Tag: Horse racing news
Vequist Crushes Her Opposition To Earn Maiden Diploma In Spinaway
Second, beaten a nose at Parx Racing in her only previous start, Vequist ran away from her five rivals under Luis Saez to win Sunday's Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga race course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., by 9 1/2 lengths.
Esplanade finished second, with lady Lilly third and Irish Constitution fourth. Time for seven furlongs on a fast main track was 1:22.29.
Trained by Robert “Butch” Reid, Vequist was sent away at odds of 6-1. She tracked Esplanade in second from the outset through fractions of :22.41 and :44.87 for the opening half-mile, took command at the top of the stretch and drew away down the stretch as she pleased after a six-furlong split of 1:09.33.
Bred in Florida by Thomas McGrath's Swilcan Stables, Vequist is from the first crop by Nyquist – the 2015 champion 2-year-old male champion and 2016 Kentucky Derby winner. She's out of the Mineshaft mare, Vero Amore, a graded stakes-placed runner for Swilcan whose best stakes performance came when second to Stopchargingmaria in the G2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico in 2014.
Following her first start at Parx on July 29 when second to Niente, Wachtel Stables and Gary Barber each bought an interest from McGrath
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Nyquist Filly Romps in Spinaway
Vequist (Nyquist) suffered a nose defeat when debuting going 4 1/2 furlongs at Parx, but found no equals when stepped up into the GI Spinaway S. Sunday at Saratoga, pressing a fast pace and romping clear impressively in the stretch to break her maiden in the first Grade I race of the year for juveniles.
Unveiled as a tepid favorite July 29 in Bensalem for owner/breeder Swilcan Stables, the bay chased a wire to wire winner throughout and just missed when taking a final dive at her foe nearing the finish, finishing 8 1/2 lengths clear for of a next-out winner in third.
Off as the narrow fourth choice behind even-money ‘TDN Rising Star’ Beautiful Memories (Hard Spun), Vequist broke a step slowly, but quickly moved up to track frontrunning Esplanade (Daredevil) through a :22.41 quarter. The chalk, who was pulled up in her previous effort, again began to hit the breaks before the three-eighths pole, and Vequist and Esplanade separated themselves from the rest approaching the lane. Taking over at the top of the stretch, Vequist edged clear into the final furlong and poured it on from there, cruising under the line a dominant victress under Luis Saez.
The win was the second raid of a Saratoga Grade I for Thomas McGrath’s Swilcan Stables and trainer Butch Reid, who upset the GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. with Poseidon’s Warrior (Speightstown) in 2012.
“It was more about the morning training than it was her first race,” said Reid of running Vequist as a maiden in the Spinaway. “We breezed her out of the gate one time and she was only supposed to go a half-mile but she went in :48 and just kept going 1:01, 1:13 and 1:26. Even though we ran her in that 4 1/2-furlong race, it was more just getting a race under her belt. She was going to be looking for longer things down the road. You don’t expect to win a Grade I with a maiden, but I knew the distance wasn’t a problem.”
“The plan today was to try and follow the speed,” said Saez. “There was a lot of speed in the race so I wanted to break from there and find a good spot. Everything went so well, we broke and we were right there. When we got to the three-eighths I had a lot of horse and when we came to the stretch she took off.”
Pedigree Notes:
Vequist plants the Grade I flag early for her freshman sire (by Uncle Mo), just the eighth horse to win the GI Kentucky Derby while undefeated and first champion 2-year-old to win it since Seattle Slew in 1977. She is the Darley resident’s fifth winner and second black-type winner, following Soaring Free S. hero Gretzky the Great. The first black-type performer out of 2014 GII Black-Eyed Susan S. runner-up Vero Amore, she has a yearling Astern (Aus) half-sister and a weanling half-sister by Daredevil. Vero Amore, a $15,000 purchase by Reid as juvenile in 2013, was bred to Accelerate this spring.
Sunday, Saratoga
SPINAWAY S.-GI, $250,000, Saratoga, 9-6, 2yo, f, 7f, 1:22.29, ft.
1–VEQUIST, 118, f, 2, by Nyquist
1st Dam: Vero Amore (GSP, $252,255), by Mineshaft
2nd Dam: Summers Edge, by The Cliff’s Edge
3rd Dam: Miss Summer Reign, by Summer Squall
1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN, 1ST GRADE I
WIN. ($120,000 RNA Ylg ’19 KEESEP). O-Gary Barber, Wachtel
Stable & Swilcan Stable LLC; B-Swilcan Stables (KY); T-Robert E.
Reid, Jr.; J-Luis Saez. $137,500. Lifetime Record: 2-1-1-0,
$145,500. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*. Click for the
strong>eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Esplanande, 122, f, 2, by Daredevil
1st Dam: Southern Silence, by Dixie Union
2nd Dam: Silence Dogood, by Grand Slam
3rd Dam: Crystal Vous, by Crystal Water
O-WinStar Farm LLC, Timothy E. Hamm & Michael J. Lewis;
B-Blazing Meadows Farm LLC & WinStar Farm, LLC (OH);
T-Timothy E. Hamm. $50,000.
3–Lady Lilly, 120, f, 2, by Nyquist
1st Dam: Miss Inclined, by Pulpit
2nd Dam: Seoul, by Deputy Minister
3rd Dam: Nomo Robbery, by No Robbery
($280,000 Ylg ’19 KEESEP). O-Phoenix Thoroughbred III;
B-Mueller Thoroughbred Stable, Ltd. (KY); T-Steven M.
Asmussen. $30,000.
Margins: 9HF, 1HF, 11 1/4. Odds: 6.60, 6.60, 7.30.
Also Ran: Irish Constitution, Guana Cay, Beautiful Memories.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
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Dr. Schivel Hoping To Put Freeze On Baffert’s Grip On Del Mar Futurity
Six young horses will run seven furlongs Monday in the 73rd edition of the shore oval's annual closer – the Runhappy Del Mar Futurity. The race will carry a purse of $250,000 and a Grade 1 ranking. And as it has many times before, it also likely will point out the winner for much bigger and better things to come on down the line.
The morning line favorite for the juvenile headliner will be Red Baron's Barn and Rancho Temescal's Dr. Schivel, a colt by Violence who was purchased privately by his current connections – father Jed and son Tim Cohen — in the past few weeks. The bay easily had won a straight maiden race at six furlongs at Del Mar on August 8 after running second and third in a pair of previous outings.
Following that win, the colt's then owners – and breeders – William Branch and Arnold Hill, heard an offer they couldn't refuse and ceded ownership to his current pair of owners. Dr. Schivel will race for trainer Luis Mendez once more in the Futurity, then shift to conditioner Mark Glatt's barn.
Here's the full field for the race from the rail out with riders and morning line odds: SF Racing, Starlight Racing or Madaket Stables' Spielberg (Abel Cedillo, 2-1); Brad Allshouse's Dyn O Mite (Victor Espinoza, 12-1); Drakos or Hanson's Weston (Drayden Van Dyke, 6-1); KMN Racing's Scooby (Umberto Rispoli, 12-1); Reddam Racing's Dixie's Two Stents (Mario Gutierrez, 3-1), and Dr. Schivel (8/5).
Spielberg, a $1,000,000 yearling purchase in Kentucky last September, is a son of Union Rags who has started only once, finishing second to Dr. Schivel in that one's winning heat here on August 8. He has the distinct advantage, however, of racing out of the barn of conditioner Bob Baffert who has won the Del Mar Futurity a record 14 times.
Dixie's Two Stents was a weanling purchase for $60,000 in Kentucky in November of 2018. The son of Quality Road made his racing debut at Del Mar on August 1 and closed late to just miss in a five-furlong maiden special weight contest. He's worked well at the shore oval since.
Weston enters the fray with a two-for-two record, including a tally in the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar on August 8. The Hit It a Bomb gelding trains out of the barn of part owner Ryan Hanson and – in contrast to some of his Monday adversaries – was a bargain $7,000 purchase as a yearling last year in Kentucky.
Scooby is trained by Jerry Hollendorfer. Though still a maiden after two starts, he's closed well in both of those outings.
Dyn O Mite has run second in all three of his tries. The son of Goldencents is conditioned by J. Keith Desormeaux.
Monday's finale means that there will be a mandatory payout in the track's popular Pick Six bet. It will be held on races 6 through 11.
The headliner will go as the 10th event on an 11-race card. First post Monday goes at 1 p.m.
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