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Arklow Recognized As 2020 Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund’s Earner Of The Year

Donegal Racing's well-traveled Grade 1-winner Arklow was honored Wednesday for his exploits right at home as the 6-year-old horse was feted as the 2020 Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund's Earner of the Year.

“We're very excited about this award for Arklow. It's very cool,” said Jerry Crawford, founder and president of the Des Moines-based Donegal Racing partnership. “This business is so, so hard for owners. When you get a horse that can pay some feed bills, it's gratifying in multiple ways to say nothing of all the excitement it creates.”

Now 7, Arklow was recognized at the Kentucky-bred Champions Awards ceremony, presented by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders (KTOB) and the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association (KTA), at Keeneland. Frank Penn, co-breeder of the $160,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase in 2015, accepted the trophy on Donegal's behalf.

The Brad Cox-trained Arklow earned $849,734 in his seven-race campaign last year, capped by taking Kentucky Downs' $1 million, Grade 3 Calumet Turf Cup for the second time in three years, sandwiched around a second in 2019. Arklow also finished second by a head in Churchill Downs' $100,000 Louisville Stakes (G3). The son of the late Claiborne Farm stallion Arch concluded 2020 by shipping out to Del Mar — his 12th different racetrack – to capture the Hollywood Turf Cup (G2).

The KTDF award recognizes Kentucky-bred horses racing much of the year in the Commonwealth and is based on earnings at Kentucky tracks. Arklow earned $608,184 racing in graded stakes at Kentucky Downs, Churchill Downs and Keeneland. He made an additional $80,000 while a close sixth in the $4 million Longines Breeders' Cup Turf at Keeneland, though those earnings did not count toward the award.

“Donegal has always loved racing in Kentucky,” Crawford said. “The KTDF purse supplements make you love it even more. Take a horse like Arklow, who only ran in graded stakes in 2020. The Kentucky-bred incentive program rewards excellence, being staged against open company. As purses in Kentucky have increased, in no small measure because of the KTDF, so has the competition. So to be KTDF Earner of the Year becomes even more of a feat in which my partners and I take great pride.”

Cox, the 2020 Eclipse Award winner as North America's outstanding trainer, also was recognized Wednesday as the KTDF Trainer of the Year.

“The KTDF is a great program and makes lucrative opportunities for Kentucky horsemen,” Cox said. “Kentucky-bred horses compete world-wide, but it's obviously nice when you can race right here in our own state. It's an achievement, for sure, for Arklow to be the KTDF Earner of the Year, and I'm extremely proud to be the KTDF Trainer of the Year as well.”

For his career, Arklow is 8-7-2 in 31 starts with earnings of $2,666,116 for Donegal Racing, Joseph Bulger and the Estate of Peter Coneway. Those victories include New York's Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont Park in 2019.

“The KTDF awards have always been reflective of what's running within the circuit,” said Chauncey Morris, the KTA-KTOB's executive director. “To see a horse like Arklow and owner Donegal Racing at the highest level here in Kentucky just shows how we're evolving into the top tier racing jurisdiction in the United States.”

Crawford said Arklow got a couple of months off after running in the Breeders' Cup Turf for the third time.

“There's at least a 50-percent chance of him getting back to the races on May 1 in the Grade 1, Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic on Derby Day,” Crawford said. “And for the fourth straight year, we will be pointing for the Calumet Turf Cup at Kentucky Downs, where Arklow has had two wins and a second out of three tries.”

Arklow has raced on Kentucky Derby Day twice before, earning his first stakes victory in the 2017 American Turf (G2) and finishing fourth in the Old Forester in 2018. The Sept. 11 Calumet Turf Cup will run run as a Grade 2 stakes for the first time for 2021.

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Smiley Sobotka Makes ’21 Debut in Sam Davis

Albaugh Family Stables' Smiley Sobotka (Brody's Cause), last seen finishing second behind Keepmeinmind (Laoban) in the Nov. 28 GII Kentucky Jockey Club S., makes his sophomore debut in the 1 1/16-mile GIII Sam F. Davis S. at Tampa Bay Downs Saturday. The chestnut colt tuned up for his return to the races with a four-furlong drill in :46.81 (2/118) at Gulfstream Park last Saturday.

Michael Shanley's Nova Rags (Union Rags) makes a return trip to Tampa following his win in the seven-furlong Pasco S. last time out Jan. 16. The Bill Mott trainee, a maiden winner first-out at Belmont last October, was fourth in the Nov. 8 GIII Nashua S. in the finale of his two-race juvenile campaign.

Mott also saddles Candy Man Rocket (Candy Ride {Arg}) in the Davis. The dark bay colt romped to a 9 1/4-length maiden win going six furlongs at Gulfstream Park Jan. 9.

“Both of our horses have been training well, and we're anxiously awaiting the outcome to see if we have horses good enough to go on and come back for the [GII Lambholm South] Tampa Bay Derby [Mar. 6],” Mott said Friday from his South Florida base. “It's a big test for both horses, and we have no great expectations. Candy Man Rocket hasn't been beyond 6 1/2 furlongs and Nova Rags hasn't raced around two turns yet, so they need to be tested to find out how far they want to go.”

Trainer Todd Pletcher sends out a pair of runners in the Davis. St Elias Stables homebred Known Agenda (Curlin) makes his first start since finishing third in the GIII Remsen S. last December, while Donegal Racing's Millean (Blame) graduated versus $50,000 maiden claimers at Gulfstream Jan. 10.

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Capo Kane Back for More in Withers

Bing Cherry Racing and Leonard Liberto's Capo Kane (Street Sense), a romping 6 1/4-length winner of the one-mile Jerome S. at Aqueduct Jan. 1, will look to add a furlong and a graded race to his resume in the GIII Withers S. at Aqueduct Saturday. Trained by Harold Wyner, the bay colt was runner-up in his seven-furlong debut at Parx Oct. 28. He graduated by a front-running 4 1/2 lengths going one mile and 70 yards at Parx Nov. 25 and had everything his own way when loose on the lead in the Jerome last time out.

Chad Brown sends out Klaravich Stable's Risk Taking (Medaglia d'Oro). Off the board sprinting over the main track at Belmont and over the Aqueduct lawn to open his career last fall, the bay colt graduated over track and trip Dec. 13.

Trainer Todd Pletcher sends out a pair of maiden winners in the Withers. Repole Stables, St Elias Stables and Michael Tabor's Overtook (Curlin), a $1-million KEESEP yearling, was a two-length winner while shedding blinkers in a one-mile special weight at Aqueduct in his third start Dec. 20.

“I think he's learning,” Pletcher said of the son of Grade I winner Got Lucky (A.P. Indy). “He's gained some confidence with the experience and we felt like the blinkers needed to come off. He got a nice hot pace to run at which helped. He's an improving horse who is bred to get better with more distance and more time. We've seen him making progress throughout the fall and winter. This is a big step up, but hopefully he's up for it.”

Pletcher also saddles Donegal Racing's Donegal Bay (Uncle Mo). The bay gelding opened his career with a sixth-place effort going 6 1/2 furlongs at Saratoga last August and was last seen romping to a front-running 4 1/4-length maiden score going one mile at Gulfstream Dec. 12.

“I think it was the additional time, having a start under his belt as well as having some good works leading into that,” Pletcher said of that graduation effort. “He also got a better start, which a lot of horses do in their second race. He has a pretty high-cruising speed. Pedigree-wise, he's bred to go that far. It's a big step up from a maiden race, but we're hoping for a big run.”

Donegal Bay has been prepping for his stakes debut at Pletcher's winter Florida base in Palm Beach Downs where he worked four furlongs in :49 flat (1/16) last Friday.

“It's a bit of a tricky race,” Donegal Racing's Jerry Crawford said. “This is the time of year where some horses get better and some don't, and he needs to get better on Saturday if he can turn himself into a contender. Obviously, there's a fair amount of front-end speed and they'll be asked to go a mile and an eighth at the same time. Donegal Racing has always been treated exceptionally well in New York and have had some good success up there.”

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Teaching An Old Horse New Tricks: Blinkers Have Arklow In Career Form For Breeders’ Cup Turf

Arklow's connections say he's a different horse since blinkers were added for the $1 million Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup on Sept. 12, which proved his second triumph in Kentucky Downs' signature race in three years.

Saying he's different is saying something, given that Donegal Racing's 6-year-old Arklow had earned almost $2 million in 28 races without blinkers, including victory in New York's Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic last year.

The Brad Cox-trained Arklow was much more engaged for jockey Florent Geroux early on during their 1 1/4-length Kentucky Turf Cup score over Red Knight, who won Keeneland's Grade 2 Sycamore in his next start. Meanwhile, Arklow has trained up to his third attempt at Saturday's $4 million Longines Breeders' Cup Turf, having finished fourth in 2018 at Churchill Downs and a deceptively good eighth — losing by a total of 2 3/4 lengths — last year at Santa Anita.

Arklow is the 5-1 co-third choice with New York-based Channel Maker in the Breeders' Cup Turf at Keeneland, whose 1 1/2-mile distance is the same as the Kentucky Turf Cup. The 5-2 favorite in the field of 10 is 2018 Breeders' Cup Turf runner-up Magical and the 3-year-old Mogul, with both trained by Irish kingpin Aidan O'Brien.

“A lot of people have forgotten, or never even knew, that he had the best speed figures of anyone in last year's Breeders' Cup, even though he finished eighth,” Donegal president Jerry Crawford said Thursday, referencing the Ragozin handicapping “sheets” that chart form cycles and the comparative speed of horses while taking into account trouble encountered in a race. “That's how wide he was the whole time. He was in great form them, but he's in dramatically better form now.

“All you have to do is talk to Brad Cox,” said Crawford, whose partners with Donegal in Arklow are Joseph Bulger and Peter Coneway. “I, frankly, have never heard Brad so positive and confident in a horse as he is in Arklow on Saturday. Which is not to say that we don't have enormous respect for the Europeans. They're always very, very good – and we've got to beat Channel Maker, too. It's truly a world championship race. We think Arklow belongs and has an excellent chance. In Brad's words, as good a chance as anybody.”

Cox has said he was tempted before to add blinkers but that it was hard to make a change on a horse who was so productive. The opportunity came after Arklow finished fourth in Monmouth Park's Grade 1 United Nations, an audible called after he came in a disappointing sixth in Keeneland's Grade 2 Sycamore. The thought was that Arklow was leaving himself too much to do. Not only did the blinkers encourage the horse to position himself closer to the pace — as he had been in winning the Joe Hirsch last year — but his timed workouts in the morning have been much stronger.

Crawford quips that “a lot of owners would be smarter than to wait until a horse was 6 to try blinkers. That's on me. Brad put them on for a breeze after our ill-fated six-days rest before running at Monmouth Park. He called and said, 'We've got a whole new horse.'

“We saw his ability to get to the front (group) of horses in the Kentucky Turf Cup and was sitting on go the whole way, really, and not only held on but pulled away. I don't know how you could run a more impressive race than that.”

Said Cox: “That's the thing you do with blinkers: trying to get a horse more involved. He ran a great race at Kentucky Downs, really just kicked away from them late. Really pleased with his effort.

“He's doing better now than ever, so (we have) more confidence this year than the past,” he said of the Breeders' Cup Turf. “The Europeans are always tough in that division. We'll have to step up and run a race of a lifetime in order to win it. He's training like he's going to give us a race of a lifetime, so we're optimistic we'll be in the mix.”

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