Agave Racing Stable to Present Major Gift to Ed Brown Society

Agave Racing Stable, owned by Mark Martinez, will be presenting a major gift to the Ed Brown Society (EBS) Saturday Apr. 30, in the Winner's Circle at Santa Anita Park, after the running of the inaugural Ed Brown Memorial. The race's namesake was born into slavery in 1850 in Lexington, KY. He went on to apprentice under Ansel Williamson, the African-American trainer of the first Kentucky Derby winner, Aristides. Ed Brown went on to become one of the most accomplished horsemen in thoroughbred racing, winning the Belmont Stakes as a jockey, the Kentucky Derby as a trainer and numerous stakes races as an owner.

EBS was founded by Living The Dream Stables, thoroughbred racing syndicates managed by Greg Harbut and Ray Daniels.  Martinez's Agave Racing Stable, Living The Dream Stables and Rockin Robin Stables own Miss Bigly (Gemologist), an entrant in Saturday's GII Santa Margarita Stakes at Santa Anita.

“As a third-generation horseman, and one of the few African American professionals in the industry, I am extremely excited about Agave Racing Stable's gift to advance our mission,” said EBS Chairman Greg Harbut, whose great-grandfather was the groom of Man O' War.

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Coach Repels All Challengers For Pippin Score

Rick Kueber's Coach won her second race in a row in Saturday's $150,000 Pippin Stakes at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., repelling the challenge of stakes winner Miss Bigly for a three-length score. The 4-year-old daughter of Commissioner, sent to post as the 8-5 favorite, grabbed the lead at the start and was expertly piloted by Ricardo Santana, Jr. The pair completed a mile over the sloppy course in 1:37.58 for trainer Brad Cox.

Cox also won last year's edition of the Pippin with Getridofwhatailesu, and was just a few inches shy of sweeping Oaklawn's two-turn stakes series for older fillies and mares in 2021. He sent out Monomoy Girl to win last year's $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) and Shedaresthedevil to win the $350,000 Azeri Stakes (G2). Monomoy Girl, in what would be her final career start, was beaten a nose by Letruska in the $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) to deny Cox a four-race sweep.

When Coach broke sharply, Santana sent the filly out to take the lead but kept her off the deeper inside rail, about three-wide down the backstretch. They marked the first quarter in :23.44 and the half in :47.60. Miss Bigly tracked the pace along the inside, and moved up around the half-mile pole to draw even with the frontrunner.

Head-and-head around the far turn, the two riders were waiting to cue their mounts for the stretch run. When the question was asked, it was Coach and Santana who managed to find another gear on the outside. Coach pulled away from Miss Bigly with ease, racing to the wire a three-length winner. Miss Bigly had to settle for second, while W W Fitzy checked in third and Breeze Rider was fourth.

Bred in Kentucky by Three Lyons Racing, Coach is out of the Exchange Rate mare And Stay Out. She was a $65,000 yearling at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall sale, and won her first three races including the Rags to Riches Overnight Stakes at Churchill Downs. On the Kentucky Oaks trail, Coach managed a third in the G3 Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn before finishing ninth in the Run for the Lillies. She did not race again until December, when she won her comeback race at Oaklawn.

Overall, Coach's record stands at five wins from 10 starts for earnings of $387,840.

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Trainer Brad Cox Chasing Second Straight Pippin Victory With Coach

A few inches separated trainer Brad Cox from sweeping Oaklawn's two-turn stakes series for older fillies and mares in 2021. Now, Cox will try to pick up where he left off when he sends out program favorite Coach in Saturday's $150,000 Pippin at one mile.

Probable post time for the Pippin, the eighth of nine races, is 3:46 p.m. (Central). Racing begins at 12:30 p.m.

Cox won the last year's Pippin with Getridofwhatailesu, then captured the $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) with two-time Eclipse Award winner Monomoy Girl and the $350,000 Azeri Stakes (G2) with Shedaresthedevil. Monomoy Girl, in what would be her final career start, was beaten a nose by Letruska in the $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) to deny Cox a four-race sweep.

Cox bids for his second Pippin victory with Kueber Racing LLC's Coach, the early 9-5 choice who retains eight-time Oaklawn riding champion Ricardo Santana Jr. Coach exits a sharp two-length allowance victory at 1 1/16 miles Dec. 17, which marked her first start since finishing ninth in the $1.25 million Kentucky Oaks (G1) for 3-year-old fillies April 30 at Churchill Downs.

“She was just a horse that we had run a lot, her 2-year-old season and then throughout her 3-year-old season, trying to get her into the Oaks,” Cox said. “We got her to the Oaks. She just needed a break and she got it.”

Coach began her career with three consecutive victories, including the $98,000 Rags to Riches Stakes in October 2020 at Churchill Downs. Coach went through Oaklawn's series of Kentucky Oaks points races last year, finishing second in the $200,000 Martha Washington Stakes, fifth in the $300,000 Honeybee Stakes (G3) and third in the $600,000 Fantasy Stakes (G3). Her allowance victory last month at Oaklawn snapped a five-race losing streak.

“She ran good,” said Cox, leading trainer at the 2021-2022 Oaklawn meeting. “Tough, tough field.”

The projected seven-horse Pippin lineup from the rail out: Coach, Ricardo Santana Jr., 122 pounds, 9-5 on the morning line; Breeze Rider, E.T. Baird, 122, 5-1; W W Fitzy, David Cohen, 122, 8-1; Itsallinthenotes, Kelsi Harr, 122, 20-1; Josie, Ramon Vazquez, 122, 5-2; Miss Bigly, Martin Garcia, 122, 5-2; and Wellington Wonder, David Cabrera, 117, 12-1.

Miss Bigly has kept fast company in her career, facing the likes of Monomoy Girl, As Time Goes By and Envoutante in the Midwest and Southern California.

An allowance winner at one mile last April at Oaklawn, Miss Bigly exits a third-place finish in the $300,000 Chilukki Stakes (G3) Nov. 20 at Churchill Downs. The Chilukki was also a mile. Miss Bigly has five published workouts at Oaklawn since Dec. 4.

“I think she's coming into the race in good shape,” said Miss Bigly's Southern California-based trainer, Phil D'Amato, who has nine horses at Oaklawn. “I believe she won on a wet-fast track at Oaklawn last year, so I don't think if it rains, we'll have any issues there. Her last couple of breezes have been very sharp, with Martin Garcia breezing her.”

Multiple stakes winner Breeze Rider won seven races in 2021, but has done her best work on turf or a synthetic surface for trainer Steve Manley. Josie was an allowance winner at the 2021 Oaklawn meeting for Cox. She is now with Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.

W W Fitzy adds blinkers for 2020 Oaklawn training champion Robertino Diodoro after running fourth behind Coach and Wellington Wonder Dec. 17 at Oaklawn. She was claimed out of the race for $62,500.

“We're trying to get some speed back in her,” Diodoro said, referring to the equipment change. “Training good. We'll see.”

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Fillies Bring the Graded Type to Keeneland January

When the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale opens its four-day run in Lexington next week, it will present buyers the opportunity to bid on fillies and mares, offered as racing or broodmare prospects, whose recent form had them hitting the board in graded company.

Multiple stakes winner Bella Vita (Bayern) was second behind champion Gamine (Into Mischief) in the July 5 GII Great Lady M S. at Los Alamitos and comes into the Keeneland January sale off a runner-up effort in the Dec. 4 GIII Go For Wand H. for owner Kaleem Shah and trainer Simon Callaghan. Her 2021 campaign also included wins in the Betty Grable S. at Del Mar in November and in the Spring Fever S. at Santa Anita in February.

“Obviously you have to make a profit in this business, that was one of the driving points to put her in the sale, but I am not driven to sell her,” Shah said of Bella Vita's engagement next Tuesday at Keeneland. “If she brings a fair price, we will sell her and wish the new connections well.”

Bella Vita, who has hit the board in 11 of 14 starts with four wins and earnings of $396,722, is consigned as hip 462 with Eaton Sales.

A $400,000 OBS April purchase in 2019, the 5-year-old is out of the unraced Queenie Cat (Storm Cat), who is half-sister to champion Vindication (Seattle Slew) and to graded winner Scipion (A.P. Indy).

“Her mamma was a very expensive mare, a $1.7-million [2005 Keeneland September] yearling, and in the second and third dams there is a champion and lots of graded stakes winners,” Shah said. “She has a strong, deep female family and that will be attractive to buyers. It looks like the market has been strong and this mare should be very attractive to people who want to race and then to breed her at some point.”

Trainer and co-owner James Chapman was able to acquire Saucy Lady T (Tonalist) for just $5,000 at the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The filly was third in three graded events at Saratoga last summer and has earned $146,500 to date. She will head through the Keeneland January sales ring  next Tuesday from the Stuart Morris consignment as hip 848.

“She was in the November sale and she had dinged her eye, so we scratched her,” Chapman said of the decision to offer the now 3-year-old in the January sale.

Saucy Lady T is out of graded placed Fila Primera (War Front) and her third dam is Promenade Colony (Pleasant Colony), who produced graded winner Promenade Girl. It is the family of Cavorting and her daughter Clairiere.

“She was a big, stretchy, good-looking filly. She looked like what I would buy,” Chapman said of his bargain yearling purchase. “I don't know why she cost that really. She was maybe a little bigger and clumsier looking than most of them. She wasn't something to flip back as a 2-year-old, so you lost all those guys, and Tonalist was cold at the time, so you lost those guys.”

Saucy Lady T broke her maiden by five lengths going five furlongs at Belmont Apr. 25 and then went on to finish third in the July 15 GIII Schuylerville S., Aug. 8 GII Adirondack S., and again in the Sept. 5 GI Spinaway S.

“She shouldn't have even run at two. She was bred to run long,” Chapman said of those early efforts. “I let them do it as long as they'll do it without being asked and she kept doing it. So she was in my first group to run. I had 50 of them that year and she was the best of the class.”

Saucy Lady T has been off since finishing fifth in the GI Frizette S. last October.

“I've had her with me at Belmont,” Chapman said. “I just gave her some time off because we didn't take her to the Breeders' Cup. She needed a break, so I could have a fresh horse for her 3-year-old year.”

Chapman expects potential buyers will have plenty to look forward to this year with the filly.

“She'll be a very nice 3-year-old,” he said. “She still has her non-winners of two condition and then it's up to them what they want to do with her.”

Should Saucy Lady T fail to meet her reserve, Chapman already has a plan mapped out for the filly.

“If I were still to have her, she would run in an a-other-than and then she would run in the filly stakes at Turfway, the Bourbonette, and then she would go in the Ashland and the Kentucky Oaks. And that's what she will do if they don't pay for her.”

Stakes-winning Miss Bigly (Gemologist), coming off a pair of third-place efforts against graded company in California, is consigned to the January sale as hip 221 with Taylor Made Sales Agency, but the 5-year-old mare's participation in Monday's first  session of the auction will be determined Saturday in Arkansas when she goes postward in the Pippin S. at Oaklawn Park.

“The outcome of that race will determine whether she is in the sale or an out,” co-owner Mark Martinez of Agave Racing Stable said.

Agave Racing acquired Miss Bigly privately in 2020 and the mare has hit the board in nine of 10 starts for the partnership of Agave and Rockin Robin.

“We always felt like we could go to California and potentially run her in a graded stakes race and get her decorated up with a 'G' or two and we were able to accomplish that,” Martinez said. “You can see we ran her at probably five or six different tracks over a six-month period, so she logged more frequent miles than I did. But she answered the bell. We've run her 10 times and in every dirt race she's run for us, she's hit the board.”

Miss Bigly won the Tranquility Lake S. at Del Mar in August before third-place efforts in the Oct. 3 GII Zenyatta S. at Santa Anita and in the Nov. 29 GIII Chilukki S. at Churchill Downs Nov. 20.

“We had her in the November sale just to keep our options open,” Martinez said. “She ran well in those two graded stakes races, so we opted to move her to January. If she keeps running well, we will keep campaigning her and getting her decorated up, if we can. We will shift her to next November and if something were to happen, hypothetically, in March, we would consider putting her in foal and selling her in foal instead of selling her open in November if we elect to campaign her. We are just keeping options open more than anything.”

Miss Bigly is out of Miss Puzzle (Aus) (Citidancer) and she is a half-sister to Grade I winner Fashion Plate (Old Fashioned), a pedigree and a physical that should appeal to buyers.

“The buyers would be interested in her because she is a big, good-looking 16.1 every bit of physical, attractive filly and she has a rich bottom side pedigree,” he said.

Miss Bigly is 5-2 on the morning line for Saturday's one-mile Pippin S. for trainer Phil D'Amato.

“You like to sell them at five, but she isn't a graded stakes winner, so our thought is, if she can win a graded stakes, she would be worth more at six as a graded stakes winner than she is at five without winning a graded stakes,” Martinez explained.

Other Book 1 racing or broodmare prospects who enter the Keeneland January with graded placings in 2021 include Ego Trip (Ire) (No Nay Never) (hip 113), who was third in the GII Lake Placid S. at Saratoga in August. The 4-year-old is consigned by Hunter Valley Farm.

Portal Creek (Shanghai Bobby) (hip 271), a 6-year-old consigned by Elite, was second in the GIII Distaff H. at Aqueduct in April. Elite also consigns the 4-year-old Flown (Kitten's Joy) (hip 417), who was third in the GIII Regret S. and GIII Pucker Up S. last summer.

The 6-year-old On Deck (First Samurai), consigned by Taylor Made as hip 430B, was runner-up in the Oct. 3 GIII Chillingworth S., while Honor Way (Caleb's Posse) (hip 581), consigned by Paramount Sales, was second behind Paris Lights (Curlin) and Portal Creek in the GIII Distaff.

The Keeneland January sale begins Monday and continues through Thursday with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.

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