charlatan | Horse Racing Free Tips

American Runners Ready for Return to Riyadh

A year ago, a brigade of American runners dominated results in the inaugural running of the $20-million Saudi Cup, taking four of the top five placings in the world's richest race. Another top-level group of U.S.-based horses are set to return to Riyadh for the second running of the 1 1/8-miles race Feb. 20. Leading the group is Charlatan (Speightstown), who returned from a layoff to record a scintillating victory in the Dec. 26 GI Malibu S. last month. The newly turned 4-year-old worked six furlongs in 1:12.60 (1/5) at Santa Anita Wednesday and shortly afterward trainer Bob Baffert declared the colt “better than he's ever been.”

“I think the Saudi Cup is perfect timing for him,” Baffert told reporters during a conference call Wednesday afternoon. “It's a one-turn 1 1/8 miles and I think coming off the seven-eighths race, especially the way he did it, I think it is a perfect kind of distance. We know he ships well and he has a great mind on him. He's a good gate horse. It's very challenging to go to Saudi or Dubai. You need a really great mind and he has a really great mind. So I think that race fits the bill perfectly for him.”

Charlatan will be making just his fifth start next month at King Abdulaziz Racetrack, but his lack of experience doesn't concern Baffert.

“I think his talent makes up for his inexperience,” Baffert, who finished fourth with Mucho Gusto (Mucho Macho Man) in last year's race, said. “I think he has enough experience where he doesn't know what it's like to lose. I think that's a good trait.”

Charlatan will be piloted in the desert by Mike Smith, who rode the colt for the first time in the Malibu. Smith finished second aboard Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute) in last year's Saudi Cup, but received a nine-day ban and was issued a $210,000 fan–60% of his share of the purse–for violating the country's whip rules.

Of the Hall of Fame jockey's return to Riyadh, Baffert quipped, “He's fine. I think he just needs to count a little bit better.”

Knicks Go (Paynter), winner of last year's GI Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, earned a trip to Riyadh with his front-running victory in the Jan. 23 GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. and could prove Charlatan's toughest competition.

“They are sort of the same type of horse,” Baffert said of a potential match-up between the two front-runners. “Knicks Go, he likes two turns, he likes that better because he can get away from his competition. Speed horses like that are so dangerous going two turns, but going a one-turn 1 1/8 miles, it's a different story.”

The Juddmonte Farms homebred Tacitus (Tapit), fifth in last year's Saudi Cup, makes a return trip to Riyadh to fly the colors of the late Prince Khalid Abdullah, who passed away just two weeks ago.

“Any time we lead a horse over there in Juddmonte's silks it is very special,” Riley Mott, assistant to his father, trainer Bill Mott, said during the teleconference Wednesday. “Every trainer in the world desires to train for such an operation. Last year when we brought Tacitus, he had a nice little following locally due to the fact that he was a Juddmonte horse. He had a lot of fans there on race day. And just to be there in Prince Khalid Abdullah's home country was very special. To bring Tacitus back this year is something we are very much looking forward to and a big reason why we kept him in training this year.”

Tacitus has made a name for himself more for the races he almost wins than the ones he actually wins. The regally bred gray was third in the GI Kentucky Derby, as well as the 2019 and 2020 renewals of the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup S. He was runner-up in the GI Belmont S. and GI Runhappy Travers S. in 2019 and again in the GI Woodward H. last year.

“He's been a little frustrating,” Mott admitted. “He always flirts with winning a top Grade I. He has placed in a lot of prestigious races here in the U.S. and is just on the cusp of breaking through in one of those big ones. He's by a champion stallion out of a champion mare that Prince Khalid Abdullah bred himself, so for him to break through and win one of these big Grade Is would mean the world for him in his next career as a stallion. We think he is capable of it. No matter what race we run him in, whether it be a Group III or Group I, he is always liable to hit the board. So we are hoping he is good on the day.”

Also representing the Mott barn in Riyadh next month will be multiple Grade I winner Channel Maker (English Channel), who is expected to go postward in the $1-million Middle Distance Turf Cup. Now seven, the chestnut gelding set the pace before settling for third in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf at Keeneland last October.

“He's a horse we are very much looking forward to bringing over,” Mott said of Channel Maker. “We are confident in how he is doing and training. We will see how he stacks up against the competition, but he's been a really fun horse to have in the barn.”

Both Tacitus and Channel Maker could go on to engagements on the Dubai World Cup card in March if they exit their races in Saudi Arabia in fine fashion.

Despite the ongoing global pandemic, officials from the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia said it was all systems go for the Feb. 19 and 20 festival of races.

“We are going to get through this the same way as other big events before us,” said Tom Ryan, director of strategy and international racing for the Jockey Club said. “Whether that's Hong Kong in December, Bahrain in November or the Breeders' Cup, there is a template there internationally for us to follow. This will be the Saudi Arabian version of that.”

Of attendance on race day, Ryan added, “In terms of attendance on course, it will be greatly scaled back compared to last year's very positive and well-attended event–participants, a small number of ministers in an outdoor setting, very prudently arranged. That will be about it, I think.”

While Baffert was on hand for the Saudi Cup's inaugural running, the trainer said he would be staying home this time around.

“I'm going to send [assistant] Jimmy [Barnes],” Baffert said. “One of us has to stay back. If for some reason they don't let us back in, I have to be here to keep the ship going.”

The post American Runners Ready for Return to Riyadh appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Knicks Go-Charlatan Showdown Could Be in the Offing

The Week in Review, by Bill Finley

After last year's GI Breeders' Cup Classic, it seemed that every horse that mattered had been retired and that 2021 was going to be a bleak year for the handicap ranks. But 23 days into the year, it is apparent that's not going to be the case. First, Charlatan (Speightstown) turned in a sizzling performance in his comeback race in the GI Runhappy Malibu S. and, exactly four weeks, later Knicks Go (Paynter) could not have won the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational any more easily. And the two may be on a collision course, with the possibility that they will meet in the Feb. 20 Saudi Cup.

Brad Cox reported Sunday that Knicks Go came out of the Pegasus in good shape and was on his way back to his base at Fair Grounds. Cox and his owner, the Korean Racing Authority, have yet to decide where Knicks Go will run next, but the trainer said that the Saudi Cup is “on the radar.” He added that the March 27 G1 Dubai World Cup is also a consideration.

A Charlatan-Knicks Go showdown in Saudi Arabia would be great theater. Not only are they both immensely talented, both are horses that combine brilliant early speed with stamina. If they were to meet, it would be possible that they could turn the event into a match race, going hard after one another every step of the way.

In the meantime, Cox will allow himself to enjoy what was a statement-making performance from Knicks Go Saturday at Gulfstream. Not only did he win decisively, he had no problem negotiating the mile-and-an-eighth distance, dispelling one of the few knocks against a horse who had never run beyond a mile and a sixteenth.

“We are hopeful that he can be a top horse in the handicap division,” Cox said. “On Saturday, he was able to get a mile and an eighth with solid fractions up front and was able to carry his speed. He's a very talented horse. He showed brilliance as a 2-year-old in the Breeders' Futurity and again in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile. He came right back to that form.”

What makes Knicks Go so dangerous is that he is capable of ripping off fractions of 22.90, 46.16 and 1:09.91, his splits in the Pegasus, and keep going as if the pace took nothing out of him.

“Any time you are running races at a mile and an eighth or more, speed is deadly,” Cox said.

The Saudi Cup is a one-turn, mile-and-an-eighth race, while the Dubai World Cup is a mile-and-a-quarter event run around two turns. At some point, whether it is in the Dubai World Cup or the Breeders' Cup Classic, Knicks Go is going to have to show that he can get the 10 furlongs. Cox doesn't see it as a problem.

“I like the idea of him going two turns and a mile and a quarter,” he said. “I think he can handle that and that's why Dubai is an option.”

Though Knicks Go won the GI Breeders' Futurity as a 2-year-old, he did not put it together until joining the Cox stable before a Feb. 22 allowance at Oaklawn. He's 4-for-4 since and has turned in Beyer numbers of 107, 108 and 108 in his last three starts. His best number prior to entering the Cox barn was a 93.

“His works at the Fair Grounds leading up to the Pegasus, I thought he was as good or better than he was leading up to the Dirt Mile,” Cox said. “He's the type of horse that gives you confidence as a trainer.”

A Bright Future For Prevalence?

There were seven graded stakes races on the Saturday card at Gulfstream, but there was no overshadowing the performance by Prevalence (Medaglia d'Oro) in the sixth race, a seven-furlong maiden special weight event. Trained by Brendan Walsh, he ran away from what looked like a strong group on paper. Eased up at the end by Tyler Gaffalione, he nonetheless managed to win by 8 1/2 lengths, earning an 89 Beyer and 'TDN Rising Star' honors. The runner-up was Stage River (Pioneerof the Nile), the half brother to Triple Crown winner Justify (Scat Daddy).

“I thought he was a nice horse, but did I expect him to do that? No. It was impressive,” trainer Brendan Walsh said.

Walsh said he has yet to decide on what will be next for Prevalence.

Though it's a long way from a maiden race in January to the Kentucky Derby, Prevalence ran well enough to suggest that he could be a major factor going forward in the 3-year-old ranks. That's more good news for Godolphin. The stable has had no success when it comes to the GI Kentucky Derby and now has two candidates in Prevalence and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Essential Quality (Tapit). This is easily the strongest hand Godolphin has had with fewer than 100 days to go until the Derby.

Larry King, Horseplayer

Long before he came to CNN, Larry King, who died last week at age 87, had a mid-morning show on WIOD radio in Florida in the 1970s. With his afternoons off, King spent plenty of days in the press boxes at the Florida tracks, where he was known as an enthusiastic horseplayer.

In his 2009 biography “My Remarkable Journey,” King wrote about a day at Calder in 1971 where he took the last $42 to his name and wagered it on a 70-1 shot named Lady Forli. He wrote that he had win tickets on the mare and also had the exacta and the trifecta. He went on to claim that he won $11,000 on the race and used it to pay child support and his rent for a year.

It's a good story, but…

Lady Forli was born in 1972, didn't start until 1975 and never won a race in the U.S., let alone at 70-1. And in 1971, trifectas were not offered at Calder.

“Larry King spun a sweet little tale of hitting it big at the racetrack, thanks to a plucky horse named Lady Forli. Are you sitting down? It's all a lie!” reads a line from a story on the book in Deadspin.

In 2003, the horse Larry King debuted at Santa Anita. Bred by Sid and Jenny Craig, the son of Deputy Minister won three of 20 starts.

Swiss Skydiver Was Snubbed

While Authentic (Into Mischief) will be named Horse of the Year, and deservedly so, it was more than disappointing that Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) was not among the three finalists for the title.

In an era where a top horse may run four or five times a year and with eight, nine weeks off in between races, she was a breath of fresh air. Starting her year off in February and concluding it in the Breeders' Cup in November, she made 10 starts, running at nine different tracks. She won five stakes, including the GI Alabama S. and a historic win over Authentic and other males in the GI Preakness S.

Had she won the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff, I very well may have voted for her for Horse of the Year. Eclipse Awards are supposed to be emblematic of sustained success over the course of the year, and no horse embodied that more than Swiss Skydiver. The voters should have recognized this and rewarded a remarkable filly for her remarkable year.

The post Knicks Go-Charlatan Showdown Could Be in the Offing appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Kirkpatrick & Co Presents In Their Care: Humberto Gomez More Than Just An Exercise Rider To The Stars

It is impossible to imagine that any exercise rider can match the resume Mexico City native Humberto Gomez has built since he arrived in the United States in 2000.

He learned the importance of keeping his mount in rhythm from trainer Bobby Frankel. John Shirreffs' emphasis on patience was somewhat offset by Julio Canani's aggressiveness. Doug O'Neill stressed the importance of a positive attitude and teamwork.

Bob Baffert then hired Gomez and allowed him to put all of that together in 2018. He entrusted him with Justify and the rider who is widely known as “Beto” helped him develop an unraced 2-year-old into an undefeated Triple Crown champion.

Gomez emerged as the successor to the great Dana Barnes in Baffert's phenomenal stable, helping quirky Authentic to mature in time to win the pandemic-delayed Kentucky Derby and the Breeders' Cup Classic last year.

Gomez's heroic handiwork on the ground in 2017 is as impressive as anything he has accomplished on horseback. Trainer Kristin Mulhall credits him with saving the life of a 4-month-old Thoroughbred that was seemingly taking its last breaths after swallowing a black widow spider.

Mulhall, receiving phone instructions from veterinarian Melinda Blue, was attempting to perform an emergency tracheotomy using a dull box cutter and a syringe casing for a tube. She was in despair when Gomez arrived. She looked into the flailing horse's eyes and saw imminent death.

“You couldn't even see his pupils,” Mulhall said. “His eyes were bloodshot and cloudy. I thought 'Well, if he can't get enough oxygen, he's probably brain dead.'“

When she told Gomez as much, he refused to give up. He jumped on top of the foal, doing everything he could to hold down its head and feet.

“Try again!” he implored Mulhall. “Try again!”

Her third attempt was the charm. She finally succeeded at cutting an adequate hole in the trachea and suturing the tube into place using dental floss.

“The minute she put the tube, the horse took a lot of air,” Gomez said. “That gave us a lot of hope.”

Humberto Gomez on horseback off the track

Gomez and a friend dragged the horse into a trailer. Gomez continued to hold down the foal as he was rushed to Chino Hills Equine Hospital, where he began a full recovery.

Mulhall thanked Gomez by inviting him to name the California-bred. Gomez thought back to Catemaco, a horse he rode in Mexico City that displayed a huge heart every time he raced. Mulhall quickly embraced the name, which was approved.

Mulhall will be forever grateful to Gomez. “He pushed me to try because I gave up,” she said.

For Gomez, 44, his job is so much more than a job. “I just love what I do,” he said. “I have a passion for racing.”

That passion, combined with expertise gained through exposure to so many prominent trainers, has made him the go-to exercise rider for many of Baffert's stars.

“He can tell me a lot. He tells me what we can do differently. We try to change it up a little bit every day,” Baffert said, adding, “He's a good horseman. He's a really good horseman.”

Baffert and Gomez form a dynamic combination, much the way Baffert and Barnes did. “He cannot feel what I feel,” Gomez said. “I cannot see what he sees.”

According to Baffert, Gomez's input is vital. “He'll tell me if a horse is not doing well,” he said. “I want to know if we're doing too much with him, if we're not doing enough.”

Humberto Gomez with Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup Classic winner Authentic

Baffert had long admired Gomez from a distance. “I always thought he'd make a great addition to the barn,” he said. Once he had the opportunity to hire him, he did not hesitate to assign highly-regarded but unproven Justify to him.

Gomez knew almost immediately that Justify would be the horse of his dreams. “The power of this horse and how professional,” he said. “He was acting like he was an older horse. The horse would do anything you wanted him to do. He likes to please you.”

Authentic? He was a project from the start.

“Authentic, when we got him, he was really immature,” Gomez said. “He would be galloping and looking at things all the time and trying to do things like a troublemaker. Every day was something with him.

“Day by day, we were trying to get to know him better, always keeping in mind that he was a late foal (May 5) and it was going to take him time to mature. With this COVID thing, they changed the time for the Kentucky Derby, so we were lucky to get him more time to get him more mature and everything.”

Gomez raves about Saudi Cup-bound Charlatan, describing him as a “machine.” Although newly-minted 3-year-old Life Is Good and Authentic were both sired by white-hot stallion Into Mischief, he believes that Life Is Good is more advanced than Authentic was at this early stage while describing him as being “in a learning process.”

Justify, Authentic, Charlatan, Life Is Good. The hits keep coming for Gomez. That almost surely will continue as long as he remains aligned with one of the most accomplished trainers of all time.

“I love to be riding all these champions,” Gomez said. “I'm so lucky to be part of his team.”

Catemaco will always hold a special place in his heart, though. Mulhall needed to wait until he turned 4, but on New Year's Day she and Gomez exulted as he made a winning debut in a six-furlong race at Santa Anita.

“It was very emotional because I see a horse almost dying and you never thought the way we saw him that he would make it just to be a pet,” said Gomez, appreciating how far he and Catemaco have come.

Tom Pedulla wrote for USA Today from 1995-2012 and has been a contributor to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Blood-Horse, America's Best Racing and other publications.

If you wish to suggest a backstretch worker as a potential subject for In Their Care, please send an email to info@paulickreport.com that includes the person's name and contact information in addition to a brief description of the employee's background.

The post Kirkpatrick & Co Presents In Their Care: Humberto Gomez More Than Just An Exercise Rider To The Stars appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Jack Wolf Joins TDN Writers’ Room

Fresh off a dominant Grade I win by his Starlight Racing’s Charlatan (Speightstown) and a newly-minted ‘TDN Rising Star’ for his outfit, Jack Wolf joined the TDN Writers’ Room presented by Keeneland Wednesday morning. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Wolf talked about the highs and lows of 2020 with his barn star, Thoroughbred aftercare and more.

Charlatan’s 3-year-old campaign featured dazzling victories but also a disqualification for a positive drug test in the GI Arkansas Derby and a long layoff that forced him to miss the GI Kentucky Derby. Luckily for Starlight, they also owned a piece of a colt named Authentic (Into Mischief) who carried the flag to a Derby victory and presumptive Horse of the Year trophy.

“It was a roller coaster,” Wolf said. “Initially we had three big horses in there of which Charlatan looked like he was probably going to be the best of the three with Eight Rings and Authentic. Then all this stuff happened. We went to Arkansas and got the disqualification there, then we had to remove a small chip [in his ankle] and that put everything up in the air. In any case, when you’ve got somebody like Bob Baffert adjusting to all these changes, I think we have a little bit of an advantage over everybody else. Then we had Authentic, who [because of the Derby postponement] had seven weeks between the Haskell and the Derby. I don’t think Authentic would have won the Derby if it was run May 2, and it all just worked out. Crazy business.”

Two weeks after Charlatan’s devastating GI Malibu S. win, 3-year-old filly Jouster (Noble Mission {GB}) kept Starlight spirits high with an 8 3/4-length maiden romp Sunday at Gulfstream to earn ‘Rising Star’ honors. The $360,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga buy was a beaten favorite in her first two starts on dirt before relishing the turf in Sunday’s graduation.

“I think we’ve got her on the right surface now,” Wolf said. “The field that she beat the other day, there were some pretty nice horses. I was talking to one of our partners last night and he asked if I thought we’d win the race. I was at the race. So, I’m not going to go down there without thinking we’re going to win the thing. But, in any case, I didn’t think we’d win by 8 3/4 lengths. She’ll probably run in an allowance race next and we’ll point for something like the Belmont Oaks and some of those longer turf races, in the summer.”

Elsewhere on the show, the writers reacted to the passing of Juddmonte Farms’ Khalid Abdullah, discussed the swift industry backlash to Eric Guillot in the West Point Thoroughbreds news segment and looked forward to the beginning of Derby prep season. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version.

The post Jack Wolf Joins TDN Writers’ Room appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post