Tag: Racing

Seventh favorite Stars on Earth claimed this year's Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas) in a photo-finish over Water Navillera, capturing her first graded victory in the first leg of the 3-year-old's Classics for fillies.

The dark bay daughter of Duramente scored her first win in her second career start last October and was a neck second in both of her Fairy Stakes (G3, 1,600m) and Queen Cup (G3, 1,600m) challenges this season. Winning trainer Mizuki Takayanagi, who opened his yard in 2010, registered his second graded win and first JRA-G1 victory. For jockey Yuga Kawada, who captured the Oka Sho title once in 2014 on board Harp Star, this is his 19th JRA-G1 victory—his latest was with Danon Kingly in the Yasuda Kinen last year.

Stars on Earth traveled two-wide in mid-pack while third pick Water Navillera broke sharply to sit on the heels of pacesetter Kafuji Tetragon before the field bunched up rounding the final turn. As the fillies gave their all climbing the stretch hill, Water Navillera took command after passing the furlong pole and while trying hard to shake off the persistent Namura Clair, Stars on Earth was searching fiercely for running room a few lengths behind. Finally slipping through a gap and being bumped by Personal High while doing so, the Duramente filly displayed an incredible closing kick in the final strides to snatch the win from Water Navillera at the wire.

“I'm just so glad that she actually snatched the win at the end—I knew we had caught up but couldn't tell who'd won. I'd been aware during workouts that she was a bit difficult to control but besides keeping that in mind, the plan today was to stay in mid-pack and let her run in a comfortable rhythm. It was definitely her strength and determination that shone and gave us the win today. I'm looking forward to how she develops from here,” commented Yuga Kawada.

Sixth favorite Namura Clair tracked the frontrunners around fourth on the rails and was driven to inherit the lead briefly inside Water Navillera but failed to keep up and was overtaken by the eventual winner before the wire while holding off the fast-closing Circle of Life by a neck for third place.

Race favorite and Tulip Sho victor Namur took a wide trip near the rear after breaking from the widest stall and mildly improved position before hitting the straight but lacked the final kick and finished 10th.

Other Horses:
4th: (16) Circle of Life—settled around 13th, angled out, showed fastest late kick, belatedly
5th: (5) Pin High—saved ground around 12th, accelerated at stretch, met traffic 200m out, launched another bid
6th: (4) Personal High—raced around 8th, checked 200m out, showed brief response inside winner
7th: (12) Belle Cresta—traveled around 13th, angled out at top of stretch, quickened in last 200m
8th: (3) Alluring Way—settled around 4th, met traffic at early stretch, lacked needed kick
9th: (7) Sublime Anthem—sat around 8th in front of winner, even paced
11th: (14) Presage Lift—was off slowly, trailed in rear, showed belated charge
12th: (2) Kafuji Tetragon—broke sharply to set pace, weakened in last 200m
13th: (9) Cross Majesty—tracked leaders 3-wide around 4th, gradually fell back
14th: (17) Voller Blute—was off late, raced near rear, circled wide, never fired
15th: (15) Anegohada—ran 3-wide outside winner, ran gamely up to 200m pole
16th: (10) Lilac—broke poorly, traveled near rear, unable to reach contention
17th: (13) Raspberry Mousse—positioned 4-wide around 4th, dropped back after final corner
18th: (11) Lovely Your Eyes—chased leader in 2nd or 3rd, faded after final corner

The post Japan: 3-Year-Old Filly Stars On Earth Shows ‘Determination’ To Win Oka Sho appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Fonner Park CEO Chris Kotulak shares slices of life from the Grand Island, Neb., racetrack throughout the 2022 meet in the Fonner Files.

Nominations for the $75,000 Bosselman/Gus Fonner Stakes close this Wednesday, April 13.

This race has proven to be productive for shippers with back class or for horses with current form equivalent of a $30,000 claimer or better. Fonner Park has a tidy, safe facility, and we are renowned for how well we treat the owners and horsemen of Thoroughbreds in our big race. Our starting gate is restricted to ten runners.

Mo Mosa, the winner of last year's Bosselman/Gus Fonner Stakes entered the race off a sixth-place finish in an allowance optional claiming race at Oaklawn Park, and he used his win at Fonner Park as a launching pad for his return to graded stakes competition, winning the Grade 3 Steve Sexton Mile at Lone Star Park in his very next start.

A year earlier, Sleepy Eyes Todd used his time in Grand Island to springboard onto the global stage. He won the G2 Charles Town Classic two starts after his win at Fonner Park, and took the Lafayette Stakes at Keeneland and the G3 Mr. Prospector Stakes at Gulfstream Park to finish his 2020 campaign. In 2021, Sleepy Eyes Todd finished fourth in the G1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes, then traveled abroad to compete in the Saudi Cup and Dubai World Cup. He retired with earnings of more than $2 million, and the majority of it came after his “BossCap” win.

Please nominate, with no fee, before the end of the business day, this Wednesday, April 13.

Contact Doug Schoepf, Racing Secretary and Director of Racing: (308) 382-4515 or Chris Kotulak, CEO: ckotulak@fonnerpark.com

The post Fonner Files: Nominations Closing Soon For Bosselman/Gus Fonner Stakes appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Jemison, a 4-year-old half sister to three-time Grade 1-winning multimillionaire Shedaresthedevil, made it look easy beating the boys in her career debut Sunday at Laurel Park.

Ridden by Jevian Toledo for trainer Brittany Russell, Jemison ($4.20) ran six furlongs in 1:10.95 on a fast main track to win the maiden special weight for horses 3, 4 and 5 years old by 7 ¼ lengths despite being fractious behind the gate and bobbling at the start.

“I'm delighted. It's awesome,” Russell said. “She's a racehorse, so now we just have to keep her together and keep her brain right.”

Owned by First Row Partners, Team Hanley, Parkland Thoroughbreds, and Paul Braverman, Jemison drew outside each of five rivals and found herself pressing a pace of :23.30 and :46.76  set by Heaven's Got Fire, who had made 11 previous starts. Jemison drew even approaching the stretch, took a short lead once straightened for home, opened up through the lane and was hand-ridden to the wire.

“She was a project with tons of talent, so it's pretty nice she ended up with us,” Russell said. “You can see, like in the gate she's got some quirks about her. She's big and she's powerful so you have to be very careful with her. It's been tricky. She's been tricky. She's been a project, but we knew the talent was there so that was why we continued.”

Bred by WinStar Farm, Jemison is by Outwork out of the Congrats mare Starship Warpspeed. Her half sister Shedaresthedevil won the 2020 Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) and 2021 La Troienne Stakes (G1), and Clement L. Hirsch Stakes (G1) while amassing lifetime earnings of $2,366,458.

Jemison was purchased by Crow-Sharp Ventures for $150,000 out of Fasig-Tipton's Kentucky select yearling sale from the Taylor Made Sales consignment. She spent the spring of 2020 at Keeneland and early winter of 2020-2021 at Oaklawn Park before landing with Russell, working steadily since late November primarily at Laurel.

“I think she was always very forward in her early training as a 2-year-old and things like that. They knew she had talent,” Russell said. “She was probably so forward that she didn't have a lot of work beside horses and things, so we kind of had to go back to the beginning and teach her how to run beside horses and things like that. But, on the other hand, she's coming by here clocking :15s and it's like, 'How do you put her with horses?' It's just been a process, but we knew that was what we had.”

Russell hadn't intended on starting Jemison against males, but finding a race and keeping her on a track she knew was important.

“We've entered her like 10 times,” Russell said. “We wanted to keep her home. The gate crew knows her, Toledo knows her, so the whole home aspect was the goal. We got it accomplished. I'm glad we did it.”

Russell said the connections had not looked beyond Sunday's unveiling.

“Of course you want to dream big with her, but just getting this out of the way was such a huge relief. We'll just see how she comes back and go from there.”

The post Trainer Russell’s Quirky ‘Project’ Filly, Half To Shedaresthedevil, Wins Belated Debut appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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