Tag: Horse racing news

Drury: Art Collector’s Versatile Style Will Be A Major Advantage In Preakness Stakes

Tommy Drury didn't get much sleep on Monday night of Kentucky Derby week. The trainer of one of the top Derby contenders, Art Collector, had found a decent-sized cut on the back of the colt's right front hoof, apparently suffered during his Monday morning gallop.

Drury and owner/breeder Bruce Lunsford faced a difficult decision. The colt's hoof was sensitive to the touch, and neither man wanted to subject the horse to the stress of the Run for the Roses unless he was 100 percent. Still, it would have been the first starter in the Kentucky Derby for both Drury and Lunsford, and making the decision to walk away from what could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was challenging.

“It was certainly difficult,” Drury said on an NTRA teleconference this Monday. “The Derby is a race of a lifetime for a horse trainer. At end of day, the responsibility we have is to put the horse first. It would not have been fair to lead him over there knowing there was an issue going on. It was a no-brainer. We want our horse to be good for the long haul, not just one race.”

Instead, Art Collector will be the 5-2 second choice in this Saturday's Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. He'll face a field of 11, including Kentucky Derby winner Authentic (9-5 favorite) and Kentucky Oaks runner-up Swiss Skydiver (6-1).

Art Collector, a 3-year-old son of Bernardini, won the G2 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland in July. He stalked the pace in that race, then won the Ellis Park Derby with a solid frontrunning display. That versatility in tactics gives Drury a bit of confidence heading into the Preakness Stakes.

“He has a little stop and go to him,” Drury explained, adding that jockey Brian Hernandez, Jr. is very familiar with Art Collector's style. “You can use him and get him going again if you need to. In a race like this, that can be beneficial.”

The post position, three, won't be an issue for Art Collector either, Drury said. The colt is quick enough to get out of the gate and near the lead, and tactical enough for Hernandez to be able to take back off the pace if others decide to go.

No matter what happens this Saturday, Drury is looking forward to the future with Art Collector. This year, the Breeders' Cup Classic is the likely next stop on the colt's schedule, and Drury will also look for Art Collector to return as a 4-year-old.

“Art Collector is a very special horse to us,” summarized Drury. “He has taken my career to places I've never dreamed it would go. I've not had anything like him ever before.”

The post Drury: Art Collector’s Versatile Style Will Be A Major Advantage In Preakness Stakes appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Beyer: It’s Time To Reconsider Triple Crown Schedule, Stick With Late Season Series

This year's Triple Crown schedule has been unlike any other thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, and many racing fans are still shaking their heads at the oddity of a Kentucky Derby taking place on the first Saturday in September. Speaking on Off to the Races on The Racing Biz Radio Network earlier this month however, longtime racing analyst, horseplayer, and columnist Andrew Beyer said he thinks some of this year's changes should be permanent.

“I think the 3-year-old racing this year has been different but it's been quite satisfactory,” said Beyer. “I think starting the series later in the year gave horses a chance to mature and really be ready to run top notch races, as Tiz the Law did in the Belmont, whereas modern day racing horses don't train and race hard enough going into the Kentucky Derby to really be able to deliver maximum performance.”

Beyer, who engineered the Beyer Speed Figure, thinks the spring scheduling of the Derby has resulted in poorer performances there in recent years.

“We just haven't seen many great Derbies from the speed figure standpoint for a long time,” he said.

There have been calls to alter the schedule or distance of the Triple Crown races in recent memory, but those mostly fell silent after American Pharoah ended the three-decade Triple Crown drought in 2015, followed closely by Justify in 2018.

Beyer thinks the three races should be spread farther apart, pointing out the two-week turnaround between Derby and Preakness tends to negatively impact the Preakness field. He also questions the distances of the races, pointing out that 1 1/2-mile Belmont “is really an anachronism in modern racing,” and wondering if all three should have their distances reconsidered.

“I think the racing industry should, after this season, kind of take a look at the structure of the Triple Crown and see how we might improve it,” said Beyer.

“There's no rule that we have to do everything the way we did 50 years ago.”

Listen to the complete episode of Off to the Races below:

The post Beyer: It’s Time To Reconsider Triple Crown Schedule, Stick With Late Season Series appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Bloodlines Presented By BloodstockAuction.Com: Swiss Skydiver Set To Join Sorority Of Top Fillies To Test Preakness Stakes

With trainer Kenny McPeek declaring to send multiple Grade 1 winner Swiss Skydiver (by Daredevil) to the Preakness Stakes on Oct. 3, our memory turned to the last filly to win the classic against the colts: Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra (Medaglia d'Oro) in 2009.

The striking dark bay wasn't the only filly to win that classic, however. Although Rachel Alexandra is the only filly to win a classic in the 21st century, four other fillies had won the Preakness in the preceding century. Flocarline had been the first filly to win a Preakness in 1903, then Whimsical won the race in 1906, Rhine Maiden won in 1915 (the same year that Regret won the Kentucky Derby), and Nellie Morse won in 1924.

Although it was 85 years after Nellie Morse until another filly won the Preakness, 10 more had tried the classic during the interim. The most famous of these had been the champions and Kentucky Derby winners Genuine Risk (Exclusive Native) in 1980 and Winning Colors (Caro) in 1988.

In 1980, the fetching chestnut Genuine Risk had become the second Kentucky Derby winner in three years for the Raise a Native stallion Exclusive Native. Neither Exclusive Native nor his sire had made any waves in the classics during their racing careers, but both had proven notably more capable of getting classic stock as sires.

Raise a Native sired 1969 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Majestic Prince, as well as Alydar, who finished second in each of the Triple Crown races behind Affirmed, the first classic winner by Exclusive Native.

Both Affirmed and Genuine Risk were scopy chestnuts with quality; their good looks made them noticeable on the racetrack and helped win thousands of fans for racing. Following her historic Derby success 65 years after Regret, Genuine Risk then finished second in a controversial Preakness when she was carried wide coming into the stretch by subsequent winner Codex (Arts and Letters). An objection lodged against the winner was not allowed.

Genuine Risk went to the Belmont Stakes, even without the Triple Crown as the historic attraction, but this time the beloved filly finished second to the mud-loving Temperence Hill (Stop the Music), who later was voted the champion 3-year-old colt.

No other filly previously had raced in each of the races of the Triple Crown, and Genuine Risk showed her high class and athletic ability as she finished in the money in each race. As a result, Genuine Risk ranks as one of the great race fillies of the past 50 years.

But just eight years later, another filly ran in each of the Triple Crown races.

A thrashing big filly, Winning Colors had brought $575,000 as a Keeneland July yearling, and the leggy daughter of the gray stallion Caro took some time to strengthen and fill out her big frame. After winning a pair of races at two, she advanced rapidly to top-class form in winning the Santa Anita Derby and then the Kentucky Derby. In the latter race, Winning Colors defeated the previous season's top juvenile colt, Forty Niner (Mr. Prospector) by a neck, with Risen Star (Secretariat) in third.

Brought back by trainer D. Wayne Lukas for the Preakness and a possible tilt for the Triple Crown, Winning Colors was challenged early and aggressively by Forty Niner, and at the finish, Risen Star was the fast-closing winner, with Winning Colors in third.

Both classic winners came back for the Belmont Stakes, and Risen Star prevailed by 15 lengths in the fast time of 2:26 2/5, which at the time was the second-fastest Belmont ever run behind only his great sire's 2:24. Since 1988, Easy Goer and A.P. Indy each have won the Belmont in 2:26.

Winning Colors had made the early pace, tried to stay with Risen Star when he was winding up his convincing impression of Secretariat, and finished unplaced in sixth. Winning Colors never won another top-level race, but the lovely gray did finish second in both the G1 Maskette and Breeders' Cup Distaff to the unbeaten Personal Ensign (Private Account).

In the latter race, run under cold and wet conditions at Churchill Downs later in 1989, Winning Colors had taken the lead and controlled the race to such an extent that Personal Ensign appeared to have little chance of even hitting the board as the field came into the stretch. The imperturbable bay filly refused to give up, gained with every stride through the stretch, and won her 13th and final start in one of the most exciting and heroic efforts imaginable.

These fillies secured the status of supreme champions by overcoming adversity and capturing victory when the probability or circumstances didn't favor them. If Swiss Skydiver can live up to these supreme examples of the race filly, she will make the Preakness one more great race to remember.

The post Bloodlines Presented By BloodstockAuction.Com: Swiss Skydiver Set To Join Sorority Of Top Fillies To Test Preakness Stakes appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights