To her far outside is the pair of homebreds Scandalous (Mastery) and Spinning Class (Twirling Candy). The former is a Pletcher trainee who will carry the colors of co-breeder and co-owners Bass Stables. Cheyenne Stables bought into the filly out of a half-sister to MSW Pickapocket (Mecke); GSW & GISP Wild At Heart (Indian Charlie) and that one's full-sister GSP Visavis. Spinning Class hails from the venerable Janney operation, owned by Stuart S. Janney III, and is the first to the races for GSW My Impression (Sky Mesa), herself a half-sister to the dam of GSW Scarlett Sky (Sky Mesa). This is the female line of Claiborne stalwart First Samurai. TJCIS PPs

7th-CD, $120k, Msw, 2yo, f, 6f, 4:01p.m. ET
Making her career-first start for owner Godolphin is HOPE MISSION (Medaglia d'Oro), the flagbearer to the races for GSW & GISP Arabian Hope (Distorted Humor), who is herself a half-sister to $3.65m FTFMAR grad MGSW Cezanne (Curlin) and MSP Counterforce (Smart Strike). This is the female family of GISW Streaming (Smart Strike); champion 3-year-old filly MGISW Rags to Riches (A.P. Indy); MGSW & GISP Tyson (Tapit); and MGISW Arcangelo (Arrogate). TJCIS PPs

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Heavily bet down to 2-5 going for his second straight graded-stakes win, the 4-year-old wasted no time going right for the lead and assumed command a path off the rail ahead of Carrothers (Mshawish). Always under a wrap by jockey Rafael Hernandez, Tyson was briefly headed as he faced pressure up front from that same rival as the opening half went in :49.88. The top pair raced in tandem around the far turn but the grey had another gear left to find and, when roused at the furlong marker, easily dispatched Carrothers and quickly put open lengths on him to hit the wire much the best.

“He's a really nice horse,” said Hernandez. “[trainer] Josie [Carroll] told me, 'Raffi, just play it by ear. It's a small field, just see what happens and try to give a good race to the horse.' He'll do anything you want him to do. He showed up today.”

“It's one of our best pedigrees, one that we've cultivated for more than 30 years,” added owner/breeder John Sikura. “I have great admiration for Mike Tyson, and I thought this is a special horse, so I wanted to name him Tyson. Wonderful horse, beautifully bred and I want to thank everyone at the farm for the great job they've done, and Josie, for being a magnificent trainer and holding this horse together and getting him on the right track. It looks like he's going to be a champion.”

Pedigree Note:

Out of a winning full-sister to both GI Hollywood Starlet S. winner Streaming and SW Treasuring, Tyson counts MGSW Cezanne (Curlin), GSW/G1SP Arabian Hope (Distorted Humor), and recent GI Belmont S. hero Arcangelo (Arrogate) as members of his extended family under just his second dam. Third dam Better Than Honour is responsible for a pair of Belmont S. winners in champion 3-year-old filly Rags to Riches (A.P. Indy) and Jazil (Seeking the Gold) along with GSW/G1SP Casino Drive (Mineshaft) and GSW/GISP Greatest Honour (Tapit). Honouring has not produced a live foal since reporting a full-sister to Tyson in 2021 but did visit leading general sire Into Mischief for the 2024 season.

https://twitter.com/TVG/status/1685394111720001536?s=20

Saturday, Woodbine
SEAGRAM CUP S.-GII, C$178,850, Woodbine, 7-29, 3yo/up,
1 1/16m (AWT), 1:43.26, ft.
1–TYSON, 124, c, 4, by Tapit
      1st Dam: Honouring, by Smart Strike
      2nd Dam: Teeming, by Storm Cat
      3rd Dam: Better Than Honour, by Deputy Minister
($250,000 RNA Ylg '20 KEESEP). O/B-Hill 'n' Dale Equine
Holdings Inc (J G Sikura) & Stretch Run Ventures LLC (KY);
T-Josie Carroll; J-Rafael Manuel Hernandez. C$105,000.
Lifetime Record: 5-4-0-1, $225,205. Werk Nick Rating: A. Click
for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the free
Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Carrothers, 122, g, 5, Mshawish–Queenofperfection, by Arch.
($125,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-Mad Dog Racing Stable; B-Siena
Farms LLC (KY); T-Martin Drexler. C$35,000.
3–Artie's Storm, 122, g, 5, We Miss Artie–Tiz Stormy Now, by
Tiznow. O-Buttigieg Training Centre; B-Sunrise Farm (ON);
T-Paul M Buttigieg. C$23,100.
Margins: 3, HF, 4HF. Odds: 0.45, 4.00, 14.25.
Also Ran: Clear Destination, Kingmax (Ire), Seventyseven Stone.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs.
VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

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“He's a lovely horse, with a magnificent pedigree,” said Stride Away co-owner Cathy Reggelsen. “He came out firing as a freshman last year and that's certainly continued this season already. He's producing athletic-looking horses with good temperaments and we can't wait to show him off to potential breeders. We're very excited to have him here and hope to continue the great work started with him by Jack Bennett [Road's End].”

A fee for Counterforce's 2024 season will be set at a later date.

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So, to give one example, I shouldn't be at all surprised if the most expensive yearling transaction of 2022 has yet to take place, despite that booming market at Keeneland over the past few days. American investment at the Tattersalls October Sale has been soaring in recent years, and the environment this time round could not be more congenial. Even the biggest domestic investors will be bringing a penknife to a gunfight. Sterling has hit a 37-year low against the dollar and, with the fiscal helm in Britain seized by navigators unorthodox to the point of eccentricity, you couldn't rule out outright parity between the two currencies by the time Tattersalls raises a hammer over several yearlings from the penultimate crop of Galileo (Ire).

And here's another calculation for the rich; specifically, for those prosperous partners privileged to share Flightline (Tapit). If all goes well at the Breeders' Cup, somebody in their decision-making huddle will surely point out that nowadays he has the option of banking the equivalent of around 50 covers, even at his likely fee, with a 110-second gallop in Saudi Arabia. (Conceivably it might even be muttered that the race is scheduled just 11 days into the breeding season.)

From the sidelines, we're all fondly anticipating mass public engagement for our sport if Flightline is permitted to extend his career beyond a sixth start. Even if his owners were to give us what we want, however, there's a scenario in which we might seem impossible to satisfy. What if they ask us to settle for a couple of breakfast broadcasts from the desert, before he rests up and takes in maybe a single prep before the Breeders' Cup? I think our gratitude might soon obtain a rather peevish note.

On some level, those imploring his owners to keep him in training are suggesting some implicit duty to the sport. That feels a little unfair. At the same time, if we are asked to believe that their strategy really won't be governed simply by dollars and cents, then it does at least become a question of the kind of legacy they wish to create from a generational opportunity.

Flightline's stud career is emphatically part of that, too, though let's not forget that even an authentic racetrack phenomenon must start over and prove himself in his second career. For now, it's not as though Flightline could be sensibly proposed as an equivalent wager, in terms of what a breeder should be expected to pay, to Into Mischief.

At 126, Flightline has authored one of just eight Beyers ever recorded at 125 or more. The only horse to hit a higher mark, Ghostzapper (128), is also the only one with any pretension to having maintained his elite status at stud. More typical are the fortunes of the horse with the unique distinction of clocking two of those eight Himalayan Beyers.

In his three final starts, Formal Gold ran 126, 124 (smashing a 40-year Monmouth track record) and 125; he was going into the Breeders' Cup on an irresistible roll when derailed by injury. Yet he would prove a thoroughly anonymous stallion, best redeemed by Semaphore Man, who annually contested the GIII Count Fleet H., aged four through seven, for finishes of 3-2-1-1. After failing to get any of three Saskatchewan mares in foal in 2017, Formal Gold was retired into the best of care but nobody noticed when he quietly slipped away two or three years back.

Now obviously Flightline is a radically different proposition. And not just because Formal Gold, expertly handled by the unsung Bill Perry and thriving on the attentions of Skip Away and Will's Way, stood up to 16 starts in 15 months. Formal Gold cost $62,000 as Hip 1657 at the September Sale; Flightline made seven figures at Saratoga. Alongside his freakish performances, then, he evidently has the genetic and physical wherewithal to make a better fist of his next career.

But even Secretariat notoriously failed to find a male heir. All Thoroughbreds tend to keep us guessing, in some respect or other, and that's never going to change. Certainly I can't buy into the notion that Flightline has fueled the market boom by showing that even really big numbers can be made to make sense. The year he was sold was no different from any other, in terms of the spectrum of outcomes.

It was that September, for instance, that the daughter of Leslie's Lady and American Pharoah made $8.2 million, and there's no need to remind anyone of the tragedy that ensued. That kind of thing can happen to any horse, but it's pretty sobering to scroll down the other top prices paid at that auction. They were obviously well assessed, physically, because most have made the racetrack. But while Malathaat (Curlin) has proved a million bucks very well spent, and there have been moments of excitement for the likes of Spielberg (Union Rags) and Overtook (Curlin), suffice to say that there are some pretty expensive geldings pottering around out there.

The late Cezanne in March | Horsephotos

Another of the headline scores of the 2019 bloodstock market was the $3.65-million Curlin colt that topped Fasig-Tipton's 2-year-old sale at Gulfstream. I was extremely sorry, this week, to read that Cezanne's various travails since had reached a fatal nadir in a fungal infection. He will duly remain an unfinished masterpiece, albeit even he managed two more starts than Flightline to this point. Cezanne's whole story has proved a very poignant one: most obviously, as the parting bow of Jimmy Crupi, but also given the premature loss (through colic) of a dam from one of the most brilliantly curated families in the book.

Cezanne had shown sufficient flashes of brilliance to merit a chance at stud and, this business being what it is, he would have started with the same blank slate as will Flightline. So we can never know, from one day to the next, quite when a Thoroughbred has achieved its definitive value.

As such, in enjoying a loaded GI Pennsylvania Derby on Saturday, perhaps we should cast our minds back to the 1996 running when Formal Gold was turned over at short odds. In the event, it proved that he had barely started. Maybe that can still prove true of Zandon (Upstart), in which hope I'm clinging stubbornly to the wreckage after his championship credentials took a battering in the GI Travers.

To me, he looked like a horse in some kind of discomfort that day, the way he carried his head turning in, and I refuse to forget the way he glided into contention on the first Saturday in May. For such a baffling Derby, it is turning out to be a pretty good one, and yet there was a moment when Zandon looked in a class of his own.

His equation still has that 'x' element, and maybe his new jockey will discover its true value. You know, I might even stake a dollar or two out of my grocery budget.

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The post Cezanne Euthanized Due to Fungal Infection appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Essential Wager left the gate smartly and came up on the inside to emerge from the early fray with the lead, marking the first quarter in :22.21 with Team Merchants (Nyquist) pressing from the outside. The two held position with the half notched in :45.17, then Essential Wager cut the corner and pulled away with a right-handed reminder. He blazed five panels in :57.41 while Shooters Shoot (Competitive Edge) was flying on the outside. As game as they come, Shooters Shoot could not pass Essential Wager and finished a neck back while Essential Wager held firm.

The winner came into the Palos Verdes off a brilliant work in tandem with Cezanne Jan. 23, in which he finished in front of his stablemate with a time of :59 2/5 for the five furlongs. It was best of 88 that day, with Cezanne hitting his mark in :59 3/5 (2/88).

“This horse is getting better and better, he had trained really well,” said Baffert. “With Cezanne, I think it was a little too short for him. All of Essential Wager's races have been pretty impressive and actually, he's bred not to be a sprinter. [Rider] Abel [Cedillo] did a great job, got him outta there and held off those horses pretty well. You know, he took a lot of heat early and kept going.”

Essential Wager debuted at seven furlongs in October over this track with an educational start: a bump, a stumble, a premature move, and a lost duel. He finished second that day, but moved down to six furlongs and has stayed there since, resulting in a maiden win Nov. 12 at Del Mar, a first-level allowance Dec. 11 at Los Alamitos, and Saturday's Palos Verdes victory.

“We're going to let Bobby [Baffert] do what he wants with him,” said co-owner Mike Pegram, “but I think he can probably get two turns, it looks like.”

Pedigree Notes:
One of nine black-type winners for Honor Code, Essential Wager is his young sire's fourth graded winner. His other three graded winners have all come at the Grade I level.

Inbred 3×5 to Seattle Slew, Essential Wager is one of 19 stakes winners out of a daughter of Officer. His dam has a 2-year-old filly named Bru Na Boinne (Arrogate), who brought $120,000 from Wayne R. Sanders and Kat Kirk at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October yearling sale. She also has a yearling full-sister to Essential Wager named Essential Ellie and visited the court of Wildcat Red for this spring's foal.

Saturday, Santa Anita
PALOS VERDES S.-GIII, $200,000, Santa Anita, 1-29, 4yo/up, 6f, 1:09.95, ft.
1–ESSENTIAL WAGER, 120, c, 4, by Honor Code
               1st Dam: Mr Hall's Opus (GSP, $155,300), by Officer
               2nd Dam: Sala de Oro, by Expelled
               3rd Dam: Kildare, by Flying Paster
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($200,000
RNA Ylg '19 KEESEP; $300,000 2yo '20 OBSAPR). O-Michael E.
Pegram, Karl Watson, & Paul Weitman; B-Maccabee Farm
(KY); T-Bob Baffert; J-Abel Cedillo. $120,000. Lifetime
Record: 4-3-1-0, $207,200. Werk Nick Rating: A. Click for
the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Shooters Shoot, 120, g, 5, Competitive Edge–Repeat, by
Bernardini. ($90,000 Wlg '17 KEENOV; $70,000 Ylg '18
KEESEP; $300,000 2yo '19 OBSAPR). O-Bella Cavello Stables
LLC; B-Nancy C. Shuford (KY); T-Richard Baltas. $40,000.
3–Cezanne, 122, h, 5, Curlin–Achieving, by Bernardini.
($3,650,000 2yo '19 FTFMAR). O-Mrs. John Magnier,
Michael B. Tabor, Derrick Smith & St. Elias Stable; B-Hill 'n'
Dale Equine Holdings, Inc. & St. Elias Stables, LLC (KY); T-Bob
Baffert. $24,000.
Margins: NK, 2 3/4, 3HF. Odds: 1.80, 20.60, 0.70.
Also Ran: Team Merchants, Dark Vader. Scratched: Arham.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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Happily it has the most discerning of curators in John Sikura, who has been devotedly cultivating this family–Cezanne's third dam is the celebrated Better Than Honour (Deputy Minister)–since the turn of the century. Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale Farm co-bred Cezanne with St. Elias Stable, whose owner Vinnie Viola retained a stake alongside the Coolmore partners when the colt topped the Gulfstream Sale of 2019 at $3.65 million.

Poignantly, that proved to be the parting bow of Viola's great friend Jimmy Crupi, who passed away shortly after preparing Cezanne for the sale. And the horse who hurtled :10 flat that week himself appeared to go into mourning, not making his debut for Bob Baffert for over a year. His first couple of starts proved worth the wait, but after apparently failing to cope with a rise in grade he disappeared again until resurfacing at Santa Anita last Sunday. His performance there suggests that he is now poised to make up for lost time for a family tree that has already blossomed anew this spring through Greatest Honour (Tapit), a grandson of Better Than Honour who retains potential to top the crop despite unfortunately sitting out the Derby.

Cezanne is trying to become one of those horses that makes sense of the way an entire industry strives for viability. He represents principles that need to work out sufficiently often to maintain investment at the highest level, even if it's no less important that other successes appear less accountable. For Sikura (with various partners along the way) has ensured that this royal line has been seeded by the very best broodmare sires: Cezanne is out of a Bernardini mare, herself out of a daughter of Storm Cat. And Better Than Honour's sire, the legendary distaff influence Deputy Minister, is also the damsire of Curlin. As Sikura puts it: “Sort of molasses on top of sugar on top of an artificial sweetener. About as rich as you can make it.”

John Sikura | Keeneland photo

Sikura's original engagement with this family, buying and selling Better Than Honour twice over, is not just familiar but outright historic. First time, she soon passed through his hands: a private purchase from Robert Waxman, in whose silks she had won a Grade II, she was sold on to the Gumberg family's Skara Glen Stables with the proviso that if her first foal proved to be a filly, Sikura would keep her. That proved a turning point, as Better Than Honour delivered a daughter by Storm Cat.

Though she did not make the track until four, Teeming won all three starts after her debut. “She was wonderfully talented, but unsound,” remembers Sikura. “She had superstar ability, and just a magnetic personality: beautiful face, well-made, just an exquisite creature.”

And, as it would turn out, she also had a useful propensity to deliver fillies. But meanwhile her mother was busy upgrading the pedigree, famously giving us consecutive GI Belmont S. winners in Jazil (Seeking the Gold) and Rags to Riches (A.P. Indy) to emulate her own granddam Best in Show (Traffic Judge) as a Broodmare of the Year. So when Mike Moreno of Southern Equine partnered with Sikura, with a brief to seek the best possible mares, their first purchase was Better Than Honour. At that stage, Rags to Riches had been beaten on her solitary juvenile start. By the time the partnership was dissolved, in 2008, Better Than Honour had made herself worth $14 million, a broodmare auction record, for Moreno to buy out Sikura.

Remarkably, Teeming turned out seven winning fillies, most notably Streaming (Smart Strike) who won the GI Hollywood Starlet S. One day Viola enquired if there might be any access into the dynasty. “I don't sell that family,” Sikura replied. “But if I ever do, I'll call you.”

Viola's chance came through Teeming's second daughter, a maiden winner by Bernardini named Achieving. Sikura had raced her in partnership with the late James A. Sapara of Winsong Farm, Alberta, whose share was originally acquired by George Prussin before ultimately being traded on to Viola. By that stage she had three foals on the track, two of them black-type winners including Arabian Hope (Distorted Humor), Group I-placed over a mile in Europe for Godolphin. Viola's esteem for Curlin is well known, so fortunately the mare had a repeat date with Hill 'n' Dale's top gun after delivering Cezanne. The resulting full-sister, now in Florida preparing to join Todd Pletcher, became all the more precious after the premature loss of Achieving.

Curlin at Hill 'n' Dale | Sarah Andrew

“She colicked, it was tragic,” Sikura said. “But you know in this business things won't always follow your plan. My son said, 'Dad, how come only the good horses die?' I said, 'I guess our goal is to be surrounded by good horses. So that means anytime something will go on, it will be an enormous loss.' Of course, equine life is always precious. But when you have a unique, special, one-off type of animal, it makes it even harder. But that's the business, I'm sad to say. And things go on.”

They sure did, with Cezanne–albeit for a while that didn't seem terribly likely. They put him in the September Sale as a yearling. He was very correct, but a touch plain and they never could work off a bit of girth.

Viola came to the barn on the day of the sale and asked: “How are we doing?”

“We don't have anybody,” Sikura replied. “There's been no scoping. Had people look, but I don't think he's going to get sold.”

They agreed not to put him through the ring but to send him down to Crupi in Florida, and the rest is history. That's what Sikura is hoping, anyway, because he makes it a rule not to ask about horses he has sold–especially at that kind of money. “Because if they're good, it's common knowledge,” he says wryly. “And, if they're no good or something went wrong, you hate to put someone on the spot.”

So while he doesn't know quite what it was that interrupted Cezanne's career, he is gratified to see him thriving now for a team for whom he has the utmost regard.

“It was great he sold so well,” Sikura says. “But as important, for you to continue to restock and be in business, is that those horses are successful for the new owners. He has certainly shown that he has brilliant ability and now it's up to the racing gods. But he's in the hands of a master, he's owned by the smartest horsemen in the world, and it's a wonderful family–one of the few international pedigrees that performs in America, that performs in Europe, and at the highest level. Coolmore know the quality of that family [Better Than Honour's half-sister was dam of their champion Peeping Fawn (Danehill)]. So it's worked for them, and it's worked for us. We've had many daughters and I hope it will continue to proliferate, so that you end up with only one dam on the page and that's it.”

Cezanne leaving the Fasig-Tipton ring in 2019 | Fasig-Tipton photo

Admittedly Cezanne hasn't necessarily jumped through quite the expected hoops to this point. He was bought as a ready-to-roll flying machine who also had a Classic, two-turn page. Two years later, he has just made his fourth start, and in a sprint. It may be that Baffert just didn't want to stretch him on his comeback and, having pounced off an obligingly wild pace at Santa Anita, Cezanne may yet be restored to a second turn. That can be left to the seasoned judgement of his trainer and ownership group. All that really matters is that he bears the family hallmark.

Which is what, exactly? “There's randomness in all genetics, but there seems to be less here,” Sikura says. “It's a richness of blood that doesn't seem to wane, doesn't water down. It doesn't skip a generation. The transmission of quality is just so consistent. It's a rarity, but every once in a while, mares do that.”

Sikura suspects that such mares were slightly less uncommon in the past. (If he's right, then maybe that's something to do with the loosening of quality inevitable in modern stallion books: in times past, only the most eligible mares deserved access to top sires.) Regardless, he looks at the way Courtly Dee and her daughters were managed, and dares to dream of a similar legacy someday–“where one becomes two, becomes five, and then you've got 10, 12 daughters, granddaughters, great-granddaughters, all providing racehorses with relevancy today, tomorrow, and yesterday.”

If anything, Sikura felt that the family had fallen a little dormant over the past couple of years. But his expectations never wavered, and he has retained fillies from different branches so that he can control his own destiny, can keep that quality tight: a War Front here, a Candy Ride (Arg) there. But he's delighted, of course, that the line should have been newly invigorated by his own farm's premier stallion.

“It's very rewarding to breed a good horse, to see another generation come through under your care,” Sikura says. “You try with all of them, but only sometimes are you lucky enough to have the right vine, that outperforms the other vines. I guess that's what makes Chateau Lafite, and that's also what makes great dynasties in cattle or hunting dogs. Every once in a while, there seems to be such a concentration of genetic stuff that the fault lines are very thin. The expectation, the commonplace, is excellence and superiority–whereas in virtually every other mare, it's happenstance.

“In Better Than Honour and through Teeming and her daughters, greatness always seemed imminent. The family produces unfiltered quality so reliably they are generational influencers on the breed. Supreme quality and prepotency that only the rarest of families beget are hallmarks of this page. The fact that Greatest Honour and Cezanne emerged this year is a reminder of the relevancy and influence of this family each generation from Blush With Pride, Better Than Honour, Teeming and now Achieving.”

But you can't be in a hurry for that stuff. Even in the brief span of Cezanne's adolescence, after all, there has been a repeated need for patience.

“I remember saying how we had no action on this horse, and then all of a sudden he was the wild talking horse at Gulfstream,” says Sikura. “So well done to everybody. He's well owned, he's well trained, he's well bred. I don't see any deficit in the horse. I hope the sky's the limit.

“It's nice when you have a deal where genuinely everybody prospers, where everybody benefits and shares in the reward. It doesn't happen that often, there aren't that many opportunities, but this I believe is a deal that is giving back to everybody. They were brave to buy him and hopefully they're going to be rewarded with a blue-blooded stud prospect that has achieved on the racetrack.”

Andre Pater's painting of Teeming | courtesy Hill 'n' Dale

Aptly enough, a precious contributor to this tale has been actually rendered in paint. With eerie timing, as though anticipating both the imminent disaster and the consolations that would follow, Sikura for the first time decided to commission a portrait of one of his mares. Just days after Andre Pater came out for an initial study, Teeming was dead. (She suffered complications after twisting a gut.) Pater had wanted to pose her against a tree and Sikura requested that it should unobtrusively extend a dead limb with seven new sprouts.

“Nobody will see it or know it, but I will and that will represent the seven daughters,” he explains. “So there's the rejuvenation, the rebirth. Even now when I think of the day she died, I just hit bottom.  But if there wasn't so much bad in this business, the good wouldn't feel as good.”

And, by the same token, greatness seldom comes our way. “It has to be so rare that people think, are you sure it can happen?” says Sikura. “And then, just when you don't think it can happen anymore, it does happen. It's frustrating along the way, but it's much like with the Triple Crown. People said you have to change dates, it doesn't work this way, it doesn't work that way. And then here come two Triple Crown winners, including one that didn't run as a 2-year-old, which was an impossibility.”

Yet however rare, greatness can have a clockwork quality, too. With Best in Show a Broodmare of the Year, and her granddaughter the same, how about a granddaughter of Better Than Honour someday following suit?

“That would just be history-making,” Sikura says. “That would be something that would last forever. You wouldn't want it for personal accolade, or to say 'look what we've done.' It would be for the family; it would be to recognize something that is going to be there for eternity, as one of the unique mares of the Stud Book. You could only dream of that happening. But the possibility is there.”

The post Cezanne Brings New Honor to Storied Family appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Taken in-hand out of the gate while stablemate Ax Man chased Brickyard Ride, Cezanne was next to last in a field of four at the rail and moved into contention around the far turn while well within himself.  With Prat sitting motionless to the five sixteenths pole, Cezanne fairly sailed by Brickyard Ride turning for home and won in sensational fashion as Baffert picked up his second win on the day.

“It worked out well,” said Prat, who has now ridden Cezanne in all four of his starts, winning three times.  “We had a fast pace in front of us and we were able to save ground.  He gave me a good kick when I asked him.  He ran really nice.”

Fourth in the two turn Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar Aug. 1, Cezanne, in his second career stakes assignment, was the second choice at 9-5 and paid $5.80 and $2.40 with no show wagering.

“We knew there was going to be a hot pace,” said Jimmy Barnes, assistant to Baffert, who also collected his fourth Kona Gold win today.  “Not sure how fast, but it ended up being fast, and you know Cezanne just ate them up.  (Prat) gave him a wonderful ride and Bob had him ready…With the races coming up this spring and summer, we should be looking really good with Cezanne.”

Owned by Mrs. John Magnier, Michael B. Tabor, Derrick Smith and St. Elias Stable, Cezanne, who is out of the Bernardini mare Achieving, now has three wins from four starts and with the winner's take of $60,000, increased his earnings to $123,000.

Brickyard Ride, who set similarly fast splits in winning the Grade II, seven furlong San Carlos Stakes here on March 6, was unable to notch his third consecutive stakes win, but stayed gamely for the place, finishing 1 ¼ lengths better than Fight On, while Ax Man checked in last.

Ridden by Alexis Centeno, Brickyard Ride, the lone Cal-bred in the field of four 3-year-olds and up was off at 3-5 and paid $2.20 to show.

Fraction on the race were 21.18, 43.60 and 1:08.27.

With a training double, Baffert has 32 wins through 50 racing days, two better than Phil D'Amato.  Prat, who also won the Grade 3 Tokyo City Cup earlier with Tizamagician, now has 89 wins, 38 clear of Juan Hernandez.  Prat's 16 stakes wins put him six in front of Umberto Rispoli.

Racing resumes with first post time for a nine-race card on Friday at 1 p.m.

The post High-Priced Cezanne Leaves Big Impression In Kona Gold appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Away cleanly but last from the rail, Cezanne sat third some

10 lengths behind the fleet-footed Brickyard Ride as that foe zipped through splits of :21.18 and :43.60 with Cezanne's stablemate Ax Man (Misremembered) applying pressure. Cezanne cruised ominously closer heading for home as the pacesetter was clearly feeling his early exertions. Brickyard Ride came well off the fence entering the lane, and Cezanne cut the corner and seized the lead before running up the score to 9 3/4 lengths. Brickyard Ride held second over Fight On (Into Mischief).

“It worked out well,” said rider Flavien Prat. “We had a fast pace in front of us and we were able to save ground.  He gave me a good kick when I asked him. He ran really nice.”

Jimmy Barnes, assistant to trainer Bob Baffert, added, “We knew there was going to be a hot pace. Not sure how fast, but it ended up being fast, and you know Cezanne just ate them up.  [Prat] gave him a wonderful ride and Bob had him ready… With the races coming up this spring and summer, we should be looking really good with Cezanne.”

Sunday, Santa Anita
KONA GOLD S.-GIII, $98,000, Santa Anita, 4-18, 3yo/up, 6 1/2f, 1:14.71, ft.
1–CEZANNE, 122, c, 4, by Curlin
          1st Dam: Achieving, by Bernardini
          2nd Dam: Teeming, by Storm Cat
          3rd Dam: Better Than Honour, by Deputy Minister
1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($3,650,000
2yo '19 FTFMAR). O-Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick
Smith & St Elias Stable; B-Hill 'n' Dale Equine Holdings, Inc. &
St. Elias Stables, LLC (KY); T-Bob Baffert; J-Flavien Prat.
$60,000. Lifetime Record: 4-3-0-0, $123,000. *1/2 to
Counterforce (Smart Strike), SW, $323,708; and Arabian
Hope (Distorted Humor), GSW-Tur, SW & G1SP-Eng, $227,783.
Click for eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick Rating:
   A+++ *Triple Plus*.
2–Brickyard Ride, 126, c, 4, Clubhouse Ride–Brickyard Helen,
by Southern Image. O/B-Alfred A. Pais (CA); T-Craig Anthony
Lewis. $20,000.
3–Fight On, 124, h, 6, Into Mischief–Havenlass, by Elusive
Quality. ($340,000 Ylg '16 KEESEP). O-C T R Stables LLC
(Calvert) & Westside Racing Stable; B-Haymarket Farm LLC
(KY); T-Doug F. O'Neill. $12,000.
Margins: 9 3/4, 1 1/4, 3/4. Odds: 1.90, 0.60, 20.90.
Also Ran: Ax Man. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

Cezanne was a :10 flat breezer at Gulfstream. Coolmore's M.V. Magnier was also involved in the acquisition of three of the next five lots. With the auction having been cancelled last year due to the pandemic, representatives of Coolmore bought two colts at last month's sale–the $2.6-million Nyquist topper and $1.3-million Uncle Mo third topper.

Pedigree Notes:
Cezanne is the 70th stakes winner, 40th graded, for super sire Curlin–who was also responsible earlier on the card for dominant Baffert-trained firster Curvette. Cezanne is bred on a potent cross also responsible for last year's GI Coaching Club American Oaks winner Paris Lights and leading 2021 GI Kentucky Oaks contender Clairiere.

Bernardini sits at 11th on the broodmare sire list for 2021 with significantly fewer mares than the majority of older counterparts above him. His ever-growing list of stakes winners as a broodmare sire sits at 49 (28 graded), and includes this year's GI Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational S. hero Colonel Liam (Liam's Map).

The winner's dam Achieving is a great granddaughter of Broodmare of the Year Better Than Honour. Achieving produced a full sister to Curlin in 2019. Vinnie Viola's St. Elias has had serious success with sons of Curlin, including GI Breeders' Cup Classic hero Vino Rosso and this year's GI Curlin Florida Derby winner Known Agenda, who is GI Kentucky Derby bound.

The post Pricey Cezanne Wins Big in Return to the Races appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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“He's doing well,” Baffert reported following the work Thursday. “We just freshened him up.”

Racing for Susan Magnier, Derrick Smith, and Michael Tabor, as well as co-breeder St. Elias Stable, Cezanne opened his career with a 2 1/4-length victory going 6 1/2 furlongs last June at Santa Anita. He followed up with a one-mile allowance victory at Los Alamitos in July, but suffered his first loss when fourth behind Thousand Words (Pioneerof the Nile) in the Aug. 1 Shared Belief S. at Del Mar.

Thursday's work was Cezanne's third of the month. The 4-year-old worked a bullet five furlongs from the gate in 1:00.00 (1/29) at Santa Anita Mar. 3 and went five furlongs in :59.80 (2/19) Mar. 9.

While no specific spot has been picked out for the colt's return, Baffert said, “He's getting close to a race soon.”

Cezanne worked a furlong in :10 flat before his sale-topping turn at the Gulfstream sale two years ago. Bred by Hill 'n' Dale Equine Holdings and St. Elias Stables, he is out of Achieving (Bernardini), a half-sister to Grade I winner Streaming (Smart Strike). His third dam is blue hen mare Better Than Honour (Deputy Minister).

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