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Risen Star Kicks Off Derby Championship Series

The Road to the Kentucky Derby heats up further still on Saturday, as the $400,000 GII Risen Star S. is the first of six prep races that will offer the winner 50 points, virtually locking up a berth in the field for the Run for the Roses at Churchill Downs on May 4.

Track Phantom (Quality Road) will look to continue his domination among the local 3-year-olds as he looks to remain unbeaten around two turns in trying to add to his victories in the Dec. 23 Gun Runner S. and a front-running success in the GIII Lecomte S. Jan. 20. The $500,000 Keeneland September grad is one of two in the race for three-time Risen Star winner Steve Asmussen.

“It was great to see him win the race against a talented field, but especially with going as fast as they did early and showing enough quality to still respond,” the Hall of Famer commented. “I think the Lecomte was as easy on him as you could have wanted it to be, with him still getting something out of it.”

Joel Rosario will likely get after Track Phantom again from gate 11, but it was Asmussen's other winner on the Lecomte undercard who achieved the faster figure. Hall of Fame (Gun Runner) was trying a route of ground for the first time that afternoon and looked sensational doing it. His final time was 0.46 quicker than the Lecomte while his 94 Beyer was four points superior to Track Phantom en route to earning 'TDN Rising Star' honors.

“He was ridden much more aggressively (in his maiden win) because he's playing a little catch up on a horse like Track Phantom, but the ability is there,” Asmussen said of the $1.4-million Fasig-Tipton Saratoga graduate.

Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) topped the Saratoga Sale on a bid of $2.3 million and came running late to graduate by 1 1/4 lengths at first asking at Aqueduct Nov. 4, also earning the 'Rising Star' designation. When last seen, the dark bay rallied from last to lead into the final furlong of the GII Remsen S. Dec. 2, only to be outbattled to the wire by Dornoch (Good Magic).

“He was the only horse that day that made up any ground and that's an important thing to note,” trainer Chad Brown told Bill Finley earlier this week. “He had every chance to win. I was pleased with the effort, though disappointed by the outcome.”

Brad Cox has won the Risen Star three times in the last four years, including Angel of Empire (Classic Empire) last winter. Albaugh Family Stables' Catching Freedom (Constitution) flies the flag for the barn after posting a 2 1/2-length victory in the Smarty Jones S. at Oaklawn Park Jan. 1.

“We're going to need to improve off the Smarty Jones,” Cox said. “Physically he looks great. He's had a good bit of time between races, he shipped back here and is moving well, so we'll see if he's up for it.”

Rachel Alexandra A Key Oaks Prep

The sophomore fillies' counterpart to the Risen Star is named in honor of the romping winner of the 2009 GI Kentucky Oaks and has been an exceptionally productive steppingstone to the first Friday in May. Dating back to 2014, no fewer than four winners of the Rachel Alexandra have gone on to success at Churchill Downs, including 'TDN Rising Star' Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief) last year.

Brad Cox saddled Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) to take the 2018 Rachel Alexandra and Kentucky Oaks, and the stable relies upon Alpine Princess (Classic Empire) in this spot. Beaten a long way from home when seventh in the GI Darley Alcibiades S. last October, the bay has since won two straight, both around two turns, including a two-length score over West Omaha (Omaha Beach) in the local Untapable S. Dec. 30. The latter flattered the form with a five-length romp over Perfect Shot (Gun Runner) in the Jan. 20 Silverbulletday S.

“She's always been a pretty good workhorse,” Cox said. “That's how she came to us back in the spring. She likes the track here. It's a step up. We'll give her another opportunity at the graded stakes level and hopefully she can get it done.”

'TDN Rising Star' V V's Dream (Mitole) lived up to that honor with a dominating victory in the GIII Pocahontas S. last September and a runner-up effort in the Alcibiades, but connections elected to pass the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. She was never truly a factor when beaten 9 1/2 lengths into third as the heavy favorite in the Oct. 29 Rags To Riches S., but her trainer has not lost faith in her.

“We're really excited,” Ken McPeek said. “She's been working super. She's as strong as ever right now. [Assistant trainer] Greg Geier has got her here in good order. She's really a high-level filly, and I'd love to think this is just one stepping stone to getting her to the [Kentucky] Oaks.”

With Florent Geroux committed to Alpine Princess, fellow Frenchman Flavien Prat takes over for Cox on the rail-drawn 'Rising Star' Tarifa (Bernardini). A disappointing second in Churchill allowance company behind next-out SW Denim and Pearls (Into Mischief), the Godophin homebred set the record straight with a solid victory in her two-turn debut on the Lecomte undercard.

Stronghold Rates The Marquee In Sunland Derby

A little more than two weeks after opting out of what turned out to be a one-horse race in the GIII Robert B. Lewis S. at Santa Anita, Stronghold (Ghostzapper) ships into New Mexico to tackle Sunday's $800,000 GIII Sunland Derby for trainer Phil D'Amato. A second-out maiden winner over Churchill's one-turn mile, the homebred got a good look at the hind end of 'TDN Rising Star' Nysos (Nyquist) when a distant second in the GIII Bob Hope S. at Del Mar last November and was forced to settle for second in the GII Los Alamitos Futurity in his juvenile finale Dec. 16. Antonio Fresu flies in from California for the ride.

Informed Patriot (Hard Spun) has only a maiden win to his credit from five starts, but has acquitted himself well in stakes company, finishing third in the GIII Street Sense S. Oct. 29 before filling the same spot in the Smarty Jones.

Lucky Jeremy (Lookin At Lucky) won his maiden in a restricted event going a mile on the Street Sense undercard and came away late to best Alotluck (Sir Prancealot {Ire}) by two lengths in the local Riley Allison Derby Jan. 19. It was a large expanse back to Surroundedbyangels (Smiling Tiger) that afternoon.

The Sunland Derby is also a Derby points race, with 20 points going to the winner.

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Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Denali Stud

The TDN's popular annual series 'Mating Plans, presented by Spendthrift,' continues today in a conversation with Denali Stud's Conrad Bandoroff.

FLAG DAY (8, Giant's Causeway–Sense to Compete, by Street Sense) to be bred to Good Magic.

This mare's first foal, Hall of Fame, broke his maiden in very impressive fashion and was tabbed a 'TDN Rising Star' for his effort. The son of Gun Runner and Flag Day's first foal has been a special horse from the day he was born. He was just one of those foals that, when they stand for the first time, you find yourself saying, “We might have something here.” He was nice from day one and turned into a $1.4-million Saratoga yearling.

Flag Day is a fourth-generation homebred for Ambassador Earle Mack. She is a big, scopey daughter of Giant's Causeway that imparts a lot of size, bone and leg into her foals. This year she goes to a stallion that is rapidly rising through the ranks and looks to be a force to be reckoned with for years to come in Good Magic. I love the balance and athleticism Good Magic imparts in his progeny and this is a mating that works really well physically with the mare. The Smart Strike-Giant's Causeway cross is a good one, producing the likes of Grade I-winning Tom's d'Etat.

FLOWERING PEACH (8, Galileo {Ire}–Naples Bay, by Giant's Causeway) to be bred to Justify.

This is a young mare that has gotten off to a great start in her broodmare career. Her first foal, Buchu (Justify), won the GII Jessamine S. at two and we hope she will have a big year for owner/breeder Richard Rigney and trainer Phil Bauer.

Flowering Peach has an Uncle Mo yearling colt this year that we like a lot. This was as easy a mating as it comes and unsurprisingly Flowering Peach returns to Justify this year–the magic Justify/Galileo cross! Justify's two Breeders' Cup-winning 2-year-olds, as well as City of Troy in Europe and Storm Boy in Australia, capitalized his sensational run and what an important stallion he looks to be.

LIAM'S PROMENADE (5, Liam's Map–Promenade Girl, by Carson City) to be bred to Nyquist.

Liam's Promenade is a young mare that we have high hopes for. She is a half-sister to the MGISW Cavorting (Bernardini), who is the dam of over $3 million-earning MGISW Clairiere (Curlin). She is currently in foal to Curlin and we cannot wait to see the foal that is produced as it is a cross that has proven to be so prolific in the family.

We have chosen to breed her to Nyquist, who we think was tremendous value this year. Nyquist was on a tear at the end of the year and has some seriously talented horses working for him for this year. He has a loaded pipeline and a lot of momentum behind him. It is a cross that has worked well in the family before, producing GII Penn Mile S. winner Moon Colony (Uncle Mo).

HARD NOT TO LIKE (15, Hard Spun–Like a Gem, by Tactical Cat) to be bred to Cody's Wish.

Hard Not to Like is awaiting the arrival of a Life Is Good foal any day now–a mating that we highlighted last year. The multiple Grade I-winning mare will visit Cody's Wish this year. Hard Not to Like's 4-year-old son Faustin (Curlin) has returned to the worktab for Bob Baffert and Michael Lund Peterson. He was second in the GII San Vincente S. and we hope to see him back competing at the graded stakes level this year.

Cody's Wish is a horse we are so excited to breed to for many reasons, but he just pulls on your heartstrings in so many ways with his fantastic, fairytale-esque story. He also happens to be a very good physical match for Hard Not to Like, who benefits from some size and scope which Cody should provide. It repeats the Curlin cross that produced Faustin as well as the Curlin-Hard Spun cross that is responsible for the likes of Good Magic. We also love that it inbreeds back to Ruby Slippers (Nijinsky II) deeper in the pedigree.

PLAYED HARD (6, Into Mischief–Well Lived, by Tiznow) to be bred to Gun Runner.

We are very excited to welcome Played Hard to Denali Stud to begin the next chapter of her career. It was an incredible Oaks Day watching her hold off Secret Oath (Arrogate) to win the GI La Troienne S. and become the first Grade I winner for trainer Phil Bauer in the Rigney Racing colors.

Played Hard is a gorgeous mare with a deep family. She has all the credentials to become a foundation mare. We will start her off strongly by sending her to Gun Runner. It's a great physical match and we love the pedigree blend. Gun Runner over Storm Cat-line mares has proven to be one of his most productive crosses. Gun Runner over Tiznow has produced the likes of Early Voting, and you also have MGISW Cyberknife under the second dam.

LOVE THEWAY YOUARE (16, Arch–Diversa, by Tabasco Cat) to be bred to Elite Power.

Love Theway Youare is a Grade I-winning, graded-stakes producing mare that we own with our good friend Lincoln Collins. This mating goes by the old adage of breed your proven mare to an unproven stallion and your unproven mare to a proven stallion. Love Theway Youare is the dam of Grade III winner Summer in Saratoga (Hard Spun). She is a big, pretty Arch mare who throws nice, leggy, good-looking foals. She goes to one of the most visually impressive stallions retiring to stud this year in Elite Power. He looks like what a $900,000 yearling should look like and we thought that at $50,000, he still was one of the best values in town for this year.

DREAM TREE (9, Uncle Mo–Afleet Maggi, by Afleet Alex) to be bred to Constitution.

Dream Tree is a young, Grade I-winning mare that we have high hopes for. Her first three foals have been striking individuals that have all looked the part. Her newly turned 3-year-old first foal, Wimberly (Curlin), was a $700,000 yearling purchase by David Ingordo and is in training with John Sadler out in California. Her 2-year-old son of Into Mischief is doing very well in his early paces at Payton Training Center in Ocala, and she has a very promising Gun Runner yearling filly that has been nice since day one.

Dream Tree will go to a stallion we are big believers in: Constitution. We think you will be reading his name a lot this year and he is currently represented by three colts in the TDN's Top 12 Derby List. Tapit over Indian Charlie is the cross that produced generational talent Flightline.

NICKEL (11, Unbridled's Song–Consider It Done, by Green Dancer) to be bred to Twirling Candy.

This mare is a favorite of ours–I know we aren't supposed to say that but she is just one of those mares that you have a soft spot for. She is a gorgeous Unbridled's Song mare and the expression black cats throw black kittens could not be more appropriate when it comes to her foals. All of them are big, pretty and athletic.

She visits Twirling Candy this year–a horse we feel is great value and such a solid, consistent, proven stallion. This is such a good cross. Candy Ride and Twirling Candy over Unbridled's Song have produced seven stakes winners including Gift Box, Leofric, and Fore Left.

Interested in sharing your own mating plans? Email garyking@thetdn.com.

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The Week in Review: Remarkable Streak Connects Ouzts to Pre-Secretariat Era

When Perry Ouzts wired the field aboard an 8-1 maiden filly named Caberneigh (Munnings) at Turfway Park last Wednesday night, the 69-year-old jockey established a milestone that garnered little notice in the racing world. The victory extended Ouzts's remarkable streak of having ridden at least one winner in a calendar year to 52 consecutive seasons.

Think about the scope of that accomplishment for a moment. On Apr. 2, 1973, Ouzts, then 18, rode his first lifetime winner on just his second day as a licensed apprentice, guiding home an Ohio-bred colt named Rablue on a raw, drizzly afternoon at now-defunct Beulah Park.

That first trip to the winner's circle for Ouzts occurred a little more than a month before Secretariat won the GI Kentucky Derby and then raced into immortality by sweeping the Triple Crown.

How many other direct, still-on-the-track competing connections to the pre-Secretariat era endure in our sport today? Not counting owners and trainers, the answer appears to be zero.

Ouzts has racked up 29 meet-leading riding titles at Ohio tracks alone, and just last August he passed David Gall to claim fifth position on the all-time winningest riders list in North America based on victories. The Jan. 16, 2024, win at Turfway upped Ouzts's career count to 7,420, making him the winningest currently active jockey on the continent.

Ahead of Ouzts on the all-time wins list are Russell Baze (12,842), Laffit Pincay, Jr. (9,530), Bill Shoemaker (8,833) and Pat Day (8,803).

Ouzts won't close that daunting 1,383-win gap to advance another spot on the list before his career comes to a close.

But with 53,146 lifetime starts and no publicly announced retirement plans, Ouzts does have a chance at 441 more mounts to get past Baze (53,587) and claim the North American record for most lifetime starts by a jockey, according to the rankings published by Equibase.

Although he's only ridden 10 horses so far this year, Ouzts's business tends to pick up considerably in the spring when Belterra Park returns to action. In the years 2021-23, he rode 592, 485 and 388 horses per season, respectively. Yes, his riding opportunities have been slowly declining, but the lifetime mounts record is still realistically within reach.

Framing Ouzts's years-of-victory streak by saying he's won “at least one” race per year for 52 years does understate his productivity quite a bit. He's ridden more than 100 winners per year close to 40 times (his exact yearly totals predate Equibase's full statistics, which only go back to 1976).

The only true outlier year was 2006, when Ouzts won just six races. That January he cracked four vertebrae, crushed a fifth, and suffered a compound arm fracture in a Turfway spill. Amazingly, prior to that accident, Ouzts had gone 14 years without a major injury.

Doctors told Ouzts, then 51, that he was millimeters away from being paralyzed and suggested he hang up his tack for good.

Ouzts was back riding 11 months later and hasn't stopped since.

Unlike the four jockeys ahead of him on the North American all-time wins list, Ouzts isn't in the Hall of Fame, although his name does occasionally get brought up as a worthy, blue-collar candidate.

This coming Thursday, when the sport celebrates the pinnacle of the profession at the Eclipse Awards in balmy Florida, Ouzts will be back in action under the lights at wintry Turfway, where he expects to add two more mounts to a career measured more in terms of toughness and durability than trophies.

'Phantom' Building Fandom…

Don't dismiss Track Phantom's wire-to-wire, 2 3/4-length score in the GIII Lecomte S. just because jockey Joel Rosario was able to secure the lead and milk the pace. This Steve Asmussen-trained son of Quality Road is now 3-for-3 around two turns, and while his wins might lack the flash and panache of peers ranked ahead of him on the Triple Crown trail, Track Phantom is building credibility by going out and executing his speed-centric tasks without being fazed by how the competition has tried to disrupt his rhythm on the front end.

Sent off at 7-5, Track Phantom broke fluidly from the outermost post in a field of six to clear rail-drawn 11-10 favorite and 'TDN Rising Star' Nash (Medaglia d'Oro). Although it initially appeared as if this maneuver might be requiring a costly expenditure of energy, when a first-quarter clocking of :24.01 lit up on the tote board, the tepid tempo allayed any fears that Rosario was asking too much too soon from his mount, who adeptly settled into a comfortable cadence at the head of the pack.

Track Phantom rolled through subsequent splits of :24.35 and :24.79 with Nash edging closer, but when Rosario sensed that rival was just half a length back three-eighths out, he nudged Track Phantom to open up, and the visual at the quarter pole foretold the story of the stretch run: Track Phantom clearly had more left, while Nash was flailing under desperate urging to find another gear.

Track Phantom cruised through the long Fair Grounds home straight unopposed through a fourth quarter timed in :24.86, with a last sixteenth in :6.72. The final clocking of 1:44.73 translated into a Beyer Speed Figure of 90, improving on his previous four-race Beyer arc of 74, 81, 88 and 89.

Owned in partnership by L and N Racing, Clark Brewster, Jerry Caroom, and Breeze Easy, Track Phantom's “how he did it” progression rates just as highly as his “how fast” metrics. The Lecomte win now marks three straight races in which this colt has been asked to deploy his early speed while figuring out how to best fight off better-positioned rivals to his inside.

'Fame' Was Faster, Though…

Track Phantom wasn't even the fastest sophomore colt out of the Asmussen barn to run 1 1/16 miles at Fair Grounds on Saturday. That 1:44.27 honor went to 10 1/4-length blowout maiden victor Hall of Fame (Gun Runner), who earned a 94 Beyer eight races earlier on the Jan. 20 card for the owner partnership of Magnier, Tabor, Smith, Westerberg, Gandharvi, and Rocket Ship Racing.

Backed to 4-5 favoritism in lifetime start number two, this $1.4-million FTSAUG colt forced markedly faster fractions from the rail than Track Phantom set, with Hall of Fame spending a good portion of his backstretch journey trying to squeeze inside of a persistent 7-2 pacemaker.

Also ridden by Rosario, Hall of Fame finally blasted through on the fence under mild far-turn urging, then ran up the score through the stretch while being kept to task before Rosario wrapped him up through the final 70 yards.

The gaudy winning margin was likely amplified by the fact that no other runners mounted serious late-race bids. But Hall of Fame scored with such commanding authority that it's logical to think a stakes engagement is next.

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Asmussen Eyes Risen Star for Track Phantom, Hall of Fame

A day after Track Phantom (Quality Road)'s win in the GIII Lecomte S. at Fair Grounds Saturday, trainer Steve Asmussen was already looking forward to starting the 3-year-old colt in the Feb. 17 GII Risen Star S. The sophomore, who ended 2023 with a win in the Gun Runner S., will be following the same New Orleans path to the GI Kentucky Derby that Asmussen used for Epicenter (Not This Time) two years ago. Epicenter won the Gun Runner in 2021 and finished second in the Lecomte to begin his sophomore campaign. He went on to win the Risen Star and GII Louisiana Derby before finishing second in the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness S.

“It's easy to compare where he's at with where we were with Epicenter two years ago,” Asmussen said. “Epicenter won the Gun Runner and was second in the Lecomte, but physically he was developing at the right time. I've always felt that in the 3-year-old series at Fair Grounds, your last race isn't good enough for the next one and that's how it should be. I appreciate the timing between races and the progression of the distances. It's ideal. We came up a half-a-length short of our goal of winning the Derby with Epicenter and now Track Phantom is on the same road. I think the Lecomte was as easy on him as you could have wanted it to be, with him still getting something out of it.”

Track Phantom isn't the only winner from Saturday's card in New Orleans that Asmussen is pointing to the Risen Star. Hall of Fame (Gun Runner), a $1.4-million Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling purchase, was tabbed a 'TDN Rising Star' following his 10 1/4-length maiden victory Saturday. The 3-year-old's final time of 1:44.27 for 1 1/16 miles was nearly a half-second faster than Track Phantom's clocking (1:44.73) in the Lecomte.

“Hall of Fame is as advertised,” Asmussen said. “As a $1.4-million yearling, he's impeccably bred and a beautiful individual with a tremendous amount of talent. I do expect him to run back in the Risen Star also. He was ridden much more aggressively [to win] on Saturday because he's playing a little catch up on a horse like Track Phantom, but the ability is there.”

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