Shedaresthedevil Returns to Winning Ways in Fleur de Lis

Shedaresthedevil (Daredevil) returned to the scene of her greatest triumph for Saturday's GII Fleur de Lis S. and came home a winner for the first time since taking this venue's GIII Locust Grove S. in September. It was her sixth win from seven starts at Churchill Downs with one second.

The slight second choice behind Pauline's Pearl (Tapit), who defeated her in the GI La Troienne S. May 6, Shedaresthedevil glided up to stalk from second as Super Quick (Super Saver) carved out early splits of :24.13 and :47.83. Turning up the heat at the top of the stretch, the bay pounced on the pacesetter at the eighth-pole and bounded clear to score. Super Quick held second over Pauline's Pearl.

“We're really proud of the race she ran today,” trainer Brad Cox said. “We've targeted this race for a long time. She loves it here at Churchill Downs and Florent [Geroux] gave her a perfect ride. It was a tough field but I had confidence in her when I saw her position going around the turn that she'd have enough left to chase down [Super Quick].”
“We sat in a perfect position the entire way around the track,” Geroux said. “Inside the eighth pole she started to find her best stride and drew away late. She's back.”

A $100,000 KEENOV weanling, Shedaresthedevil was purchased by Flurry Racing for $280,000 at the end of her juvenile season at the 2019 KEENOV sale. Qatar Racing stayed in as a partner and they were joined by Big Aut Farm. She captured a pair of Grade IIIs in 2020 before upending eventual champion Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) at 15-1 in the GI Kentucky Oaks. Winner of the GII Azeri S. and GI La Troienne to start 2021, the bay was third to champion Letruska (Super Saver) in the GI Ogden Phipps S. at Belmont that summer and returned to winning ways when making the trip to Del Mar for the GI Clement Hirsch S. She followed suit with her Locust Grove win, but could only manage sixth back in SoCal for the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff in November.

Sent through the Fasig November sale yet again, Shedaresthedevil was the second highest-priced offering, bringing $5-million from Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill with Flurry and Qatar staying in as partners. Third to Saturday's GII Princess Rooney S. winner and champion sprinter Ce Ce (Elusive Quality) in this year's Azeri Mar. 12, Shedaresthedevil was run down late by Pauline's Pearl when last seen in the La Troienne.

Pedigree Notes:
Shedaresthedevil is a half to GSP Mojovation (Quality Road). Her dam Starship Warpspeed is also responsible for the unraced 3-year-old filly Blackheartedgypsy (Speightster), an unraced juvenile filly named Jupiter Mooon (Exaggerator), a yearling colt by Uncle Mo and a 2022 filly by that Coolmore stallion. This is also the family of GSW & MGISP Crafty C. T.

Saturday, Churchill Downs
FLEUR DE LIS S.-GII, $345,000, Churchill Downs, 7-2, 4yo/up, f/m, 1 1/8m, 1:49.17, ft.
1–SHEDARESTHEDEVIL, 121, m, 5, by Daredevil
1st Dam: Starship Warpspeed, by Congrats
                2nd Dam: Andria's Forest, by Forestry
                3rd Dam: Andriana B., by Far North
($100,000 Wlg '17 KEENOV; $20,000 RNA Ylg '18 KEESEP;
$280,000 2yo '19 KEENOV; $5,000,000 4yo '21 FTKNOV).
O-Flurry Racing Stables LLC, Qatar Racing Limited & Whisper
Hill Farm, LLC; B-WinStar Farm, LLC (KY); T-Brad H. Cox;
J-Florent Geroux. $216,000. Lifetime Record: MGISW,
20-10-3-5, $2,729,458. *1/2 to Mojovation (Quality Road),
GSP, $335,378. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Werk Nick Rating: A++.
2–Super Quick, 121, f, 4, Super Saver–Quick Town, by Cape
Town. O/B-Marylou Whitney Stables LLC (KY); T-Norm W.
Casse. $70,000.
3–Pauline's Pearl, 124, f, 4, Tapit–Hot Dixie Chick, by Dixie
Union. O-Stonestreet Stables LLC; B-Stonestreet Thoroughbred
Holdings LLC (KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen. $35,000.
Margins: 1 3/4, 3HF, 1 3/4. Odds: 1.40, 2.40, 1.40.
Also Ran: She's All Wolfe, Ava's Grace.
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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Staton Flurry on a Historic Ride With the Team

Four years ago–almost to the day–when Arkansas native Staton Flurry sat down for a tête-à-tête with the TDN, his trainer Brad Cox took the opportunity to indulge in a little divination.

“He's out for good horses and wants to win stake races,” said Cox at the time, before pointing to their as yet unfinished greatest hits tour with multiple graded-stakes winner, Mr. Misunderstood (Archarcharch). “What this horse has done for him, those are the kinds of horses that he's looking for.”

Turns out, Cox reads the tea leaves as well as he does the condition book.

“Mr. Misunderstood took us on just such a fun ride, getting me my first graded-stakes win to becoming tied for the all-time winning-most stakes winner at Churchill Downs,” said Flurry.

And from Mr. Misunderstood's near million-dollar piggy bank, “that allowed us to go after Shedaresthedevil (Daredevil),” Flurry added, of the three-time Grade I-winning doyen of the distaff division. This includes a win in the 2020 GI Kentucky Oaks in record fashion.

“The rest is history with her,” said Flurry. “She's taken us on such a historic ride. To be able to still be a part of it, and to do it in 2022–well, it's going to be fun again.”

If you read a touch of disbelief to Flurry's remarks, that's understandable given he had accompanied Shedaresthedevil–owned for the bulk of her career in a partnership between Flurry Racing, Qatar Racing and Big Aut Farms–to the recent Fasig-Tipton November sale with expectations of a fond adieu.

“If she hadn't met the reserve, I think there's no doubt we would have kept the same partnership together, kept on running,” he said. “But we had every intention of selling her.”

But not 10 or 15 minutes before Shedaresthedevil went through the ring, Flurry and the Qatar Racing contingent were presented with a proposition from Mandy Pope of Whisper Hill Farm.

“If you all want to stay in, Mandy would love you all to stay in for a piece,” said Flurry, recounting a deal engineered by agent Alex Solis.

“I said I'd sure love to,” said Flurry. The hammer dropped at the $5-million mark for Shedaresthedevil's new team of owners. “It just worked out perfect.”

Currently sunning like a citrus fruit at Pope's Floridian farm, Shedaresthedevil will likely return to training with Cox at Fair Grounds come the turn of the year, before launching her 5-year-old career at Oaklawn Park, said Flurry.

Her two main targets, he said, bifurcate 2022: The GI Apple Blossom S. at Oaklawn Apr. 23, and the Breeders' Cup, held next year at Keeneland Nov. 4 and 5. A return to the latter event would carry with it the promise of reparations.

“You have to throw out the Breeders' Cup race,” Flurry said, of Shedaresthedevil's performance in this year's GI Breeders' Cup Distaff, when she participated in a frothy war up front, only to pay the price when the legionnaires charged from the back.

“The pace early on was just suicidal. We went in with a game plan–Flo [Geroux] stuck with that game plan. I don't think anybody realized the pace was going to be that hot,” he said, adding however that “we out-finished everybody in that early opening pack.”

A self-described “Hot Springs guy,” Flurry's racing and professional life, designs and aspirations, are as rooted in Oaklawn as the hickory of Hot Springs National Park.

He's the key player in Flurry Parking, which owns several parking lots around the racetrack, and manages the family's rental properties in the area–some soon occupied by racing's Arkansas-bound winter diaspora.

“They're coming in this morning,” said Flurry, about Brad Cox's assistant and some of their grooms, when he picked up the phone to the TDN a tad out of breath. “We were hurrying to get stuff loaded and ready for them.”

Since claiming his first horse in 2012, Flurry makes sure to ready the ranks in preparation for the annual Oaklawn winter meet, scheduled to start this year on Dec. 3. He dreams of a Derby–one minus the Twin Spires. “My ultimate goal is to win the [GI] Arkansas Derby–more than any other race.”

And he hopes one day that Mike Smith will carry his colors to victory there–a nod to the hotly anticipated head-to-head between Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra in the 2010 Apple Blossom, a match-up eventually scrapped, to much chagrin.

“Always loved watching Zenyatta,” said Flurry. “She's probably my favorite horse of all time that I haven't owned. Just watching Mike Smith ride such epic races here at Oaklawn, I'd love to win one with him. He's such a great guy–Hall of Famer. It's just another weird goal of mine.”

But as steeped as Flurry is in all things Oaklawn, he could soon take on international horizons, thanks to a busy year at the yearling sales.

At Keeneland September, he signed the ticket on three colts (by Liam's Map, Speightstown and Connect), for a combined $550,000, in partnership with Titletown Racing's Paul Farr.

At the Fasig-Tipton July sale, he went to $175,000 for a Midshipman filly. In an inaugural transatlantic raid, Flurry went to €170,000 for an Invincible Spirit (Ire) filly at Goff's Orby Sale. This could set the stage for another such voyage across the wide blue beyond.

“Goffs came to us, said, 'we're having this sale, would love to have you all come over,'” said Flurry. And so, with funds left over from the September sale, he chewed the fat with his bloodstock adviser, Clay Scherer.

“He said, 'let's give it a shot, see if we can maybe get a [Royal] Ascot horse,'” said Flurry.

“I'd love to go over there,” Flurry added. “You see all the success Brad [Cox] has had with turf horses, sooner or later he'll get some starters over there, and hopefully we're one of them.”

If augurs can be found from one of Ascot's anointed sons, then it bears pointing out that Wesley Ward trains a full brother to Flurry's Invincible Spirit yearling filly–the 2-year-old Napa Spirit, who broke his maiden at Keeneland in April before being shipped to Europe.

“The Midshipman filly we bought, she looks like she's going to be fast early, too,” said Flurry. “We'll see how everything falls.”

At age 31 and with nearly a decade of practical hands-on ownership experience under the belt, Flurry brings to the sport the clear-eyed perspective of someone looking at his role as it connects to a broader ecosystem–one being shaped by swiftly evolving mores.

Flurry sits on the Arkansas Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association's board of directors.

“We've got a good re-homing program we've started this last year here. We're always trying to improve but it's been pretty fulfilling so far,” he said.

“Obviously I'm still active in the claiming races, but anything that doesn't get claimed and needs to be retired, we try to find a good second home for them,” Flurry added, pointing to Mr. Misunderstood's new career in dressage. “As much as he treated myself and Brad well, to see him enjoy his second career and have a good life after racing, it's so fulfilling.”

A fraction of the whole indeed.

“Crazy accomplishments”–that's how Flurry describes his run these past few years. “Crazy accomplishments” he never would in his “wildest dreams” have predicted.

Besides the young stock coming through, Flurry has around 13 horses in training–five with Cox, five with Karl Broberg and three with Ron Faucheux. Grand heights then forged from a streamlined operation.

Or as Flurry succinctly puts it, “It's a testament to the team I've built around me.”

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Trifecta Of Magical World, Shedaresthedevil, Swiss Skydiver Drive More Than $100 Million In Sales At Fasig-Tipton November

The Fasig-Tipton November Sale, marketed as the world's premier breeding stock event, proved worthy of the marquee Tuesday in Lexington, Ky. Fasig-Tipton's flagship breeding stock sale established a new record gross, selling more than $100 million in the single session for the first time in the sale's history, including 26 fillies and mares which sold for $1 million or more.

Grade 1 producer Magical World in foal to multiple leading sire Into Mischief topped the sale when sold for $5.2 million to Whisper Hill Farm and Three Chimneys Farm (video).

Hill 'n' Dale Sales Agency, agent, offered the 11-year-old daughter of Distorted Humor as Hip 203. Magical World has produced four winners from four to race, including multiple Grade 1 winning millionaire Guarana (Ghostzapper); Grade 2 placed stakes winner Magic Dance (More Than Ready); and current 3-year-old winner Beatbox (Pioneer of the Nile). Magical World is out of Breeders' Cup Distaff winner Pleasant Home, from the immediate family of champion Sky Beauty and Grade 1 winners Violence and Tale of Ekati. Magical World also has a yearling colt by Gun Runner and foaled a colt by Quality Road this year.

“[It was a] remarkable evening tonight,” said Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning. “We were so fortunate to have a tremendous group of horses… It was almost impossible to believe the quality of horses on the grounds.”

Record-setting Kentucky Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil topped the racing/broodmare prospects on offer, selling for $5 million to Whisper Hill Farm, Flurry Racing, and Qatar Racing from the consignment of Hunter Valley Farm, agent (video).

Offered as Hip 232, the four-year-old daughter of Daredevil ran the fastest Kentucky Oaks in history, going 9 furlongs in 1:48.28 while defeating champions Swiss Skydiver and Gamine and Grade 1 winner Speech. Shedaresthedevil's seven graded stakes victories also include this year's Grade La Troienne Stakes and G1 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes. To date, she has earned $2,331,458 under the tutelage of trainer Brad Cox and has won or placed in 15 of 17 career starts.

Eclipse champion Swiss Skydiver was the sale's top broodmare prospect, selling for $4.7 million to Katsumi Yoshida from the consignment of Runnymede Farm, agent (video).

Offered as Hip 246, the 4-year-old daughter of Daredevil won five graded stakes last year en route to champion 3-year-old filly honors, including a victory in the Preakness Stakes over Kentucky Derby winner and subsequent Horse of the Year Authentic. Swiss Skydiver captured the prestigious G1 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga last year at three and won this year's G1 Beholder Mile Stakes. She won or placed 12 of 16 career starts and earned $2,216,480 for owner Peter Callahan and trainer Kenny McPeek.

“Our friends from Japan have become a major component of this sale,” said Browning when asked about the high level of participation from Japanese buyers. “We live in a global world and we're fortunate that we have a global marketplace here.”

The sale's top weanling was Hip 107, a filly by Curlin out of Grade 1 winner Sippican Harbor, which sold for $750,000 to West Bloodstock, agent for Robert and Lawana Low from the consignment of Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent.

The chestnut filly is the second foal out of G1 Spinaway Stakes winner Sippican Harbor, from the immediate family of Group 1 winner Peter Davies. Hip 107 was bred in Kentucky by Lee Pokoik.

“We were supported by an unbelievable cross section of horses from an unbelievable cross section of consignors and owners,” added Browning. “That's what it's all about: it's the quality of horses that you have the opportunity to sell, and we were fortunate tonight to have an all-star cast of offers and support (from) a tremendous buying base from all over the world. I couldn't be any more pleased.”

Overall, 149 horses changed hands for a sale-record gross of $103,699,000, a 15.9 percent increase over the previous highwater mark, set in 2018 when 141 horses sold for $89,473,000.

The average rose 23.2 percent to $695,966 from $565,049 in 2020 and was good for second-highest average in sale history. The median was $300,000, up 50 percent from 2020 and good for third-highest median ever recorded at The November Sale. The RNA rate was 21.1 percent. Twenty-six fillies and mares sold for $1 million or more.

Results are available online.

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Cox BC Contingent Work At Churchill Downs Ahead Of Trip to Del Mar

With rain moving out of the Louisville area Saturday afternoon, trainer Brad Cox's Breeders' Cup stars Essential Quality (five furlongs, :59.40), Knicks Go (five furlongs, 1:01.20), and Shedaresthedevil (five furlongs, 1:00.80) logged their final works Sunday at Churchill Downs prior to shipping to Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif., for the Nov. 5-6 world championship event.

Cox's $6 million Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Classic contenders Essential Quality and Knicks Go both worked following the 7:30 a.m. (all times Eastern) track renovation break. Essential Quality, with jockey Florent Geroux in the saddle, breezed outside of stablemate Colonel Bowman. The multiple Grade 1-winning 3-year-old started one length back of his workmate and finished five lengths in front through splits of :23.40 and :47. He galloped out six furlongs in 1:13. Shortly after his move, likely Classic favorite Knicks Go, with regular exercise rider Hugo Garcia up, clipped through fractions of :24.40, :36.40, and :48.60 with a six-furlong gallop out in 1:13.80 and seven furlongs in 1:27.60.

About 90 minutes later, Grade 1 Longines Kentucky Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil, preparing for the $2 million Grade 1 Longines Distaff, worked with Geroux aboard through early fractions of :24 and :48.20.

“It was a great morning and all three horses put in great works,” Cox said. “It was exactly what we were looking for heading into the Breeders' Cup next week. All three of these horses were scheduled to work (Saturday) but we got a lot of rain in the area so we moved them all to (Sunday). Overall, it worked out really well. I thought it was a good track. It was still a little wet but it was drying out as the morning was going on.”

Owned by Godolphin, Essential Quality has been off since winning the $1.25 million Grade 1 Travers Stakes two months ago at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

“Essential (Quality) really loved the track this morning and it was probably the Tapit coming out of him a little bit,” Cox said. “There was a set of horses slowing down in front of them and I told Florent on the radio to gallop out by them. It was a really, really good move. A lot of people scratch their heads the way he trains in the morning compared to running in a race. That's just who he is but I think he's really developing at the right time.”

Korea Racing Authority's Knicks Go, who is the likely favorite in the Classic, will attempt his second-straight Breeders' Cup victory after winning last year's Grade 1 Dirt Mile. The speedy Maryland-bred has won his last three races, including a victory in the $400,000 Grade 3 Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs.

“He's just a really cool horse,” Cox said. “He's very kind when he's in his stall but he's very aggressive, in a good way, outside of the barn. He knows his job and puts a lot into his training and works. I don't see anything from his previous races than he can't get the extra eighth-mile distance in the Classic. In the Whitney, against a field of really good horses, I thought he showed he could get an extra quarter-mile. He seems to clear off around the turn from his competition and able to go fast and kick on.”

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Qatar Racing, Flurry Racing, and Big Aut Farm's Shedaresthedevil defeated likely Distaff favorite Letruska earlier this year in the $350,000 Grade 2 Azeri. The talented 4-year-old filly is scheduled to sell at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale following the Distaff.

“She always gets into a good rhythm in her training and races,” Cox said. “We saw that again today. Florent worked her and she was just cruising around there. She always seems to be under the radar, even going back to when she won the Kentucky Oaks (at odds of 15-1). I thought I ran her a little too quickly back in the (Grade 1) Spinster last year. She's gotten the job done in three out of four starts this year. She doesn't run bigger figures than some of the older mares but she is a racehorse through and through. When she gets in a battle, she shows all heart and determination to get the job done.”

Cox has six local Breeders' Cup contenders. Along with the trio who worked Sunday, he'll also target the $2 million Grade 1 Juvenile Fillies with Juju's Map, $1 million Grade 1 Juvenile Turf with Ready to Purrform and $1 million Grade 1 Juvenile Fillies Turf with Turnerloose.

All of the local Breeders' Cup hopefuls are scheduled to van to Indianapolis on Monday at noon (all times Eastern) for a 4 p.m. flight.

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