Winning Impression, 12th In 2020 Kentucky Derby, Euthanized After Churchill Allowance

West Point Thoroughbreds and Pearl Racing's Winning Impression, 12th in this year's Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5, had to be euthanized after damaging his seasmoid after a turf allowance race at Churchill on Nov. 12, reports bloodhorse.com.

The 3-year-old son of Paynter was making his first start since the Derby, and rallied from well off the pace to finish third before bobbling near the wire. The Dallas Stewart trainee was pulled up around the turn and vanned off the course, but Winning Impression was unable to be saved.

“Sesamoid too damaged for us to save him,” said West Point's Terry Finley in a text message. “Simply heartbroken for everyone involved with this very cool horse.”

Read more at bloodhorse.com.

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Knicks Go Sets Sizzling Pace, Easily Wins Dirt Mile For Cox

Knicks Go came into Saturday's $1-million, Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile with just one previous stakes win – the G1 Breeders' Futurity over the same Keeneland dirt track as a 2-year-old in 2018 – yet was sent away the 9-5 favorite over a field that included 2019 G1 Preakness winner War of Will, 2020 G2 Blue Grass Stakes winner Art Collector and recent G2 Kelso Handicap winner Complexity.

Ridden by Joel Rosario, the son of Paynter ran like a 1-9 shot, going to the lead immediately, setting sizzling fractions of :21.98, :44.40, 1:08.25 and 1:20.76, then cruising to a 3 1/2-length victory with his rider never asking him. Knicks Go covered the one mile on an obviously fast and speed favoring surface in a track record 1:33.85.

Liam's Map set the previous record for the little-used distance at Keeneland when winning the 2015 Dirt Mile in 1:34.54. The run-up for today's Dirt Mile was 190 feet, compared to 210 feet in 2015.

“It looked like he was going easy,” said Rosario.”I didn't know how fast he was going. He went 44 (seconds for a half mile). That was very fast. He was able to hang in there and have a kick at the eighth pole.  It was a very good performance.” 

Owned by the Korea Racing Authority and now trained by Brad Cox, Knicks Go returned $5.60 on a $2 win wager. Jesus' Team finished second, a nose ahead of Sharp Samurai, who encountered trouble in the early stages of the race. They were followed across the wire by Complexity, Owendale, Mr. Freeze, Rushie, Art Collector, War of Will, Silver Dust, Mr. Money and Pirate's Punch.

Bred in Maryland by Angie Moore and sold for $87,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Knicks go was initially trained by Ben Colebrook. In addition to his Breeders' Futurity victory, Knicks Go finished second behind Game Winner in the G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs in 2018 after dueling on the front end throughout with Complexity, who wound up 10th that day.

For Knicks Go, the Juvenile began a 10-race losing streak that extended through the entire 2019 season. The colt was transferred to Cox and responded with two allowance/optional claiming race victories going wire to wire: the first at Oaklawn on Feb. 22 when he won by 7 1/2 lengths and the second at Keeneland on Oct. 4, winning by 10 1/4 lengths. The Beyer Speed Figures of 100 and 107, respectively, were well above his previous career best of 93 when second in the 2019 Ellis Park Derby behind Gray Magician.

The Dirt Mile was Cox's third Breeders' Cup victory in 2020. He won two on Friday with Aunt Pearl in the G1 Juvenile Fillies Turf and with Essential Quality in the G1 Juvenile.

“He's very fast and he loves Keeneland as well,” Cox said of Knicks Go. “We picked the horse up last winter and he really loves it here. Joel did a fantastic job of asking him to be forwardly placed and he responded well. They went very quick and he was able to keep going. This is a good race for him with the short stretch. A lot of things were in his favor today. He's a very aggressive horse, he loves to train. He's just a very classy horse.” 

A representative of the Korea Racing Authority indicated Knicks Go would eventually go to stud in South Korea, which is in the process of improving its Thoroughbred industry's breeding program. No determination was made if Knicks Go (named for a breeding/selection process known as K-nicks) would continue to race or be retired.

Other comments following the Dirt Mile.  

Second-place trainer Jose D'Angelo (Jesus' Team) – “He has done great work (training) at Keeneland. Every day, every week he improved. He likes this track. He is the best horse I have trained in the USA and in my life, too. I am very sure that in his next race, he will be closer to a win.” 

Second-place jockey Luis Saez (Jesus' Team) – “I was wishing I could take him outside but if I did I would have been wide. But he ran a good race. He tries so hard.” 

Third-place trainer Mark Glatt (Sharp Samurai) – “We're pleased with finishing third. A little unfortunate in the first turn. I want to watch the replay and see what happened. Irad said the one horse came out on him and made him check on heels there. I think that may have potentially cost him second. You spend quite a bit of energy and are also then farther back. He just ran into a buzz saw after that with Knicks Go. I thought down the backside we were in a decent spot and then third around the turn was pleased and would think they would have to stop for sure given the pace scenario. He's extremely versatile. He runs seemingly as well on dirt as he does turf and hopefully we can find a good race that he can win.”  

Fourth-place jockey Jose Ortiz (Complexity) – “Good trip. The track is super fast. I felt like we went in :46 and change and the winner held on.” 

Eighth-place Brian Hernandez Jr. (Art Collector)“We had a good spot. Going down the backside I was able to hop outside the 2 (Sharp Samurai) on the lead and just see if I could make a run from that point. They were just faster than him today. He couldn't make up the difference on them.”

Eighth-place trainer Tommy Drury (Art Collector) “That was it (what Brian said). Those were my thoughts. Down the backside you're thinking that these things should soften up and come back to you a little. Just didn't happen today. They kept going.”

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Hard-Luck Merveilleux Finally Gets The Money In Wonder Where Stakes

Al and Bill Ulwelling's hard-luck filly Merveilleux was simply marvelous on Sunday afternoon winning the $250,000 Wonder Where Stakes, third leg of the Triple Tiara, at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario.

Jockey Rafael Hernandez worked out the winning trip aboard the Kevin Attard trainee, who was rated mid-pack along the rail early in the 1 1/4-mile turf test for 3-year-old fillies foaled in Canada.

Leaving from the inside post on the turn of the E.P. Taylor Turf Course, She's a Dream assumed command with Justleaveitalone just to her outside before crossing in front as the field moved down the backstretch.

Justleaveitalone clocked an opening quarter in :24.99, half-mile in :50.89 and three-quarters in 1:16.60 with She's a Dream pressing the pace in second and Merveilleux, racing without blinkers here, behind the leaders and poised to make a move on the final turn.

Hernandez tipped Merveilleux outside coming into the stretch approaching the one-mile mark in 1:41:16, and the Paynter–Breech Inlet filly took off to score by three lengths. The winning time was 2:05.34 over a firm course.

Closing from the backfield, Gun Society finished second and the Josie Carroll-trained Curlin's Voyage, who was the 2-1 favorite after winning the Woodbine Oaks and finishing fifth in the Queen's Plate, was third. She's a Dream edged out Justleaveitalone for fourth by a half-length.

Sansa's Vow, the Attard-trained 3-1 second choice Afleet Katherine, Forty Zip, Ballrooms of Mars and Beyond Mybudget completed the order of finish.

“We've been having a rough meet with this one,” noted Hernandez. “I was impressed with the performance and we had a clean trip today.”

Hernandez said his filly was relaxed in the first turn and all the way down the backside.

“Turning for home, you switch and I said, 'Come on baby, keep it up, we have to do it!'”

Sent postward as the 5-1 third choice on the toteboard, Merveilleux paid $13.80 to win.

Bred in Ontario by Mike Carroll, Merveilleux showed her potential as a youngster finishing a close second in both the Princess Elizabeth Stakes and Ontario Lassie to complete her 2-year-old campaign in 2019.

She won her June 21 sophomore debut before contesting a trio of stakes events, including the Woodbine Oaks Presented by Budweiser, where she finished a game third despite traffic trouble, and ending up sixth in the Queen's Plate.

“She's been hard luck,” said Attard. “We've always liked her a lot. We thought heading into the Oaks we had the right kind of horse and even heading into the Plate with her we were really excited. Unfortunately, things haven't gone her way. It's been a tough season for the Ulwellings to boot, so it's just kind of the way the cards stack up and everything lined up our way today and she just had a good trip and ran to our expectations.”

Despite Merveilleux being pulled up in her only other grass race, when making her first career start in July 2019, Attard wasn't concerned about the surface change attributing the initial result to hot weather and noting the filly skimmed over the turf last weekend in her latest work.

Merveilleux now sports a career record reading 3-3-1 from 10 starts with earnings climbing over $550,000.

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Speightstown, Constitution Headline WinStar Farm’s 2021 Stallion Roster; Tiznow Pensioned From Stud Duty

WinStar Farm has set 2021 stud fees for its 22-stallion roster, headed by Speightstown who will stand for $90,000 S&N and leading second-crop sire Constitution who will stand for $85,000 S&N.

WinStar will further bolster its roster for the upcoming breeding season by welcoming new stallions Improbable, Laoban, Tom's d'Etat, Global Campaign, and Promises Fulfilled. WinStar has also announced that considering the current circumstances facing the industry that fees for most of the stallions on its roster will be reduced.

“During these times we felt it appropriate to drop 75 percent of our fees,” said Elliott Walden, WinStar's president, CEO, and racing manager. “We gave two horses a bump—Speightstown, the co-leading sire this year with three Grade 1 winners and fourth general leading sire, and Constitution who has over-delivered at every point of his career. As always, our mission is to offer breeders stallions of the highest quality. We are excited about Laoban joining our roster and three very live horses in the Breeders' Cup Classic joining our roster for the 2021 breeding season.”

Added Liam O'Rourke, WinStar's director of bloodstock services, “We are offering breeders the opportunity to secure a limited number of seasons to Laoban, Outwork, and Improbable before the Breeders' Cup, with their prices subject to change based on their Breeders' Cup results.”

Improbable, City Zip's only four-time Grade 1 winner, has rattled off three consecutive Grade 1 scores in 2020 and is the early favorite for next month's $6-million Breeders' Cup Classic. He was a runaway winner of the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita, earning a 105 Beyer and then shipped to Saratoga and dominated the historic G1 Whitney Stakes, earning a 106 Beyer. Most recently, he romped by 4 1/2 lengths in the G1 Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita, defeating champion Maximum Security and earning a 108 Beyer.

Tom's d'Etat, by sire of sires Smart Strike, is also a top contender for the Breeders' Cup Classic for G M B Racing. He registered a brilliant 4 1/4-length victory in this year's G2 Stephen Foster Stakes, running a career-best 109 Beyer. Tom's d'Etat covered 1 1/8 miles in an eye-catching 1:47.30, geared down in the late stages. The final time came within a whisker of Victory Gallop's track and stakes record of 1:47.28 set in 1999.

The Al Stall trainee has recorded 10 triple-digit Beyers, including nine in a row in an illustrious career. Tom's d'Etat is out of the stakes-winning and multiple stakes-placed Giant's Causeway mare Julia Tuttle who is out of a full sister to Pacific Classic (G1) winner and leading sire Candy Ride (ARG).

Global Campaign, a son of two-time Horse of the Year Curlin, heads to the Breeders' Cup Classic following back-to-back graded stakes scores and is a winner in three of four starts in 2020 for WinStar Farm and Sagamore Farm. He emulated his sire by capturing the G1 Woodward Handicap in his most recent start, earning a career-best 104 Beyer for trainer Stanley Hough. The Woodward was his second straight graded win following a victory in the G3 Monmouth Cup Stakes in his prior outing.

Promises Fulfilled won five graded stakes at distances from six furlongs to 1 1/16 miles—winning the G1 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes, G2 Fountain of Youth Stakes, G2 John A. Nerud Stakes, G2 Phoenix Stakes, and G3 Amsterdam Stakes, competing exclusively in graded stakes company following his first two victories at two. In front in 15-of-17 starts no matter the distance, Promises Fulfilled competed in 15 graded stakes, including eight Grade 1s, banking $1,455,530 in a stellar career for trainer Dale Romans.

The upcoming breeding season—with the influx of Grade 1 winners embarking on their stallion careers at WinStar—will also mark a changing of the guard. Tiznow, a multiple champion on the racetrack and an influential stallion who has made an indelible mark on the breed, will be retired from stud duty. Still the only two-time winner of the Breeders' Cup Classic, Tiznow was a champion on the racetrack and in the breeding shed, siring numerous elite runners.

Known as “The Big Horse Sire,” Tiznow is the sire of 15 Grade 1 winners that have won many of the world's most prestigious events. He is the sire of Dubai World Cup winner Well Armed, G1 Travers Stakes winner Colonel John, and Breeders' Cup winners Folklore, winner of the 2005 Juvenile Fillies and Tourist, winner of the 2016 Mile. He has even made his mark as an emerging broodmare sire of 34 stakes winners, including multiple Grade 1 winner Tiz the Law.

Fees with an asterisk are good through Breeders' Cup and are subject to change pending results. For Tom's d'Etat and Global Campaign, fees will be announced after the Breeders' Cup.

The complete 2021 roster of stallions and fees for WinStar Farm are as follows:

Stallion S&N Fee
Tom's d'Etat – NEW TBD
Global Campaign – NEW TBD
Distorted Humor Private
Speightstown $90,000
Constitution $85,000
More Than Ready $65,000
Improbable – NEW $40,000*
Laoban – NEW $25,000*
Audible $22,500
Always Dreaming $17,500
Exaggerator $15,000
Outwork $15,000*
Take Charge Indy $15,000
Yoshida (JPN) $15,000
Speightster $10,000
Promises Fulfilled – NEW $10,000
Carpe Diem $7,500
Congrats $7,500
Good Samaritan $7,500
Paynter $7,500
Tourist $5,000
Fed Biz $5,000

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