Breeders' Cup | Horse Racing Free Tips

‘No Hiccups’: Arabian Knight Fires Bullet In Final Breeze For Breeders’ Cup Classic

Trainer Bob Baffert has established a familiar pattern of running in—and winning—the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1). Since 2014, the Hall of Fame conditioner has won the series' ultimate race a record four times and finished runner-up another three. It's part of the reason he's the Breeders' Cup's all-time leading trainer in earnings with an accumulated $39,345,000 in purse money.

On Saturday, Baffert will follow this same pattern when he cinches the saddle on Arabian Knight, his latest hope to collect another trophy in the 1 1/4-mile event. The son of Uncle Mo has won three of his four career starts, including the recent Pacific Classic (G1) at the same distance, and already surpassed $1 million in earnings. While he will enter the race as the most lightly raced, the sky remains the limit on his potential.

But what's an even more familiar pattern is the profile of the four winners he has trained. All four—Bayern (2014), American Pharaoh (2015), Arrogate (2016) and Authentic (2020) — were 3-year-olds and led every step of the way, from gate to wire, in each of their races. Arabian Knight, also in his 3-year-old year, is brilliantly fast, having led at every call in his three career victories.

“We always thought of him as a top-class horse,” Baffert said. “You could see that as a yearling, which is why he cost us a pretty penny.”

The colt fetched $2.3 million in the sales ring. A victory Saturday, worth $3.6 million, would more than justify the lofty purchase price.

Arabian Knight made an auspicious career debut, launching himself onto the racing scene with spectacular 7-length victory on the undercard of the 2022 Breeders' Cup program at Keeneland. So impressive was the win that the running line reported the colt finishing the race “wrapped up.” The race boldly inserted his name into the conversation of potential Kentucky Derby contenders. He further solidified that reputation by shipping to Oaklawn Park and easily capturing the Southwest Stakes (G3) around two turns by daylight in front-running fashion over a sloppy racing surface, launching his 3-year-old campaign.

But a minor setback knocked him off the trail and to the sidelines for nearly half a year.

When he returned to racing in July, it wasn't for some minor prep race, rather for the Haskell Stakes (G1), always considered a barometer for divisional leadership among 3-year-olds. He was the heavy favorite despite the time away, but the race resulted in his first career defeat.

“The race was a disaster,” Baffert said of Arabian Knight's third-place finish in which he relinquished the lead late. “He was too fresh and wouldn't rate on the lead. I think it showed his immaturity. But despite the outcome, we did learn from it.”

That education paid quick dividends. Two months later he ran the best race of his life winning the Pacific Classic (G1) at Del Mar, rationing out his speed over the increased 10-furlong distance to win a hard-fought decision.

“That was a good race,” Baffert recalled. “I thought he might get beat from the quarter-pole home, but he really dug it. Now he's finally getting into form where we're going to see the best of him.”

Arabian Knight has been all business in preparation for the Classic with a steady string of workouts heading into the race. His final prep, Monday, was a bullet work of five furlongs in :59.

“He's healthy, he's working well. There have been no hiccups,” Baffert said. “He's ready. I know this is going to be a tough race, but if he brings his 'A' game, I don't really care who's running against us. That's my focus with him.”

The post ‘No Hiccups’: Arabian Knight Fires Bullet In Final Breeze For Breeders’ Cup Classic appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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‘She’s Been a Superstar For Us This Year’: Fortuna Out to Favour The Brave

ARCADIA, USA–Bar those who have raced recently in the US, the European horses arrived at Santa Anita on Sunday evening, with their trainers mostly following on over the next few days. One early bird at the track on Sunday morning was Donnacha O'Brien, who is entitled to want to soak up as much of the atmosphere as he can this week as he has brought a Group 1-winning juvenile to be his first runner at the Breeders' Cup.

Only Bob Baffert has accrued more prize-money earnings than Donnacha's father Aidan O'Brien in the 39 previous runnings of the Breeders' Cup, with the Irishman's 16 winners having contributed towards a haul of more than $30 million. Brother Joseph O'Brien, too, has his name on the board with one winner from five starters to date. That success, in the Breeders' Cup Mile also at Santa Anita back in 2019, came with Iridessa (Ire) (Ruler Of The World {Ire}), whose success was followed up in the same race the next year by her half-brother Order Of Australia (Ire) (Australia {GB}), trained by Aidan.

What made those two victories all the more special was the fact that the siblings were bred by Aidan and Annemarie O'Brien under their Whisperview Trading banner, and now it is the turn of his Donnacha to attempt to secure another Breeders' Cup winner for his parents as breeders with Porta Fortuna (Ire) (Caravaggio). More importantly, however, the filly will be carrying the hopes of a large number of American owners in the Juvenile Fillies Turf on Friday.

“We've been coming to the Breeders' Cup since as along as I can remember, and I've been lucky enough to ride at a few, but this is my first one as a trainer, so it's exciting. I haven't been to the Breeders' Cup in the last few years because I haven't had a runner, so it's nice to be back,” said O'Brien, the former dual champion jockey in Ireland who retired from race-riding in 2019

Porta Fortuna remains confined to barracks until being allowed on to the main track on Tuesday morning.

“She travelled well and is in good form, and seems to have settled in well,” he continued. “She's been a superstar for us this year. To win at Ascot was fantastic, but she had two wins before Ascot, so to still be going, and to have run in three Group 1s in a row, and against the boys as well, she's danced every dance and she's a very tough filly. We're very lucky to have her, she's been great for us.”

That she has. From her maiden win at the Curragh on April 16, Porta Fortuna went straight into Pattern company for her first run in the colours of her new team of owners to win the G3 Fillies' Sprint S. at Naas, enjoying the perfect tune up before her first spot of travelling to Ascot for the G3 Albany S. Come August, she was chasing home Bucanero Fuerte (Fr) to be second in the G1 Phoenix S. before taking third in the G1 Moyglare Stud S. Finally she secured her own Group 1 success on her return to Britain for the Cheveley Park S. at Newmarket. She steps up now for a tight, turning mile, the first time she has gone beyond seven furlongs.

Her trainer reported, “She has taken every run very well. She's not a filly who needs a lot of work at home. She's not difficult to train, her races kind of bring her along.

“She is owned by Steve Weston, Barry Fowler, Dean Reeves and Medallion Thoroughbreds, as well, which is a big syndicate. They are all American, and from the moment they bought her this was the dream and it has just worked out incredibly well. It's great to be able to bring her over to the US for them.”

The success of Porta Fortuna has also prompted greater involvement in O'Brien's stable from the ownership group, who bought into the filly through agent Mark McStay.

He added, “They bought her after she won a maiden, and they have bought some yearlings for me this year.

“In Ireland there's a small pool of owners, but internationally there's obviously a big interest in racing. This isn't something we've done on purpose, we were just lucky enough to get involved with these guys and it's brilliant to have some success for them.”

The one question that remains is how Porta Fortuna will cope with a two-turn mile after the wide open expanses of the Curragh plains and Newmarket Heath.

“We won't be sure until we go and do it, so we'll see,” said O'Brien. “It's going to be a lot different for her. Every race she's had so far has been on a straight track but she trains round a left-handed bend every day at home, so she's well used to turning left. She's obviously going up in trip as well, but on tight tracks, a mile around here is going to be like seven in Europe, and she has stayed seven before. We're not sure until we try but I feel she should handle it.”

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After The Breeders’ Cup, Search Results Bound for Fasig-Tipton

Ever-consistent Grade I-winning millionaire Search Results (Flatter – Co Cola, by Candy Ride {Arg}) figures to be one of the top choices in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff. A presence in the Chad Brown barn for three years, the 5-year-old's Distaff bid will be her final race sporting the Klaravich Stables silks as she will head to the Fasig-Tipton November Sale following Saturday's championship meet.

“Search Results has been such a wonderful horse not only for us to work with, but for Seth and Beth Klarman,” said Chad Brown. “In a tough profession where you deal with a lot of ups and downs and a lot of changes with each individual horse from day to day, she's a rare horse that was very uncomplicated. When you came into the barn in the morning or you went to the paddock in the afternoon, you could always depend on Search Results.”

Mike Ryan, a member of the scouting team for Klaravich, has high hopes for Search Results going into Saturday's race, but he is even more confident in how she will be received when she hits Newtown Paddocks on Nov. 7.

“To win the Breeders' Cup would be off the charts,” he said. “It would be the culmination of a fantastic career. She will sell well. I know people are going to love her because she's a spectacular physical. I can't fault her and I don't think anybody else will. She's elegant. She's got size, strength, substance, quality, class and presence. She's the full package.”

Ryan has been high on Search Results ever since he first saw the filly as a yearling at Machmer Hall in the summer of 2019.

Flash forward to the eighth session of the Keeneland September Sale and the image of the Flatter filly from Machmer Hall was still fresh in his mind. He was just as impressed with the youngster on the sales grounds.

“She was an absolutely beautiful filly,” he recalled. ” A good size, strong, feminine, very powerful through her quarters and she moved like a cheetah. Her mind was fantastic. I told Chad that this was a filly that we needed to try and buy.”

The promising bay, who was out of Grade III-placed Co Cola, wound up topping the session when she sold to Ryan for $310,000.

As consistent as she was talented, Search Results went on to place in all but one of her 16 career starts, with earnings to date of just short of $2 million.

Search Results get her first career graded stakes win in the 2021 GIII Gazelle S. | Search Results

Undefeated in her first three starts including a Grade III score in the Gazelle S., Search Results was handed her first career loss when she finished a close neck behind champion Malathaat (Curlin) in the GI Kentucky Oaks. The field also included four-time Grade I winner Clairiere (Curlin), plus Grade I winners Maracuja (Honor Code) and Pauline's Pearl (Tapit).

It was a race that, to Ryan, emphasizes the filly's outstanding talent.

“She ran against the best of her generation,” he explained. “Malathaat was a terrific filly and if Search Results had switched to her correct lead that day, she may have beaten her. We'll never know. She was just born in a year with some very tough fillies and I think eight out of 10 years she might have been an Oaks winner. She competed at the highest level throughout her career and never disappointed.”

Turning back to a mile to claim the GI Acorn in her next start, Search Results delivered what Brown said he believes was her best effort.

“For her to come right back in five weeks and run as well as she did in the Acorn showed a lot about her constitution, resiliency, class and durability,” he noted. “That was a very tough stretch dual in the Oaks and I was so impressed with how she bounced out of it and was able to get the Grade I at Belmont.”

Search Results again stamped herself as a top performer as an older horse, adding to her resume with wins in the GII Ruffian S. and GIII Molly Pitcher at four and the GIII Locust Grove S. in her most recent start this year at five. She has also earned four additional Grade I placings, including two half-length runner-up efforts to Malathaat in the 2022 GI Personal Ensign and to Clairiere in the 2023 GI Ogden Phipps.

“She has won sprinting and going around two turns, so she is a very versatile horse,” said Brown. “She's very consistent and efficient in the way she moves. She's also a pleasure to work with in the barn. She's got a great attitude and a laid-back mind. Anyone that has had the pleasure of having their hands on her has commented on what a classy, sweet mare she is.”

Search Results fights off GISW Obligatory (Curlin) to get the win in the 2021 Acorn S. | Sarah Andrew

“She never shunned competition,” added Ryan. “Half her starts were in Grade I races and she competed in all of them. It was pretty amazing because she never really got a lot of downtime. She never had a soundness issue. I bet when she walks in here to Fasig-Tipton, she'll have legs like a yearling.”

Selling as Hip 179, Search Results will be offered by ELiTE Sales on the Night of the Stars.

Fasig-Tipton's Boyd Browning said that the daughter of Flatter's pedigree is another bonus to her credentials as a broodmare prospect.

“Flatter was known to be a racehorse sire,” he explained. “They're hard-knocking and trying–those attributes that you look for and hope that they'll pass on to future generations. I think you've got a real opportunity with Search Results to combine the finest attributes of both Flatter and Candy Ride, along with an outstanding pedigree, race record and physical.”

“Search Results should attract buyers both domestically and internationally,” added Brown. “She's such a flawless physical specimen and her consistency and soundness, which is so important to try to pass on to our breed, is really hard to match with anything else you could find.

Brown reiterated just how much Search Results will be missed within his operation, but noted that her next chapter as a broodmare will make way for the next generation of Klaravich trainees.

“This is going to be a hard horse to let go of because she has been so special to us, but the Klarmans are so active in the sport and they're looking toward the next chapter with these young horses that we have,” he said. “Seth and Beth always want to do the right thing by the horses, from top-class mares like Search Results all the way to the horses that are still maidens. We're looking forward to hopefully developing the next Search Results.”

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Pin Oak Offers Guarded Update on Geaux Rocket Ride’s Condition

Pin Oak Stud has tweeted an update on the condition of its Grade I winner Geaux Rocket Ride (Candy Ride {Arg}), who suffered an open condylar fracture with intersesmoidian ligament damage during a work at Santa Anita Saturday. He underwent surgery Sunday evening.

“Rocket is having an unexpected response to the surgery and isn't recovering as we hoped,” the tweet stated. “He appears to be in no pain and is eating. Our boy is still fighting hard, so we will keep fighting for him. Under Dr. Carpenter's recommendation, he is moving to another facility better equipped to handle his post-op recovery.”

Trained by Richard Mandella, Geaux Rocket Ride won the GI Haskell S. at Monmouth Park in July and was most recently a narrowly beaten second in the Sept. 2 GI Pacific Classic.

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