Charles Fipke | Horse Racing Free Tips

Lady Speightspeare, Gam’s Mission Headline Friday’s Valley View

Charles Fipke's undefeated Lady Speightspeare, scratched at the gate for the Oct. 16 Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Presented by Dixiana, headlines an overflow field of 14 3-year-old fillies plus two also-eligibles entered Sunday for Friday's 31st running of the Grade 3 Rubicon Valley View at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky.

Slated to be run at 1 1/16 miles on the turf, the Rubicon Valley View will go as the ninth race on Friday afternoon's 10-race program with a 5:16 p.m. ET post time. First post Friday is 1 p.m.

Trained by Roger Attfield, Lady Speightspeare has won all three of her starts highlighted by a victory in last year's Grade 1 Natalma at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario. Emma-Jayne Wilson, who has been aboard for all of Lady Speightspeare's starts, will ride Friday and break from post 11.

The other graded stakes winner in the field is Lazy F Ranch's homebred Gam's Mission.

Trained by Cherie DeVaux, Gam's Mission returns to the races for the first time since finishing fifth in the Grade 3 Saratoga Oaks Invitational in August at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Prior to that, Gam's Mission was fourth in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., after winning the Grade 3 Regret at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

Adam Beschizza will have the mount Friday and break from post 14.

Six other grass stakes winners in the field are Godolphin's Adventuring (Dueling Grounds Oaks), BBN Racing's Core Values (Preview Dueling Grounds Derby), Peachtree Stable's Saranya (Curtis Sampson Oaks), G. Watts Humphrey Jr.'s Navratilova (Tepin), EuroLindy Syndicate's Queenship (IRE) (Navigation Stakes in Ireland) and Terry Hamilton, Gary Barber, and trainer Brian Lynch's three-time stakes winner Tobys Heart.

Also entered is Phoenix Thoroughbred III's Crazy Beautiful, a three-time graded stakes winner on dirt who won going a mile on the grass in her racing debut last year at 2 for trainer Kenny McPeek.

The field for the Rubicon Valley View, with riders and weights from the inside, is: Core Values (Rafael Bejarano, 118 pounds), Saranya (Joe Talamo, 118), Crazy Beautiful (Brian Hernandez Jr., 118), Tobys Heart (Joel Rosario, 118), Navratilova (Colby Hernandez, 118), Oliviaofthedesert (Corey Lanerie, 118), Adventuring (Florent Geroux, 118), Breaker of Chains (Tyler Gaffalione, 118), Arm Candy (Ricardo Santana Jr., 118), Oyster Box (James Graham, 118), Lady Speightspeare (Wilson, 118), Queenship (IRE) (Julien Leparoux, 118), Flown (Jose Ortiz, 118), Gam's Mission (Beschizza, 118). Also eligibles: Princess Theorem (Jose Ortiz, 118), Wait for Nairobi (Edgar Morales, 118).

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Unbeaten Lady Speightspeare Ready For ‘Next Step’ In Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup

Had everything gone right, Charles Fipke's homebred Lady Speightspeare would have made her Keeneland debut last fall in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1). It was not to be.

Lady Speightspeare was 2-for-2 in 2020 and had punched her ticket to the Breeders' Cup with a victory in the Natalma (G1) at Woodbine. After being sidelined, she did not return to the races until Sept. 6, when she scored a front-running 2-length victory at Woodbine.

“I was hoping to be here in the spring and at Saratoga in the summer,” trainer Roger Attfield said. “She is fine now and ready to carry on with her life. Hopefully, she will have a nice, long career and this is the next step up.”

The next step up is Saturday's $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1) Presented by Dixiana going 1 1/8 miles on the grass, the surface on which Lady Speightspeare has made all of her starts.

Lady Speightsphere arrived at Keeneland from Woodbine Wednesday night and has trained on the main track the past two mornings with a visit to the starting gate being a part of Friday's activity. Ally Walker has been aboard both mornings.

Attfield trained Lady Speightspeare's dam, Lady Shakespeare, who won the Bewitch (G3) here in 2010 for Fipke and was fourth I the 2009 Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup,

“They are similar in a number of ways,” Attfield said of mother and daughter. “They are both very sensible and good to work with and always feeling good.”

Emma-Jayne Wilson, who has been aboard for all of Lady Speightspeare's starts, will be aboard Saturday.

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Boland Gets Stakes Win With Perfect Silent Cat In Aventura At Gulfstream

Although Perfect Silent Cat entered Saturday's $60,000 Aventura at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., as a maiden, trainer Sharon Boland had a high level of confidence in the son of Tale of the Cat.

“I knew what I had,” Boland said. “You can make those moves when you know what you have running for you.”

Perfect Silent Cat rewarded Boland's faith by providing her with her first stakes victory on her own, although she is hardly a newcomer to the stakes game.

The daughter of Bill Boland, the Hall of Fame jockey who won the 1950 Kentucky Derby aboard Middleground, Sharon has been training and working with horses for more than 30 years.

“Unfortunately, because my father was a steward, they wouldn't let me run horses in my name. In those days, they thought it was a conflict of interest, so I took a back seat and let my [then] husband [multiple graded stakes-winning trainer Anthony Mitchell] run them in his name,” said Boland, who has 21 horses stabled at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream's satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, in her second year of training her own public stable.”

The Charles Fipke-bred Perfect Silent Cat ($27.20) was purchased for $6,000 in February at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Mixed Sale by Shamrock Highlands Thoroughbreds.

“The owner is a new client who bought him and brought him to our stable. We couldn't figure why he slipped through the cracks,” said Boland, whose 89-year-old father lives in Palm Coast, Fla., and plays golf frequently. “We found a few little things we were able to fix, and from the second we fixed his little issues, he's been a 100-percent performer who gives you everything. He's the nicest colt I've been around – just a class act.”

Perfect Silent Cat had run three prior races – an off-the-board debut on dirt, a third-place finish on turf, and a runner-up finish in the June 26 Not Surprising Stakes over a yielding Gulfstream turf course last time out. The Kentucky-bred colt was the beneficiary of a perfect trip under Luca Panici, pressing the pace outside Rabdan past fractions of :24.47 and :48.04 seconds for the first half mile of the mile overnight handicap before drawing away to a three-length score.

Perfect Silent Cat carried the low weight of 114 pounds, 10 fewer pounds than highweight Papetu, the 1-5 favorite who finished fourth following a rough trip in traffic. Perfect Silent Cat ran a mile over a sealed sloppy track in 1:36.35. Emperor's Cause finished second following a three-wide trip, a neck ahead of a tiring Rabdan, who was 1 ¼ lengths clear of Papetu, who had captured the Carry Back Stakes in his prior start.

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Belmont Park Spring/Summer Meet Opens On Thursday

The 48-day Belmont Park spring/summer meet, which will feature 59 total stakes races worth $16.95 million in total purses, kicks off in Elmont, N.Y., on Thursday with an eight-race card. First post is 1 p.m. Eastern.

The spring/summer meet, which runs through Sunday, July 11, will offer 11 Grade 1 events and seven races with purses of $700,000 or higher, with four of those contests coming during the three-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival from Thursday, June 3, through Saturday, June 5. The festival will encompass 17 total stakes, including eight Grade 1s on Belmont Stakes Day, capped by the $1.5 million “Test of the Champion” for 3-year-olds in the 1 ½-mile final leg of the Triple Crown.

Tickets for the 2021 Belmont Stakes Racing Festival are not yet on sale to the public. Additional information and the timing of the general on-sale will be released in the coming weeks.

Thursday's meet opener at Belmont includes five turf races and an array of talent on tap, including the seasonal debut of Charles Fipke's Grade 1-placed Pleasant Orb in Race 7, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up.

The Kentucky homebred is by Orb and out of the Grade 1-winning Seeking the Gold mare Pleasant Home, who romped to victory in the 2005 Breeders' Cup Distaff at Belmont.

Pleasant Orb, initially trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, joined Barclay Tagg's barn last year and won in her second start for the veteran conditioner in a one-mile maiden special weight on March 22 at Gulfstream Park. Following an even third in the 1 1/16-mile Hollywood Wildcat in May at Gulfstream, Pleasant Orb shipped to New York and completed the exacta behind Gamine in the Grade 1 Acorn, a one-turn mile on Belmont Stakes Day last June.

“She's doing pretty well,” said Tagg. “She was laid up for a while and we have her fit again now. This is the first race we found that we thought would suit her. We'll get a short race into her and see where we go from there.”

Pleasant Orb has trained into her 4-year-old debut at Palm Meadows Training Center in Florida, including a five-eighths effort in 1:04.20 on April 9.

Hall of Famer Javier Castellano will pilot Pleasant Orb from the inside post.

To collect the win, Pleasant Orb will have to topple a field of five rivals led by impressive maiden winner Aunt Kat, six-time winner Ruvies in Time and the improving Whispering Pines.

Carl Pollard's Aunt Kat, trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, earned a career-best 95 Beyer in her 9 3/4-length maiden score traveling 6 1/2-furlongs on March 13 at the Big A. The 4-year-old Uncle Mo filly is out of the multiple graded-stakes winning Forestry mare Carolyn's Cat.

Junior Alvarado will guide Aunt Kat from post 2.

Ruvies in Time, trained and co-owned by Rich Schosberg with Clear Stars Stable, was a four-length winner of the six-furlong Videogenic on New York Claiming Championship Day on March 27 at the Big A. Bred in New York by Mashnee Stables and Steve Schuster, Ruvies in Time is by The Factor and out of the Tapit mare Hollywood Redhead.

Manny Franco retains the mount on Ruvies in Time from post 5.

Whispering Pines enters from a good third in the Conniver, a seven-furlong sprint for Maryland-breds on March 13 at Laurel Park. The 4-year-old Uncle Mo filly, previously trained by Brian Lynch, will be making her first start for conditioner Horacio DePaz.

“She's a Maryland-bred and she was very competitive in that stakes race, so we thought we'd bring her up here to New York for the early part of the meet,” said DePaz. “She's versatile so I think the distance will be OK.

“There's some very nice fillies in there, so we'll see how she handles everything,” he added. “Hopefully she can hit the board and continue to develop. She was very competitive in that stakes race in Maryland considering she still has all her conditions left.”

Whispering Pines, who boasts a record 6-1-0-2, will exit post 3 under Jose Ortiz.

Rounding out the field are Saratoga Affair [Irad Ortiz, Jr., post 4], and She's a Black Belt [Trevor McCarthy, post 6].

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