Mark Toothaker | Horse Racing Free Tips

It wasn't the usual morning-after scene around Barn 33 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., on Sunday as only a smattering of media and cameras were on hand waiting for the shedrow's Hall of Fame trainer to lead out his latest Kentucky Derby hero. But after months of having one contender after another go by the wayside in the lead up the 146th edition of the “Run for the Roses”, Bob Baffert was never more thankful or grateful to show off a newly minted classic winner for the few who had gathered.

Baffert has brought many an elite horse out on the Churchill Downs backside the day after the Kentucky Derby but the look of admiration he cast in the direction of Authentic less than 24 hours after the colt's triumph in the 10-furlong test was one that spoke volumes about the journey to that point. The bay son of Into Mischief “wasn't even tired” according to his trainer after leading every point of call to defeat heavily favored Tiz the Law and 13 others en route to giving Baffert his record-tying sixth Kentucky Derby triumph.

Owned by Spendthrift Farm, My Racehorse, Madaket Stables, and Starlight Racing, Authentic capped off a wild 2020 Road to the Kentucky Derby for Baffert that saw the trainer lose highly regarded Nadal and Charlatan to injury earlier in the year. The drama didn't stop for Baffert even when he made it to the paddock for the race Saturday as his other Derby entrant this season, graded stakes winner Thousand Words, was a late scratch after rearing and flipping in the paddock — an incident that resulted in assistant trainer Jimmy Barnes suffering a broken wrist that will require surgery.

Even without 160,000 in the stands to watch as this year's Kentucky Derby was held without fans because of the coronavirus pandemic, Authentic managed to give his team a moment for the ages as he hit the wire 1 1/4 lengths in front.

“I couldn't believe it, I thought he might be a little tired today,” Baffert said of Authentic. “He came out of it well. Jimmy is going to need surgery, I think he'll need eight screws in his wrist but he actually was here this morning. He's a trooper. I was so emotional yesterday because I wanted (Barnes) to be there. To me, that was most emotional Derby I've ever been involved in because of what happened during that little time frame. It was the most crazy 30 minutes I've had in racing.

“Before May, I was looking so strong and then everything just went wrong,” Baffert continued. “And to pull it off like that was really exciting. Winning the Kentucky Derby is the biggest moment in a trainer's life. When you win it, it erases everything that has gone bad.”

With the Derby victory, Authentic not only answered the question of whether an offspring of Into Mischief could get 10 furlongs successfully, but he moved himself to the forefront of the sophomore male ranks having previously annexed the Haskell Stakes (G1), Sham Stakes (G3) and San Felipe Stakes (G2) this year. His only loss in six career starts came when he ran second to Honor A. P. in the June 6 Santa Anita Derby (G1) and he also gives B. Wayne Hughes' powerhouse Spendthrift Farm operation its first Derby triumph.

“It was all so unbelievable. I walked over with the Albaughs (co-owners of Thousand Words) and we're all enjoying the moment and then…the next thing you know (Thousand Words) exploded and went over,” said Mark Toothaker, stallion sales manager of Spendthrift Farm, which also co-owns Thousand Words. “The state vet walked over and said he was a scratch. So you had all the emotion of you are within 20 minutes of having a horse getting ready to run in the Kentucky Derby that we picked out and we're so excited and as we were walking through the tunnel, I said to our general manager Ned Toffey 'If there is a Derby God out there….maybe we can win.' For Authentic to just keep giving it in the stretch, it was like he had an extra push.”

A trip to Baltimore for the Preakness Stakes (GI) on Oct. 3 is slated as the next objective for both Authentic and Thousand Words, as the latter escaped his paddock fall without injury. Baffert said both colts will head over the shedrow of Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas to stay for the next few weeks as the legendary conditioner has offered to help oversee the duo so that Baffert doesn't have to ship them back to California in the interim.

“Being that the Preakness is a few weeks away, I thought it might be too hard on them to go back. So I have an assistant trainer, this D. Wayne Lukas guy here,” Baffert joked. “So they're going to be in Wayne's barn. We're going to run them out of here. If they're working well and all going well, they'll go to the Preakness. I didn't want to take them all the way to California and back. I want to give them every opportunity.

“We're planning on both if they're doing well. Thousand Woods we'll give him another chance at it. He didn't have a scratch on him.”

Even though he was flying back to California Sunday morning to spend part of his birthday, Jimmy Barnes was back to work dark and early Sunday morning, albeit in a compromised capacity. Barnes said he wasn't going to say anything about his broken right wrist — and he's right-handed — but he rolled up his sleeve and saw it at the wrong angle. He said he watched the Derby on a phone in the ambulance on his way to Norton Audubon Hospital. He said the ER personnel knew he was connected to the Derby winner, and that the ER doctor actually was a co-breeder of Baffert's two-time Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Midnight Lute.

“I didn't have to go (to the hospital). I could have watched it on a TV,” Barnes said. “I said, 'Just get me over there and I can watch it on my phone.' Heck, what was I going to do, run out to the winner's circle and everything? My hand was pointing this way.”

Asked if the hospital staff was aware Barnes was connected to the Derby winner, he said: “Oh yeah, my doctor bred Midnight Lute, he was a partner on Midnight Lute's breeding and a horse we had called Socialbug

“We won. What a great race. I was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. I was watching it on a phone. I would have wanted to stay, but I wanted to get out of there also. I didn't want to prolong the situation. I knew what I was in for. I was probably going to be at the ER, I thought I'd be there a lot longer than I actually was. They put me out, reset it, wrapped it up, so I had to wait, because they won't just release you once they do that. If it would have been my first Derby, they all mean a lot to me, but there were people there representing. I said, 'They got it covered.'”

Barnes' first Derby with Baffert was in 1999 with General Challenge and his first Derby winner with Baffert was War Emblem in 2002.

“That being said, I really wanted to stay, because it is an emotional thing,” Barnes said. “It was important to me to get started on this immediately so I could get back to the barn. That's what was going through my head. When it happened, I wasn't going to say anything. I was going to say I was OK. I knew it kind of hurt. Then I pulled my sleeve up and saw it was pointing a different direction. So I pulled it back down and said, 'I better say something.' ”

“Then (Baffert) got knocked around and the owner got stepped on (in the winner's circle).”

Was Barnes surprised by Authentic's performance?

“Well, he didn't surprise me, the way he trains and the way you watch him move. He's just this big leaper. He's got a huge stride on him,” Barnes said. “He just got out there motoring along. Johnny V rode him superbly. He committed early and if you're going to go with him you're going to be running fast. So they kind of backed off a bit, from what I saw. When they turned for home, he was headed. That horse was there. For him to straighten out and switch leads, because you look at his earlier races and he was very erratic in the stretch in numerous races. Even Mike (Smith) had some issues in New Jersey (winning the Haskell), and Drayden (Van Dyke) had some issues. But Johnny V, when he pulled his stick through to the left hand and got after him, boy, he just leveled out and said, 'They're not going by me today.' ”

“You can be on the floor and then be up in the sky soaring,” Barnes said of the highs and lows racing can bring.

The post Baffert: ‘The Most Crazy 30 Minutes I’ve Had In Racing’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Into Mischief picked up his sixth Grade 1 winner on July 18 with Authentic's victory in the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park. Two days earlier, the bay son of the deceased sire Harlan's Holiday (by the Storm Cat stallion Harlan) had the one-two in the G3 Schuylerville Stakes at Saratoga when Dayoutoftheoffice won by six lengths from Make Mischief, who was a length ahead of second-choice Hopeful Princess (Not This Time). The fourth horse was 10 lengths farther back, and the odds-on favorite, Beautiful Memories (Hard Spun), stumbled at the start, was pulled up after a half-mile, then walked off.

In contrast to the victory of heavily favored Authentic, Dayoutoftheoffice and Make Mischief were two of the four longest shots in the field of seven, and the winner was 19.8-to-1.

Quick, precocious, and willing racers, Dayoutoftheoffice and Make Mischief are typical of the progeny of leading sire Into Mischief, who has stood his entire stud career at Spendthrift Farm for owner B. Wayne Hughes, and the stallion has risen from the modest heights of an entering stud fee of $12,500 to a position in the hierarchy of stallions where his fee for 2020 was $175,000 live foal, and for 2021, it would not be surprising to see a further increase.

The quantity and quality of his offspring are responsible for that steady upward progression in stud fee.

As evidence of that, Into Mischief was the leading sire of 2019 by progeny earnings, with $18.9 million, and he ranks second in 2020. In addition, Into Mischief is a promising sire of stallions, with such well-regarded young horses as Audible (G1 Florida Derby), who entered stud at WinStar in 2020, and Practical Joke (G1 Champagne, Hopeful, Allen Jerkens), who entered stud at Ashford in 2018 and has first-crop yearlings this year.

When he goes to stud, Authentic will go to Spendthrift to stand alongside Into Mischief, like the stallion's other sons Goldencents (sire of seven stakes winners and the earners of more than $10 million) and Maximus Mischief, who entered stud in 2020.

Spendthrift's Mark Toothaker said, “We're so lucky to have Into Mischief, because he's a generational sort of sire, and we'd love to stand all his sons, too. We already have a couple, and we're thrilled to have Authentic coming to Spendthrift. He's a taller, stretchier sort of Into Mischief, and we're seeing more of that type as breeders are coming to breed more mares to him with size and scope.”

Before Authentic goes on to a second career, however, trainer Bob Baffert will point the long-legged bay for the Kentucky Derby, and “hopefully Authentic runs on next year at four; that's the deal with him now,” Toothaker said, “and that was part of the plan for bringing in MyRacehorse.com as part of the ownership of the horse.”

Purchased at the 2018 Keeneland September sale by SF Bloodstock and Starlight West, Authentic started his career so impressively that Madaket Stables LLC, Spendthrift Farms LLC, and MyRaceHorse Stable subsequently have bought into the horse.

The first four entities are well-known for involvement in high-profile racing stock, but MyRaceHorse Stable is a different proposition. Toothaker noted that when “we met Michael Behrens, who owned MyRacehorse.com at the time, we loved it so much that Spendthrift bought a significant interest in the company,” and now Spendthrift is putting MyRaceHorse Stable in partnerships with some of its high-class racers.

Brian Lyle, who is the liaison for Spendthrift with MyRaceHorse Stable, said that “Mr. Hughes is concerned with the number of people involved in racing and wants to help attract more people to the sport. Our concept of MyRaceHorse Stable is purely to get more fans to the racetrack. It brings in more owners, it builds greater enthusiasm, and it builds up education so that some owners can move to the next level with their involvement in the sport.”

In Toothaker's analogy of the approach, he said, “It's a sort of farm league or development league to allow people to have individual involvement in the game through the purchase of micro-shares, and Mr. Hughes believes it could save the game. Normally, we are looking at young horses where Spendthrift would buy breeding rights, but now with MyRacehorse, we are also looking to buy racing rights.”

As testament to the widespread appeal that this could have with the general public, Toothaker recounted that the assistant pastor at the church where Toothaker and his family attend came up to him on Sunday to let him know that the clergyman had bought a share in Authentic.

Maybe those prayers made a difference in the stretch run of the Haskell. Either way, involvement of people not otherwise experienced in Thoroughbred ownership is a boon for the sport, and Authentic may prove an important educational and promotional marker for the popularity of the sport with this success and with anything else he accomplishes in the future.

The post Bloodlines: Authentic’s Haskell Win Brings Latest Success For Into Mischief, MyRacehorse appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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