Bloodstock | Horse Racing Free Tips

‘It Kind Of Put Us On The Map’: Harris Family Enjoying Ride With Classic Contender Epicenter

Winchell Thoroughbreds' Epicenter — born and raised in Bowling Green, Ky. — will attempt to cement his status as North America's best 3-year-old and stake a claim as Horse of the Year in Saturday's $6 million Longines Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland Race Course.

Epicenter is the 5-1 second choice in the morning line behind unbeaten sensation Flightline, who at 3-5- odds is a prohibitive favorite in the field of eight contesting the 1 1/4-mile Classic. A victory would all but secure Horse of the Year honors for Epicenter. A second or third behind older horses likely would hand him the 3-year-old championship.

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen isn't making any predictions except to say, “We expect a huge performance from him.”

Epicenter is the best horse to come out of western or south-central Kentucky in decades, being born and raised on Harris family's Westwind Farms in Bowling Green, Ky. The regional tie goes farther as he's owned by Ron Winchell, the co-managing partner in Kentucky Downs in Franklin and the three The Mint Gaming Hall properties in Franklin, Bowling Green and now also Williamsburg.

Winchell purchased Epicenter as a yearling for $260,000 from Westwind, the biggest price for which the farm has sold a horse. Brothers Mike, Brent and Kevin Harris, along with Mike's sons Tyler and Justin do all the work at the family's farm.

“It's been great,” Mike Harris said. “You always hope for it, but you don't really expect it. For it to happen like it has, it's been a great experience for our whole family. We're looking forward to seeing what he can do on Saturday.”

The Harrises could have a huge three-day run. On Monday, Epicenter's mom, Silent Candy, will be offered for sale on the first day of Keeneland's world famous November breeding stock auction. Silent Candy is carrying a foal sired by Taylor Made's stallion Not This Time, also the sire of Epicenter. Harris dropped the broodmare off at Taylor Made's sales consignment at Keeneland on Thursday. Taylor Made also stands Not This Time at the Taylor family's Nicholasville farm.

Why are they selling Silent Candy?

“She's just too valuable for us to have down there,” Harris said by phone as he drove back to Bowling Green. “She needs to be bred to a lot better sires than we can afford to breed her to.”

Silent Candy, dam of Epicenter, at Keeneland Thursday. She'll be sold Monday at the November auction

Frank Taylor, Taylor Made's vice president of sales, said of Silent Candy: “I think it will double or triple her value if Epicenter wins the Classic. So it's a big thing. It's going to be tough to beat Flightline, but if there's a horse in there that can do it, I think it's him… This mare, if she has a good foal, it could bring $1 million or more.

“The Harrises are just great people and they raise a good horse. They're hard-working people, raise horses right – and obviously they've raised a great one in Epicenter.”

Epicenter has four wins and three seconds in seven starts this year, losing the Fair Grounds' Lecomte (G3) by a head to kickoff his 3-year-old season before dominating in the Risen Star (G2) and Louisiana Derby (G2) in New Orleans. The 4-1 favorite in the Kentucky Derby, Epicenter looked like the winner until passed late by 80-1 Rich Strike. In the Preakness Stakes, he was well off a moderate pace, rallying late but coming up short to Early Voting. After taking Saratoga's Grade 2 Jim Dandy, Epicenter crushed his opponents to take the Grade 1 Travers Stakes, avenging his Derby and Preakness defeats.

“His Jim Dandy and Travers were victories that not only do I think he deserved, but he obviously had physically moved forward,” said Asmussen, who won the 2007 Breeders' Cup Classic with the 3-year-old Curlin and the 2017 Classic with the 4-year-old Gun Runner, both of whom were voted Horse of the Year. “He was a better horse in those two races, and it will take even a better effort for him in this year's Classic.”

Epicenter has to beat more than Flightline, however. The field also features 2021 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile champion Life Is Good, who is 9 for 11 and a four-time Grade 1 winner. Hot Rod Charlie is always a factor and comes into the Classic off a head victory over Rich Strike, who will be flying late and would benefit if Flightline and Life Is Good hooked up in a speed duel to the detriment of both. Olympiad won the 1 1/4-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup in his last start for his eighth win in 12 starts.

No one is talking about Happy Saver, but the 5-year-old horse won his first five career starts, including the 2020 Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1). That is his last stakes victory in his 12-race career, but he had five straight seconds in major races for older horses before finishing fourth in the Lukas Classic.

Besides Rich Strike and Epicenter, Santa Anita Derby winner Taiba (12th) and Cyberknife (18th) also ran in the Kentucky Derby. Cyberknife beat Taiba by a head in New Jersey's Grade 1 Haskell with Taiba turning the tables in the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby.

“They pretty much already inaugurated Flightline as the winner,” Harris said with a laugh. “But I've seen that (an upset) happen lots of times. He does look like a super horse, but I don't think we've seen Epicenter's best by a long shot. His last two races, he won so easily. If Flightline is the freak they say he is, nobody may get close to him again. But it's horse racing — about anything can happen.”

Westwind has admirable production for a small operation. Harris said Westwind has raised 12 stakes winners in the last nine years, seven being graded.

“And four of them were Grade 1 winners,” he said. “Even having said that, Epicenter, he's the best horse we've ever raised, no question. No matter what else he does.

“People ask me about him all the time. A lot of people in Bowling Green knew we raised horses. But I think most of them didn't know they were Thoroughbreds or racehorses. It kind of put us on the map.”

Harris said he doesn't want to even think about what it would be like for Epicenter to win America's richest horse race.

“You think about it, and then you're disappointed if it doesn't happen,” he said. “I'm not going to be disappointed in him. He's had a great year and made the whole year fun for us.”

The post ‘It Kind Of Put Us On The Map’: Harris Family Enjoying Ride With Classic Contender Epicenter appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Bloodlines: Gary And Mary West Succeeding At The Long Game With West Will Power

The breeding and racing operation of Gary and Mary West combines racing and selling in a practical attempt to keep the stable on the profitable side of the ledger.

That is a major undertaking in any business, but breeding Thoroughbreds adds a couple extra degrees of difficulty. Yet, when breeders keep and race a colt like Maximum Security (by New Year's Day), who won 10 of 14 races, earning $12.4 million, balancing the books seems much simpler.

Horses like Maximum Security, however, do not come along every year. In any operation.

So the results of the Grade 2 Fayette Handicap were a welcome way to end the meet. The Wests' homebred West Will Power (Bernardini) was one of two winners on the card which clinched a first title as leading owners at Keeneland for the Wests. Earlier this year, they had tied with Juddmonte Farms for second among leading owners at the Churchill Downs spring meeting and had been the leading owners at Ellis Park's meeting over the summer.

West Will Power had been second in a stakes at Ellis in his return from competition after 11 months on the sidelines. Now trained by Brad Cox, West Will Power has won two of his three starts in 2022, and the Fayette was his first stakes victory.

A winner of his first two starts, West Will Power has now won five of his 12 starts, earning $525,230. Before the Fayette, the horse's best effort had been a second in the G2 Iselin Handicap last year.

The 5-year-old bay comes from the crop immediately following the one that produced Maximum Security and was one of the colts the breeders elected to retain for their racing stable.

“Gary and Mary like to go to proven stallions,” noted one of the Wests' advisers, Sid Fernando, “and going back six years to when we at Werk Thoroughbred Consultants helped plan the mating, Bernardini fit that mare best, according to our criteria, and we expected that he would be best at three and up.” And so he has proved.

To get the results that the Wests are aiming for, classic contenders year after year, requires consideration and long-term planning using the best bloodstock and advisers available.

To balance the challenges of mating and managing a sizable broodmare band and racing stable, the Wests have assembled a team of advisers and associates with decades of experience. Chief among these is their racing manager, Ben Glass, who is instrumental in selecting horses at the sales and then managing them for the Wests' breeding and racing interests.

In addition, Fernando and Roger Lyons of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants assist the Wests and their racing manager with matings and auction recommendations.

Fernando noted that “in the last few years, Gary West has not been buying yearlings at Keeneland, like he had before. Instead, he has been concentrating on breeding more from his home stallions – Game Winner, West Coast, and Maximum Security – as well as well other top-tier sires.”

Among those horses the Wests have bred is leading 4-year-old Life is Good (Into Mischief), which they sold “because their primary focus is the 3-year-old classics, and the thought was that this colt would be better at eight to nine furlongs. They obviously liked him a lot and put a strong reserve on him, but he was such a good-looking prospect that China Horse Club and Maverick Racing (WinStar) bought him for $525,000,” Fernando recalled.

So, the Wests have bred a trio of high-class colts in successive crops, as well as buying Game Winner (Candy Ride) and racing him to a juvenile championship in 2018. The big dark bay now stands at Lane's End and is one of the stallions that the Wests' current approach is geared to supporting.

For earlier stallions, Glass purchased at auction the dams of Maximum Security and British Idiom for reasonable prices to breed to stallions New Year's Day and Flashback, then sold the mares on at moderate prices. At the 2017 Keeneland January sale, the Wests sold Rose and Shine, in foal to Flashback, for $21,000 to Hargus and Sandra Sexton, and as a result British Idiom was not bred by the Wests. Nonetheless, they felt a strong rooting interest when the filly won the G1 Alcibiades Stakes and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, then was named the Eclipse Award winner as champion juvenile filly for 2019.

What might be next, with stallions like Game Winner, West Coast, and Maximum Security to work with?

The post Bloodlines: Gary And Mary West Succeeding At The Long Game With West Will Power appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Help Wanted: Career Opportunity For Farm Manager/Broodmare Manager At Pin Oak Stud

Pin Oak Stud is offering a unique opportunity for the right individual to join a growing team with a healthy and welcoming workplace environment.

They are actively seeking to add a motivated team player to its management crew who will assist in building a top-class breeding and racing operation in Central Kentucky.

This is a full-time position and carries a very competitive compensation package. Additionally, a private, well-appointed single family residence, as well as a work vehicle, will be provided.

The ideal candidate will oversee the daily operations of the farm and should possess strong communication skills to interface with the Advisory Team, as well as grooms, office staff, veterinarians, farriers, and supply vendors. There will be approximately 30 mares and foals as well as yearlings and lay-ups under their care.

Extensive experience in all aspects of mare and foal care, including foaling, is vital. The administration of medications/vaccinations, post-surgery rehab, bio-security, and management of foal and herd health is also essential.

Additionally, Pin Oak Stud has positions available for experienced personnel to work with mares, foals, and yearlings.

All inquiries will be strictly confidential and should be directed to Matt Weinmann, M.Weinmann@equineanalysis.com or Clifford Barry, cbarry@pinoakstud.com.

The post Help Wanted: Career Opportunity For Farm Manager/Broodmare Manager At Pin Oak Stud appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

El Kabeir, Morpheus Moved To Stand In Italy

Grade 2 winner El Kabeir will join Morpheus, a half-brother to international superstar Frankel, in relocating to Italy for the 2023 breeding season, Racing Post reports.

El Kabier, a 10-year-old son of Scat Daddy, previously stood at Yeomanstown Stud in Ireland, where his runners included Italian Group 2 winner Don Chicco. He comes to Italy through Renew Italian Breeding, a business group including countrymen Mattia Cadrobbi, Marco Bozzi and Guido Berardelli.

During his on-track career, El Kabeir won five of 20 starts racing for owner Zayat Stables and trainer Bill Mott. He won the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes as a 2-year-old, and he came back at three to win the G3 Jerome Stakes and G3 Gotham Stakes.

Morpheus, a 12-year-old son of Oasis Dream, will stand at Scuderia Melissa Cipriani – Allevamenti della Berardenga for an advertised fee of €3,500.

Morpheus began his racing career in England, where he was a three-time winner as a Juddmonte Farms homebred. He was then moved to Mott's U.S. barn, where he went winless in a quartet of allowance optional claiming races.