Tag: Racing

Mowins was exceptional last year at two and was a two-time stakes winner. He proved he's going to be just as tough as a 3-year-old with an impressive win in the 14th running of the $100,000 Hoosier Breeders Sophomore Stakes Wednesday, June 22 at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

Veteran Jockey Jon Court was aboard Mowins for the first time in a race, but he has plenty of time aboard the Indiana bred standout. This winter, he breezed him numerous times for Trainer Mike Lauer while at Oaklawn Park. The Hoosier Breeders Sophomore Stakes was his first time to test the three-year-old in a race.

Mowins had early speed at the start of the one and one-sixteenth mile route race and moved into the lead from the middle of the pack, securing the top spot before the first turn. He was joined on the outside by Oro Azteca and Marcelino Pedroza Jr. and was even passed up for a portion of the second quarter before Mowins moved back up to stand his ground. The field of 12 was tightly bunched behind the top two for most of the race.

“We were able to take the task early on,” said Court, winner of more than 4,200 career races. “The horse on the outside (Oro Azteca) was pressing early and could have gone on, but we were able to keep him at bay. It worked out well for us in the end.”

Around the turn, Court asked Mowins to accelerate, and he responded. By the time they moved into the stretch, Mowins had taken over and sped away from the field, opening up to a 5 1/4-length advantage at the wire. Mr Chaos and Rodney Prescott moved in for second on the outside over Latigo and Tommy Pompell for third.

“He's a pretty neat little horse,” said Lauer. “We gave him some time off and then took him to Arkansas this winter. He had won several races, so he didn't have a lot of options to race (in Arkansas). We tried him in a stakes out there before coming back to Indiana.”

Mowins was the favorite of the field, paying $7.00 for the win. The homebred son of Mohaymen is now four for eight in his career and has more than $220,000 in career earnings. The win in the Hoosier Breeders Sophomore Stakes is his third title at Horseshoe Indianapolis for Mike and Penny Lauer and Clary Thoroughbreds. The colt is out of Lauer's mare, Prize Winner, who made more than $250,000 on the track before becoming a brood mare.

“Prize Winner was a nice racehorse for us and won a stakes (Malvern Rose at Presque Isle Downs),” said Lauer. “She's thrown a couple other nice horses for us, too.”

One would be hard pressed to find many stakes in the Indiana record books that Jon Court has not won. The two-time winner of Indiana's top race, the Grade 3 Indiana Derby, earned his first win in the Hoosier Breeders Sophomore Stakes. Court was Indiana's first all-time leading rider before moving his tack to Kentucky and later to California where he experienced great success. However, he has always returned to Indiana to ride when he can and has racked up numerous stakes wins over the years in the Hoosier State.

For Lauer, this was his third win in the Hoosier Breeders Sophomore Stakes, connecting with Mister Pollard in 2014 and Badabing Badaboom in 2016. Indiana's all-time leading stakes trainer is also hard pressed to score a first win in a stakes. The win with Mowins was his 45th career stakes win at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

The 20th season of live Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing extends through Wednesday, Nov. 23. Live racing is conducted at 2:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday with Thursday post times set for 2:10 p.m. A total of 12 Saturdays will feature live racing in 2022 highlighted by the 28th running of the Grade 3 $300,000 Indiana Derby and the 27th running of the Grade 3 $200,000 Indiana Oaks set for Saturday, July 9. For more information on live racing at Horseshoe Indianapolis, visit www.caesars.com/horseshoe-indianapolis.

The post Mowins Continues Indiana Success In Hoosier Breeders Sophomore Stakes appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Shahama and Venti Valentine, a respective sixth and 14th in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, will do battle in Saturday's Grade 2, $250,000 Mother Goose for 3-year-old fillies going 1 1/16 miles at Belmont Park.

Seven of the past 15 editions of the Mother Goose were won by a filly who also raced in that year's Kentucky Oaks, including Rachel Alexandra [2009] and Untapable [2014] who both captured the Kentucky Oaks-Mother Goose double. This year will see two Kentucky Oaks entrants square off in another important race in the 3-year-old filly division.

KHK Racing's Shahama will attempt to make Todd Pletcher the standalone winningest trainer in the Mother Goose with seven wins. He is currently on even terms with fellow Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas.

The bay daughter of Munnings, and half-sister to dual Eclipse Award-winner Lookin At Lucky, endured a troubled trip in the Kentucky Oaks. She was placed toward the rear of the 14-horse field in the four path around the first turn and was bumped around the five-sixteenths pole, but displayed a late rally to finish 5 1/2 lengths behind the victorious Secret Oath.

Shahama was unbeaten in four starts in the United Arab Emirates, where she was campaigned by Fawzi Nass, capturing the Group 3 UAE Oaks in February at Meydan Racecourse before arriving at Pletcher's South Florida division the following month.

Pletcher said Shahama exuded talent based off how she trained amongst his other quality sophomore fillies, including multiple graded stakes placed Goddess of Fire, who ran 11th in the Kentucky Oaks.

“It was hard to gauge her racing form. The one thing we felt pretty good about was the way she had trained in company with some of our other horses,” said Pletcher, whose Mother Goose winners include Jersey Girl [1998], Octave [2007], Devil May Care [2010], Buster's Ready [2011], Off the Tracks [2016] and Zaajel [2021]. “To me, she's proven she belongs in races like that, and I thought her Oaks was maybe a better race than it looks on paper. She was still closing at the end. She drew an outside post and it took her a little while to get on track. I thought it was a solid effort.”

Flavien Prat will return to the irons aboard Shahama from post 1.

New York-bred Venti Valentine will be in search of her first graded stakes triumph for trainer Jorge Abreu.

Owned by NY Final Furlong Racing Stable and Parkland Thoroughbreds, the Firing Line filly displayed her usual close-to-the-pace tactics in the Oaks rating in third behind a fast pace. After checking several times around the far turn, Venti Valentine had nothing to offer in the stretch run, finishing last-of-14.

Never worse than second in her five starts prior to the Oaks, Venti Valentine has won both of her starts over Big Sandy, capturing her career debut over four next-out winners in September before defeating her Empire State-bred counterparts in the Maid of the Mist the following month at Belmont.

A close second to eventual Grade 1-winner and Oaks-runner-up Nest in the Grade 2 Demoiselle in December at Aqueduct, she made her 2022 debut a victorious one with a seven-length romp in the open-company Busher Invitational before finishing a close second in the Grade 3 Gazelle in April at the Big A.

“She came out of the Oaks in good shape,” Abreu said. “I'm going to cross a line through that race and just regroup with her She's been doing everything well here. I think one turn will suit her better, not that she can't go two turns because she proved she can go two turns. But I think the mile and a sixteenth and cutting back in distance will be better for her.”

Jose Ortiz, in pursuit of a third Mother Goose win, will pilot Venti Valentine from post 2.

Trainer Brad Cox will send out Grade 1-winner Juju's Map, who arrives off a commanding gate-to-wire performance in a 1 1/16-mile allowance optional claimer on the Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill Downs, earning an 87 Beyer Speed Figure.

The Albaugh Family Stables-owned dark bay daughter of Liam's Map has never finished worse than second in five starts, including a 4 1/4-length coup in the Grade 1 Alcibiades at Keeneland en route to a runner-up placing to Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Echo Zulu in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar.

Florent Geroux, the pilot in all five starts, retains the mount from post 5.

Klaravich Stables' Gerrymander will attempt to make amends following a troubled sixth in the Grade 2 Eight Belles on May 6 at Churchill Downs in her 2022 debut.

Gerrymander, by Into Mischief, was a distant second to Echo Zulu in last year's Grade 1 Frizette at Belmont en route to a score in the Tempted on November 5 over the same surface in the final start of her juvenile season. Gerrymander is trained by four-time Eclipse Award-winner Chad Brown, who won the 2019 Mother Goose with Dunbar Road.

Joel Rosario will ride Gerrymander from post 4.

Completing the field is the John Terranova-trained Midnight Stroll, who was a troubled ninth in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan last out on May 20 at Pimlico Race Course. The two-time winning daughter of leading third crop sire Not This Time checked heavily into the first turn and lost position, finishing 13 3/4 lengths behind the victorious Interstatedaydream.

Hall of Famer Javier Castellano will ride from post 3.

Since its first running in 1957, the Mother Goose has been won by a dozen Hall of Fame fillies, 11 of which sealed up championship honors in their respective years of victory, including Cicada [1962], Dark Mirage [1968], Chris Evert [1974], Ruffian [1975], Davona Dale [1979], Mom's Command [1985], Open Mind [1989], Go for Wand [1990], Serena's Song [1995] and Rachel Alexandra. The historic test for 3-year-old fillies is named in honor of H.P. Whitney's winner of the 1924 Futurity against colts.

The Mother Goose is carded as Race 8 on Saturday's 10-race program, which has a first post of 1 p.m. Eastern.

America's Day at the Races will present daily coverage and analysis of the spring/summer meet at Belmont Park on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/tv-schedule.

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Eight out-of-town stakes winners and unbeaten colt Super Love, who improved his record to 3-0 with a commanding allowance victory June 19, are among 27 3-year-olds nominated to the $100,000 Concern at Laurel Park.

The seven-furlong Concern co-headlines a Saturday, July 2, stakes program with the $100,000 Caesar's Wish for fillies and mares 3 and up going one mile.

Patricia's Hope and Richard Ravin's One Timer is a three-time stakes winner, taking the Victoria over Woodbine's all-weather surface and Speakeasy on the turf at Santa Anita last year before finishing ninth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2). Based in the Midwest, the Trappe Shot gelding has raced once this year, winning the Tom Ridge on the all-weather at Presque Isle Downs May 23 for trainer Larry Rivelli.

Make It Big and Witty are both multiple stakes winners. Red Oak Stable's Make It Big won the Juvenile Sprint against fellow Florida-breds last fall at Gulfstream Park and the Springboard Mile in mid-December at Remington Park before finishing 10^th in the Sam F. Davis (G3) Feb. 12 at Tampa Bay Downs. He has been training with Saffie Joseph Jr.'s string at Belmont Park.

Witty, bred and owned by Elizabeth Merryman and trained by her son, McLane Hendriks, beat Pennsylvania-breds in the Pennsylvania Nursery to end his juvenile season and began 2022 with a 7 ¾-length upset of the six-furlong Spectacular Bid Jan. 29 at Laurel. Most recently, the Great Notion gelding was seventh in the Penn Mile (G3) on turf June 3 at Penn National.

Also prominent among nominees are 2021 Timoninum Juvenile winner Cynergy's Star; March 27 Sophomore winner King Cab, second last out in the May 28 Big Drama at Gulfstream; Nimitz Class, a winner of three straight capped by the June 3 Danzig at Penn National; 2021 First State Dash winner No Sabe Nada, third in Laurel's James F. Lewis III in mid-November; Old Homestead, winner of the April 8 Lafayette at Keeneland who lost for the first time when fifth in the Chick Lang (G3) May 21 at historic Pimlico Race Course; and Scaramouche, winner of the March 8 Rittenhouse Square at Parx.

John Davison and Eunhee Kim's Super Love has yet to try stakes company but has won each of this starts this year, all at Laurel, after going unraced at 2. He broke his maiden April 16 sprinting 5 ½ furlongs and took a six-furlong optional claiming allowance May 5, both by 1 ½ lengths, before a front-running 8 ¾-length Father's Day romp.

Wholebodemeister, winner of the one-mile Davona Dale (G2) Feb. 27 at Gulfstream Park, and six-time stakes winner Miss Leslie top 17 horses nominated to the Caesar's Wish. Based at Monmouth with trainer Michelle Hemingway, Wholebodemeister also ran third in the Jan. 30 Forward Gal (G3) at Gulfstream and most recently was last of seven in the 1 1/16-mile Lady's Secret June 11 at Monmouth.

BB Horses' Miss Leslie owns nine career wins including two in a row, the May 8 Serena's Song at Monmouth and June 8 Obeah at Delaware Park for Claudio Gonzalez, Maryland's overall leading trainer since 2017. Among her stakes wins are four at Laurel – the 2021 Carousel, Thirty Eight Go Go and Weber City Miss and 2020 Anne Arundel County.

Among other nominees are Edie Meeny Miny Mo, third in the 2021 Monmouth Oaks (G3) and a last-out optional claiming allowance winner June 5 at Monmouth; stakes winners Battle Bling, Por Que No, The Grass Is Blue and The Mary Rose; and stakes-placed Click to Confirm, Flight to Shanghai, Love in the Air and Moma Tiger.

Laurel will next host a live, 10-race program Friday, June 24, starting at 12:40 p.m.

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