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Sadler-Hronis Racing Run 1-2 In Astra Stakes With Quick, Hermaphrodite

In the midst of a four-day riding suspension, Umberto Rispoli had but one mount on Sunday at Santa Anita and he made it count. In a furious stretch drive aboard the 9-5 favorite Quick, he held off her stablemate Hermaphrodite and Joel Rosario by a nose, giving Hronis Racing, LLC and John Sadler a one-two finish in the marathon Grade 3, $100,000 Astra Stakes. Rispoli was eligible to compete during his suspension as it is a designated race by the California Horse Racing Board.

With a hillside start, the Astra, at a mile and one half on turf, was run in 2:27.71.

In-hand while a joint third outside of her stablemate as the field came out of the clubhouse turn for its run up the backside, Quick was about two lengths off pacesetter Aunt Lubie. At the 3 ½-furlong mark, Rispoli stepped on the gas and was three-wide turning for home outside Aunt Lubie and Carpe Vinum. From there, English-bred Quick gained the advantage, while French-bred Hermaphrodite had to wait for room at the rail.

This proved the difference, as Quick survived by a diminishing nose right on the money.

“Pace was not that fast, so I had to make a decision to move,” said Rispoli, who is now tied with Rosario with a meet-leading four stakes wins through 12 racing days. “I knew where I sat and I know her, she could go through. She's a galloper, when she moved again, I got lucky it was by the wire. Sometimes you need luck in these things.

“…It's always a pleasure, it's probably not nice for him to hear it, but it's always a pleasure to beat a jockey like (Rosario). He's so respectful, so nice. I asked him after the wire, 'Did you get me?' because my head was down, and I was just focusing to try to win the race. He said 'No, no, you got it.'”

A solid third going a mile and three eighths on turf in the G3 Red Carpet Handicap at Del Mar Nov. 26, Quick, a 5-year-old mare by Olympic Glory, broke through the starting gate prior to the break but she remained the favorite in a field of nine older fillies and mares, returning $5.80, $3.60 and $2.80.

“She got the trip she needed today,” said Juan Leyva, assistant to Sadler. “She got to relax, not be on the front end. She settled well and got a perfect trip. I think our other filly (runner-up Hermaphrodite) might have been a little better, but it worked out great, we ran one-two.”

In garnering her first graded stakes win, Quick, who made her US debut here on Feb. 1, 2020, has now won two of her nine starts with Sadler and is 16-4-5-3 overall. With the winner's share of $60,000, she increased her earnings to $172,935.

Hermaphrodite saved ground at the rail throughout, but lacked room when it counted, from the quarter pole to the eighth pole, and indeed finished as though she may've been best. The 4-1 second choice, she finished 2 ¼ lengths in front of a late running Altea and paid $4.80 and $3.20.

Ridden by Abel Cedillo, Altea outran Lucky Peridot by a half length and paid $3.80 to show.

Fractions on the race were 23.98, 48.25, 1:13.59, 1:39.18 and 2:03.40.

First post time for a nine-race holiday card on Monday is at 12:30 p.m. PT.

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Thankful’s Victory In Ladies One Of Three Aqueduct Wins For Pletcher-Carmouche Tandem

Bass Stables' Thankful overtook Miss Marissa late in the lane to capture Sunday's $100,000 Ladies Handicap at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, N.Y.

Trained by Todd Pletcher, Thankful entered the nine-furlong test for fillies and mares 4-years-old and up from a wide-rallying third in the nine-furlong Grade 3 Comely on November 27 at the Big A when piloted by Big A winter meet leading rider Kendrick Carmouche for the first time.

Carmouche kept Thankful closer to the pace in the rider's return engagement, settling in second position outside of last year's Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan winner Miss Marissa, who commanded the opening quarter-mile in 25.01 seconds and the half in 49.96 on the fast main track.

Miss Marissa, with Jose Lezcano up, continued to dictate terms into the final turn as Thankful pressed into contention on the outside with Smooth With a Kick following her run and Ujjayi in range as three-quarters ticked by 1:14.95.

Carmouche asked Thankful for more as Miss Marissa led the field into the homestretch arriving at even terms at the eighth-pole and powering clear to score by three-quarters of a length in a final time of 1:53.51.

The victory marked the third win on the card for the Pletcher-Carmouche tandem, having previously scored with Too Boss in the opener and Bourbonic in Race 3. Carmouche completed a four-win day at the Big A by guiding Foley Square to victory in the day's final race. He now leads the winter meet standings with 34 wins.

Assistant trainer Byron Hughes was full of praise for the aggressive steer by Carmouche.

“I thought Kendrick put her in a good spot right on the pacesetter's outside hip and not letting them get too far away from her,” said Hughes. “I thought it was a good ride by him to be able to outkick the leader.”

Carmouche, who won this event in 2017 with Wonder Gal, said he felt confident heading into the gate.

“She warmed up good and was very happy, so I thought that was a big plus in my favor,” said Carmouche. “I wanted to ride her out of there to get up close to the pace. When I asked her, she responded really good.”

Miss Marissa held off a late surge from Ujjayi to complete the exacta by a neck. It was a further two lengths back to Lucky Move in fourth, with Am Impazible and Smooth With a Kick rounding out the order of finish. Bridlewood Cat was scratched.

Lezcano said a deep track may have been Miss Marissa's undoing.

“She's a good-running filly and she tried hard,” said Lezcano. “The ground was a little too heavy for her today. She got to hanging around the eighth pole, but she tried hard the whole way around.”

Bred in Kentucky by Profoal Partners, Thankful banked $55,000 in victory while improving her record to 6-3-1-1. The 4-year-old American Pharoah bay returned $7.90 for a $2 win bet.

Live racing resumes Monday at Aqueduct with an eight-race card headlined by the 100th renewal of the $100,000 Interborough on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The seven-furlong sprint for fillies and mares 4-years-old and up is slated as Race 7 at 3:50 p.m. Eastern. First post is 12:50 p.m.

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For Sleepy Eyes Todd, Invitation To 2021 Pegasus World Cup Better Late Than Never

Some 12 months after trainer Miguel Angel Silva first thought Sleepy Eyes Todd ought to be considered for the $3-million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1), he is preparing his star for the fifth running of the race on Jan. 23 at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.

It is something of a better-late-than-never scenario for Silva and the 5-year-old son of Paddy O'Prado owned by David Cobb's Thumbs Up Stable.

By late 2019, Silva, 45, was confident that Sleepy Eyes Todd was a graded-stakes caliber horse. He had come back from a five-month layoff recovering from an injury to win three of four starts. The lone loss was a second to Owendale in the Oklahoma Derby (G3). One of the horses that Sleepy Eyes Todd finished ahead of in the Oklahoma Derby was Mucho Gusto, who went on to win the 2020 Pegasus. Silva said he called to see if Sleepy Eyes Todd might be invited to the 1 1/8-mile race.

“We were trying to get in but it was too late, I guess, and, we didn't have the earnings to get into the race,” Silva said. “Finally, this year, it's a dream come true.”

Sleepy Eyes Todd added to his resume in 2020, winning four stakes at different tracks and earning $540,760. The most recent of his wins was a half-length victory over Firenze Fire in the seven-furlong Mr. Prospector on Dec. 19 at Gulfstream Park. All eight of his 2020 starts were at different tracks.

In his first trip to a Thoroughbred auction, the November 2016 Keeneland Breeding Stock Sale, Cobb, a resident of Pleasanton, Calif., spent $9,000 on the weanling out of a Wild Rush mare who grew up to be Sleepy Eyes Todd. The colt made his debut at Remington Park in Oklahoma later in his 2-year-old year in 2018 and came from well off the pace win by a half-length at 29-1. He has won eight of his 15 career starts at 11 tracks and earned $744,825.

“The horse has been great,” Silva said. “He's a sound horse. He's beautiful. He is easy to manage. He lets you have fun. At the end of the day we are in this business to have fun. This kind of horse gives you all that.”

Silva grew up in Mexico, where his father, also named Miguel Silva, was a famous trainer. After graduating from college with a degree in accounting, Silva entered the corporate world. It didn't take him long to realize he wanted to return to horses and racing.

“I worked in some big companies in Mexico until I couldn't take it anymore,” he said. “I'm just not a desk person.”

Twenty years ago, Silva emigrated to the U.S. and started working as a hot walker at the Bay Meadows racetrack in San Mateo, Calif.

“I was there for a few years then moved to Arizona and worked there as a groom. I started climbing the ladder. I worked for the (farrier), the tattooer. Helped the vet. Everybody. I was trying to do it all until I was able to get my license.”

Trainer Miguel Angel Silva

Silva launched his career early in 2009 with a one-horse stable. He acquired that first runner, Glitternmeporridge, by using his tax return to claim the gelding for $6,250.

“We won several races with the horse,” Silva said. “From there it has been an amazing ride.”

Now operating on a circuit that takes him from Texas to Oklahoma, Arkansas, Minnesota and Louisiana, Silva entered 2021 with 722 wins from 4,209 starters. Thanks to Sleepy Eyes Todd, he had his best earnings year in 2020. Sleepy Eyes Todd gave him his first graded stakes wins, the Charles Town Classic (G2) and the Mr. Prospector. Silva has 43 horses in training at three tracks.

Instead of the Pegasus, Sleepy Eyes Todd opened his 2020 campaign in the John B. Connally Turf Cup Stakes (G3) at Sam Houston. He ended up last in the field of 10.

“The turf race was a mistake on my part,” Silva said. “We ran him a mile and a half on the turf and the turf was really soft. For a first timer on the turf and a first timer going a mile and a half, I think that was on me.”

After Sleepy Eyes Todd finished sixth in the Mineshaft at Fair Grounds on Feb. 15, Silva decided to remove the blinkers. Since that equipment change, the horse has four wins, a second by a head in the Lone Star Millions and a tiring fifth in the Awesome Again (G1). Silva said the blinkers made sense for a while, but that after the two losses it was time for a change.

“He is too aware of what's happening. He wants to see everything,” Silva said. “In the morning when we train him he can go to the track and stand for 20 minutes and just watch horses go by him and not move one inch. He just watches everything and wants to be aware. It's something I took from him and he was asking me to give it back. I did.

“I always say that we lost that Oklahoma Derby because he never saw Owendale coming from far outside. When Mucho Gusto tried to put pressure on him and passed him, as soon he was able to see him, he came back and beat Mucho Gusto. He was asking for it and I was a little stubborn.”

Sleepy Eyes Todd has had a different jockey in each of his last nine races and that list will grow again when Jose Ortiz rides him in the Pegasus. While Silva said it is positive that the well-traveled horse has handled many tracks under an ever-changing lineup of jockeys, he said the downside is the lack of continuity can be a negative. Since his past performances show that he has speed, jockeys may try to put him in the race early. Silva said that approach hurt him in the Awesome Again.

“We believe that we don't have the speed to beat those kinds of horses in the race, so we wanted to be in behind,” he said. “We were too close in that race.

Silva said the horse has matured and his versatility makes him effective coming from off the pace, the style he used in his last two races, both at seven furlongs. In the Lafayette on Nov. 7 at Keeneland he rallied from far back over a very fast track.

“Then we go to Florida in the same kind of race and tried not to be in the lead because they burn out,” Silva said. “Save the horse and finish strong. That's what we like.”

With a win over the track in the Mr. Prospector and more experience, Silva said Sleepy Eyes Todd is ready for the Pegasus distance and another try in a prestigious Grade I race.

“I love the mile and an eighth,” Silva said. “He already won at that distance and he performed really good at that distance. We're just hoping that we have a different kind of trip. We don't want to be on the lead and hopefully we can pick up horses at the end.”

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Refreshed Ax Man Set For Sprint Return In Palos Verdes

REFRESHED AX MAN COMES BACK IN PALOS VERDES

Ax Man, who has not raced since last July when he was fourth of five behind stablemate Maximum Security in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap at 1 1/16 miles, returns this Saturday in the G3 Palos Verdes Stakes for 4-year-olds and up at six furlongs at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif.

He also is nominated to next Sunday's $70,000 Clockers' Corner Stakes at six furlongs on turf. He was fourth in that race last year.

A 6-year-old gelded son of the Candy Ride stallion Misremembered, Ax Man has been firing bullets for his return, among them a five-furlong drill in 57.80 on Jan. 2 and another at that distance of 58.80 on Saturday.

Misremembered, trained by Bob Baffert for his wife, Jill, and George Jacobs, won the G1 Santa Anita Handicap in 2010.

“Ax Man lost interest, so I backed off and freshened him up,” Baffert said in explaining the absence of more than five months.

Owned by long-time Baffert clients Patti and Hal Earnhardt III, Ax Man, who was bred in Kentucky by Hal, has six wins from 14 career starts with earnings of $297,917.

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