Merneith | Horse Racing Free Tips

TDN Snippets: Week of Mar. 21 – Mar. 27

Triple Crown season might be heating up but the well-bred handicap divisions are keen on having a say in how the big stage shapes up. Here's who's been shouting the loudest this week.

Stonestreet Gold Again a Rising Star…
The famous silks have done it once more, this time with Marsalis (Curlin) adding another 'TDN Rising Star' accolade to GISW Hot Dixie Chick's already impressive tally as a broodmare. Full-brother and New York's Leading Second Crop sire Union Jackson also claimed Rising Stardom in his racing days; while half-sister Pauline's Pearl (Tapit) added a victory in the GIII Houston Ladies Classic S. and a second in the GII Azeri S. to her million-dollar resume. Considering the dam also earned the TDN seal of approval, this female family really seems to enamor us in all the best ways and what's better than a Rising Star producing more Rising Stars?

A Titan Among Us…
With freaky-fast Olympiad (Speightstown) either breaking track-records or just missing them two races in a row en route to graded stakes victories, LNJ Foxwood's 'breeding stars' momentum doesn't look to be going away any time soon. The brilliant colt is one of his sire's 63 graded winners, and 128 black-type earners. The $700,000 KEESEP grad is bred on the same cross as MGISW Rock Fall (Speightstown), who tore through five victories in a row in 2015 including the GI Vosburgh and Alfred G. Vanderbilt S. in the Empire State.

It's Not This Time all the time…
The 2022 racing season is still young, but Not This Time has already begun to stake his claim as one of the most exciting young sires in the States. Counting GII Louisiana Derby winner Epicenter, Melody of Colors S. winner Last Leaf, and Midnight Stroll waltzing home in the Stonehedge Farm South Sophomore Fillies S. this past weekend, the stallion has 18 black-type winners. Taking into account his 144 lifetime starters as of calculation Mar. 28, he's hitting 17.36% stakes horses (25), 12.5% stakes winners (18), and 4.17% graded winners (6).

Where does the time go?
American Pharoah is about to enter a new stage of his breeding career…being a broodmare sire. And so, the ever elusive construct thus continues to move ever forward. With the retirements of As Time Goes By and Merneith, the ranks of blue-blooded broodmare prospects with him in the pedigree grow: the former in particular bred for success being out of Broodmare of the Year Take Charge Lady (Dehere) and a half to sires Will Take Charge (Unbridled's Song) and Take Charge Indy (A. P. Indy). As Time Goes By is expected to visit Into Mischief. Merneith ends her career Grade I placed and a multiple graded-stakes winner with no immediate stallion plans announced.

Japan takes over the world one race at a time…
Anyone who has tracked November auctions the past several years was not surprised when Japanese horses either won or hit the board in five of six open stakes on the Saudi Cup card bar one…the main event. We were even less surprised when they parlayed those incredible results into an even bigger Dubai World Cup night: winning, dead-heating, or placing in every single race minus the G1 Al Quoz Sprint and the Dubai Kahayla Classic, the latter they had no entries. Japanese connections have been scooping up quality American bloodlines for decades including, perhaps most famously, Sunday Silence, who went on to be 10-time Champion Sire in the country. Now the Land of the Rising Sun could set their eyes once again on the GI Kentucky Derby with Crown Pride (Jpn) (Reach the Crown {Jpn}), a great-grandson of the aforementioned legend through his sire. His trainer already willing after his G2 UAE Derby victory secured a spot in the gate, should the ownership group agree, a Japanese-bred descendant of Seattle Slew and Kingmambo will be in the starting gate on the first Saturday in May. As an added note on the American influence here, Crown Pride's dam was recently bred to Nadal (Blame).

The post TDN Snippets: Week of Mar. 21 – Mar. 27 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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As Time Goes By, Merneith Retired

Leading Southern California dirt mares As Time Goes By (American Pharoah) and Merneith (American Pharoah) have been retired from racing, trainer Bob Baffert told Daily Racing Form.

Twice a Grade II winner last year as a 4-year-old, Coolmore's As Time Goes By retires on a three-race winning streak and picked up the first Grade I victory of her career last out in the Beholder Mile S. Mar. 5 at Santa Anita. A half-sister to Grade I winners Will Take Charge (Unbridled's Song) and Take Charge Indy (A.P. Indy) out of MGISW and champion broodmare Take Charge Lady (Dehere), she retires with a record of 14-7-3-1 and earnings of $955,600 and is slated to be bred to Into Mischief.

“Mares like that, from such a powerful family, they're so valuable,” Baffert told DRF regarding As Time Goes By. “I could have kept her [to race], but after she won the Grade I, they retired her to breed her.”

Merneith, a $600,000 OBS March purchase in 2019, was a stakes winner at three and earned successes in back-to-back renewals of the GII Santa Monica S. in 2021 and earlier this year. She retires with a record of 12-5-4-2 and earnings of $493,620. Breeding plans for the HRH Prince Sultan Bin Mishal Al Saud-owned bay are yet to be determined.

Baffert also told DRF that GI La Brea S. heroine Kalypso (Brody's Cause) has been transferred out of his barn to a trainer at Oaklawn.

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Merneith Upsets Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint Winner Ce Ce In Santa Monica

The defending champ but a decided underdog, Merneith went to the front, shook off a challenge from heavily favored Ce Ce and went on to a powerful three-length win in Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000 Santa Monica Stakes under Edwin Maldonado. Trained by Bob Baffert, the 5-year-old daughter of 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah got seven furlongs in 1:22.39 over the Santa Anita oval in Arcadia, Calif.

Fresh off a victory in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint at Del Mar Nov. 6, Ce Ce was the overwhelming 1-2 favorite but was no match for Merneith when the real running commenced leaving the quarter pole.

“I'm very happy,” said Maldonado, who was aboard for last year's Santa Monica win and who registered his eighth win at the meet, which puts him in tie for seventh in the jockey standings. “I just want to thank Bob for leaving me on her…It means a lot to me.

“I was just letting her do everything on her own, I didn't want to take anything away from her. When (Ce Ce) came (to) her, she saw her and picked it up on her own. I didn't even have to ask her. I'm very pleased…When we turned for home, I was pretty sure she was the winner. I didn't even ask her until she switched leads. She's a nice filly.”

Idle since last year's Santa Monica on Feb. 13, Merneith came back to run second, beaten 1 ¾ lengths in the ungraded Kalookan Queen Stakes on Jan. 2 and was off as the 5-2 second choice today in a field of five older fillies and mares, returning $7.60, $2.80 and $2.10.

“She won this race last year and she needed her last race,” said Baffert, who now has a meet-leading six stakes wins. “Edwin gets along with her great and it was a perfect pace for her…I've always thought highly of her. She got to prove it today, she beat a good field of fillies. I'm so proud of her. You get attached to these fillies, especially (when they're by) American Pharoah.”

Owned by HRH Prince Sultan Bin Mishal Al Saud, Merneith, in notching her second graded stakes victory, improved her overall mark to 12-5-4-2. With the winner's share of $120,000, she increased her earnings to $493,620.

Ce Ce, who broke well and appeared to be in perfect position while third, about 1 ½ lengths off the winner three furlongs out, appeared to draw within a neck at the top of the lane, but was unable to get on terms as Merneith seemed to find another gear.

Trained by Michael McCarthy and ridden by Victor Espinoza, Ce Ce, who according to owner/breeder Bo Hirsch, will run through her 6-year-old year, paid $2.10 and $2.10 while finishing 3 ¾ lengths in front of Kalypso.

Kalypso, who broke from the rail, checked in third, 5 ½ lengths better than Park Avenue. Trained by Baffert and ridden by John Velazquez, Kalypso was off at 9-2 and paid $2.10 to show.

Fractions, all set by the winner, were 22.39, 45.75 and 1:09.98.

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NYRA Adds To Baffert Files: Trainer Said ‘Someone’ Gave Bute To His Horses, Would Offer Reward To Solve Case

The New York Racing Association, which will present its case to exclude trainer Bob Baffert at a Jan. 24 disciplinary hearing, added to its “statement of charges” against the Hall of Fame horseman, referencing two additional medication violations in California in 2019, along with an investigator's report citing “25 different kinds of medications not properly labeled and expired” found in an unlocked medicine cabinet during an August 2019 search of Baffert's barn at Del Mar by the California Horse Racing Board.

NYRA, quoting from a CHRB Report of Investigation, said Baffert reacted to the two 2019 violations – both for overages of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory phenylbutazone – by saying “he thinks someone is intentionally giving Bute to his horses and mentioned that he would be offering a reward to help solve the case.”

It isn't known if anyone ever received a reward.

The two overages for Bute in California in 2019 are in addition to five medication violations for Baffert runners in three states between May 2, 2020, and May 1, 2021. Those violations included lidocaine positives for Charlatan and Gamine at Oaklawn in Arkansas on May 2, 2020, Charlatan in the G1 Arkansas Derby and Gamine in an allowance race. Both horses were disqualified, according to a stewards rulings, but the Arkansas Racing Commission reinstated their victories and merely fined Baffert. On July 25, 2021, Merneith tested positive at Del Mar for dextrorphan, and Baffert was fined $2,500. Gamine tested positive for a second time in 2020, this time for the corticosteroid betamethasone, after finishing third in the G1 Kentucky Oaks on Sept. 4. She was disqualified and Baffert fined $1,500.

The fifth failed drug test came on May 1, 2021, when Medina Spirit tested positive for betamethasone after finishing first in the G1 Kentucky Derby. The case has yet to be heard by Kentucky stewards, though Baffert's attorneys have said the positive test resulted from an ointment used to treat a skin rash and not from an injection of the drug.

The two Bute overages in 2019 were found days apart at Del Mar in Cruel Intention, who finished third on July 27, and Eclair, who finished fourth on Aug. 3.

A statement from NYRA said: “NYRA has amended its Statement of Charges issued against Bob Baffert to reflect additional facts, conclusions and details based on NYRA's ongoing investigation of Mr. Baffert's conduct. The NYRA Hearing Rules and Procedures provide a formalized mechanism for a respondent to reply to charges and to participate in a hearing in accordance with due process rights. The hearing for Mr. Baffert is scheduled to begin on January 24, 2022.

“A designated hearing officer will ensure the proceedings are fairly and impartially conducted in accordance with NYRA's Hearing Rules and Procedures. Following the proceeding, the hearing officer will issue a report containing findings of fact, conclusions of law, and a recommended disposition.”

The amended Statement of Charges also cites “public statements made by Mr. Baffert and others regarding Mr. Baffert's claimed retention of a veterinarian (which did not occur) to ensure against future violations, and the implementation of rule changes by Churchill Downs with respect to the qualifying point structure for the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby.”

Churchill Downs Inc. has excluded Baffert from stabling or racing at any of its facilities, including Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. The exclusion runs through the end of the 2023 spring meet at Churchill Downs. In addition, Baffert-trained horses are not eligible to win qualifying points in designated Road to the Kentucky Derby prep races.

NYRA attempted to ban Baffert shortly after he was excluded by Churchill Downs, but Baffert sued in federal court, saying he was denied due process. A judge ruled in his favor and NYRA established rules for the subsequent disciplinary hearing.

O. Peter Sherwood, a retired New York State Supreme Court justice, will serve as hearing officer in the Baffert matter.

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