larry jones | Horse Racing Free Tips

Street Sense’s Windmill Stays Undefeated in Dixie Belle

Windmill, an impressive wire-to-wire debut winner in January at Oaklawn, showed her rating ability and remained unbeaten with a stalk-and-pounce score in the Dixie Belle S. Sunday in Hot Springs.

Breaking on top and never looking back in a four-length victory at 12-1 Jan. 23, the $330,000 Keeneland September buy was made the narrow second choice in this six-horse group and again left the stalls smartly. Taken in hand by Joe Talamo, the bay tracked from the three path in a close-up third as Goin' Good led narrowly through a :22.72 quarter. Pushed on to pick up past the five-sixteenths pole, Windmill poked her head in front of a three-way stretch duel with the frontrunner and favored Abrogate at the furlong grounds and edged away from there to prevail. Goin' Good turned back Abrogate for second money.

With the victory, Windmill becomes the 78th stakes winner for Darley's Street Sense. She is the first black-type performer out of Zaharias, a full-sister to GISW Visionaire and half-sister to GISW Tara's Tango (Unbridled's Song), GSW/MGISP Scarlet Strike (Smart Strike) and GSW Madison's Luna (Tapit). Selling to Nesco II for $270,000 at Keeneland November in 2014, Zaharias is responsible for a juvenile Nyquist colt named Ignitis and returned to that stallion last spring. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.

DIXIE BELLE S., $150,000, Oaklawn, 2-28, 3yo, f, 6f, 1:11.14, sy.
1–WINDMILL, 117, f, 3, by Street Sense
1st Dam: Zaharias, by Grand Slam
2nd Dam: Scarlet Tango, by French Deputy
3rd Dam: Silver Tango, by Silver Badge
1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN. ($330,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-Fox Hill
Farms, Inc.; B-Nesco II Limited (KY); T-J. Larry Jones; J-Joseph
Talamo. $90,000. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $139,200.
2–Goin' Good, 117, f, 3, Congrats–Good Deed, by Broken Vow.
O/B-Klein Racing (KY); T-Brad H. Cox. $30,000.
3–Abrogate, 119, f, 3, Outwork–Hot Coffee, by Burning Roma.
($75,000 Wlg '18 KEENOV; $270,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP).
O-Alex & JoAnn Lieblong; B-Sandra Sexton & Silver Fern Farm
(KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen. $15,000.
Margins: 1, 1, 5 1/4. Odds: 2.00, 5.60, 1.70.
Also Ran: Big Time, Mariah's Princess, Miss Twenty. Scratched: Heart Full of Soul, Someone Said So.

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Refreshed Grade 1 Winner Wicked Whisper Kicking Off 2021 Campaign In Oaklawn’s Pippin Stakes

Wicked Whisper was poised for a championship in the fall of 2019. Now, it's a career reboot and step one in 2021 is the $150,000 Pippin Stakes for older fillies and mares at 1 mile Saturday at Oaklawn.

Probable post time for the Pippin, the eighth of nine races, is 4:47 p.m. (Central). First post for the second of 57 scheduled race days is 1 p.m. (Central).

Wicked Whisper is the slight 3-1 program favorite for the Pippin, which drew a field of 12 and is Oaklawn's first of three preps for the $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) April 17. The series continues with the $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) Feb. 15 and the $350,000 Azeri Stakes (G2) March 13.

Wicked Whisper was among the country's top 2-year-old fillies of 2019 for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen and owners Alex and JoAnn Lieblong of Conway, Ark. She was a front-running 6 ¼-length winner of her career debut at Saratoga and a front-running 2 ¾-length winner of her next start, the $400,000 Frizette Stakes (G1), at Belmont Park. Wicked Whisper's unbeaten record and hopes for an Eclipse Award crashed with a fifth-place finish in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Santa Anita, a 1 1/16-mile race that marked her two-turn debut.

Sandwiched around minor injury (splint bone) and minor illness, Wicked Wisper captured 1 of 4 starts last year and was withdrawn from Fasig-Tipton's November Sale (Nov. 8) – she was entered as a racing or broodmare prospect – to get another shot for the same racing team in 2021.

“Not really,” Alex Lieblong said, when asked if he seriously considered retiring Wicked Whisper. “He (Asmussen) knew to raise his hand at any point where he thought we should and he didn't. She had a real busy period there for a while, so we thought, 'OK, let's back off her for a while and see what can shape up at Oaklawn.' We did have her in the November Sale, just in case something did show up physically with her during that time. Nothing ever showed up physically, so that gave us a little bit of time for, hopefully, Steve to work his magic and stretch her out.”

Wicked Whisper's final two starts last year were at 6 furlongs. She won the $150,000 Miss Preakness Stakes (G3) Oct. 3 at Pimlico and finished an even fifth in the $125,000 Fort Springs Stakes Nov. 7 at Keeneland. Wicked Whisper had been scheduled to make her 3-year-old debut in the $300,000 Honeybee Stakes (G3) last March at Oaklawn, but spiked a fever approximately a week before the race, Lieblong said, and her first start didn't come until early July.

“You just couldn't make it up,” said Lieblong, chairman of the Arkansas Racing Commission. “But one thing I've learned in this business is it's got several ways to bite you.”

Wicked Whisper has had five published workouts at Oaklawn since Dec. 20 in advance of her 4-year-old debut. From the first crop of Grade 1 winner Liam's Map, Wicked Whisper was purchased for $500,000 at the 2018 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Wicked Whisper is a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Point of Honor, who finished third in the $600,000 Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) for older fillies and mares last year at Oaklawn. The Lieblongs were Oaklawn's third-leading owners in 2020.

The 7-2 second choice in the program is Istan Council, who is seeking her first career stakes victory. Istan Council was a 2019 allowance winner at Oaklawn, finished third in the $100,000 Groupie Doll Stakes Aug. 9 at Ellis Park and endured a brutal trip finishing second, beaten a head, in the $75,000 She's All In Stakes at a mile and 70 yards Dec. 18 at Remington Park. Daily Racing Form short comments from Istan Council's past performance running line for the She's All In said the 5-year-old mare lacked room until late, “best.”

“I thought it was one of the very few times you see in the Racing Form where the horse that ran second was much the best,” Jones said.

Other contenders include the Brad Cox-trained duo of Vault and Getridofwhatailesu and Our Super Freak. All are 6-1 in the program. Vault ran sixth in the $263,000 Molly Pitcher Stakes (G3) July 18 at Monmouth Park in her last start. Getridofwhatailesu, unraced since last March, has never run in a stakes race, but has won two of her last three starts. Our Super Freak ran second in last year's Molly Pitcher for trainer Cherie DeVaux, a former assistant to four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown. DeVaux has never started a horse at Oaklawn.

The projected Pippin field from the rail out: Vault, Florent Geroux to ride, 115 pounds, 6-1; Figure It Out, Francisco Arrieta, 119, 12-1; Getridofwhatailesu, Joe Rocco Jr., 119, 6-1; Sara Sea, Fernando De La Cruz, 115, 30-1; Chance to Shine, Ken Tohill, 115, 10-1; Istan Council, Joe Talamo, 115, 7-2; Wicked Whisper, Ricardo Santana Jr., 122, 3-1; Blessed Again, Terry Thompson, 119, 30-1; Regal Beauty, Martin Garcia, 115, 8-1; His Glory, David Cabrera, 117, 12-1; Graysonsmacho Gal, Ramon Vazquez, 115, 15-1; and Our Super Freak, David Cohen, 115, 6-1.

Jones won last year's Pippin with the recently retired Whoa Nellie.

The post Refreshed Grade 1 Winner Wicked Whisper Kicking Off 2021 Campaign In Oaklawn’s Pippin Stakes appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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‘She’ll Run All Day’: Whoa Nellie Ready To Step Up In Broussard Stakes

Saturday's $75,000 Joseph E. Spanky Broussard, run at one mile and 70 yards at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans, La., drew a compact yet stellar field of three and 4-year-old fillies. To hear trainer Larry Jones tell it, Fox Hill Farms Inc's Whoa Nellie will only be getting started when they hit the finish line.

“As we say, her name is Whoa Nellie, so getting her pulled up after her gallops and races is like 'Woah Nellie,'” Jones said. “She'll run all day and her forte is to go two turns.”

Whoa Nellie (post 1 at 8-5 with Florent Geroux) has blossomed since being stretched out over a route of ground and Jones is hoping to use the Broussard as a stepping-stone to what he hopes will be a big 2021 campaign. The 4-year-old daughter of Orb was a solid one-turn allowance performer to start her career but she took her game to a new level last winter when sent two turns. She won the Pippin at Oaklawn Park in January and then was second, beaten just a neck, in a Bayakoa (G3) in February.

“She showed in the Pippin and coming back in the Bayakoa this is what she is and we think her 5-year-old year could be a very big year for her,” Jones said. “She has learned to settle early and sits well now until we're ready to go. Needless to say, being by Orb and (out of a Medaglia d'Oro mare), distance is not an issue for her.”

Whoa Nellie, who is 5-for-11 lifetime, missed nine months after the Bayakoa and came back to run third in Churchill Downs' one-turn Chilukki (G3) Nov. 21, where she spotted recency to local Rachel Alexandra (G2) heroine and multiple graded stakes winner Finite. She made a bold middle-move before flattening out a bit late. The effort left Jones feeling very confident moving forward.

“She's better now than she was then,” Jones said. “Coming into that Chilukki off a nine-month layoff, that was not an easy task, and for her to run that well and against those horses, and to finish as well as she did, that race should tighten her up really well.”

Hoffman Family Racing LLC and Steve Landry's Beautiful Trauma (post 3 at 9-5 with James Graham) looms the one to catch, as she enters off a gate-to-wire win in an optional-claimer November 12 at Churchill for trainer Tom Amoss. The 3-year-old daughter of Tapiture is 3-for-7 lifetime but will make her stakes debut in the Broussard. She is familiar with the local main track, having won an off-the-turf optional-claimer here 370 days ago by 16 lengths.

Phoenix Thoroughbred III Ltd's Lady Apple (post 5 at 3-1 with Adam Beschizza) is looking to find the form that has earlier netted her a quartet of grade 3 wins for trainer Steve Asmussen. The 4-year-old daughter of Curlin was 5-for-7 in 2019, and won the Houston Ladies Classic (G3) at Sam Houston to kick off her season in January, but she is winless in five starts since. Lady Apple is 6-for-17 lifetime, with $1.038 million in earnings, and she gets back to the main track after running fourth in the Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf (G3) Sept. 12.

Completing the Joseph E. Spanky Broussard Memorial from the rail out: Four Lawn Chairs LLC's Longpants Required (post 2 at 20-1 with Shaun Bridgmohan), who broke her maiden two-back at Churchill for trainer Brendan Walsh; La Nora LLC's Joy Epifora (post 4 at 8-1 with Brian Hernandez Jr.), a G1 winner in her native Argentina but winless in four U.S. starts for trainer Ignacio Correas; and Rigney Racing LLC's Singita Dreams (post 6 at 12-1 with Miguel Mena), who won an off-the-turf optional-claimer two-back at Churchill for trainer Phil Bauer.

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Whoa Nellie Hopes To Fire Fresh In Chilukki Stakes

Fox Hill Farms' five-time winning filly Whoa Nellie is set to return from a nine-month freshening in Saturday's $100,000 Grade 3 Chilukki Stakes at Churchill Downs.

“I haven't worked her but know she can be a bit tough in the mornings,” said jockey Joe Rocco Jr., who piloted the Orb filly to two wins and a runner-up effort in her last three starts. “(Trainer Larry Jones') exercise rider typically works her in draw reins to keep her under control. She's run some very impressive races in her last few starts in the winter. I'm excited to get back on her.”

Whoa Nellie is listed at 4-1 on the morning line for Saturday's Chilukki. Prior to being on the sidelines, Whoa Nellie recorded a dominating 4 1/2-length victory in the $100,000 Pippin Stakes and a narrow runner-up effort behind Go Google Yourself in the $200,000 G3 Bayakoa Stakes.

The Chilukki is the featured race on Saturday's 10-race program. First post is 1 p.m. and the Chilukki will go as Race 9 at 5:06 p.m.

The complete field for the one-mile Chilukki from the rail out (with jockey, trainer and morning line odds): New Roo (Brian Hernandez Jr., Tommy Drury, 20-1); Finite (Ricardo Santana Jr., Steve Asmussen, 8-5); Grand Cru Classe (Tyler Gaffalione, Bill Mott, 5-2); Whoa Nellie (Rocco, Jones, 4-1); Gold Standard (Florent Geroux, Brad Cox, 15-1); Risky Mandate (Miguel Mena, Tom Amoss, 5-1); Crazy Sexy Munny (Crystal Conning, Bill Morey, 50-1); Unique Factor (Corey Lanerie, Peter Miller, 10-1); and Sanenus (Rafael Bejarano, Michael McCarthy, 20-1).

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