Tag: michael mccarthy

Southern California Shipper Rombauer Tops Saturday’s El Camino Real Derby

A field of nine is entered to take flight in the feature race at Golden Gate Fields on Saturday afternoon, the Grade 3, $100,000 El Camino Real Derby for 3-year-olds. The El Camino Real Derby, run at the distance of one mile and an eighth on the “all-weather” Tapeta main track, offers ten Kentucky Derby points to the winner and an all-expenses paid, free berth into the second leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes. In order for the winner to earn the latter incentive, he or she must be Triple Crown nominated.

This year's El Camino Real Derby field is packed with Southern California shippers. The likely favorite, Rombauer, draws the outside post in the field of nine and is one of six entrants who make the trip north from their home base at Santa Anita Park. Rombauer makes his 3-year-old debut in the El Camino Real Derby, having most recently placed fifth in the Grade 1 Breeders Cup Juvenile in November. Earlier in the fall, Rombauer finished as the runner up in the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita. The current leading rider at the Golden Gate Winter/Spring meet, Kyle Frey, picks up the mount for trainer Michael McCarthy. Frey won the 2017 El Camino Real Derby aboard longshot Zakaroff while McCarthy scored a victory one year later with the filly Paved.

Javanica seeks to become the second filly in the El Camino Real Derby's 40 year history to take home the gold medal. Javanica, a royally bred gal by Medaglia D'Oro out of Grade 2 winning mare Shuruq, has finished second in her last three starts, all against stakes competition. Eoin Harty trains for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's Godolphin LLC, with veteran rider Frank Alvarado slated to navigate. Javanica will be breaking from post position 7.

Hall of Fame conditioner Richard Mandella saddles a 2021 El Camino Real Derby contender in Petruchio, by white-hot stallion Into Mischief. After breaking his maiden on turf two starts ago, Petruchio tried winners for the first time in the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity and completed the trifecta. Local jockey Irving Orozco rides for the first time.

Trainer John Shirreffs sends Waspirant to the Bay Area for another shot against stakes company. Most recently, Waspirant ran fourth in the Grade 3 Sham Stakes behind two of the top 3-year-olds in California, the Bob Baffert trained pair of Life Is Good and Medina Spirit. The son of Union Rags is out of the Storm Cat mare Life Is Sweet, who won the 2009 Grade I Breeders Cup Ladies Classic (now named the Breeders Cup Distaff). Jockey Assael Espinoza has the call for owners Pam and Marty Wygod.

Owner Reddam Racing LLC and trainer Doug O'Neill won the 2016 El Camino Real Derby with Frank Conversation and, five years later, campaign the California-bred Play Chicken. Winner of the King Glorious Stakes for state-breds at Los Alamitos last December, Play Chicken looks to rebound after an off-the-board finish in the California Derby on January 16 at Santa Anita. Evin Roman is named to ride; Roman guided Kingly to a second-place effort in the 2019 El Camino Real Derby.

Positivity rounds out the list of Southern California contenders. His best run to date came in the summertime as a 2-year-old, winning the Graduation Stakes at Del Mar while sprinting on dirt. He also ran second in his next start, the Golden State Juvenile. Both aforementioned races came against California-breds. Trainer Paddy Gallagher employs his go-to Northern California rider, Julien Couton, to ride.

Three local contenders look to play spoiler for the heavy hitters from Southern California. It's My House, trained by Jamey Thomas, broke his maiden sprinting two weeks ago and stretches out in distance. Tesoro, who unofficially hit the wire first in his career debut, was disqualified for interference with another rival and enters the El Camino Real Derby still a maiden. Recent starter allowance winner Govenor's Party completes the trio of local talent and is expected to go off at a big price for trainer Dan Franko. William Antongeorgi III rides It's My House, Catalino Martinez hops aboard Tesoro and Cristobal Herrera retains the mount on Govenor's Party.

The El Camino Real Derby is Race 8 on a 9-race program at Golden Gate Fields.

First post on Saturday is 12:45 PM PT, with scheduled post time for the El Camino Real Derby stamped at approx. 4:15 PM PT.

The $100,000 El Camino Real Derby (3-year-olds at one mile and an eighth)

  1. Positivity (trainer Paddy Gallagher, jockey Julien Couton)
  2. Waspirant (John Shirreffs, Assael Espinoza)
  3. Tesoro (O.J. Jauregui, Catalino Martinez)
  4. It's My House (Jamey Thomas, William Antongeorgi III)
  5. Petruchio (Richard Mandella, Irving Orozco)
  6. Play Chicken (Doug O'Neill, Evin Roman)
  7. Javanica (Eoin Harty, Frank Alvarado)
  8. Govenor's Party (Dan Franko, Cristobal Herrera)
  9. Rombauer (Michael McCarthy, Kyle Frey)

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Independence Hall Training Well After Malibu Flop, Will ‘Take A Swing’ At Pegasus

When last seen at Gulfstream Park, Independence Hall was finishing fifth in the track's marquee race for 3-year-olds, the 2020 Florida Derby (G1). Ten months later, the son of Constitution returns for Gulfstream's most important race for older horses, Saturday's $3 million Pegasus World Cup Championship Invitational (G1).

Much has changed between trips to South Florida for the colt co-owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Twin Creeks Racing Stables, and Kathleen and Robert Verratti. Following his disappointing finish as the 3-1 third choice in the Florida Derby, he was given a sabbatical and later moved from the East Coast-based trainer Michael Trombetta to Michael McCarthy in California.

McCarthy won the 2019 Pegasus with City of Light.

The Pegasus will be the first start for Independence Hall since he finished fifth of six, nearly 10 lengths behind Charlatan in the Malibu (G1) on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita Park. McCarthy expected a much stronger performance in the seven-furlong Malibu on the opening day of Santa Anita's winter season.

“For one reason or another, which I can't put my finger on, he just did not seem to fire that day,” McCarthy said. “I have to draw a line through it. The horse has trained forwardly since.”

Independence Hall has had two breezes this month. The most recent was six furlongs in 1:12.60 at Santa Anita on Saturday.

“His work was very, very good,” McCarthy said. “If you bring a horse into a $3 million race, I think this is the kind of work you want to bring him in off.”

Jockey Flavien Prat will ride Independence Hall for the first time in the Pegasus.

Robert Verratti purchased Independence Hall as a yearling from Constitution's first crop for $100,000 at the 2018 Keeneland September sale as a pinhooking prospect. On the advice of his bloodstock agent Dennis O'Neill, Verratti decided to hold onto the colt, as a buy-back at the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale of 2-year-olds in 2019. After Independence Hall easily broke his maiden at Parx in September, Eclipse and Twin Creeks purchased interests in the colt.

Independence Hall promptly built his reputation as a Kentucky Derby prospect for his ownership group with a 12 ¼-length win in the Nashua (G3) and a 4 ½-length win in the Jerome at Aqueduct and was second as the 3-5 favorite in the Sam F. Davis (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs. The lackluster Florida Derby outing led to a pause in his career and a vacation at WinStar Farm.

“They just decided that he needed a little time off, a bit of a mental freshening more than anything. It seems to have done him some good,” McCarthy said. “The horse has come to me in very good order. The body of work he put together last year I thought was very good. We are just trying to go ahead and build on that.”

McCarthy said that Independence Hall arrived from Kentucky during the summer and was ready to resume training. He had his first breeze on Sept. 26 and won a 6 ½-furlong optional claimer on November 8.

“The horse fell into a pretty nice routine once he got here, was very straight forward,” McCarthy said. “The first race for us at Del Mar, obviously we were expecting a decent performance with him. I thought the way he won was more or less what we had been seeing in the morning. It was a perfect setup for a race like the Malibu.”

Though the Malibu did not work out as his connections had hoped, the colt came out of the race well and they decided the next challenge would be the nine-furlong Pegasus, which offers the highest purse in North America for older horses outside the Breeders' Cup.

“It was one of those things, as some of the invitees started falling by the wayside, this became more and more of an option,” McCarthy said. “It's $3 million. It's a good spot to take a swing at something like this. You may never get this chance again until Breeders' Cup time, nine months from now, for this kind of money. Why not?”

McCarthy welcomes the opportunity to join Hall of Famer Bob Baffert as a two-time Pegasus-winning trainer.

“That would be awfully nice,” he said. “I'm bringing a horse in who is training as well as I could ask him to be. We'll see what happens.”

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Chilean-Bred Sanenus Makes Early Move A Winning One In La Canada

Ridden for the first time by Umberto Rispoli, Chilean-bred Sanenus made what appeared to be a premature move, but instead, the race was over early, as she took command around the far turn en route to an impressive six-length win in Saturday's Grade 3, $200,000 La Canada Stakes at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif.

Trained by Michael McCarthy for owner/breeder Matriarca, Sanenus got 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:45.44.

Third, just a half length off of dueling leaders Fighting Mad and Hard Not to Love down the backstretch, Rispoli decided to press the issue heading to the half-mile pole and was large and in charge mid-way around the far turn.

“I've been on her several times in the morning,” said Rispoli.  “I knew she was a very good filly.  Today, I asked her a bit at the half-mile pole and she responded well.  At the top of the stretch, she was looking around and I was just hoping she was going to stay focused.  She finished well and I think she has more there.”

A Group 1 winner at age three in her native Chile, Sanenus was most recently third in the G3 Chilukki Stakes at Churchill Downs Nov. 21 and was off at 7-1 today in a field of seven older fillies and mares, returning $17.00, $8.20 and $4.60.

The La Canada marked the first stateside win in her fourth try for McCarthy and with the winner's share of $120,000, Sanenus now has earnings of $219,700.  A 5-year-old mare by Scat Daddy out of the Tale of the Cat mare Belgian Chocolate, Saenus now has five wins from 12 career starts.

“Umberto did a great job, he had to niggle a little bit at her to kind of keep her in the game around the first turn,” said McCarthy.  I thought she was in a great position up the backside and she went up to engage those fillies leaving the half-mile pole.  At the quarter, she had her ears up and I love the way she opened up.  The La Canada has a great history and a lot of really nice mares have won this race over the years and this is a nice race to have on her resume.”

Ridden by Mike Smith, Miss Stormy D rallied to be second by a nose over Hard Not to Love and paid $12.00 and $5.80 while off at 14-1.

Hard Not to Love, who was the second choice at 3-1, was done early and finished third, 6 ½ lengths clear of Never Be Enough.  Ridden by Ricky Gonzalez, Hard Not to Love paid $3.00 to show.

Fighting Mad, the 4-5 favorite with Abel Cedillo, was also a pace casualty and had no answer for the winner five-sixteenths from home, finishing fifth.

Fractions on the race were 23.30, 46.37, 1:11.28 and 1:38.20.

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