jerry robb | Horse Racing Free Tips

Hello Beautiful Rounds Out 2021 Season With Willa On The Move Try

Though her career has been one with far more successes than failures, Hello Beautiful has also shown a resilience to match her talent. Trainer Brittany Russell will be hoping for more of the same from the history-making filly when she caps her 4-year-old season in the $100,000 Willa On the Move Dec. 26 at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md.

Madaket Stables, Albert Frassetto, Mark Parkinson, K-Mac Stables, and Magic City Stables' Hello Beautiful had a three-race win streak snapped when she finished last of five as the favorite in the six-furlong Politely Nov. 26 at Laurel. Russell said the Golden Lad filly came back well, if agitated, from the performance.

“She was very unhappy after the race, in a just [ticked] off kind of way. She knew that it wasn't supposed to go like that,” Russell said. “When I went back to check on her, it wasn't her normal munching her hay. It was like, 'Get away from me.' The important thing is she's doing well, and she's still Hello Beautiful.

“She's been fine. She really only ran about a quarter of a mile, if you really look at how it went down,” she added. “She came back no worse for the wear. She's doing fine, and she's trained well since.”

Prior to the Politely, Hello Beautiful was a front-running winner of the Alma North at historic Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., and the Weather Vane and Maryland Million Distaff to put her career win total at 10, eight of them in stakes. She is one of only seven horses in event history with three Maryland Million victories.

Hello Beautiful broke from the rail and found herself atypically behind horses in the Politely, outrun to the lead by Princess Kokachin, another speedy type that drew the post just outside the favorite. Jockey Jevian Toledo opted to drop back and then make a run that never materialized.

“I probably should have been a little more clear with Toledo to just kind of stay on that filly. We know our filly. She was a step slow that day, but you've got to go. You've got to go with her,” Russell said. “They were moving, they were going quick, but that's our game, too. When she kind of got checked out of there, it was over.”

Toledo climbs back aboard for the fourth straight race in place of Russell's husband, injured jockey Sheldon Russell, and they drew Post 6 in a field of eight at 124 pounds, a topweight she shares with Call On Mischief and Jakarta.

“You can look at it all different ways, but had our filly drawn outside that filly that day, it might have been a different outcome, too. It's fine. It happens,” Russell said. “You better learn how to lose races, because we lose a lot more than we win. Just be a good loser and hopefully, she bounces back next time.”

Eric Rizer's homebred Princess Kokachin will break inside Hello Beautiful from Post 3 under regular rider Xavier Perez, looking to extend her win streak to six races. The Politely marked the stakes debut for the Jerry Robb-trained 3-year-old Graydar filly, with all of those victories coming against older horses. She set testing fractions of :21.98 and :45.12 before finishing up in 1:11.22 to win by 5 ½ lengths.

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Beaten in the Alma North and May 15 Skipat, also at Pimlico, in two previous trips to Maryland this year, Down Neck Stables' Call On Mischief is set to make her Laurel debut. She prevailed by a half-length after a prolonged drive to win the six-furlong Mahoning Distaff Nov. 22, and was most recently second in the Garland of Roses Dec. 11 over a sloppy surface at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, N.Y.

Five Hellions Farm's Dontletsweetfoolya captured last year's Willa On the Move to cap her 3-year-old campaign on a five-race win streak. Winless in her first four starts to open 2021, she went three months between the Grade 3 Runhappy Barbara Fritchie Feb. 20 and Skipat, and returned to the winner's circle with a popular 6 ¼-length optional claiming allowance triumph in front-running fashion sprinting six furlongs Nov. 5 at Laurel.

Also entered are Three Diamonds Farm's Jakarta, a stakes winner making her first start for trainer Mike Trombetta and first dirt start since running fourth in the June 2020 G3 Vagrancy at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.; Kaylasaurus, racing first off the claim for Penn National-based trainer Tim Kreiser; Kentucky shipper Miss Mosiac; and multiple stakes-placed Paisley Singing.

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Juveniles Buff My Boots, Sparkle Sprinkle Face Off Again In Saturday’s Smart Halo

Buff My Boots and Sparkle Sprinkle, respectively first and third in the Maryland Million Lassie last month, are entered to renew their budding rivalry as part of a field of eight for the $100,000 Smart Halo on Saturday at Laurel Park.

Bird Mobberley's Buff My Boots and Eric Rizer homebred Sparkle Sprinkle have met in each of their past two starts. Buff My Boots ran third and Sparkle Sprinkle sixth in an Oct. 3 starter optional claimer at Laurel that served as their Maryland Million prep.

Buff My Boots set the pace in the Lassie through testing splits of 22.58 and 45.63 seconds and lost the lead by a head to Sparkle Sprinkle once straightened for home before coming on again to get up by a half-length over My Thoughts.

“To tell you the truth, I thought she was beat at the head of the lane when [Sparkle Sprinkle] came to her, and she showed her guts. She dug back in,” trainer John Salzman Jr. said. “There's no doubt about it, she can run. And she's fast, and it looks like she'll carry it a little further. She was sort of going away from those horses. There were some horses that came running late, but she's a nice filly. She's done everything I've asked of her. Knock on wood, she seems to have come out of that race good.”

Buff My Boots drew outside Post 8 under regular rider J. D. Acosta. If Salzman opts not to run on the quick turnaround, he will point to the $100,000 Maryland Juvenile Fillies for Maryland-bred/sired horses going seven furlongs Dec. 4.

“It's just a little quicker back than I'd like to see off a big effort like she gave me,” Salzman said. “If there's something that I don't like or if somebody shows up that I think is really tough, I'll just skip it and wait for the Maryland-bred race.”

Sparkle Sprinkle was making her stakes debut in the Lassie, her fourth career start. Trained by Jerry Robb, she opened with back-to-back wins Aug. 28 at Timonium and Sept. 18 at Laurel, before running a troubled sixth in the Oct. 3 race won by Click to Confirm, who is also entered in the Smart Halo.

Louis Ulman and Stephen Parker's Whiteknuckleflyer graduated by a head in her fourth and most recent start, a 5 ½-furlong maiden special weight on the Laurel turf Oct. 21. Favored over nine rivals, she raced in stalking position before taking over the top spot past the sixteenth pole and hanging on to win in a photo over Candy Light and Candy Arcade.

“She ran well in that race. The two that were behind her, second and third, were first-time starters that were pretty well-bred and look like they might be nice horses, so I thought it was a pretty good race,” trainer Dale Capuano said. “She came out of it good and breezed well the other day, so we're going to look at the stake and see how it comes up.”

In addition to her win on turf, Whiteknuckleflyer was also second to Laurel-based Murph in the Sept. 25 Small Wonder sprinting over Delaware Park's main track. The Smart Halo will be her first race at a distance other than 5 ½ furlongs.

“It pretty much doesn't matter what kind of track I run her on. She seems to handle both turf and dirt just fine. We're definitely pleased about that,” Capuano said. “She's not quite as quick as some of those other fillies, so she doesn't mind being behind and running on. It works out well.”

Jorge Ruiz returns to ride from Post 4. All fillies will carry 122 pounds.

Click to Confirm, wheeling back in nine days after suffering her first loss while finishing seventh as the favorite in an optional claiming allowance at Laurel; Intrepid Daydream, a 16 ¾-length maiden special weight winner Oct. 20 at Delaware; Luna Belle, fourth by a length in the Lassie; Trade Secret, a last-out winner for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen; and Buy the Best, riding a two-race win streak, round out the field.

Smart Halo, by top Maryland sire Smarten, won the first race on the inaugural Maryland Million Day program in 1986, beating In the Curl by a neck in the Lassie to cap a perfect 3-0 campaign. Bred in Canada by E.P. Taylor and owned by Sam-Son Farm, Smart Halo was trained by Canadian Hall of Famer Jim Day.

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Stakes Winner Anna’s Bandit Retired

No Guts No Glory Farm's 7-year-old mare Anna's Bandit, whose resume includes 11 stakes wins at three different tracks in two states as well as purse earnings of $806,655 over six seasons, has been retired from racing and will become a broodmare.

Bred and owned and trained by Maryland-based John 'Jerry' Robb and his wife, Gina, and ridden in 33 of her 39 lifetime starts by Xavier Perez, Anna's Bandit retires with a career record of 17 wins, five seconds, and eight thirds.

The Maryland Jockey Club will honor Anna's Bandit with a retirement ceremony between races during the 37th Jim McKay Maryland Million Day program Oct. 23 at Laurel Park.

“We're very excited. It's always hard, especially with a horse like Anna that's done so much, that you have to make this decision,” Gina Robb said. We couldn't be prouder of her. Now she's coming home and I'm so grateful, I really am.

“She means the world to us. She's like one of our children, basically. I think anybody who breeds horses can kind of relate to that, especially when it's a mom and pop kind of thing like we are,” she added. “We're a little operation. They're all there with us on the farm, and bringing her home to the farm that we built means so much to us. I'm really happy for her that she had such an incredible career, and now she's able to start over in a new chapter.”

In her most recent race, the daughter of Great Notion out of the No Armistice mare Onearmedbandit ran fifth in a six-furlong optional claiming allowance July 26 at Colonial Downs in New Kent, Va., behind fellow multiple stakes winner Never Enough Time.

“We were pretty much decided that this was going to be her last year regardless, it didn't matter if she was good, bad, or indifferent,” Gina Robb said. “She came out of that Colonial race a little tired, and we were kind of shaking our heads because we thought it was one of her easier spots.

“When she came back from Colonial, we just kind of didn't like the way she was going,” she added. “She doesn't have anything major where we had to stop her, but I think in all of our minds and our hearts and how much she means to us, we really didn't want to take any more chances.”

Perez, who reached 1,000th career wins in June at Delaware Park in Wilmington, Del., rode Anna's Bandit to 14 wins, four seconds, and seven thirds, and all but $114,540 of her purse earnings. Other jockeys to ride Anna's Bandit were Eric Camacho and Katie Davis in 2016 and 2017 and Gerald Almodovar in the May 29, 2020 Original Gold at Charles Town in Charles Town, W.Va., her last win.

“She deserves it,” Perez said of retirement. “She doesn't owe anything to anybody. She did her job and she made us proud. She's safe and where she belongs. I'm happy for her.”

In 2019, Anna's Bandit won nine of 11 starts and more than $400,000 in purses, tying for the most wins of any horse in North America. Her career stakes wins included the 2018 and 2019 Conniver, 2019 Maryland Million Distaff and 2019 Politely at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md., and 2019 Timonium Distaff.

In West Virginia, where she was bred, Anna's Bandit won the Down Town Allen and Sadie Hawkins in 2018; Original Gold, Sadie Hawkins, and West Virgina Cavada Breeders' Classic in 2019; and Original Gold in 2020.

Her Maryland Million win came just a week after Anna's Bandit won the Cavada, a feat Gina Robb felt was at the top of a laundry list of accomplishments.

“That one year that when she won all those stakes, it was kind of like a blur,” she said. “After she won the West Virginia-bred race and came back in seven days … I have the goosebumps thinking of it. That had to be the most incredible of all the races.”

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Anna's Bandit also placed in 10 other stakes, including a third behind Majestic Reason and Victim of Love in the 2020 Grade 3 Runhappy Barbara Fritchie, her lone graded-stakes attempt. Majestic Reason was a three-time stakes winner that was retired following the race, while Victim of Love went on to win back-to-back editions of the Grade 3 Vagrancy in 2020 and 2021 and run third in the 2020 Grade 1 Ballerina.

“She's amazing. She's always going to be one of the best horses I ever rode, or anybody rode,” Perez said. “They don't come around too often. You have to be lucky and be in the right place at the right time. It worked out for me.”

Anna's Bandit's success has been nothing short of remarkable. She showed she was special early on, debuting with a 6 ¾-length maiden special weight triumph May 6, 2016 at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md., and jumping straight into stakes company. She finished third in the Astoria at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., and second in the Debutante at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., the latter in July, before going to the sidelines.

She went 14 ½ months between races, the result of multiple operations to repair leg injuries that went undiagnosed during her formative years.

Anna's Bandit was limited to four starts in 2020, due to both the coronavirus pandemic that paused live racing in Maryland for 2 ½ months from mid-March to late May, and a minor foot issue in late summer that prompted Robb to give her the rest of the year off. She began this year running fifth in the June 13 Shine Again at historic Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., and second in the July 10 Dashing Beauty at Delaware Park.

Plans call for Anna's Bandit to be bred in 2022, though the details have yet to be worked out.

“We are just trying to get over the fact that she's retired. We do have time to discuss where we're going on February 15th, because we plan on trying to get her in foal early,” Gina Robb said. “We would like to ship her and bring her home and not have her stay anywhere else. I don't know that I'm ready to let her go. I'm just getting her back.

“I think the first year we might keep her local, to a Maryland sire or on the East Coast, somewhere close so we can ship and go and keep her home where I don't have to worry about anything else. I'm very excited to be a part of her broodmare career, and to have her first foal on this farm is going to be one remarkable day.”

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘I Can’t Imagine Doing Anything Else’

Disruption is the name of the racing game in Maryland at the moment, with a massive overhaul of Laurel Park's racing surface forcing trainers to find other accommodations to condition their equine charges. For veteran trainer Jerry Robb, it's been his above average afternoon successes that have kept him from wanting to throw in the towel.

“I had a really good month last month,” he explained. “With only 26 horses, we won 10 races last month, and another six or seven this month.”

Driving back and forth between Timonium and Delaware Park to oversee his split string of horses has been hard on both Robb's mind and his wallet, but at the end of the day, the long-time horseman wouldn't have it any other way.

“I'm probably not ever going to retire,” Robb said, adding: “They'll probably just stick me in the ground one morning at post time!”

With several top-quality horses in the barn, Robb hopes that day remains well in the future. Filling his stalls are the seven-time stakes-winning 3-year-old filly Street Lute, $780,000 earner Anna's Bandit, and the latter's 2-year-old half-sister, first-out winner Bandits Warrior.

“That's what keeps you going, having nice horses in the barn,” said Robb. “There are definitely hard days, especially dealing with trying to find help and all this driving. But, getting back in the winner's circle, there's just nothing like it.”

Street Lute won the June 13 Stormy Blues Stakes at Pimlico, already her seventh stakes win from 11 career starts. Robb selected the daughter of Street Magician for just $10,500 as a yearling at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearling sale, and she's already earned over $190,000 on the track.

“She's Maryland-bred, Delaware-certified, and Virginia-certified,” Robb explained. “Being able to run her in those (restricted stakes) spots has been helpful, though she's won in some open spots too. She'll run at Colonial next.”

Street Lute wins the Stormy Blues Stakes at Pimlico Race Course.

Anna's Bandit ran on the same card, finishing fifth in the Shine Again Stakes in first start since July of 2020. The 7-year-old West Virginia-bred has won a total of 11 stakes races in her career, and even ran third in the G3 Barbara Fritchie Stakes last February.

“She'd been ready to run for two months, but she'll have needed the race,” Robb said. “It's been hard to find a spot for her, but we'll keep her in the Maryland and West Virginia-bred races for a while.”

As a homebred for his wife, Gina, under the banner No Guts No Glory Farm, Anna's Bandit has been a major boon for Robb's stable. She is out of the No Armistice mare One Armed Bandit, a Robb-selected $13,500 yearling whom he trained to earn over $300,000 on the track. In 2019, she won nine of her 11 starts, all but one in a stakes race, to be named the co-winningest horse of the year.

Anna's Bandit's sire, Great Notion, commanded a stud fee of just $3,500 when she was conceived.

Anna's Bandit winning the 2019 Maryland Million Distaff

“We've always dealt with bottom of the barrel horses in terms of prices,” Robb said. “Mostly I've been lucky I guess, there's no real art to it. It doesn't matter how cheap they are, they've got to have the heart and the willpower. You saw that with the Kentucky Derby winner this year.”

The top horse in Robb's training history remains Maryland Thoroughbred Hall of Famer Little Bold John, another “bottom-barrel” horse conceived from a $1,500 stud fee out of a mare Robb traded for. The impressive Little Bold John raced 105 times with 38 wins and almost $2 million in earnings before being retired in 1993. His 25 stakes wins were a Maryland-bred record until surpassed by Ben's Cat in 2016.

“It's something I'm extremely proud of, that I've won a stakes race nearly every year since 1980,” Robb said.

Robb saddled his first winner with Hail Aristocrat at Penn National in 1973, and he was named Maryland Trainer of the Year in 1992. Robb registered a career-high 114 wins in 1988 and has reached the $1 million mark in seasonal earnings 14 times, with a high of $2.3 million in 2002. A four-time meet-leading trainer in Maryland, Robb overall has had more than 12,500 starters and $39 million in purses earned

He has won nine career graded-stakes, five of them courtesy of Little Bold John from 1987-89. Other graded winners are He Is Risen, Lightning Paces, Pioneer Boy and Debt Ceiling, his most recent, in the 2013 Bashford Manor (G3).

He also has a strong history of representing horsemen. He served on the Maryland Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association Board of Directors in the late 1970s, and was later involved in the co-founding of the MTHA. In the late 1980s, he implemented the first condition book index that the country had ever seen.

“I got started as a gallop boy for James McGill at Marlboro Racetrack, and eventually I bought a couple horses and he taught me how to train them,” Robb said. “It's just grown from there, and now I can't imagine doing anything else.”

When he achieved his 2,000th training victory last February, Robb explained that the milestone means more than words can express for his small operation.

“It means a lot, because I've always had a small outfit, 20-30 horses,” he said. “We never had the big outfit that gets those kinds of numbers. We had to grind it out, 50 a year. That's what we do and, hopefully, I win 50 more [this] year.”

Trainer Jerry Robb celebrates his 2,000th career victory

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