Tag: breeders’ cup juvenile turf

O’Brien: Battleground ‘Very Like Found,’ Redemption-Seeking Magical ‘An Incredible Mare’

Trainer Aidan O'Brien's 10 Breeders' Cup hopefuls stepped out on the track at Keeneland for the first time on Thursday, and he later spoke to At The Races about some of their chances for Friday and Saturday's World Championship contests.

The likely favorite for Friday's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf will be Battleground, the 2-year-old first foal out of 2015 Breeders' Cup Turf winner Found. That edition of the World Championships was also held at Keeneland, so it would be especially poignant if Battleground could deliver a Breeders' Cup victory over the same course.

Thus far, Battleground has raced three times and won twice, including a win in his most recent start, the Group 2 Vintage Stakes at Goodwood on July 28.

“That day in Keeneland with Found was unbelievable,” O'Brien told At The Races. “(Battleground is) big, powerful, strong, and he's very like Found, his dam, and then he has this pace from War Front as well. So he's a horse we're looking forward to running.

“He's in good order and it looks like the time has done him really well. He hasn't ran since Goodwood, so you'd be very happy with him. Of course, it's going to be good experience for him and I think we're going to learn a lot about him. I think he's a horse maybe to really look forward to seeing what he's going to do.”

Magical, trained by Aidan P. O'Brien, exercises in preparation for the Breeders' Cup Turf at Keeneland Racetrack in Lexington, Kentucky on November 5, 2020.

Additionally, O'Brien will send out 2018 Breeders' Cup Turf runner-up Magical in this year's edition of the $4 million contest. The seven-time Group 1 winner was defeated three-quarters of a length by champion Enable in 2018, and is in search of redemption in this year's contest.

The 5-year-old Galileo mare has won three Group 1 races this year alone and has not finished worse than third all season. Her victories include a 3/4-length triumph over Ghaiyyath in the G1 Irish Champion Stakes, a horse who was at that time considered the best in Europe this year.

“She's an unbelievable filly,” O'Brien told At The Races. “She's ran at the top level all the time, from the time she's a 2-year-old every year, she's danced every dance, traveled everywhere. She's very brave. She's very comfortable, really, from a mile to a mile and a half, which is very unusual. She's very brave, stays well, good mind. She's an incredible mare really.

“Everyone loves her and she's very special.”

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Like His Namesake, Gretzky The Great Taking On Big Challenge In Breeders’ Cup

Mark Casse and his wife had just arrived in Lexington, KY on Tuesday when they got the good news they needed. They'd both tested negative for Covid-19 and would be able to attend the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf presented by Coolmore America at Keeneland.

That allows them to see if Gretzky the Great can continue to win like his namesake.

A name that boomed over the speakers at Woodbine this summer, Gretzky the Great was bred by Anderson Farms in St. Thomas, Ont. Anderson was impressed with the colt and Aron Wellman of Eclipse Thoroughbred paired with L.A. film producer Gary Barber to buy the horse. They handed him off to Casse, the trainer.

“I can remember when we first started training him in Ocala,” Casse said.

“When he started breezing I told Gary Barber and Aron Wellman both, I said, 'I think this horse is pretty good.' He's just done everything right, right from the beginning. I was surprised when he got beat his first time. I didn't think he'd get beat, but of course he got beat by a good horse that had a race over him.”

He lost that first race to Ready to Repeat on July 12 at Woodbine, placing second. He shook off the early loss to mount three wins in a row, on Aug. 2, then taking the Soaring Free Stakes on Aug. 23 and the Grade-1 Summer Stakes — a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series race — on Sept. 20.

“Since then, he keeps winning,” Casse said. “He's a beautiful-moving horse…and he's an extremely smart horse.”

While the horse was trained in Canada, the hockey-inspired name actually came from Barber, whose work in the film industry spans the last three decades and coincides with Wayne Gretzky's time as an L.A. King.

“I think Gary Barber named him. Gary is a huge, huge sports fan,” Casse said, pointing out that Gretzky the Great's sire is Nyquist, who is named after Detroit Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist. His owner, J. Paul Reddam is a big Wings and (obviously) a Nyquist fan. So hockey, or at least hockey fandom, is in the family's blood.

“Nyquist is just turning out to be a phenomenal sire. This is his first crop,” Casse said.

Like Wayne Gretzky, Gretzky the Great is following a similar path in his field: Ontario-bred, success in Canada early in his career and now getting into the spotlight of his sport in the U.S. Of course, just four races into his young career, Gretzky the Great's future is in front of him and even with the promise he's shown to this point, nothing is guaranteed.

“It's tough to know,” Casse said. “He's going where he was a star in a regional area. Now he's going to compete against the world and you just never know how you fit in until you try. We've been fortunate, we've won the Breeders' Cup five times.

“Even at that point, with some of your horses you never know. It's truly hard to gauge. You go in with as much confidence as you can, but knowing that you never know until it's over.”

That's also part of the fun for Casse, who started down a path that his wife has heard him take by his estimation a million times in their years together.

“Training horses is like putting a puzzle together,” he said. “You're always trying different pieces and seeing what works. So far with him, the puzzle pieces have gone in very nicely.”

He looks at Gretzky the Great and wonders just how great he could be. He could see the Canadian-bred horse competing for the Queen's Plate, or maybe even at the Kentucky Derby. For now, it's step-by-step, race-by-race.

On Friday, Gretzky the Great will have some challenges. Casse said he could have gotten a better post, noting how hard it is to win from the 11-hole. He'll also be going from a one-turn mile at Woodbine to a two-turn mile in Lexington.

There are old stories about a young Wayne Gretzky playing above his head when he was young, a scrawny boy playing against kids a few years older than him. He scored his 1,000th minor hockey goal when he was 13; he scored 378 goals in his final season of peewee.

On Friday, a 2-year-old horse that's named after hockey's greatest player will try to make its mark against stiff competition. This is his opportunity.

“I'm hoping that one day he's good enough that maybe Wayne comes to see him,” Casse said. A lot has to happen first but if Gretzky the Great stays in the winner's circle enough, he might get his full circle moment.

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Barzalona: Runaway Group 1 Winner Sealiway Has Strong Chance In Juvenile Turf

Ridden out by race-day jockey Mickael Barzalona on Wednesday morning at Keeneland, Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf hopeful Sealiway continued to draw eyes as he galloped over the main track. The 2-year-old son of young stallion Galiway (a half-brother to multiple G1-placed Silent Name) is listed at 8-1 on the morning line for Friday's Grade 1 contest, but his jockey thinks the colt poses a significant threat.

Barzalona explained that Sealiway won his last start, the Oct. 4 Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere over seven furlongs, by a very impressive eight lengths over Royal Ascot winner Nando Parrando (G2 Coventry Stakes). Trained in France by Breeders' Cup newcomer Frédéric Rossi for the Haras de la Gousserie of the Chehboub family and the breeder Guy Pariente, the victory was Sealiway's fourth in six outings.

Sold on the Deauville ring, he had easily won his first two races at Saint-Cloud and Chantilly, before finishing third in the listed Prix Roland de Chambure. He won again at Vichy in the listed Prix des Jouvenceaux and Jouvencelles, over seven furlongs, and was then second at ParisLongchamp in the Group 3 Prix La Rochette, without perhaps getting a clean run in the late stages of the race.

“He's been a precocious colt from the very beginning,” Barzalona said. “I think he stands a very good chance.”

Sealiway was a bit fresh during a lap of the main track at a slow gallop, but settled in while walking a half-mile followed by a stronger gallop over another lap of the main track.

Rossi trains the colt over a sand-based course at home in France, so he'll continue to train on the main track ahead of Friday's race, since the composition is closer to what he's used to. Barzalona will not be aboard Sealiway for any more morning gallops as his regular exercise rider will take over.

One concern might be the stretch out from seven furlongs to a mile in the Juvenile Turf, but Barzalona added that Sealiway doesn't act as though the distance should be a problem. Drawn in the one-hole for the 14-horse field, Sealiway should be able to use his naturally forward running style to his advantage.

“I think I have a better shot with him than I had with Talismanic,” the jockey said, referring to his winning mount in the 2017 Breeders Cup Turf (at odds of 14-1).

Rossi was especially pleased with Sealiway after his massive triumph in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, according to racingpost.com.

“I've always thought he was a really good horse and he ran over too short a trip to begin with,” the trainer said. “We decided to ride him more positively. He loves to dominate and you have to ride him more in the English style than the French. He doesn't sprint, he's a real steamroller.

“Before today he has never quite run the way he trained and I told the jockey I was pretty confident that if he could just do what he does in the mornings, the race would be over as a contest.”

Check out the replay of the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere:

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Unknown Commodities: Mark Casse On Bringing Freshman-Sired Runners Into The Breeders’ Cup

Though we can certainly start to form opinions on the talent and preferences of freshman sires by the fall, no stallion's resume is completely written heading into their first crop's Breeders' Cup.

Up to this point, even the most prolific freshman sires only have a small sampling of horses at the distances and class levels seen during the championship races. Though it can help guide a narrative, a strong or poor performance by one or two runners from a debut crop on one day at a single track does not engrave a sire's capability for putting out a precocious foal.

Trainer Mark Casse has two runners by freshman sires entered in this year's Breeders' Cup races for 2-year-olds, meaning he will be part of the real-time focus group learning about their sires' abilities with the rest of the world. Casse will send Gretzky the Great, by Nyquist, to the Juvenile Turf; and Dirty Dangle, by Not This Time, to the Juvenile Turf Sprint.

This is not to say, though, that Casse is going into these races completely blind to how his runners will perform. Aside from the obvious factors of hands-on experience and the horses' own past performance, the trainer prides himself in doing his homework when it comes to pedigree research.

“At the end of every day, I go through and look at the charts at every major racetrack, and I make mental notes of what sires are doing well on different surfaces,” he said. “I pay a lot of attention, too, to damsires. I'm big on buying out of certain damsires.”

Gretzky the Great flies the banner for sire Nyquist, a member of Darley's stallion roster in Lexington, Ky.

Nyquist was himself part of the record-setting freshman crop for sire Uncle Mo. Both Nyquist and Uncle Mo snagged Eclipse Awards as champion 2-year-old male after winning their respective editions of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, giving plenty of evidence that Nyquist's foals would be early types.

That has proven out thus far, with Nyquist siring a pair of Grade 1 winners heading into Novemver, making him the only North American freshman sire with more than one graded stakes winner. Nyquist's other Grade 1 winner this season was Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies contender Vequist, who took the G1 Spinaway Stakes earlier this year.

Gretzky the Great added himself to that list when he won the Grade 1 Summer Stakes at Woodbine on Sept. 20, clinching a “Win and You're In” berth to the Juvenile Turf in the process. The Ontario-bred has raced exclusively at Woodbine, breaking his maiden in his second start, then taking the listed Soaring Free Stakes before moving on to the Summer.

“We had high hopes on him from the beginning, but I think he's just gotten bigger, and better, and he's thriving,” Casse said. “He looks tremendous. He moves over the ground great. I believe if you can go a mile at Woodbine with that long stretch, you can pretty well go a mile anywhere. I think the two turns will actually be a benefit for him. He's got enough speed, he's going to be fairly close as long as he breaks well, and I think he'll really like this turf course.”

Nyquist raced exclusively on dirt during his own on-track career, and while Gretzky the Great's dam Pearl Turn started her career in Ireland, all of her wins came over the dirt after returning to the U.S.

Casse said the decision to start Gretzky the Great on the turf was part of his overarching program with his Ontario-based 2-year-olds.

“The pedigree obviously is extremely important, but that's what we do as trainers; we try different things,” he said. “With Gretzky the Great, our Grade 1 race for 2-year-olds is the Summer, so I try to get my horses to at least give them a chance on the grass. It turns out the Nyquists can do anything.”

Nyquist leads a tight race as the leading freshman sire by progeny earnings, with $1,108,381. Tracking closely behind him in second is Taylor Made Stallions' Not This Time, with $1,053,867.

Not This Time will be represented in Casse's barn by Juvenile Turf Sprint contender Dirty Dangle, who is unbeaten in two starts, both at Woodbine.

The filly enters the Juvenile Turf Sprint off a 1 1/4-length closing score in the Woodbine Cares Stakes on Sept. 19. She won on debut over Woodbine's all-weather main track in her debut.

“We purchased her after her last race, so I didn't have the privilege of training her before, but her race on turf at Woodbine was extremely good,” Casse said. “That's what made us purchase her.”

Dirty Dangle now races for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Gary Barber, the same connections that campaign Gretzky the Great.

Not This Time's freshman runners are led by probable Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies favorite Princess Noor, who brought $1.35 million at auction earlier this year, and has gone undefeated in three starts, including a 6 1/2-length score in the G1 Del Mar Debutante Stakes and an 8 1/4-length drubbing of the Chandelier Stakes.

Like Nyquist, Not This Time was a fast-starting 2-year-old during his own time on the racetrack, winning the G3 Iroquois Stakes leading into a runner-up finish in the 2016 Breeders' Cup Juvenile.

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