david bernsen | Horse Racing Free Tips

Multiple graded stakes winner and millionaire Giant Expectations has been retired from racing with career earnings of $1,343,600. He will begin his next career at stud this upcoming breeding season, with the location still to be determined pending sale of the horse, either privately or at auction.

In a career that spanned five seasons and 25 starts, Giant Expectations consistently raced at the highest level from coast to coast. His ability to show tactical speed, both sprinting and routing, set him apart with wins in both the Grade 2 Pat O'Brien Stakes at seven furlongs and against a historically tough field for the G2 San Antonio Stakes at 1 1/16 miles, winning gate-to-wire and defeating 2018 Eclipse Award winner Accelerate, as well as Grade 1 winners Collected and Hoppertunity.

“Giant Expectations was one of the best horses I had the pleasure to ride over my career,” said Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens, who was in the irons for some of Giant Expectations' biggest races, including the Pat O'Brien and San Antonio wins. “He was a great-looking horse with the stride and the movement to go with it, long and fluid…a beautiful stride and a powerful stretch run.”

“He's always had tremendous speed, stamina, and resilience,” said Peter Eurton, who has trained Giant Expectations since he was purchased as a 2-year-old. “He's a perfectly-built horse. Very sound and a gorgeous individual.”

Giant Expectations' racing career concludes with 14 top-five finishes in 16 consecutive stakes races, with 13 of those at the Grade 1 or Grade 2 level.

Giant Expectations was trained by Eurton for Exline-Border Racing, David Bernsen, Gatto Racing, and partners, who stated, “The current ownership group and management unanimously elected to retire Giant Expectations in the best interests of the horse, and are excited to follow his next career as a stallion.”

From the same family as this year's probable Breeders' Cup Sprint favorite C Z Rocket, Giant Expectations is from the famed Storm Cat male line, and he has been relocated to Kentucky as a stallion prospect. Viewing is available conveniently just four miles away from Keeneland beginning next week. To arrange a viewing, please call 805-712-1395.

“This is the type of horse you miss the most when they leave,” Eurton said. “Anybody who breeds to him is going to be very happy.”

The post Grade 2 Winner Giant Expectations Retired; Stud Plans Pending appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The burgeoning but eventful, to say the least, career of Storm the Court comes full circle Sunday when the 3-year-old son of Court Vision gets tested on turf for the first time in the Grade III, $125,000 La Jolla Handicap at Del Mar near San Diego, Calif.

Barely less than a year ago, on August 10, 2019, the colt trained by Peter Eurton for Exline-Border Racing, David Bernsen and partners, made his racing debut here a victorious one. Twenty-three days later, Storm the Court was bumped by bolting 1-2 favorite Eight Rings shortly after the start of the meet-climaxing Del Mar Futurity with both horses losing their riders.

Following that there was, as racing fans know, a 45-1 upset victory in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile, the honor of an Eclipse Award as top 2-year-old of 2019 and a 0-for-4 record in 2020 on the Kentucky Derby trail.

The La Jolla could turn out to be a fresh start on a new surface, or a continuation/affirmation of the still smoldering Derby fires.

“We're going to the grass to give us some options,” Eurton said Friday. “It seems like a good opportunity because, for one, we're here. We still haven't ruled out the Kentucky Derby. Even if he wins this race we won't know what we'll do. That will be something to discuss probably for the next week or two afterward.”

Storm the Court has accumulated 36 points in Kentucky Derby qualifying races and ranks 17^th in the current standings through Friday. The Run for the Roses field is set at 20.

“It's been an unusual year because of the change in schedule,” said Bernsen. “I don't think anyone has been able to stick with the plan they had after the Breeders' Cup. It will be exciting to see what he can do this weekend on the turf and it will give us some options going forward.

“His daddy won the Breeders' Cup Turf at big odds as well, and also won on dirt. So he was versatile and we think (Storm the Court) is too. That suggests it's worth giving it a shot to see what we have.

“It's nice to be able to do that and not have to travel. He's traveled quite a bit since the Breeders' Cup – Arkansas, Ohio – so it's good for us to be able to stay here and do this.”

Storm the Court's sire, Court Vision, was a five-time Grade I stakes winner. As a 2-year-old he took the Iroquois and Remsen on dirt. Switched to turf as a 3-year-old, after a 13^th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, Court Vision won at least one Grade I on grass each year from ages 3-6. He ran in the Breeders' Cup Mile three times and, in his last try, upset the great mare Goldikova at odds of 30-1.

Storm the Court has worked four times at Del Mar. He had an acclimation 4 furlong go on the turf on July 12, 5-furlong grass exercises on July 19 and 26 and a 5-furlong tightener on dirt last Sunday.

The first two were to Eurton's satisfaction, the third he described as a “hiccup” work. “He outworked his company, but he was too busy gawking,” Eurton said. “But the last one (:59.40, second-best of 72 at the distance) was really good.”

The field from the rail: I'm Leaving You (Giovanni Franco, 15-1); K P All Systems Go (Abel Cedillo, 6-1); Azul Coast (Drayden Van Dyke, 4-1); Ajourneytofreedom (Ruben Gonzalez, 12-1); Kanderel (Juan Hernandez, 10-1); Smooth Like Strait (Umberto Rispoli, 5-2); Storm The Court (Flavien Prat, 3-1), and Indian Peak (Mike Smith, 6-1).

The post Eurton Hoping To Hit Storm The Court’s Reset Button In Grassy La Jolla appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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