Matareya Takes Derby City Distaff; Champ Goodnight Olive Endures Brutal Trip

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It was a tale of two trips as Godolphin homebred Matareya (Pioneerof the Nile) delivered a one-length victory over Wicked Halo (Gun Runner) in Saturday's GI Derby City Distaff to kick off the graded action on Kentucky Derby day at Churchill Downs. Heavily favored champion female sprinter Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper) was a very unlucky third.

Godolphin was victorious with the Brendan Walsh-trained Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief) in Friday's GI Kentucky Oaks. Sheikh Mohammed's operation and Matareya's trainer Brad Cox finished fourth with the Oaks beaten favorite Wet Paint (Blame).

“It was a very big effort,” Cox said. “I'm very proud of her. Flavien (Prat) did a really good job of getting her into position. There were some really good fillies in there.”

Matareya, off at odds of 5-1 in the six-horse field, sat a dream trip beneath Flavien Prat stalking from second. She gained command at the top of the lane and took care of business from there to secure her second career Grade I victory. Last year's GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint winner Goodnight Olive, meanwhile, found herself completely boxed in behind the winner while racing on the inside of Wicked Halo for the length of the stretch and never got a chance to run beneath jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr.

“I was stuck, the entire way,” Ortiz said. “I had no place to go. I couldn't get out of there. I had tons of horse, just no place to go.”

Matareya, winner of the GII Eight Belles S. on the Kentucky Oaks program last year, capped a four-race winning streak with her first win at the top level in the GI Acorn S. on Belmont Stakes day June 11. She concluded her sophomore campaign with a third-place finish as the big favorite over a good going in Saratoga's GI Test S. Aug. 6. She resurfaced to finish second to Wicked Halo after leading in the stretch over a muddy track last time in Oaklawn's Mar. 31 Matron S.

Pedigree Notes:

Matareya is one of four Grade I winners for her late sire Pioneerof the Nile. She is one 15 Grade I winners for broodmare sire Bernardini.

Matareya's Grade III-winning dam is a daughter of Golden Velvet, who was stakes-placed in France before adding a pair of graded victories and a runner-up effort in the 2008 GI Ogden Phipps H. Golden Velvet is a daughter of Harbor View Farm's outstanding turfer Caress, who was purchased by John Ferguson on behalf of Sheikh Mohammed's global operation for $3.1 million at the 2000 Keeneland November sale a handful of months after the mare foaled a Pulpit colt. That offspring, Sky Mesa ($750,000 KEESEP yearling), was raced by John Oxley to a victory in the GI Hopeful S. Caress is also the dam of Velvety (Bernardini), whose son MGISW Maxfield (Street Sense) closed out his career with a win in the GI Clark H. and now stands at Darley at Jonabell.

Innovative Idea is the dam of the unraced 3-year-old filly Methodology (Uncle Mo). She is also responsible for a yearling colt and a 2-year-old colt by the same stallion. She visited Curlin for 2023.

Saturday, Churchill Downs
DERBY CITY DISTAFF S. PRESENTED BY KENDALL-JACKSON WINERY-GI, $750,000, Churchill Downs, 5-6, 4yo/up, f/m, 7f, 1:21.87, ft.
1–MATAREYA, 123, f, 4, by Pioneerof the Nile
                1st Dam: Innovative Idea (GSW, $229,343),
                                by Bernardini
                2nd Dam: Golden Velvet, by Seeking the Gold
                3rd Dam: Caress, by Storm Cat
O/B-Godolphin (KY); T-Brad H. Cox; J-Flavien Prat. $460,350.
Lifetime Record: 11-6-3-1, $1,517,217. Werk Nick Rating:
A+++. *Triple Plus*
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the
free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Wicked Halo, 123, f, 4, by Gun Runner
1st Dam: Just Wicked (GSW, $208,460), by Tapit
2nd Dam: Wicked Deed, by Harlan's Holiday
3rd Dam: Marfa's Squall, by Marfa
O/B-Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC (KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen.
$148,500.
3–Goodnight Olive, 123, m, 5, by Ghostzapper
1st Dam: Salty Strike (MGSW, $485,266), by Smart Strike
2nd Dam: Lake Huron, by Salt Lake
3rd Dam: My Rainbow, by Lyphard
($170,000 Ylg '19 FTKOCT). O-First Row Partners and Team
Hanley; B-Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC (KY); T-Chad
Brown. $74,250.
Margins: 1, 1, 3 1/4. Odds: 5.06, 3.74, 0.57.
Also Ran: Hot and Sultry, My Destiny, Travel Column.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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Breeders’ Cup Dirt Dozen Series Returns in 2023

The Breeders' Cup Dirt Dozen, an incentive-based participation bonus program for horsemen pointing runners to the dirt races in the Breeders' Cup World Championships, will return this season. Launched in 2022, the series awards bonus credits funded by the Breeders' Cup for first through third-place finishes in each of 12 existing graded stakes races scheduled from May through October at six tracks throughout the United States. Horsemen can use those credits toward entry fees for one of the six Breeders' Cup World Championships dirt races.

In Dirt Dozen races in the $2-million Breeders' Cup race divisions–which includes the GI Longines Distaff, GI Qatar Racing Sprint, GI FanDuel Juvenile and GI NetJets Juvenile Fillies–the bonus tier is allocated at $30,000 for first, $15,000 for second, and $7,500 for third.

In Dirt Dozen races in the $1-million Breeders' Cup race divisions–the GI PNC F/M Sprint and the GI Big Ass Fans Dirt Mile–the bonus tier will award $15,000 for first, $7,500 for second, and $3,750 for third.

The Dirt Dozen program begins May 6 with the GI Derby City Distaff at Churchill Downs. The first three finishers in the race will earn credits toward entry fees for a potential start in the F/M Sprint. The program concludes Oct. 1 with the GI Zenyatta S. at Santa Anita, where the first three finishers in the race will earn credits toward entry fees for a potential start in the Distaff.

“After a successful launch in 2022, we are happy to again present our innovative Dirt Dozen program,” said Dora Delgado, Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Officer of Breeders' Cup Limited. “Last year, many horsemen who took advantage of those credits toward entry fees for our dirt races were rewarded at the World Championships, and we look forward to extending the same incentive to connections who are targeting a start at Santa Anita Park in November.”

For a complete list of races in the series, click here.

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Obligatory From Out of the Clouds in Derby City Distaff

In another zip code at the top of the stretch, Juddmonte homebred Obligatory (Curlin) turned in a furious stretch rally to record a career high in Saturday's GI Derby City Distaff S. at Churchill Downs.

Favored Just One Time (Not This Time), a last out winner of Keeneland's GI Madison S., showed the way through fractions of :22.36 and :44.95 and hit the quarter pole as the one to catch. Obligatory, meanwhile, last of seven throughout, tipped out six wide beneath Jose Ortiz for the stretch run. Longshot Four Graces (Majesticperfection) took over from the pacesetter in deep stretch, but couldn't withstand the streaking gray, who came rolling over the top to get up by 3/4 of a length. It was another 2 1/2 lengths back to Just One Time in third.

“The only thing I reminded Jose [Ortiz] about beforehand was something he knew: her stretch run is her weapon,” Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott said. “The goal with a filly like this is to get her a Grade I. She loves Churchill; for whatever reason she just really does well at this track. She's won a Grade II and a Grade III here, so we pointed for this race to get her her Grade I. Glad she got it.”

A 16-1 upset winner from out of the clouds in the GII Eight Belles S. on the GI Kentucky Oaks undercard last year, Obligatory's sophomore campaign also included second-place finishes in the GI Acorn S. June 5 and GI Cotillion S. Sept. 25. She entered the Derby City Distaff riding a two-race winning streak, capturing the GIII Chilukki S. in her season finale beneath the Twin Spires Nov. 20 and the GIII Hurricane Bertie S. at Gulfstream Mar. 12. She is now three-for-three at Churchill Downs.

“She's a very nice mare,” Ortiz said. “I feel like she's getting better and better. I just waited and let her get into her own rhythm. They were going very fast on the front end. I was sitting at the back of the pack. I didn't want to sweep her off her feet to get a good finish. I was very happy with the trip I had. I swung a little wide because I felt like I had enough [horse].”

Pedigree Notes:

Obligatory becomes the 18th Grade I winner for Hill 'n' Dale's leading sire Curlin. He has sired 47 graded winners. Macho Uno is the broodmare sire of six graded winners, including GI Kentucky Derby starter Tawny Port (Pioneerof the Nile). This is his first Grade I winner in North America. Obligatory is a third-generation Juddmonte homebred. Juddmonte bought her unraced third dam, Nijinsky Star, for $700,000 at the 1987 Keeneland November sale. Among the three stakes winners Nijinsky Star produced were Juddmonte's Viviana (Nureyev), who produced seven-time GISW Sightseek (Distant View) and dual GISW Tates Creek (Rahy). Another daughter was the conduit for Juddmonte's recent MGSW & MGISP Bonny South (Munnings) and Obligatory's dam is a half sister to French G1SW Etoile Montante (Miswaki). Obligatory's fourth dam is Hall of Famer Chris Evert (Swoon's Son), whose descendants include champion Chief's Crown (Danzig). The extended family is positively bursting with stakes performers, including recent G1 Saudi Cup runner-up Country Grammer (Tonalist). Uno Duo has a 2-year-old colt by Juddmonte's late Arrogate named Treble Clef and a yearling filly by Into Mischief. She was bred to Speightstown for this season.

Saturday, Churchill Downs
DERBY CITY DISTAFF S. PRESENTED BY KENDALL-JACKSON WINERY-GI, $750,000, Churchill Downs, 5-7, 4yo/up, f/m, 7f, 1:22.17, ft.
1–OBLIGATORY, 123, f, 4, by Curlin
                1st Dam: Uno Duo (SW, $171,300), by Macho Uno
                2nd Dam: Willstar, by Nureyev
                3rd Dam: Nijinsky Star, by Nijinsky II
1ST GRADE I WIN. O/B-Juddmonte Farms Inc (KY); T-William I. Mott; J-Jose L. Ortiz. $455,700. Lifetime Record: 11-5-2-0, $1,228,594. Werk Nick Rating: A++. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Four Graces, 123, m, 5, by Majesticperfection
               1st Dam: Ivory Empress (GSP, $189,402), by Seeking    the Gold
                2nd Dam: Madame Pandit, by Wild Again
                3rd Dam: Tuesday Evening, by Nodouble
1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. O/B-Whitham Thoroughbreds, LLC (KY); T-Ian R. Wilkes. $147,000.
3–Just One Time, 123, f, 4, by Not This Time
                1st Dam: Ida Clark, by Speightstown
                2nd Dam: Eliza Donner, by Oh Say
                3rd Dam: Witch Wabbit, by Salem
O-Warriors Reward, LLC and Commonwealth New Era Racing; B-Warrior's Reward LLC (PA); T-Brad H. Cox. $73,500.
Margins: 3/4, 2HF, NK. Odds: 3.80, 16.20, 1.50.
Also Ran: Bell's the One, Kimari, Edgeway, Center Aisle. Scratched: Lady Rocket.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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Pessin Savors an Honorable Success

She's the one, all right. The one and only, in fact–at least up until now. Who knows? Perhaps Neil Pessin's exemplary achievements with Bell's the One (Majesticperfection) might yet reward him with another Grade I winner or two. But after a lifetime in the game, and 36 years since saddling his first winner, he's neither expecting nor even desiring to transform the intimate scale of his operation.

“You know, I don't get jealous of anybody,” Pessin says. “I'm very happy with where I'm at. I've been successful with the numbers I've had. And I take my hat off to the big guys. I mean, I couldn't do what they do. I couldn't have hundreds of horses and keep track of it all, take care of it all. And I don't want to. I'm very happy with 10 to 16 horses. Yes, it is a numbers game. And the more horses you have, the better your shot of getting one like 'Bell'. But I also know you go through a lot of horses doing that. Some of those guys have 200 2-year-olds-and if five of them can run, those five will make a name for you. But I wouldn't like doing it that way. That wouldn't be me.”

As it is, the GII Honorable Miss H. success of Bell's the One at Saratoga last week took her trainer to a new high in year earnings (currently $724,298, the work of 11 winners from just 58 starters), with five months still to go; and keeps her on track for a return to the Breeders' Cup, where she made the podium last year after winning the GI Derby City Distaff S. on the postponed Kentucky Derby card.

Moreover you have to wonder whether a mare like this–now a stakes winner at two, three, four and five; and a graded stakes winner at three, four and five–might have got lost in a factory system.

In principle, Pessin is too modest to accept that proposition. “Good horses overcome a lot,” he says. “I don't want to say I've made her a good horse, because she's made me look like a better trainer. I think good horses run wherever they are. I can't take a lot of credit for her ability, because I think it's just natural with her. I think it's 90% the horse, and 10% the trainer.”

That said, he concedes that Bell's the One has always had her idiosyncrasies. Yes, she won her first four races, but her preparations had hardly been those of a point-and-press professional.

“A well-measured neck” victory in the Honorable Miss | Sarah Andrew

“The last two weeks before her first start, four different times she just pulled up galloping and we had to lead her off the racetrack,” Pessin recalls. “But we've gotten to where we can manage her quirks now. Going to the racetrack in the morning we'll let her stop and look and decide when she wants to go. It's an extra 15, 20 minutes every day, just to get her to the racetrack. But that's also because I allow her to do that. We're in no hurry. We can take our time with them.”

Pessin was talking from his summer base at Arlington, where he had just been lamenting with fellow horsemen the looming desecration and destruction of one of the jewels of the American Turf. But then you might argue that Pessin, raised and apprenticed in the pre-industrial era of horsemanship, is himself no less representative of a precious, threatened heritage. For his father was that most accomplished of veterinarians, Dr. Arnold Pessin, while his professional mentor Ronnie Warren had rounded off the input of names as storied as LeRoy Jolley and Woody Stephens.

Old school stuff, right? “Yes, and I'm still pretty old school myself,” Pessin says candidly. “So I take the horses first, and me second. And I've never asked a client to send me a horse. If they want to call me, then if I have room I'll take the horse. But I've never actually hustled to get horses. Just one of the ways I was brought up.”

And that upbringing was hands-on throughout. His father was such a highly regarded diagnostician that even people who weren't clients or friends would tend to consult him about their better horses. And Pessin was at his side through boyhood, watching and learning. He would run X-rays through all the various solutions before putting them in the dark room. With appropriate supervision he could even perform castrations.

“So I learned a lot about soundness,” he says. “And also why you don't do a lot of things that people do… I can only speak to my experience. I can't speak to what other people do. But my vet bills are very low. My dad was always of the view that the less you can do, the better. If a horse has a problem, we'll look at it, see what we can do, but nine times out of 10 he'll end up at the farm. You know, 90 days cures a lot. The other things you can do are usually temporary fixes. And then you have to give them 90 or 120 days, and you blew 90 days trying to get them right.”

Pessin and his star mare | Coady

Though just into his 60s, Pessin is also well placed to corroborate a suspicion that the modern breed is less robust than it was formerly. His late father's remarkably diverse portfolio–he is best remembered, perhaps, for building the Kentucky Training Center (now The Thoroughbred Center) and the Dueling Grounds Race Course (now Kentucky Downs)–also embraced Winchester Farm, where he stood the likes of Olden Times, Candy Spots and Prove It. And Pessin feels that the 21st Century Thoroughbred, whether through inbreeding or mass commercial support of unproven sires, has suffered much physical dilution.

“We used to breed for conformation, pedigree and disposition,” he remarks. “Now they correct foals with surgery, so you don't know what you're breeding. You might think you've got two correct horses, when actually you got two horses that toe out so bad they'd trip you if you walked by. I think that's part of the problem with so many horses not making it to the races.

“And then, on top of that, cannon bones are half the size they used to be. The stallions we stood, I couldn't fit my two hands round their cannon bones. Now I can easily touch my other hand with my fingers. So I think between those things–foal surgeries and bone density–you can't train a horse as hard, or run as many times, as they used to. The major prep for the Derby used to be the Derby Trial, five days before. And they used to run in between the Derby and the Preakness. They'd run some of those 2-year-olds 20 times! Do that today, you'd go to jail.”

This was the environment Pessin so loved that his father told him to work the backside before he went to vet school, just to get it out of his system. (“It's almost out now,” he jokes. “But there's still just a little bit in there.”) In New York he hotwalked for Stephens, groomed for Jolley, watched nights for Joe Canty; and then he was appointed assistant to Warren, “an excellent horseman and good caretaker who did quite well all over the country.”

Nowadays, everything has become about volume. Unproven rookies cover five times as many mares as breed-shapers like Danzig, while “super trainers” corral more horses from a single crop than did Hall of Fame trainers past across a decade. Pessin, as we've already heard, feels no resentment on his own behalf. But he does feel that many others are wanting only in opportunity.

A nose win in last year's Derby City Distaff gave Bell's the One her Grade I | Coady

“There are a lot of horsemen out there, young and old, who nobody's ever heard of because they never get the chance of a good horse,” he says. “You can't take a bad horse and make him into a good horse. You can take a good horse and make him into a bad one, but you can't improve a bad one that much.”

So while he accepts that the idea is impractical, not least after seeing legal challenges to The Jockey Club's attempt to limit stallion books to 140, he does think wistfully back to the days when a trainer would be confined to 40 horses at one track, and for the most part obliged to saddle them in person.

At the same time, those limits did allow trainers to test the resilience of what Pessin has just identified as a stouter breed anyway. So now we instead have mega-trainers, with huge slack in their numbers, nonetheless suffering high attrition.

“Back then, horses were a little more sturdy,” Pessin reflects. “And they were trained hard. If a horse stood up to it, fine; if he didn't, you moved him out and another one was waiting to come in. The philosophy of those trainers was if you can't train, you can't run. And with good horses, that's pretty much true. And good horses were what they were looking for. They weren't looking for a maiden 10. But if you were to train like that today, you wouldn't have anything left in the barn. At least, I wouldn't. The big guys probably could do it, but I'd need to watch a little more closely.”

By the same token, nobody has more appreciation for the endeavor of cheaper horses. “If they're giving 110%, you can't ask them for any more whether it's a $5,000 claimer or a Grade I stake,” he says. “You got to respect that horse and love that horse because they're laying it on the line for you.”

Bell's the One Sunday at Saratoga | Sarah Andrew

But the horses with physical capacity to show that desire tend to cost more. Pessin has due gratitude, then, to the owner of Bell's the One, Bob Lothenbach, as a model patron who has also given him the chance with improved raw materials. Pessin was in the Minneapolis businessman's scouting team when drawing his attention to a filly in the Brereton C. Jones draft at the Fasig-Tipton July Sale of 2017.

“She wasn't the most correct horse in the world,” Pessin admits. “But I think that's why we got her for $155,000, instead of $400,000. But she was just very athletic, in the way she moved, and that's what drew me to her.”

Bell's the One has since become a suitably old-fashioned achiever, with a nine-for-19 record in banking $1,126,825. Pessin feels she has seldom been adequately recognized, but you can absolutely set your clock by her. In her last nine works, she has been clocked behind only three horses out of an aggregate 437 others over the same half; and she is unbeaten over six furlongs. For once, however, she was top of the bill as odds-on favorite for the Honorable Miss.

“Her whole career, she's hardly ever gotten respect, no matter what she does,” Pessin says. “But at Saratoga I was very confident in her, and I stated going into the race that she was the best horse. If there was any pressure, it was pressure I put on myself. But she'll usually back me up, and she did.

“The first quarter-mile I was hoping she wasn't too far back, because they didn't go that fast and she was about 10 or 12 off of it. But when they got to the three-eighths pole, she was about five or six off, and I felt as long as he could get the outside I could be pretty confident. Because once she gets in a head duel, it's hard to beat her. She's very gutsy. So while she only won by a neck, I felt it was a well-measured neck.”

So let's salute this admirable mare, and the man who has drawn out her talent–especially as, typically enough, the Grade I prize they shared last year could not really receive due public celebration.

Arlington Park | Horsephotos

“It would have been nice to have the crowd there,” Pessin says. “But it really wasn't bittersweet at all: it was still a Grade I, still at Churchill, still on national television. And I was just very happy to have won. Normally I can call photos, but that one I could not and nor could Tom [Amoss, trainer of runner-up Serengeti Express (Alternation)]. I just felt lucky to come out on the right end of it.”

Bell's the One will now rest for two or three weeks at Chesapeake Farm, Lexington, before training up to the GII Thoroughbred Club of America S., at Keeneland in October, as a springboard to Del Mar. By that stage, sadly, Pessin may have left Arlington Park for the final time.

“It's hard to believe there's even a possibility of a wrecking ball going through that grandstand,” he says. “But give up? Hell, no. You don't give up so long as there's any flicker of hope. It's such a beautiful place, it would be such a shame to see it go by the wayside.”

So much more than bricks and mortar, after all, has already been smashed in our Turf heritage. Let's just be grateful, then, for the remnants that endure in sturdy horses like Bell's the One, and self-effacing horsemen like her trainer.

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