Kevin McKathan | Horse Racing Free Tips

Bucchero Filly, Vino Rosso Colt Earn Bullets at OBS Saturday

A filly by Bucchero (hip 999) became the first of the week to work a furlong in :9 3/5, while a colt by Vino Rosso (hip 1072) turned in the day's fastest quarter-mile breeze of :20 4/5 during the final session of the under-tack show for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training Saturday in Ocala.

Consigned by Britton Peak, hip 999 is out of stakes-placed Imperial Strike (Imperialism). The filly was bred in Florida by Wendy Lee Christ.

Hip 1072, a supplement to the original catalogue, is consigned by McKathan Bros. Sales and worked his quarter-mile bullet right at the start of Saturday's session of the under-tack show.

“He prepped really good for us over here, so I was expecting him to breeze well,” said Kevin McKathan. “We backed him up to a quarter. He's a big, stretchy two-turn horse and I thought that would suit him best. He worked really well and he galloped out huge. He went out in :32 flat and :44 and change. And he came back in good shape and vetted good.”

The chestnut colt, bred by Ken and Sarah Ramsey, is out of stakes winner Deanaallen'skitten (Kitten's Joy) and was purchased by McKathan for $115,000 as a weanling at the Keeneland November sale.

“Really, I wanted a Vino Rosso,” McKathan said of the colt's initial appeal. “I thought he was a really classy horse and I liked a lot of his foals. So I wanted to get my hands on one. I found [hip 1072] way up on the hill at Keeneland in Book 4 or 5. He was hid out up there–Ramsey was selling him. He was a little backwards, but when I saw him, I just said, 'I need to own him.' We paid well for him and he's been a super colt all the way through.”

The youngster was entered in last year's Keeneland September sale and Fasig-Tipton October sale, but was withdrawn from both. He worked at OBS April before being withdrawn from that sale as well.

“The plan when we first bought him as a weanling was to flip him as a yearling,” McKathan said. “And then it got so tough to buy yearlings, especially for myself, and he was such a nice horse that we just decided to keep him. He was in the April sale and he breezed there. He kind of breezed average–he breezed in :10 1/5–and I knew he was a lot better colt than that if I stretched him out and gave him a better run at a little further distance, so that's what we did.”

McKathan continued, “He's the kind everyone needs. He's a two-turn horse and when they pull him out on the shank, they will love him. He's leggy, stretched out with a long neck. He's a beautiful horse.”

Asked how he found conditions throughout the six sessions of the under-tack show, McKathan said, “I believe it was as good as we could get it. We always struggle with that last set because as the track heats up, that's the toughest there is. But horses were still able to get over it. I think the weather was pretty good for us–I've seen it much worse in June. So, overall, I think the track was good. If you could get in the first or second set, the horses seemed to breeze well throughout there. It got to be a little bit more of a struggle through the third. That's just always how it's going to be.”

The OBS June sale will be held Tuesday through Thursday with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.

The post Bucchero Filly, Vino Rosso Colt Earn Bullets at OBS Saturday appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Un Ojo Out of Preakness

Un Ojo (Laoban), upset winner of the GII Rebel S. earlier this year, will not be running in Saturday's GI Preakness S. as he continues to deal with a foot bruise which kept him out of the GI Kentucky Derby.

“This morning his foot was a little warm again,” trainer Ricky Courville told the Preakness media team. “The vets went over him, and he's not 100%. I'm dealing with the same thing. I guess the work [Saturday] kind of re-aggravated it.”

In addition to the defection of Un Ojo, Pimlico officials announced the possible addition of Villa Rosa Farm and Harlo Stable's Fenwick (Curlin) to the Preakness field. Trained by Kevin McKathan, the colt was a maiden winner at Tampa Bay Downs before finishing 11th in the GI Toyota Blue Grass S.

The post position draw for the Preakness will be held Monday afternoon.

The post Un Ojo Out of Preakness appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Kevin McKathan To Give Training A Try

Kevin McKathan has many talents. One of the principals behind McKathan Bros. Training Center in Ocala, he's helped start the career of many a good horse, including 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile), and he's also a major force as a consignor at the 2-year-old sales. But he's ready for something different. Thirty-three years after starting his last horse, McKathan will return to the training ranks when he sends out long shot Fenwick (Curlin) in Saturday's GI Toyota Blue Grass S. at Keeneland.

“I am very excited,” he said. “My brother (J.B., who passed away in 2019) and I used to train horses at the racetrack years ago and the reason we started doing what we've been doing is because we weren't training good horses. I've always said that bad horses make bad horse trainers. Whenever you can touch a good one, it's fantastic.”

McKathan started his last horse in 1989 and shortly thereafter started up his new business in Ocala. There wasn't time for much else.

“For years and years, I've always had 150 horses at the house,” he said. “It's not like I could just head out and run around at the races.”

McKathan bought Fenwick for $52,000 at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Fall yearling sale for owner Jeremiah Rudan. The original plan was to sell him as a 2-year-old at theFasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale, but he was withdrawn. Rudan decided to race him and sent the colt on to trainer Steve Asmussen. McKathan had high expectations for Fenwick, but he lost his first four starts. Things hit bottom when he was beaten by 24 3/4 lengths in a Feb. 13 maiden special weight race at the Fair Grounds. The decision was then made to send him back to McKathan in Ocala and to more or less start over.

“In his first race, he ran a huge seven-eighths and just got beat,” McKathan said. “By Curlin, we had high hopes for him. He looked like a two-turn horse, but after his first start, he had such bad racing luck every time he started. Jeremiah got a little disappointed and had us bring him home to Ocala. We went over him and he was in perfect condition. We put him out in a field for a couple of days to get some sun on his back.”

Fenwick was turned over to trainer David Fisher and sent to Tampa Bay Downs, where he broke his maiden by 5 1/4 lengths on March 12, beating the 1-20 favorite Commandperformance (Union Rags), who was second in the GI Champagne S. for trainer Todd Pletcher. Commandperformance, still a maiden, is back in the Blue Grass.

“He ran a huge race at Tampa,” McKathan said. “He finally got things his way and finally ran the way Steve and I always expected he could. I joked with Jeremiah before the race. How could we be so unlucky to run into a horse who was second in a Grade I in a maiden race at Tampa? But our horse ran great. For the Blue Grass, we were planning on moving him to someone. Jeremiah said that since I was taking the horse up to Keeneland why not just put myself down as the trainer of record? He talked me into it.”

Rudan planted a seed and McKathan has become interested in seeing where the training business can take him.

“I believe I can combine everything,” he said. “I have a great staff. If you think about it, we travel somewhere every month, whether it's for a horse sale or for a horse race. It's not undoable. It's just a matter of working things out.”

Fenwick is the only horse that McKathan has as a trainer. For now, that's good enough.

“This is definitely something I think I will be able to do,” he said of training. “I will enjoy this one, take a shot at them in the Blue Grass and if we make the Derby, I'll be there for it. I don't think this is a one-shot deal so far as my training. We've all been horse trainers our whole lives. It's just how you plan on going about it.”

McKathan won just seven races in his first go-round as a trainer and his stable earnings were just $30,461. That's what can happen when you train slow horses at tracks like River Downs, Beulah Park and Birmingham. All these years later he has a starter in the $1-million Blue Grass.

“I am expecting big things from this horse,” he said. “It's exciting and it's fun.”

The post Kevin McKathan To Give Training A Try appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Acclaimed Florida Horseman Luke McKathan Passes Away

James Bryan “Luke” McKathan, Sr., the patriarch of one of Florida's most successful racing families and an accomplished horseman and pinhooker, died Feb. 14 at the age of 89.

According to a lengthy profile on the McKathan family in a 2004 edition of the Florida Horse magazine, Luke McKathan was born and raised on a family farm in Alabama, where he picked cotton, and left home at 13 in search of a better life.

He began his career in racing with Standardbreds and found a job with legendary harness racing trainer and driver Billy Haughton. He branched out and became a Quarter Horse trainer before shifting gears again and becoming a Thoroughbred trainer in 1968.
McKathan's next stop was Marion County, Florida where he and his wife Jocelyn opened McKathan Farms in Reddick.

“I moved to Ocala as an alternative to being at the racetrack,” he told the magazine. “I was starving to death at the racetrack and you could do that anywhere. When I first came to Ocala, I was surprised that there were so many horsemen, but so few trainers. I didn't know if I would be successful and the first few years were difficult.”

After his early struggles, McKathan thrived while establishing himself as one of the most astute and versatile horsemen in the region. He seemed to be good at whatever he did, particularly when it came to pinhooking.

“He was very talented at communicating with the horses,” said his nephew David McKathan. “He was just very good at it. He was the best I've ever seen around a horse.”

McKathan became a mentor to many, including horseman Casey Seaman.

“He's an amazing man,” Seaman told the Florida Horse. “I've trained here for 10 years and I have learned so much. He's been my hero since making the decision to move to Florida. He thinks of the most difficult situations, applies common sense, and produces positive results.”

As one of the first to master the pinhooking game, McKathan had problems with the way horses were showcased at the 2-year-old sales and was instrumental in changing how the pre-sale works were conducted.

“I had to convince the sales company to have a horse work by itself and not in the company of another horse,” McKathan told the Florida Horse. “You always had to work horses together, and you'd find yourself selling one horse and bringing the other horse home. Everyone should have a few seconds to showcase what their horse can do so that the buyers will have the opportunity to see what the racing prospect is capable of doing.”

McKathan was also a tremendous teacher and taught his sons J.B., who passed away in 2019, and Kevin the business. They started their own consignment named McKathan Bros. and had one of their first big successes when privately purchasing 1997 GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness S. winner Silver Charm for Bob Baffert. Often teaming up with Baffert, they were also involved in the careers of Real Quiet, Captain Steve, Silverbulletday and American Pharoah.

“The words 'no' and 'can't' weren't acceptable answers,” Kevin McKathan said of his father to the Florida Horse. “He would either make you or break you. He would give you all you could handle and in the end you were better for it.”

McKathan is survived by Jocelyn McKathan, his siblings Shirley and Miles, his children Kevin, Bo, and Brenda and several grandchildren.

The post Acclaimed Florida Horseman Luke McKathan Passes Away appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post