Different Hats Keep McDonald Ever Hopeful

Perhaps it is called the Hopeful Stakes because that's the most anyone can ever be with a Thoroughbred. But if nearly any purchaser at Keeneland over the next couple of weeks would like to be contesting that race, a year from now, then one consignor might give them not just hope but something closer to confidence.

Okay, so a trifecta for Eaton Sales graduates in the Saratoga Grade I last year featured only the winner, Forte (Violence), from the 2021 Keeneland September Sale. Runner-up Gulfport (Uncle Mo) and third Blazing Sevens (Good Magic) were respectively sold through the Eaton drafts at Fasig-Tipton's July and Saratoga Sales. Nonetheless it was an achievement all the more remarkable for the fact that champion juvenile Forte and Blazing Sevens, subsequently runner-up in the GI Preakness, were both pinhooked through Reiley McDonald's own farm, Athens Wood LLC.

Another complement to his supervision of a flagship sales agency, moreover, is the band of around 20 broodmares resident there. These diverse silos help McDonald to stay tuned into the marketplace from every side, but bring much satisfaction besides. One of those mares has produced Defunded (Dialed In) to win another Grade I this year, in the Hollywood Gold Cup. Only last weekend McDonald had winners in his own silks at Saratoga and in a stakes at Colonial Downs, while last month he co-bred a €1 million Wootton Bassett yearling sold at Arqana.

Such is the constant action resulting from the long experience that has brought us to McDonald's office in downtown Lexington. And while there's an intensity here, for sure, it is accompanied by a breadth of perspective that also permits a fulfilling life away from the business. (McDonald, indeed, typically spends half his year with his partner, Cricket, in Connecticut.)

“That was unbelievable,” he acknowledges, when reminded of his Hopeful achievement. “But really, I've done this so long, I don't get too excited, don't jump up and down, because there are so many that don't work out-you have to take the good and bad just the same.” He pauses and chuckles. “And, of course, we only just about broke even on Forte!”

Every year, with a couple of partners, McDonald pinhooks a dozen or so weanlings. Having found Forte for $80,000 at the preceding November Sale, they had to settle for $110,000 from Repole Stable & St. Elias when bringing him back to the same ring.

“Forte is one of the prettier horses you'll ever see, but at that time nobody wanted a Violence,” McDonald recalls. “And then Jacob West walked up, right as he was going into the ring, and said, 'What's your reserve?' I told him he had to bring more than a hundred. All those brilliant horsemen, and it came down to just one guy, one bid.”

Reiley McDonald (left) with Scott Dilworth | Keeneland

But such are the vagaries of this business-and such, duly, is McDonald's achievement, over the past 28 years, in maintaining both quality and quantity since taking on the game-changing agency founded by Lee Eaton.

He has actually started to scale back somewhat, having concluded that sheer volume is nowadays less sustainable. As he says, it costs as much time, labor and administration to sell a horse for $2,000 as for $2 million. Eaton Sales still has over 100 yearlings catalogued at Keeneland, but there have been times when they might have processed as many as 350 at that sale, following maybe 50 at Saratoga.

“That was a dangerous managerial feat and I don't think anybody can pull it off,” McDonald says. “It's so hard to find the help now. I really do worry about the animals, with the kind of help that's out there. And these days, if you're selling a horse for, call it $50,000 or less, you're losing money. Because some of the consignors have cannibalized themselves, reducing fees to a point where there's very little profit margin at the end of the day.”

By the time Eaton (and partner John Williams) stepped down, quite apart from a formidable address book, McDonald could feel no less grateful for his mentorship.

“Lee was like so many people who are successful in business,” McDonald reflects. “He worked hard, and demanded that the people around him worked hard. And he really was smart, always thinking of how you might do things differently, and better. He made it a much more professional business. The 'good old boy' stuff went out the window. The big parties before the July Sale, I mean, we never really did that. We just stuck to trying to make that horse look as good as it could. That was the whole thing: how do you present the horse?

“It used to be the old 'baggy pants' off the farm. But Lee hired all these guys from Virginia who would come in with their creased pants, and they really knew how to show a horse. And suddenly smart guys like Ed Cox, even Warner Jones as good as he was, started to sell with Lee. When you walked into his courtyard at Saratoga or Keeneland, it was definitely different: very clean, very professional–like they all are now. He really did set the standard.”

No less crucially, there were also corresponding advances in preparation, heeded to this day by McDonald.

“He decided to build huge run-in sheds and turn his horses out,” he says. “He was the first to do that. He didn't bring them up in the winter. And I follow the same program. Now, if it's a horrible, icy wet night, we bring everything in, and he would too. But they were out 99 percent of the time. And he developed his own feed. We've modified it over the years, but I still feed the same cubed feed.

“He was very good about horses' weight, getting the proper conditioning to each yearling-which is something that surprisingly few people do well. Back in the day, people wanted yearlings to be almost obese. Lee started to make them look more like racehorses.”

Before joining Eaton, McDonald had spent 10 years under John Finney at Fasig-Tipton, gaining a comprehensive insight into the market. Under head inspector Bobby Powell he learned the optimal physique of a commercial yearling, and as sales announcer he came to understand the functioning of the marketplace itself. “At the time John Finney was probably the smartest guy in the business,” McDonald says. “That's where I really learned about the business of horses, valuations, matings.”

There were other paths McDonald might have taken, having studied Animal Science at Cornell (where he captained the lacrosse team), but he has basically been working with horses since he was 13. The family had moved to the country, the kids got a pony, there was a horse farm down the road. He went to school five minutes from Pimlico, and would run in “smelling of manure and throwing on a tie to get to assembly.” The teenage McDonald then cut his racetrack teeth under Maryland hardboot B. Frank Christmas.

Tom Van Meter | Keeneland

“He was one of the real old-timers,” he recalls. “Quite a crusty character, always chewing tobacco and spitting, always with the hat and the coat on. He was a trainer, but also had a farm and a stallion. We were breeding mares, we were breaking all our horses, we legged up everything on the farm.”

One way or another, then, the young man who took over the sales agency had plenty of miles on the clock. “Then Tom Van Meter bought a 20 percent interest, and he was my partner for about 20 years,” McDonald says. “Tom was a vet, he was sort of the country boy while I was more the city boy. So we had different sets of clients, and that worked for a long time. But that's when the business was huge. We were doing too many horses.”

In admitting as much, and with Eaton having been such a trailblazer, does McDonald sometimes feel that he has helped to create a monster? This, after all, has become an industry where horses are routinely exploited through several investment cycles before they get anywhere near the gate.

“I feel like I've probably overseen the sale, personally, of more horses than anybody,” he replies. “Which, the last couple of years, doesn't make me the proudest guy in the world. Because I really feel like our business has deteriorated a good bit. And I don't mean just the selling business, but the racing, to a large extent.

“I think often we interfere way too much with these horses. By 'we' I don't mean us, I mean the industry. The more I learn and observe about what's happening on the tracks, the more disappointing I find it. And we're losing fans, and alienating the non-horse public.”

This conversation, it should be noted, took place before the recent traumas at Saratoga. In other words, McDonald was already thinking in terms that have meanwhile come to feel imperative. He feels that the spirit of reform behind HISA is vital, albeit that early mistakes were made: overreaching, not consulting adequately. “I think the trainers got a double whammy,” he says. “They didn't have a lot of say in it, and then a lot of the responsibility was put onto them. But we need HISA and it will get better–as it has to. Like anything worth doing, it needs time and we all need to work on it.”

Nor does he feel that the current use of the crop can last. (“Three strikes and you're out,” he recommends. “One to start, one to steer, one to finish.”) But for all the challenges we face, the magic of the horse itself abides. That's where every fulfilment begins–and many opportunities, too. Standing in the back ring at the 2016 Keeneland November Sale, for instance, McDonald saw a Touch Gold mare led past.

“Oh, she's really pretty,” he murmured to himself. In fact, she reminded him of Scarlet Tango, a mare he had once found in the same ring for $35,000. Five years later, having meanwhile produced GI King's Bishop winner Visionaire (Grand Slam), he sold her on for $850,000 to Stonestreet.

“I can't afford to buy a whole package: race record, pedigree, everything,” McDonald says. “But I can buy looks.” While this mare actually had multiple stakes placings, she cost barely more than Scarlet Tango at $37,000. And Wind Caper is now dam of Defunded, sold for $210,000 at Keeneland September in 2019 and hitherto winner of $1.6 million.

Defunded | Benoit

“I don't breed the fanciest pedigrees,” McDonald says. “But they come up to that little farm and do really well. It was a cattle farm for 300 years, all with the same family. It was about to be developed into 10-acre 'piano-key' lots when four other guys and I bought it. I kept 120 acres, and it's just great land. It's heavy in limestone, it's been fertilized for hundreds of years. And I kind of stick to the old 'leave' formula: leave them out, leave them alone, just keep an eye on any problems creeping up.”

“They're well raised, and the guys have been on the farm for years. Chuchie has been with me 35 years, was on the old Eaton Farm when he was 18. These are the best guys I've ever seen with foals, it's magic to watch their hands.”

But many of the elite performers whose photos are crammed onto the walls have obviously come through the core business of the agency. And here, McDonald says, how you handle people counts for at least as much as how you do horses. Before anything else, he needs to understand his clients' risk tolerance: where they might have slack, when they might race a horse, and so on. Because the market itself is never predictable. Neither Hard Spun nor Omaha Beach made their September reserves, for instance, McDonald eventually persuading the late Rick Porter to take both. (“You're now about $60 million to the good from those two horses,” he told Porter later. “Don't you think I should get a share?” Porter replied: “On the next one!”)

Unique Bella, the daughter of Tapit and Unrivaled Belle (Unbridled's Song), had over 160 shows at the 2015 September Sale and was not vetted once.

“So, you got the best horseman from around the world looking at this filly,” marvels McDonald. “She toed in a little bit, and had a $399,000 reserve. And one person runs up to me, right as she's walking into the ring, and says, 'Can I see the vet report?' And runs back inside. There was one bid at $400,000, and it happened to be Carlos [Heller] at Don Alberto. And look what he got: one of the great mares of that decade. She was gorgeous. So sometimes it just blows your mind.”

Unique Bella and Hard Spun were both bred by Betty Moran, owner of Brushwood Stables, who became another cherished influence.

“An angel was on my shoulder the day I bumped into her, in 1991, and she told me she'd just lost her general manager,” McDonald recalls. He volunteered for the role and they worked together for nearly 30 years, perhaps their most memorable moment actually being with a steeplechaser, Papillon (Ire), in the 2000 Grand National. “Mrs. Moran only wanted to compete at the highest level,” McDonald notes. “And we built and maintained one of the best 20-head broodmare bands in the country. She was a best friend, confidante-and tough boss!”

That highest level, however, is never always confined only to the top of the market–and that, of course, is what drives the whole business.”

“How about Victory Gallop, who I sold many moons ago for $25,000?” says McDonald. “He had a chip in a stifle, and three ankles. Pug Hart bought him and said, 'I can't keep this horse.' This was before the repository. And I said, 'Well, essentially, he's sold, but let me talk to the owner.' And he agreed to take $10,000 off. So, they got Victory Gallop for $15,000! But I could count so many good horses that [apparently] had big, big problems. I purchased Mitole for very little [$20,000 September yearling] because he had a lot of writing on the vet report, but he was a horse of exquisite conformation.”

Kenny McPeek | Sarah Andrew

Like many experienced consignors, McDonald reckons to know buyers' tastes well enough to pull out a horse they haven't even asked for. “The only guy I still can't figure out is Kenny McPeek!” he admits. “He has bought so many good horses through auction, and I still don't know what he looks for. But that's really what puts it all together for us: knowing both sides, the seller and the buyer. And that takes a long time to do. That's why anybody who wants to get into the consignment business, you have to be willing to get on an airplane, to be everywhere and see everyone.”

While he isn't comfortable with everything about the industry, or the way it has changed over the past 40 years, McDonald emphasizes an undiminished passion for the sport.

“We've got a lot of hard work to do, but there are still great parts to it,” he says. “I do feel blessed to have been able to do what I have. It all comes from being hands on. My favorite thing I ever did in my life, and the thing I was best at, was on top of a horse. You learn so much if your hands have learned to absorb what the animal is telling you. Even today I love showing a horse at the sales.

“I don't know, I just love this animal. It's incredible. I mean, last night I was walking around the foals, just thinking how lucky I am, to be in that moment, with these beautiful little animals coming up to you. I still love it.”

The post Different Hats Keep McDonald Ever Hopeful appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Arc Showcases A Diamond Among Mares

Few people, anywhere in the world, will watch Europe's premier championship race on Sunday more avidly than Adam Bowden. His Diamond Creek Farm bred one of the leading fancies for the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Onesto (Ire) (Frankel {GB}), and Bowden hopes to seize the moment by cashing in the dam at Fasig-Tipton this November. It's just one remarkable vindication of the way Bowden has adapted an unusually precocious advent in the world of Standardbreds to a different environment; of a restless, questing mind that has matched calculation with adventure.

When he first went to a horse sale, in 2005, Bowden was 24 years old and he had a plan. “I went in there thinking I was going to buy five mares, and just do everything myself, and learn,” he recalls. “And I left that sale with 20 mares and five weanlings. And I was like, 'Oh shoot, now what?'”

Well, here's what. He stuck to the plan.

“So the whole first season, I did everything myself,” he continues, shrugging. “No employees. Bred all the mares, foaled out all the mares.”

Seriously? Twenty mares, single-handed?

“There was, like, quite a few 72 hours with no sleep, the first year,” he says wryly. “And then I thought, okay, maybe I need an employee. But from there, it was 20 mares and then 40 and then 60. And in a short period of time, we had 80 mares. And I was off and running.”

But if this startling vignette suggests that everything has been extemporized, that he has got here more or less by the seat of his pants, think again.

“Sure, at that age you absolutely think you can conquer the world,” he says. “And knowing what I know now, I mean, what an idiot. But probably being a little naïve was good, as well. And I had done my work ahead of time.”

To be clear, this was not a case of some excited kid jotting a few numbers on the back of an envelope.

“Before I started, for four years, I'd kept immaculate data,” he says. “Anything that I could compile into formulas. I come from a biology/chemistry background, so math was second nature for me. And I just took as much information as possible, plugged and chugged different formulas to try to figure out if I could find trends, either in the sales ring or on the racetrack.

“I came up with different ways to score pedigrees and, actually, I still use them today. That's just how I see the world: black and white, zeroes and ones, however you want to say it. And that's how I got started. I waited for an opportunity and it was, like, 'All right, this is a perfect time and place to do it.' I felt like I was ready, even though I wasn't. But I jumped in the deep end.”

For those of us unfamiliar with the Standardbred industry, the depth of the foundations laid then can today be measured not just by that broodmare cavalry but also by 11 stallions in three states, a 30-strong racetrack stable, a major sales consignment division; and now—despite having so far branched out only on a modest scale, with no more than 11 mares—elite Thoroughbred colts either side of the ocean. Besides Onesto, winner of the G1 Grand Prix de Paris, Diamond Creek also bred one of the most conspicuous juvenile talents of the American summer in Gulfport (Uncle Mo).

So something worked first time round, plainly, and now things also seem to be functioning pretty well in the venture that has now brought him to our attention. Okay, so Bowden had actually sold the dam of Gulfport, Fame And Fortune (Unbridled's Song), for $320,000 at the Keeneland January Sale. But he also banked $600,000 with the joint-top mare of the same session, Susie's Baby (Giant's Causeway), a half-sister to Caravaggio whose daughter Family Way (Uncle Mo) has been Grade I-placed a couple of times this summer. And the fact is that Fame And Fortune, in her four-year transit through Diamond Creek's evolving Thoroughbred division, contributed yearling sales of $500,000, $275,000 (for Gulfport himself) and $650,000.

Bowden doesn't deny that Gulfport's 12-length win in the Bashford Manor S.—sufficient to prompt Coolmore to buy a stake in the colt, who subsequently ran second in the GI Hopeful S.—made him reflect wistfully on the dam's sale.

“But that was all part of our process,” he explains. “We bought a mare that we thought had upside, we did well, we made money with her. And then we traded her back in, and bought [back] a daughter that we'd sold, who's a broodmare of ours right now. So it's not like we're totally out of the family. And that's how you make money, right?”

It was a similar story with Susie's Baby: Diamond Creek had retained her daughter by Tapit for the broodmare band. And now the time has come for a similar calculation regarding Onshore (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), alertly picked up from Juddmonte for 320,000gns at the Tattersalls December Sale in 2016. She was unraced, but her dam was a sister to matriarch Hasili (Ire) (Kahyasi {Ire}). Her Frankel colt didn't meet his reserve in the same ring as a yearling, during the pandemic, but shipped to Ciaran Dunne of Wavertree before making $535,000 from Hubert Guy at OBS the following April. His deeds since for Fabrice Chappet—and a partnership headed up, aptly enough, by trotting champion Jean-Etienne Dubois—assisted a yearling half-sister by Gleneagles (Ire) to €460,000 at Arqana in August.

“The debate has been about trying to maximize capital,” Bowden explains of Onshore, who is still only nine. “That's always part of the process. We're blessed to have her. But they are worth what they are. And sometimes you have to take money off the table. At 41, I think I'm able to see that more than when I first started. Then I would have been, like, 'No way, I'm riding this thing out.' But potentially she allows us to go buy a handful more mares, and hopefully do it all over again. Because that's always your goal, to create something that the market wants. I mean, you test the market. If it's there, you take it. We're selling a sister to Family Way in October. If she doesn't bring enough, then we'll keep her—and I'm okay with that.”

Bowden has not arrived in the Thoroughbred game with any intention of reinventing the wheel. He's adamant about that. But he does, characteristically, want to figure things out for himself.

“If people say this is how you're supposed to do stuff, I will tend to do the opposite,” he admits. “So in the horse world in Kentucky it was like, 'You do it like this, because that's how we've done it for 50, 75 years.' And I just turned my back on that. I was like, 'I'm going to do it my way, whether it's good or bad.' And I've failed sometimes, been very successful other times. But don't tell me this is how I have to do something, because I've never been too good at hearing that. I mean, I was the one that was jumping out of the window in school, getting suspended and stuff, just because it was different. I have always been Mr. Risk Taker.”

As we've seen, however, it has always been a calculated risk. No less than when he went “all in” on those first Standardbreds, he did his due diligence on Thoroughbreds. He was first hooked, aptly enough given the emergence of Onesto, watching European grass racing in the farm office at dawn. Again he compiled the data, ran the software.

“We were looking for a niche where you feel like you know as much or more than everybody else that you're playing against,” he says. “And we identified an area of the sport I felt I could play in. I can't compete with people that own countries, people that have art collections and things like that. But we're very happy to stay in our lane.”

Fortunately that lane diverted through Coolmore, home to seven of the mares and source, too, of priceless counsel from Eddie Fitzpatrick. Bowden focused on mares of a specific type and price range, and then rolled the dice on elite stallion power.

“Like I said, don't reinvent the wheel,” he says. “It's more, figure out what works. In the Standardbred world, we do everything. But it's taken us 15, 16 years to get to that point. Here, we bought the horses and then partnered with people who know their stuff: Coolmore, and sales companies like Gainesway and Eaton. Just recently, we've been raising the yearlings after they get weaned. And the first group included Gulfport, so that's kind of fun.

“I mean a horse is a horse, right? Conformation flaws exist in both breeds. Athletes exist in both. Failures and successes. It's all the same. If you can withstand the harness world, you can withstand this world as well. As long as you stay in your lane, try not to do too much.”

One way or another, it has been quite a journey since the epiphany at a county fair in Windsor, Maine, when a bulb suddenly lit with a college kid. Bowden's grandfather had given him some exposure to cheap racehorses in his boyhood, cleaning stalls and grooming on Saturdays, and was seated next to him in the stands that day.

Bowden announced: “There isn't anything else I want to do.”

“Well,” his grandfather replied. “Then you better get a plan together.”

So he did internships on Standardbred farms in Pennsylvania during college, and then moved to Kentucky to learn the ropes in farriery and farm management. Bowden's father, a real estate entrepreneur, bought into the project with enthusiasm.

“I was the oldest of four kids and an athlete,” Bowden says. “So, my whole life, I'm a 'type A' personality: OCD, one-track mind. So for me to do this, it's just part of who I am. I am red-headed! I can be a fiery personality. But I think I know what I have. I know my knowledge base, and surround myself with good people. But it's always, like, what's next? We're always planning the next chapter.”

Which invites an obvious question.

“Well, we started with mares and foals in the Standardbred world, and then we added stallions, and then a race stable, and then a sales consignment business,” he says. “So who knows? The Thoroughbred stallion game, I don't know if I want to be in the business of standing them myself. But being involved in their ownership would be interesting. I'm always open-minded to anything where I feel like I have an edge. I like the 'boutiqueness' we have with Thoroughbreds: it allows the play at a level that we feel there's a niche for us. But if we talked in another five or 10 years, I suspect that this thing would look totally different than it does now. In a good way.”

So even if Onesto puts his dam right in the center of the shop window on Sunday, you feel that this is still only a beginning. On Thursday Bowden was flying back from Goffs where he had sold a Calyx (GB) filly for €145,000, the second highest price achieved by that young sire in the Orby Sale, preparing to tack back immediately to his consignment for a big Standardbred auction next week. Sometimes Lindsay, mother of their three children, will still venture the question: “When is enough enough?” By this stage, however, his wife knows the answer.

“Never!” Bowden says with a chuckle. “No, I don't know—but it's not now.”

This, after all, is a man who derives fulfilment from the ultimate in masochistic sport, the Iron Man marathon. Maybe that's what drew him to Thoroughbreds, a relish for adversity?

“Yeah, it's the punishment!” he jokes. “That's what gets me up, four o'clock every morning. We all go to Keeneland and sees horses bring a million. But you don't see the ones that don't get in foal, or X-ray bad right before the sale, or even that die during foaling. There's so many more of those downs than ups that you better enjoy it when it's good. But even in the darkest moments, it's always been like, 'There's better stuff coming. I just have to be patient.' I always felt like this was what I was supposed to be doing.

“People in the Thoroughbred world are no different from the way they are with Standardbreds. We're all crazy, right? Everybody knows that you're not going to make a ton of money. You might get lucky every once in a while, but at the end of the day, you do it because you love horses. That's why we're here.”

The post Arc Showcases A Diamond Among Mares appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Five of Six Have Hopeful Claims

The curtain falls on the 40-day Saratoga meeting Monday afternoon with a field of six set to head to the post for the GI Hopeful S. And a legitimate case can be made for all but one of the juvenile colts signed on.

Half of the Hopeful field have already been accorded 'TDN Rising Star' honors and Gulfport (Uncle Mo) could well go favored for Steve Asmussen and the Heiligbrodts. The $275,000 Fasig-Tipton July purchased could not have looked better in his first two career outings–a seven-length debut at 1-2 at Churchill June 10 followed by a 12 1/4-length tour-de-force at 20 cents on the dollar in the July 4 Bashford Manor S. Odds-on yet again in the Aug. 13 GII Saratoga Special S., the bay found enough trouble 2 1/2 furlongs out to allow fellow 'Rising Star' Damon's Mound (Girvin) to get the jump and was forced to settle for second.

Mo Strike (Uncle Mo) is not a 'Rising Star' but holds the distinction of being the lone previous graded winner in the field, having stalked and pounced to a 3 1/2-length tally in the GIII Sanford S. July 16. Andiamo a Firenze (Speightstown), third home that day, has since returned to wallop state-breds in the Funny Cide S.

“He's doing great. He's been feeling really good and came out of the Sanford in good order,” said trainer Brad Cox. “He's been working every seven days.”

A subpar fourth in Sanford was Forte (Violence), who streaked home by nearly eight on his downstate debut May 27 to earn his 'Rising Star', but never got untracked last time, finishing an even fourth. Trainer Todd Pletcher is willing to give his charge the benefit of the doubt.

“The track was probably a little deep for his liking [in the Sanford]. The pace didn't come back much,” said Pletcher. “I think he should appreciate the added distance.”

Blazing Sevens (Good Magic) also caught what appeared to be a heavy track on his July 24, earning an 85 Beyer when covering six furlongs in 1:13.34 to defeat re-opposing next-out maiden romper Bourbon Bash (City of Light) by 6 1/4 lengths.

“The form looked good in his last race,” said trainer Chad Brown. “He had his last breeze [on Sunday] for the Hopeful, so we'll see.”

The post Five of Six Have Hopeful Claims appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Damon’s Mound Cruises To Saratoga Special Win

'TDN Rising Star' Damon's Mound (Girvin) backed up his jaw-dropping, double-digit debut victory at Churchill Downs with an impressive, 3 1/4-length decision over favored 'Rising Star' Gulfport (Uncle Mo) in Saturday's GII Saratoga Special S.

Facing just three rivals here, the 9-5 second-choice trailed the closely bunched quartet in the garden spot as Gulfstream debut winner Super Chow (Lord Nelson) flew through an opening quarter in :21.94. Gulfport, a perfect two-for-two to begin his career, led by a 12 1/4-length win in the Bashford Manor S., was forced to check dramatically beneath Joel Rosario as the pacesetter drifted out approaching the quarter pole. Damon's Mound, meanwhile, was out in the clear while three wide and beginning to make a menacing move to challenge for command.

Damon's Mound hit the top of the stretch in the four path under confident handling by Gabriel Saez, switched to his right lead as they straightened and left the pacesetter in the dust from there to win for fun. Gulfport re-rallied after his aforementioned trouble on the far turn to finish with interest without threatening the winner.

Michelle Lovell, who finished second three times at Saratoga as a jockey in 1993, was saddling her first Saratoga starter as a trainer Saturday. She began training in 2003.

“It was perfect. I was so happy where we were laying where we were tracking,” said Lovell. “And then Gabe couldn't hold him any longer and he just let him creep on up there and make his little move. He did his job.”

Damon's Mound has plenty of options going forward, per Lovell, including the GI Hopeful S. Sept. 5 at the Spa, the GI Breeders' Futurity Oct. 8 at Keeneland and the GIII Iroquois S. Sept. 17 at Churchill Downs.

“It's incredible. All props to the horse,” Lovell said. “He's just awesome and he proved it and spoke for himself. I couldn't be happier for his owners. They're breeders, they [didn't sell him], and they got rewarded for it. I wouldn't have traded him for any horse. I thought he had an awesome chance, and he showed it. I'm glad he did.”

Click here for a recent interview with Lovell discussing Damon's Mound following his 'Rising Star' maiden win beneath the Twin Spires July 2.

Pedigree Notes:

Damon's Mound becomes the second black-type winner and first graded winner for promising freshman sire Girvin. Stroll is now represented by four black-type and four graded winners as a broodmare sire. Damon's Mound is a homebred for the Texas-based Cliff and Michele Love. The Florida-bred is the first foal out of their multiple stakes-placed mare San Antonio Stroll (Stroll). A filly by Girvin of 2021 and a colt of this year by the GI betfair.com Haskell Invitational S. winner are in the pipeline. She was bred back to Girvin for 2023.

Saturday, Saratoga
SARATOGA SPECIAL S.-GII, $186,000, Saratoga, 8-13, 2yo, 6 1/2f, 1:17.94, ft.
1–DAMON'S MOUND, 120, c, 2, by Girvin
                1st Dam: San Antonio Stroll (MSP), by Stroll
                2nd Dam: Twenty Three Red, by The Prime Minister
                3rd Dam: Ruhletta, by Ruhlmann
'TDN Rising Star'. 1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES
WIN. O-Cliff & Michele Love; B-Cliff Love (FL); T-Michelle
Lovell; J-Gabriel Saez. $110,000. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0,
$145,560. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Werk Nick Rating: A+.
2–Gulfport, 122, c, 2, Uncle Mo–Fame and Fortune, by
Unbridled's Song. 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. 'TDN Rising Star'.
($275,000 Ylg '21 FTKJUL). O-L. William & Corinne Heiligbrodt,
Jackpot Farm, Whispering Oaks Farm LLC & Coolmore Stud;
B-Diamond Creek Farm (KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen. $40,000.
3–Super Chow, 120, c, 2, Lord Nelson–Bonita Mia, by
Warrior's Reward. 1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE.
($70,000 Ylg '21 FTKJUL; $75,000 2yo '22 OBSAPR). O-Lea
Farms; B-Spendthrift Farm, LLC (KY); T-Jorge Delgado. $24,000.
Margins: 3 1/4, 7, 11. Odds: 1.85, 0.45, 8.10.
Also Ran: Valenzan Day. Scratched: Owen's Leap.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

 

The post Damon’s Mound Cruises To Saratoga Special Win appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights