Pegasus World Cup Hopefuls Tune Up

Bruce Lunsford's Art Collector (Bernardini) tuned up for the Jan. 28 GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational with a five-furlong drill in 1:01.60 (1/5) at Payson Park Sunday.

“He went very well this morning,” said trainer Bill Mott. “I was happy with him. He galloped out well and cooled out. It's looking like he's coming into the race well.”

Art Collector, winner of the 2021 GI Woodward S. and two-time winner of the GII Charles Town Classic, has been off since finishing fifth in the Oct. 1 GII Lukas Classic. He was originally being considered for the Dec. 3 GI Cigar Mile at Aqueduct and the Dec. 31 GIII Harlan's Holiday S. at Gulfstream, the local prep for the Pegasus.

“We were thinking of the Cigar Mile, but we lost some time with him due to a foot abscess,” Mott said. “Then we considered the Harlan's Holiday, but we felt we just needed more time.”

Jet Set Racing Stable's Super Corinto (Arg) (Super Saver) breezed a half-mile in :49.03 (4/58) at Gulfstream Park Sunday morning in preparation for a start in the Pegasus World Cup.

The work was the fifth in a series of works since the 5-year-old captured a Dec. 8 optional-claiming allowance at Gulfstream. He was a Group 1 winner in Chile before being sent to trainer Amador Sanchez, for whom he finished second behind Chilean Group 1 winner O'Connor (Chi) (Boboman) in his U.S. debut Nov. 12.

Both South American imports, who took turns beating each other in Group 1 races before heading to the U.S., are among the 12 horses invited to the Pegasus World Cup.

Ivar (Brz) (Agnes Gold {Jpn}) turned in his penultimate work for the Jan. 28 GI Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational with a five-furlong work in 1:02.00 (2/15) at the Thoroughbred Training Center Saturday.

“Ivar is ready,” said trainer Paulo Lobo. “His work [Saturday] was very good, in company nice and easy, like he likes to do. His final work will be next Saturday here, and then we're going to ship him either that Monday or Tuesday.”

Third in the 2021 GI Breeders' Cup Mile, Ivar was second in last year's GI Woodbine Mile and GI Coolmore Turf Mile before ending the year with a fourth-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Mile at Keeneland in his most recent start.

“I think his race was very good,” Lobo said of the 2022 Breeders' Cup Mile won by European standout Modern Games. “He lost to a very top horse. Javier Castellano was riding him for the first time. He rode a very good race, and since then we've pointed for the Pegasus Turf and we've never missed a day and never had a bad day. Everything that we planned is happening, no problems.”

Lobo said Justify My Love (Brz) (Agnes Gold {Jpn}), like Ivar owned by Bonne Chance Farm LLC and breeder Stud RDI LLC,  will compete in the GI Pegasus Filly & Mare Turf Invitational on the Jan. 28 undercard.

Justify My Love was a Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed in Argentina before being sent to Lobo last year. Off a nine-month layoff, she was sixth in her first two starts before capturing a Churchill Downs' turf allowance race Nov. 19 in her most recent start.

“She's a very nice filly,” Lobo said. “It took a little while for her to adjust here, but she had a very nice win at Churchill Downs. She's in top form now, physically and mentally. I think she'll run well over there. The race is very tough, but I think she's going to enjoy a mile and an eighth. She's training super, this filly. Super.”

The post Pegasus World Cup Hopefuls Tune Up appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Modern Games ‘Miles’ the Best at Woodbine

When last seen on these shores, Godolphin's Modern Games (Ire) (c, 3, Dubawi {Ire}–Modern Ideals {GB}, by New Approach {Ire}) was embroiled in the controversy of all controversies, when erroneously scratched, then allowed to run–albeit for purse money only–in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf, which he duly won. The homebred is likely back on his way to the Breeders' Cup after pummeling overmatched rivals by five lengths in Saturday's GI Ricoh Woodbine Mile, for which Modern Games earns an all-expenses-paid trip to Keeneland.

Allowed to drift back to sit worse than midfield as Get Smokin (Got Stormy) set a strong tempo in advance of War Bomber (Ire) (War Front), the chestnut still found himself in the latter half of the field, in some traffic and very much on hold as they raced into the final three-eighths of a mile. Waiting for the precise moment to pull the trigger, William Buick set Modern Games alight once heads were turned for home, beating GI Maker's Mark Mile winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Shirl's Speight (Speightstown) to a spot while angling out and around  fellow European raider Finest Sound (Ire) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}). Once into the clear, Modern Games let down beautifully and motored through the final couple of furlongs to score decisively. Ivar (Brz) (Agnes Gold {Jpn}) was along late to take a photo for second over Finest Sound. Modern Games is the first 3-year-old to win the Woodbine Mile.

Winner of this year's G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains (French 2000 Guineas) in his first post-Breeders' Cup appearance in May, Modern Games failed to see out the extended 10-furlong trip when beaten 5 1/4 lengths into third by the exciting Vadeni (Fr) (Churchill {Ire}) in the G1 Prix du Jockey Club June 5. Fractionally disappointing when fifth as the 8-5 favorite in the G1 Prix Jean Prat at Deauville July 10, Modern Games ran Europe's top horse Baaeed (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) to 1 3/4 lengths when last seen in the G1 Sussex S. at Goodwood July 27.

Pedigree Notes:

Modern Games is one of four winners from five to the races for his dam, also responsible for this year's Listed Royal Windsor S. winner Modern News (GB) (Shamardal) and Mawj (Ire) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}), second in the G3 Albany S. at Royal Ascot before taking out the G2 Duchess of Cambridge S. during Newmarket's July meeting. Modern Games was produced by a half-sister to G1SW Ultra (Ire) (Manduro {Ger}) and Synopsis (Ire) (In The Wings {GB}) and his deeper female family also includes Bosra Sham and Hector Protector. Modern Ideals is the dam of a yearling filly by Mastercraftsman (Ire).

Saturday, Woodbine
RICOH WOODBINE MILE S.-GI, C$1,017,200, Woodbine, 9-17, 3yo/up, 1mT, 1:32.77, fm.
1–MODERN GAMES (IRE), 123, c, 3, by Dubawi (Ire)
                1st Dam: Modern Ideals (GB), by New Approach (Ire)
                2nd Dam: Epitome (Ire), by Nashwan
                3rd Dam: Proskona, by Mr. Prospector
O/B-Godolphin (IRE); T-Charles Appleby; J-William T. Buick.
C$600,000. Lifetime Record: GSW & G1SP-Eng, G1SW-Fr, GISW-USA, 11-6-2-1, $1,858,773. *1/2 to
Mawj (Ire) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}), GSW-Eng, $119,745;
Modern News (GB) (Shamardal), SW & MGSP-Eng, SP-UAE,
$201,610. Werk Nick Rating: A++.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Ivar (Brz), 122, h, 6, Agnes Gold (Jpn)–May Be Now, by
Smart Strike. O-Bonne Chance Farm, LLC & Stud R D I, LLC.;
B-Stud Rio Dois Irmaos (BRZ); T-Paulo H. Lobo. C$200,000.
3–Finest Sound (Ire), 122, g, 5, Exceed And Excel
(Aus)–Amplifier (GB), by Dubawi (Ire). O/B-Sheikh Mohammed
Obaid Al Maktoum (Ire); T-Simon Crisford. C$110,000.
Margins: 5 1/4, NK, 1HF. Odds: 0.75, 2.80, 25.70.
Also Ran: Shirl's Speight, Town Cruise, Mighty Heart, Wakanaka (Ire), March to the Arch, War Bomber (Ire), Get Smokin, Homer Screen (Brz).
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

The post Modern Games ‘Miles’ the Best at Woodbine appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Count Again Somehow Under the Radar in Maker’s Mark Mile

The owner of some very solid West Coast form, Count Again (Awesome Again) nevertheless projects to be at least a little bit forgotten from a pari-mutuel perspective in a high-class renewal of the GI Maker's Mark Mile, the Good Friday feature at Keeneland.

A maiden winner during this track's fall meet in 2019 when under the care of Neil Howard, the bay won the 10-furlong GIII Singspiel S. for trainer Gail Cox in 2020, but has been kept between eight and nine panels since being switched to the barn of Phil D'Amato. Victorious in Del Mar's GII Seabiscuit H. in his first start for the new outfit at the tail end of that season, Count Again was third in last year's GI F.E. Kilroe S. and GII Eddie Read S., but was freshened off a last-of-five effort in the GII Del Mar Mile S. The break has seemed to do the trick, as he proved narrowly best first off the layoff in the GIII Thunder Road S. Feb. 5 and flew home to take this year's Kilroe Mar. 5.

Flavien Prat was in the boot for Count Again's two most recent successes, but the recently relocated rider will get a leg up from trainer Chad Brown on Juddmonte's European invader Masen (GB) (Kingman {GB}). A maiden winner and third in the G3 Tyros S. for Ger Lyons at two, the maternal grandson of Intercontinental (GB) (Danehill) faced elders in all three starts last term, winning the valuable Sovereign Path H. on Irish Champions Day at Leopardstown Sept. 11 ahead of a front-running tally in the Listed Knockaire S. Oct. 23, both over seven furlongs. It will be interesting to see if he is quick enough to lead this group.

Smooth Like Strait (Midnight Lute) also invades from the Golden State to launch his 5-year-old campaign. Never out of the top three in 2020, his lone victory came in all-the-way fashion in the GI Shoemaker Mile in May, but he was unlucky not to add to that total when runner-up and beaten a half-length or less on five occasions, including when making the majority of the running in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile.

The commonly owned Agnes Gold (Jpn) duo of In Love (Brz) and Ivar (Brz) each have earned Grade I plaudits over this course. In Love came with a stinging stretch rally beneath Alex Achard to cause a 12-1 upset of last October's Keeneland Turf Mile, but was farther back on Breeders' Cup day and rallied mildly to be seventh. Ivar won the 2020 Shadwell Mile and was a keen fourth in defense of his title last fall before settling much better and kicking home nicely to be third at longshot odds in the Breeders' Cup, a length behind Smooth Like Strait.

The post Count Again Somehow Under the Radar in Maker’s Mark Mile appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Bonne Chance Farm

With the 2022 breeding season underway, we continue to feature a series of breeders' mating plans. Today we have Leah Alessandroni, Bloodstock and Office Manager of Bonne Chance Farm.

GLORY AND POWER (m, 8, Medaglia d'Oro – Dance Quietly, by A. P. Indy) to be bred to Essential Quality

   We bought this mare as a weanling and she went on to become a winner for us. Her first foal was Momentous (Speightstown), who was an debut impressive winner at Fair Grounds on Feb. 19. This mare is out of a half-sister to MGISW Saint Liam (Saint Ballado) and Quiet Giant (Giant's Causeway), who of course is the dam of Gun Runner, so it's a really big and active family. We bred her to Tapit in 2019 and that colt was really well-received as a yearling. She has a Street Sense yearling that is also really nice.

Knowing that Glory and Power might not yet have a runner when we were looking at matings for 2022, we really thought hard about this mare. We were getting good reports from WinStar on Momentous, we liked all the other foals she'd had, and she was actually one of the last mares we settled on. We decided to send her to Essential Quality. She can be a bit of a tricky mare to mate physically and he is such a good physical. He's a strong horse and his race record speaks for itself. He was one of the more exciting first-year stallions this year. With this mating we also liked that she had already been to Tapit and it's a similar cross, but with Elusive Quality on the bottom it really offers us access to a different line. I think it's a really interesting mating in terms of the pieces coming together and it's one we're very excited about.

Bonne Chance Farm welcomed their first second-generation foal this year, an Uncle Mo filly out of SW Iva | Bonne Chance Twitter

IVA (m, 6, Scat Daddy – Sushi Empire, by Empire Maker) to be bred to Quality Road

   This is a really special mare for us. She was one of the first foals that was born here at our farm in Kentucky in 2016. We actually bought her dam, Sushi Empire, when she was in foal with Iva. Iva herself became a stakes winner for us, winning the 2019 Cincinnati Trophy S. That was our first blacktype win as breeders. This year Iva had her first foal, an Uncle Mo filly, and it was kind of a full-circle moment for us with her giving us our first second-generation foal as breeders.

This mare is from a really nice family that includes MGSW Marchfield (A. P. Indy) and her dam, Sushi Empire, was also a stakes winner.

Iva is exactly what you would expect a Scat Daddy mare out of an Empire Maker dam to look like. When we were thinking of matings, we wanted a bigger, rangier stallion that offered some stretch. Quality Road had such an incredible 2021 with the champion 2-year-old and he had huge sales. This year he has already had Emblem Road win the G1 Saudi Cup. He's definitely a stallion that when you're looking to breed a quality, proven sire to a young mare, it's a no-brainer. In contrast to Glory and Power, this was probably the first mating that we decided on this year.

GOIABA (m, 8, Speightstown – Christies Treasure, by Belong To Me) to be bred to Curlin

   Goiaba is a full-sister to the Japanese Group 1 winner Mozu Superflare (Speightstown). She is another mare that we bought early on as a yearling and she was a winner for us. She is from one of the most active families that we have on the farm right now. Mozu Superflare is doing great things in Japan and she has two half-sisters who have produce Grade I winners or Grade I-placed horses. It's the family of GIIISW Sacristy (Pulpit) and GISP Flor de La Mar (Tiznow).

Goiaba herself is a really nice, honest mare. She's a strong physical and is what we would consider a pretty typical Speightstown mare. She had her first foal last year. It's an Into Mischief filly that is without a doubt the nicest yearling we have this year. This year she is in foal to Medaglia d'Oro.

When we were looking to find a stallion for her this year, we thought long and hard about it. Any time you have a horse with a pedigree like this, you have to look at the big guns and so we settled on Curlin. We actually haven't bred to him yet, and so when we came to the table this year to talk about matings we all agreed that if we didn't use Curlin, we were missing a big opportunity this year. This mating will be offering a different branch of Mr. Prospector and it's maybe not super conventional, but it's another one we're excited about in sending Curlin a mare of this caliber with such an up-and-coming family that is actively producing all over the world. It's one of our biggest star power matings of the year.

LUCAS STREET (m, 18, Silver Deputy – Ruby Park, by Bold Ruckus) to be bred to Maxfield

Lucas Street is one of our more veteran mares here and she is the dam of 2015 GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Wavell Avenue (Harlington). We bought this mare privately a few years ago. She had a colt by Improbable this year.

Because she's a proven producer, when we purchased her it was an opportunity to get into some of the more commercial, popular stallion lines. Considering that she's a highly-desirable mare, we really wanted to breed her to a first-year stallion this year. The stud fee price point is usually appealing for those guys and you can see a return at the sales.

The stallion that we settled on for her this year was Maxfield. We are very conscious about who we breed this mare to physically and as soon as he walked out, it was a no-brainer for us. I think he's one of the strongest physicals of the group of stallions this year and he was such an honest, hard-knocking racehorse. With him being a Street Sense out of a Bernardini mare, those are two individual sires that we had considered for her in the past and for whatever reasons we never landed on them, so now we have the opportunity to get to both of those sires here.

From a breeding standpoint, this is going to be a very commercial pedigree and it still gives us a lot of options. If it's a colt, maybe we're a little more commercial. If it's a filly, she will have a strong pedigree under her and we've set ourselves up nicely to have a future broodmare. There was really no downside to this one.

ELEMENTAR (m, 10, More Than Ready – Val Marie, by Coronado's Quest) to be bred to American Pharoah

   This is a bit of a younger mare whose pedigree is developing. She is a half-sister to MGSW Grand Adventure (Grand Slam), a champion Grass Horse in Canada. Elementar has had several foals for us including Ready To Purrform (Kitten's Joy), who won the Laurel Futurity last year. Her 2020 foal is a filly by Bernardini and not long after she foaled, we had pretty much decided to keep her to race ourselves. She also has a yearling colt by Runhappy.

The stallion we settled on for her this year is American Pharoah. Every year he has been in the conversation for her, but in the past we weren't sure if she warranted the stud fee. When Ready to Purrform won the Laurel Futurity, the mare earned her way to that level. I think at $80,000 this year for American Pharoah, that has to be a gift with what he's already done this year. This is probably my favorite mating physically. She's a beautiful, balanced mare and all of her foals have been really good movers and I think the same can be said of American Pharoah. This direct cross has already been extremely successful with G1SW Café Pharaoh and MGSW Four Wheel Drive, so all that gave us confidence to send her to him.

MAY BE NOW (m, 14, Smart Strike — Dans La Ville (Chi), by Winning) to be bred to Uncle Mo

   May Be Now is a three-quarters sister to GISW Al's Gal (English Channel) and she is the dam of champion and MG1SW Ivar (Brz) (Agnes Gold {Jpn}). This mare was in our operation in South America and she was brought here to our American operation with the intention to sell. We sold her in 2017 in foal to Hard Spun and shortly after, Ivar hit the track and set the world on fire in Argentina. We quickly set to buy this mare back and when we did, she was again in foal to Hard Spun. That filly, foaled in 2020, is now in our racing stable. May Be Now also has a lovely yearling by Yoshida.

She is not in foal this year but we are sending her to Uncle Mo. He's a stallion that we all love. I think we've used him almost every year. This mare has not always been sent to super commercial stallions in the past, so this can generate a commercial mating but at the same time if it's a filly, we have the option of having a really strong broodmare. The mare is a very typical Smart Strike and I think Uncle Mo offers some size that she will benefit from.

The post Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Bonne Chance Farm appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights