Marion Francis Looks For First Stakes Win In She’s All In Friday At Remington Park

Marion Francis has yet to enjoy the sweet taste of stakes success, but she hails from the barn of the top trainer in the country. The 3-year-old filly ships into Remington Park in Oklahoma City, Okla., and has been established as the 9-5 morning-line favorite in the $100,000 She's All In Stakes on the final night of the season, Friday, Dec. 17.

Brad Cox leads all trainers nationally with earnings of $30,932,681 this year. He has yet to win the She's All In Stakes.

Marion Francis has made $222,578 in 2021 and has lifetime earnings of $232,118 despite never winning in black-type company. Her record is 10 starts, three wins, three seconds, and three thirds.

A daughter of Constitution, out of the Two Punch mare Sophie's Destiny, has been stakes-placed twice. She ran third two races back in the $200,000 Plum Pretty Stakes at Parx Racing in Philadelphia on Sept. 25. Cox's filly also got third in the $150,000 Cathryn Sophia Stakes at Parx on Aug. 24. She broke her maiden at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., this spring on March 28 as the 6-5 favorite. Her margin of victory was 1-1/4 lengths.

Marion Francis picked up her next win at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. against allowance/optional $75,000 claiming fillies. She won that one by three-quarters of a length on May 28 over a wet fast track. She will be entering the She's All In off her third win, beating optional $100,000 claiming fillies under allowance conditions, at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., by a mere neck on Oct. 21. She's been off almost two months since then but has a series of works to prep for this comeback, three of them at Keeneland and her last on Dec. 5 at Oaklawn where she breezed in :48.40 for a half-mile.

Jockey Florent Geroux has been in the saddle for all three Marion Francis wins and all 10 of her starts. Cox will once again give him a leg up in the She's All In. Marion Francis is owned by Madaket Stables, Kent Spellman, and Wonder Stables. She was bred in Pennsylvania by Blackstone Farm. This filly was last purchased for $150,000 in the Ocala (Fla.) Breeders' Spring Sale for 2-year-olds in Training in 2020.

Marion Francis was made the slight favorite over Casual (2-1) from the barn of the nation's second-leading trainer and the all-time winningest conditioner in history, Steve Asmussen. Casual also is a multiple stakes-placed filly and ran fourth in the 2020 She's All In. Asmussen, who is second behind Cox in a heated battle for top-earning trainer this year at $30,523,870, has won the She's All in twice and will be going for his third victory in the past four years. He won with Magical in 2019 and Clever Serve in 2018. Ricardo Santana, Jr., booted home the 2019 winner while David Cabrera, the track's leading rider the past four years, 2018-2021, was aboard Clever Serve. This year, Asmussen will use the riding services of Jose Ortiz, who is fourth in the country among jockeys in money earned ($23,721,025). He trails only Joel Rosario in first, followed by Jose's brother Irad, and Luis Saez.

Casual is owned by Hill 'n' Dale Equine Holdings (J.G. Sikura), Stretch Run Ventures (Ed McGee), and Windsor Boys Racing (Faheem Hasnain). The 4-year-old daughter of two-time Horse of the Year, Curlin, is out of the Mutakddim mare Lady Tak. She was bred in Kentucky by the first two owners. She may not yet be a stakes winner, but she has finished second or third in six of her last seven tries against stakes company.

Casual ran second in Oaklawn's $200,000 Spring Fever Stakes on Feb. 27 and third in the Carousel Stakes on April 10, followed by a runner-up finish in the $100,000 Skipat Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., on May 15. She continued her run with a third in the $120,000 Shine Again Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Asmussen decided to jump her up into the Grade 1 Ballerina Handicap there, where she ran seventh, beaten 11 lengths by champion Gamine on Aug. 28. Her next stop came here at Remington Park where she finished second to Cinnabunny in the $50,000 Flashy Lady Stakes on Sept. 26.

Casual was shipped out to Zia Park in Hobbs, New Mexico for her final start before the She's All In. She was a distant second in the $75,000 Zia Distaff there, beaten 5 3/4 lengths on Nov. 23.

The filly carrying the local flag in the She's All In will appropriately be She's All Wolfe, a 4-year-old daughter of the mare whose name is on this stakes race. She's All Wolfe, by Magna Graduate, was bred in Oklahoma by owner Dr. Robert Zoellner. All this filly has done for Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Famer trainer Donnie Von Hemel is win five of her eight starts at Remington on the main track. She is the 6-1 fourth favorite in the morning line.

She's All Wolfe is the lone Oklahoma-bred in the She's All In and leads in career victories and earnings. The 4-year-old's record is 20 starts, seven wins, five seconds, and a pair of thirds for a bankroll of $390,761. Her wins at Remington Park include the $30,000 Oklahoma Stallion Stakes for fillies on Sept. 11, 2020, and the $145,000 Oklahoma Classics Distaff last year and this year. Richard Eramia gets the return call on She's All Wolfe. Von Hemel has won the She's All In once since its inception in 2014. He sent out Ready to Confess for Pin Oak Stable in 2017.

She's All In reached millionaire status during her racing career, as well as being dominant in the Oklahoma Classics, winning the Distaff in four consecutive years from 2010-2013.

[Story Continues Below]

Here's a look at the She's All In Stakes field from the rail out with post position, horse, jockey, trainer, and odds:

My Bets, Lane Luzzi, Philip Sims, 12-1
Lady Gwen, Carlos Montalvo, Brent Davidson, 20-1
Island Hideaway, Julien Leparoux, Karl Broberg, 12-1
She's All Wolfe, Richard Eramia, Donnie Von Hemel, 6-1
Paige Anne, Sophie Doyle, John Ennis, 5-1
Casual, Jose Ortiz, Steve Asmussen, 2-1
Marion Francis, Florent Geroux, Brad Cox, 9-5
Content, Danny Sorenson, Tina Hurley, 15-1

The She's All In goes as the 10th race on a 13-race card with an approximate post time of 9:25 p.m.

There are four other stakes races on Dec. 17:

Race 8, $70,000 Jim Thorpe Stakes, 3-year-olds, 1 mile (Oklahoma-breds)

Race 9, $70,000 Useeit Stakes, 3-year-old fillies, 1 mile (Oklahoma-breds)

Race 11, $100,000 Trapeze Stakes, fillies, 2-year-olds, 1 mile

Race 12, $400,000 Springboard Mile, 2-year-olds, 1 mile

The total closing day card will begin at 5 pm. on Friday, Dec. 17. Prior to the final night, racing will take place Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 15-16 starting at 7:07 pm. All times are Central.

The post Marion Francis Looks For First Stakes Win In She’s All In Friday At Remington Park appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Jockey Quinonez Moves Into Second In All-Time Wins At Remington Park

It was one Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Fame jockey moving past another into second place in the all-time wins category at Remington Park in Oklahoma City, Okla., when Luis Quinonez won the third race of the night aboard Ace Gilford.

It gave Quinonez 1,420 wins here, one more than Don Pettinger. The win puts the veteran journeyman 705 behind all-time leader Cliff Berry, who had 2,125. Fittingly, Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Fame trainer Donnie Von Hemel gave Quinonez a leg up on Ace Gilford, a 4-year-old gelded son of Tale of the Cat, out of the Indian Charlie mare Indianella. He races for owner Dream Walkin Farms (Toby Keith) of Norman, Okla.

If you're going to reach a milestone, it should be done in impressive fashion and Quinonez did not pass up that opportunity. His mount flew to the front out of the gate in this 5-1/2 furlongs race on the main track and just kept widening his lead to the wire. As he hit the finish line in 1:05.31 over the fast track, he was 6-1/2 lengths ahead of everyone. Ace Gilford was sent off as the 2-1 second wagering favorite and made every pole a winning one, setting interior fractions of :22:91 for the first quarter-mile, :46.81 for the half-mile and :58.91 for five-eighths of a mile.

Ace Gilford paid $6 to win, $3.20 to place, and $2.60 to show. Bred in Kentucky by the owner, Ace Gilford won for the first time in seven tries, scoring in his career debut at Remington Park. He had hit the board in his last two starts at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., with maiden claimers. Von Hemel gave him nearly five months off and the gelding fired fresh on all cylinders.

Quinonez, inducted into the Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2017, needs only 99 more wins to reach 4,000 for his career. Only Berry, Quinonez, and Pettinger have won more than 1,000 races at Remington Park. Two other Oklahoma Racing Hall of Famer jockeys round out the top five – Tim Doocy with 796 and the late Pat Steinberg with 727.

Quinonez has had 26,833 mounts in his career with 3,901 wins, compiling $76,907,686 in horses' earnings, according to Equibase statistics. His top horses have included Grade 2 winners Alternation and Gold Medal Dancer. He also won with Grade 3 winners Suddenbreakingnews, Shotgun Kowboy, She's All In, Maysville Slew, and Injustice.

Quinonez made it to the Kentucky Derby once, aboard Suddenbreakingnews, the 2016 winner of the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park for Von Hemel. They had teamed up to win the Clever Trevor Stakes at Remington Park in 2015.

Quinonez said he got his first win at Remington Park on his first mount in 1989 when he was in his early 20s aboard New Writer. He beat such riders as Berry, Steinberg (winner of seven riding titles in the early days of the track and an Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Famer), Dale Cordova (10th all-time here and regular rider for Silver Goblin), and Tony McNeil, now the paddock judge at Remington Park. Quinonez now is 54 years old and says retirement doesn't even cross his mind.

 

The post Jockey Quinonez Moves Into Second In All-Time Wins At Remington Park appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Breeders Can Pin Their Hopes on a Mighty Oak

The breeding of Thoroughbreds being such a notoriously long game, a dispersal as uncommon as this one offers the most privileged of short cuts. It's as though you can transplant an oak overnight from a mature plantation. Someone else has put in all the necessary, painstaking seasons, years, decades since the acorns were first sown.

So it's a given, absolutely, that the root-and-branch dismantling of Pin Oak Stud into the Lexington lumberyards next week–two dozen mares, fillies and weanlings at Fasig-Tipton on Sunday evening, with 14 yearlings to follow across town at Keeneland–will partly be so coveted simply because of the sheer span of time devoted to its cultivation by Josephine Abercrombie.

But if it is quite remarkable for a breeding program still flourishing in 2021 to have been in the same two hands since the 1950s, then it must be unique for even such longevity to remain secondary–in terms of making Pin Oak Stud what it is–to the flair of its supervision.

Very few human beings are favored both by nearly a full century of vigor, and the material resources to match. But fewer yet can say that they have maximized those twin benedictions as exhaustively as this woman whose true riches, and distinction, abide far deeper than worldly fortune. As it is, her vitality has been able to sustain so many parallel “biographies” that even 95 years seem inadequate to encompass their range. By now too familiar to require reprising, these include colorful careers in boxing promotion, saddlebreds, skiing and ballroom dancing; much philanthropic commitment, notably as founder of The Lexington School; not to mention five marriages–and five divorces! But nothing has ever surpassed the Thoroughbred in her affections.

“Ms. Abercrombie has certainly led an amazing life,” says her long-serving farm manager, Clifford Barry. “But you know what, she'd tell you this, this has been her real love all the way through: being here on the farm, and developing these horses. It was something she really cherished and really took hold of, something she never took for granted. She always felt that if she could bring that passion to it, every day, success would follow. And I know that riding round the farm now, admiring the property, she would wish her dad she could see what she has done here.”

That was Houston oilman J.S. Abercrombie, whose eureka moment came with the blowout preventer, since used on oil wells all round the world. He went into Harry Cameron's toolshop and sketched out his idea on the dirt flooring with a stick. That was the start of Cameron Iron Works, and everything that followed.

Father and daughter shared a love of horses, and a ranch was soon acquired in Texas. He loved pin oaks, and ordered a bunch of them to be planted around the property. Some time later a visitor from New York looked around and told him there wasn't one pin oak on the place. These were all water oaks!

There was more arboreal precision when it came to planting up new land in Kentucky. Josephine made her first yearling purchases in a partnership, including her father, way back in 1949. Three years later they bought 1,348 acres of Woodford County, subsequently birthplace of a series of elite performers including 1976 Preakness winner Elocutionist (Gallant Romeo). But even greater success would attend the development of a new, slightly smaller estate nearby, in the 1980s, with homebred Peaks And Valleys (Mt. Livermore) perhaps the turning point in becoming Canadian Horse of the Year–in the process qualifying Abercrombie as Thoroughbred Breeder of the Year in 1995. Many other decorations and awards have ensued, while the Pin Oak legacy was further secured by such influential sires as Sky Classic (Nijinsky) and Maria's Mon (Wavering Monarch), with two homebred stallions still operating in Broken Vow (Unbridled) and Alternation (Distorted Humor). Though a premature loss at 14, Maria's Mon managed to sire two Kentucky Derby winners in Monarchos and Super Saver.

Impossibly condensed, that's just a snapshot of the genetic duct opening to breeders in Lexington next week. And even though the farm had a commercial function, too, its presiding spirit was that every equine family finds its greatest value in basic racetrack quality.

“This kind of thing is very hard to find anymore,” Barry argues. “Ms. Abercrombie never, ever wavered from where she wanted to be with Pin Oak. It was all about how to produce the best product in the afternoons, and how to get the most out of those mares. She knows every quirk these families present, and how to breed them out. There have been plenty of harsh decisions, when you have to sell young fillies, but there's no doubt overall she has done an amazing job with a very small group of mares, really. It's not like we've had 100 or 200. She's always been very strict on numbers, and I think at any one time it was never much above 30 or 40.”

So what does the Pin Oak brand represent, for those hoping to tap into it now?

“Soundness,” says Barry. “And quality. And just, show up in the afternoon. You can just look at these mares: they were turf, they were dirt, they were short, they were long, but there's always durability in these families, and always great racing minds.”

There has, moreover, been a reciprocal stickability between the boss, known universally on the farm as “Ms. A.,” and her people. Barry has himself been at Pin Oak since 1988; nor has there been any inconstancy in the racetrack roster. Donnie Von Hemel has been training for Pin Oak for three decades, Graham Motion isn't far behind, while Mike Stidham ranks as a relative newcomer at around 15 years. That's a testament not just to Abercrombie's loyalty, but also to her belief that working with a family, generation by generation, helps horsemen to read the run of the genetic grain.

“Donnie Von Hemel had a 2-year-old filly win first time out at Remington last Friday,” Barry says. “She's by Broken Vow out of a homebred mare called Bedanken (Geri), who Donnie trained [to win 11 of 19 starts]. He was saying he had to go back and look up the mare afterwards just to refresh his memory on what she was like. Getting the feedback from those guys on a yearly basis, before you do matings, has always been a huge help. If you look, Ms. Abercrombie often has horses where she has bred three or four generations on both sides. There are very few operations like that nowadays, outside maybe a Coolmore or a Juddmonte, or the Wertheimer freres. I think that's an art that's gone from American breeding.”

Whatever the practical advantages of these recurring cycles, fidelity comes naturally between the Pin Oak owner and her staff.

“She was loyal enough to hire me at 24 years of age, and give a young guy a chance,” Barry notes. “We've got one member of our staff who is coming up to 50 years here. And that just gives you an idea of what Mrs. Abercrombie is about. She was never afraid to roll up her sleeves and get out on the farm. She pushed you to be the best you could be, every day. Not one day a week: every day. Once Mrs. Abercrombie puts her faith in you, you know you have very high standards to meet. She definitely expected no stone left unturned in the care of those horses. But I think in return she took care of the staff the very same way.

“She has such a love and passion for the game. And that has not faded one bit over the years, whether here on the farm or going to the races, whether good days or bad days–and there have been plenty of both. She's about as competitive a person as you could come across, but there'd never be a finger pointed. It would always be just, 'We got outrun today and we'll do better tomorrow.' So while it was always straight back to the grindstone, to see how we could do better, it made my life and job so much easier whenever I had to give the bad news. Because you never had to hesitate to tell it like it is. That's what she expected, and from the trainers too: tell it like it is, and keep moving forward.”

Poignantly, however, there will now be no more moving forward. Barry admits the unorthodoxy of dispersing mares and weanlings on the eve of the September Sale, rather than in November, but credits Boyd Browning, Bayne Welker and the rest of the Fasig-Tipton team for a convincing case that the concept would dovetail well, with so many people in town.

“Hopefully it gives us the chance to showcase some really nice mares and offer some reverence to what Mrs. Abercrombie has done in this game for 60 years,” Barry says. “It's an amazing opportunity for the marketplace, to get into these families. I mean, these don't just pop up every November Sale. You've got Gold Medal Dancer (Medaglia d'Oro) [in foal to Munnings, Hip 23], you've got Don't Leave Me (Lemon Drop Kid) [in foal to Authentic, Hip 18]. These are families that Mrs. Abercrombie has held very tightly these last 30 years, plus.”

As for the stallions: Alternation is still young enough to come up with another Serengeti Express, whether in Kentucky or elsewhere, and options are under review; at rising 25, however, Broken Vow has probably earned a place among the pensioned stock that will remain on the farm, guaranteed diligent care in the years left to them.

Barry, for his part, is not dwelling on his own future. He will keep his head down; keep going in to work for Mrs. Abercrombie, same as always.

“I think I'll be doing that tomorrow like I did today,” he says. “I made a promise a few years ago to do everything in my power to see this through to the end. Ms. Abercrombie has been awful good to me, and my family. Deep down, it's going to be tough to see some of these horses go. But nothing in life stays the same forever, so I want us all to go out and represent as best we can Pin Oak and everything Ms. Abercrombie has put into this game.

“She's about as hands-on an owner as you could ever come across: she's lived here on the farm and watched these horses every day of their lives. Going to the races in the afternoons, too, she has loved that. There hasn't been any part of this thing she missed, from the matings all the way to the racetrack. And she was still out on the farm with me yesterday afternoon, riding around [on the golfcart], and then we went in and watched the replay of the 2-year-old at Remington.”

Barry and his team have doubtless been usefully distracted by maintaining their usual, exacting standards in the preparation of the draft, before handing over to Denali Stud for the sale.

“It'll be a tough couple of days,” says Barry. “I'd be lying if I said we won't feel it deep in the pit in the stomach. But at the same time, we're here to do a job as professionally as we can. These are Ms. Abercrombie's wishes at this stage of her life, we're going to respect that and do everything we can to get it done right. She never does anything on the spur of the moment: she wants to be in control of her legacy, and we've known for a while that we were on a kind of wind-down, and would ultimately get to this point.

“Since the news broke, I guess we've had time to reflect on it a little more. But I don't think I can put into words what Mrs. Abercrombie has meant, let alone to me, to everyone on the farm. You know, she didn't inherit any of these mares. She has built this on her own, from the ground up, and we all know that's a very hard thing to do. So you're talking about somebody that has all the passion, all the patience, and all the perseverance that this game requires. It's been an amazing ride for Ms. Abercrombie, and an amazing ride for all of us–and I feel very, very blessed to have been just a cog in that wheel.”

The post Breeders Can Pin Their Hopes on a Mighty Oak appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Four Stakes Wins Net Richard Eramia Jockey Of The Week Title

With more stakes wins than any other North American jockey, Richard Eramia was voted Jockey of the Week for Oct. 12 through Oct. 18. The award, which is voted on by a panel of racing industry experts, is for jockeys who are members of the Jockeys' Guild, the organization which represents more than 950 active riders in the United States as well as retired and permanently disabled jockeys.

With mounts in eight of the ten stakes races on Oklahoma Classics Night for top Oklahoma-breds in divisional stakes competition, Eramia made four trips to the winner's circle. All four of his stakes wins were for different trainers.

He won three stakes in a row starting with Number One Dude for trainer Kari Craddock in the Oklahoma Classics Juvenile. Number One Dude set the pace early in the six-furlong sprint and prevailed by a length. For trainer Donnie Von Hemel. Eramia had the mount on She's All Wolfe who rallied from off the pace and hooked up with Lady Orchid over the final yards, with the two bobbing heads to the finish. Trainer Kenny Smith called on Eramia to ride Three Chords in the Oklahoma Classics Sprint and blew away the competition by 5-1/4 lengths going six furlongs. Eramia capped the evening by winning the Oklahoma Classics Starter Stakes under Rockport Kat for trainer Theresa Luneack.

A native of Uruguay, Eramia began his riding career there and also rode in Argentina and Brazil before coming to the U.S. in 2005. He earned his first graded stakes win in 2012 aboard Gantry in the Grade II Smile Sprint Handicap. In 2019, he won the Grade III Super Derby with Rotation for trainer Steve Asmussen and last month, he won the Grade III Oklahoma Derby with Shared Sense for trainer Brad Cox.

Eramia's weekly stats were 29-6-6-3 for a 21% win percentage and 52% in-the-money percentage and total purse earnings of $326,693.

Eramia out-polled fellow jockeys David Cabrera who won two stakes at Remington, Kyle Frey, the week's leading rider by wins, Manuel Franco who won two graded stakes at Keeneland and Rafael Manuel Hernandez who won the Grade I E.P. Taylor at Woodbine.

The post Four Stakes Wins Net Richard Eramia Jockey Of The Week Title appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights