Maximum Security | Horse Racing Free Tips

Lil Indy, Dam of Maximum Security, Dies While Foaling

Lil Indy (Anasheed–Cresta, by Cresta Rider), the dam of champion Maximum Security (New Year's Day), died Saturday night while foaling a filly by Curlin, Summer Wind Farm's Jane Lyon reported in a Facebook post.

“It is with deep sadness I have to announce the passing of Lil Indy, the dam of Maximum Security. She died foaling a beautiful Curlin filly Saturday evening,” Lyon said. “While she graced Summer Wind Farm for a far too short time, she captured our hearts with her sweet demeanor and beautiful spirit. She will always remain in our hearts. Godspeed Lil Indy, you were loved here.”

Just a $2,200 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky purchase who won twice in 19 starts on the track, Lil Indy became a household name when Maximum Security put together a championship season as a sophomore in 2019, a campaign that also famously featured his disqualification from first in the GI Kentucky Derby. Bought for $11,000 at Keeneland November the previous year, she summoned $1.85 million from Lyon's Summer Wind Equine at the same sale in 2019.

Lil Indy's remaining produce is an unraced 3-year-old Flashback colt named Stand Proud, an unnamed juvenile full-sister to Maximum Security who sold to Four Star Sales for $65,000 this year at Keeneland January, a yearling Quality Road colt named Qualified and the Curlin filly born Saturday night.

The post Lil Indy, Dam of Maximum Security, Dies While Foaling appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Chief Steward Barbara Borden Goes On The Record About ‘Life-Changing’ Derby Disqualification

Nearly two years after the historic disqualification of Maximum Security in the 145th Kentucky Derby, chief state steward Barbara Borden has gone on record with the Courier-Journal to discuss the career-defining 22 minutes during which she and her fellow stewards made their decision.

Viewing the Run for the Roses from five different camera angles, Borden, Brooks “Butch” Becraft, and Tyler Picklesimer determined that Maximum Security caused an issue near the quarter pole when he impeded the path of War of Will, who then bumped into Long Range Toddy. For the first time in the race's storied history, it was announced that the horse first across the wire would be disqualified due to interference. Borden and her fellow stewards placed Maximum Security 17th, behind Long Range Toddy, the last horse his action bothered. Preparing to make the race official, Borden turned to Becraft and Picklesimer before pressing the button.

“I said, 'This is a big thing and it's probably going to be life-changing,'” Borden told the Courier-Journal. “That was kind of dramatic at the time, I thought, but with some of the events that occurred afterward, it really wasn't an overstatement.”

The aftershocks of the stewards' decision were far-reaching. A call from Maximum Security's owners less than 30 seconds after the race went official was a prelude to the coming legal challenge. Immediately, Churchill Downs took precautions for Borden's safety; a security guard escorted her to her car after the races, but Borden remembers him backing away as she started it, as if the car might explode.

As the weeks after the Derby wore on, Borden said she received hate mail both at Churchill Downs and at her home. Churchill placed a security guard on her for the remainder of the Spring Meet.

Eventually, the stewards' decision was upheld in court due to a Kentucky law that states the stewards are responsible for “all findings of fact as to all matters occurring during and incident to the running of a race,” and “findings of fact and determination shall be final and not subject to appeal.”

“I knew when I took this job that it was going to be stressful at times,” Borden told the Courier-Journal. “It was a little more than I expected, the fallout, but it didn't deter me at all from wanting to come back. The first time we walked back in this (stewards) room after that happened was several days later. It was a little weird to walk in here, but it didn't deter me at all. We did our job. As much as we didn't come in here looking to do that that day, we did our jobs and we were proud of that.”

Bloodlines Presented By Mill Ridge Farm: Concert Tour Flies The Homebred Banner For Wests

There is a tide in the affairs of horses, which taken at the flood, leads on to the Kentucky Derby.

With apologies to Shakespeare, there's more than a grain of truth in that sentence. Breeders begin the quest for the classics with purchases, sometimes quite expensive ones. Then come attempts at the major races and the stages of building a breeding operation to produce young prospects for the classics. If allied with confident planning, nerve, and patience, breeders have the potential to flower a breeding program that produces classic prospects with some regularity.

Such is the case with Gary and Mary West.

In 2019, the West stable had a pair of classic prospects, one on each coast, and both made it to the Kentucky Derby. Unbeaten in four previous starts, their homebred Maximum Security (by New Year's Day) wintered in Florida, won the Grade 1 Florida Derby, and led the field past the wire in the 2019 Kentucky Derby. Although subsequently disqualified, Maximum Security was named champion of his division for the annual Eclipse Award.

In the same classic, the Wests' other Derby performer was the 2018 juvenile champion Game Winner (Candy Ride), based in California with trainer Bob Baffert. Although beaten in the Kentucky Derby, Game Winner had the scope and ability of a classic colt. The dark bay had been bred by Summer Wind Farm in Kentucky and sold to the Wests for $110,000 at the Keeneland September sale in 2017.

This year, the Wests again are closely connected to a pair of colts prepping for the classics. The first is one that they sold; the Into Mischief colt Life is Good, who is unbeaten in three starts, was auctioned to China Horse Club and Maverick Racing for $525,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September sale.

The colt that the Wests kept is Concert Tour (by Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense), who is likewise unbeaten in three starts, including the G2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn on March 13. Bred in Kentucky by Gary and Mary West Stables Inc., Concert Tour is out of the Tapit mare Purse Strings.

The Wests bought Purse Strings through their racing manager and bloodstock representative Ben Glass for $240,000 at the 2012 Keeneland September yearling sale. At the races, Purse Strings raced a dozen times in maiden special company, winning the last of those at Churchill Downs on Nov. 29 as a 4-year-old. Glass recalled that Purse Strings “had all the talent in the world and should have broken her maiden a half-dozen times. But she was never fully sound,” he said.

Instead, “she always had little problems: a shin, a suspensory, and so forth that kept her from being early to the races and from staying in hard training so she could show her best.”

A winner of $105,960, Purse Strings had contested a series of good maiden races, finishing second a half-dozen times and third twice before graduating to the winner's circle. Sent to the paddocks for the 2016 breeding season, Purse Strings produced Concert Tour as her second foal.

The chestnut Purse Strings was notably the best racer from her dam, the Mt. Livermore mare My Red Porsche, who is a half-sister to the stakes winner, My White Corvette (Tarr Road). The latter produced champion Stardom Bound from the first crop by Tapit (Pulpit), and that gray filly's five Grade 1 successes prompted a mating between My Red Porsche and the great sire.

The result was Purse Strings, and even with physical issues, she clearly was a useful filly and has passed on more than that to her progressive son Concert Tour. The mare has a yearling colt by champion Lookin at Lucky and is in foal to American Freedom (Pulpit), who won the G3 Iowa Derby, was second in both the G1 Haskell and Travers, and is now a stallion at Airdrie Stud in Kentucky. Due in mid-April, Purse Strings will be bred back to Street Sense.

To produce horses of this caliber with consistency, the Wests and their advisers are responsible for balancing optimism and pragmatism, for considering both physique and pedigree. The responsibilities for all this are considerable. Pedigree adviser Sid Fernando noted that “Werk Thoroughbred Consultants advises on matings, and we're happy to be part of the team for Gary and Mary West, Ben Glass, and their other elite support staff.”

One of the benefits of managing well the many facets of breeding racehorses is the satisfaction when the results go as planned.

A birth notice of note: Beach Walk, the dam of unbeaten Life is Good, foaled a half-brother by Candy Ride on March 15. The mare will be bred back to Into Mischief, the sire of Life is Good.

The post Bloodlines Presented By Mill Ridge Farm: Concert Tour Flies The Homebred Banner For Wests appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

The Week in Review: Charlatan Ran a Huge Race in Saudi Arabia

He did not win Saturday over in Saudi Arabia, but Charlatan (Speightstown) proved that he is undoubtedly the best dirt horse in America. That's how well he ran in his one-length defeat to Mishriff (Ire) (Make Believe {GB}) in the $20-million race.

It was by no means a surprise that Charlatan and Knicks Go (Paynter) got caught up in a speed duel. Both are talented horses with abundant early speed and jockeys Joel Rosario (Knicks Go) and Mike Smith (Charlatan) rode aggressively, perhaps because neither rider wanted to see their rival get off to an uncontested lead in what many assumed was a two-horse race.

No official fractional times for the race are available, only a final time of 1:49.59 for the mile-and-an-eighth. But a hand timing of the race using video timing revealed that the six furlongs went in 1:10.7. Considering that there was no run up to the race, the six-furlong time would be more like 1:09 and change for a comparable race run in the U.S.

That means that Charlatan dueled with Knicks Go through a very fast three-quarters, while Mishriff got the perfect trip, stalking the two leaders from third. And he did so on a track that may have been biased toward outside closers. Speed didn't hold up in any of the dirt races Saturday and all of the winners were well off the rail in the stretch.

Knicks Go, a very good horse, couldn't handle the pressure. He was done on the turn and wound up finishing fourth, beaten 8 1/2 lengths. Not so for Charlatan. He was still battling Mishriff with 100 meters to go in the race and didn't let the other horse get by him until a few jumps before the wire. The pace was fast, Charlatan never got a breather and then he was caught by a horse who had a perfect trip while racing on the best part of the track. This may have been his best race.

“He ran a big race,” trainer Bob Baffert said Sunday morning. “He put away Knicks Go, just ran him down, turned in a gallant effort and it's too bad he got beat. That's a demanding track. The stretch is so long, and he ran hard. It was an exciting race and I would have loved to have won it, but I was afraid of a speed duel between him and Knicks Go. They locked horns after a half-mile and really picked it up the second quarter. But the way he ran, it shows what a brilliant horse he is. He put away a really good horse [in Knicks Go].”

Charlatan's Saudi Cup performance was reminiscent of the 1978 GI Jockey Club Gold Cup, in which Seattle Slew lost after a heroic effort. He dueled with Affirmed and Life's Hope through fractions of 22.60, 45.20 and 1:09.40. The pace finished Affirmed, whose saddle slipped, and Life's Hope, but not Slew. Meanwhile, Exceller had a perfect off-the-pace trip, but Seattle Slew never gave up and lost by just a nose.

That's not to say that Charlatan is another Seattle Slew. He needs to do a lot more before he can be compared to one of the sport's all-time greats. But his effort in the Saudi Cup was nothing short of terrific.

Maximum Security: The Check Is Not in the Mail

Prince Bandar Bin Khalid Al Faisal, the chairman of the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia, told the audience for the Saudi Cup that he hoped there might be a resolution on the Maximum Security (New Year's Day) case shortly. Because of the indictment of his trainer Jason Servis and the ongoing investigation, owners Gary and Mary West and Coolmore have not received the $10 million that goes to the winner.

Prince Bandar said that he had been informed that a decision on Servis would come in about six weeks. It was an odd position to take since the case figures to wind through the system for months to come and even the U.S. Jockey Club has received no information concerning a rapid resolution to the case. It seems highly unlikely that the Servis matter will conclude any time soon or that the Saudi authorities would have inside information related to when there will be a decision.

The Prince has said that if U.S. authorities determine that Maximum Security raced on performance-enhancing drugs within six months of the 2020 Saudi Cup he will be disqualified. The FBI's investigation into the alleged doping of horses and the subsequent indictments include evidence that Maximum Security did receive SGF-1000 under Servis's care, administered in the hope of performance enhancement.

Jockey Club Gold Cup Is On the Move

As strange as it will seem to have the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup, first run in 1919, held at Saratoga, NYRA might have saved the race by moving it upstate.

The Gold Cup had been run four weeks before the Breeders' Cup Classic, which, until a few years ago, was not a problem. But with trainers more and more determined to space out their horses' races leading up to the Breeders' Cup, the Gold Cup was suffering, failing to attract a quality field over the last few years. It had gotten to the point where the Gold Cup was in jeopardy of losing its Grade I status.

It will now be run eight weeks before the Classic, which should restore it as a major prep for the Breeders' Cup.

NYRA has yet to announce the stakes schedule for the fall meet at Belmont, but it appears that the GI Woodward S., run at Saratoga since 2006, will move into the Gold Cup's old spot on the calendar. That could mean that race will struggle to get top horses. By switching the two races around, NYRA chose to protect the Gold Cup over the Woodward. Considering the history of the race, it's the right call.

Mattress Mack Deserves to be Honored

That Jim McIngvale has opened up his store to those seeking shelter, heat and food in the aftermath of the storms in Houston doesn't really have anything to do with horse racing. But that doesn't mean that the horse racing industry shouldn't honor him. Mattress Mack has repeatedly gone above and beyond when it comes to helping out the people of his favorite city, Houston.

The Eclipse Award of Merit is given to someone who has displayed outstanding lifetime achievement in, and service to, the Thoroughbred industry. That should include people whose work outside of the sport has been exemplary, shining a positive light on racing. That's exactly what Mack has done. There should be an Eclipse Award out there with his name on it.

The post The Week in Review: Charlatan Ran a Huge Race in Saudi Arabia appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post