Harlan's Holiday | Horse Racing Free Tips

Canadian Champion Mighty Heart Faces Pletcher-Trained Fearless In Harlan’s Holiday

Repole Stable's Fearless will make a bid to return to graded stakes-winning form while making his second start off a six-month layoff in Saturday's $150,000 Harlan's Holiday (G3) at Gulfstream Park.

The Harlan's Holiday, a 1 1/16-mile stakes for 3-year-olds and up, and the $200,000 Fort Lauderdale (G2), a 1 1/8-mile turf event for 3-year-olds and up, will co-headline Saturday's program, on which the $100,000 Sugar Swirl (G3), a six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares, the $100,000 Suwannee River (G3), a mile turf stakes for fillies and mares, and the $100,000 Rampart, a mile event for fillies and mares, will be renewed.

The Harlan's Holiday and Fort Lauderdale are preps for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) and the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1), respectively, Jan. 29 at Gulfstream. The Suwannee River is a prep for the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G3) on the same program.

Fearless is coming off a second-place finish in the Nov. 21 Miami Gardens overnight handicap, in which he lost for the first time in fourth starts at Gulfstream. The 5-year-old Ghostzapper gelding was the even-money favorite in his first start since finishing third in the May 14 Pimlico Special (G3).

“He likes the track and he ran a good race off the layoff, so we're thinking that should set him up good for the Harlan's Holiday,” trainer Todd Pletcher said.

Prior to coming up a length short of beating Girolamo's Attack, Fearless had gone 3-for-3 at Gulfstream, including a victory in the Feb. 27 Gulfstream Park Mile (G2).

Due to his large size, Fearless didn't make his career debut until the very tail end of his 3-year-old season, capturing a six-furlong maiden special weight race at Gulfstream. He came right back to win a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming allowance at the Hallandale Beach track.

“I remember him as a yearling, and the one concern was – how big he was,” Pletcher said. “Fortunately, he hasn't grown a lot. He was big enough to begin with. He was a horse that the guys at WinStar said was a difficult horse to break and get ready.

“He's been gelded and since then, his behavior has been good and he's been consistent. He added.

Luis Saez is scheduled to ride Fearless for the first time since guiding the Pletcher trainee to victory in his debut.

Multiple graded-stakes winner Mighty Heart looms as a formidable opponent for Fearless in the Harlan's Holiday. The Lawrence Cordes homebred is coming off a front-running victory in the Autumn (G2) at Woodbine after finishing fourth in the Durham Cup (G3).

“In his prior race, he blew a shoe and didn't show up. We figured something went wrong. Coming back, we were expecting him to run well,” trainer Josie Carroll said.

The 4-year-old son of Dramedy won the 2020 Queen's Plate over Woodbine's Tapeta surface before capturing the Prince of Wales on dirt at Fort Erie. The Ontario-bred colt won the Blame Stakes at Churchill Downs, finished second in the West Virginia Governor's Cup (G3) at Mountaineer, and finished third in an optional claiming allowance at Keeneland in his other starts on dirt.

“He's obviously run well on synthetic, but he's also run really well on dirt. He won the Prince of Wales on dirt. When he ran great at Churchill Downs when he won the Blame. His race at Keeneland was also very good.” Carroll said.

Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez is scheduled to ride Mighty Heart for the first time in the Harlan's Holiday.

Owner/trainer Steve Budhoo's Eye of a Jedi, who finished second in last year's Harlan's Holiday, will seek to improve on a trio of recent starts at a mile around one turn.

“The mile has been killing him. He needs two turns,” Budhoo said.

The 6-year-old gelding won the 1 1/8-mile Ghostzapper (G3) around two turns with Javier Castellano aboard last year. The Hall of Fame rider will return aboard Eye of a Jedi Saturday.

James Woodruff's Blue Steel, winner of the Claiming Crown Iron Horse Kent Sterling Memorial; Gary Barber, Wachtel Stable, Peter Deutsch and Pantofel Stable LLC's South Bend, an optional claiming allowance winner at Churchill Downs; and Calumet Farm's Twenty Twice round out the field.

The post Canadian Champion Mighty Heart Faces Pletcher-Trained Fearless In Harlan’s Holiday appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

From OBS March Juvenile ‘Into’ Leading Sire

The buying team at Spendthrift Farm had it down to two different 2-year-old colts from the first crop of the late Harlan's Holiday at the 2007 OBS March Sale. Did they ever pick the right one.

Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday–Leslie's Lady, by Tricky Creek), winner of the GI CashCall Futurity and the back-to-back reigning champion general sire, got the final nod of the pair, bringing $180,000 from B. Wayne Hughes's operation following a :10 2/5 breeze.

The striking blaze-faced bay–standing the 2021 season for $225,000 at Spendthrift Farm–graces the cover of this year's OBS March catalog ahead of the two-day sale, slated for next Tuesday and Wednesday in Ocala with sessions beginning daily at 11 a.m.

“I can't remember who had the other Harlan's Holiday [13 were entered], but the last day we looked, we literally went from one to the other, just to compare them directly,” Spendthrift Yearling Manager Seth Semkin said.

“They were actually very similar looking. Harlan's Holiday stamped them quite a bit as far as how they looked. At the time, Richard Mandella was coming to the sales with us. Into Mischief was over in the knee a little bit, but those were the kinds of things that were Richard's call, and it didn't bother him. We went and looked at the videos again, and at the end of that little process, thankfully, we decided on Into Mischief.”

Five juveniles shared the :10 flat bullet–two ticks faster than Into Mischief's breeze–for an eighth of a mile over the former dirt surface at OBS. The sale was topped by $900,000 Darley Stable-purchase Forest Echoes (Forest Wildcat), one of three 2-year-olds to bring half a million or higher. The topper won four of 34 career starts and posted $106,281 in earnings.

“Into Mischief was a great value and he breezed beautifully,” Spendthrift General Manager Ned Toffey said. “I don't think any of us realized what we had when we first got him. Other than just thinking he was a nice horse.”

Hughes was the sale's leading buyer, purchasing four head for a total of $1.05 million. The quartet also included the following year's GII Robert B. Lewis winner Crown of Thorns (Repent) ($300,000 OBS March 2yo), who came within a nose of upsetting the 2009 GI Breeders' Cup Sprint. Into Mischief was the least expensive acquisition of the group.

“It was a strong work,” Semkin said of Into Mischief's breeze. “When it was still dirt there, it was very sandy and it depended on where you were in the set and what the track was like at the time you worked. It was an impressive work. He was a hard trier even when he breezed there.

“We also bought Crown of Thorns that year,” he continued. “That was the horse that we really wanted out of that sale and we ended up paying a lot more for him than we did for Into Mischief. All the credit goes to Mr. Hughes. He was game enough to do it and trusted us and allowed us the freedom to go to those sales. It goes to his desire to get racehorses and his willingness to bid the way he does.”

Into Mischief was no worse than second during his six-race career for the aforementioned Hall of Fame trainer carrying Hughes's famed orange-and-purple colors. His resume also included a win over subsequent GI Breeders' Cup Sprint upsetter Dancing in Silks (Black Minnaloushe) in the Damascus S. at three and a second-place finish in his career finale in the GI Malibu S. at Santa Anita.

Into Mischief was sidelined following a runner-up finish as the favorite in the GII San Vicente S. and was forced to sit out the spring Classics. His CashCall win over Colonel John was his lone career attempt around two turns.

“He was underrated, even as a Grade I winner,” Toffey said. “He was underappreciated as a racehorse. Richard would be forthright with you that the horse got into some foot problems that were really not what you would label as 'unsoundness.' That really kept him off the Derby trail and out of the majority of his 3-year-old year and he had a fairly abbreviated career. If you looked at his race record, you might assume he was unsound, but he absolutely was not. He was a very talented and very honest racehorse.”

Bred in Kentucky by James T. Hines, Jr., Into Mischief first brought $80,000 from the late, great bloodstock agent Buzz Chace as a Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall yearling. He was consigned as Hip 22 to OBS March as a pinhooking prospect by David McKathan's former nom-de-course M&H Training and Sales. Along with Jody Mihalic, McKathan currently operates under the Grassroots Training and Sales banner.

“Buzz bought him as a yearling and he was pinhooking him,” McKathan said. “That's how I came to have him. Obviously, he was a pretty nice horse. And back then, that was good money. He came to me and I broke him and we took him over to March. I was always proud of Buzz for buying the horse. He loved him. I was with Buzz when he bought him up there. The reality of it, the horse walked dead at 'ya, but he had a lot of action in his walk. I remember commenting to Buzz, 'That doesn't bother you?' He said, 'Nah, he'll move good.' Buzz had a great eye for a horse.”

McKathan added with a laugh, “I know I started to buy them when they walked like that from then on.”

Hines campaigned Into Mischief's dam Leslie's Lady (Tricky Creek), a $27,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase, to five wins from 28 starts, led by a win in the 1998 Hoosier Debutante S. and runner-up finish in the following year's Martha Washington S. at Oaklawn.

After Hines's passing in February 2006, Leslie's Lady, in foal to Orientate, realized $100,000 from Clarkland Farm at that fall's Keeneland November Sale, a year after producing Into Mischief. Hines was best known for breeding and racing champion older horse Lawyer Ron (Langfuhr).

Leslie's Lady, of course, has since gone on to also produce the brilliant four-time champion Beholder (Henny Hughes) ($180,000 yrl '11 KEESEP purchase by Spendthrift Farm) and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy) ($3 million yrl '16 KEESEP purchase by M.V. Magnier). She was named the 2016 Broodmare of the Year.

Her unraced American Pharoah 3-year-old filly America's Joy was a record $8.2-million purchase by Whisper Hill Farm as a Keeneland September yearling.

“I often think if Beholder had come ahead of Into Mischief, you might have had to add a zero to that $180,000 [for Into Mischief at OBS March],” Toffey said. “Ironically, Beholder was the same price, so that's been a good number for us. They are two of the least expensive horses that we've bought over the years.”

With Horse of the Year Authentic and champion female sprinter and 'TDN Rising Star' Gamine leading the way, Into Mischief established the all-time single-season record for a sire in North America with $22,506,085 in progeny earnings in 2020. He is the only stallion ever to eclipse $20 million in earnings in a year.

Into Mischief, already the sire of 90 stakes/38 graded/eight Grade I winners, has 11 juveniles–Hips 10, 85, 224, 275, 291, 296, 315, 399, 453, 456, 497–consigned to this year's OBS March Sale.

“Share the Upside was one of the programs we started to try to convince breeders to breed to him,” Toffey concluded. “It just shows you, as Mr. Hughes likes to say, 'Nobody really knows.' We weren't quite sure what we had until he proved it to all of us. We're glad he's on our team.”

The post From OBS March Juvenile ‘Into’ Leading Sire appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Rodriguez Will ‘Keep The Dream Alive,’ Point Stakes Winner Eagle Orb To Withers

Trainer Rudy Rodriguez said he will keep stakes winner Eagle Orb in pursuit of Kentucky Derby qualifying points and plans on pointing the New York-bred stakes winner to the Grade 3, $250,000 Withers on Feb. 6 at Aqueduct Racetrack. The Withers offers 10-4-2-1 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the top-four finishers.

Owned by E. V. Racing Stable, the son of 2013 Kentucky Derby winner Orb earned four points on the Derby trail when finishing second to Capo Kane in the Jerome on New Year's Day at the Big A going a one-turn mile.

The Withers will be Eagle Orb's first start going two turns as he attempts his first overall win past six furlongs. He broke his maiden going three-quarters on Aug. 21 at Saratoga and four starts later won the Notebook Stakes on Nov. 14 at Aqueduct, also going six furlongs.

Eagle Orb last breezed on Jan. 20, completing a five-furlong work in 1:03.07 over the Belmont Park training track.

“We're going to try for the Withers,” Rodriguez said. “He's been training very good. Right now is the time to take a chance so that's the place to go. We just have to keep the dream alive.”

Bred by Barry Ostrager, Eagle Orb is out of the Harlan's Holiday mare Lady On Holiday and was purchased for $95,000 from the Saratoga Preferred New York-bred Yearling Sale in 2019.

Should Rodriguez's Derby dreams come alive, Eagle Orb would be his second starter in the Run for the Roses. His first Derby starter was Vyjack, who won the Jerome and Gotham in 2013, and subsequently finished 18th in the Kentucky Derby.

“He was a nice horse,” Rodriguez said of Vyjack. “He was one of the best horses that we've ever trained.”

Rodriguez said he plans on regrouping with Backsideofthemoon, who was fourth beaten 20 lengths following a slow start under Jose Lezcano as the post time favorite for the Jazil. The 9-year-old son of Malibu Moon arrived off a career-best 106 Beyer in the Dec. 19 Queens County at the Big A.

“We're going to regroup with him,” Rodriguez said. “It looked like he came back good, but I'll check him out the next couple of days. Before the break he was close to the gate and he came out of the gate a step slow. Jose said he tried to break before the gate opened.”

The post Rodriguez Will ‘Keep The Dream Alive,’ Point Stakes Winner Eagle Orb To Withers appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Tax Chasing Clean Break In Second Pegasus Shot

Tax, a big bay gelding who returned from a six-month layoff to impressively win the Harlan's Holiday (G3) Dec. 12, gets his second shot at Pegasus glory Saturday when he lines up with 11 others for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Championship Invitational (G1).

Owned by R.A. Hill Stable, Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and Hugh Lynch and trained by Danny Gargan, Tax was claimed out of his second race for $50,000 in October of 2018. The son of Arch has since won three graded races and nearly $1 million.

After stumbling at the start of last year's Pegasus and finishing ninth, Tax was off for six months after a fifth-place finish in the Oaklawn Handicap (G2). Gargan said the plan originally was to run at Keeneland in the fall and then the Breeders' Cup, but a temperature kept the colt away from the races until his victory in the Harlan's Holiday.

Gulfstream host and analyst Acacia Courtney talked to Gargan about Tax getting a clean break in this year's Pegasus under jockey Luis Saez, the big colt's maturity, and the ownership group.

The post Tax Chasing Clean Break In Second Pegasus Shot appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post