Chad Brown | Horse Racing Free Tips

Insights: Pletcher Sends out Noteworthy Runners on Both Florida Coasts

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3rd-GP, $60K, Msw, 3yo, 1 1/16mT, 12:58 p.m. ET
Todd Pletcher-trained Native Thunder (American Pharoah) is one of a trio of well-bred sophomores who makes their debuts here. Out of 2002 GI Del Mar Debutante S. heroine Miss Houdini (Belong to Me), the $200,000 Keeneland September yearling is half to MGSW millionaire Papa Clem (Smart Strike) and Ce Ce (Elusive Quality), last year's GI Breeders' Cup F/M Sprint winner and an Eclipse Award finalist. There's some turf in the Lazy F Ranch colorbearer's family as well: another stakes-placed female out of Miss Houdini produced Grade III-winning grasser Hot Springs (Uncle Mo); a full-sister to Ce Ce was stakes-placed on the turf; and MGISW second dam Magical Maiden (Lord Avie) was also the granddam of a Group 2 winner/Group 1-placed runner in Europe.

Chad Brown and Peter Brant sent out Salimah (Ire) (El Kabeir) to become her sire's first U.S. winner and earn 'TDN Rising Star' status last Saturday at Tampa, and will be represented by another of the now Irish-based 2014 GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. winner's progeny in fellow Tattersalls October purchase (125,000gns) Egyptian God (Ire). The grey's dam is a full to precocious Group 2 winner Alhebayeb (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}).

Stuart Janney III homebred Celestial City (Uncle Mo) is out of a half to Hymn Book (Arch), who won 2012 GI Donn H. here. This is also the family of Grade I-winning turf miler Data Link (War Front). TJCIS PPs

6th-TAM, $34K, Alw/OC, 3yo, 1m70yds, 2:43 p.m. ET
'TDN Rising Star' Emmanuel (More Than Ready), currently in the fifth spot on T.D. Thornton's GI Kentucky Derby Top 12 rankings, will take on a competitive-enough bunch as he looks to build on a 6 3/4-length debut romp going a one-turn mile at Gulfstream Dec. 11. The $350,000 KEESEP yearling from the family of globetrotting MG1SW Hawkbill (Kitten's Joy) and GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity hero Free Drop Billy (Union Rags) was entered in a similar spot here Jan. 7, but was forced to scratch after spiking a temperature.

Pletcher will also be represented by In the Union (Union Rags), an apparent private purchase before he ran by Mathis Stable from Shadwell Farm. The grandson of GI Breeders' Cup F/M Turf heroine Lahudood (GB) (Singspiel {Ire}) won first out here Jan. 8.

D J Stable's Glider (Quality Road) enters off a convincing second-out success over the Gulfstream Tapeta Jan. 6 that earned him the same 78 Beyer Speed Figure that Emmanuel did in his maiden breaker. The $200,000 KEESEP acquisition is half to MGSW turf sprinter Fast Boat (City Zip). He'll be representing the same Mark Casse barn whose Golden Glider (Ghostzapper) beat Boitano (Nyquist) and Cloud Play (Into Mischief) in that Jan. 7 race Emmanuel scratched from. TJCIS PPs

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Aiming for ‘Glory’ in the Pegasus F/M Turf

Since its inaugural running in 2017, the Pegasus World Cup Invitational has become one of the marquee events during Gulfstream's Championship Meeting. Its 'Turf' equivalent, which was added in 2019, was won by that season's Horse of the Year Bricks and Mortar, and three years later, a division for the fairer set is added to the card, the GIII TAA Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf Invitational S.

Formerly the Marshua's River S., the 8 1/2-furlong test for older fillies and mares features a pair of Grade I winners–morning line favorite Peter Brant's Regal Glory (Animal Kingdom) and Lady Speightspeare (Speightstown), a homebred for Charles Fipke.

The former, a half-sister to MGSW Night Prowler (Giant's Causeway), is an eight-time stakes winner, including the most recent Del Mar's GI Matriarch S. Nov. 28. Last season, she also annexed the Plenty of Grace S. and De La Rose S., in addition to finishing runner-up in the GI First Lady S. The daughter of MGSW Mary's Follies was plucked out of the Paul Pompa Jr. dispersal at Keeneland last January by Brant for $925,000.

Lady Speightspeare showed her class early on, taking her career debut while becoming a 'TDN Rising Star' at Woodbine in August before taking the one-mile GI Natalma S. at that venue to cap off her 2-year-old campaign. Back on top in her sophomore reappearance while facing her elders in a Woodbine optional claimer last September, she was scratched after acting up in the gate before Keeneland's GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Oct. 16 and was scratched by her trainer Roger Attfield prior to the Oct. 29 GIII Rubicon Valley View S. Trying a synthetic surface for the first time in the seven-panel GII Bessarabian S. against older rivals at Woodbine Nov. 13, the chestnut rolled home by four lengths before finishing third behind the re-opposing Bipartisanship (GB) (Bated Breath {GB}) in her final race of the season in Gulfstream's Tropical Park Oaks Dec. 26. Junior Alvarado rides the 4-year-old for the first time.

Trainer Todd Pletcher, offering very strong candidates in the other two Pegasus races, is represented in this inaugural running by Robert and Lawana Lowe's Sweet Melania (American Pharoah). The consistent filly has hit the board in 12 of 15 lifetime starts, including a recent win over the local turf course in the one-mile GIII Suwanee River S. Dec. 18. On that occasion, she defeated several horses marking their returns here, including runner-up Shifty She (Gone Astray).

“She's had six weeks since [the Suwanee River] and she's eating well, putting on a little more weight,” said Pletcher. “She's also been training very enthusiastically. All the signs you'd like to see. Her coat is better than it was. She just seems to be blossoming right now. This will be a tougher ask, but she's doing great.”

Making her U.S. debut Saturday, Gary Barber and Team Valor's Wakanaka (Ire) (Power {GB}), winner of six of eight starts in Italy while under the care of trainer Diego Dettori. In her final race in Italy, the bay won the G3 Regina Elena Italian 1000 Guineas at Capannelle in Rome last April. Purchased by the current partnership 10 months ago, she suffered from bone bruising after her arrival in the U.S., postponing her Stateside debut.

“Everybody wants to win the 1000 Guineas equivalent. There it's a Group 3, but it's a Classic,” said Team Valor's Barry Irwin. “That's the big focal point for all the fillies.”

He continued, “She was a good 2-year-old. She would have been the second-best 2-year-old filly in Italy. She had six starts: four wins, two seconds. She got beat by the filly [Aria Importante] that wound up being the champion.”

Trained by Bill Mott, the filly will break from post 2 under Umberto Rispoli.

“She's a very likable filly,” said Irwin. “She's got a lot of pizazz about her. And she's got instant turn of foot, which is the one thing that we liked. That's why we buy so many horses over there. You tell them to go and it's like now.”

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Shifty She Faces Toughest Challenge Yet In Pegasus World Cup Filly & Mare Turf

Fully recovered from a career-threatening injury that cost her all of 2020, Shifty She, with her distinctive name and background, is ready for a stern test Saturday in the inaugural running of the TAA Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf Invitational Presented by PEPSI (G3) at Gulfstream Park.

Peter Brant's Grade 1 winner Regal Glory, trained by Chad Brown, is the 2-1 morning-line favorite in the 1 1/16 miles turf test that drew a field of 11 stakes runners. Regal Glory will start from Post No. 4 with jockey Jose Ortiz. The lineup includes Robert amd Lawana Low's Sweet Melania, who edged Shifty She in the Suwannee River (G3) on Dec. 18, and Team Valor's Irish-bred Wakanaka, who will make her U.S. debut.

The $500,000 Filly and Mare Turf is the newest addition to Gulfstream Park's program of seven graded stakes topped by the sixth running of the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) present by 1/ST Bet.

Shifty She, a Florida-bred daughter of Gone Astray, had won three of four starts as a 3-year-old in 2019 before going to the sidelines with a tendon injury.

“In this game you have to be very patient and I'm a very patient guy,” said Chris Pallas, who is the mare's co-breeder and co-owner.

Pallas credits the vets at Ocala Equine with the treatment that enabled her to resume her career.

“We got her back and she is just a pleasure to be around,” he said. “She's just a very smooth horse. When you watch her, she glides over the grass. She's very graceful and she loves what she's doing. That's really her mindset. She's all about the business and she loves to run.”

Since her return in April with new trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., the speedy daughter of Gone Astray has a record of 3-1-1 from seven starts, topped by a victory in the Noble Damsel (G3) on Oct. 23 at Belmont Park.

Chris Pallas and his brother-in-law George Klein bred the mare and Pallas is a co-owner in Pedigree Partners. Pallas and Klein were given the unraced broodmare Perilous Hope and they followed their plan to have the Phipps family mare Pure Profit on both sides of Shifty She's pedigree. Pure Profit's daughter, Educated Risk, is the third dam of Perilous Hope and her Hall of Fame daughter, Inside Information, is the third dam of the Florida-based sire Gone Astray.

“We had won a silent auction to a season with Gone Astray so we kind of did this for practically nothing. Here we are today,” Pallas said. “This is an expensive sport and if you can match up your pedigrees you can do this fairly inexpensively and you can get pretty lucky.”

Pallas, a longtime Fort Lauderdale resident, said there was a similar breeding approach with the graded-stakes winning sprinter Mambo Meister he co-owned from 2007 to 2012.

Shifty She – Pallas fashioned the name from her breeding – showed stakes ability while tiring and finishing fourth in her comeback race in April in an optional claimer and has been in stakes company since. At her best when on or near the lead, she led from gate to wire in the Noble Damsel.

“I was numb for three days after that. It was amazing. She had two really sharp works here and when you're an owner and you can come and watch the workouts, you learn a lot more about your horse than at a race. I knew she was ready to run. Everybody that handled her from here to Belmont was fantastic. Just being there that day, it was an overcast day, it was cool. She ran them off their feet. She just did her thing.”

Brant purchased Regal Glory for $925,000 in January of 2021 in the disbursement of the late Paul Pompa's racing stable. The daughter of Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Animal Kingdom has been trained by Brown throughout her career. Last year, she won the Plenty of Grace at Aqueduct and De La Rose at Saratoga around a fourth in the Just a Game (G1) then finished second by a half-length to stablemate Blowout in the First Lady (G1) at Keeneland. In front from the start, she picked up the coveted Grade 1 victory in the Matriarch on Nov. 28 at Del Mar.

Sweet Melania, a 5-year-old daughter of American Pharoah, was in the money four times during a seven-race winless streak going into the Suwanee River. She stayed within striking distance of pacesetting Shifty She, engaged her in the stretch and earned her third graded stakes victory by a half-length. Sweet Melania, the 5-1 second choice on the morning line, will start from the rail.

Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher liked what he saw Saturday when the mare worked a half-mile in :48.98 at Palm Beach Downs.

“I thought her last race was one of her best. I think she's actually coming into this one even better,” Pletcher said. “This will be a more demanding race, but she's training like she's made a move forward since the last one. Hopefully she can step up.”

Charles Fipke's homebred Lady Speightspeare won the first four starts of her career, all at Woodbine in suburban Toronto, before finishing third as the 6-5 favorite after a troubled trip in the Tropical Park Oaks on Dec. 26. The daughter of Speightstown out of the Theatrical mare Lady Shakespeare, will have a new rider with Junior Alvarado. She drew Post No. 3 and is 8-1 on the morning line.

Fortune Racing's Bipartisanship won the Tropical Park Oaks at 19-1 for trainer Graham Motion and has two wins and a third in four starts since being imported from Ireland last year. She drew the outside post and is 20-1.

Stuart Janney's homebred 5-year-old In a Hurry finished third in the Suwannee River behind Sweet Melania and Shifty She. Her regular rider Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano has the mount on the daughter of Blame, who will start from Post No. 10.

Trainer Michael McCarthy will saddle Nicest, the Irish-bred daughter of American Pharoah. She was third in the Juddmonte Irish Oaks (G1) and Ribblesdale Stakes (G2) at Royal Ascot before being imported last year. In her most recent start, she was second in the off-the-turf American Oaks (G1) on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita.

Godolphin's Alms was seventh in the Suwannee River after missing by a neck in her previous start at Fair Grounds. Gift List will be making her first start for trainer Brian Lynch since finishing third as the favorite in the Wonder Again (G3) on June 3 at Belmont Park. Summer in Saratoga, trained by Joe Sharp, closed out the 2021 season with three wins in four starts. In her most recent race, she won the Blushing KD by a neck at Fair Grounds on Dec. 26.

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After Some Hurdles, Seven-Figure Filly Rougir Begins Full-Time U.S. Residency

Few things can dump cold water on the seven-figure purchase of a racing prospect like finding out the horse's previous trainer has been arrested for doping.

Thoroughbred Daily News reports that the partnership of Peter Brant and Coolmore discovered this first-hand, following the 3-million Euro (about $3.3 million) purchase of French Group 1 winner Rougir at last year's Arqana December Breeding Stock Sale. On his own, Brant also bought the French Group 1-placed Speak of the Devil for 1.95 million Euros (about $2.2 million) at the Arqana sale.

Three days after the fall of the hammer, Rougir and Speak of the Devil's former trainer, Cedric Rossi, was among several in his family arrested in connection to a horse doping probe.

Going into the sale, Rougir was a high-level runner in Europe, having won the Group 1 Prix de l'Opera Longines and G3 Prix des Reservoirs in her native France. She had most recently traveled overseas to compete in last year's Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf, where she finished seventh for owner Le Haras de La Gousserie. Having her trainer under suspicion for cheating would understandably cast doubt over the legitimacy of those performances, and in turn, the expensive purchase.

However, Brant said both of his purchases have jumped through every testing hoop. Had they not, or if the horses' records were damaged by anything pertaining to Rossi's arrest, Brant said he and the Coolmore partners had discussed contingency plans with the auction company.

“We were assured these horses were not involved in this thing,” Brant told TDN. “We had all sorts of tests taken on these horses. Samples were sent to Germany. They checked out very well. We were led to believe that these horses were not part of the investigation, that they checked out very well.”

Rougir and Speak of the Devil have been moved to the Florida-based barn of trainer Chad Brown, with short-term and long-term targets in New York turf graded stakes races.