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After Overseas Disappointment, Ward-Trained Golden Pal Targeting Breeders’ Cup Return

Winner of last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint and heralded by trainer Wesley Ward as one of the best he's ever trained, Golden Pal was disappointing last out when seventh in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes at York.

Ward told At The Races that the race may have come up too quickly for the 3-year-old son of Uncle Mo; the Nunthorpe on Aug. 20 came a little over a month after Golden Pal's winning 2021 debut in the G3 Quick Call Stakes at Saratoga on July 15.

“Every trainer is different, but historically for me, when I bring a horse back from a long lay-off and they run a big race like he did at Saratoga, they need a little bit more time before they run again,” Ward told ATR. “Every horse is different and this horse trained beautiful going into it and came out of the race beautiful, so I think it was just a question of it kind of zapped him from the inside, that first big race he had (at Saratoga).”

Now, Golden Pal will be aimed at a return to the Breeders' Cup World Championships, to be held this November at Del Mar. Ward has yet to decide whether the Coolmore-owned colt will have a prep race prior to this year's Turf Sprint, but if he does, it could come at his home track: Keeneland's G2 Woodford Stakes on Oct. 9 is the most likely option.

Medina Spirit, Rock Your World Both Under Consideration For Awesome Again, Pennsylvania Derby

Following Sunday's battle in the Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar, first and second-place finishers Medina Spirit and Rock Your World could be pointing to the same next race, according to the Daily Racing Form.

The $1 million Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 25 at Parx is one option both camps are considering, while the $300,000 Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 2 is the other. The Pennsylvania Derby is restricted to 3-year-olds but requires a cross-country ship; the Awesome Again would pit the sophomores against older horses, but doesn't require a major ship and also offers an expenses-paid berth to the Breeders' Cup Classic.

Trainer John Sadler was pleased with Rock Your World's effort in the Shared Belief, and is in no hurry to decide the Santa Anita Derby winner's next start.

“I thought he ran well,” Sadler told DRF. “I liked the fact that he kept digging all the way to the wire. It wasn't like he got beat and backed up. It was a good, strong race.”

Meanwhile, Bob Baffert is looking forward to the future with Medina Spirit.

“A mile and a quarter, a mile and a half, I think he could handle anything, that horse,” Baffert told DRF. “He came back great. It was an exciting race. The fans were into it. That was nice to see. It was good racing.”

Justin Mustari, 26, Becomes Youngest-Ever Winner Of National Horseplayers Championship

Justin Mustari of Des Plaines, Ill., topped a field of 563 entries to win the $725,000 first-place prize and an Eclipse Award as Horseplayer of the Year at this weekend's 22nd annual National Horseplayers Championship (NHC) presented by Racetrack Television Network, Caesars Entertainment and Bally's Las Vegas. The event was postponed from its usual early February dates due to the COVID-19 pandemic and became a midsummer event for the first time.

The 26-year-old Mustari, who works for his father Frank's insulation contracting company, is the youngest NHC winner. He amassed a winning score of $370.80 over the three-day tournament from 52 mythical $2 Win and Place bets—17 on Friday, 18 on Saturday, 10 in Sunday morning's Semifinal round, and seven at the climactic DraftKings Final Table for the overall top 10.

The contest came down to Race 8 at Del Mar—a one-mile turf allowance/optional claimer for California-breds—with Mustari sitting fourth behind 2014 NHC winner Jose Arias. Mustari chose a 4-year-old filly names Rose's Crystal, who hadn't raced since January.

“I had to give myself a chance to win with this kind of money,” Mustari said. “I definitely didn't like this horse as a top pick but I had to find something in the range that could get me there. I thought this horse coming off the layoff potentially had a chance if he ran back to some earlier numbers, and he did.”

Mustari was the NHC two-day leader at the end of Saturday but lost the lead during the morning's Semifinals round that led to the Final Table. He did not cash in any of the first six mandatory Final Table races.

“I've got to buy a house because I still live with my parents,” he said. “My dad has been the reason I play this game and he taught me everything I know so I have to give a lot of credit to him.”

Arias finished second with $347.20. The Bell Gardens, Calif., resident was seeking to become the event's first two-time winner. However, when the second mandatory race went off, Arias was nowhere to be found. His pick did not appear on the selection screens and it soon became apparent that he had failed to get his selection in before the gates opened. Later, Arias told reporters he had had a personal issue to tend to but would not have landed on the winner of that race anyway. The $200,000 second-place prize pushed Arias's all-time NHC earnings to $956,000, behind only the all-time leader, Michael Beychok ($1,015,300).

The official Top 10, with final bankroll (and prize):

First – Justin Mustari, $370.80, Des Plaines, Ill. ($725,000 + Eclipse Award)

Second – Jose Arias, $347.20, Bell Gardens, Calif. ($200,000)

Third – Chris Goodall, $345.60, Winter Park, Calif. ($150,000)

Fourth – Paul Calia, $339.10, Kansas City, Mo. ($100,000)

Fifth – Sarah Wiener, $297.70, Clearwater, Fla. ($75,000)

Sixth – Brendan Fay, $294.90, Seminole, Fla. ($65,000)

Seventh – Travis Allison, $291.30, Frisco, Texas ($56,000)

Eighth – Jason Phillips, $289.10, Sutherland, Va. ($54,000)

Ninth – Paul Yaffee, $279.30, Evanston, Ill. ($52,000)

Tenth – Jeff VanDrie, $273.30, Carefree, Ariz. ($50,000)

By virtue of his victory, Mustari also earns an exemption into next year's NHC finals and a berth to the 2021 Breeders' Cup Betting Challenge worth $10,000.

The full NHC and Consolation Tournament standings can be accessed at ntra.com.

The NHC was held for the second straight year in the historic Bally's Event Center, which for three days was transformed into the world's largest race book. The next NHC is set for Jan. 28-30, 2022, at Bally's Las Vegas.

The NHC finals awarded cash prizes to 56 players—the top 10 percent of finishers—from a total purse of $2,154,000. An additional $50,000 went to the top 20 in today's Consolation Tournament. Including $367,500 paid out to top finishers in the year-long NHC Tour, NHC Tour travel awards, RTN subscriptions, and the $10,000 Charity Challenge tournament prize, plus $30,000 worth of Breeders' Cup Betting Challenge prizes in the form of entry fees, bankrolls, airfare and hotel, the aggregate value of payouts this weekend in NHC cash and prizes totaled $3,423,552.

To make the Semifinals cut, the 456 NHC entrants were required to place 35 mythical $2 Win and Place wagers—17 on Friday (one less than scheduled due to a weather cancellation) and 18 on Saturday.

DraftKings Final Table participants were relocated to a single table in the middle of the Bally's Event Center that served as NHC headquarters.

Final Table Race Results

Race: Winner ($2 Win, $2 Place), Second ($2 Place)

Monmouth, Race 10: 8-Alta Velocita ($6.20, $4), 10-Jersey Jewel ($9.40)

Saratoga, Race 9: 8-Sifting Sands ($18.80, $9.60), 5-Dreamer's Disease ($12.20)

Saratoga, Race 10: 6-Chulainn ($22.60, $11), 11-Lord Flintshire ($11)

Del Mar, Race 6: 2-Perfectionist ($8.80), 3-Mesut ($6.20)

Del Mar, Race 7: 6-Bella Vita ($4.40, $3.20), 1-Livingmybestlife ($6)

Golden Gate, Race 8: 6-Friday's at Shady ($9.40, $4.40), 3-Pour On the Cole ($6.20)

Del Mar, Race 8: 5-Rose's Crystal ($41.80, $16.40), 4-Warrens Candy Girl ($6.40)

The 2020 NHC Tour winner Sally Goodall, who was eligible for a $2 million bonus if she could top the NHC, had two entries—one finished in 493rd place with a $41.40 bankroll and the second in 598th with $7.

Goodall, a record-tying 19-time NHC qualifier, was inducted in the NHC Hall of Fame at Sunday night's Champions' Dinner, as was Ray Arsenault, the 2017 NHC winner and third all-time NHC money-earner.

Defending NHC champion Thomas Goldsmith advanced to the Semifinals round with both of his entries and finished 18th ($246.80) and 25th ($224.20). He was one of only two players with multiple entries in the Semifinal round.

In a separate Consolation Tournament for players that did not reach the Semifinal round, Vincent Achillare of Convent Station, N.J., won the $10,000 top prize with a bankroll of $96.30 from 10 optional races. The Consolation Tournament started with bankrolls reset to zero. Cash prizes totaling $50,000 were awarded, from the $10,000 first prize down to $1,000 for 20th.

The 2021 NHC was the culmination of 256 qualifying contests held online and at racetracks and OTBs in 2020. From those contests, there were 35,730 entries played in hopes of making it to Bally's Las Vegas.

The National Horseplayers Championship is presented by Racetrack Television Network, Caesars Entertainment and Bally's Las Vegas and sponsored by 1/ST BET, Breeders' Cup, Capitol OTB, Century Bets, Daily Racing Form, Draft Kings, EquinEdge, FanDuel Group, Four Roses Bourbon, Hawthorne Racecourse, Hialeah Park, HorsePlayers.com, HorseTourneys.com, Keeneland, Monmouth Park, NYRA Bets, Roberts Communications, Santa Anita Park, STATS® Race Lens, The Stronach Group, TVG and Xpressbet.

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Medina Spirit Returns a Winner in Shared Belief

Zedan Racing Stable's Medina Spirit (Protonico), whose GI Kentucky Derby title still remains in limbo due to a betamethasone positive, returned to the winner's circle with a wire-to-wire victory in the Shared Belief S. at Del Mar Sunday. The dark bay colt, sent off the 4-5 favorite, went quickly to the lead and was tracked by second choice Rock Your World (Candy Ride {Arg}) through a quarter in :22.52 and a half in :46.92. The two favorites were swarmed by longshots nearing the stretch as GI Santa Anita Derby winner Rock Your World drifted out slightly in upper stretch and Team Merchants (Nyquist) and Stilleto Boy (Shackleford) exchanged bumps, but Medina Spirit ran straight and true and powered home a one-length winner over the resurgent Rock Your World. Following an inquiry into the infractions in upper stretch, the stewards determined Team Merchants, who finished fourth, was responsible for the interference with third-place finisher Stilleto Boy and allowed the order of finish to stand.

“It's a relief. A Shared Belief relief,” winning trainer Bob Baffert admitted.

Winning rider John Velazquez said, “It went the way we wanted it. Once I made the lead into the first turn, I felt better. He was moving well. When he got on the backside, his ears went up and he was really cruising. When a horse would come to him, he'd pick it up on his own. When we got to the quarter pole, I said, 'Let's go; time to pick it up.' And he was right into it. He finished strong and the gallop-out was strong, too. He can build off this race.”

Medina Spirit, who was supplemented to the Shared Belief last week, was making his first start since finishing third in the May 15 GI Preakness S. Just a week after he upset the May 1 Kentucky Derby with a wire-to-wire victory at 12-1, trainer Bob Baffert announced the colt had tested positive for the regulated anti-inflammatory betamethasone. His victory remains a question mark as connections argue the positive was the result of a skin ointment.

“I did not have any intention of running him in this race until a couple weeks ago,” Baffert said. “I started thinking about it, figuring it couldn't come up that tough. Then [son] Bode said, 'You know Rock Your World's running there?' For what this horse has gone through, he's such a game horse and I wanted to run him here and see if he likes Del Mar. I've never had a Derby winner come back and win here so that's a first. He looks good and John said he feels better than ever. There's still some good racing for him out there. We're waiting for the process to happen.”

Prior to his Derby, Medina Spirit was second behind Life is Good (Into Mischief) in the Jan. 2 GIII Sham S. and won the Jan. 30 GIII Robert B. Lewis S. He was second again to then-stablemate Life Is Good in the Mar. 6 GII San Felipe S. and entered the Derby off a runner-up effort behind Rock Your World in the Apr. 3 GI Santa Anita Derby.

Sunday, Del Mar

SHARED BELIEF S., $100,500, Del Mar, 8-29, 3yo, 1m, 1:37.29, ft.
1–MEDINA SPIRIT, 124, c, 3, by Protonico
                1st Dam: Mongolian Changa, by Brilliant Speed
                2nd Dam: Bridled, by Unbridled
                3rd Dam: Holy Niner, by Holy Bull
($1,000 Ylg '19 OBSWIN; $35,000 2yo '20 OBSOPN). O-Zedan
Racing Stables, Inc.; B-Gail Rice (FL); T-Bob Baffert; J-John R.
Velazquez. $60,000. Lifetime Record: 8-4-3-1, $2,345,200.
2–Rock Your World, 124, c, 3, Candy Ride (Arg)–Charm the
Maker, by Empire Maker. ($650,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-Hronis
Racing LLC & Talla Racing LLC; B-Ron & Deborah McAnally (KY);
T-John W. Sadler. $20,000.
3–Stilleto Boy, 124, g, 3, Shackleford–Rosie's Ransom, by
Marquetry. ($420,000 3yo '21 FTKHRA). O-Steve Moger;
B-John & Iveta Kerber (KY); T-Ed Moger, Jr. $12,000.
Margins: 1 1/4, 2 1/4, 1. Odds: 0.90, 1.60, 22.50.
Also Ran: The Great One, Team Merchants, Willy the Cobbler.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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