Cody's Wish (Curlin) added another chapter to racing's feel-good story with a powerful, come-from-behind victory in the stallion-making GI Hill 'N' Dale Metropolitan H.

The GI Kentucky Oaks winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief) validated her upset neck victory on the first Friday in May with a heart-stopping victory in the GI Acorn S.

The up-and-coming Loved (Medaglia d'Oro)–a 4-year-old half-sister to MGISW and young Darley stallion Maxfield (Street Sense)–made it three straight runaway wins with a 12-length victory in an optional claimer in the Ellis slop on Sunday.

The 'Boys in Blue' also won last Friday's GII Belmont Gold Cup with Siskany (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) and finished third with both 425,000gns TATOCT buy Ottoman Fleet (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) (the lone auction purchase of the group) in Saturday's GI Manhattan S. and 'TDN Rising Star' Strobe (Into Mischief) in the GII True North S., respectively.

TDN's Senior Racing Editor Steve Sherack caught up with Godolphin USA Director of Bloodstock Michael Banahan earlier this week to discuss some of the highlights from last weekend as well as domestic summer plans for Sheikh Mohammed's high-powered global operation. Banahan also provided an update on 'TDN Rising Star' First Mission (Street Sense), who was a late scratch from last month's GI Preakness S.

Q: Cody's Wish seems like a good place to start. He made it six straight wins while matching his previous career high Beyer Speed Figure of 112 in the Met Mile. Bill Mott said a title defense in the seven-furlong GI Forego S. (at Saratoga Aug. 26) could be in the cards for Cody's Wish later this summer, but also left the door open for potentially stretching him out to 1 1/8 miles for the GI Whitney S. (at Saratoga Aug. 5). Has there been much dialogue yet regarding his summer campaign?

MB: It's certainly a good discussion point. It's just unfortunate that there's not really any race at his distance that suits at the moment. And it's a long time from the first week in June until the last weekend in August. So, we'll have to decide what's the best route for him. He's gone over a mile a couple of times unsuccessfully (finished third going 1 1/8 miles at Saratoga second out in 2021 and finished a close second in the GIII Challenger S. at Tampa last March), but there's probably reasons for that. We feel like he's a better racehorse now than he was 12 months ago. He's more professional and Junior Alvarado has gotten to know him and rides him very well.

We also have (2022 GI Clark S. winner and this year's GI Santa Anita H. runner-up and GII Oaklawn H. winner) Proxy (Tapit) that's gonna run in the (GI) Stephen Foster (S. at Ellis Park July 1), hopefully. Those races that are 1 1/8-miles plus suit him very well. We'll probably wait until after he runs in the Stephen Foster, then see where the cards lay.

But the Whitney or the Forego are the two obvious races for Cody's Wish. We'll just wait and see. It's a wonderful position to be in.

We saw what he did last weekend in the Met Mile and it was another step up for him. He just seems to be getting to a different level. It's hard to tell if they want to stay any further until you actually try them. They can gallop out well, but in all honestly, when you get to the winner line, that's the end of the race. It doesn't really count what you do afterwards.

Q: It's always great to see the Kentucky Oaks winner back up their form in the Acorn on Belmont Stakes weekend. Will Pretty Mischievous follow up in the GI Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga on July 22?

MB: We might go in a little bit of a different direction with her. She has a lot of pace as we've seen in the Oaks and in the Acorn. She travels extremely well. We are very tempted to back her up a little bit and go in the (GI) Test (S. going seven furlongs at Saratoga Aug. 5) instead. We think that's a race that she has enough pace for and it might suit her even better. We'll have a good strong look at that. Nothing written in stone. We also have the Oaks favorite Wet Paint (Blame) drawn in this weekend in the Monomoy Girl S. at Ellis Park. We feel that the Coaching Club Oaks–depending how she gets on this weekend–might come into play for her.

Q: What's the excitement level like having a Kentucky Oaks winner and another sophomore filly of such a high caliber–and both homebreds–carry the Godolphin blue?

MB: We've always liked Pretty Mischievous. We never felt that she ever let us down, but she probably is only getting the respect that she deserves now. And maybe that's a little bit to do with her racing style where she sort of waits on horses a little bit and ends up being in tight finishes. We've always been very high on her and going into the Kentucky Oaks–I said it at the time–that I couldn't really separate the two fillies. And I still think that they're very equal talent wise.

I don't think we saw the best of Wet Paint that day (in the Oaks). Flavien Prat came back and said that she didn't really take to the Churchill surface as well as she did to Oaklawn. I might be a little bit biased, but the record is out there for everyone else to see that we maybe have the two best 3-year-old fillies in the country. We're very excited to see what the balance of the year will hold for them. We'll try to keep them separated from each other for the near future.

Q: She's missed a lot of time, but Maxfield's half-sister Loved continues to make up for it. She was super impressive once again winning over the weekend at Ellis Park, her third straight victory since sitting on the shelf for more than a year. The patient approach by Brendan Walsh certainly looks like it's all paying off now. Is there a stakes race with her name on it next out?

MB: We've been waiting on her a long time. Brendan had to be very patient with her. We were hoping to get her running down in Florida in the winter time and different things conspired where we didn't get a start in her. She's developed mentally and physically since. She was one filly that we were very much looking forward to getting back to the racetrack and seeing what she could do and she hasn't let us down. She's taking those nice building-block races and getting a little bit more experience every time. She looks like she's very talented. We'll take it slowly, but we're probably looking at the GIII Molly Pitcher on Haskell day (July 22) at Monmouth for her. She deserves to get into a graded race now and see where we are. If she stays healthy and well, we'll have some nice days down the road with her.

Q: First Mission's GIII Stonestreet Lexington S. form was further flattered over the weekend when both Arabian Lion (Justify) (GI Woody Stephens S.) and Disarm (Gun Runner) (GIII Matt Winn S.) won impressively. Obviously a crushing blow to have to scratch him out of the Preakness last month. What's the latest on him?

MB: We're just giving him a little bit of time off. We'll regroup next month and see where we stand. Get him reevaluated and try and get him back on track again. No need to rehash our Preakness disappointment. But it was a pretty crushing one. We thought we had maybe the best horse in the race. But, anyway, we saw what Arabian Lion did in the Woody Stephens and we felt like we beat him pretty readily in the Lexington.

Look, First Mission is a very talented horse. We just look forward now rather than backwards and hopefully in the fall and next year we're gonna have an exceptionally nice horse for some big days down the road.

Q: What was the diagnosis? Was it an issue with his left hind leg that led to the time off?

MB: Not really, it was a little bit of bone bruising. Nothing major, relatively insignificant. We'll just give him that little bit of time (60 days off). He seems like he's doing OK and enjoying his time off. We're looking forward to getting him back going again.

Q: Glancing over her worktab, it looks like Matareya (Pioneerof the Nile) has bounced out of her win in the GI Derby City Distaff S. on Kentucky Derby day in good form. What kind of targets does she have lined up for the summer and fall?

MB: It's a funny program. We had the Distaff set up nicely in the spring and then there's not any races at the Grade I level–the Breeders' Cup champion (Goodnight Olive) is having a run this weekend in a Grade II in New York (in the GII Bed O' Roses S.).

Matareya, we wanted to keep her at home. We're gonna run her in the (GIII) Chicago (S. at Ellis Park June 24). She obviously likes Churchill Downs and we were expecting to be running at Churchill Downs. But she'll take a day trip down to Ellis and hopefully lead us to the (GI) Ballerina (H. at Saratoga Aug. 26). She's doing well. We're very happy with her. She improved from her first race of the year at Oaklawn (second in Matron S.), which we were hoping would happen. There's some really nice sprinting fillies out there and she's at the top end of the table with them. We were delighted with her win at Churchill. She's tactically very astute and has that speed to put herself in a good position to win those type of races. Looking forward to a big second half of the year with her.

Q: Final question. Three Grade I victories over Kentucky Derby weekend, led by a win in the Kentucky Oaks, and another two during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, including the prestigious Met Mile. What does this level of success on racing's biggest stages–all with homebreds–mean for the operation?

MB: It's what we get out of bed every morning for. It's all the hard work over the previous years that lead up to that to try and develop these horses and get a broodmare band established that we feel like we have an opportunity to do so. It takes plenty of luck to get there as well. We had a massive Derby weekend and to back it up with Pretty Mischievous winning the Acorn and Cody's Wish winning the Met Mile–we were especially delighted to be able to provide the assist for Bill Mott to get his first Met Mile win.

They're the weekends you look forward to all year long and want to be winning on. We realize that we've been fortunate and on a great run here lately. It means everything to all of our people that work on the farms in Kentucky and also to Godolphin globally as well. We had people over from Europe and for them to see what we're achieving over here in America first hand was great. And back in Dubai for Godolphin's founder Sheikh Mohammed, who takes a great interest in how we're doing in America as well. I think he got a big kick out of seeing those horses perform at that level. We all have a great pep in our step on Monday morning after those big weekends.

The post Godolphin Looking Ahead to Summer Following Another ‘Pretty’ Big Weekend appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Following significant improvement in air quality conditions throughout New York State, the 155th GI Belmont Stakes–celebrating the 50th anniversary of Secretariat's performance of a lifetime in the final leg of the Triple Crown–will go on as scheduled Saturday evening.

If there's one sire's name that you want to see when handicapping the 1 1/2-mile Classic, it's Tapit.

Responsible for a co-record four Belmont winners, two second-place finishers and two third-place finishers, the 22-year-old Gainesway kingpin will be represented by potential race favorite Tapit Trice (Tapit) and the rail-drawn longshot Tapit Shoes (Tapit) in the field of nine as well as an additional four runners as a broodmare sire.

“Tapit's everywhere,” Gainesway's General Manager Brian Graves said. “He's a once-in-a-lifetime horse. We'll probably be quite content if we just have a few stallions half as good as him at Gainesway in the near future.”

The $1.3-million Keeneland September yearling graduate Tapit Trice, winner of the GI Toyota Blue Grass S. and seventh-place finisher in the GI Kentucky Derby, was bred by Gainesway and is campaigned in partnership by Antony Beck's operation along with Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm.

“We're hoping for our own selves that Tapit Trice can win this race and stand beside his dad at Gainesway,” Graves said. “We're very proud. We bred this horse and we have the mare on the farm. We bought her as a 2-year-old and raced her, so it's a family that we have created right here. There's a lot of excitement in the air hoping that Tapit Trice could be a special horse. We're all dreaming right now.”

Tapit Trice's Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher has won the Belmont four times himself, including with Tapit's Tapwrit following a sixth-place finish on the first Saturday in May, and will also saddle morning-line favorite and last year's champion 2-year-old colt Forte (Violence). The latter was forced to scratch on the morning of the Derby with a well-documented foot bruise.

The field for the Belmont also includes wire-to-wire GI Preakness S. winner National Treasure (Quality Road) and beaten Kentucky Derby favorite and third-place finisher Angel of Empire (Classic Empire), who adds blinkers for the first time.

Keeping it 100…

Commanding a stud fee of $185,000 in 2023, North America's three-time leading sire Tapit is responsible for 100 graded winners worldwide–31 at the highest level–including Belmont winners Essential Quality (2021), Tapwrit (2017), Creator (2016) and Tonalist (2014).

Tapit is the broodmare sire of 12 Grade I winners, including this year's GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief), who returned with a thrilling victory in Friday's GI Acorn S., and Saturday's GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan H. 7-5 morning-line favorite and GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Cody's Wish (Curlin).

He'll have four chances to collect his first Belmont trophy as a broodmare sire with the lightly raced GIII Peter Pan S. winner Arcangelo (Arrogate); Hit Show (Candy Ride {Arg}), a better-than-it-looked fifth in the Kentucky Derby after racing close to a hot pace; last out Gulfstream optional claiming winner Il Miracolo (Gun Runner); and Bath House Row winner and GI Preakness S. fourth Red Route One (Gun Runner).

Tapit's progeny will also be featured prominently on the absolutely stacked Belmont undercard via Charge It (Tapit) (GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan H.); Highest Honors (Tapit) (GI Resorts World Casino Manhattan S.); and Portos (Tapit) (GII Brooklyn S.).

Star Power…

There will be eight additional graded stakes races–five at the Grade I level–on the blockbuster Belmont undercard.

The aforementioned fan favorite Cody's Wish (Curlin) will put his five-race winning streak on the line in the stallion-making GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan H.

Clairiere (Curlin) and Secret Oath (Arrogate) will meet for the third straight time in the GI Ogden Phipps S. The former defeated two-time champion Malathaat (Curlin) by a head in a thrilling renewal of the Phipps last year.

Last out GI Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic S. winner Up to the Mark (Not This Time) will take on nine rivals, including the Charlie Appleby-trained duo of Ottoman Fleet (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) and Warren Point (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), in the GI Resorts World Casino Manhattan S.

A terrific field of 13 sophomores, including top two choices General Jim (Into Mischief) and Arabian Lion (Justify), will throw down in one of the best betting races on the day in the seven-furlong GI Woody Stephens S.

Last year's GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint winner Caravel (Mizzen Mast) will face an overflow field of males, including two-time GI Jaipur S. winner Casa Creed (Jimmy Creed), in a very deep edition of the six-furlong turf sprint Saturday.

Streaking champion sprinter and GI Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Elite Power (Curlin) looms large in the GII True North S.

Chez Pierre (Fr) (Mehmas {Ire}), winner of the GI Maker's Mark Mile S. at Keeneland this spring, is the even-money, morning-line favorite for the GIII Poker S.

And a field of 11 stayers will be locked and loaded in front of the crowd at the Belmont distance of 1 1/2 miles in the GII Brooklyn S.

The legendary Tom Durkin will make his return out of retirement to the announcer's booth to call the Belmont S. as well as all the races aired during FOX's Belmont Day coverage scheduled for 4:00-7:30 p.m. ET.

Saturday's forecast calls for partly sunny skies and a delightful high of 77 degrees on Long Island.

First post for the 13-race program, featuring a trio of Breeders' Cup 'Win and You're In' events (Met Mile, Ogden Phipps and Jaipur), is 11:20 a.m. ET. Post time for the Belmont is 7:02 p.m.

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Taiba worked seven-furlongs in 1:27.40 Friday at Santa Anita in what was to be his final prep for the one-turn mile. He has not raced since an eighth-place effort in the G1 Saudi Cup February 25 at King Abdulaziz Racecourse.

“His works have been good, but not like I'd like to see them. I just don't think he's ready for something like that yet,” said Baffert. “I'm going to wait and run him at Del Mar. He's doing well, but not well enough for the Met Mile. To run in the Met Mile, you have to bring your 'A' game and I don't think he's quite there yet.”

“I don't know if he's ready to go a mile against top horses,” Baffert conceded. “He's not quite back to where he was. That's a long way to go to run against Cody's Wish.”

SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Robert Masterson, Stonestreet Stables, Jay A. Schoenfarber, Waves Edge Capital and Catherine Donovan's GI Preakness S. winner National Treasure (Quality Road) is slated to breeze Monday in preparation for the GI Belmont S.

Baffert said he is hopeful that National Treasure will appreciate the added ground in the 1 1/2-mile “Test of the Champion.”

“You never know until they do it,” Baffert said. “He handled the Preakness distance and it wasn't a problem for him. We're all in the same boat. None of them probably want to go that far, but if they don't go too fast, they can do it.

“I just want him to show up like he did at Pimlico,” added Baffert. “He's never really run a bad race. All his races have been competitive. He's a pretty consistent horse. He's happy and he'll breeze tomorrow and hopefully everything goes well.”

Zedan Racing Stables' graded-stakes placed Arabian Lion (Justify), a winner of the Sir Barton S. last time out, was initially under consideration for Saturday's Belmont S. but Baffert decided to point him to the GI Woody Stephens instead.

“On the turnback, sometimes they run well. We'll send him back to two turns again after that,” Baffert said.

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The stall, of course, belonged to Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky), a sleek, shiny copper penny of a colt, who carried weighty expectations that this was the year his trainer, John Sadler, would finally shrug off the voodoo that had cursed his previous attempts at the coveted prize.

It was also viewed as a new high altitude for a horse whose climb to the summit of the sport had been distinguished not by a dizzying free-climb to the top, but by careful, steady progress. Each foothold earned and true. A trail of sweat left behind at each contour.

The team wasn't without worries. The horse's regular rider, Victor Espinoza–widely seen as something of a key to Accelerate's latent talent–had that July taken a crunching fall aboard the Peter Miller trained Bobby Abu Dhabi, whose sudden death during training left Espinoza with a broken C3 vertebrae in his neck and fears, miraculously temporary, of paralysis.

In the end, Espinoza's replacement, Joel Rosario, has probably ridden no easier winner before or since, quickly putting what looked like the length of a football pitch between him and his dumbstruck rivals with a stunning kick around the home turn.

Four years on, and the hunt for this year's heavy favorite on the eve of the Del Mar showpiece once again leads to Barn J.

“Right now I'm excited, but I'm not overly excited,” said Sadler, Wednesday morning in his office, of Flightline (Tapit), whose stall-padded floor to ceiling as though housing a madman, faces the office door.

To be fair to Flightline, we're not talking Hannibal Lecter. “He's very content here,” Sadler said. “Loves Del Mar. He's just a nice horse to be around. But you know, he has his quirks. He can be a little aggressive in the stall.”

As for Sadler's declaration of studied equilibrium, it provides a measured counter-point to the celebrity fandom that follows each rare race-day sighting of the horse.

“We've got a couple more days,” Sadler added. “When you get in race week and everything's gone well, you just want to maintain that. That's really the message coming out of here this week. He doesn't have to run any faster. He's just got to run the same as he's been running.”

Words to strike fear into the heart of this weekend's competitors, all of whom will have witnessed Flightline's clinical evisceration of the 21 hapless victims strewn in his wake between races one to four.

If indeed Flightline turns up on Saturday and runs the same as he's been running, the race will prove a fascinating bookend to Sadler's own trajectory these past few years, catapulting a stellar record into even higher orbits.

Accelerate, of course, subsequently secured Sadler his first Breeders' Cup victory, in the GI Classic and a Horse of the Year garland would surely have followed were it not for a Triple Crown that went the way of Justify (Scat Daddy).

Hitherto winless in the Pacific Classic prior to Accelerate, the trainer has since secured another two victories in the race, courtesy of Higher Power (Medaglia d'Oro) in 2019 and Tripoli (Kitten's Joy) last year.

The GI Santa Anita “Big Cap” H. was another West Coast landmark oddly absent from Sadler's travel card until Accelerate righted that wrong. Stablemates Gift Box (Twirling Candy) and Combatant (Scat Daddy) followed up over the next two years. The likes of Catalina Cruiser (Union Rags), Rock Your World (Candy Ride), Cistron (The Factor) and Flagstaff (Speightstown) each have played a part in keeping the heat turned on full.

Then came Flightline, a stratospheric talent from whatever plain you're on. A big long-striding and magnificent comet, blink and you'll miss him bright. The numbers have been crunched, cogitated and digested. Four races, four wins. Average distance of victory is 10.9 lengths. Beyers from a Death Valley summer of 105, 114, 118, and 112.

“Is this the best horse I've ever trained? I say, yes. I don't hesitate,” Sadler said. “I've never trained a horse like this in my 30, 40-odd year career. But I don't compare him to other great horses. That's for the sports writers and the handicappers and Timeform.”

Which piqued this writer's curiosity. What kinds of stresses come with the responsibility of a horse who draws inevitable comparisons to the likes of Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire})? What new instruments has he brought to the trainer's toolbox? Would he have had the skills to harness Flightline's talents if the horse had landed in his barn, say, 20 years prior?

“The horse is teaching me all the time,” Sadler said, before extolling the virtues of patience.

The horse's coterie of owners–Hronis Racing, Summer Wind Equine, West Point Thoroughbreds, Siena Farm, and Woodford Racing–all receive a gold star.

Despite their multitude, “the owners always allow me to do as I see fit,” he said. “It's all worked so far. So far so good.”

Pressed further, the trainer threw up his hands–the wrong week to wheel out the therapist's couch.

“You're asking me to be super reflective and conceptualize a lot of that stuff, but right now I don't allow myself to do that. I just do my job right now,” Sadler said. “Might be a better interview next week.”

Fair enough stick with the tangibles, like Flightline's last race, the GI Hill 'n' Dale Met Mile on GI Belmont S. day, when a sticky break propelled the horse into stop-start opening furlongs.

Given Flightline's lack of match practice, could the events of the Met Mile have been a blessing in disguise?

“People say that, which is fine. It probably was. But I sure like to break clean. I don't like to put any, you know,” Sadler said, pausing either for effect or the right words, “obstacles in the way.” This explains Flightline's homework assignments at Del Mar this summer, which included a five-furlong bullet from the gate at the end of July.

Then comes another tangible–the as yet unchartered distance of the Pacific Classic. “It's a big ask, you know, to go from a mile to a mile and a quarter,” Sadler said.

Though the stamina of lesser horses can be stretched out, explained the trainer, “when I talk about really good mile-and-a-quarter horses, first of all, they have to have the innate ability to run that far.”

With Flightline, “I've just got to hold him where he is,” he added. “On breeze days, you'll note that his gallops out are very good.”

Much has been made of the team's efforts at reining in Flightline's innate exuberance–a balancing act perhaps too easily under-appreciated.

Stifling too much of a horse's natural quirk and athleticism of a morning can sour them as fast as cream left out in the sun. Let the throttle out too far too often, just watch as the wheels fall off.

Juan Leyva, Sadler's assistant, has done a “beautiful job with him” of a morning, says the trainer, calling it a case of “two minds meeting.”

“He's getting more relaxed, you know,” Sadler added, of Flightline. “He is maturing. He's showing he can carry himself in a more relaxed manner. That's what we're seeing, which is a normal progression.”

As for Saturday, “I see a small field, but a very good field. I know these horses intimately and they're very good,” said Sadler. “We have a lot of respect for every horse in there.”

The Bob Baffert-trained Country Grammer (Tonalist), this year's G1 Dubai World Cup winner given a timely pipe-opener in the GII San Diego H. early in the meet, receives plaudits for his prior top-flight victories over the trip.

Sadler has watched the John Shirreffs-trained Express Train (Union Rags) “throughout his career,” he said. “He's a very nice horse.”

As for Ed Moger's Stilleto Boy (Shackleford), vanquished in Flightline's GI Malibu S. last December, “I like him a lot,” said Sadler.

But talk switches back to the horse mere feet away, saved from himself by padded walls and kept from the public's gaze by a series of well-documented issues and events. Sadler has kept the door open to a 5-year-old campaign. How serious are those overtures?

“We'll get into Saturday and then see how it goes.”

Now, about that interview next week…

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Sporting plenty of trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr.'s flashy yellow-and-blue stable colors, the GI Preakness S. fifth-place finisher continued to catch the eye upon return while jogging along the outer rail with his neck arched. He stood briefly by the gap and soaked up plenty of attention from a handful of photographers as he headed off.

Unbeaten 'TDN Rising Star' Jack Christopher (Munnings) certainly made his presence felt while stepping onto the track at 7:13 a.m. The blaze-faced, 3-year-old chestnut puts his perfect three-for-three record on the line for Chad Brown in Saturday's GI Woody Stephens S.

Unbeaten Jack Christopher out for a spin pic.twitter.com/Qy7tznRkRw

— Steve Sherack (@SteveSherackTDN) June 8, 2022

Fellow 'Rising Star' We the People (Constitution) made his way through the tunnel about 40 minutes later. Trainer Rodolphe Brisset was all smiles in the irons aboard the GI Belmont S. morning-line favorite as he jogged alongside the pony. The runaway GIII Peter Pan S. winner–equipped with a pair of cotton balls in his ears–had his mind on the task at hand while understandably getting a little hot, cruising down the lane under a very snug hold.

Last year's GI Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Aloha West (Hard Spun), meanwhile, got plenty of love from his groom while exiting the track by the gap. He meets the powerhouse duo of unbeaten 'Rising Star' Flightline (Tapit) and the streaking Speaker's Corner (Street Sense) in a GI Hill 'n' Dale Met Mile for the ages. Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, responsible for 2017 Belmont S. winner Tapwrit (Tapit), will also be well-represented in the main event with the filly Nest (Curlin).

With trainer @BrissetRodolphe in the irons, Belmont S. ML favorite We the People galloping earlier this morning @WinStarFarm pic.twitter.com/uspim9UkUO

— Steve Sherack (@SteveSherackTDN) June 8, 2022

The aforementioned Flightline, last seen romping in Santa Anita's GI Runhappy Malibu S. Dec. 26, was one of the first to train after arriving from John Sadler's Southern California base Tuesday afternoon.

With GI Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike (Keen Ice) opting for some lighter exercise on the training track following a very powerful and visually impressive gallop on Tuesday, champion Letruska (Super Saver) enjoyed the spotlight on the main track after the break ahead of her title defense in Saturday's GI Ogden Phipps S. Things did not go exactly as planned, however, for the five-time Grade I winner after a little schooling session in the paddock.

With what appeared to be a chord from her exercise rider's walkie talkie swinging between her legs, Letruska was seemingly undeterred and galloped lightly down the sun-splashed stretch. She was pulled up just past the wire while being met by the outrider as training hours began to wind down.

Letruska going very easy. Piece of equipment got loose down stretch. pic.twitter.com/2hvDpTMTD1

— Steve Sherack (@SteveSherackTDN) June 8, 2022

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Last seen making it a perfect three-for-three with a gaudy 118 Beyer Speed Figure in Santa Anita's GI Runhappy Malibu S. Dec. 26, Flightline will launch his highly anticipated 4-year-old campaign in the GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan H. on the completely stacked GI Belmont S. undercard June 11.

“We're at that stage where he's all ready,” trainer John Sadler said. “He's doing really well. He hasn't missed a beat. We just have to get to next week and get a decent ship in to New York. He'll be there midday Tuesday. He's ready to go.”

Flightline has won his first three career starts–all in Southern California–by a combined margin of a staggering 37 1/2 lengths. A no-brainer 'TDN Rising Star' on debut in Arcadia Apr. 24, he followed up with another jaw-dropping victory in an optional claimer at Del Mar Sept. 5, good for a 114 Beyer Speed Figure.

He dominated his six rivals in front-running fashion by 11 1/2 lengths while making his stakes debut in the Malibu. Distant third-place finisher Stilleto Boy (Shackleford) has since finished third in both the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. and GI Santa Anita H. and captured the GII Californian S. Apr. 30, respectively.

After suffering a minor setback in February, Flightline was forced to miss an intended start in the GII San Carlos S. at Santa Anita Mar. 5.

“He was going for a race in March and he had a little bit of a hock issue,” Sadler said. “We did the diagnostics on him and it didn't show anything too severe. It's just that he needed a little time. The timing was bad, but it was nothing that should compromise him going forward. We gave him a little time to get over that and now he's training lights out. If you look at his work pattern, it's really in good shape.”

Flightline has posted eight breezes since returning to the worktab Apr. 10. He covered five furlongs in :59.80 (2/23) beneath regular rider Flavien Prat at Santa Anita May 30. He is slated to breeze again Sunday before heading to the Big Apple.

“My assistant Juan Leyva has spent a lot of time with him,” Sadler said. “He works and gallops him. With him, it's always like, 'How do you ride a hurricane?' Juan's been working with him and getting him to relax. We had the time to do it, but it's not like we're doing anything different. It looks like he's a lot more settled in the mornings now. And we've got him going off nice and easy in his works, too. I'm really pleased.”

He added, “We'll probably go a half in :48 on Sunday and then come on over.”

The Met Mile will mark Flightline's first start beyond seven furlongs. Streaking Godolphin homebred Speaker's Corner (Street Sense), a visually impressive winner of the GI Carter H.; and GI Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Aloha West (Hard Spun) are also expected to line up for the highly coveted stallion-making race.

“I think he'll love it,” Sadler said of the added distance. “Sometimes, the misconception is that with really fast horses, the farther they go, they're not as good. But if you've watched any of his races, he looks like nothing but a fresh horse at the wire. And it's a one-turn mile, so it should really be well within his wheelhouse.”

Sadler continued, “The harder questions are some of the stuff we haven't answered yet. How does he ship, new environment and those kind of things. But as far as all the things I can control, I couldn't be more pleased.”

Campaigned in partnership by the powerhouse line-up of Hronis Racing, Siena Farm, breeder Summer Wind Equine, West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford Racing, Flightline brought $1 million as a yearling at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga. He is out of the GSW & MGISP mare Feathered (Indian Charlie), a granddaughter of MGISW Finder's Fee (Storm Cat). Feathered brought $2.35 million from Summer Wind at the 2016 Keeneland November Sale.

“It would be tremendous–there's no question about the stallion potential of this horse and what this race would mean for him,” Sadler said. “Also for his cache, it would be great to win outside of California. We're excited. I'm not going to get too excited though because we've got a ways to go. But right now, he's doing beautifully.”

Races like the GI Whitney S. at Saratoga Aug. 6 or GI TVG Pacific Classic S. Sept. 3 could be in play this summer for Flightline with a long-term eye on the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland Nov. 5.

Sadler concluded, “Sky's the limit. I've never had one like this horse.”

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“I think it's pretty basic,” Moss said. “The Triple Crown is undeniably the number one property, so to speak, in Thoroughbred racing, and I think it's incumbent upon the sport to take care of the Triple Crown. And when it sees some weaknesses beginning to develop in the Triple Crown, do something about it to fix it. Right now, it's clear that the Preakness has been weakened, demonstrably, and not every year, but most years, by the two-week gap and by trainers that believe that it's counterproductive to the best interest of their horses to come back in two weeks. It won't make the Triple Crown easier to win because the Preakness will be more difficult. I think that'll balance out the extra time between the races, and I think it just makes it for a better product.”

Moss later made a counterpoint to the idea that the Triple Crown spacing needs to be preserved for historical purposes.

“People say, 'It's always been that way,'” he said. “No, it's been that way since 1960, which was the year that it changed to the current two-week, three-week [break] format. But in the 1940s, when there were four Triple Crown winners, Whirlaway, Assault, Count Fleet and Citation, and all four of them had four weeks between the Preakness and Belmont. In the 1950s, there were three instances where there were three weeks between the Derby and Preakness and six in which there were four weeks between the Preakness and Belmont. It's not as if this current spacing that we've had for the last 62 years was handed down in stone tablets or anything like that. I've gone back and looked for articles in the past about Triple Crown spacing, and it was never an issue. No one ever talked about it. The Triple Crown as a concept was to pit the best horses of a generation against each other in three successive races. That makes the Triple Crown what it is, not the spacing necessarily.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, XBTV, West Point Thoroughbreds and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers pushed for the Met Mile to return to Belmont day and discussed the impending return of trainer Peter Miller. Click here to watch the show; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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In reference to yesterday's article about the Metropolitan Handicap not being on Memorial Day, when it was traditionally held, yes, I totally agree with you. I am very much a traditionalist also. However, you know what the trend is, right? The bean counters think that apparently big championship racing days generate the most handle. I guess that might be a trend for the future.

But that's not my issue with the article. You referred to this Memorial Day as “it will be just another day at the track”. Come on Bill!!

It's New York-bred Showcase Day, the biggest day of racing for New York-breds in the spring at beautiful Belmont Park. We showcase the best New York-breds in stake race after stake race. New York breeders spend a ton of money all over the country including Kentucky. We just passed a rule whereby you can buy a mare at any auction in Kentucky and other states, ship the mare back within 15 days and take advantage of everything the program has to offer. New York-breds race with up to a 30% advantage over non-New York-breds at New York tracks for some of the biggest purses in the country.

Times are tough. We went from an annual 50,000 foal crop nationally when I got into the business back in the 70s to around an 18,000 foal crop presently. Let's go easy on each other and try and be supportive of all the state programs, including New York's.
And go easy on me with all that ink in your barrel!

Respectfully,
Tom Gallo
President, New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc.

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Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo), who defeated GI Preakness S. hopeful Early Voting (Gun Runner) in the GII Wood Memorial S. Apr. 9 ahead of a closing fifth in the GI Kentucky Derby May 7, breezed a half-mile in the company of his GI Central Bank Ashland S.-winning stable companion Nest (Curlin) in :50.02. Owned by Donegal Racing and Repole Stable, Mo Donegal is pointing for the GI Belmont S. June 11, while Nest is under consideration for a start against the boys in the 'Test of the Champion.' Nest's sire was famously defeated by the Pletcher-trained Rags to Riches (A.P. Indy) in the 2007 Belmont.

“It was a good maintenance breeze,” said Pletcher's New York-based assistant Byron Hughes. “They both were moving well and galloped out well. They were on even terms throughout and we were happy with the breeze.”

'TDN Rising Star' Wit (Practical Joke) went five furlongs in the company of fellow 'Rising Star' Malathaat (Curlin) in 1:01.58 Friday morning. Wit most recently returned from a six-month break to take out the GII Bay Shore S. by a nose Apr. 9 and will remain at the seven-furlong distance for the GI Woody Stephens S. on Belmont S. day. Malathaat also made a victorious return to action in Keeneland's GIII Baird Doubledogdare S. Apr. 22, besting Friday's GII DuPont Distaff romper Super Quick (Super Saver), and faces a mouthwatering matchup with champion Letruska (Super Saver) in the GI Ogden Phipps S. the same afternoon.

“Both are good breeze horses and made a good matchup,” Hughes said. “They went head-and-head throughout in 1:01 and change and had a good, solid gallop out.”

Highland Chief On to Manhattan…

Highland Chief (Ire) (Gleneagles {Ire}), who caused a 19-1 upset in the May 14 GI Man o' War S., is likely to make his next appearance on the Belmont S. undercard in the GI Manhattan S.

“I think we'll point to the Manhattan if he's doing well,” trainer Graham Motion said. “The timing is right and I don't have a concern whatsoever about the mile and a quarter for him. I think he's pretty tactical and I think we're certainly going to keep him over here and not consider taking him over to England anytime soon. It had been mentioned to me before the race, but after we all got together, I think we'll keep him for an American campaign.

BC Champ Possible for Met…

Trainer Wayne Catalano has told the NYRA racing office that his GI Breeders' Cup Sprint hero Aloha West (Hard Spun) could make the trip to the Big Apple for the GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan H. June 11. The Maryland-bred 5-year-old made his seasonal debut in the GI Churchill Downs S. May 7, finishing third behind Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) and Reinvestment Risk (Upstart).

“He went on the dead rail and got pushed a little early,” Catalano said. “It was a tough race. The only horse that went up the rail the last eighth of the mile was the Derby winner [Rich Strike]. From what I saw, everyone else was on the middle of the racetrack.”

The Met is also likely to attract undefeated 'TDN Rising Star' Flightline (Tapit) and GI Carter H. hero Speaker's Corner (Street Sense).

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A 114 Beyer set a formal seal on that breakout, as the highest of the year so far, but it's been clear for a while that a Bill Mott master class is coming together with the maturity of Speaker's Corner. In his two previous starts he had extended his superiority over runner-up Fearless (Ghostzapper) from just over a length in the GIII Fred W. Hooper S., to 5 1/2 lengths in the GII Gulfstream Park Mile. Dropping back in trip at Aqueduct, he showed high energy throughout to dominate a solid field by 4 1/2 lengths, volunteering himself as a third dimension to the showdown everyone wants to see between Flightline (Tapit) and Life Is Good (Into Mischief). If all three happen to converge on the GI Met Mile, then the Triple Crown series may have to produce something pretty special to keep open the status of Horse of the Year.

The blossoming of Speaker's Corner will be all the more gratifying to the Jonabell team because his pedigree is royal blue top and bottom. The solitary dissent on the farm may come from Maxfield (Street Sense), who's entitled to feel nervous about a future rival bred on the same cross with such an abundance of commercial speed.

Regardless, it's good to see their sire now giving himself every chance of extending a line that for a while had a fairly tenuous look. To start with, he had appeared to emulate his own father Street Cry (Ire) by majoring in fillies. Without Street Sense himself, who famously exorcized the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile curse in the 2007 Derby, the legacy of Street Cry (Ire) would have been uncomfortably vested in his female legends Zenyatta and Winx (Aus). (Albeit Street Boss, also at Jonabell, has proved a stalwart at his level). And while Street Sense did come up with Hallowed Crown (Aus) and one or two others in Australia, his first five Grade I winners in the U.S. were fillies and he had to wait until his seventh crop for McKinzie to start redressing the balance.

But now Street Sense is finally scraping out a promising foothold in Kentucky for the extension of the line. Next year Speaker's Corner will presumably jump into the slipstream of McKinzie and Maxfield, respectively launched over the past two years at $30,000 and $40,000 by Gainesway and Jonabell.

If this momentum feels pretty timely for a stallion now 18-years-old, then we must remember how he was obliged to regroup after being loaned to Darley Japan in 2014, when at a real crossroads of his career. (Having also shuttled to Australia five times early on, Street Sense has a pretty tattered passport).

Fair enough, the Japanese migration he shared with Hard Spun served a valid wider agenda for their owner. And it actually created a lasting opportunity for Kentucky breeders in one of the last sons of Danzig: Hard Spun, standing at $60,000 before he left for Hokkaido, resumed here at just $35,000 and is again standing at that fee in 2022. But while Hard Spun at least matches the lifetime ratios of his buddy, across all indices, Street Sense will nowadays cost you more than double at $75,000.

That's how precious was the emergence of both McKinzie and Maxfield to win Grade I races at two. Hard Spun's diverse portfolio, in contrast, has seldom extended to precocity. As such, it reflects very well on Street Sense that both those horses, having unfortunately been sidelined during the Classics, continued to do so well in maturity. (McKinzie even persevered into a fourth campaign, albeit with mixed results).

Just like Maxfield, Speaker's Corner represents a deferred reward for the expensive recruitment of an aristocratic granddam. Maxfield is out of a daughter of Caress (Storm Cat), a $3.1 million graft from a Harbor View family at Keeneland in November 2000; while Speaker's Corner is the belated yield on an even bigger investment at Fasig-Tipton seven years later.

Round Pond (Awesome Again) entered that ring after a truncated third campaign, having won the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff by 5 1/2 lengths at Churchill in 2006. In giving as much as $5.75 million, Sheikh Mohammed perhaps felt a sentimental hook in her kinship to one of the more charismatic European colts to have carried his original, maroon-and-white silks.

Round Pond's mother, who was by the stamina influence Trempolino, had failed to break her maiden in 10 attempts, but the next dam Coral Dance (Fr) (Green Dancer) had not only been Group 1-placed as a juvenile in France but also produced no fewer than three elite scorers. Her second named foal was Nasr El Arab (Al Nasr {Fr}), a group winner in France exported to California where he harvested four Grade Is, three on turf and one on muddy dirt. At the other end of her breeding career, 13 years later, she produced a top miler for Ballydoyle in Black Minnaloushe (Storm Cat), winner of the G1 Irish 2,000 Guineas/G1 St James's Palace S. In between, however, she had produced the memorable Pennekamp, a champion juvenile for Andre Fabre before winning a famous duel with the odds-on Celtic Swing (GB) (Damister) for the G1 2,000 Guineas. Pennekamp proceeded to the Derby as hot favourite, but finished down the field and was not seen again. Sadly his stud career was also an anti-climax, and he ended up covering jumping mares in Ireland at €3,000.

As a half-sister to those three elite winners, Coral Dance's daughter by Trempolino was threatening to prove as mediocre in her second career as she had been in her first, and she was sold for $20,000 at Keeneland November in 2004. By then she was 15, and unfortunately the foal she was then carrying turned out to be her last-meaning that her new owners could not profit when her unraced 2-year-old filly by Awesome Again, much her best cover, emerged the following year to win the GI Acorn S. and then at the Breeders' Cup.

Round Pond's lucrative transfer to Darley represented a huge return for Fox Hill Farms, John Servis having signed for her as a $105,000 yearling. (Unfortunately for Servis, she was later switched to Michael Matz). After that kind of outlay, Round Pond was obviously guaranteed commensurate coverings, but she evidently had her troubles and was confined to the sporadic production of six named foals.

She made a fair start with Long River (A.P. Indy), a longshot third behind Tonalist (Tapit) in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup before serving in Dubai as a veteran, actually coming up trumps in a G1 Maktoum Challenge at the age of seven. And her final foal by Dubawi (Ire) won at Saratoga last summer and is still chipping away at black type (one podium to date) at the age of five. Her Tapit was gelded after failing to build on a promising start, while two daughters by Bernardini never even made it to the starting gate.

Now all was not yet lost, clearly, for this pair. A Bernardini filly out of a Breeders' Cup winner by Awesome Again is about as resonant a formula as you can find, in terms of distaff branding. And one, Tyburn Brook, has promptly salvaged the whole investment in her dam by producing Speaker's Corner as her very first foal.

He must always have been a standout, as the Jonabell team doubled down and sent Tyburn Brook straight back to Street Sense. Actually the resulting sophomore, Town Branch, was also in action last Saturday, stepping up on his debut to run fourth in a Keeneland maiden. Tyburn Brook has since delivered colts by Maclean's Music and Nyquist.

And while Mott is hardly known for detonating newcomers, on debut Speaker's Corner was made odds-on in a sprint on the last day of Saratoga's “ghost” meet in 2020. Third that day, he then won a Belmont maiden that in hindsight warranted graded status: chased home by GI Arkansas Derby runner-up Caddo River (Hard Spun), GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth winner Greatest Honour (Tapit) and GI Runhappy Travers S. third Miles D (Curlin), with GII Wood Memorial S. winner Bourbonic (Bernardini) down the field on debut.

In a vexing coincidence, Speaker's Corner followed Maxfield and McKinzie in having to sit out the Triple Crown and was relaunched with an allowance win back at Saratoga. He took a backwards step in the GI Pennsylvania Derby and it was a similarly fitful story in New York last fall, when he blew apart an allowance field before being run down late over a ninth furlong. As we said at the outset, however, everything now seems to have fallen into place.

There's no question that the Street Sense legacy is a precious one with its elusive balance of brilliance and staying power. The brilliance is perhaps rooted in the dam of Street Cry's sire Machiavellian, Coup De Folie (Halo), who was a pretty smart miler herself but above all a genetic powder keg: the great Almahmoud matches up her daughters Natalma and Cosmah respectively as Coup De Folie's second dam and mother of Halo. But there's also plenty of dash along Street Sense's bottom line. Fourth dam Lianga (Dancer's Image) was a top-class sprinter in Europe, while his second dam is a half-sister to both Mr. Greeley (Gone West) and the granddam of Vekoma-whose own Carter success, a couple of years ago, arguably qualifies him as the briskest son of Candy Ride (Arg).

This dynasty has also produced a couple of very quick horses in Europe, but is leavened by some sturdy Classic influences. Machiavellian sired Street Cry from an Irish Oaks winner by Troy (GB); and Street Sense himself is out of a Dixieland Band mare, though again she was another to have run rather quicker than the label (just missed black-type in sprints on both surfaces). Obviously this brings Natalma back into the equation through her son Northern Dancer, as sire of Dixieland Band.

As we've already seen, the family of Speaker's Corner has itself been repeatedly seeded with two-turn depth: first four dams by Bernardini, Awesome Again, Trempolino and Green Dancer. But he has plainly drawn pretty lavishly on the strands of speed behind his sire. In other words, he will have something for everybody in his next job.

Street Sense capped off his Saturday with slow-burning sophomore Whelen Springs at Oaklawn becoming his 73rd domestic black-type scorer. These include 30 at graded level and eight (plus four in Australia) in the top tier. Bernardini, for his part, is now up to 14 Grade I winners already as a historically precocious broodmare sire.

One final footnote: among all the credit owing to the Sheikh's team, don't overlook the wit with which he was named. His dam Tyburn Brook was named for a stream, nowadays subterranean, through Hyde Park in London; and the combination with Street Sense prompted Speaker's Corner, as a longstanding platform for amateur “soapbox” orators in Hyde Park.

But it goes without saying that this horse is the result of some rather more important calls, from the choice of Tyburn Brook's first date to the forbearance of Mott. With such good people in his corner, here's a speaker only now warming to his theme.

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