Tag: GI Spinaway S.

Daughter of Outwork Remains Undefeated in Spinaway

It was always billed as a potential match race in Saratoga's closing weekend feature for the 2-year-old fillies. And so it came down to GIII Adirondack winner Brightwork (Outwork) and 'TDN Rising Star' Ways and Means (Practical Joke) in a stretch duel. In the end, experience won out and Brightwork kept her perfect record intact with a gusty effort to win Sunday's GI Spinaway S.

A flashy maiden winner at Keeneland over G2 Queen Mary S. winner Crimson Advocate (Nyquist), Brightwork earned her next win in stakes company with a half-length score in Ellis's Debutante S. July 2. She immediately moved up into graded-stakes company at Saratoga and was a no-doubt winner in a five-length roll to take the GIII Adironack S. Aug. 6. Drawn outside of her main rival in Sunday's contest, the 3-1 chance raced just ahead of Ways and Means up the backstretch with the pair coming into tight quarters as Flavian Prat had to check his filly back off of heels to avoid disaster. Sugar Hi (Twirling Candy) had a clear trip to the lead from an inside gate and led the compact group alongside Lemorian (Coal Front) through a quarter in :22.40. Brightwork stayed outside of that pair but was quickly joined by Ways and Means as the fillies went four across the track midway around the far turn as the half ticked by in a brisk :45.09. The top two wagering choices hit the quarter pole together but Brightwork always seemed to have the measure of the 1-2 favorite, turning back her challenge to pull out the win.

“There are really no words to describe it,” said winning owner Bill Simon of WSS Racing. “I'm so proud of Johnny and what he's done with the horse; Jared [Hughes], who picked her out; Daniel Ortiz, Johnny's brother, has been living up here with Brightwork for the summer and they deserve all the credit. It's just a phenomenal feeling. There were some great horses in this race trained by some great trainers, and we won. It's really special.”

“The horse beside me [No. 10, Lemorian], last time she broke from the one-hole at Indiana but she outbreak everybody and I know she's going to be quick,” added Irad Ortiz, Jr. “So, I say, maybe I let her go and stalk there and maybe I can bide my time and I know the horse I have to beat is the horse inside of me [Ways and Means]. That's what I tried to do and it worked out perfect.”

Pedigree Note:

Brightwork becomes the second-straight daughter of WinStar stallion Outwork to take the Spinaway following Leave No Trace's victory last year. She is out of a half-sister to several stakes winners but most notably to the dam of GSW/MGISP Midnight Bourbon (Tiznow) and GISW and successful young sire Girvin (Tale of Ekati). Clarendon Fancy saw her yearling Volatile filly bring $285,000 at last month's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale and she reported a Yaupon filly this spring.

Sunday, Saratoga
SPINAWAY S.-GI, $300,000, Saratoga, 9-3, 2yo, f, 7f, 1:23.17, ft.
1–BRIGHTWORK, 122, f, 2, by Outwork
                1st Dam: Clarendon Fancy, by Malibu Moon
                2nd Dam: Catch My Fancy, by Yes It's True
                3rd Dam: Walk Away Rene, by Gold Alert
1ST GRADE I WIN. ($95,000 Wlg '21 FTKNOV). O-WSS Racing,
LLC; B-Wynnstay Inc. & H. Allen Poindexter (KY); T-John
Alexander Ortiz; J-Irad Ortiz, Jr. $165,000. Lifetime Record:
4-4-0-0, $444,051. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the
free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Ways and Means, 120, f, 2, by Practical Joke
                1st Dam: Strong Incentive (SW, $123,568),
                                by Warrior's Reward
                2nd Dam: G G's Dolly, by Comic Strip
                3rd Dam: Parfait, by Kingmambo
1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE, 1ST G1 BLACK 
TYPE. 'TDN Rising Star' O/B-Klaravich Stables (KY); T-Chad C.
Brown. $60,000.
3–Wonder Ride, 120, f, 2, by Gun Runner
                1st Dam: Wonderment (GSW, $394,870),
                                by Cosmonaut
                2nd Dam: A Wonder She Is, by Three Wonders
                3rd Dam: Video Devil, by Devil's Bag
1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE, 1ST G1 BLACK
TYPE. O-Walking L Thoroughbreds, LLC; B-Walking L
Thoroughbreds LLC & Fest Miles (KY); T-Kenneth G. McPeek.
$36,000.
Margins: HF, 6 1/4, 1 3/4. Odds: 3.00, 0.45, 31.75.
Also Ran: Alys Beach, Closing Act, Sugar Hi, Lady Moscato, Lemorian, Miz Sense. Scratched: Becky's Joker.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

 

The post Daughter of Outwork Remains Undefeated in Spinaway appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Lukas ‘Hopeful’ On Final Weekend At The Spa

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Here we are on the final weekend of the Saratoga season and–no surprise–D. Wayne Lukas is ready to take swings in both of the historic Grade I races for 2-year-olds.

The Hall of Fame trainer, who turned 87 Friday, will saddle Holy Cow Stable's Naughty Gal (Into Mischief) Sunday in the GI Spinaway S. The next afternoon, Lukas will send out BC Stable's Bourbon Bash (City of Light) and Western Ghent (American Pharoah) in the GI Hopeful, the final stake of the 154th season of Saratoga racing.

Lukas skipped the last two years because of a combination of Covid-19 and a downturn in the quality of his stable, but came back to Saratoga this summer with 16 horses for what has been a productive meet. Through Friday, the Lukas stable had a record of 4-6-2 from 23 starts with earnings of $607,889. During the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, he signed the tickets for five yearlings for $2.725 million.

Three of Lukas' Saratoga wins came from his stakes starters. Bourbon Bash handled a maiden special weight field by eight lengths Aug. 13. Western Ghent, co-owned by Lukas and his wife Laurie, won a $75,000 maiden claimer Aug. 25. Naughty Gal, the GIII Adirondack winner Aug. 7, prevailed by 2 1/4 lengths despite running greenly and drifting out in the stretch under Luis Saez.

“She's corrected that, for sure, and I feel comfortable,” Lukas said, “And, of course, Luis is going to be a lot more familiar with who she is. The power steering kicked in and she overreacted to what he was trying to do. We wanted to be in the four or five-hole and we didn't want to be an eight or nine He ended up there so quick it surprised him.”

Lukas and his former assistant and fellow Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher top the Spinaway trainers's standings with six victories each. In 23 starts, Lukas has a 6-5-3 record in the seven-furlong race. He won with Tiltalating (Tilt Up) in 1984, the first year he ran at the track. His most recent winner was Golden Attraction in 1995.

Figuring out who belongs in a graded stake, Lukas said, comes down to experience.

“Well, if you've been doing it for 60 years, you get a pretty good cross section of what works and what won't,” he said.  “I've been guilty my whole career of entering in stakes that I have no idea what the competition's ability is. That goes for everyday races. I'll enter in non-winners of two and somebody will say this or that about the race and I have no idea. But I know what wins non-winners of two. I've seen it enough that I know that I'm competitive in a non-winners of two unless Secretariat shows up or Ruffian.”

Before the 40-day meet July 14, Lukas expected BC Stable's Summer Promise (Uncle Mo) to be his Spinaway horse. However, she finished second in the GIII Schuylerville on opening day and Naughty Gal moved up in the pecking order in the stable with her Adirondack triumph.

“She's going into it and the other one's not,” Lukas said. “I'm running the best one I've got at this point.”

Lukas said Naughty Gal is an obvious standout.

“Awful strong. Big, powerful filly,” he said. “One of the best horsemen I know called me the other day and said 'Boy, that's a good-looking (SOB) you ran in the Adirondack. He was watching on television. She's a picture of conformation. For her age, her development, strength, size is incredible. She's really a study. You want to study one how they're supposed to look, she's it in every way. That's why I say the seven furlongs should just be right in her wheelhouse.”

Never shy about promoting his horses, Lukas said Naughty Gal is a filly with a future.

“Big time. And I'm anxious to run her two turns,” he said. “That's where I really want to see her run.”

If things go well in the Spinaway, Lukas said Naughty Gal is on the road to the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies in November at Keeneland.

“No bones about it,” he said. “I'm pointing her right there.”

Lukas is the career leader in Hopeful wins with eight from 32 starts. Pletcher and Steve Asmussen are next with three each.

Bourbon Bash was a well-beaten second to the Chad Brown-trained Blazing Sevens (Good Magic) in his first try July 24, but earned his trip to the Hopeful with the romp in his second start.

“He's a real immature colt, but I think he'll also relish the seven-eighths,” Lukas said. “He was getting in cruise control the other day. The only thing that is a little bit disturbing is the race was slow. Of course, it wasn't slow for him. When they say the race was slow, I always say, 'Well, he beat everybody that showed up.' I wondered about the time a little bit. I'm talking to Chad Brown and he said, 'You know, my colt is the one that beat yours' when I first started him. I said, 'well, it will be interesting the next time.'”

The post Lukas ‘Hopeful’ On Final Weekend At The Spa appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

No Doubt Echo Zulu Best in Spinaway

L and N Racing and Winchell Thoroughbreds' Echo Zulu (Gun Runner) became her freshman sire's first Grade I winner, third graded winner overall–and his second of the upstate meet–with a wire-to-wire victory in the GI Spinaway S. at Saratoga Sunday.

“I can't measure how much I wanted to have Gun Runner's first Grade I winner,” admitted Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, who also conditioned the 2017 Horse of the Year. “Everything he did for the barn, he's obviously a tremendous sire and somebody had to be first, but I'm glad it was us.”

Sent off the 3-5 favorite, Echo Zulu was off half-a-step slowly and rushed up to take the early. She was in front while pressed by longshot Benbang (Shanghai Bobby) through a quarter in :22.07 and a half in :44.73. She put that foe away nearing the stretch and quickly opened up on the field before sailing under the wire an unchallenged four-length winner.

“At the top of the stretch, you're looking at :44 for the half and thinking how does she stay up? But she found another gear and finished up in 1:22 on a pretty slow track today,” said co-owner Michael Levinson, whose L and N Racing also campaigned the winner's half-brother Echo Town (Speightstown), who captured last year's GI H. Allen Jerkens S. “This was absolutely incredible. To win back-to-back Grade I races with two horses from the same family is incredible.”

Echo Zulu was tabbed a 'TDN Rising Star' following a dominating 5 1/2-length debut victory in her 5 1/2-furlong unveiling at Saratoga July 15.

“It was a huge jump. We prepared her like a first-time starter at Saratoga to run,” Asmussen, winning his fourth Grade I of the Saratoga meet, said. “She responded and ran well and that was a long time ago going five and a half against different horses. To jump from maidens to a Grade I off one run in a race with everything going your way is not easy. It takes a special horse to do it and maybe that's what she is. She is all class and training her, she'll go as easy as you want her to go and picks it up when asked. She's not been in a hurry for a filly that's as fast as she is.”

Asked if the Oct. 3 GI Frizette S., a Win and You're In race for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile, could be next for Echo Zulu, Asmussen said, “That looked like it would translate to the Frizette pretty good to me and that would hopefully be the bridge [to the Breeders' Cup]. To suggest what she can't do right now would probably be a mistake.”

Pedigree Notes:

Gun Runner was represented earlier in the Saratoga meet by GII Adirondack S. winner Wicked Halo and by GII Saratoga Special runner-up Gunite. His Pappacap, winner of the GII Best Pal S., goes postward in Monday's GI Runhappy Del Mar Futurity.

Echo Zulu is the second Saratoga Grade I winner for her dam Letgomyecho, who also produced GI H. Allen Jerkens S. winner Echo Town (Speigthstown). Echo Zulu is also a half-sister to 2017 GIII Gotham S. winner J Boys Echo (Mineshaft).

Winner of the 2005 GII Stonerside Forward Gal S., Letgomyecho is also the dam of Distorted Echo (Distorted Humor), who produced multiple stakes placed Deputy's Echo (Badge of Silver), and Repeat (Bernardini), who produced graded placed Shooters Shoot (Competitive Edge).

Purchased for $135,000 at the 2011 Keeneland November sale, Letgomyecho has a yearling filly by American Pharoah.

Sunday, Saratoga
SPINAWAY S.-GI, $300,000, Saratoga, 9-5, 2yo, f, 7f, 1:22.51, gd.
1–ECHO ZULU, 120, f, 2, by Gun Runner
                1st Dam: Letgomyecho (GSW, $136,200), by Menifee
                2nd Dam: Echo Echo Echo, by Eastern Echo
                3rd Dam: Kashie West, by Sir Ivor
1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN, 1ST GRADE I
   WIN. 'TDN Rising Star' ($300,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-L and N
Racing LLC & Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC; B-Betz/J. Betz/
Burns/CHNNHK/Magers/CoCo Equine/Ramsby (KY); T-Steven
Asmussen; J-Ricardo Santana, Jr. $165,000. Lifetime
Record: 2-2-0-0, $220,000. *1/2 to Unbridled Outlaw
(Unbridled's Song), GSP, $253,478; J Boys Echo (Mineshaft),
GSW, $377,543; and Echo Town (Speightstown), GISW,
$410,020. Click for eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk
   Nick Rating A+.
2–Tarabi, 120, f, 2, by First Samurai
                1st Dam: Indian Bay, by Indian Charlie
                2nd Dam: Buy the Barrel, by E Dubai
                3rd Dam: Affordable Price, by Drouilly (Fr)
($240,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-LBD Stable LLC, Manganaro
Bloodstock & David Ingordo; B-Hinkle Farms (KY); T-Cherie
DeVaux. $60,000.
3–Saucy Lady T, 120, f, 2, by Tonalist
        1st Dam: Fila Primera (SW & GSP, $138,455), by War Front
        2nd Dam: Southern Strike, by Smart Strike
        3rd Dam: Promenade Colony, by Pleasant Colony
($5,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-James Chapman & Stuart
Tsujimoto; B-R. S. Evans (KY); T-James K. Chapman. $36,000.
Margins: 4, 3 3/4, 4 3/4. Odds: 0.65, 19.00, 28.75.
Also Ran: Sequist, Dream Lith, Benbang, Sue Ellen Mishkin, Girl With a Dream, Pretty Birdie. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

The post No Doubt Echo Zulu Best in Spinaway appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights