Tag: Racing

‘Very Feisty’ Sadler’s Joy Ready For Saturday’s W. L. McKnight Stakes

Woodslane Farm's homebred Sadler's Joy made his career graded-stakes debut in the 2017 W. L. McKnight at Gulfstream Park, and 27 graded-stakes starts later, the Tom Albertrani turf warrior is still going strong.

The resilient 8-year-old son of Kitten's Joy is scheduled to make his 2021 return to Gulfstream Park for the $125,000 W. L. McKnight (G3) on Saturday's 12-race program that will be co-headlined by the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) and the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1).

“He's training great. He's been very feisty lately, like he always is,” trainer Tom Albertrani said. “He's not showing any signs of wear and tear, that's for sure.”

Sadler's Joy finished second by a quickly diminishing margin of a head in the 2017 McKnight and came right back to capture his first graded-stakes victory in the Pan American (G2) at Gulfstream before going on to capture the Sword Dancer (G1) at Saratoga later that year.

In 27 graded-stakes races, Sadler's Joy has finished in the money 18 times and finished fourth six more times.

“He's a tough horse to place because of his running style. He likes to come from out the back. It's always a matter of getting a good trip and getting the right pace,” Albertrani said. “Sometimes all that doesn't work out, but he always comes with a late run and has been always right there in all his races.”

Sadler's Joy started in last year's Pegasus World Cup Turf, only to have his chances at victory wiped out while being bumped back to last after breaking from the gate. He battled back to finish sixth, beaten two heads for fourth.

“That was only a mile and three-sixteenths, so the distance was against him overcoming the bad start at the break,” Albertrani said. “He still came with a run, like he always does.”

The 1 ½-mile distance of the McKnight should be far more suitable for Sadler's Joy, who has amassed earnings of more than $2.6 million.

Albertrani, who is also scheduled to saddle German-bred Tintoretto for the McKnight, has named Jose Ortiz to ride Sadler's Joy.

Stronach Stables' Sir Sahib, who closed with a rush to finish second in the 1 ½-mile Northern Dancer (G1) at Woodbine; Joseph Allen LL's Doswell, who finished a fast-closing second behind Largent in the 1 1/8-mile Fort Lauderdale (G2) over the Gulfstream Park turf; and Calumet Farm's Channel Cat, a veteran graded-stakes performer who finished off the board in last year's Pegasus Turf, are among the top contenders in the 11-horse McKnight field.

The McKnight, carded as Race 10, will be preceded by two other turf stakes on the card with seven graded stakes – the $125,000 Marshua's River (G3), a mile turf race for older fillies and mares in Race 7; and the $125,000 La Prevoyante (G3), a 1 ½-mile turf stakes for older fillies and mares in Race 8..

Sackatoga Stable's Niko's Dream and Al Shaqab Racing's Tuned, who finished first and second, respectively, in the Dec. 12 My Charmer at Gulfstream, and Heider Family Stable LLC's Zofelle, a Brendan Walsh-trained Irish-bred who raced against Grade 1 company last time out; are among the more prominent entries for the Marshua's River, which is carded as Race 7.

Repole Stable's Always Shopping, who captured the Dec. 19 Via Borghese by three lengths at Gulfstream; Ivan Dalos' Court Return, a close second in the E. P. Taylor (G1) at Woodbine before disappointing in the Via Borghese; and Gary Barber and John Oxley's Heavenly Curlin, winner of the Nov. 7 Maple Leaf (G3) on Woodbine's synthetic surface; are prominent contenders in a field of 12 for the La Prevoyante.

The post ‘Very Feisty’ Sadler’s Joy Ready For Saturday’s W. L. McKnight Stakes appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Oaks Prep: Arrogate’s Half-Sister Diamond Ore Tops Sunday’s Busanda Stakes

The Road to the Kentucky Oaks will go through New York when Diamond Ore takes on four other sophomore fillies in Sunday's 47th running of the $100,000 Busanda going nine furlongs over the main track at Aqueduct Racetrack.

The Busanda is a local qualifier for the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, scheduled to be run on April 30 at Churchill Downs, awarding the top-four finishers points on a 10-4-2-1 scale.

The race honors Ogden Phipps' 1950 Alabama winner, whose name is an anacronym for the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts (BuSandA) – a Navy bureau that Phipps had served in during World War II. As a broodmare, Busanda, a daughter of War Admiral and granddaughter of the prolific broodmare La Troienne, produced Hall of Famer and prestigious sire Buckpasser and was also the great granddam of 1984 Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Outstandingly.

Clearview Stable's Diamond Ore, a $750,000 purchase at the 2018 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, makes her stakes debut for trainer Barb Minshall following a maiden-breaking effort routing on the Tampa Bay Downs dirt on Dec. 24.

The Tapit bay, out of the multiple stakes winning Distorted Humor mare Bubbler, is a half-sister to champion Arrogate, who won the 2016 Travers at Saratoga Race Course in a track record time of 1:59.36.

Diamond Ore made her first three starts on Tapeta for the Woodbine-based Minshall, who captured the 2017 Grade 3 Schuylerville at Saratoga with Dream It Is, and will send out her first representative at the Big A since Hollywood Hideaway ran third in the 2017 Artie Schiller.

Following a pair of sprint efforts at Woodbine, Diamond Ore rallied to be second when stretched out to two turns for the first time on Nov. 14 at the Rexdale, Ontario oval, garnering a career-best 70 Beyer Speed Figure.

Minshall said the well-bred Diamond Ore is ready for her stakes debut.

“With her pedigree any blacktype is important,” said Minshall. “Hopefully, we can do that for the owners, and she could move forward from this. The horses will tell you where you can go. They sort themselves out. It's early in the 3-year-old year and this is a good chance to see what she's got and see how she handles the dirt in more difficult company.”

Minshall said Diamond Ore will appreciate the added distance Sunday and enters with the benefit of additional training at her Ocala, Florida base on the Winding Oaks Farm dirt, including a five-eighths breeze on Jan. 15 in 1:02 flat.

“The farther she goes the better. She's very game,” said Minshall. “She's trained very well on the dirt here at Winding Oaks. I find she's moved forward with her training. She's done everything right and deserves a chance to move on.”

Minshall said outside of the addition of jockey Eric Cancel, there will be no changes for Diamond Ore who will emerge from post 1.

“Everything's the same. She wears a small cup blinker. She's pretty straightforward,” said Minshall. “I did race her on Lasix at Woodbine, but she raced at Tampa without it and I didn't have any problems.”

Trainer Todd Pletcher, who won the 2013 Busanda with subsequent Kentucky Oaks winner Princess of Sylmar, will attempt a sixth triumph in the Busanda with Repole Stables' Traffic Lane.

The daughter of second crop sire Outwork set the pace in the Grade 2 Demoiselle on December 5 over a sloppy and sealed Big A main track last out but faded to a distant fifth, finishing 18 ¼ lengths to stable mate Malathaat.

Pletcher's Belmont Park-based assistant Byron Hughes noted that neither the Demoiselle winner nor Traffic Lane liked the off-going but is optimistic for a better effort on Sunday.

The National Weather Service calls for partly cloudy skies and zero percent chance of precipitation on Sunday for the Ozone Park area.

“She didn't take to it either, but it looks like we'll have a fast track this weekend so we should see some improvement there,” said Hughes. “Our overall impression is that she didn't care for the off track.”

Prior to her stakes debut, third time was the charm for Traffic Lane, who graduated on November 15 over a good outer turf course at Aqueduct after two efforts in off-the-turf maiden events. In the 1 1/16-mile event, Traffic Lane tracked a length off the pace and secured a three-quarter length triumph over next-out winner Candace O.

“It was all just experience, that was the main thing,” Hughes said. “She hasn't been the most precocious filly, but I think the experience helped her and the races under her belt helped her. When she did break her maiden, she did it as we expected her to.”

Bred in Kentucky by Oak Lodge Bloodstock, Traffic Lane was purchased for $95,000 from the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale from the Blandford Stud consignment and is the second offspring out of the Quality Road mare Katie Lane.

With Jose Lezcano aboard, Traffic Lane will emerge from post 4.

The Pletcher-Repole combo will also be represented by New York homebred Coffee Bar, who is entered off two weeks' rest from an 8 ¼-length maiden win on January 10 going a one-turn mile at Aqueduct.

Also a daughter of Outwork, Coffee Bar was a distant third on debut, but sat a couple of lengths closer to pace in her maiden victory to draw off a decisive winner while registering a 73 Beyer.

Coffee Bar will receive the riding services of the Big A's current leading rider Kendrick Carmouche from post 2.

Trainer Chad Brown sends out Louis Lazzinnaro's The Grass Is Blue after a close third in the December 26 Safely Kept at Laurel Park. The chestnut daughter of Broken Vow won on debut for a $25,000 tag at Monmouth Park by 8 ½ lengths and defeated winners in a Keeneland allowance on October 4 over next out stakes winner Feeling Mischief.

Bred in Kentucky by Phillips Racing Partnership, The Grass Is Blue is out of the Aldebaran mare Shine Softly, whose dam was 1999 Champion Turf Mare Soaring Softly.

Jockey Manny Franco will pilot The Grass Is Blue from post 5.

Wonderwall was dropped into a $25,000 maiden claiming tilt at Laurel Park on December 19 off a pair of swift works and proved she was no morning glory with a sharp 7 1/4-length score.

Claimed out of that winning effort by owner Marcial Cornejo, Wonderwall posted a supersonic effort in her first start for trainer Claudio Gonzalez when romping by 10 1/2-lengths in a 1 1/16-mile optional-claiming tilt last out on January 8 at Laurel that garnered a career-best 75 Beyer.

Wonderwall will be ridden by Trevor McCarthy from post 3.

The Busanda is slated as Race 8 on Sunday's nine-race program, which has a first post of 12:20 p.m. Eastern.

NYRA Bets is the official wagering platform of Aqueduct Racetrack, and the best way to bet every race of the winter meet. Available to horseplayers nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at www.NYRABets.com.

The post Oaks Prep: Arrogate’s Half-Sister Diamond Ore Tops Sunday’s Busanda Stakes appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Maker Hopes ‘Old Class Horse,’ Former Claimer Aquaphobia Steps Up In Pegasus Turf

The day after trainer Mike Maker won last year's $1 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational Turf (G1) with Zulu Alpha, the groundwork was laid for one of his 2021 runners – United Nations (G1) winner Aquaphobia.

Zulu Alpha and Aquaphobia are among six former claiming horses that have gone on to win Grade 1 races for Maker. The trainer also is running the stakes-winning, Grade 1-placed Cross Border in Saturday's 1 3/16-mile Pegasus Turf at Gulfstream Park. That 7-year-old horse was purchased by Three Diamonds Farm at auction in 2018 but before then was running in $40,000 claiming races.

Maker didn't spend much time basking in the glory of Zulu Alpha's Pegasus Turf victory. He was on a plane the next morning to Houston, where he was running Paradise Farms Corp.'s Bemma's Boy in the John B. Connally (G3).

Bemma's Boy finished second, but Paradise Farms owner Peter Proscia and Maker still scored big that day. As they were at Sam Houston Race Park handicapping races at various tracks, Proscia saw a horse he liked in an allowance race with a $62,500 claiming option at Gulfstream Park that afternoon. Maker was well familiar with the horse, the then 7-year-old Aquaphobia. He'd tried to claim the horse for Zulu Alpha's owner Michael Hui for $25,000 in 2017. They lost the shake that day, but the trainer kept up with the horse.

“We were at Sam Houston, sitting around a table, and he decided to claim him,” Maker said of Proscia. “He was an old class horse that we'd actually had our eyes on for a long time.”

“Basically I'm a speed handicapper and I also watch the replays,” Proscia said. “We have a good group of guys we bounce it off, but the ultimate decision is Mike's…. He knew the horse. I liked the horse, even though he was on the older side, (but) Mike has been doing very well with older, longer turf horses and getting the best out of them.”

Maker's Gulfstream team executed the claim. Aquaphobia finished fourth at odds of 32-1, but none of that bothered Proscia. Aquaphobia now is owned by four of Maker's stalwart owners: Proscia, David Staudacher, Hooties Racing and Skychai Racing.

“There's no one gamer,” Maker said with an appreciative laugh of Proscia's willingness to go in for high-priced claiming horses. “He keeps money in the account. He's ready to pull the trigger before the entries come out.”

Proscia, who is in the marine fuel business, met Maker a few years ago after he claimed one of the trainer's horses twice, with Maker claiming it back in between. When Proscia wasn't having much luck with the horse the second time around, a friend who knew Maker suggested sending the horse back to the trainer.

“I called him up and asked if it would be OK,” Proscia said. “It didn't work out that well; the horse got hurt. But those things happen. It wasn't his fault. I ended up buying a 2-year-old with him at a sale, and we started to claim a couple. Next thing you know, here we are today. It's been a good run, and I hope it continues.”

They won Gulfstream Park's Old Man Eloquent Stakes in their first start with Aquaphobia, then had a pair of fourths in Grade 2 races in their subsequent three races before taking Monmouth Park's United Nations. Aquaphobia is Proscia's first Grade 1 winner and one of three graded-stakes winners. He joins $30,000 claim Bemma's Boy, who in his next start after the Connally won Gulfstream' Kitten's Joy Pan American (G3), and Keeneland's Valley View (G3) winner Stunning Sky, who was claimed out of a $50,000 maiden-claiming race.

“He sees something in the past performances and the replays, and together with the speed figures, you put it all together and say, 'This horse has potential,'” Proscia said of Maker. “Then he has a training methodology that he does, and I give a lot of credit to his help and his staff. And Mike's got the patience.”

Zulu Alpha, an $80,000 claim, came into his Pegasus off a victory in Kentucky Downs' $1 million Kentucky Turf Cup (G3) and a good fourth in the $4 million Longines Breeders' Cup Turf (G1). In his three races since the United Nations, Aquaphobia was a distant third over soft turf in Saratoga's Sword Dancer (G1), seventh in Keeneland's Sycamore (G3) and sixth by a total of only two lengths in Aqueduct's Red Smith (G3).

“His last race was good,” Maker said. “He got beat a couple of a lengths with a wide trip, so it wasn't bad. At Keeneland, I think he was a little closer (early in the race) than we would have liked for him to be. Having said that, I think he'll appreciate a firmer course like Gulfstream has. And I really think he'll like the distance.

“Zulu had a better resume,” he added. “Though he wasn't yet a Grade 1 winner, he'd won more races than Aquaphobia. Aquaphobia has the Grade 1 United Nations to his credit. It's a big difference.”

Aquaphobia, who drew post 7 in the field of 12 for the Pegasus Turf, is 20-1 in the morning line. He's being reunited with Joe Bravo, whose 2-for-3 record on the horse includes the United Nations and Aquaphobia's first stakes victory as a 3-year-old.

After his purchase by Three Diamonds at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky's July Selected Horses of Racing Age sale, the New York-bred Cross Border did not race for almost a year. His 16 subsequent races for Three Diamonds and Maker include four wins, five seconds and a third, including victory in a New York-bred stakes, a second in the Sword Dancer (G1) and most recently a second by a head in the Fair Grounds' Buddy Diliberto Memorial.

Cross Border is 15-1 in the morning line and will be ridden by Tyler Gaffalione.

“He's won from 6 1/2 (furlongs) to a mile and a half for us,” Maker said. “Just a very versatile horse. You can place him wherever you need him. He's just a real quality horse.”

As for Zulu Alpha, he has been sidelined with a leg injury but is expected to resume racing later this year, Hui said.

The post Maker Hopes ‘Old Class Horse,’ Former Claimer Aquaphobia Steps Up In Pegasus Turf appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights