Tag: breeders’ cup sprint

Dr. Schivel Guts It Out In Santa Anita Sprint Championship

In a battle of raw speed, Dr. Schivel (Violence) proved to be too much to beat as he outlasted a returning Speed Boat Beach (Bayern) to take the GII Santa Anita Sprint Championship S.

Last seen running a close-up third in the GI Bing Crosby S. at Del Mar over the summer, Dr. Schivel had plenty of back class to call on here: third last year at Meydan in the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen for his only start of the season, second to Aloha West (Hard Spun) in the 2021 Breeders' Cup Sprint, and victorious in that year's GI Bing Crosby. He was also a winner of the GI Del Mar Futurity as a juvenile, making him one of very few runners who can claim Group or Grade I black-type every year he's raced.

Sent to the blocks here carrying 2-1 odds against a well-traveled line up of challengers, Dr. Schivel was quickly sent along after a light bobble at the jump to garner a forward position as Sir Atticus (Gormley) sailed though the early fractions in company of Speed Boat Beach, who was returning from the bench for the first time in almost 10 months. With that trio making all the running passing the three-furlong pole, Dr. Schivel took the inland route as the longshot pacesetter continued fighting off challenges to both sides but Speed Boat Beach looked intent on making a race out of it from the grandstand side. With Sir Atticus tiring by the furlong marker, the top two locked horns for the money and the race's 2021 champion would not be denied despite a valiant effort from the Bob Baffert trainee. Fort Bragg (Tapit) made a belated rally to pick up third.

“The whole plan was to take the same path we did in 2021 and it worked really well that year. It was within an inch of working terrific, but you know I think these sprinters want to run a little fresh and at the same time I like the four weeks out from the Breeders' Cup. Four or five weeks. He got a good race under his belt,” said winning trainer Mark Glatt.

He added: “The ownership group is wonderful to train for they always allow me to do what is good for the horse, he's had his vacations and we've had to be patient. In some cases at times we had to be double patient and that's why he is around still because he wasn't pushed once he gave us the warning light. Hopefully he has one more good one in him and then he gets to go on to his second career.”

When asked if Dr. Schivel will be seen again at the Breeders' Cup, Tim Cohen was very clear: “But of course!”

Pedigree Notes:

The most accomplished of his family, Dr. Schivel hails from a racing one as seven of his siblings have all made it to the races, more than half being winners themselves. Their dam is a winning half-sister to millionaire GISW Ultra Blend (Richly Blended); MSP Swing Thoughts (U S Ranger); and to the dam of MSW Lakerball (Lakerville). The most recent sibling to the races 2-year-old Lil Anthony (Anthony's Cross) is unplaced thus far, and Lil Nugget did produced a 2023 full-sister to Dr. Schivel. She went to Volatile for 2024.

 

Saturday, Santa Anita
SANTA ANITA SPRINT CHAMPIONSHIP S. PRESENTED BY ESTRELLA JALISCO-GII, $202,000, Santa Anita, 9-30, 3yo/up, 6f, 1:08.49, wf.
1–DR. SCHIVEL, 122, h, 5, by Violence
          1st Dam: Lil Nugget, by Mining for Money
          2nd Dam: Ankha, by Desert Classic
          3rd Dam: Distant Runner, by Distant Day
($37,000 RNA Ylg '19 KEEJAN). O-Red Baron's Barn LLC, Rancho Temescal LLC, Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and William A. Branch; B-William A. Branch & Arnold R. Hill (KY); T-Mark Glatt; J-Juan J. Hernandez. $120,000. Lifetime Record: MGISW, 14-7-2-3, $1,327,100. Werk Nick Rating: B. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Speed Boat Beach, 120, c, 3, Bayern–Sophia Mia, by Pioneerof the Nile. ($12,000 Ylg '21 OBSOCT; $200,000 2yo '22 OBSMAR). O-Michael E. Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman; B-Caperlane Farm (FL); T-Bob Baffert. $40,000.
3–Fort Bragg, 120, c, 3, Tapit–March X Press, by Shanghai Bobby. ($700,000 Ylg '21 FTKOCT). O-SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, Robert E. Masterson, Stonestreet Stables LLC, Jay A. Schoenfarber, Waves Edge Capital LLC and Catherine Donovan; B-SF Bloodstock LLC & Henry Field Bloodstock (KY); T-Bob Baffert. $24,000.
Margins: HD, 1 1/4, 3/4. Odds: 2.40, 3.00, 10.10.
Also Ran: Sir Atticus, American Theorem, Visitant, Arabian Lion, C Z Rocket, Spirit of Makena.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

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Xtra Heat Passes Away

Xtra Heat (Dixieland Heat–Begin, by Hatchet Man), winner of 25 black-type races in an overachieving career that saw her named the Eclipse Award-winning 3-year-old filly of 2001, passed away last December at the age of 24, according to a release from Woodford Thoroughbreds.

Bred in Kentucky by Pope McLean, Sr., Pope McLean, Jr., Marc McLean and P. Feringa, the diminutive Xtra Heat sold for less than five figures as a weanling, yearling and 2-year-old, but won her first six races before tasting defeat for the first time in the 2000 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, her lone career foray around two turns.

She went nine-for-13 during her championship season in 2001, breaking through at the Grade I level with a victory over Above Perfection (In Excess {Ire}) and Harmony Lodge (Hennessy) in the Prioress S. ahead of a runner-up effort to Victory Ride (Seeking the Gold) in that year's GI Test S. Following three subsequent facile scores against her peers in the Mid-Atlantic region by a combined 22 3/4 lengths, Xtra Heat was given her chance against the boys in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint, and the fleet filly cut out the running before being run down in the dying strides by Squirtle Squirt (Marquetry).

 

 

Wire-to-wire winner of her first two starts at four, including the GII Barbara Fritchie H. with 128 pounds on her back and spotting her rivals between 13 and 16 pounds, Xtra Heat ventured to old Nad Al Sheba Racecourse in Dubai and finished a creditable third behind the repeating Caller One (Phone Trick).

Following a sixth-place effort in the 2002 Sprint, Xtra Heat was offered at the Fasig-Tipton Night of the Stars sale and was led out unsold when bidding reached $1.7 million. Owners Kenneth Taylor and Harry Deitchman sold Xtra Heat to ClassicStar in a private transaction and she closed her career with a successful title defense in the Barbara Fritchie. She was retired with a mark of 35-26-5-2 and earnings of $2,389,635 and was trained throughout her career by John D. Salzman. Woodford Thoroughbreds purchased Xtra Heat privately through a ClassicStar dispersal in 2006. She was inducted into racing's Hall of Fame in 2015.

The first three foals out of Xtra Heat achieved black-type, including the stakes-winning and Grade III-placed Southwestern Heat (Gone West), who went on to a stallion career in Australia; the stakes-placed X Rated Cat (Storm Cat); and SW & GSP Elusive Heat (Elusive Quality), a $750,000 FTFFEB graduate who serves as the granddam of multiple Grade III winner Scalding (Nyquist), SW & GSP Tracksmith (Street Sense) and SW Hot and Sultry (Speightster). Woodford pensioned Xtra Heat from broodmare duties in 2019 and since that time, she has enjoyed her time in the Florida sun at Woodford's Reddick, Florida, farm, according to the release.

“Xtra Heat knows her place in the world and is always first at feed time,” Woodford owner John Sykes said in 2022. “Xtra Heat is confident in her bearing, but easy to be around. The little brown mare with a great big heart inspires our team to look for potential in every horse.”

With the news of the mare's passing having been made public, Sykes said, “I have always been proud to have the privilege of owning and being responsible for a Hall of Fame horse. She will be greatly missed on the farm and by the team.”

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Champion Elite Power to Return on Saudi Cup Undercard

Recently crowned champion sprinter Elite Power (Curlin) will launch his 5-year-old campaign in the $1.5-million G3 Riyadh Dirt Sprint on the Saudi Cup undercard Feb. 25.

The Juddmonte colorbearer capped a five-race winning streak with a powerful, come-from-behind victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint at Keeneland last out Nov. 5. Elite Power, a $900,000 Keeneland September graduate, has posted five workouts for Hall of Famer Bill Mott since the beginning of the new year at Payson Park, including a five-furlong breeze in 1:02.80 (4/8) Feb. 2.

“He had his program tailored out pretty much immediately after the Breeders' Cup that we would go to the Saudi Cup Sprint,” Juddmonte USA General Manager Garrett O'Rourke said.

“Bill [Mott] gave him a little break and has him back in full work now and everything is–touch wood–on target. The horse is doing well and looking good. He seems in great form.”

Looking further ahead this season, O'Rourke added, “I want to clarify it with [Juddmonte] first, but, at the moment, the plan is for him to come back [to the U.S. afterwards] and look to an end-of-the-season campaign. Give him a little break, target some of the summer races and work on up to Breeders' Cup.”

Juddmonte, founded by the late Saudi Prince Khalid bin Abdullah in 1980, was represented in all three prior runnings of the card's main event with MGSW & MGISP Tacitus (Tapit) (fifth, 2020; and seventh, 2021) and promoted GI Kentucky Derby winner Mandaloun (Into Mischief) (ninth, 2022).

“It's building into a magnificent event and slotting right into the international racing schedule,” O'Rourke said. “By the time you finish with the Breeders' Cup, you're thinking about the Saudi Cup. It's nice to be able to share our best horses and be able to take on the elite of the world at international events like this. The Saudi Cup is firmly established now as that type of an event.”

Juddmonte homebred Laurel River (Into Mischief), meanwhile, scratched by regulatory veterinarians the day before last year's GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, has been given the green light to resume training with Hall of Famer Bob Baffert. The 5-year-old was last seen recording a career high in Del Mar's GII Pat O'Brien S. last summer.

“We gave him 60 days of doing nothing and another 60 days of just bringing him back slowly and he's here on the farm now and galloping every day,” O'Rourke said. “We checked him out then, we've checked him out again now and everything checks out perfectly fine. He's going back to Bob Baffert in the next week. We always do the right thing by our horses and I'm very confident that the horse is absolutely 100 percent. He's a very capable and talented horse.”

He concluded, “The value of having scrutiny of horses going into big events has been a huge boost to the public's confidence that we're doing all the right things. We will always stand by and respect the decisions that the professionals make.”

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First Foal for Spendthrift Farm’s Yaupon

Spendthrift Farm's Grade I winner Yaupon (Uncle Mo) sired a colt, his first reported foal, on Jan. 13 at Rockridge Stud in Hudson, New York.

Bred by Rockridge Stud, Saratoga Glen Farm and Pete Beals, the dark bay is out of MSW Frost Giant mare Frostie Anne, an earner of $584,443.

“This colt is good sized, born at around 122 pounds. He's very balanced and correct, and you can tell he's going to have a big hip,” said Lere Visagie, owner of Rockridge Stud. “I've had three foals out of this mare and every foal has been better than the one before. I'm quite happy with this Yaupon.”

Trained by Steve Asmussen, Yaupon won six of his eight races including the first four starts of his career in 2020. Those wins included the GII Amsterdam S. at Saratoga and GIII Chick Lang S. at Pimlico, and he was the favorite in that year's GI Breeders' Cup Sprint as a 3-year-old. Yaupon's 4-year-old campaign was highlighted by the final race of his career, when he won the GI Forego S. at Saratoga.

Campaigned by Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt, the son of leading sire Uncle Mo earned $703,264. He is out of the Grade I-placed Vindication mare Modification.

Yaupon is set to stand his second season at stud at Spendthrift for a fee of $30,000 S&N.

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