Mark Martinez | Horse Racing Free Tips

Knuckley, Clary Keep Neatherlin Legacy Alive With Don’tcrossthedevil

You could be forgiven if the fifth race at Louisiana Downs Monday evening was well off your radar screen, but Don'tcrossthedevil (Cross Traffic)'s 4 1/4-length victory in the one mile and 70 yard allowance completed a long and winding road to redemption for co-owner Kevin Knuckley and trainer and breeder Jaylan Clary. Clary bred the 4-year-old gelding with her late father, trainer Michael Neatherlin, and the bay made his winning debut at Remington Park just weeks after Neatherlin died in the fall of 2021. A second open-lengths victory briefly had the bay on the Derby trail in early 2022, but after a failed stint in California, Don'tcrossthedevil is back in the Midwest with Clary and was back in the winner's circle for the first time since 2021.

“I pinhook mostly and I actually got started with that through Mike Neatherlin,” Knuckley recalled. “He called me in January of 2021 to buy in on three different horses and also asked if I wanted to buy into this 2-year-old that he and his daughter Jaylan bred. One of Mike's favorite expressions was, 'I'm telling you, Kevin. I'm telling you. You got to listen to me. This horse is special.' And I had to agree. We settled on an $80,000 market value and I bought a quarter of him for $20,000.”

It didn't hurt that Knuckley was already familiar with the family. He and his father had raced Don'tcrossthedevil's dam, the stakes-placed The Devil Is Mine (Devil His Due), in their Double Knuck Stables.

“She was a stone-cold runner herself, but she had some issues,” Knuckley said of the mare. “But she's produced some pretty nice babies and this is probably one of the better sires she's been bred to in Cross Traffic.”

The plan was to give Don'tcrossthedevil time to grow up before he made his first start, but the timing of that debut effort was pushed further back than expected.

“He was a big, lanky horse, so he needed to grow into himself a little bit,” Knuckley said. “We wanted to start him a little later in his 2-year-old year. We were angling for August or September and we took him to Remington. But Mike got COVID. He got it really bad and it killed him. He passed away in September. Don'tcrossthedevil was actually supposed to start the day after Mike died. We had to scratch him out of that race because of that.”

The loss hit Knuckley hard.

“He was a big brother, a mentor to me in this business,” Knuckley said. “He was the one who got me started pinhooking and we raced horses with Mike. Everything, foundationally, that I know about this business goes back to Mike. I watched his kids grow up, Jaylan and his stepson Lane Richardson. And now I am partners with Lane in pinhooking and I've got three runners in training with Jaylan.”

A few weeks after Neatherlin's passing, Don'tcrossthedevil fulfilled the Texas horseman's belief in him, breaking his maiden at Remington Park by 1 1/2 lengths. He added a six-length victory in an allowance race a month later.

“Both times I cried like a baby,” Knuckley said of those victories. “I mean, I just bawled. Because I missed Mike so much. And I know how proud he was of his daughter and me. And being able to team up like this–how special it was. All of these emotions just came up.”

The two impressive victories led to some inquiries to sell the promising young runner.

“The phone started ringing a couple of times [after his first win],” Knuckley said. “Jaylan priced him at $200,000 or $250,000, no one really bid at that point. His next race, he won again. And did it really impressively. The phone rang again. And finally we came to terms with Mark Martinez [of Agave Racing].”

Martinez purchased Don'tcrossthedevil for $225,000, with Knuckley staying in for 10%.

“He probably would have been the favorite for the Springboard Mile at Remington, but Mark didn't have any connections there and he raced with Phil D'Amato, who had an assistant at Oaklawn,” Knuckley recalled. “We shipped him to Oaklawn and on Jan. 1, we put him on the Derby trail in the Smarty Jones. That was a nightmare. It was rainy, terrible trip, everything, and he didn't do well there at all. We put him in the Southwest and that was a mess, too. We took him off the trail and shipped him out to California under Phil's direct training.”

Things didn't improve for the gelding out on the West Coast where he was well-beaten in three starts. Martinez was ready to call it quits, but Knuckley couldn't let go of his last connection to Neatherlin.

“We tried routing him, we tried him on the grass,” Knuckley said of Don'tcrossthedevil's time in California. “But we just couldn't put it together. Phil has probably 175 horses in his barn and I think this horse just got lost in the program and in the shuffle out there. Mark said he was ready to drop him for $16,000-$20,000 at Santa Anita. And I flat out told him, that's giving him away and they are going to take him. And he said, 'I am done.' This is a guy who payed $225,000 for this horse and he was ready to walk away from him.”

Martinez, who had by this point become a good friend, as well as a business partner to Knuckley, ultimately let him buy the horse back at a fraction of his estimated value and Don'tcrossthedevil returned home to Clary's barn. In his first start back for his breeder and original trainer, the gelding was a creditable second going 6 1/2 furlongs at Lone Star in May. He was third when stretched to a mile June 10 and made it all the way back to the winner's circle as a 25-1 longshot Monday evening.

“If you look at his running line, ever since Jaylan has had him, his Equibase numbers have gone up,” Knuckley said. “From 77, 81 and in the 90s yesterday. His best races have been with Jaylan. Yesterday, he finally did it. He found the winner's circle again and he found it with Jaylan. She bred him, she raised him and she brought this horse back. He was lost and she found him.”

Knuckley celebrated the victory a state away near his home in Texas.

“I went to Lone Star Bar and Book and I was there among a handful of strangers and they were all wondering what was going on,” Knuckley said. “I bought a round of drinks for the whole bar. It was a rush of emotions. I welled up. I thought of Mike and I was just so proud of Jaylan. And selfishly, I was happy for myself for bringing him back, for keeping the faith. We thought we had a big horse, we took our shot on the Derby trail and, as it does for most, it didn't end well. And sometimes you never see or hear from those horses again. And this horse has shown how resilient he is. I am proud of him for that.”

He continued, “As always there is that almost indescribable and unrivaled feeling of exhilaration of winning a horse race. And on top of the adrenaline and sentimental emotions that the victory carried with it, there was an unmistakable sensation of redemption. And when I spoke to Jaylan last night, we both agreed that Mike had that magnetic smile and look of pure joy on his face as he looked down upon us. We could feel how proud he is of us.”

As for what is next for Don'tcrossthedevil, Knuckley said, “I am not against trying a low-level listed stakes, maybe a $75,000 stakes or something and see what that looks like.”

5th-Louisiana Downs, $28,330, 7-17, (C), 3yo/up, 1m 70y (off turf), 1:43.45, ft, 4 1/4 lengths.

DON'TCROSSTHEDEVIL (g, 4, Cross Traffic–The Devil Is Mine {SP}, by Devil His Due) Lifetime Record: 11-3-1-1, $73,292. O-Kevin Knuckley & Pat Heinsen; B-Jaylan Renay Neatherlin (KY); T-Jaylan Renay Clary. *1/2 to Eurodevilwoman (Euroears), SP, $217,408.

The post Knuckley, Clary Keep Neatherlin Legacy Alive With Don’tcrossthedevil appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Letter to the Editor: Why I Choose Racing Over The Sports I Loved For 50 Years

I just read the letter from my fellow Texan (Name Withheld) and I appreciate that he took the time to share his thoughts. I try to be open minded and we (racing) need everyone's opinion. However, like a coin there's two sides to this story and I feel compelled to share a different perspective.

As a kid growing up in Detroit in the 1970s, my days and nights were filled with following and watching football, baseball, basketball and hockey. I wasn't a casual fan, I was the true meaning of fan – fanatical. Watched and played sports 24/7, read the sports page front to back, traded cards, listened to the Tigers broadcast on my transistor radio well past bedtime and became a sports encyclopedia that could tell you Denny McLain's ERA the year he won 31 games, but couldn't recite the presidents of the United States.

As I became an adult, I continued to be an avid sports fan and had season tickets to the Miami Dolphins, the San Francisco 49ers, the Dallas Cowboys and, for the past 25 years, the San Antonio Spurs. I was in Candlestick Park for “The Catch” and in the arena when the Spurs hung five championship banners. Talk about a run. I thought to myself, 'It doesn't get any better than this.' I couldn't have been more wrong!

I had always been intrigued by Thoroughbred racing, but I was just a casual fan who went to the local racetrack occasionally or watched the Triple Crown races on TV. Then something happened about 15 years ago that changed my sports world forever! I decided that I wanted to own a piece of a racehorse and went in search of a syndicate and a horse that looked good to me. I didn't know anything about anything so going in search of a racehorse is nothing short of hilarious to me today. Anyway, I fell into safe hands and I was off and running.

Those early years were a blast – surrounded by great people that were truly passionate about the game and lived it morning, noon and night. I was having a ton of fun, but after a few years the numbers on the circuit I was running just didn't make sense. In other words, my expense to purse ratio was not good enough to sustain my stable. I had graduated from the syndicate ranks a few years earlier and the expenses can mount up if you aren't careful. A change had to be made if I was going to survive in the game that I was now so passionate about.

That took me to the West Coast and what was, in my eyes, the mecca of racing. You only need to sit in the stands of Santa Anita Park once looking out over the track at the San Gabriel Mountains or stand in the saddling paddock of Del Mar to know you don't want to run anywhere else in the world. To make a long story shorter, my move to California was a game changer for me. I had the good fortune of some graded stakes wins and Breeder's Cup appearances that I thought were reserved for only the top players in the game.

I don't take winning for granted. It's a tough game and winning is the culmination of a lot of hard work on the part of a lot of good people. Horsemen and horsewomen committed to their trades and working tirelessly to achieve results in a sport where losing 80% of the time is considered a success. I have found that most are motivated by passion and not by money or greed. But maybe the best part of all is the friendships that you make in racing — the kind that will celebrate you when you win and are there to pick you up when you lose.

So, whatever happened to the sports I followed for 50 years? While “Name Withheld” wrote about horse racing changing, so has MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL. I guess the $150 million contracts, the outrageous tickets prices, and the $15 hotdogs and beers contributed to my change, but it was the greatness of racing that ultimately changed the sports landscape for me.

While change is inevitable in all sports, it doesn't have to be a negative. Let's evolve our game to be more inclusive and let's work together to make it better. It's easy to tear something down, but it takes real commitment to make racing something we can all be proud of.

I'm in – how about you?

In closing, I would like to thank my trainers, my partners, my jockeys, my agents, my veterinarians, my fellow owners, the racetracks and my horse racing friends that have contributed so significantly to giving me the opportunity to take the ride of a lifetime. It truly is The Greatest Game!

–Mark Martinez (Agave Racing Stable)

If you would like to submit a letter to the editor, please write to info at paulickreport.com and include contact information where you may be reached if editorial staff have any questions.

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Fillies Bring the Graded Type to Keeneland January

When the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale opens its four-day run in Lexington next week, it will present buyers the opportunity to bid on fillies and mares, offered as racing or broodmare prospects, whose recent form had them hitting the board in graded company.

Multiple stakes winner Bella Vita (Bayern) was second behind champion Gamine (Into Mischief) in the July 5 GII Great Lady M S. at Los Alamitos and comes into the Keeneland January sale off a runner-up effort in the Dec. 4 GIII Go For Wand H. for owner Kaleem Shah and trainer Simon Callaghan. Her 2021 campaign also included wins in the Betty Grable S. at Del Mar in November and in the Spring Fever S. at Santa Anita in February.

“Obviously you have to make a profit in this business, that was one of the driving points to put her in the sale, but I am not driven to sell her,” Shah said of Bella Vita's engagement next Tuesday at Keeneland. “If she brings a fair price, we will sell her and wish the new connections well.”

Bella Vita, who has hit the board in 11 of 14 starts with four wins and earnings of $396,722, is consigned as hip 462 with Eaton Sales.

A $400,000 OBS April purchase in 2019, the 5-year-old is out of the unraced Queenie Cat (Storm Cat), who is half-sister to champion Vindication (Seattle Slew) and to graded winner Scipion (A.P. Indy).

“Her mamma was a very expensive mare, a $1.7-million [2005 Keeneland September] yearling, and in the second and third dams there is a champion and lots of graded stakes winners,” Shah said. “She has a strong, deep female family and that will be attractive to buyers. It looks like the market has been strong and this mare should be very attractive to people who want to race and then to breed her at some point.”

Trainer and co-owner James Chapman was able to acquire Saucy Lady T (Tonalist) for just $5,000 at the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The filly was third in three graded events at Saratoga last summer and has earned $146,500 to date. She will head through the Keeneland January sales ring next Tuesday from the Stuart Morris consignment as hip 848.

“She was in the November sale and she had dinged her eye, so we scratched her,” Chapman said of the decision to offer the now 3-year-old in the January sale.

Saucy Lady T is out of graded placed Fila Primera (War Front) and her third dam is Promenade Colony (Pleasant Colony), who produced graded winner Promenade Girl. It is the family of Cavorting and her daughter Clairiere.

“She was a big, stretchy, good-looking filly. She looked like what I would buy,” Chapman said of his bargain yearling purchase. “I don't know why she cost that really. She was maybe a little bigger and clumsier looking than most of them. She wasn't something to flip back as a 2-year-old, so you lost all those guys, and Tonalist was cold at the time, so you lost those guys.”

Saucy Lady T broke her maiden by five lengths going five furlongs at Belmont Apr. 25 and then went on to finish third in the July 15 GIII Schuylerville S., Aug. 8 GII Adirondack S., and again in the Sept. 5 GI Spinaway S.

“She shouldn't have even run at two. She was bred to run long,” Chapman said of those early efforts. “I let them do it as long as they'll do it without being asked and she kept doing it. So she was in my first group to run. I had 50 of them that year and she was the best of the class.”

Saucy Lady T has been off since finishing fifth in the GI Frizette S. last October.

“I've had her with me at Belmont,” Chapman said. “I just gave her some time off because we didn't take her to the Breeders' Cup. She needed a break, so I could have a fresh horse for her 3-year-old year.”

Chapman expects potential buyers will have plenty to look forward to this year with the filly.

“She'll be a very nice 3-year-old,” he said. “She still has her non-winners of two condition and then it's up to them what they want to do with her.”

Should Saucy Lady T fail to meet her reserve, Chapman already has a plan mapped out for the filly.

“If I were still to have her, she would run in an a-other-than and then she would run in the filly stakes at Turfway, the Bourbonette, and then she would go in the Ashland and the Kentucky Oaks. And that's what she will do if they don't pay for her.”

Stakes-winning Miss Bigly (Gemologist), coming off a pair of third-place efforts against graded company in California, is consigned to the January sale as hip 221 with Taylor Made Sales Agency, but the 5-year-old mare's participation in Monday's first session of the auction will be determined Saturday in Arkansas when she goes postward in the Pippin S. at Oaklawn Park.

“The outcome of that race will determine whether she is in the sale or an out,” co-owner Mark Martinez of Agave Racing Stable said.

Agave Racing acquired Miss Bigly privately in 2020 and the mare has hit the board in nine of 10 starts for the partnership of Agave and Rockin Robin.

“We always felt like we could go to California and potentially run her in a graded stakes race and get her decorated up with a 'G' or two and we were able to accomplish that,” Martinez said. “You can see we ran her at probably five or six different tracks over a six-month period, so she logged more frequent miles than I did. But she answered the bell. We've run her 10 times and in every dirt race she's run for us, she's hit the board.”

Miss Bigly won the Tranquility Lake S. at Del Mar in August before third-place efforts in the Oct. 3 GII Zenyatta S. at Santa Anita and in the Nov. 29 GIII Chilukki S. at Churchill Downs Nov. 20.

“We had her in the November sale just to keep our options open,” Martinez said. “She ran well in those two graded stakes races, so we opted to move her to January. If she keeps running well, we will keep campaigning her and getting her decorated up, if we can. We will shift her to next November and if something were to happen, hypothetically, in March, we would consider putting her in foal and selling her in foal instead of selling her open in November if we elect to campaign her. We are just keeping options open more than anything.”

Miss Bigly is out of Miss Puzzle (Aus) (Citidancer) and she is a half-sister to Grade I winner Fashion Plate (Old Fashioned), a pedigree and a physical that should appeal to buyers.

“The buyers would be interested in her because she is a big, good-looking 16.1 every bit of physical, attractive filly and she has a rich bottom side pedigree,” he said.

Miss Bigly is 5-2 on the morning line for Saturday's one-mile Pippin S. for trainer Phil D'Amato.

“You like to sell them at five, but she isn't a graded stakes winner, so our thought is, if she can win a graded stakes, she would be worth more at six as a graded stakes winner than she is at five without winning a graded stakes,” Martinez explained.

Other Book 1 racing or broodmare prospects who enter the Keeneland January with graded placings in 2021 include Ego Trip (Ire) (No Nay Never) (hip 113), who was third in the GII Lake Placid S. at Saratoga in August. The 4-year-old is consigned by Hunter Valley Farm.

Portal Creek (Shanghai Bobby) (hip 271), a 6-year-old consigned by Elite, was second in the GIII Distaff H. at Aqueduct in April. Elite also consigns the 4-year-old Flown (Kitten's Joy) (hip 417), who was third in the GIII Regret S. and GIII Pucker Up S. last summer.

The 6-year-old On Deck (First Samurai), consigned by Taylor Made as hip 430B, was runner-up in the Oct. 3 GIII Chillingworth S., while Honor Way (Caleb's Posse) (hip 581), consigned by Paramount Sales, was second behind Paris Lights (Curlin) and Portal Creek in the GIII Distaff.

The Keeneland January sale begins Monday and continues through Thursday with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.

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Saez Guides Say The Word To Elkhorn Stakes Victory

Say the Word, a Grade 1 winner of the Northern Dancer Stakes for trainer Gail Cox at Woodbine last year, picked up his first victory since being transferred to California-based Phil D'Amato in Saturday's Grade 2 Elkhorn Stakes at Keeneland racecourse in Lexington, Ky.

Ridden by Luis Saez, the 6-year-old son of More Than Ready defeated another 6-year-old turf veteran, Channel Cat, by 1 1/2 lengths while covering 1 1/2 miles in 2:28.26 on a course labeled “good.” Crafty Daddy finished a neck back in third, with Fantasioso fourth in the field of eight older horses.

Say the Word, who on Thursday was named champion turf male in Canada's Sovereign Awards, paid $7.20 as second wagering choice behind 2-1 favorite Tide of the Sea.

Say the Word raced in mid-pack in the early going as Tide of the Sea set the pace. He made a wide move running down the backstretch, reaching contention at the quarter pole, then drawing off late for the victory.

Bred by Sam-Son Farm, Say the Word joined D'Amato's stable after Mark Martinez bought into the horse from Sam-Son late last year in the name of his Agave Racing Stable. He ran three times for D'Amato prior to the Elkhorn, finishing third in the G2 Hollywood Turf Cup at Del Mar, 11th in the G1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational at Gulfstream Park and second to United in the G3 San Luis Rey at Santa Anita.

The win was the sixth for Say the Word in 29 career starts. He was produced from the Giant's Causeway mare Danceforthecause.

Post-race quotes:

Luis Saez (winning rider of Say the Word): “He just found a good spot (on the backstretch), and he picked up the bridle. I didn't want to let him go too early, so I tried to relax him. When we came into the straight (on the run to the finish), he was pretty good. He took it away, and he won the race.”

Josh Flores (assistant to winning trainer Phil D'Amato, who is based at Santa Anita in California): “The only instructions I gave to Luis was just get him to settle early. For a second we were a little concerned when he picked up the bridle on his own. Luis did a great job to get him to settle. Down the lane, the horse really dug in and put up a good fight.”

Corey Lanerie (rider of runner-up Channel Cat): “We were forwardly placed right behind the favorite (Tide of the Sea). The eventual winner was right on my hip and I just could not hold him off. My horse ran great. Going a mile and a half, the pace might have been a little quicker than I thought we would be going, but he handled it the whole way.”

Jack Sisterson (trainer of Channel Cat): “He ran a very good race. We were optimistic going in to this race. We backed off since his last race (fifth in Jan. 23 William L. McKnight-G3 at Gulfstream Park). We decided to point to the Elkhorn here at Keeneland – this is home for him. If horses could talk, he was telling us he was going to run a big race. It was good to see him run back to the form he had when he was trained by Todd Pletcher.”

On Channel Cat's next race: “We might look at something like the Manhattan (G1 at Belmont Park June 5) or the United Nations (G1 at Monmouth Park July 17). I think he is better than a Grade 3 horse.”

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