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Horse of the Year Knicks Go Settling in at Stud

Two-time Breeders' Cup Champion and newly-crowned 2021 Horse of the Year Knicks Go is already well underway in his first year at stud at Taylor Made Stallions. It's been a whirlwind stretch for the five-time grade I winner over the past few weeks after his final career start in the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. as he traveled from Florida to Kentucky and had just a few days to prepare for the upcoming breeding season before the shed doors officially opened.

“He ran in the Pegasus on Jan. 29, shipped on the 30^th and started test breeding the next day,” Taylor Made's Brooks Taylor shared. “He bred his first mare on the eighth this month and has already bred 10 mares. He's taken to his job really well. He really didn't have any time off.”

Such a quick turnaround might bring about some apprehension for those overseeing a young stallion's career, but Taylor said most horses take it all in stride.

“There is a lot riding on it, but I think they can handle it as long as you treat them right and make it as easy as possible for them. You make sure to give them enough time outside and things like that.”

For now, Knicks Go's first book includes close to 160 mares, but Taylor said that number may increase as the season continues.

He added that the Taylor Made team is thrilled with how their new sire's first book is shaping up and explained how as they were searching for mares for him, their two main focuses were physical and race record.

“Physical is important to us,” he said. “We realize that in that first year, how they sell is really important. We want to breed the best physical that fits him. For me personally, I like Tiznow mares with him and he has about 10 Tiznow mares. We also wanted horses with a race record behind them and horses that could prove they could run. We didn't want a lot of unraced mares. It's really about trying to balance the physical with all these other different factors.”

Taylor, the son of the President of Taylor Made Stallions Ben Taylor, started his career in the industry by working on the farm at Taylor Made and spending summers gaining hands-on experience abroad in France, Argentina, Brazil and Australia. He spent several breeding seasons working with the Taylor Made stallions before moving into the office to work as a stallion sales assistant for eight years. Now 35, Taylor serves as a Thoroughbred advisor, helping clients reach their breeding and racing goals.

He also played a major role in landing Knicks Go onto the Taylor Made stud roster.

Taylor remembers first laying eyes on the colt when the talented gray was just a 2-year-old at Keeneland.

“I've known [Korean Racing Authority racing manager] Jun Park for a long time through selling seasons with him and seeing him at the sales,” he explained. “I had watched the Sanford and thought it was cool that the KRA was winning here in the U.S. I was at Keeneland for the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity and remember looking at Knicks Go in the paddock and thinking, 'Man he's a pretty horse.' He ended up winning really impressively and I just remember being so happy for Jun and the KRA to see them have that success.”

Two years later at the Keeneland Fall meet, Knicks Go claimed his second win since the Breeders' Futurity. Discussions about his future stud career grew more frequent as he prepared for the GI Breeders Cup Dirt Mile.

“I had asked Jun what their plans were and he said they wanted to stand him in the U.S.,” Taylor recalled. “I told him when the time comes, we would like to have that conversation. We wanted to see how it played out. Once it looked like he was going back to the Breeders' Cup last year, we made our pitch.”

Taylor Made was of course not the only stud farm hoping to add Knicks Go to their roster.

“They told us what they wanted and we told them what we could do and we met in the middle on everything,” Taylor said. “We just got lucky I guess, but we were always ecstatic about the horse. I also talked a lot with Jun about Not This Time and I told him that the one thing we did right with him is we went after horses with 2-year-old form. I think our discussion about how important race record is and talking about how we did things with Not This Time is really what drew them to us.”

Knicks Go's accolades from the racetrack also include 2021 Longines World's Best Racehorse and along with his Horse of the Year title, he was also named champion older dirt male. The accomplished six-year-old retired with career earnings of over $9.2 million.

“It's pretty cool to have a racehorse of this caliber,” Taylor said. “It doesn't happen often. We're very blessed to have him and we got really lucky. It's one of those things where you're so excited but you don't want to go start shouting about it or anything, you just want to work hard so that they succeed, and then you can celebrate.”

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Titans Square off in Pegasus World Cup

When a racetrack musters a $3-million purse for a featured event, the hope is that racing's stars will attend the big dance. And this year's GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. certainly succeeded in attracting two of the biggest names–Knicks Go (Paynter) and Life Is Good (Into Mischief)–in the American handicap division.

Knicks Go, a 2 3/4-length winner in last year's Pegasus World Cup, finished fourth in the G1 Saudi Cup and GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan H. before reeling off four-straight wins, including the GI Whitney S. and in his latest race, the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar Nov. 6. Knicks Go was named the 2021 Longines World' Best Racehorse during a virtual ceremony at the National Horse Racing Museum in Newmarket, England Tuesday.

“The Breeders' Cup Classic was his biggest race he's had to date,” said trainer Brad Cox. “He's going to go to Taylor Made after the Pegasus to become a stallion. After the Classic, we had decided if he came out of the race in good order, which he did, we would pursue the Pegasus. He has trained as well as he did going into the Classic.”

He continued, “After the [Saudi Cup] last year, he was fresh and came back and didn't run as well as we had hoped in the Met Mile. Personally, I think that had a lot to do with that race being around one turn. He has not had a lot of time off, and that's very similar to what we did with the [2020 GI Breeders' Cup] Dirt Mile and last year's Pegasus. So, we have pretty much kept him on the same routine. He went over to Taylor Made for three to four days to be shown to potential breeders and was shown on a shank. Aside from that, he's been training the whole time. He's been doing well, his weight is great and his attitude is good. And he's been training great and his works have been phenomenal.”

The striking grey was installed as the 6-5 morning-line favorite in a field of nine older horses after drawing the one hole Tuesday. Joel Rosario has the call.

“We're not really going to deviate from what we've done in the past,” affirmed Cox. “[Life Is Good] is a very fast, brilliant horse. We're not going to let him have his own way, and I think he's probably not going to let us have our own way. We're going to break running, hopefully, get to the lead. We're going to be very aggressive to get him there.”

He added, “It's the same approach we took in the Breeders' Cup. We'll see how it goes. He's proven at a mile and an eighth and he does like the surface there. He likes the configuration of the racetrack there at Gulfstream–he proved that last year. We're just going to come out of there running and see what happens.”

China Horse Club and WinStar Farm are represented by Life Is Good, who has done very little wrong in his career, winning four of five graded attempts, including a tour-de-force victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar last November. Under the guidance of Bob Baffert, the powerful bay became a 'TDN Rising Star' with a 9 1/2-length score at Del Mar in the fall of 2020 before returning the following spring to annex the GIII Sham S. and GII San Felipe S.–defeating subsequent GI Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit (Protanico) on both of those occasions.

“He came to us with high expectations, and he had a great resume,” said trainer Todd Pletcher of Life Is Good's arrival. “Initially, we were just getting to know him and see how he trains. He trained exceptionally well, so we had high hopes for him.”

After joining the Pletcher string, the $525,000 KEESEP yearling graduate came up a neck short to Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) in the GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial at Saratoga. With Irad Ortiz Jr. taking over riding duties for the Sept. 25 GII Kelso H. at Belmont, the sophomore drubbed older rivals for the first time to win by 5 1/2 lengths and came back with an even more sparkling performance when winning for fun on Breeders' Cup Day.

“We were unlucky in the Allen Jerkens to be beaten that day, but we mapped out a course at that point and we felt like the Dirt Mile was the correct race for him,” explained Pletcher. “The Kelso seemed like a good race to bridge the gap between the Jerkens and the Dirt Mile and I worked out well for him. Since that, we've been focused on this race. And we're going great.

“Knicks Go is a very fast horse. We know that. But we're not going to alter our style of running. And we're not going to take away his strength, which is his high-cruising speed. I honestly don't know for sure what's going to happen, at least in the first quarter or half, because you are going to have two horses that are looking for the same kind of trip.”

Hoping to pick up the pieces should a speed duel develop up front, 2019 GI Belmont S. victor Sir Winston (Awesome Again) enters the fray off a win in Woodbine's 12-furlong GIII Valedictory S. Dec. 5. Edwin Gonzalez gets the mount for trainer Mark Casse. Also likely to settle just off the pace and hope for a meltdown up front, Stilleto Boy (Shackleford) has hit the board in five of seven stakes races in 2021, including a win in the Iowa Derby and a second in the GI Awesome Again S. He was last seen finishing third in the seven-furlong GI Malibu S. Dec. 26.

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Breeders’ Cup Still the Plan For Mishriff

Three-time Group 1 winner Mishriff (Ire) (Make Believe {GB}) will still race next at Del Mar's Breeders' Cup meeting in early November, as long as he remains well. The John and Thady Gosden trainee, who won the G1 Prix du Jockey Club last term, ran fourth in the G1 Champion S. at Ascot on Oct. 16.

He kicked off his season with a victory in the $20-million Saudi Cup on dirt in February and added Meydan's G1 Dubai Sheema Classic back on turf at the end of March. Third in the G1 Coral-Eclipse at Sandown in July, the Prince A A Faisal colourbearer went one better in the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. at Ascot later that month and won the G1 Juddmonte International S. by six lengths at York on Aug. 18.

“John [Gosden] wants everything to be right for us to go, but that [Breeders' Cup] is his next target,” said Prince Faisal's racing manager Ted Voute. “It was spoken about on Sunday, and the early indications were that he came out of the race okay. At the moment we've all been told to act as if we're going, and the horse will let us know whether he's ready.

“John and the Prince will decide where to go. I suspect they'll go to the [GI Breeders' Cup] Turf–although just glancing through the [GI Breeders' Cup] Classic, I'd be happy to consider that race as well.

“It's up the Prince and John really–and it's down to Mishriff and his wellbeing. All the boxes have got to be ticked, and I'm sure John and the Prince will make the right decision.”

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Glut of Early Speed in The Classic? Not So Fast

The Week in Review

We're inside the five-week mark to the Breeders' Cup, and the top five contenders for the GI Classic all won their final graded stakes prep starts over the last two weekends.

This past Saturday, three of those horses wired 1 1/8-miles graded stakes and earned roughly equal Beyer Speed Figures of 107, 107 and 104.

At first blush, those performances look similar on paper, and it's tempting to make the leap to say the Classic will be glutted with early gunners who could hook each other into a sacrificial, multi-horse speed duel.

But closer scrutiny suggests that not all of those Classic aspirants truly need the lead to succeed.

Parsing the front-running wins by Medina Spirit (Protonico), Art Collector (Bernardini) and Knicks Go (Paynter) reveals that each is dangerous for different reasons heading into the Classic.

So which of those three produced the most authoritative wire job on Saturday?

The narrow advantage goes to Medina Spirit in the GI Awesome Again S. at Santa Anita Park.

Pace elements of his performance stand out from the other two. Medina Spirit ran the fastest opening quarter mile of those three nine-furlong stakes (:23.34), yet also uncorked the quickest final furlong (:12.62).

In between, however, jockey John Velazquez expertly gave Medina Spirit a breather in the fourth quarter-mile segment. That soft internal fraction of :25.29 was a full 1.33 seconds slower than the :23.96 fourth quarter cranked out by the under-pressure Art Collector in the GI Woodward S. at Belmont Park and 1.03 seconds slower than the :24.26 clocking produced by home-free Knicks Go in the GIII Lukas Classic S. at Churchill Downs.

Back in February, when the overachieving (based on auction prices of $1,000 at OBSWIN and $35,000 at OBSOPN) Medina Spirit was still only about fourth-best on trainer Bob Baffert's GI Kentucky Derby depth chart, Baffert expressed a belief that this colt was more effective pressing the pace rather than setting it.

That theory got abandoned after Medina Spirit seized the lead when no one else was keen to take up the early running in the Derby. His withstood several mid-race attacks then held off a cavalry charge of legit closers in the stretch to win over 10 furlongs.

Although Medina Spirit looked like a spent horse when running a no-impact third on the lead in the GI Preakness S., he rebounded capably to wire the Aug. 29 Shared Belief S. at Del Mar, then upped the ante with a career-best 107 Beyer in the Awesome Again S. while facing older horses for the first time.

Heading into the Classic, Medina Spirit has now won at 1 1/4 miles, over the Breeders' Cup surface (Del Mar), and against his elders. In sports wagering, there is a maxim about not betting against overachievers who keep winning “must” or “elimination” games. Plucky, hard-trying Medina Spirit is the pari-mutuel equivalent.

One irony that is unlikely to play out in the Classic is a rematch with 'TDN Rising Star' Life Is Good, the Into Mischief colt who is the only rival to have beaten Medina Spirit twice this year. That former Baffert trainee was the early Derby favorite until he got sidelined in March by ankle chip surgery. Now trained by Todd Pletcher, Life Is Good is instead aiming for the GI Dirt Mile, chiefly because he's never raced beyond 1 1/16 miles.

Work of 'Art'

Art Collector wasn't a major presence in the Classic picture prior to his 107-Beyer score on Saturday. Yet he's now riding a three-race win streak since being turned over to trainer Bill Mott. One of those wins was in an ungraded stakes at Saratoga and another was in the GII Charles Town Classic. He wasn't even favored for his gate-to-wire Woodward S. win.

But the professionalism Art Collector displayed under sustained pressure marks him as a sneaky-good Breeders' Cup contender who is just now rounding back into the form he displayed last year before a minor foot injury caused him to miss the pandemic-delayed Derby in September.

For the first time since 2005, the Woodward was run at Belmont instead of Saratoga, which meant that it was once again contested around a one-turn configuration. Art Collector never had to swat back multiple attacks on Saturday. But that's largely because he continuously held the all-out competition at bay with a workmanlike, grind-it-out win on the front end.

Art Collector's Woodward rates a distinct edge in terms of field quality among Saturday's preps for the Classic. While Medina Spirit's next closest competitor was a 54-1 shot and Knicks Go was 1-10 in the betting against five softies who are unlikely for the Breeders' Cup, Art Collector was pulsing away from the likes of odds-on Maxfield (Street Sense) and several other graded stakes stalwarts.

The Woodward win was the fifth in Mott's career, the most ever for a trainer in that stakes. The victory also gave Art Collector the unique distinction of having won three straight nine-furlong stakes under three different track configurations: two turns (Saratoga), three turns (Charles Town), and one turn (Belmont).

Art Collector has crossed the finish wire first nine times (one DQ), and in seven of them he has either led or pressed in second for most of the trip. But his GII Blue Grass S. win from last July provides a prime example of how this colt is fully capable of executing stalking tactics: He applied pressure from third behind dueling leaders, then ratcheted up the tempo to wrest control through a length-of-stretch slugfest.

Despite all of these pluses, Mott will be hunting for a new jockey for the Breeders' Cup, because winning rider Luis Saez is committed to ride likely Classic favorite Essential Quality (Tapit).

In an August 2020 pre-Derby analysis I wrote that “Art Collector looms like a quietly intimidating bruiser, speaking softly while carrying a big kick.”

Some 13 months later, I'll stick with that assessment heading into the Classic.

Fast, but Can He Last?

Knicks Go (104 Beyer) had the easiest tour around the track on Saturday among the three Classic contenders. He utterly toyed with overmatched competition, allowing them to creep closer before edging away at several points in a largely even-paced race.

His final eighth (while wrapped up and cruising home solo through the stretch) was a respectable :12.69, only .07 seconds slower than the last-furlong clocking turned in by Medina Spirit.

And Knick's Go's final time of 1:47.85 was only .57 seconds off Victory Gallop's 22-year-old track record.

Beyond those numbers, Knicks Go carries himself with a confident swagger that doesn't immediately register when watching Medina Spirit or Art Collector.

But of those three, it is also evident that Knicks Go is the horse whose success is most closely tied to attaining the top spot at the head of affairs.

Knicks Go has nine lifetime wins. Eight of them sport “all ones” running lines indicating he was on the lead at every point of call. The only (very minor) deviation from that pattern was in Knicks Go's career debut, when he was second at the start, then rushed up to grab the lead.

It was one year ago—Oct. 4, 2020, to be precise—that Knicks Go wired an $80,000 optional claimer/3x allowance at Keeneland by 10 1/4 lengths while making just his second start for trainer Brad Cox. It was then on to the Dirt Mile, which seemed a touch ambitious considering the Breeders' Cup would only be the gray's third start off an extended layoff.

Knicks Go won the Dirt Mile with unexpected aplomb and then the GI Pegasus World Cup by open lengths (both 108 Beyers) before faltering in a pair of one-turn 1 1/8 mile races, the $20-million Saudi Cup and the GI Metropolitan H. This summer he regrouped with easy two-turn scores in the GIII Cornhusker H. at Prairie Meadows and GI Whitney S. at Saratoga.

But Knicks Go's Beyer numbers have tailed off (113, 111, 104 last three races) even as his winning ways have resumed. That's not an enviable pattern for a horse who is locked into a set style of running and has never before attempted 10 furlongs, the distance of the Classic.

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