lady rocket | Horse Racing Free Tips

Kimari Runs Down Lady Rocket Late To Win Gallant Bloom

Kimari (Munnings) tuned up for the GI Breeders' Cup F/M Sprint with an effortless victory in the GII Gallant Bloom S. at the Belmont at Aqueduct meet Sunday. The 3-5 favorite sat just off pacesetting Lady Rocket (Tale of the Cat) through an opening quarter in :23.55. The pacesetter looked to skip away into the stretch after a half in :46.98, but Joel Rosario was still motionless aboard Kimari. Rosario flicked his wrists at the favorite and she duly inhaled Lady Rocket and strode clear to the wire while under wraps.

“That's what you want to see, right? We were excited and this race set up beautifully for her time-wise to get from here to the Breeders' Cup,” said winning trainer Wesley Ward. “The timing gave her a couple of extra weeks [as opposed to a start in the Oct. 8 GII Thoroughbred Club of America]. She always relishes the time between starts. For her, it should work out perfect. Whether she's good enough, we'll find out.”

Rosario was impressed with Kimari's effort.

“She's special. She runs hard all the time and she ran a good race again today,” Rosario said. “She was very comfortable. She was loving what she was doing out there. For a second, I was worried the horse in front of me [Lady Rocket] would keep moving forward, but my filly kept gaining and I had a lot of confidence.”

'TDN Rising Star' Kimari returned from seven months on the sidelines to finish seventh in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint last November at Del Mar and just two days later Coolmore's M.V. Magnier signed the ticket on the filly for $2.7 million at the Fasig-Tipton November sale. She opened 2022 with an optional-claiming score at Gulfstream Mar. 3 and was third while attempting to defend her title in the GI Madison S. at Keeneland Apr. 9. She was fifth in the May 7 GI Derby City Distaff S. before getting up late for a half-length victory in the July 27 GII Honorable Miss S. at Saratoga last time out.

“She'll head back to Keeneland tomorrow,” Ward said. “It'll give her six weeks on both her and my home track, so hopefully everything works out.”

Ward continued, “A lot of things have worked out for her in her last two starts when she drew the outside. When you're last in, she bounces away from there. In the Breeders' Cup, it'll be a bigger field, so if she gets there down below, Joel will have to work his way out, so we'll see how it goes.”

Pedigree Notes:

Kimari, a daughter of graded winner Cozze Up Lady, has a yearling half-brother by Constitution who sold for $1.3 million two weeks ago at Keeneland September, and a weanling half-brother by Tiz the Law. Cozze Up Lady, who was bred to Charlatan this year, was purchased by the China Horse Club for $300,000 at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton November sale.

Sunday, Belmont The Big A
GALLANT BLOOM S.-GII, $242,500, Belmont The Big A, 9-25, 3yo/up, f/m, 6 1/2f, 1:16.58, ft.
1–KIMARI, 124, m, 5, by Munnings
                1st Dam: Cozze Up Lady (GSW, $407,169), by Cozzene
                2nd Dam: The White Lady, by Johannesburg
                3rd Dam: Maha Al Iman, by Pulpit
'TDN Rising Star'. ($152,000 Ylg '18 FTKJUL; $2,700,000 4yo '21
FTKNOV). O-Jonathan Poulin, Westerberg, Mrs. John Magnier,
Derrick Smith & Michael B. Tabor; B-China Horse Club
International Limited (KY); T-Wesley A. Ward; J-Joel Rosario.
$137,500. Lifetime Record: GISW-USA, G1SP-Eng, 16-9-2-2,
$1,118,827. Werk Nick Rating: A.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the
free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Lady Rocket, 124, m, 5, Tale of the Cat–Allons Danser, by
Eskendereya. ($27,000 Wlg '17 KEENOV; $60,000 Ylg '18
OBSOCT; $420,000 2yo '19 OBSAPR). O-Frank Fletcher Racing
Operations, Inc. & Ten Strike Racing; B-La Ciega LLC & Tale Of
The Cat Syndicate (KY); T-Brad H. Cox. $50,000.
3–Sterling Silver, 118, f, 3, Cupid–Sheet Humor, by
Distorted Humor. ($13,000 Ylg '20 FTKSEL). O-Mark T.
Anderson; B-Mallory & Karen Mort (NY); T-Thomas Albertrani.
$30,000.
Margins: 1 1/4, 9HF, 2. Odds: 0.60, 2.50, 6.20.
Also Ran: Cheetara (Chi), Remain Anonymous.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs.

The post Kimari Runs Down Lady Rocket Late To Win Gallant Bloom appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Kimari Looks to Repeat in Madison

'TDN Rising Star' Kimari (Munnings) looks to successfully defend her GI Madison S. title Saturday at Keeneland. Twice second at Royal Ascot, the bay kicked off 2021 with a win in Oaklawn's Spring Fever S. and took the Madison next out. Sent to the sidelines after that effort, she was ambitiously spotted for her return off that seven-month layoff in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint and she could only manage seventh to stablemate Golden Pal (Uncle Mo). Sent through the ring at Fasig-Tipton's November Sale just days later, Kimari summoned $2.7 million from Coolmore's M.V. Magnier and returned to Wesley Ward's care. She kicked off her 5-year-old campaign with a facile score in a 6 1/2-panel optional claimer on the Gulfstream main track Mar. 3.

Lady Rocket (Tale of the Cat) looks to pick up where she left off at the end of 2021. Earning her black-type victory in the Pink Ribbon S. at Charles Town in August, the dark bay checked in second in the GII Gallant Bloom H. Sept. 26 at Belmont. The Brad Cox trainee captured a sloppy renewal of Belmont's Pumpkin Pie S. Oct. 31 and romped by nine lengths in Aqueduct's GIII Go For Wand H. Dec. 4, earning a gaudy 107 Beyer Speed Figure for the one-turn mile. Cox also saddles the once-beaten GII Inside Information S. winner Just One Time (Not This Time).

Bell's the One (Majesticperfection), winner of the GI Derby City Distaff when run in September of 2020, dead-heated for second behind Kimari in last year's Madison and was fourth in the Derby City Distaff next out. The bay won the Roxelana S. back at Churchill in June and followed suit with a victory in Saratoga's GII Honorable Miss H. in July. A close second in the Open Mind S. beneath the Twin Spires Sept. 18, Bell's the One took this venue's GII TCA S. Oct. 9 and, after skipping the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, rallied to yet another score back in Louisville in the Dream Supreme S. Nov. 13.

The post Kimari Looks to Repeat in Madison appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Lady Rocket Gets Freshening After Go For Wand Win Saturday

Co-owner Frank Fletcher said he was elated to see Lady Rocket relish the stretch out in distance to a one-turn mile when she dominated the $250,000 Grade 3 Go for Wand on Saturday at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, N.Y.

A wire-to-wire winner of the Go for Wand, Lady Rocket set quick fractions with Irad Ortiz, Jr. aboard, coasting through an opening quarter in :23.22 and a half-mile in :46.54. Geared down in the final sixteenth, Lady Rocket crossed the wire nine lengths the better of Bella Vita in second, stopping the clock in 1:36.52. She earned a 106 Beyer Speed Figure for her impressive effort.

Racing at a mile for the first time in the Go for Wand, going longer was a question for the 4-year-old filly, who had to dig down and fend off a late bid from Glass Ceiling to win her division of the seven-furlong Pumpkin Pie at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., by a neck in her last start.

With her hard-earned Pumpkin Pie victory in mind, Fletcher, who co-owns the daughter of Tale of the Cat with Ten Strike Racing, said he watched the Go for Wand with bated breath.

“I was really nervous because of the mile,” Fletcher said. “Her best distance was seven furlongs coming into this race and that was a really close race. We were scared to death of the mile. When she won as well as she did, we were shocked and surprised. I'm very pleased with how she ran. We watched it on the TV dumbfounded.”

With her first graded stakes victory now on her resume, Lady Rocket will be given time off to prepare for her 2022 campaign. Both Fletcher and trainer Brad Cox hope her performance Saturday is the start of a successful journey to Grade 1 glory.

“She'll be at Belmont for a bit before getting some time off,” Fletcher said. “Brad [Cox] said he thinks she needs a little break; she's been racing once a month for a while. She'll be on the farm for two or three months and then we'll point her to a Grade 1. She's becoming a lot stronger and is finding a new gear. I think she could even go beyond a mile now seeing how well she handled it.”

Along with Lady Rocket, Fletcher also owns multiple graded stakes winner Frank's Rockette and G3 winner Candy Man Rocket, who are both stabled with Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.

Frank's Rockette, who finished third in the listed Dream Supreme at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., in her last start on November 13, has now joined Mott's Florida string of horses after spending the fall in Kentucky.

“She was training at Churchill and is in Florida right now,” Fletcher said of the Into Mischief mare. “We'll point her to a nice race there. She came out of her last race well.”

Candy Man Rocket made an appearance on the road to the Kentucky Derby this spring when he won the G3 Sam F. Davis at Tampa Bay Downs in Tampa, Fla., and finished off the board in the G2 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct.

Away from the races since a runner-up effort in the six-furlong Gold Fever at Belmont in May, the 3-year-old son of Candy Ride is working his way back to a campaign that will see him sprinting going forward.

“He's down at Payson Park (in Indiantown, Fla.) right now working on getting his feet a little better,” Fletcher said. “We found out in his last race that he didn't want to go long. He ran a great race at six furlongs and got caught at the wire. We think he'll be hard to beat at the sprint distance. He'll come back in a race down in Florida; we aren't sure where yet.”

As for next year's Kentucky Derby hopefuls, Fletcher shared his excitement for recent maiden special weight winner Rocket Dawg, who was a debut winner going seven furlongs at Churchill on November 19 by 5 ½ lengths. After flashing his talent in his debut, a step up to graded stakes company could be in the Classic Empire colt's future.

“He was very impressive in that debut. He's got a ton of potential and we're excited about him,” Fletcher said. “We'll run him back in an allowance and if he can hold the form from his maiden win in allowance company, we'll point him to the Southwest at Oaklawn. We think he'll do well.”

[Story Continues Below]

Rocket One, another impressive maiden winner for Fletcher this fall, will be returning to turf after giving the dirt a try with a pair of sixth-place finishes in the G2 Castle and Key Bourbon at Churchill on October 10 and an optional claimer in his most recent start on November 27.

A 1 ½ length winner of a maiden special weight at Kentucky Downs in Franklin, Ky., in his third career start, Fletcher said switching back to the turf makes the most sense for the 2-year-old Into Mischief colt.

“He's down at Payson Park right now and we'll get him back on the grass at Gulfstream Park this winter,” Fletcher said. “He showed us his potential and talent in that turf maiden and we know that's where he wants to be. I would like to have dirt horses since I prefer to run at Oaklawn, but I also want to win. So we'll get him where he needs to be to win.”

J L's Rockette, who finished seventh in the G2 Adirondack at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and ninth in the Ainsworth at Kentucky Downs in her last start on September 12, will be turned out and freshened for a few months before making her return to the races.

The post Lady Rocket Gets Freshening After Go For Wand Win Saturday appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Lady Rocket Runs Away With Go For Wand, Wins First Graded Stakes

Last-out winner of a division of the Pumpkin Pie Stakes at Belmont, Lady Rocket built on that performance with an overwhelming victory in the Grade 3 Go For Wand Handicap at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, N.Y. Challenged early by Miss Marissa, the favorite put that competitor away and never looked back, finishing nine lengths ahead of Bella Vita at the wire.

In a field of six older fillies and mares, Lady Rocket entered the gate as the favorite and showed why with her run in the G3 stakes. Fastest at the break, Lady Rocket held a half-length lead early, as Miss Marissa pressed the pace on the backstretch. The favorite was able to maintain her lead into the far turn, Bella Vita making a run at the favorite entering the stretch.

Down the Aqueduct straight, Lady Rocket accelerated, pulling away from Bella Vita easily and striding out to a widening lead as the field approached the wire. Bella Vita was second, with Truth Hurts and last year's G3 Go For Wand winner Sharp Starr fourth.

The final time for the one-mile stakes was 1:36.52. Find this race's chart here.

Lady Rocket paid $4.40, $2.80, and $2.50. Bella Vita paid $3.90 and $3.30. Truth Hurts paid $4.30.

“She was very comfortable down the backstretch and Irad [Ortiz, Jr.] said he was full of horse the entire way around. We were kind of worried about the break and wanted to focus on her standing there. Her very first start at Saratoga, she stumbled. She has this tendency to want to break too fast. We make sure she stands right and gets a good start. They did a great job getting her out of the gate today. We were expecting a big performance but she exceeded our expectations with that one,” Dustin Dugas, assistant trainer for Brad Cox, said after the race.

“She was nice today. She's always tries hard. The mile was a question mark, but she handled it really well. I was waiting, biding my time. I just took it easy and tried to get her to relax up front and she relaxed. She waited for my call and that was the key. This was one of her best performances in her whole career,” jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. told the NYRA Press Office after the Go For Wand.

Bred in Kentucky by La Ciega LLC and Tale of the Cat Syndicate, Lady Rocket is out of the Eskendereya mare Allons Danser. She is owned by Frank Fletcher Racing Operations and Ten Strike Racing and trained by Brad Cox. She was consigned by De Meric Sales and purchased by B S W Bloodstock for $420,000 at the April 2019 Ocala Breeders' Sale Spring Sale of Two-Year-Olds In Training. With her win in the G3 Go For Wand, the 4-year-old filly has four wins in eight starts in 2021, for a lifetime record of 11-6-3-1 and career earnings of $530,508.

The post Lady Rocket Runs Away With Go For Wand, Wins First Graded Stakes appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post