before Collective Force took over down the stretch the first time. War Bomber streaked to the lead on the far outside as they approached the first turn, getting out to a three-length advantage around the bend and onto the backstretch. Behind him were Collective Force and Frosted Over, who stalked the moderate pace with fractions of :24.78 for the first quarter, :50.36 for the half mile, and 1:16.23 for six furlongs. As the field approached the far turn, Frosted Over made his move for the lead, Patrick Husbands and Sir Winston following.

Around the far turn, the Casse trainees were on even terms, with Frosted Over on the rail and Sir Winston on his outside. They stayed even as they straightened into the Woodbine stretch, with Frosted Over showing a head in front as the two battled down the straight. Sir Winston was not done, digging in and pulling past the 3-year-old in the last sixteenth of a mile. At the wire, Sir Winston was three-quarters of a length in front of Frosted Over, with Collective Force holding on for third and Burning Man fourth.

The final time for the 1 1/2 miles was 2:31.51.

Sir Winston paid $5.30, $2.90, and $2.80. Frosted Over paid $4.70 and $4.40. Collective Force paid $10.60.

Bred in Kentucky by owner Tracy Farmer, Sir Winston is by Awesome Again out of the Afleet Alex mare La Gran Bailadora, a G3 stakes winner. The 5-year-old horse was a $50,000 RNA consigned by Denali Stud at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. With his win in the G3 Valedictory, Sir Winston has two wins in four starts in 2021, for a lifetime record of six wins in 19 starts.

The post Sir Winston Wins Stretch Battle To Take Valedictory At Woodbine appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Tripoli disappointed finishing fourth of eight by 6 ¼ lengths behind runaway front-running five-length winner Medina Spirit in the Grade I Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 2.

“He had his first work Monday in preparation for the $6 million Breeders' Cup in 47 and four (47.40) and he's going to work five furlongs on Sunday,” the trainer said of Tripoli.

“He just didn't get the trip he needed (in the Awesome Again),” continued Sadler, who won the Breeders' Cup Classic in 2018 with Accelerate. “He got hung out wide all the way, so it's more about the trip for him, but he appears to have come out of it good, so it's on to the Breeders' Cup.

“The Classic is a great race, and it should be. That's the big race and you've got a top 3-year-old (Medina Spirit) and Knicks Go; it's a really good race.”

Medina Spirit worked five furlongs Friday morning in 59.60 seconds for Bob Baffert, who also breezed champion filly Gamine six furlongs in 1:12 flat.

Meanwhile, Sadler has multiple graded stakes winner Flagstaff set for the Breeders' Cup Sprint.

“He just worked (four furlongs) this morning in 47 and three (:47.60),” Sadler said of the 7-year-old Speightstown gelding, a gem of consistency with a 7-6-4 record from 21 starts with earnings of $1,035,585.

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Idol is coming off a 16-length defeat by front-running Medina Spirit in the Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 3, a race in which he had a wide trip, while Ginobili drew away last out to win the G2 Pat O'Brien by nearly two lengths on Aug. 28.

Baltas is staunchly on record as saying Idol was in need of the Awesome Again Stakes, his first start in seven months, and that the 4-year-old Curlin colt is ideally suited for a mile and a quarter, the distance of both the Big 'Cap and the BC Classic.

“Idol came out of the race really good,” said Baltas, a 60-year-old native of Gary, Indiana. “I think the pace (in the Awesome Again) was kind of slow but he looks good, he's been galloping at Santa Anita and I'll probably breeze him before we ship to Del Mar.

“Ginobili is going in the Dirt Mile. He breezed (six furlongs) in 1:11 and three at San Luis Rey yesterday like nothing. We're pretty happy with him.”

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“Really happy with the job my staff did putting all these races together,” said Santa Anita racing secretary, Chris Merz, on Thursday morning. “Stakes coordinator James Kasparoff did an outstanding job.”

In all, there are seven Breeders' Cup “Win and You're In” races. The three on Friday–the GI American Pharoah S., GII Chandelier S., and the Speakeasy S.–are geared around the sport's young blood. The Saturday and Sunday qualifiers–the GI Awesome Again S., the GI Rodeo Drive S., GII Santa Anita Sprint Championship S., and the GII Zenyatta S.–are for the adults in the room.

This is on top of a further seven stakes over the weekend, including the GII Eddie D S., the GII City of Hope Mile S., the GII John Henry S., and the GIII Chillingworth S.

“We've a gigantic weekend ahead of us,” Merz added. “The horsemen, the trainers did a great job supporting what we're offering in the book. The owners are excited. Hopefully, we're putting good cards together that the fans can enjoy and that leave the bettors scratching their heads.”

Entries over the first two days boast an average field size of roughly 8.3. The trick will be to keep the momentum going for the rest of Santa Anita's 16-day fall meet (and beyond), especially after a spring-meet that wore thin near the end, horse inventory wise.

After the GI Santa Anita Derby, for example, the track carded a rare two-day race week.

“We've still got a ways to go–I think our last step will be to get back to four-days a week,” said Merz. “This place has been through a lot over the last two-and-a-half years, with the animal crisis that we've had and obviously COVID.” The purses, however, have been increasing, he added. “We're getting back to full strength.”

The Santa Anita inventory is currently around 1650 to 1700 horses–roughly 100 horses higher than this period last year, Merz said.

The track's “Ship & Win” program–which started last December and provided a $3,000 bonus and a 35% increase in purse earnings for eligible shippers–has been instrumental in growing those numbers, said Merz.

Santa Anita tweaked the ingredients in May, to better align it with Del Mar's longer established Ship & Win program. For example, eligible out-of-state horses which made their first start in the Del Mar Ship & Win program get the green-light for the same benefits in their first start at Santa Anita.

According to Merz, Del Mar lured roughly 180 Ship & Win horses this summer. Of those, he said, roughly 140 have subsequently found home at Santa Anita.

Much fanfare has heralded the return after a more than two-year hiatus of the downhill turf course–an indicator of sorts of the track's (and the state's) increasing focus on the turf. During the most recent Santa Anita winter-spring meet, close to 50% of the races were on turf–10 years prior, the number of turf races at the track was nearer 30%.

“With turf options right now, they're very dependable for the trainers and the owners to get them some action and to run,” Merz explained.

Use of the downhill course has been suspended since the Peter Miller-trained Arms Runner (Overdriven) suffered a fatal breakdown crossing the dirt in the 2019 GIII San Simeon S.–an accident that coincided with a maelstrom of negative attention focused on the track.

Between 2011 and 2019, the downhill turf course garnered an equine fatality rate of 2.81 per 1000 starts–only marginally higher than that for the turf as a whole (2.72).

The GII Eddie D S., on opening day, sets the ball rolling, with other downhill races the rest of the weekend including the Rodeo Drive S. and Unzip Me S. The course will also be used for a further two Cal-bred stakes on Oct. 16-17.

“And I'm actually writing our condition book now, so, we'll have a couple more at the end of our meet.” Merz added. “I'm just looking forward to seeing the downhill back–I think that's what everybody's excited for. It's been a long two years but everybody's ready to go.”

One of the aforementioned shippers is the Larry Rivelli-trained One Timer (Trappe Shot), who lines up a leading fancy in Friday's Speakeasy S. on the turf. “We're going into it perfect,” said Rivelli. “There's absolutely no excuse.”

One Timer has a perfect two-for-two record, breaking his maiden by more than 12 lengths at Arlington in June before following up in the Victoria S. at Woodbine a month later, winning by 3 3/4 lengths handily.

“We've always been high on him from day one when we started breezing him and working him,” said Rivelli of One Timer, a $21,000 purchase at last year's Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Sale.

One Timer is yet to race on the turf, but the trainer has let the gelding stretch his legs on the surface at Arlington a couple times, under regular rider E.T. Baird. “His quote was, 'he's a lawnmower,'” said Rivelli, of Baird's aphoristic quip. “So, let's hope he likes the turf as much as the jock thinks he does.”

On his debut, One Timer reared in the gates, and was a tad slow away last time–a sticky little problem the team has since worked on.

“He should be good now, believe me,” said Rivelli. “We've spent a lot of time on that. We worked him from the gates the other day and it was just a mind-blowing work. Just unbelievable.”

If the stars align, One Timer will remain in California until Del Mar. “I'm pretty confident he's going to run good, and so, that would be the plan–keep him there and run at the Breeders' Cup.”

If so, it would constitute a fifth runner at the Breeders' Cup for the trainer.

“I've run four horses. Three ran fourth and one ran fifth,” said Rivelli. “We've danced a dance, we're just trying to break through. I would say this has been my best shot so far.”

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It was far from an auspicious debut, however, as Tripoli finished 12th and last at 13-1 in the 5 ½ furlong turf sprint. He did a complete turnaround in his next race, winning by a nose over the same venue at odds of 46-1.

Tripoli captured one more turf victory in nine subsequent grass starts, this one going a mile at Santa Anita on May 1. After that, trainer John Sadler and owners Hronis Racing LLC sought greener pastures in the form of three straight runs on the main track, capping them with a victory in the Grade 1 TVG Pacific Classic at a mile and a quarter on Aug. 21.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it, so next up is Saturday's Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes on Santa Anita's main track, one of five graded events that day, three of them Breeders' Cup “Win and You're In” Challenge Races giving the winner a fees-paid berth to their respective Breeders' Cup races on Nov. 5 and 6 at Del Mar.

“Tripoli won a nice race (on dirt) at Santa Anita in the spring,” Sadler said, referring to an overnight route on June 19. “We took him to Del Mar and he continued his improvement with a second (by a half-length) in the Grade II San Diego Handicap (July 17).

“Then he came back and won the Pacific Classic. He's a horse that just loves the dirt right now. He's honest and consistently runs well. He was unlucky a few times on the turf but he should run well on Saturday.

“It looks like a good spot.”

A son of the Irish-bred stallion El Prado, Kitten's Joy stands for $60,000 at Hill 'n' Dale farms in Paris, Ky.

Sadler reports that Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby winner Rock Your World, who was nominated to the Awesome Again, will instead be pointed to the Grade 2 Twilight Derby at a mile and one eighth on turf closing day, Oct. 31.

The Awesome Again, race 10 of 11 with an early 12:30 p.m. first post time: Tizamagician, Flavien Prat, 4-1; Midcourt, Edwin Maldonado, 12-1; Express Train, Juan Hernandez, 4-1; Stilleto Boy, Kent Desormeaux, 20-1; Medina Spirit, John Velazquez, 5-2; Azul Coast, Abel Cedillo, 12-1; Tripoli, Tiago Pereira, 3-1; and Idol, Joe Bravo, 5-1.

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