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Hurry Up And Wait: Italian Import Wakanaka Ready For U.S. Debut In Pegasus Filly & Mare Turf

Wakanaka has a hurry-up-and-wait story that has delivered her to the TAA Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Invitational (G3) Presented by PEPSI Saturday at Gulfstream Park.

Bred in Ireland and purchased at a British sale for a mere $4,274, the 4-year-old daughter of Power built her reputation in Italy. Team Valor International CEO Barry Irwin was well aware of her juvenile success, enlisted Gary Barber, a partner in many other horses through the years, and completed the deal to purchase the filly about 10 months ago. Irwin said the name Wakanaka has its origins are in Zimbabwe and means “she's beautiful.”

Now trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, Wakanaka has recovered from a physical issue and will have her U.S. coming-out party in the newest addition to the Pegasus World Cup Invitational program.

Wakanaka and jockey Umberto Rispoli will start from Post 2 in the 1 1/16th miles turf race for older fillies and mares.

“She was a good 2-year-old. She would have been the second-best 2-year-old filly in Italy,” Irwin said. “She had six starts: four wins, two seconds. She got beat by the filly (Aria Importante) that wound up being the champion.”

Irwin said that Wakanaka is built like a sprinter, not overly tall but stout and powerful. Three of her 2-year-old wins were in turf sprints by a combined 10 ¾ lengths.

A goal for top 3-year-old fillies in Italy is the Premio Regina Elena Italian One Thousand Guineas (G3) contested at the Capannelle Racecourse in Rome in late April.

“Everybody wants to win the 1000 Guineas equivalent. There it's a Group 3, but it's a Classic,” Irwin said. “That's the big focal point for all the fillies.”

Irwin said the major question about Wakanaka was answered on March 17 in her prep for the Premio Regina Elena, the Premio Cesare Degli Occhi at San Siro.

“Nobody knew if she could rate and they were able to rate her,” Irwin said. “She went a mile and she won by (6 ½) lengths, very impressively.”

Based on that performance, Irwin began the process of trying to buy the filly.

“I was contacted by an agent that we buy a lot of horses with,” he said. “I've gotten plenty of horses in Italy and done extremely well with them. We've had a champion and a couple of Grade 1 winners over the years. I was familiar with the type of races that she was running in. I watched her and I had somebody go in there and check her out for me, a friend of mine who lives there.”

Irwin said he balked at the asking price, then reached out to Barber. The plan they developed was to buy the filly but allow the owner/trainer Diego Dettori to run her in the Premio Regina Elena in his colors and keep whatever purse money she earned.

“He's a young guy,” Irwin said. “It was his first big win. All we wanted was the filly.”

Wakanaka managed to overcome some traffic issues and improved to 6-2-0 from eight starts.

“She had kind of a rough trip. She was stuck between horses. She did rate well,” Irwin said. “Then when she got out, with about a furlong and a half to go, she exploded, opened up about two and a half and then won in hand by a length and a half.”

“We were very happy with that race. She got good speed ratings in Europe for that effort. She's a very likable filly. She's got a lot of pizazz about her. And she's got instant turn of foot, which is the one thing that we liked. That's why we buy so many horses over there. You tell them to go, and it's like now.”

Irwin said they asked Mott to train the horse because of his past success with horses from Italy. It did not turn out to be a be a smooth transition from Europe to American racing, though.

“She wound up getting bone bruising so we had to turn her out for two months,” Irwin said.

When she was ready, trainer Mark Casse and his staff helped get her fit before Mott arrived for the winter at Payson Park. Irwin said that Wakanaka got Mott's attention when she turned in a bullet work on Dec. 13. She has worked every week since and Irwin and Mott decided to run her in the Pegasus Filly and Mare Turf.

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Jockey Junior Alvarado Hoping To Build On Last Winter’s Success At Gulfstream

Having exceeded his own expectations in his full-time return to Gulfstream Park last winter, jockey Junior Alvarado is going about putting together an even better encore performance.

Alvarado was off to a strong start at the Championship Meet, ranking third in the rider standings with $1.4 million in purse earnings and fourth with 22 wins entering Wednesday's card. The 35-year-old has been in South Florida since opening day Dec. 3, after not arriving last year until the meet was nine days old.

“Even a month, month and a half before I came here [this year] I was looking forward to getting here,” Alvarado said. “You get the nice weather and you get to ride a lot of nice horses, too. I'm definitely very excited to be here.”

A native of Venezuela where he won his first career race in 2005, Alvarado ranked sixth with 53 wins and seventh with $2,355,580 in purse earnings during the 2020-2021 Championship Meet. Eight of his wins came in stakes, including Grade 3 triumphs in the Sweetest Chant, Canadian Turf, Hurricane Bertie and Appleton.

Alvarado notched a dozen multi-win days last winter, including a five-win day March 20 and a four-win day last Dec. 31. This winter he registered a double Dec. 5, 23, 26 and Jan. 9 and a triple Dec. 11, and scored his first stakes win in the Dec. 18 Fort Lauderdale (G2) aboard $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf (G1) candidate Doswell.

“I would have to say last year was really kind of an unknown for me, just to come here and try for the first time after a while,” Alvarado said. “I didn't know what kind of trainers would ride me and I knew I had to put in a lot of work to get some trainers to look for me and give me a chance. I think we did pretty good last year.”

A year-round force in New York, where he has been a regular since 2010, Alvarado has worked his way to being a go-to rider for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. He rode 65 of Mott's starters last winter at Gulfstream with 17 wins, 18 seconds and five thirds, taking the Sweetest Chant with White Frost and the Cutler Bay and Palm Beach with Annex.

Overall, Alvarado won for 23 different trainers last winter with multiple victories for Antonio Sano, Jose D'Angelo, John Kimmel, Juan Carlos Avila, Carlos David, Carlos L. Perez and Hall of Famer Mark Casse.

Other wins came for Michael DePaulo, Francisco D'Angelo, Danny Gargan, William Tharrenos, Mark Hennig, Ron Spatz, Barclay Tagg, Armando De La Cerda, Jeremiah O'Dwyer, Gail Cox, Tom Bush, Hector Rodriguez, Antonio Cioffi and Hall of Famer Roger Attfield.

So far this year, Alvarado has won for Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, Matthew Williams, Tharrenos, D'Angelo, Gilberto Zerpa, Jane Cibelli, Mott, Tagg, Sano, David, Armando De La Cerda, Kathleen O'Connell, Chris Davis and Championship Meet leader Saffie Joseph Jr. Alvarado and Joseph are 6-for-12 together with two seconds and a third.

“With Billy Mott and with so many other trainers, I think [last year's meet] was actually beyond what I thought it was going to be,” Alvarado said. “It was definitely greater than I thought.”

Alvarado rode his first race in the U.S. at Gulfstream Feb. 2, 2007, and registered his first domestic win aboard Satira in a maiden claiming race two weeks later. He moved on to the Chicago circuit in 2008, winning the 2009 riding title at Arlington Park, before venturing to New York.

Approaching 1,900 career victories, Alvarado parlayed his strong winter showing at Gulfstream into a career-high 14 graded-stakes in 2021 including the June 5 Jaipur (G1) at Belmont Park aboard Mott-trained Casa Creed. His previous season high was 10 graded wins in 2020, 2019 and 2015.

“I might not get the number one, top horses year-round, but most of the time we're winning a lot of big races around the country. This year has been no exception. Hopefully we can keep picking up nice horses and winning big races,” he said. “Once you get the nice ones, we'll try to stay on them as long as we can and we'll go anywhere we have to go to keep the mount.”

One change from last winter is that Alvarado's wife and three children, ages 2, 6 and 10, were unable to spend the entire season with him in Florida.

“Last year, I brought them here and they did their schooling on-line,” he said. “This year we couldn't do that; they had to stay at school. So I just came by myself and I'll be going back and forth every other week to visit and they'll come on their [vacation] days off so we'll make it work.”

In the meantime, Alvarado is focused on the task at hand.

“My goal is to win at least the same amount of races and hopefully more,” he said. “A lot of people know me now. They weren't sure about my riding style. I gained confidence last year through the meet and showed that I can ride here and hopefully that will help a little bit to get more business going and win more races.”

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Group 1 Winner Var Euthanised at 23

The speedy Group 1 winner Var (Forest Wildcat-Loma Preata, by Zilzal) was euthanised in South Africa on Monday. The 23-year-old had been pensioned at Avontuur Stud since last July.

“Var was my pride and joy,” Avontuur Stud General Manager Pippa Mickleburgh told the Sporting Post. “He changed the lives of untold racing and non-racing folk both here and across the world. He was a character and a champion extraordinaire. The scars of a battle bravely fought caught up with our loyal soldier in the end. We couldn't leave him to bear the pressure and the pain on his limbs anymore and after agonising over veterinary advice, we were left with no choice. We are all devastated.”

Bred by Dr. John Eaton in Kentucky, the dark bay was a $42,000 RNA as a Keeneland November weanling that progressed to be a $120,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase. Racing in the Darley silks for trainer Bill Mott through his first 15 starts, the colt won an allowance optional claimer in January of 2004, before he was purchased privately and won Goodwood's Listed Starlit S. in September of that year for new trainer Clive Brittain and owner Mohammed Rashid. Second to The Tatling (Ire) (Perugino {Aus}) in Newbury's G3 Trophy S. later that month, he defeated his vanquisher in the G1 Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp in October. His sprinting efforts made him top of his division in the UK from five to seven furlongs a year's end.

Retired after a two-race 2005 campaign with a mark of 22-7-2-1 and $336,001 in earnings, Var became a successful sire in South Africa with his first crop eventually yielding six stakes winners. Currently, the stallion has 56 black-type winners to his credit, 30 of them at the graded level. Of those, a dozen are winners at the highest level, anchored by dual South African Horse of the Year Variety Club (SAf), a five-time Grade 1 winner. The son of French listed-placed Loma Preata earned titles as the Leading Sire of 2-Year-Olds in 2016/17 and 2017/18, and he was also a Champion Sire of Winners in 2018/19.

Added Avontuur's Michael and Philip Taberer, “Beyond the raw statistics, he captivated hearts and will live on in his place of honour at Avontuur forever. We thank every shareholder, breeder, supporter and racing fan who played a role in making him a success. What an honour it has been to be a part of a modern day fairytale.”

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Chewing Gum Sticks It To Favored Beer Can Man In Joe Hernandez

In a thrilling photo finish, Chewing Gum was up to win by a thin nose over favored Beer Can Man in Saturday's Grade 2, $250,000 Joe Hernandez Stakes at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif.

Named for the original Voice of Santa Anita, the Hernandez, originally scheduled to be run at about 6 ½ furlongs on the track's hillside turf course, was instead run out of the 6 ½ furlong turf chute, with Chewing Gum, a 7-year-old full horse by Candy Ride, getting the distance under Umberto Rispoli in 1:15.27. Trained by William Mott, Chewing Gum, who shipped in from his New York base, notched his first-ever stakes win in his 23^rd career start.

Next to last with three furlongs to run, Beer Can Man saved ground at the rail around the turn, tipped out four-wide at the top of the lane and was just up.

Most recently third in an ungraded six furlong turf stakes Nov. 27 at Aqueduct, Chewing Gum was off at 5-1 in a field of seven older horses and paid $13.40, $4.20 and $3.00.

“He is the kind of horse that you have to kind of forget him the first part of the race and Mr. Mott gave me the instructions to be on the outside, and in the stretch I had that gap so I didn't want to lose that chance,” said Rispoli. “For the first part he needs to find his legs and find his rhythm. I would say the ground really, really helped him, he really enjoyed that.”

Owned by Pantofel Stable, Wachtel Stable and Jerold L. Zaro, Chewing Gum, who is out of the Forestry mare Shared Heart, is now 23-4-4-8 overall and with the winner's share of $150,000, he increased his earnings to 591,788.

Beer Can Man, who pressed the issue throughout from his rail post position, was back in front a jump past the wire and finished 1 ½ lengths in front of French-bred Bran. Off as the even money favorite under Flavien Prat, Beer Can Man paid $2.80 and $2.20.

Bran, who was making his U.S. debut under Joe Bravo, rallied five-deep at the top of the lane and was third best. Off at 6-1, he paid $3.80 to show while finishing a neck better than English-bred Delaware.

Fractions on the race were 23.32, 46.10 and 1:09.26.

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