Tag: Racing

The handicap division appears to be a wide open affair this year. No Flightlines around to bully all the others.

Proxy, Art Collector and Last Samurai traded punches over the winter, while out west Defunded, Stilleto Boy and Taiba notched victories in the handicap division. In the spring Exaulted, West Will Power and Idiomatic entered the picture. Now with the summer comes the influx of 3-year-olds who survived the Triple Crown trail and are ready to take on older horses. They include Geaux Rocket Ride, Mage and Forte.

Plus, to just muddy the waters even more, Cody's Wish is planning to try the G1 Whitney at Saratoga next month to see if he can go farther than a mile.

So it will be a contentious next few months leading up to the Breeders' Cup Classic, starting this Saturday with the G2 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar, the local prep for the G1 Fanduel Pacific Classic September 2. Nine horses are entered in the mile and a sixteenth test led by Defunded.

The son of Dialed In is arguably the best handicap horse on the West Coast after he snagged the G1 Hollywood Gold Cup last out at Santa Anita in May. That followed a brilliant performance in the G2 Californian in April, a race he won by three lengths.

“Last year I ran him in the race (the San Diego) and he kind of lost it in the paddock,” trainer Bob Baffert remembers. “So we'll see how he handles it this year. He's doing well. There's a lot of speed in there, so that will be interesting.”

Defunded ran seventh in the 2022 edition of the San Diego Handicap after setting the pace to the top of the lane. Baffert says he's always been a tough horse.

“He's his own worst enemy,” Baffert says. “We had to geld him. He has always been really headstrong. He gets excited in the paddock and this is a tough paddock for him. So we've been doing a lot of schooling with him and he's getting better. He's improved with age.”

Baffert says everything has to go right for Defunded, but once it does, he is one tough customer. He won the G1 Awesome Again last year and the G3 Native Diver at Del Mar in the fall. He kicked off 2023 with a runner-up finish to Art Collector in the G1 Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park and followed that with a close third to Stilleto Boy and Proxy in the G1 Santa Anita Handicap prior to his win in the Californian.

Defunded is highweight in the San Diego at 125 pounds. Royal Ship and Slow Down Andy are next at 122 pounds.

Last year's San Diego Handicap winner, Royal Ship, returns to defend his crown. The 7-year old son of Midshipman hasn't won since his victory at Del Mar last summer but trainer Richard Mandella is confident Royal Ship will make a good showing.

Slow Down Andy returns to the scene of his biggest victory, the G2 Del Mar Derby last year. Granted, that was on the turf but his subsequent third-place finishes in the G1 Awesome Again and the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile show the son of Nyquist can handle any surface.

There's also Brickyard Ride, a speedy Cal-bred who will be stretching out. He did win the one-mile $100,000 Tiznow Stakes at Santa Anita in February of 2022 but he has run one-turn races since, winning the G3 Kona Gold both last year and this year. The 6-year-old speedball posted a bullet five furlong work last Friday and is expected to go to the lead.

“Defunded is tough,” trainer Craig Lewis acknowledges. “Maybe the best horse in the handicap division. We'll give him a target.”

Another horse of note is Tripoli, the 2021 Pacific Classic winner. The 6-year-old son of Kitten's Joy has only one win, an allowance at Golden Gate Fields, in the two years since his big victory at Del Mar.

The San Diego Handicap will be Race 8 on the 11 race Saturday card. Approximate post time is 5:30 p.m.

Here's the field from the rail with the jockeys and morning line odds:

1. Slow Down Andy (Mario Gutierrez, 5-1);
2. Royal Ship (Mike Smith, 6-1);
3. Tripoli (Tiago Pereira, 15-1);
4. Missed the Cut (Hector Berrios, 5-1);
5. American Admiral (Ramon Vasquez, 6-1);
6. Defunded (Juan Hernandez, 8/5);
7. Senor Buscador (Giovanni Franco, 12-1);
8. Piroli (scratched);
9. Tisquantum (Edwin Maldonado, 30-1), and
10. Brickyard Ride (Umberto Rispoli, 6-1).

The post ‘Headstrong’ Defunded Improving With Age, Tabbed Morning-Line Favorite In San Diego Handicap appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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For Mike and Vicki McGowan of Xtreme Racing Stables, their multiple stakes winner Sir Wellington has been a pleasant surprise. He fetched a mere $55,000 during Fasig-Tipton's 2020 Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, a year before the owners made Xtreme Gem a $625,000 session topper at the same post-Preakness Stakes (G1) auction.

While Xtreme Gem – a Tapit filly whose grandsire, Uncle Mo, was a champion and whose mare, Gomo, a Grade 1 winner – went winless in four career starts, the more modestly bred Sir Wellington has gone on to register six wins including stakes victories at 2 and 3, five seconds and one third and bank more than $400,000 in purse earnings from 21 races.

“He has absolutely exceeded our expectations,” Mike McGowan said. “He won his first race and I think at that time we knew he was a pretty good horse. It seemed like he was going to be built for the short track and not the long track, but we were OK with that.”

Sir Wellington can write another chapter in his success story Saturday at Laurel Park in the $150,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash, the headliner on a 10-race program featuring five stakes worth $500,000 in purses.

First race post time is 12:10 p.m. The De Francis, a six-furlong dash that attracted seven older sprinters including Grade 3 winners Wondrwherecraigis and Lightening Larry, is carded as Race 9 (4:53 p.m.).

Though bred in Louisiana, trained by Canterbury Park Hall of Famer Mac Robertson and currently based at Delaware Park, Sir Wellington is no stranger to Maryland. Five months after going through the Timonium sales ring, he ran second at odds of 12-1 to subsequent Grade 3 winner Jaxon Traveler in a six-furlong optional claiming allowance Oct. 23, 2020 at Laurel, his second career start.

A respective son and grandson of multiple graded-stakes winning millionaires Palace and Graeme Hall, Sir Wellington won the Louisiana Juvenile against state-breds at Fair Grounds in his 2-year-old finale, and defeated Jaxon Traveler and multiple graded-stakes winner Cazadero in the 2021 Gazebo at Oaklawn Park, his second start at 3.

“At the time Jaxon Traveler was on top of his game. Cazadero was the favorite in that race, and he ended up taking fourth,” McGowan said. “That was a fun race. I still remember that one.”

Sir Wellington opened his 4-year-old campaign April 1 at Oaklawn, his first start in 6 ½ months, and was sixth to Straight No Chaser, who came back to win the Maryland Sprint (G3) May 20 at historic Pimlico Race Course on the Preakness undercard. He has since alternated firsts and seconds, most recently finishing 1 ½ lengths behind Lightening Larry in the six-furlong Alapocas Run July 1 at Delaware.

“I think he's matured a little bit, even though he's 4. I wouldn't say he's a late bloomer because he had done pretty well early, but I think that he's gotten better this year,” McGowan said. “When we had him down at Oaklawn to start the year, he ran a decent race. He got stuck and ended up finishing sixth.

“Those allowance races at Oaklawn are pretty good races and when he came back the next time, he ended up winning that with a 103 speed figure from Equibase,” he added. “His last three races have been even above that, so he's improving.”

Sir Wellington's most recent win, a determined front-running neck allowance triumph May 25 at Delaware, came 19 days after he ran second to Count Fleet (G3) winner Skelly in the Lake Hamilton at Oaklawn, a race where he pressed the winner throughout but was unable to get by.

“With him, he needs to get out of the gate and he needs to be up in front,” McGowan said. “It seems like if you go through all his races over the last three years, if he's behind he's got a hard time getting up the energy to go chase somebody down. But, boy, when somebody's chasing him, he's usually in pretty good shape.”

Xtreme is based in Minnesota, where McGowan and his wife reside and where Sir Wellington spent last summer at Canterbury. This year, they decided to keep him with a small string at Delaware to take advantage of the numerous opportunities throughout the Mid-Atlantic.

“We made the decision after Oaklawn that we were going to go to Delaware and try to find as many nice stakes races in that region to get him in and get him racing,” McGowan said. “The trainer knows when he's in good shape and in good form and ready to go. He's had a few weeks since his last race, so he's probably ready to go.”

Kevin Gomez, aboard for the last two races at Delaware, returns to Laurel to ride in the De Francis from Post 4.

“We got beat by that Lightening Larry in Delaware [but] it was a pretty close race,” McGowan said. “Do I think Wellington is good enough to win this race? I do. I think that if he gets a good break at the gate, between him and a couple others it could go any way.”

Also Saturday, Nimitz Class goes for his fifth straight stakes win at Laurel in the $100,000 Deputed Testamony for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/8 miles. He captured the 2022 Robert T. Manfuso and opened this year with victories in the John B. Campbell, Harrison E. Johnson Memorial and Native Dancer before having his overall win streak snapped at five in the June 17 Salvator Mile (G3) at Monmouth Park.

Stablemates Princess Kokachin and Street Lute, who have combined to win 22 races, 10 stakes and $1.168 million in purses from 49 starts, and Grade 3-placed Beguine are entered in the Alma North, a 6 ½-furlong sprint for fillies and mares 3 and older.

Rounding out the stakes action is a pair of $75,000 events for Maryland-bred/sired horses sprinting seven furlongs – the Star de Naskra for 3-year-olds with a field that includes multiple stakes winner Coffeewithchris and the improving It's Viper, and Miss Disco for 3-year-old fillies featuring the return of Maryland's 2022 juvenile filly champion Malibu Moonshine.

In addition to a stakes-filled program, Laurel will also serve up Tacos & Tequila starting at 1 p.m. in the apron tent. Individual tickets cost $50 and include all you can eat tacos; margaritas; non-alcoholic beverages; $2 betting voucher; daily program and a front-row seat to live racing action.

Persons must be 21 and older to attend. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit: https://am.ticketmaster.com/marylandjockeyclub/tacosandtequila

The post Bargain Buy Sir Wellington Taking Aim At De Francis Dash appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The 50th running of the Eddie Read Stakes will take place at Del Mar Sunday, going as Race 9 on an 11-race card. The day also will offer a “mandatory” Pick Six pool payout that easily could rise into the millions.

Eddie Read was Del Mar's very first publicist going back to the track's opening in 1937. He was a mainstay at the track for more than three decades and this race was named in his honor after his passing with the first running going off in 1974.

This year's renewal of the nine-furlong turf headliner has drawn nine older horses and the one to beat in the bunch might be the oldest of the bunch – the 8-year-old veteran Count Again, who comes into the $250,000, Grade 2 offering off a two and a quarter length tally in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on May 30 – though that was 14 months ago. The old pro by Awesome Again became a millionaire that day ($1,069,915) in registering his seventh victory, all on the green. He is owned by Agave Racing Stable or Sam-Son Farm and has been training forwardly for this comeback.

Del Mar's morning line maker Jon White was impressed enough with his prior record and current training to make him the 3-1 favorite in the headliner.

Umberto Rispoli picks up the mount on the bay for trainer Phil D'Amato and will break from the outside gate for the run down the infield chute on Sunday.

The chief threats to the top one appear to reside on the shedrows near him in the D'Amato barn. The conditioner also will saddle Little Red Feather and Sterling Stable's Gold Phoenix, Little Red Feather and Madaket Stable's Balnikhov and Rockingham Ranch's Masteroffoxhounds.

Here's the full field for the headliner from the rail out with riders and morning line odds:

1. I'mgonnabesomebody (Kyle Frey, 20-1);
2. Gold Phoenix (Hector Berrios, 4-1);
3. Balnikhov (Antonio Fresu, 4-1);
4. Masteroffoxhounds (Edwin Maldonado, 8-1);
5. Dicey Mo Chara (Juan Hernandez, 6-1);
6. Cabo Spirit (Joe Bravo, 5-1);
7. Handy Dandy (Ramon Vazquez, 12-1);
8. Mackinnon (Tiago Pereira, 8-1), and
9. Count Again.

The Read will have a post time of approximately 6 p.m. First post for the afternoon will be 2 p.m.

Sunday will also be a “mandatory” payout day for the track's popular Pick Six bet, meaning there will be no carryovers and all monies in the pool will be paid out no matter the number of winners. There is a potential that the pot for the wager could rise to the $2.5 to $3 million range. The Pick Six is conducted on the final six races on the card, in this case Races 6 through 11.

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L'Imperator, a 7-year-old French-bred son of Holy Roman Empire, went from maiden hurdle winner in May to a graduate of a $70,000 non-winners of two allowance in Wednesday's featured Saratoga steeplechase.

Owned by Ed Swyer's Hudson River Farms and trained by Arch Kingsley, whose relationship with Swyer goes back to his NSA riding days, L'Imperator has made the successful transition from flat, where he was a graded stakes winner on the turf of nearly $400,000.

On Wednesday, L'Imperator, with Stephen Mulqueen aboard, was content to sit near the rear of the six-horse field alongside his Hudson River Farms' stablemate Modus Operandi (trained by Keri Brion), as Merriebelle Stable's Beat Le Bon raced loose on the lead, dominating by as much as 15 lengths.

With a little more than a quarter mile to go in the 2 1/16-mile contest, L'Imperator began his advance, moving up to third, and taking aim at Beat Le Bon, who continued to maintain his advantage. Turning into the stretch, L'Imperator quickly closed in on the tiring leader, drawing away by 8 3/4 lengths. Despite setting those quick fractions and running so far ahead for so long, Beat Le Bon, under Graham Watters, remained 13 3/4 lengths ahead of the third-place finisher, Michael Smith's Hoffman.

The win was Mulqueen's fifth, all for Kingsley, and the trainer's sixth this season.

Racing resumes at Saratoga next Wednesday, Aug. 2, with the Jonathan Kiser novice stakes.

The post Graded Stakes Winner On Flat, L’Imperator Now On A Roll Over Hurdles appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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