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Gunite’s Hopeful Triumph Completes Grade 1 Saratoga Weekend Double For Gun Runner

Winchell Thoroughbreds' Gunite provided Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen his third consecutive score in the Grade 1, $300,000 Hopeful, a seven-furlong sprint for juveniles, on Closing Day Monday at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Asmussen, who won the Hopeful with Basin [2019] and Jackie's Warrior [2020], was joined by Gunite jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. in securing their respective fifth Grade 1 win of the 40-day Spa summer meet.

Wit, the 3-5 mutuel favorite out of a convincing score in the Grade 3 Sanford here July 17, stumbled at the break and dropped back to ninth in the 11-horse field as Headline Report led through an opening quarter-mile in 22.23 seconds on the good and harrowed main track.

Gunite, runner-up to Hopeful-rival High Oak last out in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special, was jostled at the start exiting post 3 but quickly rushed into contention by Santana, Jr. to mark the half-mile in 44.49.

Wit, with Irad Ortiz,Jr. up, advanced into fourth position through the turn as Gunite put away pace-pressers Headline Report and Defend, opening up a 2 1/2-length advantage at the stretch call with High Oak launching his bid from fifth and Kevin's Folly, hugging the rail under Jose Lezcano, advancing with menace.

Gunite continued to find more down the lane under Santana, Jr.'s right-handed encouragement and drew off impressively to win by 5 3/4-lengths in a final time of 1:23.08. Wit stayed on strong to complete the exacta by three-lengths over Kevin's Folly.

“I loved how he went through the wire. He didn't get away great today. Ricardo said there was just a little bit of bumping,” Asmussen said. “Going 22 and 1 to 44 and 2, and to look how he did it to the wire, it's going to be exciting going forward. I was concerned we weren't where we expected to be in the first hundred yards. But I watched the race from up the stretch and Ricardo, coming into the stretch, moved his hands a bit but had him plenty gathered up. I felt really good then.

“It's state of mind,” added Asmussen regarding Gunite's development. “We've been aggressive with him and he's put on weight and gotten stronger the whole time. We've been through the roof with how well he's doing.”

The Asmussen-trained and Santana, Jr. piloted Echo Zulu provided Gun Runner – the 2017 Horse of the Year under Asmussen's care – with his first Grade 1-winner as a sire by capturing Sunday's Grade 1 Spinaway at the Spa and Gunite doubled that number with a dominant Hopeful score.

Asmussen said Gunite, who graduated at third asking sprinting six furlongs at Churchill Downs on June 26, improved with added ground.

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“The distance; it was a little too short,” Asmussen said of Gunite's first two starts. “But we were anxious to get the Gun Runners running. He's from a solid sprint family of the Winchells with Gun Runner giving him some endurance. But he's very durable, mentally and physically. As much pressure as we put on him, he accepted it.”

Ortiz, Jr. tipped his cap to the winner after a troubled trip aboard the previously undefeated Wit.

“He got beat by a nice horse. He stumbled a little bit at the beginning and he tried hard to overcome that,” Ortiz, Jr. said. “I had to hustle him and ask him to get position to get there on time, but it was too much. It looks like he can [stretch out].”

Pletcher said Wit performed well under difficult circumstances.

“He probably compromised himself,” Pletcher said. “I thought he put in a good, sustained run. It was a tough spot to come from.

“He took a decent chunk out of both quarters,” added Pletcher. “I'm not saying he felt it during the race. It was the result of stumbling away from there.”

Asmussen became North American racing's all-time winningest conditioner in August when Stellar Tap won on Whitney Day to provide the Hall of Famer his 9,446th win, eclipsing the mark of 9,445 victories held by the late Dale Baird.

The 55-year-old Asmussen, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016, enjoyed a stellar Spa summer meet, additionally winning Grade 1s with Jackie's Warrior [H. Allen Jerkens Memorial], Yaupon [Forego] and Max Player [Jockey Club Gold Cup].

Santana, Jr, who was aboard for the Grade 1 wins with Yaupon and Max Player, also engineered a top-flight victory with Maracuja in the Coaching Club American Oaks.

The 28-year-old Santana, Jr. said he was in awe of his accomplishments at Saratoga this summer.

“It's special. Saratoga is one of the best tracks in North America. I'm really blessed. Five Grade 1 wins in one meet is unreal,” Santana, Jr. said.

High Oak, Power Agenda, Big Scully, Volcanic, Headline Report, Kitodan, Defend and Street Fight rounded out the order of finish.

Out of the stakes winning Cowboy Cal mare Simple Surprise, Gunite, a Kentucky homebred, banked $165,000 in victory while improving his record to 5-2-2-1. He returned $25.20 for a $2 win ticket.

Asmussen said Gunite will now target the one-mile Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne on October 2 at Belmont Park, which offers a “Win and You're In” berth to the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile in November at Del Mar.

“I love him for more 2-year-old races this year. We know what we want his next two races to be and we feel really good about them,” Asmussen said. “The Champagne and the Breeders' Cup are what we're hoping his next two races are. I love his style for the Juvenile. He's going to travel and we'll try to take it. We're very proud of him.”

Live racing returns Thursday, September 16 for Opening Day of the 28-day fall meet at Belmont Park, featuring the Grade 1, $150,000 Lonesome Glory, a 2 1/2-mile steeplechase handicap for 4-year-olds and up.

The Belmont Park fall meet, which will run from Thursday, September 16 through Sunday, October 31, will include five Grade 1 races and five “Win and You're In” qualifiers to the Breeders' Cup in November at Del Mar.

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Runhappy Filly Runup Upsets Sorority Stakes At Monmouth

Runup, a James McIngvale homebred 2-year-old filly by his heavily promoted stallion Runhappy, posted a front-running $31 upset in Monday's $200,000 Sorority Stakes at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J.

Trained by Laura Wohlers and ridden to victory by Joseph Ramos, Runup outhustled Jumeirah to her immediate outside to grab the early lead, cruised through fractions of :23.73, :47.69 and 1:12.74 en route to an unchallenged three-length victory clocked in 1:39.82 on a fast main track.

Jumeirah held second, with 6-5 favorite Gimmick third and Microbiome fourth, You Look Cold fifth and Kingdom Queen rounding out the field of six juvenile fillies. Maestria was scratched.

Produced from the Street Cry mare Up the Street, Runup was bred in Maryland and began her racing career on turf at Colonial Downs in Virginia, finishing third in a maiden race behind Cavalier Cupid. who came out of that race to win the Keswick Stakes at Colonial.

Runup graduated next out in a $40,000 maiden claiming event at Pimlico on Aug. 13, going wire to wire to win by 6 1/4 lengths. She is from the second crop by sprint champion Runhappy, who stands at Claiborne Farm.

“She ran a big race,” said Wohlers. “She's still a little green and she has a lot of improvement to make but she ran a nice race. I really didn't worry about her trying two turns. She's one of those fillies that, in the morning, in her gallops or at a clip, she's still in the bridle at the end. So I really wasn't worried about the distance. I was more concerned about her stepping up into this company with her still being green. She's a little hard to gallop. She's always on the go, like her dad (Runhappy) was. I think she is going to improve the more she runs. We're really happy today. Of course, we're happy for Runhappy. He's our boy.

“She's very fast,” Wohlers added. “You always wonder if they're going to be able to convert that into a distance and going two turns. With the exception of her dad she probably has more speed than any horse we've had in our barn since then. I think she does want to go long and I think she showed today she can do it.”

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“I rode a filly at Indiana Grand for Laura and she told me she had another filly she liked and asked me if I would go to Monmouth Park to ride her,” said Ramos. “That's how I wound up getting the mount. I came in just for this race. It's my first time at Monmouth Park. There was a lot of speed in this race but my filly also has good speed and they felt she would have no trouble going long. She broke out of there so sharp. I kept her relaxed and started talking to her at the quarter pole and she responded for me. I was thinking then that maybe I had this race because they were not coming at me. She's a nice filly. She loves to run. I was a little worried about the two turns because she had only sprinted in her two races before this one. But she went right to the front and just kept going.”

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Tell Your Daddy Leads All The Way In Bernard Baruch

Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez sent Flying P Stable's Tell Your Daddy to the front and the Scat Daddy gelding did not relinquish the lead, posting a gate-to-wire victory by a half length in the Grade 2, $200,000 Bernard Baruch for 3-year-olds and up on Monday, Closing Day of the summer meet at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

The 63rd running of the Bernard Baruch, contested over 1 1/16 miles on the Mellon turf course, saw morning-line favorite and early speed threat En Wye Cee scratch before the race after an early afternoon rainstorm. Tell Your Daddy, who ran second to Flavius going the same distance at Saratoga in the Fasig-Tipton Lure on August 7, moved to the front after breaking from the inside post, leading the four-horse field through an opening quarter-mile in 24.92 seconds and the half in 50.75 over a yielding course.

Tell Your Daddy, off at 5-2, maintained the advantage out of the turn, with No Word giving pursuit along the rail in the stretch. But Tell Your Daddy pressed on under Velazquez's right-handed encouragement, fending off No Word to hit the wire in 1:44.61 for his first stakes win overall and first victory in his last 13 starts.

“It [the lack of other pace] made all the difference today,” Velazquez. “Last time, he ran a winning race and ran a good race, but the other horse that day [Flavius] went to the lead and kept running. Today, our plan was to go to the lead and hope to hold off the other horses, and he did.”

Tell Your Daddy, whose previous victory came against allowance company in February 2020 at Fair Grounds, returned $7.90 on a $2 win bet. He improved his career record to 4-4-2 in 24 starts.

“We were going to try and go to the lead anyway, but [En Wye Cee] coming out was a big help in terms of the fact that we thought we'd be able to clear,” trainer Tom Morley said. “I wasn't going to give Johnny any instructions, but Jay [Jason Provenzano, owner Flying P Stables] and I had discussed the fact when he rode him last time [second in the Lure], I'd love to see what he could do on the front end in one of these races.

“En Wye Cee coming out probably helped our cause as well and it's a yielding turf course and hard to close,” Morley added. “I was very dubious about how he would handle this ground. He's run very well on very fast ground, but he has got some form on yielding turf.”

Morley claimed Tell Your Daddy for $40,000 out a fourth-place finish on January 28 at Fair Grounds. Since coming into his barn, the 5-year-old has earned black type in three of his five starts, including a third-place effort in the one-mile Seek Again in May at Belmont Park before notching consecutive on-the-board finishes during the Saratoga meet.

“We were looking for horses with some real back class to them and this horse ran a huge race in the Shakertown at Keeneland [finishing sixth in 2020],” Morley said. “He was flying at the end going five-and-a-half in what looked like a very good Shakertown and got beaten a length [1 1/2 lengths]. I rang Jay and I said, 'if we can get this horse to Belmont and go six or seven or a one-turn mile, he's already won two mile-and-a-sixteenth allowance races.' So, that was our plan. We started at seven, went to a mile and then we came up here and went a mile and a sixteenth and Johnny said, 'I think he'll go further.' So, it worked out brilliantly and it was great to see him getting his head in front. He's run some huge races in defeat for us, but that was massive.”

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Velazquez, who has the most wins by a jockey all time at Saratoga, picked up the mount on Tell Your Daddy for the first time in the Fasig-Tipton Lure in his previous best-ever finish in a stakes before getting his picture taken for the Bernard Baruch.

“The turf is soft. You have to expect that with the rain we just got,” Velazquez said. “I was a little concerned. I was looking at his soft turf and yielding turf form and he was OK. But you just never know. When he ran on soft turf it was in shorter races. Going two turns helped him today, too.”

No Word, ridden by Manny Franco, topped 3-5 favorite L'Imperator by one length for second. Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, who also was set to saddle En Wye Cee before scratching him, No Word made just his second start of his 4-year-old campaign following an eighth-place finish against allowance company on August 6 at the Spa off a nine-month layoff.

“The pace was slow, but at the same time I wanted to give my horse a chance,” Franco said. “I know the other horse [L'Imperator] was the favorite, so I wanted to give a nice trip. That's what I did and he ran well.”

L'Imperator, trained by Chad Brown, who has clinched the H. Allen Jerkens title for most wins by a conditioner in the Saratoga meet, was 2 1/4 lengths clear of Dreams of Tomorrow for third.

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Flightline Freaky Fast In Return At Del Mar, Earning 114 Beyer Speed Figure

Flightline had people buzzing when he won his debut on April 24 at Santa Anita by 13 1/4 lengths and earned a 105 Beyer Speed Figure. On Sunday at Del Mar, the $1-million Tapit colt did himself one better, defeating an allowance/optional claiming field by 12 3/4 lengths with jockey Flavien Prat sitting like a statue in the irons at the seaside course north of San Diego, Calif.

This victory earned the John Sadler trainee a 114 Beyer Speed Figure, co-highest assigned to any runner this year.

Flightline covered six furlongs in 1:08.05, which according to Daily Racing Form's Brad Free is the fastest time at the distance at Del Mar since Lord Nelson won the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes in 1:07.65 in 2016.

Bred in Kentucky by Jane Lyon's Summer Wind Farm, Flightline was produced from the Indian Charlie mare, Feathered, a $2.35 million purchase by Lyon while in foal to War Front in 2016.

Consigned by Lane's End, Flightline brought $1 million at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling sale. He was purchased by Terry Finley of West Point Thoroughbreds, who put together a partnership of owners that includes Summer Wind, along with Hronis Racing, Siena Farm and Woodford Racing.

Sadler backed off on Flightline following his April debut, waiting until June 9 for his first timed breeze after the win. He came into Sunday's race off a solid string at breezes over the Del Mar main track, including a best of morning five furlongs in :58.40 on Aug. 24.

Sadler did not indicate immediately after the race where Flightline might surface next. During the colt's hiatus earlier this summer, the trainer told Thoroughbred Daily News, “We are not going to be in a hurry.”

Flightline romps to a second straight victory, going six furlongs at Del Mar in 1:08.05

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