Ginobili Breezes Ahead Of Cigar Mile At Aqueduct

Graded-stakes winner Ginobili breezed five-eighths in :59.60 Friday at San Luis Rey Training Center in Bonsall, Calif., in preparation for next Saturday's Grade 1 Cigar Mile presented by NYRA Bets.

Trained and co-owned by Richard Baltas with Slam Dunk Racing, Richard McClanahan, and Michael Nentwig, Ginobili is named for Manu Ginobili, a retired basketball player who starred for the San Antonio Spurs.

“It was an excellent work,” Baltas said on Friday evening. “He galloped out in 1:12 and 1 and out in 1:26 and did it in a gallop. I was really happy with the way he worked. He was more relaxed than usual.”

The 4-year-old Munnings bay, a $35,000 purchase at the 2018 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, graduated at second asking sprinting six furlongs in August 2019 at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif., ahead of a fourth-place finish in the G1 Del Mar Futurity.

That effort was followed by a difficult run of form with Ginobili hitting the board just once in his next four starts to conclude his sophomore season in October 2020.

Ginobili was given a lengthy layoff and returned in May to finish off-the-board in a turf sprint and fourth in a main-track sprint in June at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif. But the addition of blinkers and a stretch out in distance in July saw Ginobili end a nine-race losing streak with a two-turn score in a one-mile optional claimer at Del Mar that garnered a career-best 104 Beyer.

Ginobili followed that effort by besting multiple graded stakes winner C Z Rocket in the seven-furlong G2 Pat O'Brien in August at Del Mar, a “Win and You're In” qualifier for the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile. Ginobili performed admirably in the Dirt Mile, completing the exacta behind Life Is Good.

Baltas said that Ginobili, who was gelded in June 2020, benefitted from a number of changes.

“I turned him out and we did a minor surgery [ankle chip] on him and gave him some time and brought him back as much sounder horse as a 4-year-old,” Baltas said. “The blinkers were a big deal and the stretch out – it's been a combination of things. We're excited that he's done what he's done this year and we're hoping that will continue.”

Baltas said Ginobili was slated to ship to New York on Saturday.

The post Ginobili Breezes Ahead Of Cigar Mile At Aqueduct appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Unbeaten Lady Speightspeare Makes All-Weather Debut in Bessarabian

'TDN Rising Star' Lady Speightspeare (Speightstown), three-for-three on turf to start her career, will try all-weather racing for the first time Saturday at Woodbine, going seven furlongs on the Tapeta in the GII Bessarabian S.

A sharp 3 3/4-length frontrunning winner debuting on the local turf last August to earn her 'Rising Star' badge, the Chuck Fipke homebred quickly backed up that distinction with a score in the GI Natalma S. The chestnut was sidelined for nearly a year after that, however, before returning with an optional claiming success in a turf route here Sept. 6. She recently was scratched out of the GIII Rubicon Valley View S. at Keeneland in favor of this spot.

The favorite on the morning line at 2-1 is Gary Barber's Our Secret Agent (Secret Circle), who looks for her second straight graded stakes tally. Breaking her maiden by seven lengths in her local bow last July, she repeated in an allowance a month later, but went winless in her next seven outings while placing in six black-type events. She broke through with the addition of blinkers last out in Woodbine's GIII Hendrie S. Oct. 23, running away to a 3 1/2-length triumph.

Other contenders include Gidgetta (Fast Anna), who moved from Richard Baltas's barn to the Josie Carroll stable following a fast-closing optional claiming win in a Santa Anita turf sprint Oct. 8, and Aug Lutes (Midnight Lute), who's notched four wins and a second in five starts to open her career and upset the Glen Cove S. at 19-1 on the Belmont lawn Oct. 15.

The post Unbeaten Lady Speightspeare Makes All-Weather Debut in Bessarabian appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Hop, Skip, And A Jump: Going To Vegas Brings Hundreds To World Championships

When Richard Baltas-trained Going to Vegas won the Grade 2, $200,000 John C. Mabee Stakes on Sept. 4, it was estimated that around 250 people – owners or friends of owners of the three partnership groups involved with the 4-year-old daughter of Goldencents – wedged into the winner's circle for the post-race picture and trophy ceremony.

It's easy to imagine what the scene might be if Going to Vegas would prevail in Saturday's $2 million Maker's Mark Filly & Mare Turf.

Oh, the humanity!

No! The humanity won't be quite as numerous, said Bing Bush, founder and manager of Abbondanza Racing, one of the three partnership organizations involved.

“That was a bit of a concern,” Bush conceded. “But you can't get in the winner's circle unless you have a lanyard and I think we have 30 lanyards apiece for each of the three groups. So it'll be down from 200 or so to 90.”

The John C. Mabee, at 1 1/8 miles on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course, turned out to be the middle leg, albeit an important one, on Going to Vegas' hop, step and jump into participation in racing's championship weekend.

Hop: The former $50,000 claimer won an allowance over the Mabee course on July 16, opening day of the summer meeting.

Step: The victory, by 2 ¼ lengths over Dogtag in the Mabee, which brought with it a $120,000 share of the purse, but was not a be-all for the connections. Going to Vegas was not made eligible as a foal for the Breeders' Cup and the daunting prospect of having to pay a six-figure supplemental entry fee remained.

Jump: The Grade 1, 1 ¼-mile Rodeo Drive on Oct. 2 at Santa Anita was a “Win & You're In” fees paid qualifier for the Filly & Mare Turf, and Going to Vegas went wire-to-wire under Umberto Rispoli, holding off Luck by a head.

So, on Sunday morning, Bush and some friends watched from the two-story temporary structure along the stretch as Going to Vegas went four furlongs in :49.20 in her final work for Saturday's race.

“Sometimes at the end of a work she tends to lug in a little bit, but today she didn't,” Bush said. “She did it very easily and galloped out very nicely, so we couldn't be happier.”

And on Monday, Bush and friends gathered in the Del Mar paddock for the post position draw for all 14 Breeders' Cup races to see Going to Vegas get the No. 1 post and be assigned morning line odds of 12-1.

“Under normal circumstances, I would be disappointed with the No. 1,” Bush said. “But under these circumstances, I think it's all right. She'll be able to use her natural speed to get a good position – she doesn't have to have the lead, but she might — and go from there.”

Bush resides in the complex of white houses on the hillside north of and overlooking the track just across Via de la Valle.

“I can walk here,” he points out.

If Going to Vegas pulls off an upset on Saturday, Bush – and 90 lanyard-wearers in the filly's camp – will be walking on air to the winner's circle. It won't be like the John C. Mabee. But they won't mind.

The post Hop, Skip, And A Jump: Going To Vegas Brings Hundreds To World Championships appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Breeders’ Cup Notes: Dr. Schivel’s Perfect Del Mar Record On Line In Sprint

SPRINT

Dr. Schivel – Dr. Schivel, the alias name of the villainous character Mr. Freeze from the iconic Batman series, was on the track in the early hours this morning, well before the break, galloping 1 1/4 miles under regular exercise rider Jorge Loza.  The sophomore colt has reeled off five successive victories, the past three for trainer Mark Glatt.  Glatt took over training of the horse as the result of an ownership change prior to his victory in the Del Mar Futurity.

“It's difficult to get a Grade 1 winner, then inform the owners we should stop on him.  But I felt it was in the horse's best interest to give him plenty of time to develop and to get over some minor things,” Glatt said.  “So far, that decision has seemed like the right one.”

Dr. Schivel, unbeaten in all three of his Del Mar starts, is the second choice in the morning line at 4-1 for the six-furlong dash.

FILLY & MARE SPRINT

Bella Sofia – Proving again the adage that horses can come from anywhere, Bella Sofia, a $20,000 purchase as a 2-year-old has won four of five career starts and is the 5-2 second choice behind champion Gamine in the $1 million Filly and Mare Sprint.

As the daughter of Awesome Patriot, who stands for $2,500, she doesn't have the pedigree pizzazz of some of the competition she will face, but she has speed and has a resume that shows she knows how to win.

Rudy Rodriquez has developed Bella Sofia for the group of nine partners. She has given Rodriguez, a New York stalwart, his first graded stakes victories in four years. Her 4 ½-length victory in the Test at Saratoga in August brought Rodriquez to tears and his eyes were wet Tuesday morning at the mention of that important 7f race for 3-year-old fillies.

From the beginning, Bella Sofia has been a challenge for Rodriguez and his staff. Since all of her races have been at Belmont and Saratoga, he brought her to California two weeks before the race to give her time to acclimate to the new surroundings.

“She's a kind of quirky filly, not nervous,” Rodriguez said. “I think she just hears everything. Every little thing that she hears she just reacts very, very fast. Most of the time you've just got to be careful with her. We were jogging around, there was the sound of hitting something with a hammer and right away she started jumping all over the place. Nobody was behind her. You've just got to be alert and that's what we try to do.”

After she won the Gallant Bloom on Sept. 26, beating older horses in a graded stake, the owner opted to supplement her to the Breeders' Cup for $100,000.

“They said we're going,” Rodriguez said. “I'm just happy to be here. I know it's a lot of money, but more people have gotten into the group on the filly. They like the game.”

Bella Sofia, who is out of Love Contract by Consolidator, was sold in July 2020 at the OBS Horses of Racing Age sale. She was part of a package of seven horses that Rodriguez said cost about $500,000. So far, she is the star of the group – and his barn, too, Rodriquez said – with $542,600 in earnings.

On May 6 at Belmont at odds of 8-1, Bella Sofia broke her maiden at 6f by 11 ¼ lengths.

“She showed that she was more than just a horse,” Rodriquez said.

DIRT MILE

Ginobili – Ginobili will be the last horse to arrive for this weekend's Breeders' Cup World Championships when the 4yo son of Munnings makes the short commute from the San Luis Rey Training Center this morning. The impressive winner of the “Win and You're In” Pat O'Brien Handicap has done all his training at the nearby facility for trainer Richard Baltas, who explained, “He's run two huge races off his conditioning there, so I don't want to change a thing.  Don't call it superstition, though, it's intelligence—and experience.”  He's passed all the tests so far, winning at one mile, followed by the O'Brien at seven furlongs, and is coming into this race fresh.  I've always thought a lot of this horse.”

Ginobili completed his final preparations last Saturday with a five-furlong drill timed in 1:00 4/5.

Life Is Good – With four wins and a narrow second in five lifetime starts, Life Is Good is one of the highest-profile horses in the 38th Breeders' Cup. He will have an opportunity to add to his already substantial reputation Saturday as the 4-5 favorite in the Dirt Mile, which has a field of eight horses. Only Gamine, at 3-5 in the Filly and Mare Sprint, has lower odds on the morning line.

WinStar Farm and China Horse Club purchased the Into Mischief colt for $525,000 as a yearling in 2019 and sent him to Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert in California. He emerged as a top Triple Crown prospect with wins in the Sham and the San Felipe at Santa Anita Park, but went to the sidelines on March 20 with an ankle chip in his left hind leg. The chip was removed by surgery.

In June, Life Is Good was transferred to the care of trainer Todd Pletcher in New York. He returned to the races at Saratoga where his unbeaten record ended at three at the Graveyard of Favorites when he was beaten a neck in the seven-furlong Allen Jerkens Memorial on Aug 28. Life is Good answered that loss with a dominating 5 ½-length victory at odds of 1-20 in the mile Kelso Handicap Sept. 25 at Belmont Park.

“He's a super-talented horse,” Pletcher said. “He's shown that all of these races and he always breezes very impressively. He appears to be very talented and fast. Hopefully he has the ability to continue to carry that speed over a route of ground.”

Even though Life Is Good easily dispatched the competition in the four-horse Kelso, Pletcher said he and the connections did not flirt with the possibility of sending him to the 1 ¼ miles $6 million Classic.

“We've pretty much been focused on the Dirt Mile,” Pletcher said. “We just felt like, considering that he missed a good portion of the middle part of the year, that we were giving up too much recency and seasoning to be ready to fire his best shot in the Classic. We have confidence that the horse will handle more distance in the future, but we just felt like for right now the Dirt Mile is the correct spot.”

Life Is Good shipped from New York on Sunday. Pletcher said Life Is Good and his other horses have settled in well at Del Mar. He galloped Tuesday morning and Pletcher said he got over the track well.

Monday afternoon, Life Is Good drew post five in the Dirt Mile, a spot that Pletcher said was fine for him.

“He's pretty much in the middle,” Pletcher said. “We'll just play it off the break.”

Pletcher has started five horses in the Dirt Mile and has a record of 1-1-1. His winner was Liam's Map in 20 15.

Irad Ortiz Jr., who won the 2019 Dirt Mile on Spun to Run, will ride.

JUVENILE FILLIES

Ain't Easy – Unbeaten stakes winner Ain't Easy, one of the early prerace favorites for Friday's $2 million NetJets Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, will have surgery on her left ankle Wednesday after X-rays Monday showed a tiny chip.  Trainer Phil D'Amato termed the procedure “a simple one, with an expected quick recovery.”  Dr. Ryan Carpenter will perform the surgery.

The daughter of leading sire Into Mischief had some heat on her ankle following a gallop over the main track Monday.  “She had worked on Saturday and came out of it fine, then walked on Sunday and was doing well,” D'Amato said.  “It was a difficult call to make (to her owners), but we had to do the right thing for the horse.”

The post Breeders’ Cup Notes: Dr. Schivel’s Perfect Del Mar Record On Line In Sprint appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights