Tag: Horse Racing

Champion Gamine To Visit Quality Road For First Mating

Gamine, the champion female sprinter of 2020 and an Eclipse Award finalist for the same title in 2021, will visit Lane's End resident Quality Road for her first mating, bloodstock agent Donato Lanni announced Feb. 6 on social media.

The 5-year-old daughter of Into Mischief retired with nine wins in 11 starts for earnings of $1,771,500.

Gamine topped the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale after selling to owner Michael Lund Petersen for $1.8 million. She secured the Eclipse Award as champion female sprinter at age three, with victories in the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes and Test Stakes, and a capstone score in that year's Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeneland.

Gamine won the first four starts of her 2021 campaign, ticking off wins in the G3 Las Flores Stakes, G1 Derby City Distaff Stakes, G2 Great Lady M Stakes, and G1 Ballerina Handicap. Her final start saw her finish third in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar.

Bred in Kentucky by Grace Thoroughbred Holdings, Gamine is out of the stakes-placed Kafwain mare Peggy Jane.

Quality Road, 16-year-old son of Elusive Quality, stands at Lane's End in Versailles, Ky., for an advertised fee of $150,000.

From nine crops of racing age, Quality Road has sired 432 winners and amassed combined progeny earnings of more than $65.2 million.

Quality Road has sired two Eclipse Award winners: Champion 2-year-old filly Caledonia Road and champion 3-year-old female Abel Tasman. Corniche, the winner of last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile, is a finalist – and the presumptive favorite – for champion 2-year-old male of 2021.

He is also responsible for Pegasus World Cup winner City of Light, Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Hootenanny, and Grade 1 winners including Dunbar Road, Bellafina, Spring Quality, Roadster, Salty, Illuminant, and Klimt.

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All-Time Minnesota-Bred Earner Mr. Jagermeister Retired, Stud Plans Pending

Mr. Jagermeister, the all-time leading Minnesota-bred money earning Thoroughbred, was retired Saturday following a workout at Tampa Bay Downs in which he was preparing for next week's Pelican Stakes.

The 7-year-old, who had earned $700,839 in 37 starts, returned to the barn following the workout when it was discovered that he had suffered a condylar fracture of the left front.

“We breezed him and everything went fine,” trainer Valorie Lund said. “He came back off. At first we thought it was his foot.” But the veteran trainer quickly knew it was something more and called for an x-ray. It was then the fracture was determined.

A younger horse might return from such a setback but Lund knew it was time for Mr. Jagermeister to retire. “I'm sorry to see him go. He was such a joy,” she said. Plans are in the making for a potential career in the breeding shed.

Mr. Jagermeister returned to his barn in Ocala where Lund keeps a string of 30.

“He was wanting to play in the aisle,” she said. “He's feeling fine.”

Mr. Jagermeister exploded onto the scene in the summer of 2017 when as a 2-year-old he broke his maiden at Canterbury at first asking by 11 1/2 lengths. His second start was a runner-up finish in a Prairie Meadows stakes race followed by the easiest 15 1/2 length win in the Northern Lights Futurity, the premiere race for state-bred 2-year-olds. A month later he met the talented Amy's Challenge in the Shakopee Juvenile. That battle became one of the most memorable at Canterbury. The filly defeated Mr. Jagermeister by a fraction of a length after the two dueled down the stretch.

Mr. Jagermeister would continue to face top competition throughout his career. While he is the all-time leader for state-breds in earnings, he is seventh overall in money earned racing at Canterbury. The son of Atta Boy Roy, who Lund also trained, made much of his purse money the hard way.

“He always met tough horses,” Lund said. “He was really an astounding racehorse.”

He won 13 of 37 starts with six seconds and four third-place finishes in a career that will lead to a Canterbury Hall of Fame induction.

In 2018 Mr. Jagermeister finished second to Mitole, then one of the nation's fastest sprinters, in an Oaklawn stakes. Later in his career he was second to Whitmore, a future Breeders' Cup Sprint winner. His brilliant speed carried him far. In his final race on Jan. 9, a Tampa Bay Downs sprint that he won by seven lengths going away, Mr. Jagermeister recorded a career best 100 Beyer Speed Figure.

It was a race in his 3-year-old season that Lund remembers the most. That year began in the Grade 2 San Vicente at Santa Anita where he tired on a blistering pace. He next romped in a Turf Paradise allowance before facing Mitole and heading south to Shakopee. He went favored in the 10,000 Lakes against older statebreds and won by eight lengths. Mr. Jagermeister was and is the only 3-year-old to win that race in 28 renditions.

Following a tenth place finish in the Mystic Lake Derby, his first turf try, Mr. Jagermeister went on a three-race sweep of the Victor Myers, Minnesota Derby and Minnesota Classic Championship. It was the Derby Lund recalls fondly.

“We wanted to keep him off the rail. He won by so far. Leandro [Goncalves] was standing up and cruising in,” she said. He won by 10 lengths in 1:40.37, just .17 seconds off the track record established in 1985. “Four off the rail all the way around. Geared down,” she remembered.

Family was planning to come to Tampa for the $100,000 Pelican Stakes, which was to be Mr. Jagermeister's next start, this coming Saturday. They will still visit and Lund hopes she can enter a maiden 3-year-old she has high hopes for.

“They will still come,” Lund said. “We will party but instead it will be a retirement party.”

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Over $1 Million In Virginia Breeders Fund Awards To Be Distributed From 2021 Victories

The Virginia Thoroughbred Association announced that $975,000 in Virginia Breeders award monies will be distributed to breeding farms in the state whose horses reached the winners circle in 2021 at any track in North America. That $975,000 figure is up $25,000 from 2020.

Adding in $75,000 in Virginia Stallion awards — up $25,000 from 2020 as well — a total of $1,050,000 in bonus monies will be distributed via the Breeders Fund. A total of 46 different breeders will share in the prize pool, which comes from 161 winning Virginia-bred horses that accumulated purse earnings of $2,916,905. The bonus averaged 32 percent of each winning purse. As recently as 2019, that figure was 19 percent.

The Virginia Breeders Fund is generated by one percent of every dollar wagered in Virginia on live racing and via OTB and ADW betting. Each year, the Virginia Racing Commission approves how the money in the Fund is allocated. A large portion is set aside for payments to breeders of registered Virginia-breds that win a race at any track in North America. There is a $25,000 cap on any single award.

Morgan's Ford Farm, based in Front Royal, led the charge with $126,694 from 15 wins. Chess Chief, who scored a pair of stakes wins, and Bella Aurora, who connected in a single stake, were both key. The former, a 6-year-old Into Mischief horse, scored a maximum $25,000 award in winning the New Orleans Classic and a $19,027 bonus in the Tenacious Stakes. Both were held at Fair Grounds. Bella Aurora won the Interborough Stakes, good for $17,441 while Supply and Demand, with three wins in New York, produced over $32,000 in awards.

Mr. & Mrs. C. Oliver Iselin III finished second in awards with $113,855 led by several key contributors — Passion Play, Virginia Beach and Attachment Rate. Passion Play's victories in the Bert Allen and Edward P. Evans Stakes each returned a $19,027 award as did Virginia Beach's win in the Camptown Stakes. Attachment Rate, a former Kentucky Derby participant, captured an $11,035 payday for winning a February allowance at Gulfstream.

Knockgriffin Farm did not have any five-digit award winners but did have 14 overall. Multiple victors Vincent Van Gogo and Gimme Some Mo collected three each and Mucho Mas and Mo Clare's each had a pair. The combined total of $72,346 was good for third in the standings. Gimme Some Mo's $9,944 award from a Churchill Downs claimer was tops and Shastee's maiden special weight $8,562 bonus score at Gulfstream was next best.

Audley Farm Equine's bonus tally of $69,353 came from just five wins, but three were $100,000 stakes. Determined Kingdom prevailed in the Jamestown, Tasting the Stars was best in the Nellie Mae Cox, and Urban Fairytale finished first in the Brookmeade. Each provided an extra $19,027 on top of purse money earned.

With Repo Rocks' three wins and American Dubai's two, Mrs. C. Oliver Iselin took fifth place with $69,166. She had seven triumphs in all but benefitted most from American Dubai's dominating 7-length allowance win at Oaklawn with a $106,000 purse. Repo Rock's hat trick of wins all took place in New York — a maiden special weight at Belmont followed by two winning allowance efforts at Aqueduct.

Carlos Moore and Gillian Gordon-Moore's bonus of $55,443 was good for sixth among breeders. All came from Steve Asmussen trained Boldor, who prevailed in three stakes last year — the Sam's Town at Delta Downs, the King Cotton at Oaklawn and the Punch Line at Colonial.

Quest Realty's $49,799 figure came from six different horses, two of which reached the winners circle three times each — Drosselmoon and Stay Out. Another trio had their picture taken twice — Jestful, Point of Grace and Stay In.

The William Backer Revocable Trust reached the $40,000 level thanks to Shaaz's late season win in a $67,000 maiden special weight at Santa Anita. The Uncle Mo colt, a Bob Baffert trainee, was making his first lifetime start.

Tango Charlie's three wins in 2021 helped Morgan's Ford Farm and Godolphin reach $38,361 in bonus earnings. The 4-year-old Hard Spun gelding took a maiden claimer at Oaklawn followed by claiming wins at Ellis Park and Churchill. Oviatt Class chipped in with a maiden special weight victory at Del Mar, good for a $13,318 check.

Rounding out the top ten was Lazy Lane Farms with $37,659 from nine wins. Forloveofcountry was best on three different occasions while Dublin Yinz Money and Sing Along Suzy won twice each.

A total of $75,000 in stallion awards were distributed among six owners with 11 winners and combined purse earnings of $250,920.

Horses sired by Smallwood Farms' Friend or Foe won three and took $39,248 of the stallion reward pool. Mr. Buff led the way again with two stakes scores in New York — the Stymie and Jazil. The 8-year-old gelding has amassed $1.4 million from 17 lifetime wins.

Goodluckchuck, sired by Anne Louise Bonda's Big Picture, won three races to produce a $14,481 bonus. The 6-year-old gelding won an allowance at Charles Town, a claimer at Timonium and a starter optional claimer at Laurel.

Third largest award went to Lady Olivia at North Cliff, whose $8,967 bonus came courtesy of Heart Light's maiden special weight win at Colonial on Aug. 2. The 3-year-old Cosa Vera filly was best by a nose.

Other awards were received by Leanne Hester (Gone Clubbing), Ruxton Farm (Fierce Wind) and the late Sara Collette (Xenodon).

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Injury Claims Young Sire Speightster At Age 10

Speightster, a Grade 3 winner and young sire who recently relocated to Canada, was euthanized on Feb. 6 after suffering an irreparable hind leg injury in his stall, Canadian Thoroughbred reports.

The 10-year-old son of Speightstown had relocated to Northern Dawn Stables in Hillsburgh, Ontario last month after being purchased by Ontario-based breeders Jay and Christine Hayden. Speightster stood his first four years at stud at WinStar Farm in Kentucky before moving north of the border.

From three crops of racing age, Speightster has sired 88 winners, and his combined progeny earnings exceed $5.4 million.

Speighter had already made an impression in Canada with Woodbine stakes winners Aubrieta and Dreaming of Drew. His other runners of note include stakes winners Door Buster, Tantrum, and That Kenney Kid, as well as Grade 3-placed Tough to Tame.

A homebred for WinStar Farm, Speightster won three of four career starts and earned $368,800, highlighted by a win in the Grade 3 Dwyer Stakes.

Read more at Canadian Thoroughbred.

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