Tag: Racing

After scratching from a 1 1/16-mile allowance race Friday because of an off track, 2022 Arkansas Derby (G1) runner-up Barber Road breezed five furlongs in :47.40 Sunday morning for trainer John Ortiz.

The 4-year-old Race Day colt galloped out five furlongs in 1:00.60 over the fast surface.

Barber Road, who breezed with stablemate Ice Orchid, returned to Oaklawn with the goal of running in the $1-million Oaklawn Handicap (G2) for older horses at 1 1/8 miles April 22. But three consecutive allowance losses at the 2022-2023 meeting, and 10 consecutive overall dating to November 2021, have jeopardized those plans, Ortiz said Saturday morning.

“He's doing really well,” said Ortiz, who trains Barber Road for former Walmart executive William Simon. “He's been a horse that's always had bad luck in races. We're just trying to get over that hump. He needs to win. He hasn't won in over a year. I don't want him to become a herd animal because it becomes a herd mentality. They never learn how to win. I don't want that to be an issue.”

Ortiz said he will wait for another allowance spot for Barber Road, who, despite winning only 2 of 13 career starts, has bankrolled $697,810. The Oaklawn Handicap, Ortiz said, is still in play if Barber Road can quickly regain his 3-year-old form, when he also finished second in Oaklawn's Southwest Stakes (G3) at 1 1/16 miles and Smarty Jones Stakes at one mile. Barber Road ran sixth in last year's Kentucky Derby (G1) and subsequently seventh in the Belmont (G1).

“I mean, it's still a goal, but he's got to win,” Ortiz said.

The post ‘He Needs To Win’: Ortiz Might Scrap Graded Stakes Plan For Barber Road appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Trainer Rodolphe Brisset has a plan for Tsunebumi and Sekie Yoshihara's homebred Yuugiri and so far, that plan has worked to perfection after she moved to 2 for 2 this season at Oaklawn with a sharp victory in the Carousel Stakes for older females at six furlongs Feb. 25.

Brisset was using the Carousel as Yuugiri's audition for the  Madison Stakes (G1) at seven furlongs April 8 at Keeneland. Yuugiri passed the test, earning high marks from Brisset for her push-button style in a 3½-length victory over the speedy Pretty Birdie.

Yuugiri, who was ridden by Ricardo Santana Jr., dueled early with Pretty Birdie on the inside, dropped back on the turn, then ranged up on the outside turning for home. Yuugiri drew abreast of Pretty Birdie in midstretch and was pulling away at the finish. Favored Yuugiri covered the distance in 1:10.17 over a sloppy track.

“They ran :44 (for a half-mile) and he decided to take her back a little bit, gave her a breather and she re-engaged,” Brisset said. “We know she knows how to dig in. She won at a mile and a sixteenth. I told him, Ricardo, that it was up to him if he wanted to keep ding-donging all the way around. I would have been OK with that. At some point, somebody's got to give up and she likes a dogfight. She carried her speed going two turns last year, so I think seven furlongs, at some point, is going to be very dangerous for the others because she's got that speed to clear the field and she can dig in going further.”

The Carousel marked Yuugiri's third victory in four career starts at Oaklawn. She won the Fantasy Stakes (G3) for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles last April and her Dec. 30 allowance comeback sprinting. Yuugiri is 3 for 3 in her career sprinting (all at six furlongs) and will remain around one turn this year, Brisset said, in pursuit of a Grade 1 victory to enhance her broodmare value.

“It (Carousel) just confirmed what we knew,” Brisset said. “Obviously, she's fast enough to sprint six  furlongs, but I think seven furlongs can be even better.”

The post ‘She Can Dig In Going Further’: Yuugiri On Target For Keeneland’s Madison appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Surprisingly, winner of the Endeavour Stakes (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs on Feb. 4, is to return to the Oldsmar, Florida track next Saturday for the $225,000 Hillsborough Stakes (G2) for older fillies and mares going 1 1/8 miles on the turf, trainer Shug McGaughey said.

The Hillsborough is one of five stakes, four of them graded, on the March 11 card highlighted by the 43rd edition of the $400,000 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby (G3) for Triple Crown candidates. The Tampa Bay Derby, run at 1 1/16 miles,  is a “Road to the Kentucky Derby” qualifier, with the first five finishers earning points on a 50-20-15-10-5 scale toward eligibility for the Louisville classic May 6 at Churchill Downs.

Trainer Todd Pletcher, who won the Sam F. Davis Stakes (G3)  with Litigate on Feb. 11 at Tampa Bay Downs, is expected to send Tapit Trice for the race after his eight-length score on Feb. 4 at Gulfstream Park in an allowance/optional claiming contest.

Other Oldsmar oval stakes next Saturday include the  $200,000 Florida Oaks (G3) for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles on turf; the $100,000 Michelob Ultra Challenger (G3) for horses 4-years-old-and-upward going 1 1/16 miles on turf; and the $75,000 Columbia Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile on the turf.

The latest in a long line of McGaughey-trained Phipps Stable homebred stakes winners, Surprisingly ran down Argentine-bred Scotish Star by a neck in the Endeavour under jockey Paco Lopez.

Surpisingly, whose best previous stakes performance was a second on Dec. 26 at Gulfstream Park in the Tropical Park Oaks, could again face Pletcher-trained Scotish Star and third-place Endeavour finisher Marketsegmentation, trained by Chad Brown, in the Hillsborough, which is a sixteenth of a mile farther than the Endeavour.

While Brown (five) and Pletcher (four) have combined for nine Hillsborough triumphs, McGaughey will be seeking his first.

“I'm looking forward to next Saturday,” said McGaughey, who has breezed Surprisingly four furlongs on two occasions at his Payson Park Training Center base in Indiantown, Florida since the Endeavour. “I think this is a step up for her, but she has kind of exceeded our expectations and seems to be training well.”

In the Hillsborough, Surprisingly will bid to become the eighth horse to win the Endeavour and the Hillsborough in the same year. Three of those dual winners already were, or became, Eclipse Award champions (2016 Endeavour and Hillsborough winner Tepin, a Hall of Fame member, won Eclipse Awards as champion turf female in 2015 and 2016).

McGaughey believes Suprisingly will benefit from the extra distance, but isn't ready to compare her yet to any of the horses that have won both Tampa Bay Downs turf stakes.

She does seem to be improving with each start and is 4-for-7 with one second.

“I think having time off last fall helped her,” he said. “If she keeps moving forward, she can have a good year.”

McGaughey's success with Phipps family homebreds goes back decades, and their victory with patriarch Ogden Phipps's unbeaten filly Personal Ensign in the 1988 Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) at Churchill Downs is the stuff of legends.

Last year alone, horses with Phipps bloodlines won 11 Grade 1 races and 40 graded stakes in the United States and Canada, a feat that was accomplished by 24 different horses from 11 different Phipps equine families.

Surprisingly is a member of the first crop of foals by Claiborne Farm resident sire Mastery, who entered stud in 2018 with a 4-for-4 lifetime record after suffering a condylar fracture past the wire of the 2017 San Felipe Stakes (G2). McGaughey trained Surprisingly's dam Vagabond, a daughter of Arch who was 2-for-12 but would have been better except for physical problems, the conditioner believes.

Go back further to discover Surprisingly's third dam, Matlacha Pass, by Seeking the Gold, produced Grade 1 winners Point of Entry (by Dynaformer) and Pine Island (Arch), and Matlacha Pass's dam Our Country Place (Pleasant Colony) also produced 2005 Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) winner Pleasant Home (Seeking the Gold), and you begin to appreciate the benefits of a scientific approach to breeding stakes-winning Thoroughbreds.

The post ‘She Has Kind Of Exceeded Our Expectations’: Phipps Stable’s Surprisingly Looks To Complete Tampa Bay Graded Double In Hillsborough appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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