Charlatan To Stand For $50,000 At Hill ‘N’ Dale

Multiple Grade 1 winner Charlatan will stand the 2022 breeding season at Hill 'n' Dale Farm at Xalapa for a fee of $50,000 live foal stands and nurses.

His meteoric rise to stardom began at Santa Anita in February of his three year old year where he won at first asking by 5 3/4 lengths, stopping the clock in 1:08.85 and receiving TDN Rising Star status. In his next start, less than 30 days later, this time at a mile, the powerful and perfectly-made son of Speightstown served notice of his raw talent with an effortless 10 1/4 length romp which landed him on the lips of every turf writer in America as one of the top colts of his crop.

His tour-de-force 6 length win at Oaklawn in the mile and an eighth Grade 1 $500,000 Arkansas Derby resulted in him being installed as the favorite for the Kentucky Derby (G1). In the year of COVID which reshuffled the racing calendar, Charlatan re-emerged in December, capping off his three year old campaign, off an 8 month layoff, with a brilliant performance in the Grade 1 Malibu at 7 furlongs, winning by 4 1/2 lengths. His final career start came in the $20 million Saudi Cup, where the heavily-favored Charlatan who made all the pace, locked horns with recent Whitney (G1) winner Knicks Go, only to be nabbed at the wire by Mishriff in an effort which many have described as a valiant performance.

“I have been looking forward to having this horse,” said John Sikura, owner of Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa . “He is a brilliant physical specimen. He is by the right horse in Speightstown, and he has all the right horses in his pedigree. I think this is the most highly credentialed horse we've brought to the farm in terms of performance, pedigree, and speed; all those elements we feel are requisites of very important horses. Curlin was a very important horse – a great racehorse and Horse of the Year – but this brilliance is hard to find. Succinctly, Charlatan has everything I value in a stallion in spades.”

Charlatan retires to stud with a record of four wins and a second from 5 starts with earnings over $4 million.

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Baffert: Charlatan’s ‘Talent Makes Up For His Inexperience’ Heading To Saudi Cup

Though Bob Baffert doesn't expect to make the trip to Riyadh next month for the second edition of the $20 million Saudi Cup, the Hall of Fame trainer will have a strong hand with potential race-day favorite Charlatan headed overseas. The lightly-raced 4-year-old son of Speightstown will make the Saudi Cup just his fifth career start, but a big performance off the layoff in the Grade 1 Malibu on Dec. 26 proved talent isn't an issue.

“I think his talent makes up for his inexperience,” Baffert said during a conference call Wednesday. “I think he has enough experience where he doesn't know what it's like to lose. I think that's a good trait.”

Charlatan has crossed the wire first in all four of his career starts, though he was disqualified from his win in the G1 Arkansas Derby in May, 2020. Given time off for injury after that start, Charlatan returned to dominate the G1 Malibu by 4 1/2 lengths.

Baffert said the one-turn, 1 1/8-mile distance of the Saudi Cup was especially attractive with a speed horse like Charlatan.

“I think coming off the seven-eighths race, especially the way he did it, I think it is a perfect kind of distance,” the trainer said. “We know he ships well and he has a great mind on him. He's a good gate horse. It's very challenging to go to Saudi or Dubai. You need a really great mind and he has a really great mind. So I think that race fits the bill perfectly for him.”

Baffert indicated a couple minor concerns after the inaugural edition of the race, including a narrow starting gate that doesn't allow a header to stay with the horse, and a deeper track surface that the trainer thought could have used more water ahead of race day.

Another American-trained horse, Tacitus, will contest the Saudi Cup for a second straight year. The 5-year-old son of Tapit has danced most of the big dances and is regularly flirting with a top-level victory, but has yet to break through. Tacitus was fifth last year at Riyadh, and will be making his first start since finishing fourth in the Breeders' Cup Classic.

“Last year when we brought Tacitus, he had a nice little following locally due to the fact that he was a Juddmonte horse,” said Riley Mott, assistant to his father, trainer Bill Mott. “He had a lot of fans there on race day. And just to be there in (the late) Prince Khalid Abdullah's home country was very special. To bring Tacitus back this year is something we are very much looking forward to and a big reason why we kept him in training this year.”

It is currently unclear whether impressive Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and Pegasus World Cup winner Knicks Go will ship over for the Saudi Cup. Trainer Brad Cox told the Daily Racing Form that a decision will be made by Monday.

“He does look really good out of the race, sound, a 5-year-old with a lot of energy. His weight's great,” reported Cox.

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TVG Live On Site For Big Saturday Card At Santa Anita Park

Three Grade 1 stakes, the American Oaks (G1), the La Brea Stakes (G1) and the Runhappy Malibu Stakes (G1), jumpstart TVG's live coverage of the Santa Anita Winter/Spring meet this weekend from Arcadia, Calif. TVG, America's horse racing network, will be live on site at Santa Anita on Saturday, Dec. 26 with coverage and analysis by Todd Schrupp, Christina Blacker and Britney Eurton.

Santa Anita's Winter/Spring meet will run through June 20 and feature 95 stakes races including the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby (G1) on April 3. Post time on Saturday is 2:00 p.m. ET/11:00 a.m. PT.

Saturday's $300,000 American Oaks (G1), which will be run at 1 ¼ miles on the turf., has attracted a field of ten sophomore fillies from some of the top barns throughout the country including 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) champion Sharing for trainer Graham Motion. She will have John Velazquez in the irons. In addition, trainer Chad Brown will send out two contenders – Capital Structure with Joel Rosario and Duopoly with Flavien Prat.

The $300,000 Runhappy Malibu Stakes (G1) is the featured tenth race on the card and the seven-furlong contest will feature some of the fastest 3-year-olds in training. Steve Asmussen will send out the undefeated Nashville who will be making his graded stakes debut after an impressive victory in the Perryville Stakes at Keeneland in November. Regular rider Ricardo Santana Jr. will be aboard the son of Speightstown. The race will also mark the return to action for Charlatan, one of two horses in the race for trainer Bob Baffert.

On Christmas Day, TVG will be airing TVG Classics featuring highlights of major races throughout the years featuring memorable performances from Zenyatta, Gun Runner and Justify as well as some marquee events from 2020 including the TVG Pacific Classic.

In addition to opening weekend from Santa Anita, TVG will be featuring racing from Gulfstream Park, Fair Grounds, Tampa Bay Downs and more. Fans can tune in on TVG, TVG2 and the Watch TVG app which is available on Amazon Fire, Roku and connected Apple TV devices.

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Equibase Analysis: Nashville Stands Out In Runhappy Malibu Stakes

The holiday present the racing world opens on the day after Christmas is always a fantastic afternoon of racing on opening day of the winter-spring meeting at Santa Anita. The bright shiny bow on that present is, as usual, the Grade 1, $300,000 Runhappy Malibu Stakes.

Six horses are entered and each is special in his own right, with five of the sextet stakes winners. In terms of the level of stakes won by some of the entrants, we have to start with the Bob Baffert trained Charlatan, who crossed the finish line first in the rescheduled G1 Arkansas Derby in May, only to be stripped of that victory thereafter for a medication violation. Bob Baffert, who has won the Malibu three times previously, also saddles Thousand Words, winner of the 2019 G2 Los Alamitos Futurity as well as the Shared Belief Stakes this past summer.

Collusion Illusion won the G1 Bing Crosby Stakes in August so among the three graded stakes winners he is the only one with a win in a sprint like the Malibu. Then there's Nashville, undefeated in three starts including the Perryville Stakes last month in the sizzling time of 1:07.8. Independence Hall is no slouch, having won the G3 Nashua Stakes in November 2019 and back in form off a win last month following seven months off. Express Train has been first or second in all four of his races at a mile or less, and although this will be his first try in a graded stakes around one turn he can't be ruled out as a contender.

In this handicapper's opinion, this year's Malibu Stakes is Nashville's to lose. His effort in the Perryville Stakes last month at Keeneland was scintillating, winning by 3 1/2 lengths when galloping the last few yards after having run his opponents off their feet. The track that day was fast but fair and the 115 Equibase Speed Figure bears that out. Having earned a 106 figure winning his debut in September at Saratoga, then 113 five weeks later, Nashville is lightly enough raced that we have likely not seen his best yet. Since the Perryville, Nashville has put in three sizzling workouts at trainer Steve Asmussen's winter base at Fair Grounds in Louisiana, consisting of three five furlongs workouts, the most recent in :58.8 which was the best of 20 on the day. With the trainer's number one jockey Ricardo Santana in the saddle for the Malibu as he was for the Perryville, and with no horse in the field faster in the first quarter mile, Nashville may be running against the record book in terms of time in this year's race.

Independence Hall is the only horse I could see beating Nashville, based on how the race is likely to be run, and based on the fact he's making his second start back after seven months off as well as coming off a career-best effort. Independence Hall won the first three races of his career starting back in September of 2019. His second and third career wins came in stakes, all around one turn including the Nashua Stakes at Aqueduct last November with a 107 figure. Next winning the Jerome Stakes and putting himself into the early Derby picture, Independence Hall finished second in the Sam F. Davis Stakes, before a poor fifth place effort in the Florida Derby. Away from the races from the end of March until last month, Independence Hall changed trainers to Michael McCarthy and came back better than ever with a new career-best 108 figure effort at six and one-half furlongs. Likely pointing to this race with that prep, Independence Hall has put in two best of the day workouts since then, the most recent :59 flat for five furlongs which was the best of 83 at the distance on the day. He gets a good outside post in case the pace is hot and with logical improvement off his 108 last race figure could potentially post the upset.

Regarding Charlatan, who is likely to be either the betting favorite, or second betting favorite behind Nashville, there are some serious concerns in my opinion about his probability to win compared to others. First, he hasn't been seen since winning the Arkansas Derby nearly eight months ago and in spite of some excellent workouts, he doesn't stand out based on his best efforts. In the race prior to the Arkansas Derby at Santa Anita in March, Charlatan earned a 108 figure just on par with the figure Independence Hall earned last month and much lower than the 113 and 115 figures Nashville earned in his two most recent races, as well as shy of the 116 figure Collusion Illusion earned winning the Bing Crosby Stakes this summer. Next, in spite of having won this race three times previously, Bob Baffert just does not have a good record with horses coming back from layoffs in the two big races for 3-year-olds on opening weekend – the Malibu Stakes and the La Brea Stakes (for fillies). According to a query I ran using STATS Race Lens, Baffert has not won in seven tries over the last five years with horses coming back from layoffs longer than two months. His most recent win in this race, with McKinzie, came off a layoff of just under two months. Particularly, horses which last ran in May similar to Charlatan fared poorly, such as Lord Nelson (2015), Mor Spirit (2016) and Solomini (2018). With those results in mind I'm taking a stand against Charlatan, also noting he has led from start to finish in all three races to date and there's little doubt he's not going to have the early lead against Nashville.

As to the rest of the field, Express Train earned a career-best figure of 112 when second at a mile in late September over the track before a failed attempt on turf and could return to competitive form back on the main track so could get a piece. Collusion Illusion rallied from seventh to win the Bing Crosby with a 116 figure and before that won the Lazaro Barrera Stakes at the distance of six and one-half furlongs so he could be making up ground late and is another with a shot to finish in-the-money. Thousand Words ran the second worst race of his career when last seen in October, finishing eighth in the Preakness Stakes. His best efforts winning the Shared Belief Stakes and Robert B. Lewis Stakes earned 107 figures but both were two-turn races so he would need to run better than he ever has to beat many of these.

Win Contenders, in preference order:
Nashville
Independence Hall

Runhappy Malibu Stakes – Grade 1
Race 10 at Santa Anita
Saturday, December 26 – Post Time 6:30 PM E.T.
Seven Furlongs
3-Year-Olds
Purse: $300,000

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