America’s Best Racing has put together a slideshow of the 3-year-olds expected to compete in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve on Sept. 5 at Churchill Downs.
Tag: Racing
Mo Forza Makes Sparkling Return In Del Mar Mile Handicap
Bardy Farm and OG Boss' Mo Forza, making his first start in seven months, looked like he'd never been away as he powered past a good field of turfers in capturing the $152,000 Del Mar Mile Sunday at Del Mar near San Diego, Calif.
The 4-year-old colt by top stallion Uncle Mo out of the Unusual Heat mare Inflamed, scored by 4 1/4 lengths under Flavien Prat in the good time of 1:33.27 for the mile and, as the 6-5 favorite, paid $4.40, $3.00 and $2.40 across the board. He is trained by Peter Miller.
This was the 34th running of the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile and it rewarded its winner with a purse of $90,000, pushing his bankroll to $614,460. The bay has now won five of his 11 starts, four of those victories coming in stakes races, including the Hollywood Derby last fall at Del Mar.
“Peter (trainer Miller) and I talked before the race and we noted that there looked like a lot of speed in the race,” said Prat. “That turned out true. He told me he took his blinkers off and he was hoping for the best. I had a good trip; my horse was relaxed. Then, when I say 'Go,' he had a really strong response.”
“That gave me goose pimples,” said Miller. “I was just hoping I had him tight enough and ready to perform. These were a good group of horses, but he's exceptional. To see this horse back in the winner's circle is really exciting. He had a tendency to get rank in his races last year and wanted to run over horses, so we thought we didn't want that problem this year so we took the blinkers off. He's been working without them and I thought that if it doesn't work out I'm going to look like an idiot, but thank goodness it worked out. We think the Breeders' Cup will definitely be the end of the year with one race in between.”
Bardy Farm is the nom du course for former trainer and breeder Barry Abrams, who raced horses for many years with great success on the Southern California circuit. He is home battling cancer these days but this horse – who Abrams also bred – had to pick his head up for sure. His partner in the colt is Onofrio Pecoraro of San Diego.
Finishing second in the feature was Kelly Brinkerhoff and Bog Grayson, Jr.'s Restrainedvengence and third was Fox Hill Farms and Siena Farm's Royal Ship.
The riding and training stars of the day were Prat and Miller, who combined to win three races on the 11-race card. Besides Mo Forza they also clicked with Querelle ($4.60) in the 2nd Race and Worthy Turk ($8.20) in the 7th. Prat is now second-leading rider at the meet with 34 wins after 19 days of racing. Miller leads the trainers' list with 18 firsts. Prat has been Del Mar's top rider on three different occasions, while Miller has been the leading conditioner seven times.
The stakes win was the 10th of the meet for rider Prat, but his first in the Del Mar Mile. He now has 54 stakes wins at Del Mar.
The stakes win was the third of the meet for trainer Miller, but his first in the Del Mar Mile. He now has 32 stakes wins at Del Mar.
Nobody could solve the Pick Six mystery on Sunday resulting in a $89,465 carryover and a $19,171 Jackpot carryover when racing resumes Friday at Del Mar starting at 2 p.m.
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Gretzky The Great, Alda Score In Juvenile Turf Stakes At Woodbine
Two-year-olds Gretzky the Great and Alda shared the spotlight on Sunday as Woodbine hosted the $100,000 Soaring Free Stakes and filly companion Catch a Glimpse.
The 6 1/2-furlong sprints contested on the E.P. Taylor Turf Course at the Toronto, Ontario, racetrack, both ended in exciting finishes. They are local preps for the upcoming Grade 1 Summer and Natalma, a pair of Breeders' Cup Challenge Series “Win And You're In” one-mile turf stakes set for September 20.
Gretzky the Great was all class, just like his legendary namesake, in winning his first stakes assignment with Kazushi Kimura aboard for trainer Mark Casse and owners Gary Barber and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners.
In the Soaring Free, Gretzky the Great settled behind the front-striding Into the Sunrise through fractions of :23.16 and :45.51 before kicking into action down the lane. Gaining with every stride as the wire approached, the talented Casse trainee collared Into the Sunrise for the victory in 1:13.83.
Gretzky the Great paid $6.70 to win. He was sent postward as the 2-1 second choice to Victoria Stakes champion Ready to Repeat, who finished 1 1/4 lengths behind the top pair in third. Gospel Way and Exceed completed the order of finish.
The Ontario-bred youngster was a runner-up to Ready to Repeat in his career debut on July 12 and has now won back-to-back starts. The lion's share of the purse more than doubled his bankroll, which reached six-figures.
“I was so satisfied the last time and today that was the best performance of his life,” said Kimura.
Bred by Anderson Farms, the Nyquist colt is out of the multiple stakes placed Bernardini mare Pearl Turn.
Alda winning the Catch a Glimpse
Woodbine newcomer Alda later defeated 4-5 favorite Dreaming of Drew by a head bob in the Catch a Glimpse for trainer Graham Motion and owner/breeder Wertheimer et Frere.
With Steven Bahen aboard, Alda trailed the field of six fillies early on while Illegal Smile was pressed by Road to Romance on the front through a quarter in :22.20 and half-mile in :44.74. Meanwhile, 4-5 favorite Dreaming of Drew was biding her time in third behind the top pair.
While the rail appeared to open up down the stretch for Dreaming of Drew, she went outside of Illegal Smile to take over command with a sixteenth to go, but Bahen timed his own bid just right with the late-charging Alda, who edged out the favorite by a nose in a photo finish. The final time was 1:14 flat.
Sent postward as the 5-2 second choice following a maiden-breaking victory on July 9 at Belmont Park, Alda returned $7.30 to win. Illegal Smile settled for third 1-1/4 lengths back, while Emmeline, Road to Romance and Purrsuade Me completed the order of finish. Ostracize was a late scratch.
While the finish was too close to call for Bahen, he expected the big stretch run from the promising filly.
“I had talked to [Graham Motion] this morning and I watched her races yesterday,” said Bahen. “She's got a real big kick and we discussed that we should just be off the pack, three or four off would be nice. I ended up being a little further back than I wanted to, and she gave me that run she has.
“It was my first time on her, and she was pretty classy,” added the veteran reinsman.
Bred in Kentucky, the Munnings–Soldata filly now has two wins from three career starts with earnings climbing over the $100,000 mark.
Live Thoroughbred racing continues at Woodbine on Thursday with post time for the first of eight races set for 3:20 p.m. Racing Night Live begins at 6 p.m. on TSN with the two-hour broadcast covering action from Woodbine Racetrack and Woodbine Mohawk Park.
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‘She Knows How To Win’: Rushing Fall Gives Brown Fifth Consecutive Diana Triumph
Trainer Chad Brown continued his domination in the Grade 1, $500,000 Diana, watching as 7-5 favorite Rushing Fall ran down pace setter Mean Mary approaching the stretch and held off her rival by a neck on Sunday at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Brown won the 1 1/8-mile turf contest for older fillies and mares for the fifth consecutive year and record sixth overall as e Five Racing Thoroughbreds' Rushing Fall was forwardly placed by Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano, who kept her just off Mean Mary in second position through the opening quarter-mile in 23.60 seconds, the half in 48.38 and three-quarters in 1:11.90 on the firm inner turf course.
Out of the final turn, Rushing Fall made a strong move to challenge Mean Mary from the outside, with the rivals dueling in the straightaway before Rushing Fall gained the slight edge and hit the wire in 1:45.88, capturing her third consecutive graded stakes victory.
“The plan was to go to the lead. I broke out of the gate and tried to send to dictate the pace, but Mean Mary never took up and tried to take the lead,” Castellano said. “I tried to ride smart, it's a mile and an eighth and I thought it was smarter to save something for the end. Today, we were very fortunate.
“I rode her like she was the best filly in the race,” he added. “She's very tactical. She doesn't have to be on the lead, she can come from behind also, but I didn't see much other speed in the race, so we tracked the other filly every single step of the way and when I asked her, she responded. She knows how to win. I'm so lucky to ride her because she's one of the best fillies I've rode in my life.”
Rushing Fall notched her sixth career Grade 1 victory and won for the 11th time in 14 career starts overall and has been a Grade 1-winner at ages 2, 3, 4 and 5.
The 5-year-old More Than Ready mare, who won the 2017 Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, improved to 3-for-3 in 2020, adding to her scores in the Grade 3 Beaugay in June at Belmont Park and the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley last month at Keeneland.
Brown won the Diana's previous two editions with Sistercharlie, who defeated Rushing Fall by 1 3/4 lengths last year to give their trainer the exacta. On Sunday, Rushing Fall won for the second time in three career starts at the Spa, returning $4.80 on a $2 win wager and improving her career earnings to $2.55 million.
“It means a lot. This is a very important race that we point for every year and we've been fortunate through the years to have horses that really fit,” said Brown, who also won the Diana with Lady Eli [2017], Dacita [2016] and Zagora [2011]. “She's a great horse and she ran a super race today.”
Brown praised Rushing Fall's superlative 2020 campaign after finishing fourth in the Grade 1 First Lady in October at Keeneland.
“She knows how to win. She's a remarkable horse,” Brown said. “This is a horse that has won Grade 1s in four straight years. This is very rare company to do this. She's a horse of a lifetime for anybody – for an owner, for a trainer, for racing. We're very fortunate that [owner] Bob Edwards put her back in training. Her last race of the year last year was not good, she's worth a lot of money and they could easily have sold her and bred her. They gave her the time off and we sent her down to Stonestreet in Ocala like we do every winter where they do a fantastic job and then my team got a hold of her and took it from there. They executed like they always have, and the filly really came through. She's special.”
Alex G. Campbell, Jr.'s Mean Mary, the 2-1 second choice, finished 2 ½ lengths ahead of Sistercharlie for second. That marked the sixth time trainer Graham Motion has saddled the Diana runner-up, adding to a string of near-misses that includes Ultra Brat losing by a nose to Sistercharlie in 2018 and Quidura [2017], Shared Account [2010], and Sweet Talker [2006] all losing by a head. Aruna was beaten 1 ½ lengths for second in 2011.
“I got nice fractions early and then at the half-mile we started to get going,” said Mean Mary jockey Luis Saez. “Everyone came to me and she fought them. She got beat running.”
Sistercharlie, the 2018 Eclipse Award winner as Champion Turf Female, saw her bid to become the first three-peat winner of the Diana thwarted but still finished in third to earn blacktype for the 15th consecutive start. Brown said he's hopeful the effort prepares her for a return engagement in the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf on November 7 at Keeneland.
“I thought she took a nice step forward towards the Breeders' Cup today,” Brown said. “This course is very speed-favoring. It's hard to imagine a scenario, no matter what the pace is, where she is going to be able to make up that much ground. It's just the way it's played all meet.
“I can see her rounding into form right at the right time,” he added. “I was disappointed that she wasn't right there at the wire but not discouraged that can't get on track for the Breeders' Cup. It's a good step forward.”
Starship Jubilee and Call Me Love completed the order of finish. Secret Message, also conditioned by Motion, was scratched at the gate.
Live racing resumes Wednesday at Saratoga with a nine-race card that features the $85,000 Mahony for sophomores going 5 ½ furlongs on turf in Race 7 at 4:12 p.m. First post is 12:50 p.m with an allowance steeplechase race.
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