Saffie Joseph | Horse Racing Free Tips

Four Stakes Wins Across Two Tracks Net Jose Ortiz Jockey Of The Week Title

Jockey Jose Ortiz had three mounts in stakes races at Remington Park on Friday and he made the most of the opportunities. He won all three and then returned to New York on Saturday to win a division of the New York Stallion Stakes Series. Those four stakes victories earned Ortiz Jockey of the Week for Dec. 13 through Dec. 19. The honor, which is voted on by a panel of racing experts, is for jockeys who are members of the Jockeys' Guild, the organization which represents more than 1050 active, retired and permanently disabled jockeys in the United States.

At Remington Park Friday evening, Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen gave a leg up to Ortiz on Casual in the She's All In Stakes for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up. Off at odds of 2-1 in the field of eight, Casual tracked the pace, took command on the far turn and cruised to a 5 1/4-length win in 1:43.96 for the one mile and seventy yard contest on the dirt track. Ortiz was riding the 4-year-old Casual for the first time.

Riding again for Asmussen, Ortiz was aboard Optionality in the Trapeze Stakes for 2-year-old fillies. Just past the half-mile marker, she went to the lead and was never headed drawing off to an impressive 8-1/4 length victory in 1:41.10 for one mile.

“She broke good,” Ortiz said to the Remington Park Publicity team, “and Steve had her ready. She started looking around at the end with it being nighttime and the lights and shadows at the wire, but she got the job done.”

In the final stakes race on the Remington card, trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. called on Ortiz to ride Make It Big in the Springboard Mile for 2-year-olds with Kentucky Derby points on the line. Off as the favorite in the field of seven, Make It Big battled with race favorite Osborne throughout the stretch, posting a half-length win for the mile contest in 1:41.23. Ortiz picked up the mount after regular rider Edgard Zayas had shoulder surgery.

Back at Aqueduct on Saturday, Ortiz rode Yo Cuz for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott in the Fifth Avenue Division of the New York Stallion Stakes Series, a seven furlong sprint for eligible New York-sired juvenile fillies. Breaking third in the field of 11, Yo Cuz was hustled to the lead and held off a determined Morning Matcha to post a 1 3/4-length win in 1:25.34. The win was the third on the card for Ortiz.

“When you ride good horses, this is what happens,” said Ortiz to the NYRA publicity team. “You get more chances to win races. I appreciate all the opportunities I have been getting with big owners and big trainers supporting my career. That's what it is all about. You have to have the horse to win.”

Weekly statistics for Ortiz included a 31.5 percent win rate and total purse earnings of $778,748.

Other nominees for Jockey of the Week were Junior Alvarado who won the G2 Ft. Lauderdale, Kendrick Carmouche who won the Gravesend at Aqueduct, Luis Saez with two graded stakes at Gulfstream, and Luis A. Valenzuela who won two stakes at Turf Paradise.

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Joseph Eyes Triple Crown Trail With Make It Big

Red Oak Stables' Make It Big (Neolithic) may have earned a position on the Kentucky Derby trail with his win in Friday's Remington Springboard Mile S. The Saffie Joseph, Jr. trainee accumulated 10 qualifying points to the Derby with his half-length victory over Osbourne (Tapiture) in Oklahoma.

“We are, obviously, very excited. He was stepping up in class, shipping for the first time and going two turns [for the first time]. He handled it all as good as you could ask for,” said Joseph. “He sat in the pocket, made a move down the backside, and was gutsy enough to hold off Osbourne.”

Make It Big, a $120,000 purchase at this year's OBS April sale, opened his career with an 8 1/2-length win against fellow Florida-breds at Gulfstream Oct. 9 and added a victory in the Oct. 30 Ocala Stud Juvenile Sprint–both at seven furlongs–before shipping to Remington Park.

“The [Feb 5 GIII] Holy Bull might come a little quick, but everything is still in play. Maybe, the [Mar. 5 GII Fasig-Tipton] Fountain of Youth,” Joseph said of possible next starts for Make It Big. “We'll talk it over with the ownership group and Rick Sacco, the stable manager. He was the one that recommended, after he won last time, that we should try this race [Springboard Mile]. It turned out a perfect choice of race.”

Joseph said he thinks Make It Big will handle longer distances.

“You would think the more distance the better. That's how he trained. Up until six weeks before he made his debut, he kind of seemed he'd go long, long, long,” Joseph said. “He was lacking that early speed. When we put blinkers on him, they gave him that dynamic, showing some speed. We already knew he had the stamina. He's really turned around.”

Joseph also trains Triple Crown prospect White Abarrio (Race Day), who captured his first two races impressively before finishing third in the Nov. 27 GII Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs.

“He's doing well. We gave him a little freshening,” Joseph said of the colt who worked three furlongs in :36.00 (3/11) at Gulfstream Sunday. “He's most likely going in the Holy Bull.”

The post Joseph Eyes Triple Crown Trail With Make It Big appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Connections Hope Saturday’s Suwannee River Propels Shifty She To Pegasus Filly & Mare Turf

As Pegasus World Cup Day looms on the horizon, owners Chris Pallas and Harvey Rothenberg and trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. are hoping to navigate Saturday's $100,000 Suwannee River (G3) at Gulfstream Park as a way to the inaugural $500,000 Pegasus Filly & Mare Turf (G3) next month.

The one-mile Suwannee River for fillies and mares 3 and up is among five stakes, four graded, worth $650,000 in purses on an 11-race program. It is one of two scheduled for the Gulfstream turf course along with the $200,000 Fort Lauderdale (G2), a prep for the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1).

They are joined by the $150,000 Harlan's Holiday (G3) for 3-year-olds and up, a 1 1/16-mile prep for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup (G1), $100,000 Sugar Swirl (G3) and $100,000 Rampart, each for fillies and mares 3 and older. First race post time is noon.

Shifty She became a graded-stakes winner in her most recent start, a front-running 1 ½-length triumph in the one-mile Noble Damsel (G3) Oct. 23 at Belmont Park. It followed a summer and fall away from her South Florida home that included a third in the Aug. 8 De La Rose at Saratoga and fourth in the Sept. 11 Ladies Turf (G3) at Kentucky Downs, beaten 1 ¾ lengths each time.

“She knocked heads at Saratoga and it was a good run. She looked like a winner and got a little tired. At Kentucky Downs it was the same thing, and then she obviously capped it off at Belmont,” Joseph said. “She'd been holding good company before that, and obviously that was a breakthrough race. She got a Grade 3 win under her belt, which is huge for her career after racing. It was important to get that and, hopefully, she can continue to build on that going forward.”

There was some consideration given to training Shifty She up to the Pegasus program, scheduled this year for Jan. 29, but the Suwannee River gives the 5-year-old Gone Astray mare six weeks to the 1 1/16-mile Filly & Mare Turf and comes at a distance where she is 3-for-6 lifetime.

“We had talked about going straight to the Pegasus race, but it was too much time. Having this race will do her better. Hopefully she can win this one and it can propel her to the Pegasus,” Joseph said. “We want to win this one just as much as we want to win the Pegasus. But if we could win this one and get to the Pegasus with a good chance, that would be great. To be on that kind of stage, those are the races you want to get to.”

Unraced at 2, Shifty She ran fourth in her career debut then rattled off three consecutive victories before going to the sidelines in December 2019. She didn't race again for 489 days until April 9 at Gulfstream with Joseph as her new trainer, setting the pace before settling for fourth – 1 ½ lengths behind stakes winner Kelsey's Cross – in a one-mile optional claiming allowance.

“She came to us and she was already proven,” Joseph said. “Her first race for us she dueled the whole way and she still ran fourth. She should have run last that day, as fast as they went on the grass. After the race I told the owner, 'I feel bad for the horse because she literally did not want to get beat off that kind of layoff.' She still tried her heart out and didn't get beat far. After that race I realized we had a really good horse on our hands as far as what she showed that day.”

Shifty She is part of Joseph's string at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream's satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, where she has breezed three times since her last race. This will be her first race since mid-June at Gulfstream, where she is 4-for-6 lifetime including back-to-back stakes wins in the Powder Break and 1 1/16-mile Ginger Punch this spring and summer.

“She loves it here,” Joseph said. “We knew we had a nice filly, but she just kept getting better and better. When we took her to Saratoga and she ran against those horses, then you knew that you had a filly that you could at least win a graded stake with. She keeps improving, and one thing about her is she always tries. She tries her best every time she runs. You can't teach that. Some horses have it and some don't. It's what separates the good ones from lesser company.”

Edwin Gonzalez is named to ride Shifty She back from Post 3 in a field of 12 at topweight of 125 pounds.

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Sanford Bacon and Patrick Biancone Racing's Kelsey's Cross will be seeking her first win in five starts since beating Shifty She in April. The 5-year-old mare, trained by Biancone, ran third in the 2019 Wonder Again (G3) at Belmont as a 2-year-old, won the 2020 Ginger Punch and ran third in the Hillsborough (G2) as a 3-year-old, and has placed in five other stakes. Sixth in a one-mile handicap Nov. 27 at Gulfstream, her only dirt start in 23 career races, she ran fifth in last year's Suwannee River behind multiple Grade 1 winner Starship Jubilee.

Other graded winners in the field are Alms, Keeper of Time and Sweet Melania. Godolphin's Alms, a homebred daughter of City Zip, won her first four career races including the six-furlong Matron (G3) at Belmont and one-mile Jimmy Durante (G3) at Del Mar in 2019 to cap her juvenile campaign. She is winless in her last four, spread out from February 2020 to Nov. 25 at Fair Grounds, where she was beaten a neck when second in the Joseph R. Peluso Memorial. During that time she also ran third by a head in the July 2020 Appalachian (G2), which preceded a 15-month layoff.

Robert and Lawana Low's Sweet Melania is also looking to regain her winning form. Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, the 4-year-old daughter of 2015 Triple Crown champion American Pharoah won the 2019 Jessamine at 2 and the 2020 Wonder Again (G3) at 3 but has failed to find the winner's circle in seven subsequent tries. Most recently she ran second by less than a length in a 1 1/16-mile allowance Oct. 15 at Keeneland.

Bradley Thoroughbreds, Gary Finder, Tim Cambron and Anna Cambron's Keeper of Time is a bay filly seeking her first North American victory in her fourth start since coming to the U.S. following a victory in the One Thousand Guineas Trial (G3) in April at Leopardstown in her native Ireland.

“She beat a couple of really nice fillies. I think there were two future Grade 1 winners in the race, so she's got pretty good form,” trainer Brendan Walsh said. “I like the way she ran last time at Belmont. She fits pretty good with the fillies here, so I'll be looking for a good run from her. We'll see how she takes to Gulfstream.”

Keeper of Time was third by three lengths in her U.S. debut, one-mile Riskaverse Aug. 26 at Saratoga. Following a puzzling effort in the Sept. 19 Pebbles, also at a mile, she returned to Belmont for the seven-furlong Glen Cove Oct. 15, closing from far back to run third, beaten 1 ½ lengths.

“She ran really well at Saratoga. It was a little disappointing her first run after that at Belmont. It was just a non-race, really. In her last start, she was very good again,” Walsh said. “This is a step up taking on older fillies … but she won a nice stake at Leopardstown in the spring and she's got plenty of talent and she's been working good, as well. Given the right trip, I can't see her being too far away.”

Tyler Gaffalione has the call on Keeper of Time from Post 4 at a low of 118 pounds.

Multiple stakes winners Classy Lady and Summering; La Babia, winner of the Sept. 25 George Rosenberger Memorial at Delaware Park in her most recent start; Dawn's Dancer, a last out allowance winner Oct. 24 at Keeneland; In a Hurry, fourth in the Noble Damsel; Princess Causeway and Quiet Company complete the field.

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Grade 1 Winner Drain The Clock Returns To Action With Front-Running Allowance Win At Gulfstream

Slam Dunk Racing and Madaket Stable's Drain the Clock made an eye-catching return to action Friday at Gulfstream Park with a sizzling front-running victory in the Race 7 feature, a six-furlong optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up.

The Grade 1 stakes winner, who hadn't seen racing action since finishing fourth in the Aug. 28 H. Allen Jerkens (G1) at Saratoga, set fractions of 22.08, 44.42 and 56.19 seconds while under heavy outside pressure from Gatsby and asserted his class in the stretch to win by a half-length in a quick 1:08.63.

“At the top of the stretch, I said, 'Go on Champ!' Normally, I watch a race and watch it very nervous. With him, I never thought he would get beat,” trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said. “I don't think we have him fully cranked, so to see him back like that…”

Tyler Gaffalione rode Drain the Clock for the first time Friday.

“There was speed on the inside and outside of us. Saffie told me to use him going away from there. He broke alertly and put himself in a great spot. He took a lot of pressure the whole way around there but he's a classy horse, very classy individual, and he responded when I asked him,” Gaffalione said.

“He's a racehorse. You can see on his form, he's very consistent. He shows up every time. Coming off the layoff, it's not an ideal situation taking that much pressure, but he handled everything great and Saffie always does a great job getting them ready.”

Sent to post as the 2-5 favorite, the 4-year-old son of Maclean's Music had won three races in four prior starts at Gulfstream, including last season's Swale (G3), before hitting the road to win the Bay Shore (G3) at Aqueduct and the Woody Stephens (G1) at Belmont. His only loss at Gulfstream came in a second-place finish in the two-turn Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth (G2).

“I think he's going to have a big year,” said Joseph, who mentioned the Gulfstream Park Sprint (G3) on Feb. 19 as a likely target.

Gatsby held second, 5 ¼ lengths ahead of Where Paradise Lay.

Todd Pletcher-trained Nocturnal, the 2-1 second choice who was out of action since a Feb. 28 optional claiming allowance at Gulfstream, was never a factor after breaking a step slowly from his rail post position.

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