Knicks Go Honored as Top Maryland-Bred of 2021

GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner Knicks Go (Paynter) was honored as 2021 Maryland-bred Horse of the Year during the fifth annual Renaissance Awards held virtually throughout the week of Feb. 28. The awards, which are a collaborative effort between the Maryland Horse Breeders Association, Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association and Maryland Jockey Club, were presented through the MHBA's social media accounts.

Also honored were champion 2-year-old male Joe (Declaration of War), champion 2-year-old filly Luna Belle (Great Notion), champion 3-year-old male Jaxon Traveler (Munnings), champion 3-year-old filly Street Lute (Street Magician), champion older female Hello Beautiful (Golden Lad), champion turf runner Field Pass (Lemon Drop Kid), and champion sprinter Aloha West (Hard Spun).

The late Robert T. Manfuso and Katharine M. Voss, breeders of 2021 Maryland-bred champion sprinter Aloha West, were crowned the Maryland Breeders of the Year, while their mare Island Bound, dam of Aloha West, was named Maryland Broodmare of the Year, and Northview Stallion Station's Great Notion took home the title of Maryland Stallion of the Year for the sixth consecutive year.

Other award winners for 2021 include Hillwood Stable LLC, Maryland Owner of the Year; Brittany Russell, Maryland Trainer of the Year; Jevian Toledo, Maryland Jockey of the Year. Julio Garcia was honored as the Pimlico Backstretch Worker of the Year, while Antoinette Charles Orellana earned the title of Laurel Backstretch Employee of the Year.

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MATCH Champion Cordmaker Emphatic In Final Race Of The Series

Hillwood Stable's Cordmaker had sealed the overall title in the 2021 Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championships (MATCH Series) earlier on the Dec. 26 card at Laurel Park, but he ended the series emphatically with a strong victory in the $100,000 Robert T. Manfuso Stakes in the final race of the series.

Ridden by Victor Carrasco for trainer Rodney Jenkins, favored Cordmaker was rated inside for most of the 1 1/16-mile Manfuso. He was guided outside entering the stretch and reeled in the leaders—Workin On a Dream and Shackqueenking, who finished second and third, respectively—to capture his third stakes win in this year's MATCH Series. Cordmaker, a 6-year-old Curlin gelding bred in Maryland by the late Robert Manfuso and Katy Voss, who operates a stable at Laurel, is the only horse to have had competed in all six races in his division (3-Year-Olds and Up Long—Dirt) this year.

“It's all so special,” said Ellen Charles, who owns Hillwood Stable, a prominent Maryland racing and breeding operation. “Bob (Manfuso) was always my friend. I think Cordmaker is my best horse, an amazing horse who is a great character in the barn. He knows he's special, and he has given us wonderful, wonderful wins. It's just great to be a part of this.”

It was the 12th victory in 34 starts for graded stakes-placed Cordmaker, who is approaching $800,000 in earnings. His MATCH Series scores came in the Manfuso, the Richard Small Stakes at Laurel, and the Victory Gallop Stakes at Colonial Downs. He also won the Harrison Johnson Memorial at Laurel, where his is stabled, earlier in 2021.

“Cordmaker is very special,” said Carrasco, who has ridden Cordmaker in all of his starts this year and some before that. “We had a good trip right off the speed, and once we turned for home and he got some daylight, he was gone. It's awesome. He's a good horse and I think it's even better when you have a home-track horse winning the series. I'm just happy for Mrs. Charles, Mr. Jenkins, assistant trainer Eveline (Kjelstrup) and the whole crew in the barn.”

Cordmaker ended the MATCH Series with 49 points in his division, the most of any horse in the 2021 series. Mary Eppler Racing Stable and Ram Racing Stable's McElmore Avenue was second with 18 points in the division, followed by Trin-Brook Stables' Forewarned in third with 6 points.

Willa On The Move Stakes

Bush Racing Stable & Liberty House Racing's Kaylasaurus, claimed for $25,000 at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in her previous start, went from last to first to win the $100,000, six-furlong Willa On the Move Stakes. It was the 2021 MATCH Series debut for the 5-year-old Munnings mare.

Ridden by Horacio Karamanos for trainer Tim Kreiser, Pennsylvania-bred Kaylasaurus won for the seventh time in 19 starts and passed the $200,000 mark in earnings. Eric Rizer's Princess Kokachin, who had previously won five races in a row, finished second, with Dontletsweetfoolya third.

“She always makes a big move down the stretch,” the Penn National-based Kreiser said. “Horacio saw the early pace and saw (Hello Beautiful) struggling.”

Hello Beautiful, owned by Madaket Stables, Albert Frassetto, Mark Parkinson, K-Mac Stables and Magic Stables and trained by Brittany Russell, finished fifth but took the division title on the strength of two wins and a second in series competition. Hello Beautiful, with four MATCH Series starts this year, finished with 34 points (second to Cordmaker), while the retired Never Enough Time (22 points) and Paisley Singing (12 points) finished second and third, respectively, in the division.

Dave's Friend Stakes

Hillside Equestrian Meadows' Laki was entered in the $100,000 six-furlong Dave's Friend and scratched the morning of the race. But the 8-year-old Maryland-bred gelding by Cuba had enough points to capture his third consecutive title in the MATCH Series division. Laki, trained by Damon Dilodovico, has only missed two MATCH events—the Dave's Friend and a stakes at Delaware Park—in the three years since the series returned to the Mid-Atlantic calendar.

“He's a warrior, that's for sure,” Dilodovico said. “He's a special guy. After a horse like Immortal Eyes, who we had, it's not often you get a very good, quality animal. He spiked a temperature this morning; we've had a few bugs the last seven to 10 days. But to be able to know you have a shot to get to the wire first every time you go to post—that's Laki.”

Laki, who is 11-for-38 with multiple stakes victories, has earned $833,162. He finished the 2021 MATCH Series with 21 points in his division, followed by Mucho with 20 and Whereshetoldmetogo with 10.

Pocket 3's Racing Threes Over Deuces, trained by Gary Capuano and ridden by Victor Rosales, rallied wide in the lane and got the advantage at the wire in a scramble in the Dave's Friend. The 6-year-old Flat Out gelding, first, second or third in 28 of 40 starts, cleared the $500,000 mark in earnings.

“He's always fighting,” said Jon Madden of Pocket 3's Racing. “In his last couple races the jockey sent him, but with how the track was playing today, he held him back early. It was time to turn the tables once on Whereshetoldmetogo.”

Kentucky-based Mucho, owned by WSS Racing and 4 G Racing and trained by John Ortiz, competed in three MATCH Series events, two in Maryland and one in Virginia. Ortiz said he looks forward to future MATCH appearances.

“We were very happy to be a part of the series and hope to be back again in 2022 with two new shooters,” he said.

Carousel Stakes

BB Horses' Miss Leslie and James Wolf's Artful Splatter entered the 1 1/8-mile Carousel tied at 13 points each. Miss Leslie, trained by Claudio Gonzalez, won the race, but Artful Splatter, trained by Kieron Magee, won the division with a second-place finish in her fourth series start.

Miss Leslie, a 3-year-old Paynter filly, won her third race in a row, all under jockey Angel Cruz, with a strong rally from the back of the pack. She was one of two 3-year-olds in a field of eight.

“She's a good filly,” Cruz said. “She's nice to ride. In the morning she's kind of laid-back; I have to work hard with her. I felt really comfortable with her today. Just about every horse was coming from off the pace.”

Artful Splatter, under Carol Cedeno, sat just off the early leader before taking the lead on the far turn. She maintained the lead until the final sixteenth of a mile but held for second, which gave her the division victory. Artful Splatter, a 5-year-old Maryland-bred mare by Bandbox, made four series starts to three for Miss Leslie.

“I'm thrilled,” Magee said of winning the MATCH Series division. “I brought her here last week (from Pimlico Race Course) to work on this track. She broke well and took herself into the race. The filly that beat us obviously is very nice, but Artful Splatter has been a really good mare for a $16,000 claim.”

Artful Splatter finished with 25 points in the division, followed by Miss Leslie with 23 and Lookin Dynamic with 9 points.

MATCH Series division bonus money is awarded to the owner and trainer of the top horses based on points as follows: $20,000/$10,000 for first, $15,000/$7,500 for second, and $7,500/$3,000 for third. In addition, the owner and trainer of the overall points-earner regardless of division will receive $20,000 and $10,000, respectively. A horse must start at least three times in one division to qualify for bonus money.

In addition, bonuses will be distributed to the breeder of the top overall point-earning Maryland-bred horse and Maryland-sired horse in the series as follows—$3,000 for Maryland-bred and $3,000 for Maryland-sired.

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Cordmaker’s Richard Small Win Gives Him Lead In MATCH Series

Hillwood Stable's Cordmaker, a mainstay in the Maryland stakes ranks for several years, pulled away late to win the $100,000 Richard Small Stakes at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md., Nov. 27 and in the process took the lead in the overall standings for the 2021 Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championships (MATCH) Series heading into the championship leg Dec. 26 at Laurel.

With regular rider Victor Carrasco aboard, Cordmaker broke well in the 1 1/8-mile stakes and found himself in a good spot in third behind Workin On a Dream and Shackqueenking, who raced one-two, respectively, until a duel developed on the far turn. Cordmaker, nursed along by Carassco, rallied three-wide on the turn, reached the front in the final eighth of a mile, and pulled away to win by 1 3/4 lengths for his third stakes victory of the year.

Workin On a Dream, a blowout winner of an allowance race at Laurel in his last start for owner Steven Walfish and trainer Robin Graham, held gamely for second under jockey Forest Boyce. Shackqueenking, who had won his last two starts in allowance company at Delaware Park in Wilmington, Del., for owner Pocket 3's Racing and trainer Gary Capuano, easily held for third under Jaime Rodriguez as the favorite.

Cordmaker, who cleared the $700,000 mark in career earnings with his 11th win in 33 starts, paid $12.40 to win as the fourth choice in a field of 10. The 6-year-old Maryland-bred gelding by Curlin was bred by Robert Manfuso and Katy Voss and purchased as a yearling for $150,000 by Hillwood Stable, which is operated by longtime Maryland Thoroughbred owner Ellen Charles.

“I wanted him to stay close early,” trainer Rodney Jenkins said after Cordmaker won his second MATCH Series stakes in the 3-Year-Olds and Up Long—Dirt division in 2021. “I didn't want him to have a lot of ground to make up. I told Victor, 'Keep him up there and make them run.' This is a great result for the horse, the barn and Mrs. Charles.”

Cordmaker, who has started in all five legs thus far in his division, won the Victory Gallop Stakes at Colonial Downs in New Kent, Va., in August. He returned in the Polynesian Stakes at Laurel in September and crossed the finish line in second but was disqualified and placed sixth for drifting out near the three-sixteenths pole. Despite the setback, he picked up 5 MATCH bonus points in the Polynesian and padded his division lead.

“He broke well and we had a great trip,” Carrasco said. “I followed (Shackqueenking) because I thought he was the only horse who could beat us. As soon as we passed the five-sixteenths pole, I said, 'Go,' and he responded nicely. He got the job done.”

Cordmaker entered the Richard Small with 24 points. He earned 10 points for the victory and another 2 bonus points for making his fifth start in the division. That gives him 36 points, nine more than Hello Beautiful, who leads the Filly and Mare Sprint—Dirt division with 27 points.

The division winners and the overall champion will be decided at Laurel the day after Christmas, when the final stakes for each of the MATCH Series' four divisions will be run.

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Priceless Sire Revives Aloha West’s Deep Family

Hard to put a price on a stallion like this. Apart from anything else, he is the parting legacy of Danzig–conceived when the great patriarch was 26–and his maternal line brings a daughter of the wartime foal My Babu (Fr) as close up as third dam. True to that venerable seeding, his stock has emulated both the class and constitution that sustained his own speed–carrying commitment on the racetrack. Though his career was compressed into barely a year, he didn't just “dance every dance,” but turned the pages for the orchestra as well. And while he dropped back to seven furlongs for his Grade I, in the King's Bishop, he had held out for second in the GI Kentucky Derby after setting a pace that summoned the winner and third from as far back as 17th and 14th at the third split.

He has just sired his 12th domestic Grade I winner, to add to three in Australia, and looks booked for the top 10 in the general sires' list for the third year running. He finished fourth in 2019, ninth last year and stands eighth this time round. To take an incontrovertibly high-class stallion as benchmark, Uncle Mo was 13th in 2019, fourth last year and-basking in the brilliance of his 10th Grade I winner, Golden Pal–lies 10th as we turn for home in 2021. Uncle Mo duly stood at $175,000 this year, and will trade at $160,000 next spring.

Yet Hard Spun remains at $35,000.

Is there better proven value anywhere in Kentucky? Okay, so the late bloom of his GI Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Aloha West (unraced until four) confirms that the Jonabell stallion's foals won't always offer what is perceived as “commercial” precocity. But such brilliant acceleration in a dirt dash round a track as dizzy as Del Mar confirms that Hard Spun can get you any kind.

To take a brisk sample: Hard Spun's first crop, which ultimately yielded a record 17 stakes winners, had by midsummer featured a Group 2 juvenile winner in Britain. His biggest earner is a turf sprinter in Australia; he has had a Group 2 winner on the downhill five at Goodwood; and also a GI Arlington Million winner on the grass. At the same time, he has had pour-it-on dirt runners round two turns, like Questing (GB) and Smooth Roller (another who only surfaced at four, but explosively). Spun To Run won his GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile from the front, Hard Not To Love cut them down from the rear in the GI La Brea S. But their sire has also had a dual winner of the GII Marathon, briefly a Breeders' Cup race, at 13 and 14 furlongs.

Moreover Hard Spun is already developing a scarcely less diverse international profile as a broodmare sire, through the likes of Good Magic (Curlin) in the U.S.; Alcohol Free (Ire) (No Nay Never), winner of two Group 1 miles in Britain this year; and elite Japanese sprinter Danon Smash (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}).

The one thing he hasn't yet managed, unlike another of Danzig's later sons in War Front, is to secure his own branch of the dynasty. Several of his best performers have been fillies and geldings. Spun to Run drew a solid first book of 119 at Gainesway, however; and Silver State, as a GI Met Mile winner, goes to a farm of corresponding resonance in Claiborne-once, of course, home to Danzig himself. Now Aloha West has emerged from nowhere as another feasible heir, so let's take a quick look at his antecedents.

Aloha West was bred in Maryland by Robert T. Manfuso and Katharine M. Voss from the graded stakes-winning sprinter Island Bound (Speightstown). Expectations for the mare appear to have slightly downgraded of late: having been afforded several chances with Kentucky stallions, she has made down with $5,000 covers in Maryland the last couple of years. But her sights may need to be raised again now, as she has transformed her record in 2021. At the start of the year, her sophomore daughter by Nyquist and 4-year-old son by Hard Spun both remained unraced. But Moquist is now unbeaten in four starts for trainer Dale Capuano, the latest a Laurel optional claimer just a week before the Breeders' Cup; and Aloha West, of course, has been thriving for Wayne Catalano since the summer, winning twice at Saratoga before an unlucky defeat when tried in a Grade II at Keeneland. That emboldened a tilt at the big one at Del Mar, and spectacular vindication for local resident Aron Wellman of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, who had moved to buy the horse privately after he showed promise (won on debut, messy start next time) in a belated start to his career for Gary and Mary West at Oaklawn last winter.

Now nobody needs to give the Wests any instruction in the ups and downs of this business. In fact, when they won one of their very first Grade Is, nearly 20 years ago, their second runner in the race collapsed on the track with heatstroke. (Happily, he was okay to fight another day.) That was also the year when they had the favorite break down in Derby week. They've seen it all before, they trade to support their program, and one day everything is going to fall right to redress the disqualification of Maximum Security (New Year's Day). In the meantime, however, you have to hope that they're satisfied with the prices they took for the two 2021 Breeders' Cup winners who left their ownership.

One was the devastating GI Dirt Mile winner Life Is Good (Into Mischief), who made $525,000 as a yearling. His dam is still only eight, so here's a rising tide that floats all boats. (Less happy will be the vendors of the Grade I-placed second dam, at Keeneland November two years ago, for just $15,000–exactly one percent of her cost when carrying her first foal, eight years previously! Purchasers SF Bloodstock clearly realized that her yearling grandson, purchased in the same ring a few weeks previously, was something special.)

Hopefully the Wests also got a fair price for Aloha West back in the spring. Their program is oriented towards the Triple Crown and clearly that moment had passed. Regardless, it turns out that he was yet another typically astute discovery by Ben Glass. The long-serving manager of their operation bought the dam of Life Is Good as a yearling, and picked out Aloha West for $160,000 as Hip 1025 at the Keeneland September Sale.

The overall pattern of the pedigree is actually not dissimilar from that of Life Is Good: a top line representing one of the speedier Northern Dancer lines (Danzig in Aloha West, Storm Cat in Life Is Good); a dam by a grandson of Mr. Prospector (Speightstown in Aloha West, Distorted Humor in Life Is Good); and the second dams respectively by A.P. Indy (in the case of Aloha West) and his son Mineshaft (in the case of Life Is Good).

Aloha West's granddam was a three-time winner with some minor black type, but Island Bound represents the only distinction she had achieved in what proved to be a curtailed breeding career. There is, however, real depth in behind.

The next dam, by Afleet, also showed some talent and soundness (3-for-19) and produced two graded stakes winners (and also a Grade II runner-up) including GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile third Rogue Romance (Smarty Jones). The unraced fourth dam was a Manila half-sister to Ogygian, damsire of Johannesburg; and the next dam is also granddam of a huge modern influence in Fappiano. And, best of all, that means that she in turn is out of the Tartan Farms foundation mare Cequillo (Princequillo).

These aristocratic embers have now been stoked up by Hard Spun, whose own background mirrors the shape of Island Bound's family. Both represent a dashing sire-line, Hard Spun as a son of Danzig; Island Bound as a daughter of Speightstown. And both complement that with sturdy influences seeding the bottom line. We've seen that Island Bound was out of an A.P. Indy mare, for instance, while Hard Spun's second dam was by Roberto-and, moreover, shared a dam with Darby Dan champion Little Current (Sea-Bird {Fr}). This, indeed, becomes a very deep well of aristocratic Darby Dan blood for Hard Spun to draw on: his fourth dam is Banquet Bell (Polynesian), dam of two farm legends (both by Swaps) in Chateaugay and Primonetta.

Even the intervention of the hulking Turkoman, Hard Spun's pedestrian damsire, has not diluted the potency of this blood. Hard Spun's stakes-winning half-sister by Stravinsky has further decorated the family as second dam of multiple Grade I winner Improbable (City Zip).

With these auspicious foundations, Aloha West had the best possible start in life. Bob Manfuso has already bred a top-class runner at Chanceland Farm, which he co-owns with Voss, in Cathryn Sophia (Street Boss), winner of the GI Kentucky Oaks in 2016. And for the sale his breeders had the good sense to send this colt to Nursery Place, a privilege no young horse in the Bluegrass can exceed.

So there have been many different contributors to the flowering of Aloha West-both genetically, and in terms of horsemanship. But he is certainly stamped with the Hard Spun brand, as a horse flourishing with maturity and touched by brilliance.

Just imagine if Hard Spun himself had been permitted to remain in training at four! As it was, his new owner was then investing heavily in a reset of his international stallion program. Of course, Darley is a global program and Hard Spun was sent off to Japan for a year at a critical stage, in 2014. That hiatus, leaving him without U.S. juveniles in 2017/sophomores in 2018, was doubtless what allowed his fee to stabilize at such an accessible level. Remember he was $60,000 before he went to Japan, and $35,000 for his return-even though he had dominated the fourth-crop sires' table in the year of his absence, whether by prizemoney, winners or graded stakes success, finishing ahead of no less a trio than Street Sense (who had accompanied him to Hokkaido), English Channel and Scat Daddy.

I am often rebuked, when lamenting the stampede for rookie sires who will rarely command so high a fee again, that there is no alternative but to roll the dice; that the “proven” sires have all put themselves way out of reach. It's a free world, a free market, and we're all entitled to our opinions. But I would say that here is one stallion that makes that view, well, just a little Hard to understand.

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