Kenny McPeek | Horse Racing Free Tips

Cheering for Hope from Houston

Nearly a thousand miles from Keeneland Race Course, a watch party in Houston, Texas is sure to be cheering just as emphatically as if they were in the grandstand.

Residents of Camp Hope, a facility that provides support and mentoring to combat veterans suffering from the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress, will tune in on Friday to watch a juvenile colt named after the residential program. If Camp Hope (Summer Front) ends up in the winner’s circle for the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, his earnings will go back to the facility he represents.

Camp Hope heads into the Breeders’ Cup coming off just one career start, but it’s a flashy four-length winning one on Oct. 25 at Churchill Downs. The son of Summer Front is campaigned by Walking L Thoroughbreds, a company owned by Scott Leeds and his wife Dana.

Leeds stopped in at the Camp Hope facility early this week to make sure the residents would be watching the races this weekend.

“When I walked in, everybody knew who I was and they started saying how much they were looking forward to it,” Leeds said. “They’d seen the race from Churchill and were pretty excited. They were asking if horses normally win in their first race and I had to explain to them that I’ve had horses that didn’t win the first 14 times they raced.”

Leeds has hardly had bad luck as an owner in Thoroughbred racing. When he retired from the oil and gas business five years ago, he decided horse racing might be an interesting new venture. He got connected with Kenny McPeek, and was quickly hooked.

“We started out with some small shares in a few horses he had bought,” Leeds recalled. “Before any of them ever ran I was already in so deep that we went to the sales in the summer of 2015 and started buying horses ourselves.”

Since then, they’ve already had several top stakes contenders including Cairo Cat (Cairo Prince), who won the GIII Iroquois S. two years ago but was held back from a Breeders’ Cup start due to an injury, as well as Envoutante (Uncle Mo), one of McPeek’s top fillies this year who most recently claimed the GIII Remington Park Oaks.

Leeds presents Camp Hope staff with Fighting Seabee’s win photo | Scott Leeds

Camp Hope is not the only Walking L horse that races for a cause. It all started with a colt they named Fighting Seabee (Summer Front) in honor of Leeds’s great-grandfather who was a Navy Seabee in World War II. When the colt ran undefeated in his first two starts, including a win in last year’s GIII With Anticipation S., Leeds and his wife decided to share Fighting Seabee’s earnings with the Seabee Historical Foundation, the PTSD Foundation of America and Camp Hope.

“We’ve been supporting the PTSD Foundation of America for a few years,” Leeds said. “Their mission is to support veterans who suffer from PTSD with an expectation that if they can provide peer-to-peer support and temporary housing at Camp Hope, the lives of these folks who come back from the service and have a hard time transitioning will be impacted.”

According to their website, Camp Hope offers a minimum of a six-month program. Residents attend group counseling sessions, as well as individual mentoring sessions with a certified combat trauma mentor. Veterans will also receive vocational preparation, workforce development and job training.

“One of the statistics that knocked us over was that 22 veterans a day, on average, commit suicide in the United States,” Leeds said. “That’s one every hour and six minutes. Their mission is to stop one. If they can make one less veteran make that decision and help them cope with PTSD, the mission is successful. The groups have been so supportive and grateful for what Fighting Seebea has done. We made great racing fans out of the folks at the foundation and at Camp Hope.”

There will be much for the new fans to cheer for on Friday as Fighting Seabee will run in the ‘Future Stars Friday’ undercard in the Bryan Station S. hours before Camp Hope is set to make his second career start.

Camp Hope came to be purchased by Walking L in large part from Fighting Seabee’s early success. Leeds purchased Camp Hope, a son of Summer Front, at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton July Sale just three days after Fighting Seabee became the second winner for the Airdrie stallion.

“We had actually already bought three horses and it was getting pretty late in the day,” Leeds recalled. “We were talking about where we were going to eat dinner that night when Bret Jones called Kenny and suggested we come look at a horse he was going to take through the ring in a few minutes. So we went back and ended up liking him a lot.”

When McPeek chose to enter Camp Hope in a 1 1/16-mile maiden race, Leeds said he had been excited to see the juvenile take on two turns.

Dana Leeds poses with a yearling Camp Hope | Scott Leeds

“We thought he would end up being pretty strong first-time out,” he said. “But you also expect a horse would get tired going two turns in his first start so you don’t really expect to win. Coming down the backside, I saw where he was positioned and I saw the time was slow and could tell Brian had him pretty well in hand. Then I had a feeling we were in for a big performance.”

After Camp Hope’s easy four-length victory, the team sat down to discuss where to go from there.

“There wasn’t much to think about,” Leeds said. “Kenny and I both felt strongly that with no Lasix, coming back in 12 days really wasn’t that much of a stretch. The horse didn’t get asked for a lot and he galloped out even further than he won by. Brian [Hernandez, jockey] said they were on cruise. We pre-entered with the expectation that if he didn’t bounce back as quickly or if there were any issues, we would obviously scratch. But he’s done everything above and beyond what we’ve expected and I think it’s going to work out great.”

While McPeek is still winless at the Breeders’ Cup, he couldn’t be coming in with a hotter hand this year with four other contenders including GI Preakness S. heroine Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil).

Leeds said that he and his wife will be making the trip from Texas to Lexington on Wednesday, and that they will be on-site for the rest of the week sporting their Camp Hope gear.

“We told them we’re going to look for every opportunity to spread the word,” he said.

And while Leeds would certainly be thrilled with their first Breeders’ Cup win, there’s no doubt he would be even more excited for the rest of their connections.

“We’re very fortunate and we feel like we’ve already outdone the expectations we set for ourselves,” he said. “If we run good, that’s our goal- to show that this horse has a really bright future going into his 3-year-old campaign. But if we happen to win, we’re just going to be over-the-moon excited for the horse, for Kenny, and then for Camp Hope. Being able to write the check to those people would truly be special.”

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Monomoy Girl, Swiss Skydiver, Tom’s D’Etat Breeze At Churchill Downs

Saturday's work tab at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., was filled with star power with many of the nation's top contenders logging their penultimate workouts before the Nov. 6-7 Breeders' Cup World Championships at Keeneland. Among the stars to work Saturday included champion Monomoy Girl (six furlongs, 1:12), Preakness (GI) winner Swiss Skydiver (four furlongs, :47.80) and Grade I winner Tom's d'Etat (six furlongs, 1:12.80).

On Saturday, trainer Brad Cox's barn worked five of their nine probable runners in this year's Breeders' Cup. Most notably taking to the track was superstar mare Monomoy Girl. The likely favorite in the $2 million Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (GI) worked with her regular pilot Florent Geroux aboard and started about one length behind stablemate Owendale. Owned by Michael Dubb, Monomoy Stables, The Elkstone Group, and Bethlehem Stables, Monomoy Girl swiftly worked through eighth-mile splits of :12, :24.40, :36.20, :47.80 and 1:00. Monomoy Girl galloped out in front of Owendale through seven furlongs in 1:26.40, according to Churchill Downs clocker John Nichols. Owendale completed his six-furlong move one second slower than Monomoy Girl in 1:13.

“Anyone you put with Monomoy, she seems to always out-work them,” Geroux said. “She's worked with a lot of really good horses in the past and Owendale is a really good horse. She just always gets the better of them.”

“There's not much really to say about her other than she's just really, really, really good right now,” Cox added. “We'll see what the future holds for her but as a 5-year-old she's showing how mature she's become.”

Cox's morning started at 5:30 a.m. when Donegal Racing, Joseph Bulger and Peter Coneway's $2.4 million earner Arklow worked outside of stablemate Plainsman through splits of :12.60, :24.80 and :47.80. Plainsman completed five furlongs in :59.80. Arklow, who was ridden by Geroux, continued to gallop out around the clubhouse turn in front with a six-furlong gallop out in 1:11.80. The $4 million Breeders' Cup Turf (GI) will mark Arklow's 30th career start but only the second with the addition of blinkers.

“I wish I would've added the blinkers in start 19 instead of 29,” Cox joked. “He's really turned the corner since we put them on for the Kentucky Turf Cup Classic (G3) last out. This year has been interesting with this horse. He ran a good race in June (in the $100,000 Louisville) and we ran him back in the Elkhorn where he didn't run bad but I had the not-so-great idea of sticking him on a plane and running six days later at Monmouth (in the G1, $315,000 United Nations). After he finished fourth that day, I said we have to make a change and add blinkers. It really worked out in the Kentucky Turf Cup, which in and of itself turned out to be a really interesting race when there was a torrential downpour before the running of the race.”

Immediately following Arklow's move, Cox worked Korea Racing Authority's four-time winner Knicks Go, who recently cruised to a 10 1/4-length score at Keeneland in a conditioned allowance event. The gray son of Paynter worked solo through early fractions of :24.40 and :48 with a six-furlong gallop out of 1:12.80.

“This horse has really come around,” Cox said. “I hope we can get into the Dirt Mile because I think he will really like two-turns and have a pace advantage with his stamina.”

Also in the first set of Cox horses was Slam Dunk Racing and Medallion Racing's recent $350,000 First Lady (GI) runner-up Beau Recall (IRE), who is likely to face the males in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Mile (GI). She worked by herself through fractions of :13.20 and :25.60 and galloped out five furlongs in 1:03.80.

In Cox's next set he worked Gaining Ground Racing's 12-time winner Factor This, who easily breezed through splits of :13, :25.40 and :49.20. The recent winner of the $250,000 Dinner Party (GII) worked outside of stablemate Gold Standard.

The fastest recorded five-furlong move of the morning came from Allied Racing Stable's $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic (GI) contender By My Standards when he whipped through fractions of :12, :23.40 and :34.80 with jockey Gabriel Saez aboard. The duo galloped out six furlongs in 1:11 and completed seven furlongs in 1:24.80.

“Last week was the first work we did a little bit something serious with him (since he won the Alysheba),” Calhoun said. “He was full of energy and bounced around great after it. It's been a different year for sure losing a few races here or there. We were fortunate to have (the Alysheba) on the undercard of the rescheduled Derby. We probably could've shipped somewhere around the country but our goal was how to get him to the Breeders' Cup Classic. We decided to stay here run in the Alysheba and point to the Breeders' Cup from there.

“Some really good horses look like they're coming together (for the Classic) and horses that have beaten us. Tom's d'Etat beat us (at Churchill in the Stephen Foster). I have a ton of respect for him. Maximum Security hasn't done anything wrong in his career. It's a top group of horses that we'll have to turn the tables on them. … I think By My Standards has been very consistent this year and has gotten better as the months have gone on.”

The aforementioned Tom's d'Etat, who has been off since his troubled third-place effort in the $750,000 Whitney (GI) in early August, continued his serious preparation for the Classic with a solid six-furlong move under jockey Miguel Mena. The duo worked with stablemate Oak Hill. Tom's d'Etat, owned by G M B Racing, worked through splits of :12.20, :23.80, :47.20 and 1:00. Oak Hill completed five furlongs in 1:01.

“The schedule with the pandemic got a little awkward with everyone,” Stall said. “The races didn't quite work out in the calendar quite right for him. My gut feeling said to go into the Classic fresh anyway and when the last round of stakes races came out I didn't like the way they were placed so we stuck with the plan to train up to the race.”

Just before Tom's d'Etat worked, a trio of horses from the Kenny McPeek barn worked solo for the Breeders' Cup. Among them was recent $1 million Preakness Stakes (GI) heroine Swiss Skydiver. With Robby Albarado in the saddle, the classy 3-year-old filly breezed through fractions of :12.40 and :24.40.

“She was pulling today and feeling really good with the cool weather,” Albarado said. “No complaints, she feels amazing. … I'm going to gallop her the last five days before the race as I did at Pimlico. We're going to see how she's doing and make a decision (about the Classic or Distaff) from there.”

Robby Albarado on Swiss Skydiver: “She feels amazing.”

McPeek also worked $1 million Juvenile Fillies (GI) probables Simply Ravishing and Crazy Beautiful. The one-two finishers, respectively, in the $350,000 Alcibiades (GI) had eerily similar workouts. Crazy Beautiful worked through fractions of :12.20 and :24.20, while Simply Ravishing went :12.20 and :24.40.

The Saturday morning action completed around 9:20 a.m. with CJ Thoroughbreds, Left Turn Racing and Casner Racing's $500,000 Derby City Distaff (GI) third-place runner Sally's Curlin who breezed through opening splits of :12.40, :24, :36.40 and :48.40. She galloped out six furlongs in 1:14.40.

Starting on Friday at Churchill Downs, there will be a special training period for Breeders' Cup contenders from 7:30-7:45 a.m. The special training session is scheduled to run through Wednesday, Nov. 4.

The full list of Breeders' Cup contenders that worked Saturday morning at Churchill Downs included the following horses:

Horse	Trainer	Distance, Time	Breeders' Cup Race
Arklow	Brad Cox	Five Furlongs, :59.60	Turf
Beau Recall	Brad Cox	Five Furlongs, :50.60	Mile
By My Standards	Bret Calhoun	Five Furlongs, :58.60	Classic
Crazy Beautiful	Kenny McPeek	Four Furlongs, :48	Juvenile Fillies
Factor This	Brad Cox	Five Furlongs, 1:02	Mile
Global Campaign	Stan Hough	Four Furlongs, :48	Classic
Knicks Go	Brad Cox	Five Furlongs, 1:00.20	Dirt Mile
Monomoy Girl	Brad Cox	Six Furlongs, 1:12	Distaff
Sally's Curlin	Dale Romans	Five Furlongs, 1:01.40	Filly & Mare Sprint
Simply Ravishing	Kenny McPeek	Four Furlongs, :48	Juvenile Fillies
Spanish Loveaffair	Mark Casse	Five Furlongs, 1:04.20	Juvenile Fillies Turf
Swiss Skydiver	Kenny McPeek	Four Furlongs, :47.80	Distaff/Classic
Tom's d'Etat	Al Stall Jr.	Six Furlongs, 1:12.80	Classic

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Birthday ‘Wishes’ Come True For Meg Levy

Meg Levy can't remember how she heard about the $500 Thoroughbred mare needing a home in February of 2017, but she's incredibly glad she decided to go see “Four Wishes” on the way to the Fasig-Tipton sale that afternoon.

The daughter of More Than Ready had been abandoned by a previous owner after running up a board bill. She had a Revolutionary foal on the ground and was in foal to the same sire, as well, but Four Wishes wasn't likely to be particularly commercial – the mare's catalog page was not inspiring, and she'd raced five times without ever finishing better than sixth.

It was Levy's birthday, though, and something told the founding owner of the Bluewater Sales consignment agency to bring the mare home. Three and a half years later, the $500 rescue mare has turned into a fairy tale success: Four Wishes' Laoban filly, Simply Ravishing, won the Grade 1 Alcibiades at Keeneland on Oct. 2.

“You just can't make it up, truly, we all need a good story right now,” Levy said. “I was lucky enough to be there when she crossed the finish line! Keeneland is kind of strange and spooky without people there, but you can move around so freely and be really close to the racetrack, and we kind of ran with her to the wire.

“Four Wishes really had all the negatives: she couldn't run a jump, and they always say never buy a mare with two blank dams, well, she had them. … It sounds kind of cheesy when I tell the story, but we'd never had anything happen like that for ourselves.”

After purchasing Four Wishes in February of 2017, Levy sent the mare to Stone Gate Farm in New York in the hopes of making her Revolutionary foal somewhat commercially viable. After the mare foaled a colt that April, Levy decided to send her to first-year sire Laoban on her husband's breeding right.

Four Wishes and her colt came home to Kentucky in the summer, and the following April her Laoban filly was born in the New York.

Levy's son, Ryder, saw the filly first. He sent his mother a text message with a photograph of the filly out in the field.

“Looks like a bunch of early breeders awards to me,” he wrote.

Those words proved prophetic down the road, but there were more bumps in the road before Simply Ravishing's long-predicted success.

Four Wishes' Revolutionary colt was not accepted to the New York-bred sale and brought a final bid of just $8,000 when sold at Fasig-Tipton October in 2018. He wound up headed to Peru, and Levy doesn't know whether the now 3-year-old has yet raced.

Four Wishes was bred to Daaher next, also on a breeding right, but she suffered a dystocia due to the foal's large size, and sadly that foal did not survive. The mare was badly bruised, Levy said, and was given a year off from the breeding shed to recover.

All that happened shortly before Levy was preparing to send Four Wishes' Laoban filly to the 2019 Fasig-Tipton New York-bred sale.

“Laoban foals were really selling well, and they were all pretty athletic looking,” Levy remembered. “I was already at the sale, and the crew at the farm was loading the horses on the trailer to ship them up to me. They sent me a text, as people sending me bad news tend to do, that once she got on the trailer she really wasn't happy and kicked the wall so hard she tore up her hind foot.

“She was going to be just fine, but obviously she had to get off the van and couldn't go to the sale. I was really disappointed and admittedly pretty grumpy about it.”

Levy re-entered the filly in the Fasig-Tipton October sale, and hoped that her impressive physical would be enough to draw the right kind of attention.

“As she was growing up, she just was so simple,” Levy said. “She was always stunning, always in motion, always the right weight, always shiny, always correct. There was none of this messing around business with awkward stages; she just stood out.”

Though she lacked a commercially attractive pedigree, the filly's good looks were enough to draw the attention of trainer Ken McPeek. His final bid of $50,000 was enough to land the filly.

“She was just the kind of filly Kenny likes, real athletic-looking,” Levy said. “He doesn't care about the page so much, and I knew he'd give her every chance.”

Levy had known McPeek since the time she had galloped for John Ward, and then worked with him at 505 Farm. When Levy first opened her consignment business in 1999, McPeek was one of her first successful customers.

Oddly enough, it was with another filly who had two blank dams on her catalog page. This filly had trouble passing the veterinary inspection; of 12 vets who scoped her airway, only McPeek's vet gave the filly a passing grade.

McPeek landed the daughter of Dehere for $175,000 at the 2000 Fasig-Tipton July sale, and the following year Take Charge Lady won Keeneland's Alcibiades.

Take Charge Lady had great success on the track, winning a total of five Grade 1 races and $2.4 million, and she went on to immeasurable success as Broodmare of the Year and dam of two Grade 1 winners, Take Charge Indy and champion Will Take Charge.

The similarities between the two fillies' storylines are the kind of thing that just can't be made up, Levy said, laughing. She remembered attending the 2001 Alcibiades and cheering Take Charge Lady to victory.

“I knew so little [about industry protocols] back then,” said Levy. “I ran across the rail to get to the winner's circle for the photo, and I'm sure everybody in there was like, 'Who is this girl?'”

A more seasoned veteran now, Levy was still emotional after Simply Ravishing's big win in the Alcibiades. Her son Ryder, now 29, had been such a huge fan of the filly's from the very beginning, and he'd surprised his mother by asking the farm manager to name Levy the sole breeder for the first time in her career.

McPeek stayed in touch about the filly through her early training, sending videos of Simply Ravishing's progress ahead of her first start.

“I thought, 'Well, she looks pretty good,'” Levy recalled. “I had taken our farm manager to brunch on that Sunday that she ran for the first time, and I missed her race and then my phone just started blowing up when she broke her maiden at Saratoga.”

After her maiden victory on the turf, McPeek stepped Simply Ravishing up to New York-bred stakes company. The race came off the grass, and the filly won by several lengths.

“I thought, 'Wow, this is pretty crazy,'” Levy said. “When he entered her in the Alcibiades, though, I thought, 'Hmm, could this really happen?'”

Apparently, Wishes do come true.

Simply Ravishing winning the Darley Alcibiades

Simply Ravishing won the Alcibiades by 6 1/4 lengths, completely dominating the competition in an impressive gate-to-wire performance. She's likely to be one of the favorites in the upcoming Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 6 at Keeneland.

“After this filly won, I actually ran into the guy who'd had Four Wishes at a reining show,” Levy said. “I tried to ask him about her first filly, by Revolutionary, but I guess he sold her as a riding horse prospect and didn't remember much more than that.”

Levy posted a snapshot of Four Wishes' story on social media following the Alcibiades win, and has enjoyed the excited reaction of so many of her friends. One major Kentucky breeder even told Levy's husband that after learning about the story, he went out and rescued a mare himself.

Four Wishes was bred to Speightster for 2021, and Levy is excited to see what the future will bring with her miracle mare. The entire story reminds Levy of a conversation she had with breeder Helen Alexander when she first got into the business.

“I remember asking her to lunch years ago, because she was someone I've always respected from the very beginning,” Levy said. “I asked if I could pick her brain, said, 'I'm trying to find my way and I really need some advice.' She just kind of said, basically, 'Breed your mares well, take care of them well, and they'll take care of you.' She actually called to congratulate me after Simply Ravishing won!”

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View From The Eighth Pole: The Impossible Dream

Well, we got through it.

The 2020 Triple Crown was different, that's for sure.

A Belmont Stakes that began the series, not at its traditional mile and a half but at a truncated nine furlongs around one turn.

A Kentucky Derby run in eerie silence on the first Saturday in September in a city on edge for months because of growing racial tensions.

A lost in the shuffle Preakness Stakes that brought the series to an end in early October on a day when tracks in New York and Kentucky were showcasing horses gearing up for the autumn Breeders' Cup world championships.

It was unprecedented. It was beautiful. It was 2020 personified.

The stars of this Triple Crown in the year of the coronavirus pandemic were, as always, those magnificent Thoroughbreds.

The New York-bred Tiz the Law demonstrating his dominance at Belmont Park for octogenarian Barclay Tagg and the everyman Sackatoga Stable partners, proving that age is just a number when it comes to training a racehorse.

The Derby showed us, once again, why they run the race.

While Tiz the Law looked unbeatable on paper, having gone on after the Belmont to win the Travers Stakes over the same mile and a quarter distance, he hadn't yet taken on the aces from the Bob Baffert Travel Team. Sure, Nadal was retired, Charlatan had been sidelined with an injury and Eight Rings, Cezanne and Uncle Chuck just weren't up to to the task at this stage of their careers, but the white-haired wonder still had the once-beaten Into Mischief colt Authentic and the insurgent Thousand Words in his arsenal. Well, scratch the latter…literally…just minutes before the Derby after acting up in the saddling paddock.

Authentic proved just that, denying Tiz the Law in the Run for the Roses and looking like a cinch to repeat in the Preakness a month later – especially after the Belmont winner's connections decided to sit this one out. A cinch, at least until forgotten rider Robby Albarado seized the moment to resurrect his career, boldly sending the gallant filly Swiss Skydiver to take on Authentic for a throwdown in the final three-eighths of a mile the likes of which we haven't seen at Old Hilltop since Sunday Silence and Easy Goer were hip to hip in that glorious Preakness of 1989. Or maybe since Albarado, aboard Curlin, engaged and defeated Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense in another memorable running of the Preakness in 2007.

Trainer Kenny McPeek calls this Daredevil filly – one he bought for just $35,000 on day nine of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale – a throwback. Sure nuff, she is. Her past performances read like the announcements echoing through a train station: Tampa, New Orleans, Miami, Hot Springs, Arcadia, Lexington, Saratoga Springs, Louisville, Baltimore.

All aboard.

This was David beating Goliath, Main Street outperforming Wall Street. It wasn't just a filly against colts, it was a victory for the little guys against the conglomerates. Likewise, Belmont winner Tiz the Law came from an ownership group that won all of four races last year from a five-horse stable.

But this game isn't about numbers, at least not for everyone. It's about dreams. Seemingly impossible dreams. And when they come true, as Don Quixote said, the world will be better for this.

That's my view from the eighth pole.

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