don alberto stable | Horse Racing Free Tips

First Foal Out of Paola Queen Makes Impressive Debut

4th-Monmouth, $56,925, Msw, 6-4, 3yo/up, 6f, 1:10.94, ft, 4 1/4 lengths.
PASS AND STOW (c, 3, Medaglia d'Oro–Paola Queen {GISW, $431,490}, by Flatter) was hammered down to 3-2 favoritism for this unveiling and ran to the money with an impressive debut score. Away alertly from his rail draw, the Don Alberto homebred seized the early advantage, dueling through a :22.86 opening quarter and :46.18 half-mile. Opening up on his foes turning for home, the bay strode clear with ease down the lane to graduate by 4 1/4 lengths. Peter Brant's Balantyne (Tapit), a $310,000 KEESEP buy trained by Chad Brown, filled the place spot. Pass and Stow is the first foal out of GI Test S. winner Paola Queen, who Don Alberto purchased for $1.7 million at the 2017 KEENOV sale. Her second foal, a now 2-year-old colt by Into Mischief, topped last year's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale when selling to Coolmore's M.V. Magnier for $2.6 million. Paola Queen had an Into Mischief filly in 2021 and a Tapit colt Apr. 10 of this year. Sales history: $100,000 RNA Ylg '20 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $34,500. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
O-Don Alberto Stable; B-Don Alberto Corporation (KY); T-Jerry Hollendorfer.

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Mott Pleased With War Like Goddess In Flower Bowl, May Start Forza Di Oro In Woodward

George Krikorian's War Like Goddess ran her win streak to four with a 2 1/4-length score in Saturday's $600,000 Grade 1 Flower Bowl, an 11-furlong inner turf test for older fillies and mares at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott said he was pleased with the effort in which the 4-year-old English Channel bay stalked from fourth before closing six-wide to secure the win under Julien Leparoux.

“I thought it was a very good effort. When she's going to the front, it's like poetry in motion,” Mott said.

War Like Goddess, a $30,000 purchase at the OBS June 2019 2-Year-Olds and Horses of Racing Age Sale, has won 6-of-7 starts. She entered from a trio of graded scores under Leparoux, comprising the 11-furlong Grade 3 Orchid in March at Gulfstream Park, the 12-furlong Grade 3 Bewitch in April at Keeneland Race Course, and the 12-furlong Grade 2 Glens Falls on August 7 over the Spa inner turf.

While most of her previous efforts have come from further off the pace, War Like Goddess was in closer attendance on Saturday. Mott said he didn't provide any specific instructions.

“I wanted her to be wherever the jockey thought she was comfortable,” Mott said. “She ran well. There's only so much you can say about it. She's a winner.”

In victory, War Like Goddess secured a “Win and You're In” berth to the 11-furlong Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf in November at Del Mar.

Don Alberto Stable's Forza Di Oro, a 4-year-old Speightstown chestnut, set the pace in Saturday's Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup before fading to third.

“He ran a good race. No excuse,” Mott said.

The lightly-raced homebred, who won the Grade 3 Discovery in November at Aqueduct, was making just his second start of the year out of a winning nine-furlong effort at Saratoga on July 21.

Mott said the nine-furlong $500,000 Grade 1 Woodward on October 2 at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., is a possible target.

“He hasn't had many races, so I wouldn't be opposed to running him,” Mott said.

Forza Di Oro boasts a record of 7-4-1-1 with purse earnings of $309,375.

Wachtel Stable, Pantofel Stable, and Jerold Zaro's Baby Yoda garnered a 114 Beyer for an impressive 4 1/4-length score Saturday over well-regarded stablemate Olympiad, a $700,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase who bested eventual graded-stakes placed Caddo River and eventual multiple graded stakes winner Greatest Honour at Saratoga last September.

With Jose Ortiz up, Baby Yoda settled in second position as Ducale set splits of :21.54 and :44.08 in the 6 1/2-furlong allowance sprint. Baby Yoda pressed into contention from the three-path in the turn and took command at the quarter pole en route to a swift win in 1:14.33 under a hand ride.

Mott said the effort was an eye-opener.

“I was pretty amazed, really. I was pretty impressed with his effort. I can honestly say, I didn't expect that, but I was pleased to see it,” Mott said. “It was exciting, actually, because I thought there was a pretty good horse in there that he beat that ran second.”

Olympiad garnered a 105 Beyer, besting Ducale by six lengths to complete the exacta.

Bred in Florida by Kathleen Amaya, Alexandro Centofanti, and Raffaele Centofanti, Baby Yoda won on debut for his former trainer, Charles Frock, in a $10,000 maiden-claiming sprint on May 30 at Pimlico.

Baby Yoda was purchased privately following a third-place finish in an optional-claiming sprint in June at Pimlico and transferred to Mott, who saddled the dark bay to a 1 1/4-length starter allowance win against older horses on July 17 traveling six furlongs at the Spa.

Mott said he has not picked out a target yet for Baby Yoda and was not ready to make a statement on whether the 3-year-old Prospective gelding might suit a race like the six-furlong $250,000 Grade 2 Vosburgh on October 9 at Belmont, or attempt to stretch out.

“I'm not guessing that right now. He looks pretty fast. It's a little too soon to think about it,” Mott said.

The Hall of Fame trainer didn't have to guess at the speedster's namesake, a character from the Star Wars Disney+ original television series The Mandalorian.

“I had to google Baby Yoda to figure out who he was,” Mott admitted.

[Story Continues Below]

Mott will saddle LRE Racing and JEH Racing Stable's High Oak in Monday's $300,000 Grade 1 Hopeful, a seven-furlong sprint for juveniles on Closing Day of the 40-day Spa summer meet.

The Gormley bay graduated on debut in June at Belmont and followed with a 4 1/4-length score in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special presented by Miller Lite on August 14.

While Mott was initially pointing High Oak to the $500,000 Grade 1 Champagne, a one-turn mile on October 2 at Belmont, the veteran conditioner said he was training too well to skip Monday's test.

“He's feeling really good and I just felt that rather than train him, we'd run him,” Mott said.

High Oak blew out three-eighths in :35.44 seconds Friday on the Oklahoma dirt training track. The $70,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase will exit post 8 under Junior Alvarado.

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Jockey Club Gold Cup The Next Stop For Lightly-Raced Forza Di Oro

Don Alberto Stable homebred Forza Di Oro made a splash in a Saratoga allowance race last week, coming off an eight-month layoff to win by three lengths while geared down at the wire. Trainer Bill Mott plans to point the lightly-raced 4-year-old son of Speightstown to the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup on Sept. 4 at the Spa, according to the Thoroughbred Daily News.

The Jockey Club Gold Cup is a “Win and You're In” race for the Breeders' Cup Classic this fall at Del Mar.

The colt has only started six times in his career. Forza Di Oro broke his maiden in his second start as a juvenile, then ran a disappointing eighth in the G2 Remsen. Mott brought him back off a 10-month layoff to win an allowance race and the G3 Discovery last fall, the latter with a 101 Beyer figure, but the colt went back to the sidelines for another eight months.

Forza Di Oro's allowance win was his fourth from six starts, and improved his earnings to $209,375.

“Bill is a Hall of Famer,” Don Alberto stable manager Matt Hogan told the TDN. “This is what he does. He's phenomenal at that. A big horse like this, as Bill said, he's been a little bit of a project, but any little setback is obviously poorly timed. Giving him the time off and bringing him back this year, he just seemed a big, happy, fresh, sound animal that was ready to get out there and rock and roll when we put him back under tack here at the farm. To bring a horse off such a long layoff– yet again to such an impressive performance–just goes to show the capabilities of Bill and his team.”

Out of the graded stakes-placed Hard Spun mare Filare l'Oro, Forza Di Oro is a half-brother to multiple graded stakes winner Silver Dust from the family of Grade 1 winners Stop Traffic and Cross Traffic.

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

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Cox Has Favorites Dominga, Field Day In July 4th Stakes Races At Ellis Park

The RUNHAPPY Meet at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky. kicks off its stakes racing Sunday with the $75,000 Ellis Park Turf for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on grass and the new $50,000 Dade Park Overnight Stakes for 3-year-old turf sprinters.

As often is the case, Brad Cox — the 2020 Eclipse Award-winning trainer who tied with Kenny McPeek for last year's Ellis Park meet title — has the favorite in both races.

Don Alberto Stable's Dominga is the tepid 5-2 favorite in the Ellis Park Turf and will break from the rail under Shaun Bridgmohan. Klein Racing's Field Day is the 6-5 morning-line choice with Brian Hernandez Jr. in the Dade Park's field of seven running 5 1/2 furlongs.

“She's doing well,” Cox said of Dominga. “She's coming off a victory in a (third level) allowance at Churchill and she's a stakes-winner. She's got some pedigree. So we're hoping to add to her value by continuing to compete at the stakes level. She's had a really good year. We gave her a break last summer, and she seems to have moved forward as an older horse.”

Dominga is one of five horses cross-entered in Indiana Grand's Indiana General Assembly Distaff at the same distance on grass. But she drew post 11 for that stakes, with Cox saying he preferred her Ellis post.

The three horses entered only at Ellis — She'sonthewarpath, Pass the Plate and Nope — provide a solid core for an evenly-matched field.

In her three starts this year, 3-1 second choice She'sonthewarpath has faced some of the best turf fillies and mares in the country. In her last start, the 5-year-old mare finished third in Churchill Downs' Grade 3 Mint Julep won by Mintd and with Grade 1 winner Juliet Foxtrot second.

“She ran hard last time,” said Steve Margolis, who is stabled at Ellis Park for the first time since early in his training career 20 years ago. “I think we got a little unlucky. She broke and was in a good spot, and then some horse came over on her a little bit. When they got to the backside, she was last. She wiggled her way and kept going, and pretty much ran a big third. It's three weeks, but if I'd waited, there's another race here but it would have been almost two months between race.”

She'sonthewarpath, who won three stakes last year for owner-breeders Robert and Lawana Low, lost her two starts this year to Brendan Walsh-trained horses: Mintd in the Mint Julep and the 5 1/2-furlong Unbridled Sidney won by the very good turf sprinter Into Mystic. Margolis said he sprinted her just because it was really the only spot to get her back going after a seven-month layoff.

“She ran a good fourth, probably just a little too short,” he said. “Those are specialized horses running that distance. She's hooked some good company and always tries.”

She'sonthewarpath faces another Walsh horse in Nope, who enters the Ellis Park Turf off an impressive first-level allowance victory at Churchill after racing in blinkers for the first time. The Irish-bred daughter of No Nay Never is making her American stakes debut.

“She made a huge improvement the last race with the blinkers on,” Walsh said “I think that was key. Because up to that, she just lacked concentration more than anything, so it really worked the day we put them on. I'm hoping for more of the same.”

Nope concluded her 2-year-old season of 2019 with a fourth place – beaten a total of a half-length — in a Group 3 stakes at Newmarket after racing in Ireland.

“They felt she was a little unlucky in that race, and felt it bode well for her 3-year-old,” said Walsh, who received the filly but was only able to run her once in 2020 before Nope was sidelined 10 months. “She had some time off, but we've been gradually figuring her out. I felt the last race she made a big move forward, so maybe we're getting to her now. Hopefully we have yet to see the best of her.”

Owned by Tommy and Bonnie Hamilton's Silverton Hill Farms of Springfield, Ky., Pass the Plate comes in off a pair of 1 1/2-mile turf stakes, with a third in Keeneland's Grade 3 Bewitch Stakes and a fourth in Churchill Downs' $110,000 Keertana. She ended her 3-year-old season last December 26 with a nose victory in the Fair Grounds' Pago Hop at a mile.

“She ran really well in the Bewitch,” said trainer Paul McGee. “She ran well in the Keertana. That was a really oddly-run race. That's the race that the Al Stall filly (multiple stakes-winner Dalika) went out there in front by about 25 lengths all by her lonesome. And she wound up a good second. My filly, as usual, was out the back. She just doesn't have any speed. But I feel like she ran OK to be fourth. But after the mile-and-a-half races, you almost have to shorten up.”

Pass the Plate (6-1) will be reunited with Joe Talamo, McGee's nephew by marriage who last rode the filly to a second-place finish in last fall's off-the-turf Grade 2 Mrs. Revere at Churchill Downs.

McGee hopes down the road to run in Ellis' $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf. That's an automatic, fees-paid qualifier for the $750,000, Grade 3 Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf, though Pass the Plate could also fit well in the $550,000 Kentucky Downs Ladies Marathon at 1 5/16 miles at the Franklin track.

Will Dade Park be another field day for Field Day?

Klein Racing's Field Day, a son of the Pin Oak Stud stallion Broken Vow, has never been worse than third in eight lifetime starts, all sprinting and all but one on turf (and that one came off the grass). In his last two starts, Field Day captured Churchill Downs' William Walker Stakes and followed that with another victory in an open allowance race.

“There aren't a lot of options out there for him,” Cox said. “He breezed on the turf last week and we shipped him down there (to Ellis). He's doing well.”

The fastest horse in the race, based on speed figures, looks like Bob's Choice, the 8-5 second choice. He sports a 3-1-3 record in seven starts, all on dirt.

“He's got two siblings who were turf horses,” said trainer Larry Jones. “So we're going to give it try. He'll go as fast, I think, as we need him to as long as he takes to the surface.”

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