Nest | Horse Racing Free Tips

Champion Nest Primed for Seasonal Debut in Shuvee

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – There will be no easing back into competition for champion Nest (Curlin). Certainly not on a Sunday in July at Saratoga Race Course.

In the first start of her 4-year-old season–which was delayed by illness–in the GII Shuvee S., Nest is likely to face Clairiere (Curlin), the leader of the older female dirt division, and GI La Troienne winner Played Hard (Into Mischief).

“It's not the position we set out to be on at the beginning of this year, but it's kind of where we are,” Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher said. “We've given up some recency to some really good horses, so hopefully she runs well and it brings her forward.”

Nest, co-owned by Repole Stable, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Michael House, really strengthened her case for the 3-year-old filly championship last summer at Saratoga with emphatic victories over Secret Oath (Arrogate) in the GI Coaching Club American Oaks and the GI Alabama S. Secret Oath won the GI Kentucky Oaks by two lengths over Nest, the 2-1 favorite. In the showdowns at Saratoga after Triple Crown tests against males–Secret Oath was fourth in the GI Preakness S., Nest was second in the GI Belmont S.–Nest left no doubt about who deserved to be at the top of the table. She won the CCA Oaks by 12 1/4 lengths and the 1 1/4-miles Alabama by 4 1/4.

In her first test against older horses, Nest crushed the field in the GII Beldame S. by 9 1/4 lengths. She was the 7-5 favorite in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff, but ended up fourth, some 3 1/4 lengths behind stablemate Malathaat (Curlin), who nipped Blue Stripe (Equal Stripes {Arg}) and Clairiere. Malathaat clinched the older filly Eclipse Award with that performance. Pletcher said Nest had a less-than-ideal trip in the Distaff at Keeneland.

As scheduled, Nest was given the next few months off to recover from her eight-race, five-victory season. It turned out to be a much longer break than planned. Pletcher said that three hours after she made the cross-Florida trip from the farm in Ocala to his stable at Palm Beach Downs, she spiked a fever. She got in a three-furlong work Apr. 15, had another upper respiratory issue and did not breeze again until May 13 at Belmont Park.

“We missed a month,” Pletcher said. “She got a pretty good lung infection that took us a while to get under control. Our original plan was for maybe running the [Apr. 21 GIII] Doubledogdare at Keeneland or the [May 5 GI] La Troienne at Churchill as a prep for the [June 10 GI] Ogden Phipps. It took us too long to get ready, so here we are.”

Pletcher said he considered bringing Nest back in the GIII Molly Pitcher Saturday at Monmouth Park, but opted to ship her to Saratoga and walk her across Union Ave. to run in the Shuvee.

She worked nine times at Belmont Park before completing her preparation Sunday morning with a half-mile breeze in :50 in company over the Oklahoma training track.

After what was a routine pre-race work, Pletcher said the most impressive part of Nest's breeze happened after the timing ended in front of the clocker's stand.

“The gallop out,” he said. “She seems to keep going.”

Clairiere has been a top-notch homebred performer for Stonestreet Stables and Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. She has won eight of 19 starts and earned $3.1 million. Last year she handled Malathaat in the Shuvee, but was never a factor while finishing last of five in the GI Personal Ensign S. This year, she was second to Secret Oath in the GII Azeri S. and has won the GI Apple Blossom H. and Ogden Phipps. Played Hard was third in the Phipps, her 10th straight top-three finish since October 2021.

Considering the probables listed by NYRA, the Shuvee is likely to go off with a small, high-quality field. Pletcher said it figures to be a tough test.

“We expect big things from her always,” he said. “It's a lot to ask of her, but she ran well in her debut at a mile and a sixteenth and she's basically run well pretty much every start of her career. Hopefully we've got her fit enough to perform well and this is the first step towards bigger goals.”

Pletcher said he has not noticed any significant changes in Nest this season.

“She was so good last year that it's hard to see,” he said. “I think the main thing is she's filled out a bit, maybe carrying a little more condition than she was last year.”

What Nest has shown Pletcher in training is the running style that made her so effective during her championship season.

“It's what makes most of the good ones good, kind of a high cruising speed and the ability to carry it over a distance of ground,” he said. “As you saw last year, she has that ability on the dirt to accelerate, really quicken, the last part of a race. A lot of times, horses just have to keep grinding away but as we saw in the Coaching Club and the Alabama last year, she can cruise and then quicken.”

A few minutes after the workout Sunday, Pletcher said that gear-changing move was on display.

“If you saw the end of the gallop-out there,” he said, “she was all of a sudden 10 lengths in front of the other horse.”

The post Champion Nest Primed for Seasonal Debut in Shuvee appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Nest Tunes Up for Shuvee, Pretty Mischievous on Track for Test

Nest (Curlin), last year's Eclipse champion 3-year-old filly, tuned up for her expected seasonal debut in the July 23 GII Shuvee S. with a four-furlong work in :50.00 (13/38) in company with unraced stablemate Onlooker (Street Sense) over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga Sunday.

“It was a good work and a nice, strong gallop out. She seemed to keep going,” trainer Todd Pletcher said.

Owned by Repole Stable, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Michael House, Nest has been off since finishing fourth in last year's GI Breeders' Cup Distaff. During her championship campaign, she won the GI Alabama S., GI Ashland S. and GI Coaching Club American Oaks. She was also second in the GI Belmont S.

Nest was initially targeting the GI Ogden Phipps S. at Belmont Park in June for her 4-year-old debut, but Pletcher said he is confident the filly is ready to run off the long layoff.

“We expect big things from her always,” Pletcher said. “It's a lot to ask of her, but she ran well in her debut going a mile and a sixteenth and she's basically run well pretty much every start of her career. Hopefully, we have her fit enough to perform well and this is the first step towards big goals.”

Also working at Saratoga Sunday, GI Kentucky Oaks winner Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief) went four furlongs in :49.00 (11/91) over the Oklahoma training track for trainer Brendan Walsh and owner/breeder Godolphin.

“She worked great and I'm very happy with her,” said Walsh. “It was just a half and we'll do more with her next week–she doesn't need to overdo it. She's doing good.”

Following her win in the nine-furlong Oaks, Pretty Mischievous cut back to 1 1/16 miles to win the GI Acorn S. last time out June 9. She will shorten up even further for her next start, the seven-furlong GI Test S. Aug. 5.

“She's got bags of natural speed, so I think the timing is very good,” Walsh said of the cut-back. “We were able to give her a little more time between races and we've always kicked around the idea of shortening her up, so this seems like a good opportunity. She's a good horse, and most of them when they're that good can go two turns or shorten up. She's just got that natural speed, so why not try to utilize it? We can always go back to two turns if it doesn't work.”

The post Nest Tunes Up for Shuvee, Pretty Mischievous on Track for Test appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Saratoga Set for 155th Season of Racing

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y–Nothing new at old Saratoga this summer. As has been the case for many decades, most of racing's stars will be in town for America's most important Thoroughbred meet of the year.

The first race of the 40 days of the 155th season opens at 1:10 p.m. Thursday with a 10-race program at Saratoga Race Course. By the time the meeting reaches its conclusion on Labor Day, Sept. 4, over 400 races, including 71 stakes worth $20.8 million, will have been run. The traditional opening-day feature is the $175,000 GIII Schuylerville S. for 2-year-old fillies.

Godolphin's Cody's Wish (Curlin), quite likely the most popular horse in the country, leads the deep lineup of standouts expected to compete at Saratoga this summer. That group includes 2022 Eclipse Award winners Forte (Violence), Nest (Curlin), Elite Power (Curlin) and Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper), all of whom won over the track during their championship seasons. Unbeaten Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic) is on course for the GI Test on the Whitney Day program on Aug. 5.

Todd Pletcher, the 14-time leading trainer at Saratoga, said that Forte will prep for the GI Travers in the GII Jim Dandy on July 29, but the decision has not been made on whether Tapit Trice (Tapit) will run in the GI Haskell on July 23 at Monmouth Park or the Jim Dandy. He said his grass star Up to the Mark (Not This Time) is likely to run in the GI Arlington Million at Colonial Downs, Suburban S. winner Charge It (Tapit) is a candidate for GI Whitney S. on Aug. 5 and that Far Bridge (English Channel) will follow his Belmont Derby score with a start in the GI Saratoga Derby Invitational of Aug. 5.

Cody's Wish, the winner of six straight and nine of his last 10 starts for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, is on course for the $1 million Whitney. It will be a distance test for GI Met Mile winner; he was third in his lone try at 1 1/8 miles in 2021 at Saratoga.

Todd Pletcher will have all of his stars at Saratoga | Sarah K. Andrew

Three years after the Saratoga season was conducted without fans because of the Covid-19 pandemic and following last year's record-setting summer with remarkable weather, this Saratoga meet appears ready to settle into the familiar groove with the focus fixed squarely on the equine talent. It's business as usual at the Spa.

“I think you always think about Saratoga that way,” said Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. “The COVID year was certainly strange, because it was the first time I'd ever seen empty stalls here because some people were unable to attend. But, aside from that, I think you always come into Saratoga expecting to see the best horses in the Midwest and the East Coast and we'll probably get some California shippers. It's that time of the year when you expect to see top-class horses, running in all the big races.”

This will be the 10th season that Jason Fitch and his brothers Adam and Patrick, have operated Kings Tavern, a fixture on Union Avenue across from the main entrances to Saratoga Race Course. Jason Fitch said that in the past few weeks the track has awakened from its annual slumber.

“The vibe is hard to describe. It's because it's kind of like COVID never happened,” he said. “It's like, everything's back to normal. Everybody's happy. Everyone's excited.”

Kings has a solid year-round local clientele and Fitch said with some out-of-town track customers already making their first visits of 2023, one season flows into the next.

“It kind of felt like the track ended like yesterday,” he said. “For me, personally, it feels like, just yesterday was Labor Day.”

During the racing season Kings opens early: at 9 a.m. on Saturdays and 10 a.m., Wednesday-Friday and on Sunday.

In recent years, the New York Racing Association has unveiled a series of capital projects on the grounds. Last year, the rebuilt Wilson Chute enabled NYRA to add one-mile dirt races to its lineup. This year, the most notable addition is very important–the backstretch healthcare clinic building–but not something that the average racegoer would be aware of.

Saratoga's patrons will notice a change of admission pricing and the move to an all-access ticket. NYRA announced in March that daily tickets purchased at least 24 hours in advance will cost $7 and the day-of-the-event price is $10. Since 2019, a grandstand ticket cost $7 and clubhouse entry was $10. The new approach will allow all visitors to go into the clubhouse. General admission on Travers Day will be $30, but $25 in advance.

Some of the bigger names in sport will compete early in the meet. In Italian (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) trained by Chad Brown will go after her second-straight win in the GI Diana Saturday and Clairiere (Curlin) will try to repeat in the GII Shuvee on July 23 against Nest, who will be making her 2023 debut.

Nest showed that she was of championship caliber last summer with GI wins in the Coaching Club American Oaks and the Alabama. Pletcher said that the Shuvee run is intended to set her up for the GI Personal Ensign on Aug. 25.

“We wanted to get started a little earlier,” Pletcher said. “Unfortunately, she got sick when she first came in and we basically missed a month. It took a little while, to get her well enough to get her back into training. Our original plan was to either run at Keeneland or Churchill and then the Ogden Phipps. It's just unfortunate that set us back to the point where she is just now getting ready.”

The Saratoga season features important off-track events, too. The Jockey Club's annual Round Table will be conducted on Thursday, Aug. 3, the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame will induct its newest members on Aug. 4 and the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale of select yearlings will take place on Aug. 7-8.

Pletcher and Chad Brown have been the kingpins on the trainer's table for 12 consecutive years and it's a very safe bet that they will be vying for the title once again. Brown has won the last two and five of the last seven. Defending champ Irad Ortiz Jr. has won the jockey's competition four times.

2023 Kentucky Derby winner Mage | Horsephotos

Though the $1.25 million Travers, first run in 1864, is always the marquee race of the season, it could be a crucial test to determine the 3-year-old male title following a spring in which three different horses won the Triple Crown races. That trio, GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic), GI Preakness S. winner National Treasure (Quality Road) and G1 Belmont S. champ Arcangelo (Arrogate), may meet in the Travers on Aug. 26. If that happens, it will be an oddity: just the fourth time in history and first since 2017. Arcangelo is already based at Saratoga and being pointed to the Travers. Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert has not announced which horses he will run at Saratoga–in his return to the track after missing 2022 due to a ban imposed by the New York Racing Association–but on Monday did not rule out National Treasure for the Travers. He said that recent Los Alamitos Derby winner Reincarnate (Good Magic) is a Travers possibility.

Mage was given a break following his third-place finish in the Preakness on May 20 and resumed training in June. After his next scheduled breeze Friday at The Thoroughbred Center a decision will be made on whether he will make his next start in the Haskell or the Jim Dandy.

“It's a special moment, for sure,” said Mage's co-owner Ramiro Restrepo. “To have all the classic winners in one spot it's lovely for the fans and lovely for the horse players. Like any athlete or representative of an athlete, you want to run against the best and compete against the best and hopefully put forth a good effort. For ourselves, as a collective, our lifelong dreams have been the Kentucky Derby and the Travers. Our dreams are those two races. It's been an incredible ride to have accomplished one and to have a decent shot to accomplish the second one would be, it's really the stuff of dreams. The Travers is our end-all, be-all. That's what we're focusing on.”

Cody's Wish | Sarah K. Andrew

Cody's Wish is a very talented 5-year-old with a distinctive backstory. He is named for Cody Dorman, of Richmond, Kentucky who was born with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome. As a result of the syndrome, Dorman uses a wheelchair and communicates with a tablet. They met in 2018 during a Make-A-Wish Foundation visit to Gainsborough Farm. The young foal interacted with Dorman and laid his head on the boy's lap, which led to his naming.

Mott's always-strong barn is especially heavy with headliners this year with Cody's Wish, Sprint champion Elite Power, and War Like Goddess (English Channel) in the lineup.

Once a seasonal visitor to Saratoga, Mott has a large part of his stable based at Saratoga for most of the warm weather months. He said he looks forward to the meet.

“It's fun. It's exciting to be a trainer here,” he said. “It's fun when there's enthusiasm around. We enjoy it.”

In the late 1950s, Saratogians feared that NYRA, then a new organization, might drop Saratoga, which was far less popular than the meets at Belmont Park and Aqueduct Racetrack. In 1957, the state legislature passed a bill guaranteeing Saratoga a 24-day season without competition at the downstate tracks. By the 1970s, Saratoga's stature had risen again and it is the most significant meeting on the NYRA calendar. Benefitting from warm, dry weather last summer, NYRA lost just 16 grass races–compared to 45 in 2021–and registered a record all-sources handle of $878,211,963, a jump of 7.7% from the previous year. Excluding fan-free 2020, NYRA reported its seventh-straight season of one million in paid attendance.

In a well-timed announcement on Monday, the Saratoga County Industrial Development Agency said a new report it commissioned showed that the meet at Saratoga Race Course generates $371 million in economic activity and more than 2,900 jobs in the Capital Region.

The post Saratoga Set for 155th Season of Racing appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Forte Returns To Work Tab; Nest, Tapit Trice Also Breeze

Reigning Champion 2-Year-Old Colt and 'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence) resumed his work schedule on Friday morning over the Belmont Park training track by traversing a half-mile in 50.40 for trainer Todd Pletcher.

With exercise rider Hector Ramos aboard, Forte worked following the 9:30 a.m. renovation break and breezed in company with MGSW Major Dude (Bolt d'Oro), who is slated to run in next Friday's GIII Manila S. at Belmont. The move was Forte's first since finishing second in the GI Belmont S.

“We were just looking for an easy work back and I thought that was accomplished today,” said Pletcher's Belmont-based assistant Byron Hughes. “I thought he was moving well within himself. He looked comfortable and happy. You couldn't ask for anything more than that at this point.”

Another 'TDN Rising Star', GISW Tapit Trice (Tapit), breezed a solo half-mile in 48.03 seconds Friday with exercise rider Fernando Rivera in the irons. It was the colt's second work since finishing just behind his stablemate in the Belmont S.

“I thought he breezed really well,” Hughes said. “It was a good gallop out for him. He looked pretty sharp today and came out of the Belmont in good shape. He's maybe a little sharper now this time of year than he was last year. But that's what you see in these Tapits. It seems like the older they get, the sharper they get.”

Following Forte's breeze, last year's Champion 3-Year-Old Filly Nest (Curlin) took another step towards her 2023 debut in what DRF first reported as the GII Shuvee S. July 23 at Saratoga. Going five furlongs in 1:01.22 in company with Too Boss (El Padrino), the filly began her preparations starting in mid-May.

“I think she's progressed well with each breeze,” Hughes said. “She seems to be getting fitter and fitter and responds well to the breeze. With each breeze you can tell that she gets a little sharper every week.”

The post Forte Returns To Work Tab; Nest, Tapit Trice Also Breeze appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post