Wanamaker’s February Sale Catalogue Online

The 2024 Wanamaker's February Sale catalogue is available for viewing at www.wanamakers.com. Horses of racing age, open broodmares, in-foal broodmares, mares and foals and stallion seasons are all catalogued.

Bidding opens at 8:00a.m. ET on Thursday, Feb. 29, with the first listing set to close at 5:00p.m. Subsequent listings will close in three-minute increments.

 

Highlights of the catalogue include:

  • A 2024 NG season to Great Notion, the leading Maryland sire six years running.
  • Afleet Fairy (Afleet Express-Alozaina {Ire}), by Perugino), a 9-year-old broodmare with a Maryland-bred Friesian Fire filly by her side.
  • Judi Blue Eyes (Cal Nation-Sassy Love, by Valley Crossing), an 8-year-old multiple stakes-placed broodmare and an earner of over $270,000.
  • A Maryland bred yearling colt from the second crop of Tiz the Law. His direct female family includes five winners from six starters.

For more information on the buying, click here.

 

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Catalog for Wanamaker’s January Sale Online

The Wanamaker's January Sale catalog is now available online at www.wanamakers.com. The catalog features horses of racing age, open broodmares, in-foal broodmares, and stallion seasons.

Bidding will open at 8:00 a.m. ET Wed. Jan. 24, with the first listing set to close at 5:00 p.m. Subsequent listings will close in three-minute increments. Detailed information on the buying process can be found at  www.wanamakers.com/buy.

Highlights of the Catalog Include:

– A 2024 NG season to Great Notion. Great Notion is the #1 Maryland sire six years running.

Luna Santa, a broodmare by Birdstone offered open for the 2024 breeding season. She is a stakes-placed mare out of a stakes-winning mare.

Cartesian, a 3-year-old racing prospect by Grade I-winning sire Liam's Map. She is out of the Kitten's Joy mare, Pure Elation who is a full sister to two stakes winners.

Topazio, a stakes-placed mare by More Than Ready. She is out of a multiple black-type producing mare by Dixieland Band.

Prospective buyers may browse the website to view pedigrees, pictures, and videos of each hip offered. In-person inspections may be scheduled by contacting sellers with the information provided in the catalog. For more information, click here.

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The Week in Review: HBPA Tries to Derail HISA in Federal Court–But Also Wants Its Help in Arizona

If the saga over the supposedly pending sale of now-closed Turf Paradise was a soap opera, its title would surely be “AZ the World Turns.” The state's racing is hanging in the balance amid an increasingly acrimonious long-term feud between the track's owner and horsemen, leading one trainer at last Thursday's Arizona Racing Commission meeting to liken the horse community's predicament to children “being used as pawns in a divorce battle” by vindictive parents on the verge of a nasty split.

Although TDN's original story about that Oct. 12 commission meeting didn't have the space to cover all aspects of the ongoing bickering among the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (AZHBPA) and Turf Paradise's owner, Jerry Simms, one subplot is worth further mention here, because its irony resonates at the federal level (and perhaps soon all the way to the United States Supreme Court).

Lloyd Yother, the president of the AZHBPA, alleged on Thursday that Simms is so far behind in making necessary repairs and upkeep that a new, incoming owner would never be able to open Turf Paradise for a race meet in January, a target date that Simms has said is perfectly reasonable as he attempts to execute a purchase-and-sale agreement with a buyer who has thus far refused to speak publicly about the deal at Arizona commission meetings.

In particular, Yother and Simms sparred verbally over the specific issue of whether or not extensive repairs are needed for the main track railing, with Yother claiming the fencing is not up to spec and Simms countering that Turf Paradise had fixed problems related to a non-compliance warning issued by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety (HISA) Authority earlier this year after an inspection turned up “numerous gaps and exposed edges in the railing material that could inflict serious harm upon jockeys…”

Darrell Haire, the western regional manager for The Jockeys' Guild, told commissioners on Thursday that the Turf Paradise rail during the 2022-23 season “was patched up the whole meet. And I don't know what condition it's in now, because it's just getting older. It's just deteriorated. So I believe that it has to be replaced. The patchwork they did was finished the last week of the meet, and it was supposed to be done at the beginning of the [last] meet.”

Haire's points are well-taken. But to understand where things got interesting in this particular argument, you have to widen the lens to encompass the HBPA's 2 1/2-year-old legal quest to kill off HISA over alleged constitutional violations. Keep that court fight in mind when considering what Yother next suggested at that meeting:

“I have a recommendation that maybe we ought to ask HISA to come back in and take a look at the track, to maybe get a step ahead of some of the delays that we're encountering now,” Yother said. “If we get HISA to send somebody in to look at the track [we can] see what's going to have to be done before anybody will be able to race, whether it be current owner, future owner, or whatever.”

Yes, that's the president of an HBPA affiliate, whose own organization–plus its national parent and 11 other HBPA affiliates–have written in court documents that the HISA Authority functions like “a private police department” with sweeping powers that equate to “oligarchic tyranny,” now calling upon that very same Authority to intervene when the AZHBPA needs an entity with federal clout to advocate for its own cause.

This unlikely juxtaposition of the AZHBPA asking the HISA Authority for help while it's simultaneously trying to eradicate that regulator and its enabling law would be stunning were it not overshadowed by the truly dire overall predicament that Arizona racing now faces.

'Notion' is 'Great' in two states

Saturday's win by Witty in the $100,000 Maryland Million Turf Sprint S. over 5 1/2 furlongs at Laurel Park extended an impressive streak set by Great Notion, the state's top stallion by progeny earnings every year since 2018 (and the leader so far this season). His offspring have now won at least one Maryland Million Day stakes in 14 runnings of that event, dating to 2010.

But the Maryland Million win wasn't even the biggest payday for a Great Notion-sired runner in a state-restricted stakes on Saturday. Later that evening, Coastal Mission splashed home by 5 3/4 lengths in the $300,000 Sam Huff West Virginia Breeders' Classic at Charles Town. Despite racing beyond seven furlongs for the first time, the 4-year-old was pounded to 1-5 favoritism and delivered by wiring the field over the three-turn, nine-furlong distance.

Owned, bred and trained by Jeff Runco in partnership with his wife, Susan (Coleswood Farm), the win was the sixth straight for Coastal Mission. The gray has won nine of his last 10 dating to December, with all of the victories coming at Charles Town. His lone defeat was a fifth back in March when the gelding ventured to Laurel for a stakes engagement. In West Virginia, he's scored in state-bred stakes, open allowances, and also in the open-company $250,000 Russell Road S. last time out.

Coastal Mission's lifetime mark stands at 11-3-1 from 16 starts, with $572,728 in earnings.

Bred, owned, and trained by Elizabeth Merryman, Witty is a 4-year-old half-brother to last year's GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint victress Caravel (Mizzen Mast). She was also bred and initially trained by Merryman prior to joining trainer Brad Cox for owners Qatar Racing, Marc Detampel and Madaket Stables.

On Sunday, the 6-year-old Caravel just missed giving her dam, Zeezee Zoomzoom, two six-figure stakes winners on the weekend. She ran second as the odds-on favorite in the GII Franklin S. at Keeneland.

Jockeying for Graded Stakes

Flavien Prat won that aforementioned Franklin S., closing the gap to one victory in the North American jockey race for most graded stakes wins in 2023. Heading into the lucrative Breeders' Cup championships, this battle is shaping up as a two-rider run-off, with Irad Ortiz, Jr., (36) narrowly ahead of Prat (35).

Through Sunday's races, the next closest jockeys are Juan Hernandez (24), Luis Saez (21), then Tyler Gaffalione and Joel Rosario (20 each).

Ortiz has ridden in 11 more graded stakes than Prat. Interestingly, Hernandez is the top percentage rider among the leaders, winning graded stakes at a 31% clip from only 77 chances (everyone else mentioned has ridden in at least 121 graded stakes).

Last year Ortiz topped Prat 50-42.

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Homecoming Victory In Maryland Million Classic

A decade ago, trainer Jamie Ness claimed a filly named Parade of Colors for $5,000 at Laurel Park. She only ended up winning three lower-level races lifetime and only one for Ness, and when she retired at the end of 2012, Ness simply gave her away to breeder John Williamson III.

But something about that filly resonated positively with Ness, and as he watched her offspring eventually reach the races as Maryland-breds, one in particular caught his eye: Ournationonparade, a son of Cal Nation, who won the 2019 Maryland Million Nursery as the favorite despite being a second-time-starter maiden.

Ness continued to follow Ournationonparade as he matured from ages two to five and changed barns several times via the claim box while competing on other major circuits.

So just four weeks ago, when the 7-for-24 gelding was on the cusp of a three-race winning streak, Ness, acting on behalf of owner Happy Got Lucky Stable, dropped a slip for $50,000 prior to a winning effort at Churchill Downs. Four other outfits had also put in claims for the Maryland-bred, but Ness and his client managed to win the five-way shake.

On Saturday, making his first start for the trainer who had been keeping tabs on his family for 10 years, Ournationonparade blasted past two previous $150,000 Classic S. winners to capture his fourth straight start, this one in the featured race on the 37th annual Jim McKay Maryland Million program.

The 5 3/4-length victory was the second stakes win of the afternoon for Ness and the second stakes score for jockey Jaime Rodriguez on the eight-stakes card for the offspring of in-state stallions.

“I've always been watching this horse,” Ness said in the Laurel winner's circle. “I've always had a little bit of a connection to the horse. And it kind of comes full circle [because we] finally got a chance to bring him back home to Maryland. He's a Maryland-

bred. He needs to be here. And hopefully, he'll be here for good from now on.”

Backed to 2-1 favoritism, Ournationonparade had a stutter-step start but quickly righted himself and took up the chase by assertively snagging a three-wide stalking spot through the opening turn.

Fourth for most of the trip down the backstretch, Rodriguez patiently rated with a handful of horse behind the speed-centric Prendimi (Dance With Ravens) and Monday Morning Qb (Imagining), the respective 2021 and 2020 winners of this same stakes.

But by the far turn, Rodriguez's calm body language atop Ournationonparade stood out in confident contrast to the desperate urging of the top two. The gelding cracked Prendimi first and then blitzed “Qb” at the head of the lane.

Ournationonparade began pouring it on in upper stretch, racing for a few strides with his head cocked out toward the grandstand before finishing with authority while kept to task by Rodriguez. The final time was 1:51.78 for nine furlongs over the “fast” dirt.

Other Oct. 22 highlights from Laurel included Great Notion, the state's leading stallion by progeny earnings since 2018, siring yet another Maryland Million winner, giving his offspring at least one Maryland Million Day stakes victory for 13 consecutive years.

And the second-crop stallion Blofeld swept the two Maryland Million races for juveniles, siring his first two stakes winners. It's the second year in a row one stallion has swept the card's baby races: Progeny of Buffum, who died in 2019, won both of those 2-year-old stakes in 2021.

Johnyz From Albany racked up the first stakes win for Blofeld by wiring the $100,000 Nursery. Off at 4-1, he turned for home with the three favorites bearing down menacingly, but he capably swatted them away to cruise home by five lengths in 1:11.35 for six furlongs under Jorge Ruiz for trainer Dale Capuano.

Owner Charles “Chip” Reed said that the win was special on several levels. First, he had named his homebred in honor of a recently departed Saratoga-area racetrack friend, John Zanella from Albany, New York. And second, Reed had also campaigned the colt's dam, Monster Sleeping, whom he had claimed for $30,000 in 2013.

“The mom won two [Maryland Million] races here, so we were hoping that the son took after the mom, and today he did,” Reed said.

In the counterpart $100,000 Lassie S. for 2-year-old-filles, the Blofeld-sired Chickieness was a 1 1/2-length victress at 9-10 odds while mowing down the center of the main track in 1:12.58 for six furlongs. Ness and Rodriguez again partnered here, this time for owner/breeder Jagger, Inc. and part-owner Morris Kernan, Jr.

In the $125,000 Turf Classic, 9-2 shot Wicked Prankster (Mosler) cleared the field from an outer post going nine furlongs over “firm” grass, but looked certain to be swallowed up late in the lane after leading the entire trip.

Yet the 4-year-old from owner/trainer Samuel Davis's barn fought back when headed, resurging to win by three-quarters of a length under Richard Monterrey in 1:49.44. Country Life Farm & Broken Trust Fund, LLC, bred Wicked Prankster.

Coconut Cake (Bandbox) delivered a score by a head at 6-5 odds in the $125,000 Ladies S. at nine furlongs on the turf, having gone winless since 2020.

Jockey Sheldon Russell stalked the speed, uncoiling the 5-year-old gray for a long stretch drive against a very stubborn 16-1 pacemaker, prevailing in the final few jumps for a 1:50.22 clocking. Tim Keefe trains and is part-owner along with N R S Stable and James Chambers. The breeders were Mr. & Mrs. Charles McGinnes.

The $100,000 Sprint S. yielded the heaviest-favored winner among the Maryland Million stakes, with the 1-2 chalk Fortheluvofbourbon (Bourbon Courage) getting a bit more late-stretch resistance than might have been expected from 15-1 runner-up Karan's Notion (Great Notion), the 2020 upsetter of this same stakes.

The winning margin was 1 1/2 lengths in 1:10.96 for six furlongs for connections Paco Lopez (jockey), Michael Pino (trainer), Smart Angle LLP (owner) and Hidden Acres 4-D Farm (breeder). The victory was Fortheluvofbourbon's sixth straight trip to the winner's circle and victory number 12 from just 23 lifetime starts.

Fille d'Esprit (Great Notion), the 1 1/4-length winner of the $100,000 Distaff S. over seven furlongs, is only one win away from matching Fortheluvofbourbon's impressive record. She's now 11-for-22 lifetime after stalking a legit pace with a rail run, then edging away powerfully in deep stretch to finish in 1:25.05.

The 6-year-old mare is making the most of regional incentives on the mid-Atlantic circuit. She also won her division of the MATCH stakes series this summer for jockey Xavier Perez, trainer John Robb, the ownership partners C J I Phoenix Group and No Guts No Glory Farm, and breeder Sweet Spirits Stables.

In the $100,000 Turf Sprint S., Sky's Not Falling (Seville {Ger}), forced the issue with an inside bid, split horses on the far bend, then repulsed late challenges to win by half a length at 7-2 odds under Lopez (two stakes-winning rides) in 1:02.75 for 5 1/2 furlongs. The Michael Trombetta trainee was bred by R. Larry Johnson, who partners in ownership with R. D. M. Racing Stable.

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