Dean Reeves | Horse Racing Free Tips

Del Mar Futurity Winner Dr. Schivel To Get ’90-Day Rest,’ Return As 3-Year-Old

Transferred to the barn of trainer Mark Glatt the day after his win in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity, Dr. Schivel is likely done racing for the year, reports the Daily Racing Form. The juvenile son of Violence will be turned out for three months before returning to training.

“We're going to give the horse a 90-day rest and bring him back as a 3-year-old,” Glatt told drf.com. “He does not have an injury or anything like of that nature, but he's had quite a few hard races, and we just thought if we want to have a 3-year-old next year we better back off and let him rest for a little bit.”

Bred in Kentucky by William A. Branch and Arnold R. Hill, Dr. Schivel was entered in the Keeneland November sale as a weanling but did not meet his reserve when bidding stopped at $37,000. His breeders retained the colt to race, and placed him with trainer Luis Mendez.

Dr. Schivel was third on debut, then second in his second start, and broke his maiden at third asking, defeating $1 million yearling Spielberg by 5 3/4 lengths. He was then sold privately to Tim Cohen's Rancho Temescal, his father Jed Cohen's Red Baron's Barn, and Dean Reeves, while co-breeder Branch retained an ownership interest.

The colt remained in Mendez' barn through his win in the Del Mar Futurity, and was transferred to Glatt the next day. Dr. Schivel goes to the bench with two wins from four starts and earnings of $197,000.

Channel Maker, Sadler’s Joy Attempt To Turn Around Losing Streaks In Bowling Green Stakes

Grade 1-winning veterans Channel Maker and Sadler's Joy, who together have combined to earn more than $4.7 million in purses during their lengthy careers, will attempt to put the brakes on frustrating losing streaks Saturday in the Grade 2, $250,000 Bowling Green on the inner turf at Saratoga Race Course.

The 1 3/8-mile Bowling Green is part of a Whitney Day program featuring three Grade 1 events led by the historic Whitney at 1 1/8 miles with an automatic berth to the Breeders' Cup Classic on November 7 at Keeneland on the line. The card is bolstered by the Grade 1, $500,000 Personal Ensign presented by NYRA Bets, a “Win and You're In” qualifier for the Breeders' Cup Distaff in November; and the Grade 1, $300,000 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial presented by Runhappy for 3-year-olds sprinting seven furlongs.

Also on the stakes-laden card is the $200,000 Caress, a 5 ½-furlong turf sprint for older fillies and mares. The entire program will be broadcast on Saratoga Live beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern on FOX Sports and MSG Networks.

Gary Barber, Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, Wachtel Stable and R.A. Hill Stable's Channel Maker has gone winless in nine starts since his neck victory in the Grade 1 Man o' War in May 2019 at Belmont Park, also contested at the Bowling Green distance.

Channel Maker, a gelded 6-year-old son of turf champion English Channel, has been beaten less a length or less three times during his current drought including last year's Bowling Green, where he came up three-quarters of a length shy of defending his 2018 dead-heat victory. Most recently, the Bill Mott trainee finished fourth by a length after pressing the pace into the stretch of the 1 ¼-mile Manhattan on July 4 at Belmont.

“He's an interesting horse. He's been working out well. He ran a really tough race last time. I thought he put in a tremendous effort and was right there at the end,” co-owner Dean Reeves said. “He's just the kind of horse that we'll get a lot of racing out of. He's been fairly consistent, if he gets the right trip. He's kind of a difficult horse to handle. He gets a little bit rank and a little bit wanting to go, but he's been consistent, he's a dual Grade 1 winner and we've got a lot to look forward to.”

Overall, Channel Maker sports a record of 5-5-3 with nearly $2.2 million in purse earnings from 33 starts. Reeves bought into the chestnut following his triumph in the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic in 2018.

“He just keeps kind of rocking along and then every now and then he gets a big race. We hope maybe it'll be Saturday in the Bowling Green,” Reeves said. “I don't think there's a lot of speed in it. I suspect we'll be close to the front, and he likes Saratoga. He likes this track and Belmont quite a bit, so I think we've got a good shot.”

Manny Franco, up in the Manhattan, returns to ride from post 5.

Woodslane Farm homebred Sadler's Joy earned his lone career Grade 1 victory in the 2018 Sword Dancer at Saratoga and was second by a neck in last year's edition. The 7-year-old gelding capped his 2019 campaign by winning the Grade 3 Red Smith last November at Aqueduct, but has gone winless in four tries this year.

Trained by Tom Albertrani, Sadler's Joy has run third in his last three races, each by diminishing margins. He was beaten 4 ¾ lengths in the Grade 2 Mac Diarmida at Gulfstream Park in February, two lengths in the June 4 Tiller at Belmont – both at 1 3/8 miles – and three-quarters in the Manhattan.

“He came out of the Manhattan doing really well. He's been training very well and hopefully we just get a good trip,” Albertrani said. “The horse always seems to run his race. He's been narrowly beaten in several races, but he shows up. Just hopefully we get him back into the winner's circle one of these times.”

Albertrani is hoping his regular rider, Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano, will be able to carve out a good trip from post 6 for the late-running Sadler's Joy, who has finished in the top three in 21 of 30 lifetime starts, seven of them wins, with more than $2.5 million in purses earned.

“He's just such a tricky horse to ride, with his style. He always loses a lot of ground on the turns and I think that's the reason he's lost some of these turf races. He just seems to go to the wire after losing a lot of ground and he's always right there. That's just the way it is,” Albertrani said.

“Nobody knows him better than Javier. He's ridden him enough times where he's gotten to really know him,” he added. “You have to time everything just right with him. He ran huge the last race he won back at Aqueduct. It was a little bit of a class break for him but he was able to make that big, wide move and draw away. He always has to get a good trip.”

Todd Pletcher, who trained Channel Cat to victory in last year's Bowling Green, will make his title defense with Team Valor International's Pillar Mountain. Bred in Ireland, the 5-year-old son of Kodiac has raced once in 2020, closing to be sixth by 3 ¼ lengths in a 1 1/8-mile optional claiming allowance on June 20 at Belmont.

Pillar Mountain won a similar spot going 1 3/8 miles last summer at Saratoga, earning him a shot in the Sword Dancer, where he finished sixth. In his only other stakes attempts, both last fall, he was seventh behind Grade 1 winner Zulu Alpha in the Grade 3 Kentucky Turf Cup at Keeneland and third in the 1 ½-mile Point Of Entry at Belmont.

“The last race was a little short of his best so I thought it was an acceptable comeback race and he should appreciate the added distance,” Pletcher said. “He's a stayer, so we look forward to getting back to a distance that suits him. He seems to be in good form and he likes the track, so we'll see if he can step it up.”

Hall of Famer John Velazquez rides Pillar Mountain from post 7.

Trainer Mike Maker entered the Three Diamonds Farm-owned pair of Cross Border and Marzo.

Cross Border, who won the Lubash against fellow New York-breds on July 22 at the Spa, is a perfect 4-0 at Saratoga, turning the triple last summer. He won a conditioned starter by three lengths last July, then took a pair of New York-bred allowance events 18 days apart in August.

Cross Border set the pace in the Manhattan two starts back before being passed late and wound up fifth, beaten a length, and was nailed at the wire in similar fashion in the Grade 3 W.L. McKnight in January at Gulfstream.

The 4-year-old Marzo won the Grade 3 Sycamore in October 2019 at Keeneland in his second start since being claimed by Maker for $62,500, and has not raced since his seventh-place finish in the Grade 2 Mervin Muniz Memorial in March at Fair Grounds.

Jose Ortiz retains the mount on Cross Border from post 2, while older brother Irad Ortiz Jr. rides Marzo from post 1.

Completing the field are Ten Strike Racing's Dot Matrix [post 4, Joel Rosario], winner of the Grade 3 John B. Connally in January at Sam Houston, and Joyce B. Young's Highland Sky [post 3, Junior Alvarado], who captured an off-the-turf edition of the John's Call last summer at Saratoga.

The Bowling Green is slated as Race 11 on Saturday's 12-race card, which offers a first post of 1:10 p.m. Eastern. Saratoga Live will present daily television coverage of the 40-day summer meet on FOX Sports and MSG Networks. For the complete Saratoga Live broadcast schedule, and additional programming information, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule.

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Favored Double Crown Holds Off With Verve To Take Carry Back At Gulfstream

Reeves Thoroughbred Racing's Double Crown lived up to his 3-5 favoritism in Saturday's $75,000 Carry Back at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., where the Kathy Ritvo-trained gelding won his second straight stakes race with a thoroughly professional performance.

The Carry Back, a seven-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds co-headlined Saturday's Fourth of July program with the $75,000 Azalea, a seven-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies.

Double Crown, who captured the 6 ½-furlong Roar at Gulfstream Park May 16, rated just behind dueling Cajun Brother and Poe, who set fractions of 22.59 and 45.42 seconds for the first half mile, before making a sweep to the lead on the turn into the homestretch. The son of Bourbon Courage opened up a clear lead under Cristian Torres in mid-stretch and continued gamely to hold off Hutcheson Stakes winner With Verve by three-quarters of a length.

“He's tough. He has just enough speed to stay off the pace early and he closes well,” said Dean Reeves, who owns the Maryland-bred filly with his wife Patti.

Double Crown ran seven furlongs in 1:22.37 to with his third race in four career starts. With Verve finished 1 ¾ lengths ahead of late-closing Ournationonparade.

Double Crown and Ournationonparade were privately purchased by the Reeves following a Sept. 19 maiden special weight race, in which the former defeated the latter in their respective debuts at Laurel Park.

Ournationonparade came right back to win the $100,000 Maryland Million Nursery in his next start, while Double Crown went to the sidelines. Double Crown returned to action for Ritvo with a late-closing second-place finish in an April 26 allowance at Gulfstream before capturing the Roar Stakes.

“He's come around great. Kathy's done a great job with him. She gave him some time at the end of his 2-year-old year and let him grow into himself, because he's a good-size horse,” Reeves said. “It's amazing when you give them some time, they pay dividends for you,”

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Reeves Confident in Belmont Contender Sole Volante

Dean and Patti Reeves, fourth with Tax (Arch) in last year’s GI Belmont S., will be represented in this year’s race by Sole Volante (Karakontie {Jpn}), who took the long route from Florida to New York Tuesday.

“He’s going by FedEx,” Dean Reeves said while the gelding was en route Tuesday. “Whatever kind of package, I guess they can do it. He had to go to Memphis and had a layover there and he should get into New York around 8 p.m. [Co-owner and assistant trainer] Andie [Biancone] is already up there, so she’ll be waiting on him when he gets to Belmont.”

Trainer Patrick Biancone purchased Sole Volante for $20,000 at the 2019 OBS April Sale and gave the bay to his daughter Andie as a birthday present. The gelding won his first two races, including the Nov. 30 Pulpit S., on the turf before hitting Reeves’s radar screen with a late-running third-place effort over the dirt in the Jan. 4 Mucho Macho Man S.

“I give credit for finding him to Jay Stone,” Reeves said. “He had watched the horse up there and he helps me a lot buying runners. He called me about the horse and he said this is really a turf horse, but he looked darn good in the Mucho Macho Man on the dirt. He was really closing on those horses. So we watched his back videos and I thought even if he doesn’t become a two-turn dirt horse, this will be a good horse on the turf because he has great closing kick. Jay set up a meeting and I met with Patrick for a couple of hours at Gulfstream Park and talked it through and we came up with a deal that worked for he and Andie. So that’s when we bought a majority interest in the horse.”

Sole Volante proved he was more than a turf horse when he won the Feb. 8 GIII Sam F. Davis S. in his first start for the Reeveses and he came back to prove he could be a bona fide Kentucky Derby contender with a runner-up effort behind King Guillermo (Uncle Mo) in the Mar. 7 GII Tampa Bay Derby. The form of that race was bolstered when King Guillermo returned to run second behind Nadal (Blame) in the May 2 GI Arkansas Derby.

“When we went to Tampa and he won that race, I really felt like this was going to be a nice horse,” Reeves said. “And even though we finished second, King Guillermo has turned out to be a heck of a runner himself. If he had gone to Arkansas and gotten beat by 20 lengths, then you’d rethink that some. But he ran big and he’s going to continue to run big. That’s a nice horse.”

With the reshuffling of Triple Crown races this year, connections decided to skip the trip to Arkansas with Sole Volante and chose to give the gelding some time off ahead of the extended Classic season.

“When we saw the Triple Crown races were going to be spread out all the way to October, we knew we would have to give him the time somewhere along the line,” Reeves said. “We took it at the start. So we skipped going to Arkansas and gave him the time, which has really helped him.”

That decision left Sole Volante potentially returning from a lengthy layoff to run in Saturday’s Belmont and, when rain forced a missed work, Biancone called an audible and started the bay in a Gulfstream Park allowance just a week ago. He came from last to first to win that one-mile race in a prep Reeves hopes sets him up for a trip to the Belmont winner’s circle.

“It had been over 100 days since he had raced, so we wanted to get him where he had to go through the motions. He had to go to the paddock, he had to get in the gate. He actually put up a good time and got a good Rag number and Beyer number. It couldn’t have worked out any better. If you wrote it up, that’s what you would have wanted to see from the horse.”

Reeves said Biancone has seen enough out of Sole Volante since last week’s race to take a tilt at this year’s first leg of the Triple Crown.

“After the race, we said we had 10 days to see how he was doing before we had to make a firm decision,” Reeves explained. “We started putting a plan together. We really left it up to the horse and we waited until the very last minute to see Monday how he galloped and Patrick said he was fabulous.”

The other option for Sole Volante would have been to wait for the July 11 GII Toyota Blue Grass S. at Keeneland, but with an eye towards the delayed Sept. 5 GI Kentucky Derby, connections decided to head to New York.

“We thought if we skipped the Belmont and pointed to the Blue Grass and then something happened, if he got a fever or a bruised foot, and for some reason you had to skip that, then you are squeezing the time getting to the Derby,” Reeves said. “We wanted to secure our points. We are 14 [on the Derby points board] now, but you never know another horse could come in and get a lot of points. We would feel a lot better if we had enough points and we didn’t have to worry about getting into the Derby. That was a little bit the reasoning going to Belmont. I think that will give us the opportunity to run in the [GI] Travers S. in August and that would set us up to run in the Derby. That’s our long-range plan.”

The 2020 Triple Crown will conclude with the Oct. 3 GI Preakness S., but for Reeves a Triple Crown win would be cause for celebration no matter the timing of the races or how the victor is judged by history.

“I’ll be glad to have an asterisk,” he said of a potential Triple Crown sweep in an unprecedented year. “I’ll have two or three, however many asterisks they want to give me. I’ll take all the asterisks they want to give me and be happy to win the Triple Crown.”

While Sole Volante carries his colors in Saturday’s Belmont, Reeves will be watching from afar as owners are still not permitted at the racetrack due to the ongoing pandemic.

“Us owners, we work our tails off to get to these races and when you finally get a horse that gets there and you have to stay home, it just kills you,” Reeves said. “But the worse side of it would be no race at all. So if that’s the best we can do, we understand everyone is under a lot of pressure and right now we just have to deal with it. We’re going to have a party [at home] and enjoy the day.”

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