Tag: Racing

By Christian Abdo

A. Bianco Holding Limited's Pioneering Spirit stalked and pounced to a 2 3/4-length victory in closing day Monday's 65th running of the $150,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap, a listed race for 3-year-olds and upward going 1 1/16 miles over the firm inner turf at Saratoga Race Course.

Trainer by Linda Rice and piloted by Jose Lezcano, the 4-year-old American Pharoah gelding was claimed for $40,000 in March and has now won five of his last six starts, with his only miss coming just nine days ago in a respectable third-place effort versus Grade 1 company in the Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer at the Spa.

Pioneering Spirit put together a four-race win streak for Rice after being moved to the turf, beginning with a maiden claiming score in May at Belmont Park and extending through an optional-claiming win traveling 11 furlongs on July 27 at Saratoga ahead of his stakes debut in the Sword Dancer.

“The horse is just a dream. Every horse you claim should be that good. The ride Jose Lezcano put on him today was masterful and he's such a good rider. I was thrilled with his position,” said Rice. “We talked about it in the paddock, he said 'Linda, I need to be closer today', and he was right.”

Pioneering Spirit broke from post 2 and settled at the rail in third position behind pacesetter Bring Me a Check, who marked the opening quarter-mile in :24.19 with last year's winner, Emaraaty, stalking to his outside in second. Wit, the 9-5 mutuel favorite, tracked in fourth with multiple graded stakes winner Public Sector, who stumbled at the start, last of five.

The order remained unchanged through a half-mile in :47.94 but the field became more compact down the backside with Emaraaty drawing up alongside Bring Me a Check as Pioneering Spirit continued to save ground along the rail.

After three quarters in 1:11.43, the real running began around the far turn as Flavien Prat launched an early bid aboard Emaraaty and Lezcano found room to get Pioneering Spirit off the rail.

“He broke a little slow, but I got the position I want. He really ran on nicely. I had horse the whole way around. When I got to the quarter pole, I had a lot of horse,” Lezcano said. “I didn't know how much the others had, but I had a lot of horse.”

Pioneering Spirit spurted down the center of the track to lead Emaraaty by a head at the stretch call as Bring Me a Check attempted to battle back at the rail under urging from jockey Tyler Gaffalione. Public Sector, who trailed the field since the break, rallied from off-the-pace under Irad Ortiz Jr. with a sixteenth remaining and a mile in 1:34.77, a move that would be too late to catch Pioneering Spirit, whose lead extended to the wire in a final time of 1:40.69.

Bring Me a Check gamely held second by a neck over Public Sector, who was a neck better than Emaraaty in fourth. Wit, who was returning from a seven-month layoff, rounded out the order of finish.

Rice credited Lezcano for taking a more forward approach with the versatile Pioneering Spirit, who boasts wins ranging from one-mile to 11 furlongs.

“He [Pioneering Spirit] can switch it up from short to long, obviously this was a mile and a sixteenth. I had a little concern, but I thought maybe they could set a fast pace and he can close into it,” Rice said. “Jose Lezcano came to the paddock, he changed it up, he convinced me that we were going to be closer. He's a fantastic turf rider, so I just let him do his thing.”

Tyler Gaffalione said he was pleased with the Patrick Reynolds-trained Bring Me a Check's effort for second as the longest price on the board at odds of 7-1.

“Mr. Reynolds brought him over here ready to run today. He ran a big race for us and I was very pleased. I thought we would get away a little more comfortably,” Gaffalione said. “There was a little more pressure than expected. He definitely found more coming into the stretch, and really fought on nicely.”

Rice said she is considering a number of options for Pioneering Spirit, including the $500,000 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic (G1) on Sept. 30 at Belmont at the Big A.

Bred in Kentucky by International Equities Holding, Inc., Pioneering Spirit was produced by the Giant's Causeway mare Foundation Spirit. He was a $144,315 purchase by BBA Ireland at the 2021 Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale, where Mocklershill consigned hi.  He increased his lifetime earnings to $443,250 after banking $82,500 in victory and improved his lifetime record to 5-4-2 from 18 starts.

A $2 win wager returned $8.20.

The post ‘I Had Horse The Whole Way Around’: Pioneering Spirit Lands First Stakes Win In Bernard Baruch appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Big Everest, a three-time stakes winner beaten as the favorite in his last start; graded stakes-winning turf sprinter Cazadero, and Highestdistinction, who upset Big Everest in their last meeting, top a list of 20 horses nominated to the $200,000 Baltimore-Washington International Turf Cup (G3) Saturday, Sept. 16 at Pimlico Race Course.

The one-mile BWI Turf Cup for 3-year-olds and up is the headliner on a program featuring six stakes, three each scheduled for turf and dirt, worth $650,000 in purses on the penultimate weekend of Pimlico's boutique nine-day fall meet.

Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, Steven Rocco, and William Branch's Big Everest, bred in England and trained by Christophe Clement, was fourth by three lengths after setting the pace in the 1 1/16-mile Oceanport Aug. 13 at Monmouth Park. It was the second straight loss for the 5-year-old gelding following a four-race win streak that included stakes victories in the 2022 Artie Schiller and 2023 Danger's Hour and Cliff Hanger. The Artie Schiller and Danger's Hour both came at one mile, a distance where Big Everest has four wins from seven tries.

Willow Lane Stable Inc.'s Highestdistinction captured his stakes debut in the Oceanport with a come-from-behind 1 ½-length triumph at odds of 10-1, his second straight win for trainer Lindsay Schultz, who also nominated Shortleaf Stables Inc.'s Whelen Springs, a 9-1 upset winner of the Philip H. Iselin (G3) Aug. 19 at Monmouth yet to race on grass.

Cazadero, owned and trained by David Jacobson, has made his last seven starts sprinting on the turf, his lone win coming in the six-furlong Nearctic (G2) last fall at Woodbine. Most recently he was fifth by two lengths after breaking a step slow in a 5 ½-furlong optional claiming allowance Aug. 23 at Saratoga.

D Hatman Thoroughbreds and Kingdom Bloodstock Inc.'s Determined Kingdom is another multiple turf stakes winner, holding on for a front-running neck triumph in the 5½-furlong Meadow Stable Sept. 2 at Colonial Downs. John Bowers Jr.'s homebred He'spuregold is a stakes winner on both turf and dirt that most recently ran third in the Oceanport, beaten three lengths.

Also prominent among BWI Turf Cup nominees are grass stakes winners Alogon and King Vega; Tappin Cat, a multiple dirt stakes winner that was fifth in the 1 1/16-mile Find Aug. 19 at Laurel Park in his second grass start; Duke of Hazzard, a winner first off the claim for trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. in a Saratoga allowance Aug. 19; Doctor Davis, who beat Grade 3-winning stablemate Eons in a June 17 allowance at Laurel; and Doppleganger, upset winner of the seven-furlong Carter (G1) April 8 at Aqueduct that has never raced on grass.

Other Sept. 16 stakes scheduled for the turf are the $100,000 All Along for fillies and mares 3 and up going 1 1/8 miles and $75,000 Ben's Cat for Maryland-bred/sired horses 3 and older sprinting 5 ½ furlongs.

The All Along drew 25 nominees including the top three finishers from the July 15 Big Dreyfus at Laurel – 2022 Valley View (G3) winner Sparkle Blue, Italian Group 3 winner Atomic Blonde and Community Adjusted; multiple stakes winners Bipartisanship and Coconut Cake; Irish Group 3 winner Speirling Beag, beaten a neck when second in the Aug. 13 Searching at Laurel; Gold Digging Broad, promoted winner of the 1 1/16-mile All Brandy Aug. 19 at Laurel; and Milagrosa Surena, a Group 1 winner on turf in her native Argentina.

Grade 3 winner Jaxon Traveler, third by 1 ¼ lengths in last year's race, just his third on grass; Matta, third by a length to Carotari in last fall's Laurel Dash; Prince Pere, third or better in 12 of 24 career turf starts; 2022 Maryland Million Turf Sprint winner Spun Glass; and Witty, a multiple dirt stakes winner that has run second in three consecutive stakes sprinting on the grass, are among 20 nominees to the Ben's Cat.

Jaxon Traveler's lone graded stakes win came in the 2022 Maryland Sprint (G3) at Pimlico, where he has three wins and two seconds in five starts. He is also one of 20 nominees to the $100,000 Lite the Fuse for 3-year-olds and up sprinting six furlongs on the main track, a race where he ran second as the favorite last fall behind subsequent Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1) winner Sibelius.

Cazadero; 2022 Gallant Bob (G2) winner Scaramouche; multiple stakes winner Coastal Mission, riding a five-race win streak; fellow 10-time winner Colonel Bowman; 2020 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1) runner-up Cowan; Doppelganger and Grade 3-winning stablemate Wondrwherecraigis; 2022 Maryland Million Nursery winner Johnyz From Albany; and stakes winners Hello Hot Rod, Little Roo Roo, No Cents, Recruiter, Stage Left and Threes Over Deuces are also nominated.

The $100,000 Weather Vane for 3-year-old fillies sprinting six furlongs attracted 21 nominations led by Alva Starr, winner of the Sept. 2 Prioress (G2) at Saratoga; multiple stakes-placed Awesome Pic; 2022 Our Dear Peggy winner Blind Spot; stakes winner Late Frost, most recently third in the seven-furlong Charles Town Oaks (G3) Aug. 25; stakes winner Opus Forty Two, second in the July 1 Delaware Handicap (G2); stakes winners Santa Fe Gold and Tappin Jose; Talk to the Judge, front-running head winner at odds of 9-1 in the seven-furlong Miss Disco July 29 at Laurel; and Yesternight, runner-up in the Aug. 22 Cathryn Sophia to Delaware Handicap winner Foggy Night.

Completing the stakes action is the $75,000 Shine Again going six furlongs for fillies and mares 3 and up which have never won an open sweepstakes. Among the 21 nominees are Arizona-bred stakes winner Alberta Sun; Bourbon Wildcat, runner-up in the Jan. 21 Geisha at Laurel; Intrepid Daydream, third in the one-mile Caesar's Wish July 15 at Laurel; Late Frost; Mama G's Wish, a winner of two straight as well as the Delaware-certified Lewes last summer at Delaware Park; Moody Woman, third in the Feb. 18 Barbara Fritchie (G3); nine-time winner Self Isolation; Six the Hard Way, third in the April 15 Weber City Miss; and Talk to the Judge.

Pimlico's fall meet is scheduled to open Sept. 8 and run Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Sept. 24.

The post BWI Turf Cup Anchors Six Stakes At Pimlico Sept. 16 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The chestnut 3-year-old colt Conclude, owned by the partnership of Little Red Feather Racing, Madaket Stables, and Bret Jones, hung tough late to tally by a head Sunday at Del Mar in the 78th edition of the Caesars Sportsbook Del Mar Derby.

Hector Berrios gave the son of Collected a well-timed ride and finished the nine furlongs on turf in 1:48.61. Trainer Phil D'Amato saddled the winner, who earned a first prize of $180,000 from the gross purse of $302,000 in the Grade 2 headliner for sophomores. The race is considered the championship event for 3-year-old males during the Del Mar meeting.

Finishing second was Red Baron's Barn and Rancho Temescal's Maltese Falcon, who closed stoutly through the lane to just miss. He was a length ahead of CYBT, McLean Racing Stables, Gevertz, Nentwig and Pagano's Almendares.

Conclude, who had won the opening day Caesars Sportsbook Oceanside Stakes, won his third straight race and fourth overall and increased his bankroll to $359,600. He paid $4.20 to win as the 11-10 race favorite.

Earlier on the card, a racing rarity occurred when trainer Bob Baffert's two horses in the Shared Belief Stakes dead-heated for the victory.

Pegram/Watson/Weitman's Tahoe Sunrise and Sunny Brook Stables' Mr Fisk finished exactly even on the wire and both were awarded the victory in the $125,500 stakes for 3-year-olds. They ran the mile on dirt in 1:37.33 with Victor Espinoza up on Tahoe Sunrise and Juan Hernandez aboard Mr Fisk.

The winning horses each received $50,000 as their shares of the purse.

Finishing third, eight lengths farther back, was C R K Stable's Smart Mo.

Tahoe Sunrise paid $3.00 for the win. Mr Fisk returned $2.80.

Baffert previously had been involved in a dead-heat stakes victory in the De Anza Stakes at Del Mar in 1992 when his horse Wheelers Oil tied with Boss Soss, trained by Jack Haynes.

Racing will resume at Del Mar on Labor Day Monday with a first post at 1:30 p.m.

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HECTOR BERRIOS (Conclude, winner) – “I had a good trip, all the way. He was relaxed and that's the best. Then when we turned for home, I said 'Vamoose!' And he really took off from there.”

PHIL D'AMATO (Conclude, winner) – “A masterful ride by Hector (Berrios), letting that other horse go and then making that move at the three-quarter pole to get him comfortable on the lead. He's tough horse. The mile and an eighth is where he wants to be at. Anywhere in that mile to mile and an eighth range he's going to be a top class horse down the road.”

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FRACTIONS:  :23.91  :47.40  1:12.20  1:36.68  1:48.61

The stakes win was the fifth of the session for rider Berrios and the sixth for trainer D'Amato.

Rider Berrios was winning his first Caesars Sportsbook Del Mar Derby and his ninth overall stakes at Del Mar.

Trainer D'Amato was winning his second Caesars Sportsbook Del Mar Derby (Midnight Storm, 2014) and his 50th overall stakes at Del Mar.

The winning owners are Little Red Feather Racing, Madaket Stables, and Bret Jones.

The post Berrios Guides Conclude To Narrow Victory In Del Mar Derby appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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