Oaks Prep: Promising Cocktail Moments Faces Turf Filly California Angel In Inaugural Untapable Stakes

Dixiana Farms and trainer Ken McPeek enjoyed a memorable moment, and perhaps a cocktail or two, after their promising filly ran off the screen on debut during the “Stars of Tomorrow” card at Churchill Downs. Now they can only hope that Cocktail Moments can take the next logical step in the inaugural running of the $100,000 Untapable Stakes over a 1 1/16 miles distance that is foreign to her. Restricted to 2-year-old fillies, the Untapable offers 10-4-2-1 points on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks.

Dismissed at odds of 26-1 on Nov. 27, the 2-year-old daughter of Uncle Mo was an unhurried tenth of 12 in the early stages of her debut. Nearing the turn of the seven furlong contest, she made a bold move while still in hand and was hung six-wide before engulfing her foes in the stretch and drawing off to win by 9 ¼ lengths, leaving the betting public stunned.

“They (the public) never bet me first time out, it's ok,” McPeek said. “I typically allow a horse to take some dirt in the face. In a way the debut is kind of a schooling race for me. I've had a list of horses in my career that we sent first time out and it blew their mind, so I just don't like doing that, gunning them away from there. For what, my ego? My win percentage?”

“Some of them win,” McPeek continued. “We've had a nice list of first timers this year that won from a little bit off the pace. That helps in their development. It's worth getting beat on occasion for their long-term development. That's always been my approach.”

Installed as the 3-1 morning line favorite, she'll join forces with jockey Brian Hernandez, Jr. for her first route try from post 5 of 8 on Sunday.

“I think she'll handle the route without any trouble,” McPeek said. “She's still got some learning to do. She acts like she's got the turn of foot where if she gets in a nice rhythm and kicks on, that should be fine. Eric Heitzmann, my former assistant, is going to saddle him for me. She had a nice maintenance breeze at Fair Grounds on Wednesday. Four weeks after her maiden win, it's perfect timing for us to be there.”

The unquestioned class of the field is Chris Walsh's California Angel. Purchased for just $5,500 as an Ocala OPN 2-year-old in training, this daughter of California Chrome has already far exceeded expectations, upsetting the Jessamine (G3) on the Keeneland turf on Oct. 13 at odds of nearly 18-1. She would follow-up finishing 11th of 14 in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) at Del Mar, but she was only beaten four lengths by the winner. In her lone dirt start in career start number two of four, California Angel finished a late closing third of 11.

“I'm not worried about the dirt,” trainer Leonard said. “She'll handle the dirt just fine. I just put her on the grass and it happened she liked the grass but we're confident she will run well on the dirt.”

Having worn blinkers in all of her previous starts, California Angel will not wear the hood on Sunday. With Marcelino Pedroza, Jr. piloting her for the first time, the 4-1 second choice will leave from post position two.

“She didn't need them,” Leonard explained. “I think with the blinkers, she was looking around and couldn't see enough. She's ready for that. Hopefully she'll lay closer not as far behind with the blinkers off. She's maturing and growing a little bit. Nothing I haven't seen before. She's still the same. Doing very well. I think she will run really well.”

With a post time of 4:35 p.m. CT, the Untapable is scheduled as race 10 on the 13-race card. The remainder of the field with post position, jockey/trainer and morning line odds is as follows: Columbine Stables' Fannie and Freddie (post 1, Colby Hernandez/Al Stall, Jr., 9-2 ML), a dominant local maiden winner in her first try last out; Mike Dini's (owned & trained) Alittleloveandluck (post 3, Jereth Loveberry/Dini, 12-1 ML), a last out maiden winner against Florida-bred company on the Gulfstream Park Tapeta; Elements Racing's Implosion (post 4, Mitchell Murrill/Steve Margolis, 10-1 ML), the winner of a sales restricted maiden special weight event two starts back at Churchill Downs; Miacomet Farm's Feeling Happy (post 5, James Graham/James Baker, 8-1 ML), who is 3 for 3 in the money with her lone win coming in a sales restricted maiden special weight sprint at first asking at Churchill Downs in late September; Jeff Ganje and Omar Aldabbagh's Shotgun Hottie (post 7, Florent Geroux/Tom Amoss, 6-1 ML), a maiden of a sales restricted race in her first try around two turns last out at Churchill Downs; and Rebecca Hillen, Stonecrest Farms and Bruno De Julio's North County (post 8, Adam Beschizza/Brendan Walsh, 9-2 ML, who is perfect from two starts, both routes, over turf and Indiana and then slop at Keeneland. — Kristufek

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Ken McPeek Talks 2YOs, HISA, Lasix, Training Future On Writers’ Room

The story of a high-quality Thanksgiving weekend of racing at Churchill Downs was undoubtedly Ken McPeek, who sent out four impressive winners on Saturday's all-2-year-old Stars of Tomorrow card, including GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. hero Smile Happy (Runhappy) and 'TDN Rising Star' Cocktail Moments (Uncle Mo), to follow up a six-length victory by his Envoutante (Uncle Mo) in Thursday's GII Falls City S. Tuesday, the thoughtful McPeek sat down for an expansive interview with the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland to talk about his loaded barn of promising juveniles, how much longer he sees himself training, his thoughts on the first proposed rule set of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act and more.

Despite having two graded stakes winners over the weekend, one could argue Cocktail Moments was McPeek's most impressive runner at Churchill. Drifting all the way up to 26-1 off a modest worktab, the $190,000 Keeneland September graduate dropped all the way back to 10th in the 12-horse field before steadily advancing while wide on the turn. Taking charge in mid-stretch, the Dixiana Farms colorbearer put on a show in the final furlong, rocketing away to a 9 1/4-length romp.

“That was a pleasant surprise,” said McPeek, this week's Green Group Guest of the Week. “But I'll tell you, she had been training fantastic going into the race. Typically when we get a young horse ready, we don't force the issue. We let them come [around]. I like to get a race under their belt. I'd almost call the first race a schooling race. I tell the rider to take a little bit of a hold, settle, wait, wait, finish. When they do that, they take dirt in their face, they've got all this adversity, and you lose races doing that, but you also teach them. The young horses that we've gunned away from the gate, they don't learn as much as the ones that take dirt, learn to negotiate the traffic and finish. Well, she finished alright. She came like a bullet. She's been a really happy filly the last couple of weeks, but to be able to predict that first time out is difficult.”

Already with a trio of winners Saturday, Lucky Seven Stable's Smile Happy cemented the day as one to remember for McPeek, settling off the pace and blowing past 7-5 chalk Classic Causeway (Giant's Causeway) in the stretch to a 3 1/4-length score in the Kentucky Jockey Club. That was the second victory in two starts for the $185,000 Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearling buy, who joined fellow graded stakes winners Rattle N Roll (Connect) and Tiz the Bomb (Hit It a Bomb) in the McPeek barn as potential GI Kentucky Derby contenders.

“This horse has out-trained just about every horse he's worked against,” McPeek said. “He's a very physically imposing horse to be around, and he's fast. I stretched him out long the first time and he handled it like a pro, and to beat some of the horses he ran against second time out–he's got the mind of a good horse. I think there's still some fitness that's needed there too. We're going to shelve him for a little while, and I think you're going to see an even better horse when we get to the spring … He's got an interesting pedigree. There wasn't much black type, the first three dams were practically blank. But his second dam is by Relaunch, third dam by Graustark, fourth dam by Bold Ruler, and Funny Cide is under his fourth dam. We're really excited to have him.”

The conversation later turned to McPeek's increasingly impressive training resume. Starting in 1985, his career took off in the 2000s and the 59-year-old now boasts over 1,800 winners and over $95 million in total earnings. Asked to reflect on his career, McPeek went on to break a bit of news in saying he doesn't plan on training for all that much longer–with a caveat.

“I'm probably most proud of finding a lot of these horses at auction, even for modest prices,” he said. “The first 10 years that I trained, I struggled, but I convinced Roy Monroe to let me buy yearlings for him. The first yearling I bought was a Lord At War (Arg) filly that ended up running first, second or third in 15 stakes in her career for Roy and me. Then he let me buy [millionaire and 1995 Derby second] Tejano Run, who launched me. Training horses is not rocket science, but you've got to get good horses to train, and I'm in a unique stage right now where people are giving me bigger budgets. But I'm still buying for what I call the under-50 [thousand] people. I still like working the back end of the sales. I'll wear out a pair of tennis shoes. And Dominic [Brennan] is probably deserving of as much credit as me, because he's been in the trenches with me for 30-plus years. He's one of those unsung heroes–a rock-solid Irish horseman … But I'm going to lay something out there that I don't know if most people want to hear or not. I'm going to do this for 10 or 11 more years. I'm going to train until I'm 70. Unless, of course, I have horses like I've got in the barn right now. But I'm looking at doing it until I'm 70 and then I'd like to work horse auctions for people worldwide.”

Asked for his thoughts on the early HISA rules as proposed by the United States Anti-Doping Agency, McPeek offered, “I think it's fantastic stuff. I think they need to unify the licensing. If I get a driver's license in Kentucky, I can drive all over the country. And then allow reciprocity to take effect when you have a violation. These rules need to be streamlined, there's no question. They need a horseman on those committees making those decisions that has the power to say, 'Hey, wait a second, time out, you're going too far.' But at this point, there aren't horsemen sitting on those, and that bothers me.”

Elsewhere on the Writers' Room, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, West Point Thoroughbreds, Lane's End, XBTV and Legacy Bloodstock, Joe Bianca, Bill Finley and Jon Green discussed the implications of Gun Runner breaking the earnings record for first-crop sires and looked forward to an intriguing GI Cigar Mile H. card Saturday at Aqueduct. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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Uncle Mo Filly Has Her ‘Rising Star’ Moment

Cocktail Moments (f, 2, Uncle Mo–River Maid, by Where's the Ring) turned in a powerful, come-from-behind victory for 'TDN Rising Star' honors on debut at Churchill Downs Saturday afternoon. The dark bay didn't offer many clues on her worktab and completed preparations for Kenny McPeek with a three-furlong spin in :37 1/5 (5/14) beneath the Twin Spires Nov. 24. Overlooked at odds of 26-1, the Dixiana Farms colorbearer, drawn wide in post 11, was outsprinted in 10th through an opening quarter in :22.37. She began to roll as they rounded the far turn, tipped out widest of all in about the six path leaving the quarter pole and rocketed home down the center to graduate by an eye-catching 9 1/4 lengths. Delightof the Nile (Pioneerof the Nile) was second. Cocktail Moments is the ninth 'TDN Rising Star' for leading sire Uncle Mo. Cocktail Moments is the first foal out of Canadian champion female sprinter River Maid. She had a colt by Medaglia d'Oro this year and was bred back to leading sire Tapit. River Maid brought $450,000 from Mark Stansell at the 2017 KEENOV sale.

4th-Churchill Downs, $122,857, Msw, 11-27, 2yo, f, 7f, 1:23.28, ft, 9 1/4 lengths.
COCKTAIL MOMENTS, f, 2, by Uncle Mo
1st Dam: River Maid (Ch. Female Sprinter-Can, GSW, $442,909), by Where's the Ring)
                2nd Dam: Rivermaid Dancing, by Riverman
                3rd Dam: Perky Dancer, by Green Dancer
Sales history: $135,000 Wlg '19 KEENOV; $190,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP; $245,000 RNA 2yo '21 OBSMAR. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $69,460. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG. Click for the free Equineline.com catalog-style pedigree.
O-Dixiana Farms LLC; B-Mark Stansell (KY); T-Kenneth G. McPeek.

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