Hard to Justify Gives Brown A Sixth BC Juvenile Fillies Turf Title

It took about 45 minutes for Justify to add to his Breeders' Cup grab, as HARD TO JUSTIFY (–Instant Reflex, by Quality Road) managed to secure a handy position from gate 12, relaxed kindly through the middle fractions and kept on very gamely to hold off an equally game try from the Donnacha O'Brien-trained Porta Fortuna (Ire) (Caravaggio) to give trainer Chad Brown a remarkable sixth success in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita, where he won his very first Breeders' Cup race some 15 years ago in the same event with Maram.

The $190,000 Keeneland September yearling, who earned her way into the Breeders' Cup with a tally in the GIII Miss Grillo S. at Aqueduct last month, was guided down towards the inside by Flavien Prat to sit just off the flank of Dreamfyre (Flameaway), herself the all-the-way winner of the local prep, the Oct. 8 Surfer Girl S. Asked to confront the front-runner approaching the entrance to the stretch, Hard to Justify edged in front and battled on bravely for the victory as Porta Fortuna was just beaten. Favored She Feels Pretty, a daughter of GI Breeders' Cup Mile hero Karakontie (Jpn), was unable to get in from her high draw and was therefore consigned to a four-wide trip, but she, too, boxed on determinedly to finish not far away. It was a 17th Breeders' Cup victory overall for Brown and fifth for Prat, who was aboard Flightline (Tapit) in that history-making Classic last fall.

 

Friday, Santa Anita
BREEDERS' CUP JUVENILE FILLIES TURF-GI, $920,000, Santa Anita, 11-3, 2yo, f, 1mT, 1:34.42, fm.
1–HARD TO JUSTIFY, 122, f, 2, by Justify
             1st Dam: Instant Reflex (GSP), by Quality Road
             2nd Dam: Without Delay, by Seeking the Gold
             3rd Dam: Slow Down, by Seattle Slew
1ST GRADE I WIN. ($190,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP). O-Wise Racing LLC; B-Yeguada Centurion S.L. (KY); T-Chad C. Brown; J-Flavien Prat. $520,000. Lifetime Record: 3-3-0-0, $687,750. Werk Nick Rating: A+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Porta Fortuna (Ire), 122, f, 2, by Caravaggio
             1st Dam: Too Precious (Ire), by Holy Roman Emperor (Ire)
             2nd Dam: Delicate Charm (Ire), by High Chaparral (Ire)
             3rd Dam: Kantikoy (GB), by Alzao
O-Medallion Racing, Parkland Thoroughbreds, Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and Barry Fowler; B-Whisperview Trading Ltd (Ire); T-Donnacha O'Brien. $170,000.
3–She Feels Pretty, 122, f, 2, by Karakontie (Jpn)
             1st Dam: Summer Sweet, by More Than Ready
             2nd Dam: Summer Solstice (Ire), by Caerleon
             3rd Dam: Summer Sonnet (GB), by Baillamont
($240,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP). O-Lael Stables; B-Payson Stud Inc (KY); T-Cherie DeVaux. $90,000.
Margins: HF, HD, 3/4. Odds: 9.10, 3.80, 3.50.
Also Ran: Content (Ire), Austere, Buchu, Carla's Way (Ire), Life's an Audible, Dreamfyre, Laulne (Fr), Les Pavots (Ire), Flattery, Gala Brand, Buttercream Babe. Scratched: Go With Gusto, Mo Fox Givin.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

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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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Manny Franco Earns Career Win 2,000, Takes Belmont Riding Title

Jockey Manny Franco earned the 2,000th victory of his career Sunday at Aqueduct when guiding the Chad Brown-trained Spirit of St Louis to a half-length score in the day's second race.

“I feel great,” Franco, who also won the day's opener, said. “I had that on me the whole week, so I'm glad to do it early. I'm a little calm now and happy to do it. I just let him do what he wanted to do because I know the pace wasn't fast in front. I just kept my position and he was there for me the whole way.”

Franco, 28, won three races at the Belmont at Aqueduct meet finale Sunday to secure his third NYRA riding title of the year. Franco earned 34 wins at the stand to take a three-way battle for the riding title over Irad Ortiz, Jr. and Jose Ortiz, who tied for second with 31 wins.

Four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown won his 30th training title at a NYRA meet and 12th consecutive Belmont fall title when leading all trainers with 28 wins, giving him back-to-back meet titles after tying with Linda Rice at this year's Saratoga meet.

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Final Works Continue For Breeders’ Cup Weekend

Several horses pre-entered in next weekend's Breeders' Cup World Championships at Santa Anita turned in their final preparations Saturday morning.

At Keeneland, these horses each worked a half-mile over a fast track: Brightwork (Outwork) (Juvenile Fillies/Juvenile Turf Sprint) breezed in :47.80 (14/106) for trainer John Ortiz. Gina Romantica (Into Mischief) (FanDuel Mile/Maker's Mark Filly and Mare Turf) went in :47.20 (3/106) in company with Liguria (War Front) for trainer Chad Brown. And Proxy (Tapit) (Classic) worked in :48.40 (29/106) for trainer Mike Stidham.

Working on the turf course labeled good were: Arzak (Not This Time) (Turf Sprint) who covered three furlongs on :34.80 (1/1) for trainer Mike Trombetta and In Italian (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) (Filly and Mare Turf/Mile) who went five furlongs in 1:03.60 (2/2) for Chad Brown.

Trainer Brad Cox's Breeders' Cup contingent, all based at Churchill Downs, completed their final workouts Saturday.

The official times for each of Cox's runners were: A Mo Reay (Uncle Mo) (five furlongs, :59.40 {1/32}); Caravel (Mizzen Mast) (four furlongs, :51.60 {1/1}); Idiomatic (Curlin) (five furlongs, :59.60 {2/32}); Matareya (Pioneerof the Nile) (five furlongs, 1:00.80 {13/32}); Saudi Crown (Always Dreaming) (six furlongs, 1:12.20 {1/1}); Wet Paint (Blame) (five furlongs, 1:01 {17/32}); and Zozos (Munnings) (five furlongs, :59.80 {3/32}).

 

GI Breeders' Cup Classic contender Saudi Crown was among the first horses to work Saturday morning and breezed outside A Mo Reay.

“We put him on the inside last week with A Mo Reay and we put him on the outside this week,” Cox said. “I've loved what we've seen from him since the Pennsylvania Derby. A Mo Reay is a good work horse and he's gotten a lot out of his works. By the way he's doing now here in Kentucky, I'm confident he'll run a big race in the Classic.”

At Santa Anita, all five of Phil D'Amato's Breeders' Cup contenders worked Saturday including Desert Dawn (Cupid), who drilled five furlongs on the main track in :59.80 (9/39).

“It was a solid drill. I think we're Distaff bound,” D'Amato noted.

Motorious (Muhaarar {GB}), a contender for the GI Turf Sprint, cruised a half mile on the training track in :50.60 (15/18). D'Amato also worked Gold Phoenix (Ire) (Belardo {Ire}) (five furlongs 1:02 {10/14}) and Masteroffoxhounds (War Front) (five furlongs in 1:01 {4/14}).

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