mike pegram | Horse Racing Free Tips

Arrogate Colt ‘Rock’ Solid in ‘Rising Star’ Debut

Mike Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman and trainer Bob Baffert unveiled a potentially important juvenile in Saturday's seventh race from Del Mar, as Cave Rock (c, 2, Arrogate–Georgie's Angel, by Bellamy Road) took the race by the scruff of the neck not long after the start and scampered clear to become the afternoon's second 'TDN Rising Star'.

Heavily backed as the 6-5 chalk in a strong-looking group on paper, the dark bay shot through to take up the running as the field linked up with the track proper and he clicked off an opening couple of furlongs in a swift :22.10. Skipping nicely over the ground, Cave Rock began to widen without truly being asked, passing the five-sixteenths marker in a strong :44.55 over a track that hasn't yielded many quick times during the meet. With Juan Hernandez just swinging off the colt and motionless turning for home, Cave Rock ran out a six-length winner and went even further clear on the gallop out. He is the third 'Rising Star' for Arrogate, a number that includes recent Curlin S. winner and GI Runhappy Travers S. candidate Artorius.

A $210,000 purchase out of the 2020 Keeneland November sale, Cave Rock fetched $550,000 from the 'Three Amigos' at the auction house's bellweather September yearling sale just short of a year ago. The March foal's dam won the 2011 GIII Schuylerville S. for trainer Todd Pletcher and was sold back in foal to the late Arrogate for $75,000 at KEENOV in 2020. The mare, a half-sister to GSW Lawn Ranger (U S Ranger), produced a colt in 2021 and a filly by Improbable this season before being bred back to Connect. Cave Rock is the second noteworthy performer out of a daughter of Bellamy Road, joining GI Fourstardave H. hero Casa Creed (Distorted Humor).

7th-Del Mar, $82,000, Msw, 8-13, 2yo, 6 1/2f, 1:15.81, ft, 6 lengths.
CAVE ROCK, c, 2, by Arrogate
1st Dam: Georgie's Angel (GSW, $129,564), by Bellamy Road
2nd Dam: Lalka, by Dynaformer
3rd Dam: Celmis, by Bold Ruckus
Sales history: $210,000 Wlg '20 KEENOV; $550,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $48,000. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG. Click for the free Equineline.com catalog-style pedigree.
O-Michael R Pegram, Karl Watson & Paul Weitman; B-Ann & Ronnie Sheffer Racing LLC (KY); T-Bob Baffert.

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Baffert’s Other Horse Wins Palos Verdes

A lightly raced, once-pricey juvenile trained by Bob Baffert won the GIII Palos Verdes S., but it wasn't chalk, the $3.65-million Fasig-Tipton 2-year-old Cezanne (Curlin). Instead it was the year-younger, $300,000 OBS April 2-year-old Essential Wager (Honor Code), who was making his stakes debut after riding a two-race win streak.

Essential Wager left the gate smartly and came up on the inside to emerge from the early fray with the lead, marking the first quarter in :22.21 with Team Merchants (Nyquist) pressing from the outside. The two held position with the half notched in :45.17, then Essential Wager cut the corner and pulled away with a right-handed reminder. He blazed five panels in :57.41 while Shooters Shoot (Competitive Edge) was flying on the outside. As game as they come, Shooters Shoot could not pass Essential Wager and finished a neck back while Essential Wager held firm.

The winner came into the Palos Verdes off a brilliant work in tandem with Cezanne Jan. 23, in which he finished in front of his stablemate with a time of :59 2/5 for the five furlongs. It was best of 88 that day, with Cezanne hitting his mark in :59 3/5 (2/88).

“This horse is getting better and better, he had trained really well,” said Baffert. “With Cezanne, I think it was a little too short for him. All of Essential Wager's races have been pretty impressive and actually, he's bred not to be a sprinter. [Rider] Abel [Cedillo] did a great job, got him outta there and held off those horses pretty well. You know, he took a lot of heat early and kept going.”

Essential Wager debuted at seven furlongs in October over this track with an educational start: a bump, a stumble, a premature move, and a lost duel. He finished second that day, but moved down to six furlongs and has stayed there since, resulting in a maiden win Nov. 12 at Del Mar, a first-level allowance Dec. 11 at Los Alamitos, and Saturday's Palos Verdes victory.

“We're going to let Bobby [Baffert] do what he wants with him,” said co-owner Mike Pegram, “but I think he can probably get two turns, it looks like.”

Pedigree Notes:
One of nine black-type winners for Honor Code, Essential Wager is his young sire's fourth graded winner. His other three graded winners have all come at the Grade I level.

Inbred 3×5 to Seattle Slew, Essential Wager is one of 19 stakes winners out of a daughter of Officer. His dam has a 2-year-old filly named Bru Na Boinne (Arrogate), who brought $120,000 from Wayne R. Sanders and Kat Kirk at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October yearling sale. She also has a yearling full-sister to Essential Wager named Essential Ellie and visited the court of Wildcat Red for this spring's foal.

Saturday, Santa Anita
PALOS VERDES S.-GIII, $200,000, Santa Anita, 1-29, 4yo/up, 6f, 1:09.95, ft.
1–ESSENTIAL WAGER, 120, c, 4, by Honor Code
               1st Dam: Mr Hall's Opus (GSP, $155,300), by Officer
               2nd Dam: Sala de Oro, by Expelled
               3rd Dam: Kildare, by Flying Paster
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($200,000
RNA Ylg '19 KEESEP; $300,000 2yo '20 OBSAPR). O-Michael E.
Pegram, Karl Watson, & Paul Weitman; B-Maccabee Farm
(KY); T-Bob Baffert; J-Abel Cedillo. $120,000. Lifetime
Record: 4-3-1-0, $207,200. Werk Nick Rating: A. Click for
the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Shooters Shoot, 120, g, 5, Competitive Edge–Repeat, by
Bernardini. ($90,000 Wlg '17 KEENOV; $70,000 Ylg '18
KEESEP; $300,000 2yo '19 OBSAPR). O-Bella Cavello Stables
LLC; B-Nancy C. Shuford (KY); T-Richard Baltas. $40,000.
3–Cezanne, 122, h, 5, Curlin–Achieving, by Bernardini.
($3,650,000 2yo '19 FTFMAR). O-Mrs. John Magnier,
Michael B. Tabor, Derrick Smith & St. Elias Stable; B-Hill 'n'
Dale Equine Holdings, Inc. & St. Elias Stables, LLC (KY); T-Bob
Baffert. $24,000.
Margins: NK, 2 3/4, 3HF. Odds: 1.80, 20.60, 0.70.
Also Ran: Team Merchants, Dark Vader. Scratched: Arham.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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Nothing Plain About Bob Baffert

When Bob Baffert won a record seventh GI Kentucky Derby May 1 with Medina Spirit (Protonico), I couldn't help but think back to the first time I met the conditioner.

Walking through the Keeneland barn area one mid-April morning in 1990, Baffert asked if I knew where the clockers were located at the track. We introduced ourselves to each other and I offered to show him the route to the press box, where the clockers were situated during training hours.

Baffert was in the process of switching from Quarter Horses to Thoroughbreds and had travelled to Keeneland with the first horse he hoped to run in the Derby–Thirty Slews.

Impressive winner of his first two starts in California the previous month, Baffert already had his sights set on racing's biggest prize. He shipped the son of Slewpy east to run in the Lexington S.

Thirty Slews ran third that day, behind Home At Last and Pleasant Tap, and shipped back to California while Unbridled won the Derby.

Though over the next three decades Baffert would strive–quite successfully–to find horses that could stay the Classic distance, it was apparent Thirty Slews could not.

He made 18 starts subsequent to the Lexington and only left California one other time. But the one time he did was monumental for Baffert.

Following a win in the 1992 Bing Crosby H., Thirty Slews was shipped to Florida, where he won the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint at Gulfstream Park for owners Mike Pegram, Mitch Degroot and Dutch Masters III.

Sent off at 19-1, Thirty Slews just got up by a neck over Meafara, who led every step of the way–except the last step.

Thirty Slews, the first Thoroughbred Baffert purchased at public auction ($30,000 at Keeneland September), had provided him with his first Grade I win.

It is interesting to think about this: Had Thirty Slews won the Lexington, Baffert may have run him in the Derby. A colt who was unraced at 2 and would have entered the starting gate on the first Saturday of May making just his fourth start.

Of course, no horse had won the Derby without racing as a juvenile since 1892 until Baffert did it with Justify in 2018, who would go on to become a Triple Crown winner.

And, it is Baffert who has redesigned the path to the Derby, proving you can run for–and win–the roses with fewer starts before the race than trainers thought horses needed not that many years ago.

Baffert took Thirty Slews, a $30,000 yearling, and turned him into a Grade I winner.

He took Medina Spirit–a $1,000 yearling turned $35,000 2-year-old–into a Derby winner.

A few races before Medina Spirit led every step of the way to win the Derby, Baffert trained Gamine won the GI Derby City Distaff, giving the trainer a record 220 Grade I wins.

Medina Spirit would give Baffert Grade I victory number 221.

But as he crossed the finish line, I was thinking about Baffert's first Grade I winner and the day I met the trainer at Keeneland.

With seven Derby scores, Baffert passed trainer “Plain Ben” Jones.

Since that spring day I first met Baffert 31 years ago, he has proven there is nothing plain about him.

He proved it once again May 1.

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Fenton Elected Chairman Of Thoroughbred Owners Of California

The Thoroughbred Owners of California board of directors unanimously elected Gary Fenton to serve as the new chairman of the organization replacing outgoing chairman Nick Alexander, who stepped down after five years in the role. Fenton has been on the TOC board since 2016 and has served as chairman of the TOC Racing Committee since 2018 and TOC vice chairman since 2019.

Fenton is the managing partner of Little Red Feather Racing (LRF), California's largest syndicate with over 85 horses and over 400 owner/partners. LRF has campaigned Breeders' Cup Mile winner Singletary as well as Grade 1 winners Egg Drop, Midnight Storm, Secret Spice, Fault and Mirth. LRF has the fifth most starts of all owners in Southern California since 2010.

Fenton grew up in Beverly Hills, Calif., and caught the horse racing bug at an early age attending races at Hollywood Park, Santa Anita and Del Mar, including the first Breeders' Cup in 1984. He began his career as an entertainment attorney working for the William Morris Agency and media companies including ATG, Carsey-Werner, and AMC before transitioning to LRF full time in 2005. Fenton will be the 11th chairman of TOC following most recently the five-year terms of Nick Alexander (2016 – present) and Mike Pegram (2011-2015).

“Mike Pegram and Nick Alexander are giants in our industry who successfully steered this organization through unprecedented times and left the TOC in a strong operational and financial position,” said Fenton. “It is an honor for me to step into their big shoes at a very exciting time for California Thoroughbred racing. I have great respect for the hard work of TOC staff members and my fellow TOC board members who have each worked tirelessly over the past few years to achieve the TOC's core mission “to maximize purse revenues and preserve the long-term viability of our sport in California.”

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