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Monte Man Repeats In Louisiana Champions Day Sprint

At the age of eight, Ivery Sisters Racing's Monte Man is the gift that keeps on giving. Claimed for $25,000 way back in October of 2017, the son of Custom for Carlos scored the ninth stakes win of his career on Saturday, repeating the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Sprint.

Fourth behind hot and contested early fractions of :21.58 and :44.53 set by his stablemate Bertie's Galaxy with pressure from Takes Two To Tango, Swot Analysis, and the 1.4-1 favorite No Parole, the table was set, and Monte Man feasted in the stretch.

“Before the race, Ron (trainer Faucheux) and I could almost see it playing into his favor,” Beschizza said. “All the credit to the horse. He's just an iron horse, really. A couple of years ago, they (the connections) could have just retired him and given him a nice second life, but he just seems to be so spontaneous in the mornings. Ron just tells me that, year after year. True to that word, he's bounced back here and Ron had him in great shape. The team has been a huge supporter of mine and I can't thank them enough.”

Bertie's Galaxy (3.50-1) dug in gamely in the stretch, but he could not hold off Monte Man, who prevailed by ¾ of a length, stopping the timer in 1:09.91. It was 4 ½ lengths back to Sir Wellington (4.40-1 in third. No Parole, the former Grade I winner, pressed the pace briefly while four-wide, but he failed to make the course.

“He (No Parole) is fine, but since his layoff, he hasn't shown that he wants to compete in the afternoons despite working well in the mornings,” trainer Tom Amoss said of No Parole. He is completely sound and Maggi (owner Moss) has decided to retire him.”

In his first start off the claim for trainer Ron Faucheux, Monte Man won a local optional claimer in December 2017, which was the start of a seven-race winning streak. After running third in the Sprint in 2018 and fourth in the 2019 renewal, Monte Man won the race last year, and he was up to the task once again.

“I think he's just getting better, we're just getting started with him, you know, we got a long way to go,” Faucheux said in jest. “He's every trainer's dream. He's just so consistent. He gives it his all every race. To have an 8-year-old turning nine, stay sound throughout the whole process, and just continue to progress, it's unbelievable. It's real privilege to train him for Ivery Sister Racing. They let us place him appropriately, take our time between races, and that makes all the difference with this horse. We 100% will go for the three-peat as a 9-year-old.”

Monte Man boosted his career record to 50-18-8-9 with earnings of $794,223.

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Amoss To Saddle Kevin’s Folly In Hopeful At Saratoga

Trainer Tom Amoss will saddle Michael McLoughlin's Kevin's Folly in Monday's $300,000 Grade 1 Hopeful.

The Distorted Humor colt, an $80,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase, registered a 69 Beyer in his winning debut sprinting 5 1/2-furlongs on July 31 at Saratoga.

With Tyler Gaffalione up, Kevin's Folly was in fifth position at the half-mile call before cutting the corner and powering home to a 1 1/2-length score in a field of six.

Amoss said the horse was training too well to wait on a two-turn race later in the fall.

“I know I'm asking a lot of him, but the timing is so poor to save him for the middle of the month for Churchill going two turns off that one race,” Amoss said. “We always thought he was talented. What I liked about him on debut is that he rated, he took dirt and he came through on the inside through a very small opening, so he was very professional. He galloped out well. I saw a lot to like about him off his debut.”

Amoss said he is hopeful that Kevin's Folly will be able to work out a trip when exiting post 9 under Jose Lezcano in a race led by graded-stakes winners Wit and High Oak.

“He's shown he'll rate and sit behind horses, so both those things are plusses, but I have nothing but the ultimate respect for Wit and High Oak. This is a very good race,” Amoss said.

Joel Politi's Li'l Tootsie closed to finish third in Saturday's Grade 2 Prioress, a six-furlong sprint for sophomore fillies at the Spa.

Amoss said he was pleased to see the Tapiture bay, a three-time winner in nine starts, pick up graded black type.

“That's what we were hoping for. She ran well,” Amoss said.

Maggi Moss and Greg Tramontin's graded-stakes winner No Parole posted a bullet half-mile in :47.21 Saturday on the Saratoga main track.

The 4-year-old Louisiana-bred son of Violence won the Grade 1 Woody Stephens last year at Belmont Park. He has made three starts this season, including a win in the LA Bred Premier Sprint in February at Delta Downs.

Amoss said No Parole, who finished seventh last out in the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap in April at Oaklawn, is working his way back to race fitness having breezed four times at Saratoga.

“He's coming back off a layoff. He should be ready by the end of the month to find a race. I'd like to get him back into form and make him a stallion in Louisiana,” Amoss said.

Out of the stakes-winning Bluegrass Cat mare Plus One, No Parole was purchased for $75,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. His third dam, Star Deputy, produced multiple graded stakes winning millionaire License Fee.

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Whitmore Tries for Fourth Count Fleet

The ageless champion Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect) will try for an unprecedented fourth victory in the GIII Count Fleet Sprint H. in a competitive seven-horse field Saturday at Oaklawn.

Annexing the Count Fleet in 2017 and 2018, the chestnut ran into a buzzsaw in champion Mitole (Eskendereya) when second in 2019 and gutted out his third score in the race last year. Winless in his next three, he finished his campaign with an 18-1 upset of the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint to earn an Eclipse Award for champion male sprinter. Making his 8-year-old debut in the Hot Springs S., he was just out-gamed by re-opposing C Z Rocket (City Zip) in a neck decision. That runner was second to Whitmore in the Breeders' Cup, stopping a five-race winning streak that began in a $50,000 claimer at Churchill–his first race for trainer Peter Miller–and culminated in a conquest of the GII Santa Anita Sprint Championship S.

No Parole (Violence) scored a convincing victory in the GI Woody Stephens S. last June, but hasn't been quite the same since. The bay was off the board in both the GI H. Allen Jerkens S. and GII Phoenix S. and, after bouncing back to annex a Louisiana-bred stake at Delta Feb. 10, was fourth at 2-5 making his turf debut in the state-bred Costa Rising S. Mar. 20 at Fair Grounds.

Fringe contenders include Strike Power (Speightstown), a one-time graded stakes-winning 'TDN Rising Star' who had fallen off form until dominating a track-and-trip optional claimer with a 101 Beyer Mar. 11, and Empire of Gold (Goldencents), who makes his 4-year-old debut after overachieving when second in the Phoenix and fourth in the Breeders' Cup, both times at 51-1.

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Grade 1 Winner No Parole Tries Turf Saturday At Fair Grounds

A robust field-of-14 is entered for Saturday's $100,000 Costa Rising for Louisiana-breds going 5 ½ furlongs on the turf at the Fair Grounds, though only one rates as a Grade 1 winner. While Maggie Moss and Greg Tramontin's No Parole will be making his turf debut, that won't keep bettors from sending it in with both hands on a blazing fast runner who reached racing's highest level last year.

No Parole (post 2 as Mike Diliberto's 8-5 morning line favorite, with Luis Saez to ride) was one of the best 3-year-old sprinters in the country in 2020 for trainer Tom Amoss. He ran with the best one-turn horses in training in a campaign highlighted by a win in Belmont Park's Woody Stephens (G1) in June. The son of Violence was off-the-board in a pair of graded stakes to end his sophomore campaign and Amoss backed off, regrouped, and found a soft return spot February 10, when No Parole won the Premier Sprint with ease at Delta Downs. Amoss got what he wanted at Delta, and is looking forward to trying No Parole over the Stall-Wilson.

“The comeback race was a good race, but it was obviously the stepping stone,” Amoss said. “So, what makes us all of a sudden try the grass with a horse who has never been on the grass? Timing is one thing, the purse is another thing, but more important than those two things, pedigree.”

No Parole is out of the Bluegrass Cat mare Plus One, who won the Alison McClay over the turf at Penn National in 2012, and is a full-brother to recent local turf winner Violent Ways, another talented state-bred who is 4-for-7 lifetime. With a strong pedigree, especially for a Louisiana-bred, Amoss knows that a turf stakes win would add a lot of No Parole's stallion potential.

“There's a lot to see in that female side of the family in terms of being able to sprint on the grass,” Amoss said. “With that kind of evidence out there, this was a very logical race for us before we leave Fair Grounds. If it doesn't work, it's horse racing, a lot of what you try doesn't work.”

Trainer Ron Faucheux will start an uncoupled quartet, with Ivery Sisters Racing's Monte Man (post 6 at 5-1 with Adam Beschizza) leading the way. The 8-year-old son of Custom for Carlos is an eight-time stakes winner who has won the Costa Rising the past two years and is 3-for-4 over the Stall-Wilson. Monte Man enters off a February 26 optional-claiming win over the course and distance, is 17-for-45 lifetime, and clearly represents the main danger to the favorite.

Lane Cortez's Afleet Ascent (post 8 at 12-1 with John Velazquez), a 6-year-old son of Northern Afleet, was second going long in the Louisiana Champions Day Turf here in December for Faucheux, who also runs Picard Thoroughbred Racing Stable's Fame Feather (post 12 at 12-1 with Florent Geroux), a stretch runner who is 4-for-11 over the course, and Allen Cassedy's Bertie's Galaxy (post 14 at 8-1 with Irad Ortiz Jr.), who has been in three exacta in 11-of-16 lifetime starts, though he's just 1-for-2 on turf.

Completing the Costa Rising field from the rail out: Robin Lane Thoroughbreds' Future Ruler (30-1 with Aubrie Green), who is 5-for-24 lifetime but has lost seven straight for trainer Lee Thomas; Richard Benton's Silver Galaxy (post 3 at 30-1 with Gabriel Saez), who enters off a deep-closing February 19 allowance win here on the dirt but winless in one turf start for trainer Joey Foster; owner-trainer Gerard Perron's homebred Grand Luwegee (post 4 at 12-1 with Roberto Morales), who upset the Louisiana Champions Day Classic on dirt here in December but is 0-for-3 on turf; Set-Hut's X Clown (post 5 at 12-1), a close third to Monte Man last time for trainer Jerry Delhomme; Farm d'Allie Racing Stable's Win Lion Win (post 7 at 20-1 with Eddie Martin Jr.), unraced since running ninth in Keeneland's October 3 Woodford (G2) for trainer Allison Ramsay-Banks; Columbus Circle Partners and trainer Steve Margolis' Yankee Seven (post 9 at 10-1 with Brian Hernandez Jr.), third in the Costa Rising last year; Valene Farms' Classy John (post 10 at 12-1 with Colby Hernandez), second, beaten a head, to Monte Man last time for trainer Dallas Stewart; Lorlow Stables' homebred Bootsie's Galaxy (post 11 at 15-1 with Marcelino Pedroza), fourth to Monte Man last time for trainer Sam David); and Larry and Katherine Menard's homebred A Song for Arch (post 13 at 20-1 with Mitchell Murrill), who won a state-bred optional-claimer two-back for trainer Brett Brinkman.

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