West Coast’s West Sunset Skips Home in Rags to Riches

West Sunset (f, 2, West Coast–Vindicated Ghost, by Vindication) didn't let the Kentucky rain slow her down en route to a stylish coast-to-coast victory in a sloppy rendition of the Rags to Riches S. beneath the Twin Spires.

Coming into the race with a neck victory over a fast main track at this venue Sept. 16 after being forced to close from the back of the field, she took a diametrically opposed trip here, immediately establishing a clear lead right from the jump. Well in hand on a loose lead through both turns, she readily responded in the lane to register a 6 3/4-length victory over Gin Gin (Hightail), who got the best of heavy 1-9 favorite 'TDN Rising Star' V V's Dream (Mitole) for second.

 

A half to Bourbon Resolution, West Sunset has a 2023 half-sister by Maximum Security in the wings and is only one of four foals to the races for the mare. Vindicated Ghost is herself a half-sister to an accomplished fleet of runners including GSW Chelokee (Cherokee Run); MGSW & MGISP Salute the Sarge (Forest Wildcat); SW & GSP Mymich (A. P. Indy). This is the extended family of 14-time winner GISW Dismasted. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

RAGS TO RICHES S., $200,000, Churchill Downs, 10-29, 2yo, f, 1 1/16m, 1:46.31, sy.
1–WEST SUNSET, 122, f, 2, by West Coast
         1st Dam: Vindicated Ghost, by Vindication
         2nd Dam: Dixie Ghost, by Silver Ghost
         3rd Dam: Mississippi Dixie, by Dixieland Band
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN. O/B-Gary & Mary West Stables Inc. (KY); T-Brad H. Cox; J-Flavien Prat. $124,000. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $193,000. *1/2 to Bourbon Resolution (New Year's Day), GSW, $325,421.
2–Gin Gin, 122, f, 2, Hightail–Before You Know It, by Hard Spun. 1ST BLACK TYPE. O-Calumet Farm; B-Calumet Farm (KY); T-Brad H. Cox. $40,000.
3–V V's Dream, 122, f, 2, Mitole–Quay, by Tapit. ($130,000 Wlg '21 KEENOV; $190,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP). 'TDN Rising Star'.
O-MJM Racing and Magdalena Racing (Sherri McPeek); B-Mark Stansell (KY); T-Kenneth G. McPeek. $20,000.
Margins: 6 3/4, 2 3/4, 6. Odds: 7.86, 9.07, 0.19.
Also Ran: Candy Landy, Floored. Scratched: Shimmering Allure, Twirling Good Time.

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Churchill September, Fall Stakes Worth $8.31 Million; No Turf Racing at September Meet

Churchill Downs will host 26 stakes races worth $8.31 million during its upcoming September and Fall meets.

The 14-day September meet, which runs from Sept. 15-Oct. 2, will include 11 stakes races worth a total of $3.36 million. The line-up is led by the $400,000 GII Lukas Classic for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/8 miles and the $300,000 GIII Ack Ack S. for 3-year-olds and up at one mile–a Breeders' Cup “Win and You're In” race for the GI Dirt Mile–Oct. 1.

The meeting also hosts the first races on the Road to the 2023 Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks series with the $300,000 GIII Iroquois S. and $300,000 GIII Pocahontas S. on Sept. 17. Both races will also award points on the Breeders' Cup “Dirt Dozen” series for their respective divisions.

Racing during the September meet will be run exclusively on the dirt course to allow the track's new Bermuda-hybrid turf course to continue to mature to its ultimate potential. Turf racing is projected to return for the Fall Meet, which will be held Oct. 30-Nov. 27.

The Fall meet will host 15 stakes events worth $4.95 million. The meet is anchored by the Nov. 25 $750,000 GI Clark S.

Churchill will host its 18th annual “Stars of Tomorrow” during the Fall meet, with the $200,000 GIII Street Sense S. and the $200,000 Rags to Riches S. highlighting the opening-day card Oct. 30 and the $400,000 GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. and $400,000 GII Golden Rod S. scheduled for Nov. 26.

Churchill Downs will host the Claiming Crown Championship Series for the first time Nov. 12. The 24th renewal of the event will feature eight races worth $1.05 million.

The condition book of scheduled races for the September meet was released online Monday and features 135 races and a record $13,791,000 in prize money, for a daily average of $985,071. Maiden special weight races have a $120,000 purse, while allowance races range from $127,000 to $141,000.

All purses, including claiming races, include prize money from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund.

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Bloodlines: Good Timing, Quick Decisions Brought Sandstone To The Winner’s Circle

On the day that Churchill Downs ran the Street Sense Stakes, Oct. 31, a daughter of the 2006 juvenile champion and 2007 Kentucky Derby winner won the companion feature, the Rags to Riches Stakes for fillies.

Bred in Kentucky by Mark and Cindy Stansell, Sandstone won her stakes debut by 10 3/4 lengths in 1:44.18, which was faster than the colts ran in the Street Sense Stakes at the same distance.

Sandstone is the last foal out of her dam, the Seattle Slew mare Seattle Shimmer, who was 20 when she foaled this stakes winner.

Mark Stansell said, “Sandstone was one of the very best physicals out of her dam, who always threw nice babies. Seattle Shimmer had a very nice hip and would put that hip on foals, even from stallions who were a little light behind,” and due to the yearling filly's appeal on physique and pedigree, the breeders got $165,000 for Sandstone at the 2020 Keeneland September sale.

“This was a really nice yearling,” Stansell said. “One reason she only brought $165,000 was that the foals from old mares, anything over 15, are not highly sought after [in the commercial market]. If that mare hadn't been old, Sandstone would have brought more. She was that nice.”

Now a winner in two of her three starts, the Rags to Riches was the stakes debut for Sandstone, and she became her dam's first stakes winner. Two earlier foals, Sway Away (Afleet Alex) and Shaken (Uncle Mo), placed in Grade 2 company. Sway Away was second in the G2 Best Pal, San Vicente, and San Carlos; Shaken was third in the G2 Rachel Alexandra.

Yet, they almost never were.

The dam of these three talented stakes horses, as well as other good winners, was one of the last foals by Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew (by Bold Reasoning), himself a foal of 1974. The near-black champion had problems with his neck vertebrae late in life that required surgery and curtailed the last years of his stud career.

A foal of 1999, Seattle Shimmer was bred in Kentucky by Albert Finney, and Mickey and Karen Taylor. She and her stakes-winning dam received the best of care, but when the filly was born, she was “severely contracted as a foal,” said Kentucky horseman Bob Sliger, who spent many years with the Eaton Farms yearling division.

Contracted tendons are not rare among Thoroughbred foals, and the condition's name accurately describes the problem. A foal's long tendons are tightly contracted, rather than loose and flexible, when the foal is born. This can cause considerable problems with standing and nursing, and if not addressed appropriately and as early as possible, the malady has the potential to cripple a foal for life.

Seattle Shimmer, however, was in good hands.

Sliger continued: “We used PVC pipe to help get her legs straightened out, and it helped her a lot. She was broken but never went into training. That's when they had just lost Seattle Slew, and they went out of the horse business. When they did that, they gave the mare to me.”

For Sliger and former Eaton Farms manager Billy Tillery, Seattle Shimmer bred some very nice prospects, including Sway Away.

Sliger recalled that “Mark had bought three foals out of the mare off me and was crazy about Seattle Shimmer. She was a beautiful mare, a kind and lovely mare. Just a sweetheart, and Mark really wanted the mare.”

Stansell said he “was buying weanlings to resell as yearlings, and I got to know Bob after buying the third foal out of the mare, went and bought mare and the foal at side, who turned out to be Sway Away.

“She is buried in my back yard, he continued. “I have 87 acres, but buried her there.”

To produce Sandstone, Stansell “bred her to Street Sense, and this was one of the very best physicals out of the mare.”

In addition to the other foals out of Seattle Shimmer, Stansell sold, then repurchased and raced Shaken, and the half-sister to Sandstone “has an exceptional Vino Rosso foal in Book 2 of the November sale,” the breeder concluded.

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Street Sense Filly Romps in Rags to Riches

Sandstone earned her second straight open-lengths win under the Twin Spires with a wire-to-wire victory in the Rags to Riches S. at Churchill Sunday. The dark bay filly  took the lead early was shadowed by favorite Yuugiri through an opening quarter in :24.51. Favored Yuugiri rolled up to challenge the pacesetter after a half in :48.55 and appeared to gain a slim advantage in upper stretch, but Sandstone battled back and powered clear to an authoritative victory.

Freshened up after finishing a well-beaten fifth in her 5 1/2-furlong debut at Churchill May 28, Sandstone returned with a romping nine-length victory over one mile in Louisville Oct. 3.

RAGS TO RICHES S., $197,500, Churchill Downs, 10-31, 2yo, f, 1 1/16m, 1:44.18, ft.
1–SANDSTONE, 122, f, 2, by Street Sense
                1st Dam: Seattle Shimmer, by Seattle Slew
                2nd Dam: Golden Gale, by Summer Squall
                3rd Dam: Gold Whirl, by Mr. Prospector
($165,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). 1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN. O-Susan
Moulton; B-Mark & Cindy Stansell (KY); T-Kenneth G. McPeek;
J-Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr. $127,500. Lifetime Record:
3-2-0-0, $199,960. *1/2 to Sway Away (Afleet Alex), MGSP,
$206,800.
2–Yuugiri, 122, f, 2, Shackleford–Yuzuru, by Medaglia d'Oro.
O/B-Sekie & Tsunebumi Yoshihara (KY); T-Rodolphe Brisset.
$40,000.
3–Mama Rina, 122, f, 2, Gormley–Honky Tonk Rose, by Forest
Wildcat. ($31,000 Ylg '20 KEEJAN; $65,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP).
O-Harold Lerner LLC, AWC Stables, Scott Akman, Nehoc
Stables, Paul Braverman & Magdalena Racing; B-Lee McMillin,
Randy Faulkner & Joe Travelsted (KY); T-Kenneth G. McPeek.
$20,000.
Margins: 10 3/4, 15 1/4, 5 3/4. Odds: 2.70, 0.60, 3.80.
Also Ran: Manasota Sunset. Scratched: Dressed.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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