Tag: Racing

Trainer Michael Stidham believes the “obvious spot” for Grade 1 Clark winner Proxy to make his next start would be Gulfstream's $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) Jan. 28, reports the Daily Racing Form.

“It's good timing at the end of January, and if he were to run well it's good timing to the Dubai World Cup,” Stidham told DRF of the homebred Godolphin-owned 4-year-old by Tapit.

The seventh running of the 1 1/8-mile event for 3-year-olds and up is the richest of seven graded-stakes worth $5.2 million in purses on the World Cup program that includes the $1 million Turf Invitational (G1) and $500,000 Filly & Mare Turf Invitational (G3).

Trainer Antonio Sano is also optimistic about the winter season at Gulfstream Park, and a big part of it could be Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth (G2) winner Simplification.

Owned by Tami Bobo and Tristan De Meric, Simplification was back on the work tab last week for the first time since finishing seventh Nov. 5 in the Breeders' Cup Mile (G1). The 3-year-old son of Not This Time, third in the Florida Derby (G1) and fourth in the Kentucky Derby (G1), is doing well, Sano said, and is being trained for a winter campaign at Gulfstream.

“He worked well, and the plan is to go [Dec. 31] in the Harlan's Holiday (G3),” said Sano, referring to the 1 1/16-mile event that has been used as a prep for the Pegasus. “He came out of the Breeders' Cup perfect. I was happy with the way he ran. We're going to see what happens in the Harlan's Holiday and after December we will think about Pegasus.”

Norman 'Lynn' Cash and Lola Cash's Double Crown, a two-time stakes winner at Gulfstream Park in the summer of 2020, could be headed for a return to South Florida for the Pegasus, as well.

Also trained by Lynn Cash, Double Crown most recently upset the one-mile Kelso (G2) at odds of 42-1 Oct. 29 during the Belmont Park at Aqueduct meet, just seven days after finishing fourth in the Maryland Million Classic at Laurel Park. The 5-year-old Bourbon Courage gelding is entered in Saturday's Cigar Mile (G1) at Aqueduct.

“If the invite comes, absolutely, we're there,” Cash said. “I would love that invite to come our way.”

Bred in Maryland, Double Crown won his career debut in a September 2019 maiden special weight for trainer Lacey Gaudet at Laurel. Following the race, he was purchased privately by Dean Reeves and sent to Kathy Ritvo at Gulfstream, where he won the 2020 Roar and Carry Back and was third in the Smile Sprint (G3) in successive starts.

On behalf of his family's Built Wright Stables, Cash claimed Double Crown for $40,000 out of a runner-up finish June 4 at Churchill Downs. He has won two of six starts since, including his 1 ¾-length triumph over favored Baby Yoda in the Kelso.

“It didn't just shock the world, it shocked me, too,” Cash said. “My wife and I weren't there. Her uncle had passed, so we were in Utah at a funeral. The funeral service finished, and we got to the car and got it pulled up, and they were a minute out from loading.

“My wife had no idea the level of race it was. After he won and she's watching the replay and hearing the announcer she was like, 'Oh my gosh, it's a Grade 2,' so she really went wild right there I the parking lot. Everybody probably thought we were crazy. We were jumping and fist pumping and everything else.”

Cash said his familiarity with Bourbon Courage, a Grade 2-winning millionaire raced from 2012-15 by Bourbon Lane Stable, led to him putting in a slip to claim Double Crown.

“The first horses that I bought back in 2011 or 2012, my bloodstock agent was Mike McMahon of Bourbon Lane Stables,” he said. “I was very familiar with Bourbon Courage. I followed him intently as I was just getting in the business as an owner. I followed his career pretty closely, and Double Crown being his offspring is pretty cool.”

Overall, Double Crown has six wins, eight seconds and a third with $548,265 in purse earnings from 24 lifetime starts.

“I describe him like this: he gives you the same 100, 102, 98 [speed figure] output every time,” Cash said. “He's a measuring stick to where if a race falls below that measuring stick he's going to win; if it falls above it, he's going to be right there.”

The post Pegasus: Proxy, Simplification, Double Crown Among Early Hopefuls For $3 Million Race appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Trainer Jack Sisterson took some friendly advice to heart and ended up owning Sea Hunter, a juvenile colt with a future who will seek to following a recent debut victory in an entry-level optional claiming allowance Saturday at Gulfstream Park.

“The horse was bought by a good friend of mine, Ben McElroy, who does a great job buying horses for Wesley Ward and Stonestreet, and you see what success they have had at Royal Ascot together,” Sisterson said. “With Ben involved, you're always a couple of steps ahead in the game when he buys you a horse. The horse came into the barn with higher expectations and he lived up to that in his debut performance.”

Sea Hunter, an Irish-bred son of Dandy Man, saved ground before making a five-wide move to the lead while graduating at first asking in a five-furlong maiden special weight dash on Tapeta at Gulfstream Park Oct. 29.

The Sisterson trainee is scheduled to make his turf debut in Saturday's Race 3, a five-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds.

“We thought he'd be one who would like the faster turf in America, and that's why we decided to bring him to the United States to run,” Sisterson said. “We're excited to get him on the firm turf at Gulfstream because he worked so well on the firm turf at Palm Meadows the other day.”

Sisterson will saddle Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, Steven Rocco and William Branch's Baby Bill for the first time prior to Saturday's Race 4, a 6 ½ maiden special weight race for 2-year-olds on the main track. The gelded son of Gormley finished second in both of his first two career starts for trainer Norm Casse at Churchill Downs before being privately purchased and transferred to Sisterson.

“We were able to breeze him once over the dirt at Palm Meadows and he did that extremely well. He's a big, beautiful horse,” Sisterson said. “Ideally, we wanted to run him in the one-turn maiden, but that didn't fill. But he sprinted twice at Churchill. We thought this race would benefit him. He's bred to go further. His first two runs at Churchill were very good. We're excited to get him going on Saturday.

Sisterson saddled Calumet's What Say Thee for a long-awaited maiden victory last Saturday in a mile-and-70-yard race on Tapeta at Gulfstream.

“He's always been a stakes horse from Day 1. I think less than a victory last week would have been disappointing because of the way he trained. He's always trained like a stakes horse,” Sisterson said.

The 4-year-old son of Into Mischief finished fourth in his debut at Gulfstream in February 2021 before going to the sidelines for a year and a half. He came back to finish a troubled third in a maiden special weight race at Del Mar Sept. 3, earning a berth in the Oct. 1 Japan Cup at Laurel Park. Unfortunately, the stakes was taken off the turf onto a sloppy track, and What Say Thee Struggled. Back on the turf, he lived up to expectations.

“We'll check the condition book in January to see if there's a mile-and-three-eighths or mile-and-a-half allowance for him to get him stretching out,” Sisterson said. “Then, we're looking at the McKnight on Pegasus Day for him.”

The $200,000 W.L. McKnight (G3) is a 1 ½-mile turf stakes for 4-year-olds and up Jan. 28 on the undercard of the $3 million Pegasus World Cup (G1).

The post Jack Sisterson Excited To Get 2-Year-Old Maiden Winner Sea Hunter On Turf appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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A German-trained horse is yet to win on Hong Kong's most significant race day, but if the enthusiasm of an increasingly successful Munich-based trainer is any guide, Mendocino could alter that historical lapse in the HK$22 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m, or 1 1/2 miles) at Sha Tin on Dec. 11.

It was Mendocino who gave Sarah Steinberg her first G1 winner in September's Grosser Preis von Baden (2400m, or 1 1/2 miles), Germany's most prestigious race.

The emotion she admitted showing afterwards was not just for that reason or for the fact that the winning jockey René Piechulek is her partner, it was also for the qualities Mendocino showed in defeating 2021 G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Torquator Tasso and German Derby winner Sammarco in what developed into a rousing three-way speed battle up the Baden-Baden straight.

Steinberg's attachment to this horse goes back to when she purchased Mendocino at the Baden-Baden yearling sales.

“I loved him at first sight. And I've ridden him every day since he was a baby,” she said.

The trainer adds that Mendocino can be tricky and that the only other person to partner him is Piechulek, when the colt does fast work on turf.

Of this intercontinental challenge with Mendocino, who is due to arrive in Hong Kong on Friday, Dec. 2, she adds: “We are a small stable and organizing something like this is not easy but I'm feeling confident otherwise we wouldn't make such a journey. If everything goes well he will show that he is a very good horse and a real fighter.

“He is not a typical son of Adlerflug, and doesn't need soft ground and he certainly didn't like the very testing ground in the Arc. He does everything with such power and that doesn't work with heavy ground.”

Mendocino finished 12th behind Alpinista in October's G1 Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe but, on much more suitable conditions in Munich the previous November, he had come close to interrupting the G1 winning spree of that brilliant mare when just three quarters of a length behind Alpinista in the Grosser Preis Von Bayern (2400m, or 1 1/2 miles).

Sarah Steinberg rode winners as an apprentice jockey but training was what she really wanted to pursue, starting that career in 2015 with 15 horses (now she trains about 30) with 124 winners so far, including a massive 14 at Group level.

Many of the stable's victories have occurred after long road journeys westwards to the mostly more rewarding prizes in France, Steinberg's first Group success coming at Nantes in 2016 with her latest winner coming at Chantilly (a 10-hour journey from Munich) late in November.

Steinberg says: “I have an office manager but everything with the horses I do myself. I ride them, I organize their daily schedule, feed them and then I travel with them. I don't think I'm a typical trainer.”

She is employed by Mendocino's 90-year-old owner Hans-Gerd Wernicke (Stall Salzburg).

Steinberg says: “He comes to the stable to visit the horses once a week. He absolutely loves horseracing.”

Owner Wernicke, trainer Steinberg, and jockey Piechulek (most famous for his 72/1 victory on Torquator Tasso in the 2021 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe) will arrive in Hong Kong next week on what they all hope will be a very exciting expedition.

The post Germany’s Mendocino Has Trainer Sarah Steinberg ‘Feeling Confident’ Ahead Of History-Making Bid In Hong Kong appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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A total of six horses from one barn at Churchill Downs have now tested positive for EHV-1, according to a statement the track gave bloodhorse.com. The first case was a symptomatic horse, which has since been transferred to an equine hospital. The other five cases resulted from Wednesday's PCR testing; all are asymptomatic and have been isolated away from the remaining eight in that barn.

Churchill is now restricting the movement of horses off it's backstretch, but that rule was not in place Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. when Grade 1 Cigar Mile entrant O Besos shipped out of trainer Greg Foley's barn en route to Aqueduct. Several hours later, reports the Daily Racing Form, NYRA stakes coordinator Andrew Byrnes called Foley to inform him that NYRA was no longer accepting horses from Churchill Downs onto the backstretch. O Besos, whose van was at that point halfway to New York, would have to be scratched.

“Very disappointing, we've been planning on it and I just had to call the owners to cancel their plans,” Foley told DRF. “I thought we had a big shot, it was a good spot for a Grade 1, $750,000. Very disappointing, but that's the way it is.”

O Besos was to be allowed to return to his stall at Churchill Downs.

“Churchill Downs is working closely and in conjunction with the Kentucky Department of Agriculture to ensure maximum effectiveness of its health and safety protocols throughout the management of this process,” reads the CDI statement given to bloodhorse.com. “The five additional horses that have tested positive for EHV-1 are asymptomatic but have been successfully isolated away from the affected barn where they will await a series of further testing. Continued testing of the horses with potential of exposure and those of the affected trainers is underway.”

Rusty Ford, equine operations consultant for the Office of the State Veterinarian at the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, said officials in other states have been notified to monitor other horses who exited the now-quarantined barn.

There are nine strains of equine herpesvirus on record, and many horses are exposed to some form of EHV with no serious side effects or symptoms. Three strains are considered serious health risks, including EHV-1, which may present with fever and respiratory symptoms and can also carry neurological symptoms and a risk of death. Symptoms of the neurologic form of EHV-1 include fever and nasal discharge, followed by lack of coordination, lethargy, head tilt, and inability to balance or stand. EHV-1 is highly contagious and may be transmitted through contaminated equipment, contact between horses, and on clothing or hands of humans working with sick horses. Veterinarians aren't sure how long the virus can survive in the environment, or how well it travels through the air. The Paulick Report compiled a list of frequently-asked questions about EHV-1 during an outbreak at Sunland Park five years ago.

The post Mid-Van Ride, O Besos Scratched From Cigar Mile; Churchill Issues Shipping Restrictions In Wake Of Six EHV-1 Positives appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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