Tag: Racing

Pine Brook Farm's Foggy Night notched her first career stakes victory in the $300,00 Delaware Oaks (G3) Saturday at Delaware Park.

With Paco Lopez aboard, the daughter of Khozan won by 1 -lengths. Opus Forty Two, with Daniel Centeno, finished second a nose in front of Miracle, with Trevor McCarthy, in third. The 4-to-5 favorite in the field of eight, Fireline with Dylan Davis, finished fourth. Foggy Night paid $30.40 as the fourth choice.

The Florida-bred trained by Robert 'Butch' Reid, Jr. covered 1/16 miles in 1:45.07 over a fast main track after stalking early fractions set by Opus Forty Two of :47.98 for the half mile and 1:12.14 for the three-quarters mile. Foggy Night raised her record to three wins from eight starts with earnings of $278,550.

Reid said he had always been confident with her ability and talent.

“She showed it as 2-year-old and the key is she can run a long way,” said Reid, who also won the Delaware Oaks in 2020 with Project Whiskey. “We gave her a nice freshening over the winter. She got a little stale toward the end of the year, so we gave her a nice freshening and measured her right up to this race. After the layoff we got a couple of nice seven-eighth races in her and this was her first time going a mile and a sixteenth. It worked out.”

Reid is not sure where he will run Foggy Night next.

“I really have not thought much past this race,” Reid said. “We did take some stalls at Saratoga, so that is a possibility. Of course, the Monmouth Oaks is another possibility. But we will design the rest of the summer after this.”

Foggy Night, who is out of the Stormy Atlantic mare Settling Seas, was bred by Brent and Crystal Fernung. Their Journeyman Bloodstock Services sold her to Pine Brook Farm for $20,000 at the 2022 OBS Spring Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale. The chestnut filly improved her lifetime purse earnings to $278,550.

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Dual Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse has owned the Selene in recent years, with victories in the last five runnings among his total of eight scores of the open 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-old fillies at Woodbine.

That streak was expected to continue in Saturday's renewal of Woodbine's Grade 3 test but Wonder Wheel, winner of last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) en route to divisional Eclipse Award honors and the 3-5 choice in the field of nine, spun her tires while her unheralded stablemate Solo Album romped to a 6¼-length score.

Solo Album had led throughout when winning her maiden in her sixth career start and local 2023 debut over 1 1/16 miles May 12 at Woodbine.

Those tactics were changed in the Selene as Sahin Civaci, riding Solo Album for the first time, took the Kentucky-bred Curlin filly off the pace after she broke from the outside in the field of nine.

“Before, in the paddock, Mr. Casse called and told me not to go to the front, there's going to be some speed up there, lay up close though, so that's what we did.

“I saw Wonder Wheel getting boxed in a bit, but he (jockey, Patrick Husbands) managed to get out and I was sitting there outside of him, I was waiting for him to move. When I saw he wasn't having much horse, I did make that move just to save up ground and not get caught out wide. While she was in the momentum, I just kept her with her momentum and she finished up really strong.”

Honor D Lady, one of three invaders trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., along with Be My Sunshine and Blind Spot, rallied from last and could not seriously threaten the winner but outfinished Tito's Calling for second money.

Tito's Calling, sent off at 45-1, was a half-length back in third as one of four Woodbine Oaks nominees in the field along with Fortyfiveseventy (fourth), Dolce Sopresa (fifth) and Speed Trap (ninth).

Be My Sunshine had led through fractions of :23.72, :47.14, and 1:11.20 pressed by Dolce Sopresa and Speed Trap, before weakening to finish sixth. Blind Spot also tired to finish seventh with Wonder Wheel ending next to last. Friends for Life was scratched.

The final time was 1:42.65.

The Selene is the final local stepping-stone for the Woodbine Oaks, a $500,000 race for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies, which will be run on July 23.

A $535,000 Keeneland September yearling sale purchase in 2021, Solo Album races for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Gary Barber and Steven Rocco. The win in the Selene seriously enhances the value of the filly, who is out of the Arch mare Summer Solo. She was bred by Payson Stud Inc.

Solo Album paid $21.10 for the win.

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Madaket Stables and Bill Strauss' Sopran Basilea notched her first North American victory in the $250,300 Robert G. Dick Memorial (G3) Saturday at Delaware Park, where her trainer, H. Graham Motion, won the event for fillies and mares for the ninth time.

With Jorge Ruiz aboard, the 5-year-old daughter of Night of Thunder won by a neck over Ever Summer. It was a half-length farther back to Parnac in third.

Sopran Basilea finished the 1 3/8 miles in 2:20.27 on turf rated as soft.

Previously, Sopran Basilea finished second in the Gallorette (G3) at Pimlico in her North American debut on May 20. In 2021 and 2022, the Irish-bred compiled a record of five wins, five seconds and a third from 15 starts, including two victories and three seconds in Group 2 and 3 races mostly at distances going 1 1/4 miles or longer in Italy.

“Jorge gave her a beautiful ride,” said winning trainer H. Graham Motion. “I honestly did not know she was this good, but off of her European form, she looked like she was. She ran beautiful. She tries hard, she is genuine and very honest. She ran super and she could not have done much better than that.”

Motion is not sure about her next start.

“I really have not thought much beyond this race,” Motion said. “Obviously, there is the Glenn Falls at Saratoga, which would fit, but we will see.”

Since the Robert G. Dick Memorial was inaugurated in 1997, Motion has won the race with Guilty Twelve (2017), Real Smart (2016), Caprice (2009), Rosinka (2007), Alternate (2003, 2004), New Economy (2002), and Bursting Forth (1999).

“This has been a really lucky race for us,” Motion said. “I feel very lucky, but it is not a complete surprise for us because we do train a lot of distance fillies, but we are so lucky. We have a great history with Delaware, so this is very special.”

Sopran Basilea returned $9.00 as the third choice in the field of seven and she covered the mile and three-eighths in 2:20.27 over a soft turf course. She raised her record to six wins from 17 starts with earnings of $512,145.

Sopran Basilea was bred by Adam Sexton from the King's Best mare Kathy Best. She sold for $317,225 at the 2022 Arqana December breeding stock sale in France.

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It was a big day at Ellis Park for trainer Greg Foley on Saturday. He won the $225,000 Kelly's Landing Stakes with million-dollar-earner Bango, an 11-10 favorite owned by Tamaroak Partners. That horse was expected to win. Foley capped off the day at the Henderson, Ky., track with a 46-1 upset of the Grade 2, $400,000 Wise Dan Stakes with Stitched. Not many people saw that one coming, despite the late addition of Flavien Prat in the saddle.

Stitched, a 4-year-old Mizzen Mast colt bred in Kentucky by Nathan McCauley and owned by McCauley in partnership with Michael Olszewski and William J. Minton, rallied wide around the final turn and into the stretch to win the 1 1/16-mile Wise Dan in a shocker by a neck. Get Smokin, who set all the fractions, gave way stubbornly down the stretch and held second by one length as the 4-1 second choice ahead of even-money Set Piece, who was last early and made a belated rally to be third. Completing the order of finish were Hozier, Camp Hope, Harlan Estate, Kittansett, Play Action Pass, Tut's Revenge, and Cowboy Justice.

Stitched, winning for the sixth time in 13 starts, paid a whopping $94.50 after completing the 1 1/16 miles on good turf in 1:40.97

Ten older horses lined up for the Wise Dan, one of six stakes on the program that was originally scheduled to be staged at Churchill Downs but moved to Ellis Park over safety concerns at the Louisville oval.

“It was a big day for sure,” Foley said. “Those are two nice horses.”

Stitched, who broke his maiden carrying a $30,000 claiming tag in January 2022, won a pair of non-graded stakes later in the year before finishing off the board in his graded stakes debut Sept. 10 in the G2 Franklin-Simpson Stakes at Kentucky Downs.

Stitched finished seventh behind crack sprinter Caravel in his 2023 debut in the G2 Shakertown Stakes at Keeneland, then was fifth in the Opening Verse Stakes at Churchill Downs on May 4, beaten three lengths. He then threw in a clunker, getting beaten nearly 15 lengths in an allowance/optional claiming race on June 1 that was meant to be a confidence builder.

“His first two races (in 2023) were good races,” Foley said. “His last race was not. We were disappointed.”

Foley secured the services of Prat earlier in the day.

“The horse went into the race great,” said Foley. “He looked like a million bucks, and we were lucky to get Flavien.”

He added that Stitched “shouldn't have been those kind of odds.”

Prat put Stitched in fourth position early, just a few lengths behind the free-running Get Smokin, who set fractions of :24.44, :48.10, 1:11.76 and 1:34.95 for the first mile. He made a four-wide move into the stretch, had a length to make up at the furlong pole, but was up in time for the win.

 

 

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