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Banke, Lear, Rankin Elected To The Jockey Club’s Board of Stewards

Barbara Banke, William M. Lear Jr., and R. Alex Rankin have been elected to the board of stewards of The Jockey Club. Lear has been reelected, while Banke and Rankin are filling the expired positions of Everett R. Dobson and John W. Phillips.

Banke previously served on the board of stewards from 2016-2020 and has been a member of The Jockey Club since 2013. She is a Thoroughbred owner and breeder and proprietor of Jackson Family Wines, based in Santa Rosa, California. She owns Stonestreet Stables, which has campaigned champions such as Curlin, Rachel Alexandra, Good Magic, Lady Aurelia, and My Miss Aurelia. Stonestreet-bred horses have won more than 80 graded stakes races and earned nearly $80 million on the racetrack. Banke serves on the board of the Breeders' Cup, the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, and Keeneland and on the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA) American Graded Stakes Committee.

Lear has served as vice chairman of The Jockey Club since 2015 and has been a member of The Jockey Club since 2010. He is the chairman emeritus of Stoll Keenon Ogden PLLC, the Kentucky-based law firm that counts among its clients Keeneland, Breeders' Cup, The Jockey Club, TOBA, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, and a number of Thoroughbred breeding and racing operations. Lear currently serves on the board of Keeneland and Commonwealth Seed Capital LLC.

Rankin has been a member of The Jockey Club since 2016 and has been the chairman of Churchill Downs Inc. since 2018. He has also served as president and board member of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, president and director of the Kentucky Derby Museum, director of Breeders' Cup Limited, and director of Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders. He is the chairman of the board of Sterling G. Thompson Company in Louisville, Kentucky, and founder of Upson Downs Farm in Goshen, Kentucky.

In addition to Banke, Lear, and Rankin, the board of stewards consists of Dr. Larry Bramlage, C. Steven Duncker, William S. Farish Jr., Ian D. Highet, Stuart S. Janney III (chairman), and Vinnie Viola.

The Jockey Club, founded in 1894 and dedicated to the improvement of Thoroughbred breeding and racing, is the breed registry for North American Thoroughbreds. In fulfillment of its mission, The Jockey Club, directly or through subsidiaries, provides support and leadership on a wide range of important industry initiatives, and it serves the information and technology needs of owners, breeders, media, fans and farms. It founded America's Best Racing (americasbestracing.net), the broad-based fan development initiative for Thoroughbred racing, and in partnership with the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, operates OwnerView (ownerview.com), the ownership resource. Additional information is available at jockeyclub.com.

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Bango Just Holds On In Kelly’s Landing; Art Collector Finishes Sixth

Tamaroak Partners LLC's 4-year-old homebred colt Bango tracked pacesetter Strike Power, took the lead from that rival at the top of the stretch and then held off a determined late run from Mucho to win Friday's 11th running of the $107,025 Kelly's Landing Overnight Stakes at Churchill Downs by a nose. Last year's Blue Grass (G2) winner Art Collector, the 6-5 favorite who made his first start of the year, finished a non-threatening sixth.

Trained by Greg Foley and ridden by Tyler Gaffalione, Bango ran seven furlongs over a fast track in 1:21.25 to collect his second stakes win of the meet. Previously, he held off fellow Kelly's Landing rival Long Range Toddy to win the $150,000 Aristides (Listed) by a half-length on May 29.

Friday's triumph was worth $65,640 and boosted Bango's bankroll to $459,197 with a record of 18-7-1-1. Six of his victories have come in nine starts at Churchill Downs.

“This is why we get up early in the morning and do our job,” Foley said. “It makes it all worth it when horses like this run as well as they do. Bango loves Churchill Downs. He's a neat little horse and Tyler gave him a great ride.”

Strike Power led the field of nine older horses through early splits of :22.63 and :45.32 with Bango rating comfortably in third from the outside. Around the turn, Bango ranged into contention and grabbed a slight lead from the early leader with a furlong to run. The winner put away Strike Power at the sixteenth pole but a fierce late run by Mucho triggered a photo finish at the wire.

“There was a little bit of speed to our inside so I just let him get settled down the backside,” Gaffalione said. “We got into a great position and I wanted to make sure I got the jump on the closers. He held on well and ran a big race.”

Bango is a son of Congrats out of the Smart Strike mare Josaka and was bred in Kentucky by her owners Fred and Debbie Schwartz who campaign under the nom de course Tamaroak.

Bango returned $15, $7.40 and $4.60 as the 6-1 fourth betting choice. Mucho, at odds of 19-1 under Gabriel Saez, returned $14.60 and $7.20 and finished two lengths in front of Strike Power who paid $3.60 to show under Ricardo Santana Jr. as the 4-1 third choice.

Aloha West, the 3-1 second betting choice, was fourth and was followed by Home Base, Art Collector, Bourbon Calling, Long Range Toddy and Relentless Dancer.

The Kelly's Landing honors the Summerplace Farm runner who earned $1,853,831 from a record of 10-3-2 in 27 starts for trainer Eddie Kenneally between 2004-09. The gelding won the six-furlong Aristides Handicap (Grade 3) at Churchill Downs in 2005 by stopping the teletimer in a track record 1:07.55 (since eclipsed). His biggest victory came in the 2007 Dubai Golden Saheen at Nad Al Sheba in the United Arab Emirates. Kelly's Landing also won the 2006 Phoenix (G3) at Keeneland and 2007 Mr. Prospector Handicap (G3) at Gulfstream Park.

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Winning Impression, 12th In 2020 Kentucky Derby, Euthanized After Churchill Allowance

West Point Thoroughbreds and Pearl Racing's Winning Impression, 12th in this year's Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5, had to be euthanized after damaging his seasmoid after a turf allowance race at Churchill on Nov. 12, reports bloodhorse.com.

The 3-year-old son of Paynter was making his first start since the Derby, and rallied from well off the pace to finish third before bobbling near the wire. The Dallas Stewart trainee was pulled up around the turn and vanned off the course, but Winning Impression was unable to be saved.

“Sesamoid too damaged for us to save him,” said West Point's Terry Finley in a text message. “Simply heartbroken for everyone involved with this very cool horse.”

Brisset Believes Extraordinary Has A Big Shot In Indiana Derby

Trainer Rodolphe Brisset's first words when asked about his Indiana Derby contender Extraordinary: “I love the horse.”

Extraordinary makes his stakes debut in the $300,000, Grade 3 Indiana Derby at 1 1/8 miles Wednesday. The son of sprint champion Speightstown certainly was intended as a top horse, selling as a yearling for $750,000, with WinStar Farm and China Horse Club teaming with breeder Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings to race the horse.

Extraordinary is 10-1 in the morning line, but Brisset thinks the chestnut colt will be more like 6-1. Extraordinary found all kinds of trouble in his last start, a late-running fourth out of 12 in a Churchill Downs allowance race. The winner, Man in the Can, is running in Keeneland's Grade 2 Toyota Blue Grass, second-place Dean Martini won the Ohio Derby and third-place Earner also is in the Indiana Derby.

“If you look at the replay the other day, he got in a lot of trouble,” the Keeneland-based Brisset said. “He broke sideways. I have no idea why. It was the kind of race, if you're not right up there, you're getting shuffled back. I think we'd have been up there with the winner to fight for the win. He only got beat (3 3/4) lengths and galloped out in front of everybody. The move he made from the three-eighths pole to the quarter pole, I thought it was very impressive.”

Extraordinary hurt his closing bid by running greenly through the stretch. “I don't like to make an excuse,” Brisset said. “I think we got tougher from that race. That's why we decided to go in there. Based on what we saw, we think we've got a shot.”

Extraordinary never began racing until Feb. 8. “We've been pointing to July, August and September,” Brisset said.

Does that include Sept. 5 – as in the rescheduled Kentucky Derby?

“We're giving him the opportunity to bring us there,” he said. “It's just a matter if he's good enough. It's a different year. Obviously, you don't want to peak too early. The horse was very late, didn't race as a 2-year-old. He won on talent, but it took him a couple of races to figure things out. You can feel he's doing just the minimum in the mornings.”

Brisset added blinkers for Extraordinary's last race and is satisfied with the result. The colt still doesn't work fast, the trainer said, “but it's the way he's doing it… He's showing us the right signs: That he's a two-turn horse, a dirt horse.”

WinStar Farm and China Horse Club know well that not every horse can even come close to being a Justify, their unbeaten 2018 Triple Crown winner (whom Brisset trained before the unraced 2-year-old was sent to Bob Baffert). Indeed, they have a Plan B, with Extraordinary entered in Monday's Fasig-Tipton sale of horses of racing age in Lexington.

“For the right price, they'll let the horse go,” Brisset said. “If he runs 1-2-3, I'm sure we'll get together and we'll talk. It's a long way before he gets sold.”

Brisset also entered Aurelia Garland in the Indiana Oaks but said she will scratch after finishing second in Sunday's Iowa Oaks.

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