Pleasant Passage | Horse Racing Free Tips

LEXINGTON, KY–Meditate (Ire) (No Nay Never) scored the first of two victories for the Coolmore team, Aidan O'Brien and Ryan Moore Friday, charging home to a decisive score in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Favored at 2-1, Meditate bounded away from the stalls to establish position, settling in the three path near the back of the pack as 18-1 shot Spirit Gal (Fr) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) carved out an opening quarter in :23.19 and a half in :47.60. Meditate crept up a bit on the outside to sit mid-pack while turning for home four wide. Kicking into high gear at the top of the stretch, the bay unleashed a powerful turn of foot, rolling clear with ease to win by 2 1/2 lengths. The Shug McGaughey-trained Pleasant Passage (More Than Ready) was the runner-up with Cairo Consort (Cairo Prince) in third.

“We had a reason (she didn't win) at the Curragh and a reason for her last race and weren't sure about the mile,” said O'Brien, who teamed up with Moore and Coolmore to take the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf two races later. “Ryan (Moore) gave her a brilliant ride. Michael (Tabor) was very confident that this was the race for her. It's incredible. We came to here to see if she would be a filly for the Guineas. And I heard Michael telling Ryan before the race, if she wasn't going to get the trip here, we might not train her for the Guineas. Obviously, the result was great. Ryan was very patient. He didn't have an easy draw and said he had to take his time the first half. Delighted for everyone.”

“It's obviously always very hard coming here,” Moore said. “Everything needs to go right. No one comes here to get beat. The filly did it very easy and has lots of talent. She hasn't run a bad race all year and gets better with every race. She started well, went hard for a little bit, I was going to be wide and the pace got steady. I followed a horse down the backside and she picked up really well down the stretch. She had them covered with a furlong out and in front pricking her ears. She was much the best.”

As for the runner-up, McGaughey said, “I thought she ran great. She missed the break just a tad, but I loved her position back there. When the winner moved, we sort of had to wait a little bit. When she got clear in the stretch I thought she finished really well.”

A good-looking debut winner at the Curragh in April, Meditate reeled off three more wins after that, taking the G3 Naas Fillies Sprint S. May 15, Royal Ascot's G3 Albany S. June 17 and the Curragh's G2 Debutante S. Aug. 20. Her hot streak came to an end Sept. 11 when she finished second in the G1 Moyglare Stud S. and she completed the exacta again last time in Newmarket's G1 Cheveley Park S. Sept. 24

Pedigree Notes:

No Nay Never came up just a half-length short when second as the favorite in the 2014 GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint, but the Coolmore stallion had a win on the 2022 championship card with his daughter Meditate. The filly is one of 26 group/graded winners for her sire, whose monster results this year include multiple Group 1-winning juvenile Blackbeard and Group 1-winning 2-year-old Little Big Bear.

Pembina is a half-sister to the dam of Group and Grade I winner Ectot (GB) (Hurricane Run {Ire}). Meditate is her most recent foal. —Jessica Martini

Friday, Keeneland
BREEDERS' CUP JUVENILE FILLIES TURF-GI, $920,000, Keeneland, 11-4, 2yo, f, 1mT, 1:35.38, fm.
1–MEDITATE (IRE), 122, f, 2, by No Nay Never
                1st Dam: Pembina (Ire), by Dalakhani (Ire)
                2nd Dam: Mahalia (Ire), by Danehill
                3rd Dam: Maresca (Ire), by Mill Reef
1ST GRADE I WIN. (€360,000 Ylg '21 ARAUG). O-Mrs. John
Magnier, Michael B. Tabor, Derrick Smith & Westerberg;
B-Lynch-Bages & Rhinestone Bloodstock (IRE); T-Aidan P.
O'Brien; J-Ryan L. Moore. $520,000. Lifetime Record: MGSW &
GISP-Ire, GSW & GISP-Eng, 7-5-2-0, $862,341. Werk Nick
Rating: A+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Pleasant Passage, 122, f, 2, by More Than Ready
                1st Dam: Peaceful Passage, by War Front
                2nd Dam: Flying Passage, by A.P. Indy
                3rd Dam: Chic Shirine, by Mr. Prospector
1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. O/B-Emory A. Hamilton (KY); T-Claude R.
McGaughey III. $170,000.
3–Cairo Consort, 122, f, 2, by Cairo Prince
                1st Dam: Absolutely Awesome, by Street Cry (Ire)
                2nd Dam: Discreetly Awesome, by Awesome Again
                3rd Dam: Pretty Discreet, by Private Account
($37,000 RNA Wlg '20 FTKNOV; $95,000 Ylg '21 FTKOCT).
O-Maple Lane Farm LLC; B-Frankfort Park Farm (KY); T-Nathan
Squires. $90,000.
Margins: 2HF, 2 1/4, HD. Odds: 2.04, 6.41, 19.14.
Also Ran: Midnight Mile (Ire), Free Look, Last Call, Comanche Country (Ire), Manhattan Jungle (Ire), Be Your Best (Ire), Delight, Basil Martini (Ire), Bling, Spirit Gal (Fr), Xigera. Scratched: Alluring Angel (GB), G Laurie.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

The post No Nay Never’s Meditate Dominates BC Juvenile Fillies Turf appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Front-running Pleasant Passage dug in resolutely Saturday to honor her recently deceased sire and stamp her ticket to the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. Up in time to belie longer than 15-1 odds on debut at Saratoga Aug. 21, she employed opposite tactics here under new pilot Irad Ortiz, Jr., taking her five rivals along through fractions of :23.81, :49.77 and 1:14.98 over the yielding going. Free Look took a run at her to try and secure a ninth Miss Grillo trophy for Chad Brown, but Pleasant Passage stiff-armed that rival to the wire as favored P.G. Johnson S. winner Be Your Best was left with too much to do after a poor start.

“The way the track is playing, and I knew there wasn't much speed in the race,” said Ortiz, fresh off a victory in the GI Woodward S. one race earlier with Life Is Good (Into Mischief). “The assistant trainer [Anthony Hamilton] told me, 'She's going to be forwardly placed because that's how she's been training.' So I tried to warm her up good… There wasn't too much speed in the race and I knew if I could be in front that would be good for me. It worked out well because I made the lead easily. On the backside, she was nice and relaxed. When I asked her to go, she responded and she was there for me.”

This was the first-ever Miss Grillo win for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey, who said, “She ran well in her first start from a little off the pace coming up the rail. She was very professional. Today, there wasn't any speed in the race and she had trained sharp off her last race. Irad let her do her thing when she broke and he rode a good race on her.”

Saturday, Belmont at the Big A
MISS GRILLO S.-GII, $200,000, Belmont The Big A, 10-1, 2yo, f,
1 1/16mT, 1:45.25, yl.
1–PLEASANT PASSAGE, 120, f, 2, by More Than Ready
                1st Dam: Peaceful Passage, by War Front
                2nd Dam: Flying Passage, by A.P. Indy
                3rd Dam: Chic Shirine, by Mr. Prospector
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. O/B-Emory
Hamilton (KY); T-Claude R. McGaughey III; J-Irad Ortiz, Jr.
$110,000. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $167,750. Werk Nick
Rating: B+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Free Look, 120, f, 2, Tapit–Wild Mint, by Medaglia d'Oro.
1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($300,000 Ylg '21
KEESEP). O-Klaravich Stables, Inc.; B-KatieRich Farms (KY);
T-Chad C. Brown. $40,000.
3–Be Your Best (Ire), 122, f, 2, Muhaarar (GB)–Kamakura, by
Medaglia d'Oro. 'TDN Rising Star' 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE.
O-Michael J. Ryan; B-St. Croix Bloodstock (IRE); T-Horacio De
Paz. $24,000.
Margins: 3/4, 2, 3/4. Odds: 9.60, 1.65, 1.20.
Also Ran: Alluring Angel (GB), Im Just Kiddin, Georgees Spirit.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs.

Pedigree Notes:

Pleasant Passage is the 53rd graded winner and 130th stakes winner in the Northern Hemisphere for her prolific sire, who has sired two prior winners of the Juvenile Fillies Turf. She is the four graded winner and 16th stakes winner of what are sure to be many more for broodmare sire War Front.

The winner hails from the super deep female family developed by Emory Hamilton and her family's King Ranch. Her dam is a half to MGSW/MGISP Hungry Island (More Than Ready), and further down the page is another standout by More Than Ready in the form of MGISW Verrazano. Other highest-level winners from the family include this year's GI Jockey Club Gold Cup hero Olympiad (Speightstown); Preservationist (Arch), who has first yearlings; third dam Chic Shirine (Mr. Prospector) and her champion sister Queena, Serra Lake (Seattle Slew), Somali Lemonade (Lemon Drop Kid), et al.

Pleasant Passage's yearling half-brother by Kitten's Joy was purchased by Legion Bloodstock on behalf of Hoolie Racing for $150,000 at the recently concluded Keeneland September sale. Peaceful Passage, whose one career win from six tries came going 1 1/2 miles on the Kempton all-weather, was bred to Mendelssohn for 2023.

The post More Than Ready’s Pleasant Passage Goes Gate-to-Wire in Miss Grillo appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post