Sierra Leone Chases Down Track Phantom To Steal Risen Star

Trainer Chad Brown has been down this road a time or two.

In 2013, Normandy Invasion (Tapit) made his 3-year-old debut in the GII Risen Star S., having dropped a nose decision in Aqueduct's GII Remsen S. three months previously. Sent off the 3-2 favorite, the Fox Hill runner ran on nicely to finish fifth. Just two years ago, Zandon (Upstart)–also beaten by the barest margin in the Remsen–shipped up from Florida and also came with a stretch rally to round out the trifecta as a 7-2 chance.

'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) is very much cut from the same cloth as those two–long-striding colts who save their best for last–and with that in mind, Brown opted to send the $2.3-million Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale-topper from 2022 up to the Big Easy from the Sunshine State.

The rationale? The nine-furlong distance of the Risen Star combined with a stretch run of over two furlongs would suit his charge better than the oft speed-favoring surface at Gulfstream Park, not to mention its comparatively short run home. Sierra Leone–who had last year's Remsen in the bag until he didn't–ensured that the plan came together swimmingly Saturday, virtually clinching a berth in the GI Kentucky Derby with a half-length defeat of Track Phantom (Quality Road), earning 50 points in the process.

To succeed, Sierra Leone would have to overcome not only an 11-week absence, but also the race-fit Track Phantom, who entered the Risen Star undefeated in three runs around two turns, including the Dec. 23 Gun Runner S. and GIII Lecomte S. Jan. 20. The 3-1 second choice behind the 27-10 and first-time-blinkered Sierra Leone, Track Phantom was sent immediately to the front by Joel Rosario and set a modest tempo over a strip that began the program listed as sloppy and never appeared to dry out. Sierra Leone, ridden for the first time by Tyler Gaffalione, settled about four from the rear and at a distinct tactical disadvantage, as Track Phantom lobbed them along through fractions of :24.32 and :49.67.

Sierra Leone was in a good rhythm, but still behind midfield past six furlongs in 1:14.74, but when he was asked to pick up the bridle in earnest, the response was near-instantaneous. Fanned out extremely wide into the lane, Sierra Leone was forced to take some evasive action around a wayward Catching Freedom (Constitution) outside the eighth pole, but he was able to sustain the long run he'd been asked to make and gathered up Track Phantom in the waning strides to take it by a half-length.

“Given the track conditions and slow pace and that he hasn't run since the Remsen, I thought he showed a lot to run down a pretty good horse who was in form and fit and didn't have to ship,” said Brown. “I wasn't sure if he'd reel him in–not because we're not good enough–but that was a tall order. So this proved a lot to me today.”

Added Gaffalione: “The blinkers really helped him focus today. He broke alertly and we hoped going into this race there would be more speed. He got a comfortable trip up the backside and relaxed for me. When he took the lead in the stretch, I could feel beneath me he is only going to want to go longer after this. You always keep dreaming of the big races like the Derby and horses like this help you keep the dream alive.”

Zandon moved on to the GI Toyota Blue Grass–in which he duly obliged–as his final Derby prep, and the plan will be the same for Sierra Leone, Brown indicated.

Pedigree Notes:

Sierra Leone is one of 27 stakes winners and 20 graded winners from the first three crops to the races for Three Chimneys' Gun Runner and the daughters of the late Malibu Moon are now responsible for 82 SWs, 26 at the graded or group level.

Heavenly Love, victorious in the 2017 GI Darley Alcibiades S., is a daughter of Darling My Darling, a $300,000 Keeneland September purchase by John Oxley in 1998 who won the Doubledogdare S. and Raven Run S. in Lexington while also placing in the GI Frizette S. and GI Matron S. Darling My Darling is also the dam of 2016 GII Santa Ynez S. winner Forever Darling (Congrats), whose son Forever Young (Jpn) (Real Steel {Jpn}) is arguably  top 3-year-old dirt horse in Japan and is scheduled to run in next weekend's G3 Saudi Derby for trainer Yoshito Yahagi. Sierra Leone's Grade I-winning third dam also produced Japanese Horse of the Year Zenno Rob Roy (Jpn) (Sunday Silence).

Heavenly Love foaled a colt by Nyquist in 2022 and produced a full-sister to Sierra Leone Feb. 11.

Saturday, Fair Grounds
RISEN STAR S.-GII, $400,000, Fair Grounds, 2-17, 3yo, 1 1/8m, 1:52.13, sy.
1–SIERRA LEONE, 122, c, 3, by Gun Runner
1st Dam: Heavenly Love (GISW, $346,200), by Malibu Moon
2nd Dam: Darling My Darling, by Deputy Minister
3rd Dam: Roamin Rachel, by Mining
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. 'TDN Rising
Star'. ($2,300,000 Ylg '22 FTSAUG). O-Mrs. John Magnier,
Michael B. Tabor, Derrick  Smith, Westerberg, Brook T. Smith
and Peter M. Brant; B-Debby M. Oxley (KY); T-Chad C. Brown;
J-Tyler Gaffalione. $240,000. Lifetime Record: 3-2-1-0,
$336,750. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Track Phantom, 122, c, 3, Quality Road–Miss Sunset, by Into
Mischief. ($500,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP). O-L and N Racing LLC,
Clark O. Brewster, Jerry Caroom and Breeze Easy, LLC;
B-Breeze Easy, LLC (KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen. $80,000.
3–Catching Freedom, 122, c, 3, Constitution–Catch My Drift, by
Pioneerof the Nile. 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($575,000 Ylg
'22 KEESEP). O-Albaugh Family Stables LLC; B-WinStar Farm,
LLC (KY); T-Brad H. Cox. $40,000.
Margins: HF, 1 1/4, 1 3/4. Odds: 2.70, 3.00, 5.70.
Also Ran: Resilience, Honor Marie, Awesome Ruta, Hall of Fame, Real Men Violin, Moonlight, Tizzy Indy, Cardinale, Bee Dancer.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

The post Sierra Leone Chases Down Track Phantom To Steal Risen Star appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

This Side Up: Third Coast Supplies Extra Dimension

The world we share with these amazing animals may be an ever-changing one, but its mysteries abide. We consider ourselves ever more knowledgeable, ever more certain, riding the slipstream of science. Yet how much do we truly know, when Afternoon Deelites holds out for all those years and then waits just six days before following his owner to whatever shore may (or may not) lie beyond the horizon of life?

The same journey was made this week by the trainer of Alydar. John Veitch laid the ground for the greatest Triple Crown campaign of any horse that never won a Triple Crown race by giving him 10 starts as a juvenile. Curiously, however, trainers of the succeeding generation appear to have decided either that they have found a better way; or at least that the materials provided, since breeding became an almost exclusively commercial enterprise, are no longer equal to the same kind of treatment.

Trainers today map out the road to the Derby with two priorities: minimize gas consumption, and avoid traffic. That way, they feel, their charges can reach Churchill with a relatively full tank and pristine engine. But the fact is that you always feel able to drive a car more aggressively once it has taken a few bumps and scratches. And you also learn far more about its capacity and response if you have repeatedly had to accelerate or brake to get out of trouble, as compared with cruising along an open road and every six weeks overtaking a laboring truck while barely changing gear.

In the prevailing environment, then, we must give credit to the people at Fair Grounds for redressing the shortfall in conditioning by extending the distance of all three legs of their trials program. If horses can no longer get the kind of mental and physical foundation they once derived from sheer volume of racing, then at least they can have a little more aggregate. With a field of 14, moreover, the GII Risen Star S. is meanwhile guaranteed to steepen the learning curve.

 

 

(To listen to this article as a podcast, click the arrow above.)

Saturday will be only the fourth time the race has been run over this extra 1/16th, yet its last two winners have both gone on to finish second in the Derby. One, of course, was actually promoted to first place; while much the same was done for the other by voters at the recent Eclipse Awards.

To be fair, the Risen Star was already on a roll, having lately produced a GI Preakness winner, the phenomenal Gun Runner and the promising stallion Girvin. Between here and Oaklawn, then, you won't find many handicappers nowadays still reducing the quest for the Derby winner to the two dimensions of East and West Coasts. Paradoxically, however, I feel that a still better way to regenerate the Triple Crown trail lurks right at the other end of the spectrum.

Alydar started his Classic campaign over seven furlongs; so too, as it happens, did Afternoon Deelites. With Diana Firestone also among the week's obituaries, we might mention Honest Pleasure and Genuine Risk, who both resumed in sprints as well. That had long been standard procedure, for the old school, as a way of sharpening a horse without penetrating to a vulnerable margin of fitness.

I've often remarked on the dilution of the Derby since the willful exclusion of sprinters under the starting points system. Okay, so they finally managed a meltdown last year and so set up a historic aberration in every way. But otherwise the race has lately been dominated by those setting or sharing a pace shorn of raw sprint competition. And I do think that the Derby's status as the definitive test of the American Thoroughbred, identifying the kind of genes we should want to replicate, is suffering as a result.

Between trainers' dread of running horses at all, and the imperative to bank points when they actually do, we're ending up with the worst of both worlds. Remember that it was as recently as 2015 that Nyquist and Exaggerator cranked each other up over seven in the GII San Vicente S., in 1:20.7, and that didn't work out too badly on Derby day.

I really do think that loading a few points into the San Vicente and the GIII Swale S. would be a smart move by Churchill. Because it doesn't feel as though the model nowadays favored by trainers is working on too many levels. It certainly doesn't work for fans, who get a woefully condensed narrative and reduced engagement; it arguably doesn't help the horses, sent straight into the red zone when they can't be fully fit; and I'm not sure it's working for the Derby, either as a spectacle or as a signpost to genes that can carry meaningful speed.

In the meantime, aptitudes of more obvious pertinence to the Derby scenario will at least be examined in this crowd scene for the Risen Star. And wait, look at this: there's actually a horse in the field with eight starts to his name already. Determinedly (Cairo Prince) is followed here by the pair of Tapits he held off in an allowance last month, a performance rather too faintly praised because everyone had written a different script in advance. Actually this horse's own part keeps being rewritten, having started out on turf and apparently flirted with a return to sprinting. But maybe he can keep some of these flashier types honest, and help to measure the kind of talent Victory Formation (Tapwrit) will need to maintain his unbeaten record from a post out near Baton Rouge.

From a European perspective, it's always surprising that people should be so specific, almost dogmatic, about the optimality of dirt horses operating within so narrow a range. The way people talk, you would think that the poor creatures will drop clean off the edge of the world if venturing that crucial 1/16th too far.

That's why I like to see them given the chance to work on their all-around game, and develop different strengths. Because, if the oldest of Old Friends can be so susceptible even in the span of his years, then what limits might we be putting on the things they do in their prime?

The post This Side Up: Third Coast Supplies Extra Dimension appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Not This Time Colt Front and Center in Risen Star

Winchell Thoroughbreds' Epicenter (Not This Time) made up for his close call in the GIII Lecomte S. with a front-running score in the GII Risen Star S. at the Fair Grounds, moving him up in the GI Kentucky Derby points rankings. Winchell Thoroughbreds and winning trainer Steve Asmussen also teamed up to take this event in 2016 with future Horse of the Year Gun Runner.

Away a breath slower than the rest, Epicenter quickly got his hooves beneath him and tugged his way up to the front under Joel Rosario. Bodock (Street Boss), a 63-1 shot, kept the pacesetter honest through early splits of :23.79 and :47.97 with Pappacap (Gun Runner) saving ground to Bodock's inside in third. Meanwhile favored 'TDN Rising Star' Smile Happy (Runhappy) bided his time back off the pace in sixth with GII Remsen S. runner-up Zandon (Upstart) sitting off his heels. Epicenter continued to lope along comfortably at the head of affairs, putting up three-quarters in 1:12.25. Rosario sat chilly in the saddle as Epicenter cruised clear with ease in the lane for a decisive victory. Smile Happy rallied for second with Zandon closing right behind him for third.

Fading to sixth in his seven-panel Churchill Downs unveiling in September, Epicenter returned with a good-looking graduation going a mile at that venue Nov. 13. Running away to a 6 1/2-length triumph in this venue's Gun Runner S. Dec. 26, he did most of the heavy lifting in the Lecomte S. last time Jan. 22, only to be headed by Call Me Midnight (Midnight Lute) late.

“He did run a really big race today,” Rosario said. “That was really nice. He looked like he was enjoying what he was doing and put in a really nice race today. We'll see going forward how far he can go.”
“A little different than his last race in that every quarter was perfect,” owner Ron Winchell said. He looked nice and comfortable we were just hoping he would finish off the race and he did. He looked great.”

Pedigree Notes:
Epicenter is the fifth graded winner and one of 17 black-type scorers for his young sire Not This Time. He is also the 14th graded scorer and one of 30 black-type winners out of a daughter of Candy Ride (Arg), who was also the broodmare sire of GIII Fair Grounds H. winner Cavalry Charge (Honor Code). Westwind Farms purchased the winner's dam Silent Candy for $130,000 at the 2014 KEENOV sale carrying a foal by Scat Daddy. Her recent produce includes a juvenile colt by Always Dreaming and a yearling filly by Tapiture. She was bred back to Outwork.

Saturday, Fair Grounds
RISEN STAR S. PRESENTED BY LAMARQUE FORD-GII, $400,000, Fair Grounds, 2-19, 3yo, 1 1/8m, 1:49.03, ft.
1–EPICENTER, 122, c, 3, by Not This Time
               1st Dam: Silent Candy (SW & GSP, $182,208), by Candy Ride (Arg)
               2nd Dam: Silent Queen, by King of Kings (Ire)
               3rd Dam: Soundproof (Ire), by Ela-Mana-Mou (Ire)
1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($260,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP).
O-Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC; B-Westwind Farms (KY);
T-Steven M. Asmussen; J-Joel Rosario. $240,000. Lifetime
Record: 5-3-1-0, $410,639. Werk Nick Rating: A++. Click for
the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Smile Happy, 122, c, 3, Runhappy–Pleasant Smile, by
Pleasant Tap. ($175,000 Wlg '19 KEENOV; $185,000 Ylg '20
FTKSEL). O-Lucky Seven Stable (Mackin); B-Moreau
Bloodstock Int'l Inc. & White Bloodstock LLC (KY); T-Kenneth
McPeek. $80,000. 'TDN Rising Star'
3–Zandon, 122, c, 3, Upstart–Memories Prevail, by Creative
Cause. ($170,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-Jeff Drown; B-Brereton
Jones (KY); T-Chad C. Brown. $40,000.
Margins: 2 3/4, HF, HD. Odds: 3.50, 2.20, 3.80.
Also Ran: Pioneer of Medina, Tawny Port, Slow Down Andy, Trafalgar, Pappacap, Bodock, Russian Tank.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

 

The post Not This Time Colt Front and Center in Risen Star appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Brown: ‘Longer Distance’ Of Risen Star Should Play To Zandon’s Strengths

Chad Brown-trained Triple Crown hopeful Zandon will make his next start in the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes on Feb. 19 at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans, La., reports the Daily Racing Form. The 3-year-old son of Upstart, second by a nose in the G2 Remsen last out, has been working steadily at Payson Park in Indiantown, Fla. since late December.

“We went back and forth on whether to start out with him here,” Brown told DRF, referring to the G3 Holy Bull this Saturday at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla. “But we prefer the longer distance of the Risen Star, and it has more points.”

The Holy Bull is run at 1 1/16 miles, and offers 10 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby to the winner, while the Risen Star is held over 1 1/8 miles and offers 50 points.

Meanwhile, his Grade 1-winning stablemate Jack Christopher (Munnings) has not yet made it back to the work tab after being scratched from the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and later undergoing surgery to repair a shin issue.

“He is back galloping, and we're happy about that, but we are certainly behind with him,” Brown told DRF. “We're just going to have to take it week to week with him. We are not going to rush the horse just to make the Derby. The owners are completely on board with that.”

Read more at the Daily Racing Form.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights