Family Way Finds Winner’s Circle In Ladies Marathon At Kentucky Downs

Family Way and Tyler Gaffalione stalked the pace throughout the 1 5/16-mile Ladies Marathon at Kentucky Downs, went wide on the final turn, and then split horses in the stretch to take the last stakes race at the Franklin, Ky., track's 2021 meet. La Lune was second and Big Blue Nation third.

Breaking from post seven, Family Way was away fastest, giving way to Stand Tall early and settling in behind horses. Stand Tall held the lead on the backside, with Blame Debbie in second and Big Blue Nation third. Going down the hill, Blame Debbie took over, with Stand Tall shuffling back to third, just ahead of Family Way.

Blame Debbie held her lead around the race's final turn into the stretch, but soon gave way to Big Blue Nation as Family Way split horses at the top of the stretch to find running room on the outside of Blame Debbie. Big Blue Nation tried to hold off a surging Family Way, but the filly caught her at race's end, hitting the wire a neck in front with La Lune surging past Big Blue Nation to take second. Favorite Luck Money was fourth.

The final time for the 1 5/16 miles was 2:07.83. Find this race's chart here.

Family Way paid $13.20, $6.80, and $4.80. La Lune paid $8.60 and $5.40. Big Blue Nation paid $3.60.

Bred in Kentucky by Diamond Creek Farm, Family Way is a 4-year-old filly by Uncle Mo out of the Giant's Causeway mare Susie's Baby. She is owned by Hunter Valley Farm, Debra O'Connor, and Marc Detampel, and trained by Brendan Walsh. Consigned by Godolphin, she was sold to Fergus Galvin, agent, for $181,818 at the 2020 Arqana December Breeding Stock Sale. With her win in the Ladies Marathon, Family Way has two wins in five starts in 2021, for a lifetime record of four wins in 11 starts for career earnings of $441,543.

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Graded Stakes Trio Part Of Woodbine’s Stellar Queen’s Plate Card

A trio of graded stakes, the Highlander (G1), Dance Smartly (G2), Ontario Colleen (G3), complement the 162nd running of the $1 million Queen's Plate, Sunday at Woodbine.

Seven fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up, will vie for top spot in the $175,000 Dance Smartly Stakes, a 1 ¼-mile test over the E.P. Taylor Turf Course.

Graham Motion will send out Blame Debbie, a 4-year-old daughter of Blame, as the multiple graded stakes winning trainer looks to notch his first Dance Smartly crown.

Owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Michael Cloonan and Timothy Thornton, the well-traveled bay has assembled a 4-1-3 mark from 13 career starts.

Having raced at Delaware, Keeneland, Aqueduct, Tampa, Belmont, Saratoga, Kentucky Downs, Del Mar and Pimlico, Blame Debbie's racetrack passport will now include Woodbine.

Bred by Tim Thornton and Tony Holmes, Blame Debbie won her debut at Delaware Park on August 29, 2019, finishing second in her next start at Keeneland, prior to a third in the Grade 2 Demoiselle at Aqueduct to close out her rookie campaign.

Last year, she went 2-0-2 from eight starts, the back-to-back victories coming at Keeneland, including her first stakes win, the Grade 3 Rood and Riddle Dowager on Oct. 18.

After a victory in the Searching Stakes this June at Pimlico to launch her 2021 campaign, Blame Debbie was fifth in her most recent start, Grade 3 Robert G. Dick Memorial Stakes.

“She ran well first time back at Pimlico, then she was a little disappointing last time at Delaware,” offered Motion. “Maybe the first race took something out of her.”

Motion thinks the Kentucky-bred will fare well running over the Toronto oval grass.

“She's training well, and I think she'll like the turf course up there.”

The race is named after the Sam-Son Farm superstar who went undefeated in 1991 while taking the Canadian Triple Crown, and becoming the first horse bred in Canada to win a Breeders' Cup race (G1 Distaff, 1991). She is a member of both the Canadian and American Racing Halls of Fame.

Sam-Son Farm has three wins – tops among all owners – in the race that was inaugurated in 1986 (Bessarabian won the first edition).

The race is also the first event in Woodbine's Ladies of the Lawn Series, in support of ReThink Breast Cancer. Next up is the $250,000 Canadian Stakes (G2) on Saturday, September 18, culminating with the $600,000 E.P. Taylor Stakes (G1) on Sunday, October 17. At the conclusion of the points-based series, the winning connections will receive a $50,000 bonus. The inaugural winner of the 2019 Ladies of the Lawn Series was Starship Jubilee, Canada's reigning Horse of the Year.

FIELD FOR THE GRADE 2 $175,000 DANCE SMARTLY

POST – HORSE – JOCKEY – TRAINER

1 – Blame Debbie – Kazushi Kimura – Graham Motion

2 – Merveilleux – Rafael Hernandez – Kevin Attard

3 – Afleet Katherine – Justin Stein – Kevin Attard

4 – Al Naseem – David Moran – Edward Vaughan

5 – Etoile – Irad Ortiz Jr. – Chad Brown

6 – Mutamakina – Dylan Davis – Christophe Clement

7 – Court Return – Luis Contreras – Josie Carroll

Trainer Mark Casse, a four-time winner of the Ontario Colleen Stakes, will be launching a three-pronged attack on Sunday's renewal with Our Flash Drive, I Get It and Salty As Can Be heading postward in the one-mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies.

The Ontario Colleen, which offers Grade 3 status and a purse of $150,000, attracted eight entrants.

Our Flash Drive, a Live Oak Plantation homebred, is the only graded stakes winner in the Ontario Colleen lineup, having annexed the Grade 3 Selene over 1 1/16 miles of Tapeta last time out. The runner-up there, Munnyfor Ro, came back to take the Woodbine Oaks Presented by Budweiser and is a leading contender for Sunday's Queen's Plate.

“She's done everything right this year,” said Casse, who had also watched Our Flash Drive win her maiden in authoritative fashion here at seven furlongs in her first appearance this year, but will be racing the Florida-bred on grass for the first time.

“We've breezed her a couple of times on the turf; she gets over the turf really well. She'll be extremely tough, I think.”

I Get It was purchased privately for owner Gary Barber prior to winning the listed Sanibel Island Stakes over one mile of firm turf at Gulfstream on March 27.

In her only subsequent outing, the Maryland-bred was well-beaten In Belmont's Grade 3 Wonder Again over 1 1/8 miles of “good” going.

“I probably shouldn't have ran her,” said Casse, recently inducted into the Hall of Fame at Saratoga to match his Canadian honors. “She wasn't a happy horse at the time. We've just kind of given her a break; she's doing much better now. I think she should run well.”

Salty As Can Be, owned by Gary Barber and Baccari Racing Stable, is a half-sister to Salty, who was a Grade 1 stakes winner for the same connections.

“She's a beautiful filly,” said Casse, who has seen the Kentucky-bred sandwich two wins around a disappointing stakes try. “She had to have throat surgery after her poor performance at Churchill.”

Salty As Can Be, who had debuted victoriously at Churchill Downs, returned to win a six-furlong Tapeta sprint at Woodbine. The Ontario Colleen will be her first try on grass.

“She ran really well there,” said Casse. “She's breezed well on the turf. She's a bit of a guess… I think she's good enough, but we'll just see. This is not an easy race.”

Chad Brown, who captured the 2019 edition of the Ontario Colleen with Seek and Destroy, will be looking to duplicate that feat with Misspell, who was supplemented at a cost of $3,000 including the $1,500 entry fee.

Seasons, third in the Grade 1 Natalma over one mile of turf here last September, adds to the depth of a field which also includes stakes winner Sweet Souper Sweet, third last time out in the Selene, plus Speightstown Shirl and Perseverancia, both maiden winners on the turf at the current meeting.

Trainer Michael Doyle currently holds the Ontario Colleen record with five wins, the latest in 2001.

The most famous alumnus of the race is the Casse trainee Got Stormy, who captured the 2018 renewal and recently notched her second win in Saratoga's Grade 1 Bernard Baruch, defeating males in that one-mile turf race.

FIELD FOR THE GRADE 3 $150,000 ONTARIO COLLEEN STAKES

POST – HORSE – JOCKEY – TRAINER

1 – Sweet Souper Sweet – Antonio Gallardo – Michael Trombetta

2 – Our Flash Drive – Patrick – Husbands – Mark Casse

3 – Salty as Can Be – Rafael Hernandez – Mark Casse

4 – Perseverancia – Luis Contreras – Darwin Banach

5 – I Get It – Kazushi Kimura – Mark Casse

6 – Seasons – Shaun Bridgmohan – James Toner

7 – Speightstown Shirl – Emma-Jayne Wilson – Roger Attfield

8 – Misspell – Irad Ortiz Jr. – Chad Brown

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Caravel, winner of three straight including Saratoga's Grade 3 Caress at 5 ½-furlongs on the turf last time out, will be cruising into Woodbine on Queen's Plate day seeking a grand slam in Sunday's Grade 1 Highlander Stakes.

The Highlander, a six-furlong turf race, offers a purse of $350,000 and attracted a field of eight.

Caravel, a 4-year-old filly, will be facing males for the first time and making her first start for trainer Graham Motion. Celebrity chef Bobby Flay purchased a majority interest in Caravel following her impressive score two starts back in Monmouth's Goodwood Stakes at five furlongs on the turf.

Breeder/owner/trainer Elizabeth Merryman retains an interest in Caravel, who is Pennsylvania's reigning Horse of the Year and has fashioned a record of 7-0-2, including five stakes scores, from nine starts. Merryman is based at Fair Hill in Maryland, as is Motion.

“I've tried not to change too much, since I've had her,” said Motion. “I kept her at Saratoga, we kind of kept her on the same schedule she would have at Fair Hill with Lizzie.”

The Highlander is the next marker for Caravel on the path which her connections hope will lead to the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint, which will be run over five furlongs at Del Mar on Nov. 6.

“This is kind of the race we'd planned on, if she ran well at Saratoga,” said Motion. “The six furlongs is a really good distance for her.”

Irad Ortiz Jr., who piloted Caravel for the first time in the Caress, retains the mount.

Looking to hold the shipper at bay will be locally-based Silent Poet and City Boy, who were the 1-2 finishers in last year's Grade 2 Nearctic Handicap over six furlongs of the E.P. Taylor Turf Course.

Silent Poet, a homebred who is owned by Stronach Stable and trained by Nick Gonzalez, also has victories in another pair of seven-furlong Grade 2 turf stakes, the 2019 Play the King and the 2020 Connaught Cup, but has yet to find his best form in two starts this season.

City Boy, conditioned by Mike Keogh for The Estate of Gustav Schickedanz, had become a stakes winner in the 2019 running of the Nearctic. The City Boy gelding will be making his second appearance of this season after opening up with a second-place finish under allowance terms.

“He came out of his first start really well,” said Keogh. “He ran well enough, and I think he needed the race. He missed a bit of time going into it. He always has little foot issues.”

Trainer Mark Casse, seeking his first Highlander victory, will send out a capable threesome in Turned Aside, Chuck Willis and Old Chestnut.

Rounding out the field will be Admiralty Pier, who has kept top company throughout his eclectic career, and Honey Won't, who was supplemented at a cost of $7,000, including the $3,500 entry fee.

The Highlander has been run over its current distance and surface since 2004 when Soaring Free, who went on to be Canada's Horse of the Year, captured his first of two consecutive renewals. The race was not run last year on a COVID-19-impacted stakes schedule.

The Turf Endurance Series also gets out of the gates on Aug. 22. The series is made up of three races, two of which are on the inner turf. The opening leg, at a distance of 1 3/8 miles, is slated for Sunday, followed by a 1 ½-mile trek Sept. 12, and a 1 ¾-mile marathon on the main course Oct. 3.

FIELD FOR THE GRADE 1 $350,000 HIGHLANDER STAKES

POST – HORSE – JOCKEY – TRAINER

1 – Old Chestnut – Patrick Husbands – Mark Casse

2 – Admiralty Pier – Antonio Gallardo – Barbara Minshall

3 – Turned Aside – Emma-Jayne Wilson – Mark Casse

4 – Chuck Willis – Kazushi Kimura – Mark Casse

5 – Honey Won't – Jeffrey Alderson – Angus Buntain

6 – City Boy – David Moran – Mike Keogh

7 – Caravel – Irad Ortiz Jr. – Graham Motion

8 – Silent Poet – Justin Stein – Nick Gonzalez

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Motion Looking For Ninth Victory In Delaware Park’s Robert G. Dick Memorial

Godolphin's Micheline tops the $150,000, Grade 3 Robert G. Dick Memorial at Delaware Park in Wilmington, Del., on Saturday.  The 1 3/8-mile turf affair for fillies and mares has attracted a field of nine.

Micheline, a 4-year-old daughter of Bernardini, has a career record of five wins, two seconds and a third from 15 starts with earnings of $674,478.  This year, the Kentucky-bred conditioned by Michael Stidham has one win from three starts. She opened her 2021 campaign with a score in the Grade 2 Hillsborough Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs on March 6.  She followed with a pair of off-the-board races in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland on April 10 and the Grade 3 Eatontown at Monmouth Park on June 20.

Trainer H. Graham Motion will be going for his ninth career victory in the Robert G. Dick Memorial when he sends Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Micahel Cloonan and Timothy Thornton's Blame Debbie postward.  In her only outing this year, the 4-year-old daughter of Blame posted a 3 ½-length score in the mile and a half Searching Stakes at Pimlico on June 13.  Last year, the Kentucky-bred had a record of two wins and two thirds from eight starts including a victory in the Grade 3 Dowager Stakes at Keeneland. She has a career record of four wins, a second and three thirds from 12 starts with earnings of $277,920.

“I had not really planned on running her in this race before her last race, but these races are kind of just falling into place and I thought she ran nicely the other day at Pimlico,” said trainer H. Graham Motion.  “She did not have a hard race and they did not run fast so I feel very comfortable running her back in four weeks.  The races are very similar and we get Victor (Carrasco) back to ride.  So with our past luck in this race and the way she has been going, it just makes sense for her to be in the race.”

Jordan Wycoff's Candy Flower may be peaking just at the right time.  In her most recent, the 4-year-old daughter of Twirling Candy won a 1 1/16-mile turf allowance at Belmont Park on June 17.  Previously, the Kentucky-bred trained by Saffie Joseph Jr. ran third in a one mile turf allowance at Belmont Park on May 22.  She has a career record of four wins, three seconds and a third from eleven starts with earnings of $161,092.

“She is in good form and we think this a good spot for her,” said Joseph.  “She has been a little of an overachiever.  She always tries hard and runs well.  We ran her at a mile and a half once at Keeneland and she just got beat, so we feel like the mile and three eighths should suit her well, so this is a good time to test her against Graded competition.”

$150,000 Grade 3 Robert G. Dick Memorial, fillies & mares 3-year-olds and upward,

1 3/8 miles on turf

# HORSE OWNER TRAINER JOCKEY Wg OD
1 Hotsy Totsy Reeves Thoroughbreds Amber Cobb Jaime Rodriguez 118 15-1
2 Candy Flower Jordan Wycoff Saffie Joseph Jr Sheldon Russell 120 8-1
3 Blame Debbie Eclipse Thoroughbred H. Graham Motion Victor Carrasco 122 9/2
4 Micheline Godolphin Michael Stidham Joe Bravo 124 5/2
5 Temple City Terror Pocket Aces Racing Brendan Walsh Florent Geroux 122 6-1
6 Tonal Verse Heights Stable H. Graham Motion Carol Cedeno 118 15-1
7 Luck Money Catherine Wills Arnaud Delacour Mychel Sanchez 118 10-1
8 Dailka Bal Mar Equine Albert Stall Jr Miguel Mena 122 7/2
9 La Dragontea Reeves Thorughbreds Christophe Clement Trevor McCarthy 120 8-1

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Bloodlines: Long-Term Stallion Success In Kentucky Is An Incredibly Small Target

In the great scheme of sport, becoming a stakes winner is a huge accomplishment, with only about three percent of the breed attaining that level of racing success. Only a fraction of one percent wins a graded or group race.

And from that tiny fraction, made even smaller by the virtual requirement of a G1 victory, comes the subset of colts who enter stud and breed on the next generation. For example, of the 18 stallions who covered their first book of mares in Kentucky in 2021 and stood for a fee of $10,000 or more, every one was a Grade 1 winner, and some of the half-dozen new covering sires priced below that fee were, as well.

Yet from that supremely elite group, how many can reasonably be expected to succeed?

Very few. Even with excellent racing records, good to exceptional pedigrees, good to excellent conformation, and very good books of mares to share their genetic potential, perhaps only a third of the entering crop will be in demand a decade later.

From a review of the stallions who entered stud 10 years ago in 2011, only five were at stud in Kentucky for a fee of $10,000 or higher (actually, the least expensive of these is Lookin at Lucky at $20,000). The five are leading sire Quality Road ($150,000), Munnings ($40,000), champion Blame ($30,000), Kantharos ($30,000), and champion Lookin at Lucky ($20,000).

From the numbers above, roughly two-tenths of a percent (1.8) of an annual foal crop of 10,000 colts would get a spot at stud in Kentucky, and maybe a third of those will continue to be sufficiently in demand to retain a spot at stud in the Bluegrass at a significant fee.

That is a steep hill to climb.

Among the stakes winners over the weekend, however, two showed up with close relationships to stallions who did not make the grade in Kentucky.

Winner of the Searching Stakes at Pimlico, Blame Debbie is by the aforementioned Blame, one of the success stories among the entering sire crop of 2011. By the good sire Arch, Blame was the champion older horse of 2010, when he won the G1 Whitney, Stephen Foster, and Breeders' Cup Classic. He is the sire of 31 stakes winners, including classic winner Senga and the additional G1 winners Nadal (Arkansas Derby) and Marley's Freedom (Ballerina). In addition to last weekend's stakes win, Blame Debbie won the G3 Dowager at Keeneland last year.

The broodmare sire of Blame Debbie, however, is Horse of the Year Invasor (Candy Stripes), and he is a horse who did not achieve the level of stallion success required to stay in Kentucky. An Argentine-bred who was unbeaten in Uruguay, then purchased by Shadwell and raced internationally, Invasor won 11 of his 12 starts, earning $7.8 million.

In addition, Invasor is by Candy Stripes, also the sire of the highly regarded stallion Candy Ride and from an elite Argentine family. Yet, even with a very good pedigree and an exceptional racing record both domestically and abroad, Invasor was unable to reproduce his own excellence in his foals and was returned to South American to stand at Haras Cuatro Piedras in Uruguay.

A similar instance to the 2006 Horse of the Year came with the 1997 Horse of the Year Favorite Trick (by Phone Trick), who entered stud in 1999 at Walmac.

A fast and early-maturing horse, Favorite Trick was unbeaten at two, when he won all eight of his starts, including the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, and was elected Horse of the Year. He did not train on at that level of success at three and was retired to stud at four.

Overall, the dark brown horse failed to have the consistent success so important to maintain a permanent residence in Kentucky, and he was sent to stand at stud in Florida, then in New Mexico, where he died in 2006.

Even so, Favorite Trick is the sire of the second dam of Informative (Bodemeister), who won the G3 Salvator Mile at Monmouth on June 12. That second dam is the unraced So Spirited, a half-sister to the G1 winners Roman Ruler (Fusaichi Pegasus) and El Corredor (Mr. Greeley), and their dam, the Silver Deputy mare Silvery Swan, was one of the very best mares that Favorite Trick covered in his stallion career.

Silvery Swan produced three graded stakes winners, a fourth racer who was G1-placed, and a pair of daughters who have produced stakes horses. So Spirited didn't produce any, but her winning daughter Lucky Black (Hard Spun) is the dam of Informative. The colt's sire is G1 winner Bodemeister, who has 22 stakes winners from 848 foals of racing age, and he has been sold and exported to stand at Karacabey Stud in Turkey.

The economics of breeding racehorses and standing stallions makes the market intensely dynamic, as this synopsis has indicated, and yet horses by stallions that have been deemed no longer up to standard for the premium market in Kentucky still have viability and the potential to produce quality racers.

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