Kaneko Makoto Holding Co Ltd's Sodashi (Jpn) (Kurofune–Buchiko {Jpn}, by King Kamehameha {Jpn}), whose snow-white colouring combined with considerable racetrack ability made her a fan favourite in every corner of the globe, has been retired, according to multiple reports.
The homebred, whose year-younger full-sister Mama Cocha (Jpn) won Sunday's G1 Sprinters S. at Nakayama, was an immediate hit while carrying the Deep Impact (Jpn) colours. Undefeated in four tries at two, including a victory in the G1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies to secure her first championship, Sodashi made the one-mile G1 Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas) her fifth straight success before finishing eighth in the G1 Yushun Himba over a stamina-stretching 2400 metres. Sodashi defeated the globetrotting Loves Only You (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) in the G2 Sapporo Kinen en route to being named the tops of her generation in 2021.
Third in the G1 February S. on the dirt in February 2022, Sodashi returned to the grass and easily handled her peers in the G1 Victoria Mile last May before closing out her 4-year-old season with a third against the boys in the G1 Mile Championship S. In two starts this term, Sodashi missed by a head in defence of her title in the Victoria Mile and was a latest seventh in the G1 Yasuda Kinen. On both occasions, she was defeated by Songline (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}), who is slated to travel to America for the GI Breeders' Cup Mile Nov. 4.
Sodashi retires with a record of 7-2-1 from 14 starts and earnings of $5,346,186.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – TDN Senior Racing Editor Steve Sherack catches up with the connections of leading GI Kentucky Derby contenders to get their 'Early Impressions.'
Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable's champion 2-year-old colt and 'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence) will look to join Street Sense and Nyquist as GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winners to capture the roses the following spring.
The dark bay heads to the Kentucky Derby as the one to beat following impressive victories in this term's GII Fountain of Youth S. and GI Curlin Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. A runaway debut winner going five furlongs at Belmont Park late last May, he concluded his juvenile campaign with three straight wins at the top level.
Forte learned his early lessons at Ocala Stud in Florida before heading to two-time Kentucky Derby winning-trainer Todd Pletcher last spring.
“He's the one that we identified early on as being the cream of the crop,” Ocala Stud's David O'Farrell said.
“He was very forward. He was a horse that from day one was super athletic. We felt like he could be a really good 2-year-old and he had enough stretch that maybe he could be a two-turn horse. You just never really envisioned him as being the Derby favorite a year later, but anything is possible. He was a horse that never had a bad day. He was one of the first two that we sent in to Pletcher in March of last year to get ready for Saratoga. We felt like he was going to be really precocious and a horse that would be a lot of fun in the summertime for the partnership of Repole and St. Elias. He's one of those that not only did he perform as a 2-year-old, he just kept getting better and better and better.”
O'Farrell concluded, “It's been really exciting to watch. He's just an awfully nice horse that we're fortunate enough to be a part of.”
Bred in Kentucky by Amy Moore's South Gate Farm, the $80,000 Keeneland November weanling turned $110,000 Keeneland September yearling is one of 15 graded winners worldwide for Violence and is the first foal out of four-time stakes winner Queen Caroline (Blame). Forte's half-brother by Uncle Mo brought $850,000 from Mayberry Farm at last year's Keeneland September sale.
In this new TDN column, Christie DeBernardis will tell the stories of accomplished and/or popular former racehorses who are now enjoying second careers as show horses, track ponies, etc.
Champion sprinter Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect) and Laura Moquett's relationship goes back to when he was just a 2-year-old who refused to go around the racetrack without some coaxing. Fast forward seven years and that cantankerous juvenile is now an Eclipse winner and Breeders' Cup winner and has been retired from racing as Moquett's personal riding horse.
On Thursday, less than 13 miles from the scene of Whitmore's greatest racetrack triumph, the pair had their show ring debut in the Retired Racehorse Project's competitive trail event at the Kentucky Horse Park.
“We had some issues to deal with between the wind and sun creating some scary shadows,” Moquett said. “He looked at the first obstacle and said hard no, but he worked through it and completed the course. I was really proud of him. He kept his composure really well despite that, which was incredible.”
She continued, “He had so many groupies. It was phenomenal. They followed him from the barn all the way up to the course. They were adoring. It was really cool to see. If this gets even one person to give a horse a second shot at a new career, that is so important.”
Whitmore entered Ron and Laura Moquett's barn as a rambunctious 2-year-old and was initially owned by their Southern Springs Stables. While new owners later bought into Whitmore, one thing remained unchanged and that was Laura Moquett, who was the chestnut's regular rider and traveling companion.
“As a 2-year-old, I really had to focus on him because he was a maniac,” Moquett said. “We couldn't get him around the racetrack, not one lap, and would not go the right direction. We did a bunch of schooling on that to teach him to go forward. We kept him company, even breezing, until the last couple of years because otherwise he would stop in the middle of the track and do some shenanigans. But, with company, he did his job and ran other horses down, which is funny because it ended up being his running style.”
She continued, “Basically, if I was in town, I would be on his back every day. If we had to go out of town for a stakes race, I was his companion. Most of it was great, but sometimes he pushes your buttons and he loves doing it.”
With a stallion career off the table for the gelded seven-time graded stakes winner, Ron Moquett consulted his partners about Whitmore's future when it came time for retirement. Everyone readily agreed to leave him in the hands of his lifelong friend Laura Moquett.
“Ron had talked to the partners and everyone came to the consensus we could keep him the rest of his life,” Moquett said. “I still wanted to be around him daily, so thankfully they were totally on board. He got injured at Saratoga last summer and they said he could come back to the races, but the partners agreed he had done more than enough. I was upset when he was injured, but I knew he was going to be okay and I would get to keep him, so it was a weird mix of emotions. It was devastating in the barn for our team because he was the big horse and had that mojo everyone wants to be around.”
That injury came during Saratoga's 2021 meet and Whitmore was given down time for the rest of the year.
“We couldn't bring him back until late December and I was just too busy at Oaklawn to start him,” Moquett said. “It didn't materialize this winter and I was just trying to get his feet back in shape. That will always be a challenge. I thought there was no way we could do the RRP, though that was all I wanted to do. I thought it would be really great for his fans to see him do something else. There are a lot of people that follow him and were upset when he got injured.”
She added, “I worked with him five or six times in the round pen just doing ground work in late March. Then I hauled him to a friend's place maybe four times and did some basic under saddle work. That was about as much as I could do until we got back to Kentucky after the Derby.”
Moquett and Whitmore did manage to fit one other outing in during their winter in Hot Springs, a trip to Oaklawn for “Whitmore Day.”
“The first day at Oaklawn he was actually decent,” Moquett said. “I think he was like, 'I'm back baby!' Days two through four, I was like I might die. One of the jocks went by and was like, 'He's going to drop you.' I said, 'He hasn't yet! Don't worry, I will make it home.' He was just so excited. By the fifth day, he realized we are just going to go out there and walk. I had the outrider next to me in case. He got out there and everyone was yelling for him and he was like, 'Okay, this is for me. That's right. I get it.' I told them if they didn't get me off the track before the gates popped and we accidentally won the race, I was taking the money.”
Once they returned to Kentucky in May, the real work began.
“He is at a barn in Goshen that the mounted police use,” Moquett said. That was part of what inspired the competitive trail idea. When he first got up here, I just legged him up trail riding at first. The first time I went anywhere with him was in June to Masterson Station for a jumper/trail night. It took me like 30 minutes to get him to the course. He was terrified of all the stuff they had set up. It blew my mind too. I was like there is no way I can do this. The mounted police take their horses to Hinkle Equestrian Center in Indiana to prep for competitions. We went over there about 12 times and that helped him a bunch. He is a fairly easy horse to ride and he will only get better. I am lucky.”
Whitmore's age and experience racing at venues from coast-to-coast have aided him in his second career.
“He has been on airplanes and at a bunch of different venues with music and crowds,” said Moquett. “I think that is an advantage, especially for this class, as is his age. He is a lot more settled than a young horse is.”
As for the future, Moquett has a few ideas, but is letting Whitmore dictate the plans.
“I would love to try the hunters with him,” the horsewoman said. “But, I am enjoying every second of it and we will see what he wants to do. It's his world, I am just living in it.”
Reigning champion 2-year-old filly and 'TDN Rising Star' Echo Zulu made it five stakes wins on Saturday for her sire Gun Runner with a dominant performance in the GIII Dogwood S. under the lights at Churchill Downs. Last seen tasting defeat for the first time when a tiring fourth behind Secret Oath (Arrogate) in the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks over this track, the $300,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase was off at 51 cents on the dollar to return to winning ways and did just that. Away quickest of all from the inside barrier, the Steve Asmussen trainee showed the way through moderate fractions as you could have thrown a blanket across the five of them at the half-mile. They were all stacked up behind the champ, ready to pounce if the favorite faltered, but Echo Zulu went through her gears in the final furlong and a half and crossed the wire 5 1/4 lengths to the good of Tarabi.
Echo Zulu, who was tabbed a 'TDN Rising Star' following her debut win at Saratoga last July, won the GI Spinaway S. and GI Frizette S. before capping her championship season with a 5 1/4-length victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies S. She opened her sophomore campaign with a gritty win in the Mar. 26 GII Fair Grounds Oaks, but weakened to fourth when suffering her first loss in the May 6 GI Kentucky Oaks. The champ was scratched behind the gate of the June 11 GI Acorn S.
Pedigree Notes:
Adding to Gun Runner's Grade I sweep Saturday afternoon at Parx with Taiba and Society were 11-1 Sixtythreecaliber in the Seneca Overnight S. and Gunite in the Fort Harrod S. prior to Echo Zulu's tour-de-force.
Echo Zulu, a daughter of 2005 GII Forward Gal S. winner Legomyecho, has an unraced 2-year-old half-sister by American Pharoah named Doing Justice who sold for $1.4 million at the 2021 Keeneland September sale.
Saturday, Churchill Downs DOGWOOD S.-GIII, $274,000, Churchill Downs, 9-24, 3yo, f, 7f, 1:22.43, ft.
1–ECHO ZULU, 122, f, 3, by Gun Runner 1st Dam: Letgomyecho (GSW, $136,200), by Menifee 2nd Dam: Echo Echo Echo, by Eastern Echo 3rd Dam: Kashie West, by Sir Ivor
'TDN Rising Star'. ($300,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-L & N Racing
LLC & Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC; B-Betz/J.
Betz/Burns/CHNNHK/Magers/CoCo Equine/Ramsby (KY);
T-Steven M. Asmussen; J-Ricardo Santana, Jr. $169,500.
Lifetime Record: Ch. 2-year-old filly, MGISW, 7-6-0-0,
$1,946,375. *1/2 to Unbridled Outlaw (Unbridled's Song), GSP,
$253,478; J Boys Echo (Mineshaft), GSW, $377,543; Echo
Town (Speightstown), GISW, $410,020. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus* Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Tarabi, 120, f, 3, First Samurai–Indian Bay, by Indian Charlie.
($240,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-LBD Stable LLC, Manganaro
Bloodstock & David Ingordo; B-Hinkle Farms (KY); T-Cherie
DeVaux. $55,000.
3–Colorful Mischief, 118, f, 3, Into Mischief–Color Me Flying, by
Distorted Humor. 1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE.
($300,000 Ylg '20 FTKSEL). O-St. Elias Stable; B-Clearsky Farms
(KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher. $27,500.
Margins: 5 1/4, 1HF, HF. Odds: 0.51, 2.75, 11.86.
Also Ran: Last Leaf, Gunning. Scratched: Chasing Fireflies, Wicked Halo. Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
