River Tiber, Givemethebeatboys, Bolshoi Ballet Out of Breeders’ Cup

G2 Coventry S. winner River Tiber (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) has been scratched from the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf after withdrawals were posted by Santa Anita on Friday morning California time.

The Coolmore partners' runner won his first three starts and had been the 3-1 morning line favourite for Friday's contest. He also finished third to Vandeek (GB) (Havana Grey {GB}) in both the G1 Prix Morny and G1 Middle Park S. and looked primed for a big effort. River Tiber was due to be ridden by Ryan Moore. Moore will instead pilot fellow Coolmore runner Unquestionable (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), who was second in the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere. He had been due to be ridden by Frankie Dettori.

The team of runners from Ballydoyle has also been depleted by Bolshoi Ballet (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) being declared a non-runner in Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Turf.

River Tiber is not the only high-profile European raider to be scratched on Friday morning. Givemethebeatboys (Ire) (Bungle Inthejungle {GB}), trained by Jessica Harrington, is out of the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint earlier on the card, the result of a vet scratch, confirmed by his part-owner Con Marnane. Following his withdrawal, the Donnacha O'Brien-trained Asean (Ire) (Ten Sovereigns {Ire}) has been bumped up from his reserve slot to take his place in stall 14 under Tyler Gaffalione.

Enhanced veterinary protocols are in place for the Breeders' Cup meeting, with on-site examinations having been taking place on site at Santa Anita from last Friday. Dr Will Farmer, the co-team lead for the Breeders' Cup veterinary team, explained the process for race-morning scratchings to the TDN at Santa Anita on Friday morning.

He said, “We have seven teams of veterinarians that went out and did the stall-side and trot-up exams on all runners today. They were examined this morning.

“Any time that there is a question that arises from these large event days, we have a second team of veterinarians who come in as kind of a referee, as a second pair of eyes. So we have the pair that would look at the horse and if there are any questions or disagreements between the two veterinarians, that second team, which is comprised of CHRB and Breeders' Cup veterinarians on that panel. They would go in and do their exam and confer with the first team of veterinarians that had looked at the horse, and then ultimately come with whatever recommendation or decision that had to be made.”

Dr Farmer added, “The safety of the horse is at the forefront of every decision we make. Whether it's the trainer or the veterinarian scratching the horse, we're all aligned in doing what's in their best interest.

“Scratch decisions are informed by multiple hands-on veterinary inspections in addition to observation of the horse at the jog in the stabling area and on the track while training in the days leading up to the World Championships.”

 

 

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Big Evs is Breeders’ Cup-Bound

RP Racing's Big Evs (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}) will make his next start in the Nov. 3 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Santa Anita, trainer Mick Appleby confirmed on Tuesday. The colt has won three of five career starts, including the G2 Flying Childers S., G3 Molecomb S. and Listed Windsor Castle S. at Royal Ascot, and has banked £180,665.

“He's in good form, we've just freshened him up a bit and he seems in good order,” said Appleby. “Hopefully he stays that way until he goes, he flies out on Oct. 26. He's got to have 48 hours in quarantine then he'll be able to go out on track two or three times before the race.”

“We're going to take him for a racecourse gallop so we can run him around a bend, obviously he's never raced around a bend before but I don't think it'll be an issue,” Appleby said. “He's got to do a bit of stalls work with a bell but I think we're going to do that when he's out there so he can get used to the stalls there.

“He's doing very well and hopefully it's all systems go.”

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Home Comforts Help Euros To Away Treble

LEXINGTON, KY–Life in general, and life with horses in particular, simply doesn't dispense its favours with such an unstinting hand. Everybody understands that, and even an operation as lavishly resourced as Godolphin has over the years has experienced many moments of demoralization.

Charlie Appleby and his team, moreover, will be perfectly aware that others must be expected in future. Before the afternoon was out, indeed, their second runner had been thwarted in a desperate finish by their rivals at Ballydoyle. By barely a nose, then, Appleby was denied a fifth win from five consecutive Breeders' Cup starters–and duly found himself stranded on “just” seven winners overall from 13 runners. One day he will have to sit down and ask himself what on earth went wrong with the other six.

In the meantime, his record suggests a nearly surreal immunity to the trademark hazards of this business. Remember that last year he even achieved the memorable paradox of winning with a horse that had been scratched. And whether or not he can maintain the Midas touch on Saturday, or in future years, Appleby will surely never forget a moment that beautifully condensed his Breeders' Cup journey to this point.

That came after the GI Juvenile Turf Sprint when William Buick, having picked off his rivals from last place with nearly mechanical dash, in turn began plucking cremon yellows from the blanket over the withers of Mischief Magic (Ire) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}) and throwing them into the air as they were led into the winner's circle. The flowers floated down out of the blue like autumn leaves and, strewn in the wake of the horse, were trampled into the dirt track as though their path was literally paved with gold.

And, to a degree, that was the case for all three European winners on a card that nowadays plays very congenially to their strengths. The expansion of the turf program at the Breeders' Cup may have terminally eroded international competition on dirt, to the extent that Arazi–author of the most memorable juvenile performance in the history of this meeting–would nowadays almost certainly have stuck to the grass. Whether that amounts to a net loss or gain is a debate for another day. As it was, with a fairly seamless climate further conspiring in their cause, all three races on “the weeds” were duly harvested by the two great powerhouses of the European Turf.

They had claimed one apiece, Meditate (Ire) (No Nay Never) picking up the gauntlet from Mischief Magic in the GI Juvenile Fillies Turf, until squaring up for a decider in the GI Juvenile Turf. Aidan O'Brien and his Ballydoyle team doubtless felt that they were overdue a break, if only in terms of their rivalry at this carnival, and it duly came as Victoria Road (Ire) (Saxon Warrior {Jpn}) stole a decisive march on Silver Knott (GB) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) after both had been craving the first split.

O'Brien has ample mitigation in hardly matching Appleby's ratio across a much longer history at this meeting, not least in having sometimes brought horses here as a speculative postscript to a long season in Europe. Appleby, conversely, was fortunate to launch his career even as the turf program was opening up, and quickly learned to target specific types at a vulnerable sector of the American talent pool.

All the same his staggering record here is, of course, but one dimension of the way Appleby has turned round the fortunes of his stable after his predecessor had brought it to a humiliating nadir. No need to dwell on that, now, but it is worth reminding ourselves that his promotion from anonymity, to many, had seemed a rather stubborn reaction to the bitter crisis of 2013. Appleby had learned his vocation almost exclusively within the stable, and the Sheikh's solution represented a striking vote of confidence in the ability of his team to regroup.

Nobody should be deceived that there was any complacency in the camp. After this latest vindication of Appleby's appointment, however, Godolphin managing director Hugh Anderson stressed that it did not really appear a gamble at the time. For one thing, everyone could see that this was an exceptional horseman. Barely less important, however, was the sense that the young man's innate modesty was shored up by attributes tailormade for such onerous responsibility. Anderson speaks of his “unflappable” temperament, of an “eternally cheerful” outlook and, above all, an exemplary touch with his staff.

So it is that he has arrived here having retained the trainers' championship, those laurels this time being shared by Buick. Besides their talent, both are united by an understated sense that the best way to manifest their gratitude for opportunities received is via deeds rather than words.

It was characteristic, as such, that Buick was so reluctant to accept much personal credit for what appeared, on the face of it, a really flamboyant ride on Mischief Magic. Appleby, who has developed such an acute instinct for the type of horse best adapted to the hustle and bustle of the racing environment over here, had been confident that it would really stimulate Mischief Magic. Sure enough, Buick could even be seen taking a pull at the reins as his mount surged through the traffic turning in. By Buick's own account, however, the horse had made all the decisions for him: unable to go the early pace, he began to engage even as the pace told on the leaders, and then switched leads with alacrity to settle the issue. The way the pair sidestepped their way through, nimbly moving in and out, seemed to obey a choreography as inexorable as a country dance.

A footnote of congratulation, by the way, to connections of runner-up Dramatised (Ire) (Showcasing {GB}). They were deflated by Mischief Magic's astonishing late pounce, but with a filly this Grade I placing was a huge “win” all day long—and a fine piece of training.

But the man of the day was O'Brien, adding another increment to the legacy he has long been creating for the breed. With America waiting to anoint a horse with greatness after six career starts, let's remember the collective debt of future breeders to the regime developed between O'Brien and his patrons. Ballydoyle horses have their potential and genetic wares “proved” in a way today wholly unfathomable to most horsemen this side of the water.

Meditate was a natural, winning on debut on Apr. 10. She completed a hat-trick at Royal Ascot, while this was her third Group 1/Grade I start of the autumn. Victoria Road, conversely, has been one of those O'Brien projects where you see a horse learn with each rite of racetrack passage: though up and running in May, he took five attempts to break his maiden before the bulb really switched on.

For all his mastery, O'Brien has always shown a nearly pathological dread of vanity. They may serve very different masters, who set their different agendas in camps far apart, but the two trainers who dominated proceedings here on the turf are united by a scrupulous and authentic emphasis on teamwork.

True, one might doubt whether both would share too earnestly the curious tradition, unique in the racing year, that they have travelled here in common cause, as members of “Team Europe”. Be that is it may, however, this was a day when all Europeans could agree that the grass really is greener on the other side.

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Keeneland Breeders’ Spotlight: An Apple From a Blooming Orchard

It was 2007: compared with a year or two later, not the best timing in terms of what was on the market and how much it would cost you. “And it was a little bigger than we wanted,” admits Larry Doyle. “But once we had the farm, well, we had to fill it.”

That might sound a bit cart-before-horse, as a strategy for repurposing 330 acres of cattle pasture for the rather more expensive models that nowadays graze KatieRich Farms outside Midway, Ky. But Doyle accepts that the Thoroughbred game is played to different rules to the one by which he made the money required.

“That's what I love about this business,” he says with a chuckle. “I make my money on Wall Street. But that's too easy. That's tic-tac-toe. This? This is hard, this is challenging. On Wall Street, you always look for that 20% return, year on year. Here, people try to improve on a 30% negative return. So it's always something to weigh. But sometimes you're a lot better off being a riverboat gambler than an accountant or financier!”

It was as a born “numbers guy” that Doyle was first intrigued by the handicapping side of the Turf, fatefully led astray by his older brother when growing up in Babylon, Long Island. But when the first horse race you ever see happens to be the 1973 Belmont S., then there will always be unquantifiable elements in the equation. All Doyle knows is that he's still paying his dues, and enjoying every minute.

And if Secretariat was hardly a representative introduction to the game, then nor was the first yearling Doyle bought, who won a stakes. “They put the needle in my arm quite early!” Doyle says. “It was easy, right? No way back after a start like that.”

Remarkably, things quickly became better yet–and that's why we're talking, a couple of decades later, on the eve of the Breeders' Cup. Because the KatieRich homebred American Apple (American Pharoah), who lines up for the GI Juvenile Turf Sprint on Friday, is a daughter of only the third horse Doyle ever purchased. Whatever she can do at the adjacent racetrack, moreover, she's already highly eligible–as winner of the GIII Matron S. and half-sister to a GI Kentucky Oaks-placed millionaire–to improve the balance sheet when offered as hip 234 in the Keeneland November Sale, just a couple of days later.

American Apple's dam Miss Mary Apples (Clever Trick) was bought in the same ring in 2001, with Doyle's buddy Chris Connors, for $37,000 at the September Sale.

“She was just a gorgeous yearling in Book 5,” Doyle recalls. “When she won on debut at Keeneland, she went off favorite and that was just on looks. Then she went up for the Fashion S., where against the track bias she ran down a big Lukas filly and lost by a head. And then we took her up to the [GII] Schuylerville and again ran a close second. The money they were throwing at us then was just crazy. I remember talking to a bloodstock agent about the offer and he goes, 'Kid, 11 times out of 10, you take that deal.'”

Ah, yes, but remember that the numbers guy was using a different abacus for the ponies. The Schuylerville winner dropped dead a week later, after all, apparently clearing a path for Miss Mary Apples in the GI Spinaway S.

“Unfortunately she came up with a throat problem that needed a surgery,” Doyle recalls. “So maybe not taking the money looked a bad deal then. But she came back the next year, placed in a few stakes, and then just became a very productive mare. She threw off 11 winners, plus one filly that didn't win but went on to produce [GISP] Parlor (Lonhro {Aus}). Miss Mary Apples was a great mother, very protective, and we only lost her last year three months after she delivered American Apple.”

And nor did she protect only her foals. Though KatieRich is always striving to make commercial sense, this mare simply didn't produce commercial foals. Time after time, that proved a win in the longer game.

“We got her pregnant to Empire Maker, $100,000 stud fee,” Doyle recalls. “We put her filly through the sale, she didn't make $85,000, so we brought her back. That was Miss Red Delicious: she won stakes herself, her daughter [Nootka Sound (Lonhro {Aus})] won a graded stakes, and another one Zapple (Ghostzapper) won her debut by nine lengths this summer. Then Miss Mary Apples had a filly by Curlin, another $100,000 stud fee. But she was small, didn't bring $75,000. So we brought her home, too, and that was Lady Apple. Won a million and sold for $1.2 million. Any time we tried to sell something out of that mare, they just didn't look precocious enough. But then they would blossom.”

By the time American Apple came along, then, the lesson had been thoroughly absorbed. She was never put through the ring at all.

“She'd only have been weaned three months, she was immature, she had a pot belly,” Doyle reasons. “So we ended up holding on to her–and here we are at the Breeders' Cup. She's always been brilliant in the morning. Gerardo [Corrales, jockey] told us in early March, 'This is my Breeders' Cup horse.' And we were laughing at him.”

The real thrill about the whole ride, with this filly, has been the early boost to the career of the program's 28-year-old trainer Daniel Leitch, who took over when Mark Hubley–who goes back a long way with Doyle and his brother, and indeed trained Miss Mary Apples–stepped back into the role of managing consultant only a year or so ago.

“Danny's been with us since he was working weekends at 15,” Doyle's wife Karen notes. “And he's always been the same, even now he stops at the barns after training in the morning to see if he can help out in any way. We were so happy for him when she won the Matron, I still get chills thinking about it.”

“Yes, he's just a solid, solid citizen,” agrees Doyle. “Always a helping hand, great personality, always upbeat. His confidence in this horse has never wavered. I'm 64, I've been around a bit longer, and I would say, 'All right, kid, we'll see. And he's like, 'We've got this!'”

After a couple of starts on dirt and a two-turn experiment on grass, American Apple won a valuable sprint maiden at Kentucky Downs.

“We had no reason not to believe that she'd run on dirt,” Doyle reflects. “I just think she needs a pace to close into. She has this burst of speed, that's why she's better suited to grass. We still think she can run long, but going short is just the way the races have played out for us. After she won at Kentucky Downs, we opened the condition book and there was only one place to go; and then it was the same after we shipped to New York and won up there. She's made the choices for us, really.”

American Apple | Horsephotos

The tougher choice, naturally, was to put her into the sale. But those numbers do have to stack up a little.

“This is just hedging,” Doyle says. “I'm a trader. A horse isn't worth what you think it's worth. It's worth what they pay you. But if you don't do it, you'll pay. And if you do, you can get rewarded. Remember, I have three half-sisters. We have stakes-winning daughters of the sisters. So the family is going to be well represented [in the program], and her mother's legacy is going to live on for many years.”

Zapple is another already promising to contribute. After her dazzling debut she tried stakes company, but came out with a few cuts and has been recuperating on the farm. She'll be resuming soon, and overall KatieRich–named for the Doyles' two children–appears to be evolving with persuasive energy: these days there's a sales prep division, there's training and pre-training, there's constant upgrading of stock.

“I think we're looking for different types of mares, to breed more two-turn horses,” Doyle reflects. “But basically we just want to keep learning, to get a better and better product out there. At the age I am, probably I'd be looking to breed to race a bit more, going forward. I think we've got some nice foundation mares. In terms of numbers, we're up a little high at 33, so we actually have nine going into the sale. But meanwhile we're keeping daughters, we're breeding them to nice sires, it's just time to look down the road a little bit.”

One intriguing measure of that perspective is that Doyle elected to retain an Uncle Mo colt–out of the Phipps mare Enhancing (Forestry), and therefore a half-brother to farm graduate Instilled Regard (Arch)–as a $475,000 RNA at the September Sale.

“I think that's a potential sire,” he explains. “Though it was me really stepping out, for a big colt, because it's selling those horses that pays the bills. But right now I feel let's take a shot with this one, and see how we go.”

Karen adds with a laugh that she was not present on that occasion to restrain her husband, and “didn't hear from him for two days after, either!”

But Doyle has been at the game long enough now to make calculations of this kind.

“My brother Jimmy owned a piece of a horse with Mark maybe as long ago as 1983, and I went in a few years later, in 1992,” he recalls. “I had no right to own a horse in those days. But I started the first internet mutual fund, and after that took off around 1999, 2000, I was able to go back to what I had seen years before, when I got an entry-level job with Thomas Mellon Evans on Park Avenue. He bred Pleasant Colony, and I got to meet with his bookkeeper and learn a bit more about ownership. He was very big into getting good mares. I didn't have the money then, to put it to use, but I was learning a lot.”

The physical imprint of the farm over the past 15 years, under Robert “Elmo” Richardson, has reflected conspicuous flair and ambition. But the real bedrock, not least given that the Doyles still spend much of their time in New York, is the caliber of the people.

“I had a very experienced horsewoman come to the farm, helping out for a while,” Doyle says. “And she was saying, 'Oh my God how do you get these people?' Everything's working well: you drop anybody in, they know how it works. We now have another very gifted young horseman in [farm president] George Barnes: he and Danny are working very well together, and that's so nice to see. And that has all been Mark and [farm manager] Tammy Ingebritson, it really has: they're the whole foundation of this farm. They have helped me to do this without mistakes, to have enough good sales along the way. That way we hope we can stick around and hopefully someday get a big horse.”

Who's counting? The numbers guy, that's who. Hence this filly being up for sale. But it's not just about the bottom line: he's counting on people, and on the intangible magic of the Thoroughbred.

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