jim ryerson | Horse Racing Free Tips

Courvoisier Ready for Withers

Courvoisier (Tapit), last-out winner of the Jan. 1 Jerome S., tuned up for Saturday's GIII Withers S. with a five-furlong work in 1:02.41 (2/15) over the Belmont training track Friday.

“He's doing well,” trainer Kelly Breen said. “He breezed Friday by himself. It was a maintenance workout and he's good to go.”

Owned by Hill 'n' Dale Equine Holdings and James Spry, Courvoisier is a son of 2014 champion 2-year-old filly Take Charge Brandi (Giant's Causeway).

Jerome fourth-place finisher Unbridled Bomber (Upstart) was declared ready for the Withers following a five-furlong breeze in 1:00.60 (1/16) over Belmont's training track Jan. 25.

“We're headed to the Withers next and we're happy with how he's doing. We're happy with how he ran last time and with his last couple races,” said trainer Jim Ryerson. “We'll see if he can stretch out and handle the ground.”

Unbridled Bomber, owned by Ryerson and Edward Potash and Brad Yankanich, broke his maiden going one mile at Belmont Nov. 7. He raced off the pace after breaking a step slowly in the Jerome and rallied three wide into the stretch, but was unable to make up ground.

“As the way the day went, speed was so dominant over that track,” said Ryerson of the Jerome result. “We really couldn't have put him into the pace and so we just had to see how it would go [from off the pace]. I thought he ran very well.”

Trainer Michael Trombetta said the Withers is under consideration for R Larry Johnson's Mr Jefferson (Constitution). The chestnut colt was fourth in last year's GII Remsen S. and sixth in the Jerome.

“More than likely, I'll send Mr Jefferson up. The two turns definitely helps him,” Trombetta said. “The first time I brought him up, I thought he ran well. The last time I don't think he liked the track very much. That might have had something to do with the sub-par performance.”

Mr Jefferson worked four furlongs over the main track at Laurel in :50.80 (4/12) Sunday.

“The track was deep because of the cold weather, but he worked well,” Trombetta said.

The nine-furlong Withers offers 10-4-2-1 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the top-four finishers.

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‘Stronger, Faster’ Miss Marissa Returns In Turnback The Alarm

Cammarota Racing's Miss Marissa will attempt to win her third graded stakes event when facing four other fillies and mares in Saturday's Grade 3, $150,000 Turnback the Alarm going nine furlongs over the Belmont Park main track.

Miss Marissa, trained by Jim Ryerson, was a last-out third in the Grade 2 Beldame on October 10 at Belmont where she finished behind the victorious Royal Flag and Horologist, both of whom are entered in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Distaff.

When Miss Marissa captured the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap on July 10, it prompted Ryerson to try the 4-year-old daughter of He's Had Enough in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign seven weeks later at Saratoga, where she finished a distant eighth.

Ryerson said a good effort by Miss Marissa on Saturday would result in a start in the Grade 3, $250,000 Go for Wand on Dec. 4 at Aqueduct.

“I thought she battled well to try and be second in the Beldame and ran really well that day,” Ryerson said. “Hopefully, we can do well and then go to the Go for Wand from there going a flat mile. We made our mark going a little further than that, but it's in our backyard.”

Miss Marissa shipped to Pimlico Race Course to capture the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan last October. Ryerson said Miss Marissa has developed well into her 4-year-old season.

“Going from three to four, you like to see them get a little stronger, faster and have some more maturity in them,” Ryerson said. “I think she's done that. They don't always do that. We'll see how we finish the year and see what Mr. [Alfonso] Cammarota wants to do with her next year. Hopefully, we can finish the year well. She's sound and if she races well finishing up this year, I think he'll plan to race her.”

Ryerson said Miss Marissa, who has won over five different ovals, gets a lot out of her training at Belmont.

“The one thing that I've noticed is that she really likes to train here,” Ryerson said. “I was a little disappointed with how she trained at Saratoga and to have the results we had, but we've gone out of here and run a number of places and she's run well.”

Kendrick Carmouche will ride Miss Marissa from post 2.

Three-time winner Jilted Bride seeks to make the grade for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.

The ultra-consistent 4-year-old daughter of Wicked Strong has never finished out of the money in a dozen lifetime starts. She arrives off a runner-up effort in a seven-furlong allowance optional claimer on October 2 at Churchill Downs, which came three months after earning black type when third in the Lady Jacqueline at Thistledown.

“There's very few that try every race, and she is a model of consistency,” said Peter Bradley of Bradley Thoroughbreds, who owns Jilted Bride in partnership with Tim Cambron, Anna Cambron, Brady Carruth and Zane Carruth.

Bradley expressed optimism in Jilted Bride being competitive at graded stakes level.

“This race will tell us,” Bradley said. “She ran a very solid race in her comeback at Churchill. She certainly needed the race. She's a filly that has definitely matured and gotten better physically.”

Ruben Silvera will ride Jilted Bride from post 1.

Gibberish, trained by Saffie Joseph, Jr for e Five Racing Thoroughbreds, will attempt a fifth career win. The 4-year-old Lea filly earned graded stakes black type two starts back when second to Miss Marissa in the Delaware Handicap ahead of a fourth in the Summer Colony at Saratoga. Her last victory took place in the Treasure Chest last November at Delta Downs.

Gibberish will break from post 5 under Dylan Davis.

Completing the field are So Darn Hot [post 3, Manny Franco] and Firing Carol [post 4, Eric Cancel].

The Turnback the Alarm is carded as Race 3 on Saturday's 10-race program, which also includes the $200,000 Mohawk; the $100,000 Stewart Manor; and the $100,000 Chelsey Flower. First post is 12 p.m. Eastern.

America's Day at the Races will present daily coverage and analysis of the fall meet at Belmont Park on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/tv-schedule.

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Tough Task In Personal Ensign, But Miss Marissa ‘Going In The Right Direction’

Trainer Jim Ryerson said he knows that Miss Marissa is facing the biggest challenge of her career in Saturday's Grade 1, $600,000 Personal Ensign Presented by Lia Infiniti for older fillies and mares at Saratoga, yet he's optimistic that she will give a good accounting of herself.

“The race is very, very tough. There couldn't be a tougher filly and mare race anywhere,” Ryerson said of the nine-furlong test stacked with nine multiple stakes winners and three Grade 1 winners. “But we're here to participate. This race is so tough, but she deserves a chance to run with these and we'll see what happens.”

The Personal Ensign field includes three-time Grade 1 winner and reigning Champion 3-Year-Old Filly Swiss Skydiver, who beat the boys in last year's Grade 1 Preakness and took the Grade 1 Alabama on this track last year; Letruska, who won the Grade 1 Apple Blossom, the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps, and the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis in her last three outings; and Harvey's Lil Goil, the 2020 winner of the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on the grass. Add dual Grade 2 winner As Time Goes By, whom Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert is so confident in that he sent her here from Southern California, to the mix.

That lineup is mighty fearsome but Miss Marissa, whom Alphonso Cammarota bought for the bargain price of $11,000 as a yearling, might have a surprise in store. She's done it before.

Sent off at 10-1, she was a neck winner over Bonny South in the 2020 Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan in October. She outran her odds again last time out when she took the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap on July 10 and Bonny South disappointed as the odds-on favorite with a fifth place finish. Incidentally, the Brad Cox-trained, Grade 3 winning Bonny South is also entered in Saturday's Personal Ensign.

“Marissa jumped up those times in those Grade 2s. Absolutely,” her trainer said. “She's been very consistent over the last year and done very well running two turns.”

What is also beneficial to this filly is her familiarity with her Saratoga surroundings and her affinity for the racing strip. In a pair of Saratoga starts she finished first in an optional claiming allowance race at nine furlongs in August 2020 and was the runner-up in a maiden special weight race in 2019.

“She ran good on this track and won that allowance race on this track last year. That race she ran here last year was her coming out party. She really improved in terms of her speed and her ability to run a mile-and-an-eighth, and that race propelled her into the Black-Eyed Susan,” Ryerson said. “I think that she has grown up both physically and mentally this year. She's more relaxed, she's put on weight, she's grown. She's matured like you would want a filly to move from three to four. I think that's why you see those two efforts since we stopped her in January and gave her a freshening. Those were real solid efforts and she's going in the right direction. Whether she's good enough, we'll find out on Saturday.”

The Personal Ensign is a “Win and You're In” qualifier for the Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff at Del Mar in November. Ryerson last had a Breeders' Cup runner when multiple graded stakes winner Park Avenue Ball competed in the 2007 Dirt Mile. He is best known as the trainer of 1995 Breeders' Cup Juvenile with Unbridled's Song, who also captured the Grade 1 1996 Florida Derby.

“When you're lucky enough to have a nice horse, they make things different for you and for the whole crew. Everybody gets excited. This is some important stuff,” said Ryerson.

Daniel Centeno has been Miss Marissa's partner for the wins in the Black-Eyed Susan and the Delaware Handicap and Ryerson will leg him up again on Saturday.

“Daniel has done great with her and they team up well. We're sticking with him. He deserves this chance and Marissa deserves this chance,” he said.

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Improving Miss Marissa Could Bring Ryerson To Del Mar

It may have been more than a decade since Jim Ryerson has had a graded stakes winner in his barn, but he certainly hasn't forgotten what to do with one. The 4-year-old filly Miss Marissa proved that fact decisively with her victory in the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap on July 10.

“You have to train the horses that you have and you try to do the best you can for the owners that you have,” Ryerson said of the in-between years. “Then at times a nice one comes along, I think we have an idea of what to do with them when we get them. But if you should ever think that it's a given to always have nice horses in the barn, you're in the wrong business!”

With the filly now pointing to the Grade 1 Personal Ensign near the end of the Saratoga meet, 68-year-old Ryerson is remembering to savor the experience along the way.

The trainer had to take his time developing Miss Marissa for owner Alfonso Cammarota, to whom Ryerson was recommended by Frank and Patricia Generazio three years ago. A New York-bred daughter of He's Had Enough, Miss Marissa needed four starts to break her maiden as a 2-year-old, then the pandemic last year caused major interruptions in the first half of her 3-year-old season.

Miss Marissa really started to put it all together last July, winning an allowance race at Ryerson's old stomping grounds of Monmouth Park to kick off a three-race win streak that culminated in the G2 Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico in October.

“That all followed stretching her out to two turns, which really helped her,” Ryerson explained. “She then ran a pretty good second in the Ladies (Handicap) in January, got beat by a filly of Todd (Pletcher's), and I didn't think the track was to her liking at all that day. We had made up our minds to give her a break after that, and she's come back very well.”

After a five-month layoff, Miss Marissa ran second to Dream Marie in the listed Obeah Stakes at Delaware on June 9, then stepped up to capture the G2 Delaware 'Cap a month later by 1 ¼ lengths.

“You like to see a filly progress from three to four – she's gonna have to run faster and all – and I think you can see signs that she's doing that,” said Ryerson. “You have Letruska, Swiss Skydiver, some other fillies that ran a good bit faster than her last year, but she's narrowed the gap. I think she has controlling speed, she's not one-dimensional where she has to have the lead, but she can carry her speed and there aren't a lot out there that have done that.”

Miss Marissa wins the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap at Delaware Park.

He acknowledges that the Personal Ensign will be a big step up in class, but Ryerson thinks Miss Marissa is capable of continuing to progress in what will be her third start off the layoff.

“We're stabled here (at Saratoga) and she won here last year, so that goes into it,” the trainer explained. “I think her effort in the Delaware Handicap puts us there. It's a pretty big jump but I think it's time to try and make it, and we've got about six weeks to get ready for that.”

The Personal Ensign is a “Win and You're In” race which offers the winner an expenses-paid berth to the Breeders' Cup Distaff this fall at Del Mar.

Should Miss Marissa earn a trip to the West Coast, it won't be Ryerson's first experience at the Breeders' Cup. He saddled the winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile in 1995: Unbridled's Song.

Later a champion sire, Unbridled's Song also won the 1996 Florida Derby and Wood Memorial before a well-publicized foot issue leading up to the Kentucky Derby. The colt wound up finishing fifth in the Run for the Roses.

Ryerson also had multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Park Avenue Ball run in his hometown's Breeders' Cup World Championships at Monmouth Park. in 2007.

“I haven't had too many opportunities in the Breeders' Cup, but this filly, looking at her going into this year, I think if she can win a couple this year, she can get herself in that discussion,” Ryerson said of Miss Marissa.

No matter how this season pans out, Ryerson has come a long way from the 15-year-old kid who walked onto the Monmouth backstretch looking for a summer job. He became a well-known figure on the New Jersey circuit for several decades, but made the decision to move his stable to New York full time about 10 years ago.

“I was looking for a place that I could continue doing what I love doing; because of the lost dates in New Jersey, there were a lot of opportunities lost in the state,” said Ryerson. “My wife and all my kids still live in Monmouth County, along with all our grandchildren, so it wasn't an easy decision to make.

“My wife understands, but she stays there while I work in New York because it keeps her happy, and I then try to be the grandfather I want to be. You try to make the time. It's not as much as I would like, of course, because it's hard sometimes, but it's doable.”

With 17 horses at Saratoga and another 13 at Belmont, Ryerson said he definitely still enjoys coming to work every morning.

“I know that I'm not getting any younger, but I love doing it and I think that I can offer clients a good option as a horse trainer. I'm probably as busy now, even though I don't have a huge outfit, compared to five years ago, 10 years ago, so I think it's been a good move (to New York).”

Besides, you just never know when the next good horse will walk into your barn.

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