Caddo River | Horse Racing Free Tips

Saturday Insights: GISW Max Player Makes 2023 Debut At Oaklawn

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3rd-OP, $106K, OC, 4yo/up, 1 1/16m, 2:03 p.m.

Last seen checking in fourth in last July's GII Suburban S. at Belmont, MAX PLAYER (Honor Code) makes his 6-year-old debut Saturday in an optional claimer at Oaklawn. The picture of consistency throughout his career, the Steve Asmussen trainee was a Triple Crown contender in 2020, placing third behind Tiz the Law (Constitution) in both the rescheduled GI Belmont S. and the GI Runhappy Travers S. before finishing fifth behind future Horse of the Year Authentic (Into Mischief) in the GI Kentucky Derby. He was not a factor in the 2021 G1 Saudi Cup but returned to home soil a winner two starts later in the GII Suburban S. before posting a career-best effort with a win in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup with a 102 Beyer Speed Figure. Never better than fourth in his next four starts, Max Player was benched after trying to defend his title in the Suburban.

Breaking just to his inside, Caddo River (Hard Spun) will make his first start for Hall of Famer D Wayne Lukas after three years with trainer Brad Cox. TJCIS PPS

4th-OP, $90K, Msw, 3yo, 1 1/16m, 2:34 p.m.

A Calumet Farm homebred also out of the D Wayne Lukas barn, GAME KEEPER (Honor Code) is a half-brother to G1 Emirates Airline Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 winner Capezzano (Bernardini). Dam Cableknit is herself a half to champion sprinter and leading sire Speightstown (Gone West) as well as MGSW & MGISP Irap (Tiznow). Her half-sister Amour d'Ete (Tiznow) would go on to produce GI Preakness S. winner Early Voting (Gun Runner). TJCIS PPS

3rd-FG, $50K, Msw, 3yo, 7 1/2fT, 3:15 p.m.

Out of GI La Troienne S. winner Molly Morgan (Ghostzapper), KID KETCHUM (Tapit) is a Triple Crown-nominated colt racing out of the Brad Cox barn. Bred by Stonestreet Farm and owned by a large syndicate group of which Stonestreet remains a part of, the $200,000 Keeneland September yearling picks up jockey Marcelino Pedroza, Jr. for his debut. TJCIS PPS

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Cox: Well-Beaten Concert Tour ‘Probably A Need-The-Lead Horse’

Concert Tour's first start at 4 resembled his last start at 3 – prominent early and leg weary late.

Making his first start since the Preakness last May, Concert Tour finished last of nine in Saturday's $150,000 Fifth Season Stakes at Oaklawn Park for older horses at one mile. The 3-2 favorite stalked the early pace before being beaten 15 lengths in his first start for trainer Brad Cox and first without blinkers.

“He's fine,” Cox said Sunday afternoon. “He bounced out of it. Obviously, there's some frustration, but that's part of it.”

Two of Concert Tour's three victories for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert came when leading at every point of call, including his career debut last January at Santa Anita and the $1 million Rebel Stakes (G2) for 3-year-olds last March at Oaklawn. The 1 1/16-mile Rebel was Concert Tour's first race around two turns.

Concert Tour didn't make the early lead in his next start, the $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1) last April at Oaklawn, and finished third and faded to ninth in the Preakness, beaten 34 ¼ lengths, after racing just off the early pace.

“I think he's one of those horses, California, he broke, he's on the lead and he won,” Cox said. “He came here, he broke good, he's on the lead and he won. I think he's probably a need-the-lead horse. He probably couldn't have got the lead yesterday, I don't really think, with that Mucho in the race. But at the three-eighths pole, he was kind of packing it in.”

While Cox will regroup with Concert Tour, the trainer still has a deep roster of older two-turn older stakes types, including Oaklawn-based Plainsman and Caddo River for John Ed Anthony of Hot Springs.

Caddo River, who finished second in the Arkansas Derby after beating Concert Tour to the lead, is entered in Saturday's seventh race, a 1 1/16-mile allowance. Caddo River crossed the finish line first in his comeback race, a Dec. 19 allowance at one mile, but was disqualified and placed second for interference near the wire.

Plainsman, a multiple Grade 3 winner, is scheduled to make his 2022 debut in the $600,000 Razorback Handicap (G3) at 1 1/16 miles Feb. 12. Plainsman finished a troubled third in his last start, the $750,000 Cigar Mile Handicap (G1) Dec. 4 at Aqueduct.

The Fifth Season was Oaklawn's first major 2022 prep for the $1 million Oaklawn Handicap (G2) for older horses April 23.

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Oaklawn: Cox Looking For Big Things From Caddo River, Little Sister Como Square

Officially, he wasn't the winner. But, Caddo River accomplished something for the first time in his racing career Dec. 19 at Oaklawn, reaching the finish line first after not controlling a race on the front end.

Trainer Brad Cox said he hopes that performance is something Caddo River can build on during his 4-year-old campaign at the 2021-'22 Oaklawn meeting. Caddo River was a promising Kentucky Derby prospect last winter in Hot Springs after consecutive gate-to-wire blowout victories at a mile, including a record-setting 10 ¼-length score in the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes at Oaklawn.

After Caddo River was withdrawn from Kentucky Derby consideration because of a minor illness, Cox and breeder/owner John Ed Anthony of Hot Springs pulled the plug following the Hard Spun's colt sixth-place finish in the $400,000 Woody Stephens Stakes (G1) June 5 at Belmont Park.

Caddo River resurfaced in the 1-mile allowance race late last month and had an eventful trip under regular rider Florent Geroux. Caddo River was rank early and bottled up in fifth along the inside on the second turn. Swung five-wide turning for home, Caddo River ran down Atoka to win by a neck in 1:38.28 over a fast track. But following a claim of foul by Luis Contreras, the rider of Atoka, and a stewards' inquiry, Caddo River was disqualified and placed second for lugging in and bumping Atoka near the finish line, according to footnotes from the official race chart.

“Big race,” Cox said Thursday morning. “It was good to see him pass horses as opposed to going to the front and holding on. A talented horse. I thought it was an extremely good race off the layoff – passed some good horses. I think for him to be what we want him to be, a horse that can compete at the graded stake level, he's going to have to be able to pass horses and relax a little bit. He didn't relax as well as we would have liked to have seen him, but I think once he gets a couple of runs under him, hopefully, he'll figure out that he's going to have to shut it off early to have a little bit better closing kick.”

Although Caddo River has plenty of stakes experience – he also finished fifth in the $1 million Rebel Stakes (G2) and second in the $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1) last year at Oaklawn – Cox said another conditioned allowance “is probably the logical spot” for a second start off a long layoff.

“Trying to develop the horse and have a good winter with him and a good 2022, it probably makes the most sense,” Cox said.

Cox, Anthony and Caddo River's dam, Pangburn, nearly pulled off a double Dec. 19 at Oaklawn.

About an hour before Caddo River was disqualified from his victory, half-sibling Como Square, won an entry-level allowance sprint for 2-year-old fillies.

Como Square, by super sire Into Mischief, is unbeaten in two lifetime starts and probably headed to the $200,000 Martha Washington Stakes Jan. 29, Cox said. The 1 1/16-mile Martha Washington, which would mark Como Square's first start around two turns, is Oaklawn's first of three Kentucky Oaks points races.

“It's really the logical spot moving forward, trying to stretch her a little bit,” Cox said. “She's a half to Caddo, but she really doesn't look anything like him physically. She's real strong and stout, where he's got a lot more leg and looks like a two-turn horse, where she looks like she might be a little limited on distance.”

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Pangburn, a daughter of Congrats, was an allowance winner in 2015 at Oaklawn for Anthony and trainer Kenny McPeek. Pangburn then finished third in the $150,000 Honeybee Stakes (G3) and fourth in the $400,000 Fantasy Stakes (G3). The Honeybee and Fantasy are Oaklawn's final two Kentucky Oaks points races.

Anthony boards Pangburn at famed Stone Farm in Kentucky. Pangburn also has a 2-year-old colt by champion Nyquist and is booked back to Hard Spun, said John Gasper, who is Anthony's racing manager.

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Caddo River Makes First Start Since June At Oaklawn Sunday

After beginning 2021 with a bang, Caddo River will try to go out with a bang when the star-crossed 3-year-old returns in Sunday's eighth race at Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Ark., a one-mile conditioned allowance test that will mark the colt's first start in more than six months.

Caddo River, a homebred for John Ed Anthony of Hot Springs, hasn't run since finishing a well-beaten sixth in the $400,000 Grade 1 Woody Stephens Stakes June 5 at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y. Caddo River ran three times at the 2021 Oaklawn meeting. The speedy son of Hard Spun registered a record-setting 10 ¼-length victory in January's $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes at one mile – Oaklawn's first of four Kentucky Derby points races – before finishing fifth in the $1 million G2 Rebel Stakes in March and second in the $1 million G1 Arkansas Derby in April.

After being withdrawn from Kentucky Derby consideration because of a minor illness, Caddo River received a lengthy vacation following a flat performance in the seven-furlong Woody Stephens.

“We just gave him time,” trainer Brad Cox said Thursday afternoon. “He had no injury. Just time and freshen him up. To try to make the Derby and all that, it's very demanding on a horse. It felt like it had kind of taken its toll between all of that, the whole winter. The race in the Woody Stephens was not what we were looking for, so we gave him time and he's come back and trained very, very well. I think this is a really good race to get him back going.”

Caddo River resumed training in late summer/early fall, Cox said, and returned to the work tab at Blackwood Stables in Kentucky before moving to the trainer's barn at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. Caddo River breezed three times in November at Churchill Downs and has logged three works in his return to Oaklawn, including a six-furlong bullet (:59.80) Dec. 4.

Facing older horses for the first time Sunday, Caddo River is the 8-5 program favorite and scheduled to break from the rail under regular rider Florent Geroux. Also entered in the projected eight-horse lineup is Irish Unity, runner-up in the $250,000 St. Louis Derby for 3-year-olds Aug. 28 at FanDuel Sportsbook and Horse Racing in Collinsville, Ill., for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.

Cox said Caddo River's comeback race could help determine where he stands among the trainer's deep roster of older horses in 2022.

“We have Plainsman there as well,” Cox said, referring to the multiple G3 winner he trains for Anthony. “We have Warrior's Charge, Night Ops, Shared Sense is down here (Fair Grounds). We have Mandaloun, Concert Tour. We have a very good group of horses. Listen, he's going to have to step up. He was a very, very good 2-3-year-old. Some of them take those steps forward, some of them don't. If he takes a step forward, he'll be fine and, hopefully, he will be a player in the handicap division there.”

Caddo River has amassed $404,092 in earnings after compiling a 2-3-0 mark from seven lifetime starts. Caddo River broke his maiden by 9 ½ front-running lengths at one mile in November 2020 at Churchill Downs before winning the Smarty Jones, his stakes debut, in his next start.

Probable post time for Sunday's eighth race is 3:46 p.m. Central. In Sunday's sixth race, Cox is scheduled to send out unbeaten Como Square in an entry-level allowance sprint for 2-year-old fillies. Another Anthony homebred, Como Square is by super sire Into Mischief and a half-sister to Caddo River. Como Square exits a 4 ¾-length debut victory Nov. 11 at Indiana Grand in Shelbyville, Ind.

Caddo River and Como Square are out of the Anthony-raced Pangburn, a daughter of Congrats who was an allowance winner in 2015 at Oaklawn.

The post Caddo River Makes First Start Since June At Oaklawn Sunday appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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