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Snapper Sinclair To Try Down The Hill In Friday’s Eddie D Stakes

The long wait is over. Idle since March of 2019, Santa Anita's legendary Camino Real Hillside Turf Course will play host to an outstanding opening day field of nine three-year-olds and up competing at about six and a half furlongs in Friday's Grade 2, $200,000 Eddie D Stakes. The Eddie D is one of four stakes on opening day of Santa Anita's 16-day Autumn Meet which will conclude on Oct. 31. Trainer Steve Asmussen's Midwest invader Snapper Sinclair and Phil D'Amato's locally based Gregorian Chant head what appears to be a very deep and diverse lineup.

One of the most popular races among fans and horsemen since December, 1953, the Camino Real hillside is a European style course with a panoramic start on Santa Anita's northern perimeter, hard by Colorado Place, an iconic stretch of roadway that was a part of America's original Route 66.

Once the horses are underway, they will negotiate a slight right-hand turn followed by a run “down the dip,” as Joe Hernandez, the original Voice of Santa Anita, used to describe horses as they ran down an undulating swale before emerging from behind a stand of trees en route to the quarter pole. From there, the field will cross the main track and then reunite with the “course proper” for what is often a thrilling stretch run.

Snapper Sinclair, a 6-year-old full horse by City Zip, comes off a three quarter length victory in a one-turn restricted stakes going a mile and 70 yards on turf at Kentucky Downs Sept. 8. Owned by Bloom Racing Stables, LLC, Snapper Sinclair, who ran fourth in 2019 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Santa Anita, will be shipping in from his Churchill Downs base and be trying the Santa Anita turf for the first time and will be making his fifth start of the year.

Primarily campaigned at one mile on turf and dirt, Snapper Sinclair was a seven furlong turf stakes winner in his third career start on Sept. 6, 2017 at Churchill and he has not sprinted on turf or dirt since October 17, 2018 at Keeneland. With two wins from four starts this year, he's now banked $1,793,340 from an overall mark of 33-7-8-4.

Originally pegged as a long-fused turf runner, D'Amato's Gregorian Chant found a new lease on life sprinting out of Santa Anita's newly constructed turf chute this past winter. A winner of three consecutive six furlong turf stakes, including the Grade 3 San Simeon four starts back on March 13, Gregorian Chant, a 5-year-old English-bred gelding, was too close to the early pace in Belmont Park's Grade 1 Jaipur Stakes on June 5, finishing seventh, beaten 4 ¼ lengths at 5-1 going six furlongs over a turf that was listed as good.

In his most recent start, Gregorian Chant finished third, beaten 2 ½ lengths in Del Mar's five furlong turf Green Flash Handicap Aug. 22, a race that appeared a bit short for his late running style. Owned by Slam Dunk Racing, Old Bones Racing Stable, LLC and Michael Nentwig, Gregorian Chant will be trying Santa Anita's hillside turf for the first time with high expectations.

D'Amato will also be represented by the talented multiple stakes winning mare Charmaine's Mia, the lone distaffer in the field. A three-time graded stakes winner at six furlongs and one mile (twice) over the Santa Anita lawn, she too will be trying the hillside course for the first time. Owned by Agave Racing Stable, Medallion Racing and Rockin Robin Racing Stables, Charmaine's Mia, who had been campaigned primarily at Woodbine Racecourse in Toronto, joined D'Amato's stable late last year.

Idle since finishing sixth in the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap at a mile and one sixteenth at Del Mar Aug. 7, Charmaine's Mia, a 5-year-old Kentucky-bred mare by The Factor, has not sprinted since winning her first start for D'Amato five starts back in the Grade 3 Las Cienegas Stakes at six furlongs on turf here on Jan. 9.

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Although a bit long in tooth at age seven, trainer Mark Glatt's Law Abidin Citizen, idle since a close fourth on dirt in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes July 31 at Del Mar, is fresh, dangerous and has the distinction of having won the last race down the hill—the Grade 3 San Simeon Stakes on March 31, 2019. A winner of four of eight starts over the hillside turf, this Twirling Candy gelding will be making his fourth start of the year as Glatt eyes the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint in November. Owned by Dan Agnew, Gerry Schneider and John Xitco, Law Abidin Citizen rates a huge chance on Friday.

Glen Hill Farm's homebred Caribou Club, another 7-year-old gelding, has won two of his three starts down the hill, including his most recent, the Grade 3 Joe Hernandez Stakes on Jan. 1, 2019 when conditioned by Tom Proctor. Idle since a close fourth in an ungraded stakes at 1 1/16 miles on turf July 17 at Gulfstream Park, Caribou Club will be making his fourth start of the year and his first for trainer Michael McCarthy. Caribou Club will be reunited for the first since 2017 with Drayden Van Dyke, who at that time guided him to a pair of wins from four starts.

Originally run as the Morvich Handicap in 1974, the Eddie D was renamed in 2012 to honor legendary retired Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Delahoussaye.

THE GRADE 2 EDDIE D STAKES WITH JOCKEY & WEIGHTS IN POST POSITION ORDER

Race 7 of 9 Approximate post time 4 p.m. PT

Gregorian Chant—Juan Hernandez–126
Caribou Club—Drayden Van Dyke—126
Mesut—Umberto Rispoli—122
Charmaine's Mia—Flavien Prat—123
Law Abidin Citizen—Abel Cedillo—126
Chaos Theory—Kent Desormeaux—126
Lieutenant Dan—Geovanni Franco—126
Whisper Not—John Velazquez—126
Snapper Sinclair—Joel Rosario–124

The post Snapper Sinclair To Try Down The Hill In Friday’s Eddie D Stakes appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Two-Day Breeders’ Cup Challenge Pick 6 Launches This Weekend

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) will host a two-day Breeders' Cup Challenge Pick 6 beginning Saturday, Oct. 2 and concluding on Sunday, Oct. 3 featuring select races from the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series presented by America's Best Racing from Belmont Park and Santa Anita Park.

The two-day Breeders' Cup Challenge Series Pick 6 will then return on Saturday, Oct. 9 and Sunday, Oct. 10 with races to be determined from Belmont Park and Keeneland's Fall Stars weekend.

The Breeders' Cup Challenge Series consists of the best races from around the world and awards each winner an automatic and free entry into the Breeders' Cup World Championships slated for Nov. 5-6 at Del Mar.

“Breeders' Cup is always looking for new ways to engage with our fans across the country and the 'Challenge Pick 6' is a great way to provide them an opportunity to win big surrounding some of the final Challenge Series races of the year,” said Justin McDonald, SVP Marketing at Breeders' Cup. “Thanks to NYRA, Keeneland and Santa Anita for coming together to create these fun wagering opportunities.”

The minimum bet for the multi-track, multi-race wager is $1 and will feature a low 15 percent takeout and mandatory payout of the net pool. Wagering on the Breeders' Cup Challenge Pick 6 is available on ADW platforms and at simulcast facilities across the country.

Free Equibase past performances for the Breeders' Cup Challenge Pick 6 sequence will be available for download.

“The two-day Breeders' Cup Challenge Pick 6 will present horseplayers with new and interesting sequences to wager into across two weekends of world class thoroughbred racing,” said Joe Longo, General Manager, NYRA Content Management Solutions. “We thank our partners at Breeders' Cup, Santa Anita and Keeneland for their support of this concept.”

The inaugural Breeders' Cup Challenge Pick 6 will kick off on Saturday, October 2 at Belmont Park with the Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne, a one-turn mile for 2-year-olds offering a “Win and You're In” berth to the Grade 1, $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile on November 5.

The Pick 6 will also feature a trio of events from Santa Anita on October 2 led by the Grade 1, $300,000 Awesome Again [Classic], a nine-furlong test for 3-year-olds and up; the Grade 1, $300,000 Rodeo Drive [Filly and Mare Turf] at 10-furlongs on turf for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up; and the Grade 2, $200,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship [Sprint], a six-furlong event for 3-year-olds and up.

The Breeders' Cup Challenge Pick 6 sequence will conclude on Sunday with the 74th running of the Grade 1, $400,000 Frizette [Juvenile Fillies], a one-turn mile for 2-year-old fillies at Belmont; and the Grade 2, $200,000 Zenyatta [Distaff], a 1 1/16-mile test on the main track for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up from Santa Anita.

For more information, visit NYRABets.com.

The post Two-Day Breeders’ Cup Challenge Pick 6 Launches This Weekend appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Santa Anita’s Autumn Wagering Menu Includes Golden Hour Pick 4, Golden Hour Double

Santa Anita's 16-day Autumn Meet, which opens this Friday, Oct. 1, will again offer fans a comprehensive wagering menu that will complement a full schedule of world class racing. With four stakes slated for opening day, including the Grade 2, $200,000 Eddie D, which marks a return to sprinting at about 6 ½ furlongs down the Camino Real hillside turf course, interest is running high as horsemen will enter for a nine-race program on Tuesday morning.

Two popular wagers that combine races at Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields, the $1 Golden Hour Pick 4, which features a low 15 percent takeout and the $5 Golden Hour Double, will be offered this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, resume on Oct. 22, 23 & 24 and on closing weekend, Oct. 29, 30 & 31, with the resumption of racing at Golden Gate. (Golden Gate will be dark for three weekends in mid-October during the Big Fresno Fair).

Walk-up admission is welcomed and in addition to betting on-track, fans have a variety of wagering options, including 1 ST.com/Bet, which can be downloaded free of charge at the App Store. In addition to Santa Anita's simulcast signal, all of the track's races will be shown live on TVG.

Santa Anita's popular 20 cent Rainbow Pick Six Jackpot wager, which consists of the final six races on each day's program, is again available, as is the low 14 percent takeout 50 cent Early Pick 5 and 50 cent Late Pick 5.

Providing there is no single ticket winner, the 20 cent Single Ticket Rainbow Pick Six is paid on a daily basis to those consolation tickets with the highest number of winning tickets. Thirty percent of the net Rainbow pool is then carried over to a jackpot pool on the next racing day. Should there be no perfect tickets through Oct. 30, there could be a massive jackpot pool leading into a mandatory payout on closing day, Oct. 31.

The $1 Stronach Five will be offered each Friday throughout the meet and will consist of a fast paced series of five races from Santa Anita, Gulfstream Park, Golden Gate Fields and Laurel Park. The Stronach Five is a one dollar minimum wager with a 12 percent takeout.

Santa Anita will also continue to offer $1 exactas, $2 rolling Daily Doubles, 50 cent rolling Pick 3's, an early 50 cent Pick 4, as well as 10 cent Superfectas on all races with a minimum of six runners.

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2021 AUTUMN MEET COMPLETE WAGERING MENU

–20 cent Rainbow Pick Six offered on the final six races each day

–The Stronach Five, a $1 minimum wager with a 12 percent takeout, offered each Friday

–Low 14 percent takeout 50 cent Early Pick 5, as well as 50 cent Late Pick 5

–$1 Golden Hour Pick Four, with 15 percent takeout

–$5 Golden Hour Late Double, with 15 percent takeout

–$2 Win, Place & Show wagering on each race, featuring the lowest takeout (15.43 percent) of any major racetrack in North America

–50 cent Trifectas on each race with a minimum of four scheduled starters

–10 cent Superfectas on all races with a minimum of six scheduled starters

–$1 Exactas on each race

— 50 cent Early Pick 4, which will be comprised of races two through five

–50 cent Late Pick 4, comprised of the final four races each day

–50 cent Mid Pick 4, available only when there are 11 or more races carded. In the event of an 11-race program, wager begins with Race 5

–Rolling $2 Daily Doubles

–50 cent Rolling Pick 3's, beginning with the first race each day

–$1 Super Hi 5, available on all races with seven or more declared starters, requires players to pick the first five finishers in exact order. If there are no perfect tickets with five winners, no consolation, 100 percent of the net pool is carried over to the next Super Hi 5 race.

For additional information regarding Santa Anita's 2021 Autumn Meet, please visit santaanita.com or call (626) 574-RACE.

The post Santa Anita’s Autumn Wagering Menu Includes Golden Hour Pick 4, Golden Hour Double appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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McCarthy in “a Nice Position” Ahead of Fall Blitz

If any ducks have been careless enough to stray at the Michael McCarthy barn at Santa Anita, they've been promptly herded back into row.

The McCarthy office has a new lick of bright white paint and a navy accent wall to compliment the trainer's coat of arms. There's the fancy new desk–one of those good-for-the-back ergonomic types that moves to fit the owner and not the other way around–and a blazing new flatscreen high in one corner.

Then there's the trainer himself, freshly shorn from an in-office trim–a precision 10-minute procedure between paperwork one recent morning. In the McCarthy school of time-management, West Point would be made to look like Police Academy.

All in all, barn 59 at Santa Anita right now projects a sense of consolidation, not as a corrective but as an assurance the course already charted continues full steam ahead.

“I hope people look at me and see me extremely capable of being able to produce the results,” said McCarthy, when asked whether Rombauer (Twirling Candy)'s bounding GI Preakness S. win has brought, in the months since, any new dimensions to his career.

“Like I said on the day, it meant a lot to me personally–it was very validating,” he said. “The horse showcased what I believed he was the whole time. And it was wonderful that a small commercial operation like the Fradkins [owner-breeders Diane and John] were able to achieve something like that. That's one of the things that's so good about our game.”

Rombauer, Preakness winner-cum-fruity Napa Chardonnay, is currently nearing the end of a 90-day spa get-away at Peacefield Farm, a luxury all-inclusive in Temecula for pampered equines in need of a little me-time. Though Rombauer is hardly a delicate White Lotus.

“Eight different races at six different tracks,” said McCarthy, pointing to a resume that started with a win in a tidy maiden at Del Mar last July and culminated with a lionhearted third-place finish behind Essential Quality (Tapit) in the GI Belmont S. 11 months later.

Besides that, “We ran around like a chicken with its head cut off going here, there and everywhere,” said McCarthy, of Rombauer's spring itinerary which besides the Big Apple took in flights to San Francisco, Keeneland and Baltimore.

With all that in mind, it's good to hear that Rombauer's summer siesta sounds like he let his belt out a few notches and caught up on a bit of essential reading.

“He's just getting turned out, getting some R&R,” said McCarthy. “He's enjoyed his time off–put some weight on.”

With a return to training scheduled for the start of next month, McCarthy is understandably reticent about using indelible ink to mark Rombauer's 2022 racing calendar. That said, the road ahead is pretty well worn for a horse of Rombauer's peculiar gifts.

In the winter and spring, there are big pots in Florida and the Middle East, with McCarthy seemingly softer on the G1 Dubai World Cup than its Saudi precursor. At the same time, it would appear he's even softer on a domestic campaign, with the likes of the GI Santa Anita “Big Cap” H. an obvious early season target.

“It's always nice to be able to run out of your own stall,” he said. “He just didn't get the opportunity to do that much last year.”

Ultimately, though, “I'm looking at the entire year,” he said. “I'd like to culminate with a start in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic.”

It says a lot about the strength of McCarthy's relatively short training career–the current stint just eight years–that his standout performer to date probably isn't the winner of a Triple Crown middle leg.

“You always hope that they're as good as they are on the racetrack when they enter into the second stage of their careers,” said McCarthy, of City of Light (Quality Road), the four-time Grade I winner and now exciting young sire.

From his first crop, the McCarthy protege sired the highest-priced horses in two sessions at the freshly wrapped Keeneland September Yearling Sale, including the $1.7 million sale-topper and another colt that went for $1.05 million.

While McCarthy was the underbidder on the big-ticket maker, he made amends when signing $750,000 for a City of Light filly (hip 636) on behalf of the stallion's owners Mr. and Mrs. William K. Warren.

“He really does stamp them. Hopefully he'll pass along some of those traits that made him so good,” said McCarthy of City of Light, pointing to an “incredible amount of natural speed,” and a good mind that's “eager to please.” I saw a lot of him “in quite a few of them,” McCarthy added.

“You kind of just have to chuckle,” he said. “You look for them to get into the open market, and then it's awfully hard for you to get your hands on them. It can be a little bit frustrating. But they're going to the right people. That's the most important thing.”

In all, the recent Keeneland sales yielded a handful of new McCarthy-bound recruits, including a Bolt d'Oro colt (hip 713). When these fledglings take residence in Southern California, they'll join the ranks of more seasoned operatives besides just Rombauer.

“He's a strong horse–healthy horse,” said McCarthy of Smooth Like Strait (Midnight Lute), another McCarthy miler who, for two seasons, has shown himself a bruiser of a sparring partner whose vocabulary lacks not just the word quit, but all associated synonyms.

In May, he won a well-deserved Grade I at Santa Anita in the Shoemaker Mile S., and since then, has been denied a brace of Grade IIs by the toss of a baby's blanket.

Next up? The GII City of Hope Mile S. next Saturday. Beyond that, Smooth Like Strait will likely have another year to hold the nation's best to account.

“He's a horse who seems to thrive on his racing,” said the man who knows him best. “He made some noise at two. Definitely made some noise at three. Grade I winner at four. Hopefully, he stays healthy at five. He's arguably as good as anyone around here, as anyone around the country right now,” said McCarthy.

“I don't think I've seen a horse in his class that's put together a resume like he has the last two years,” McCarthy added. “Multiple big days. Multiple big performances.”

The day after the City of Hope is the GIII Chillingsworth S., the intended next stop for Ce Ce (Elusive Quality), the dual Grade I- winner last year and GII Princess Rooney Invitational S. victor at Gulfstream Park in July.

All being well, the Chillingsworth will set her up for a start in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, and a potential rematch against the Bob Baffert-trained Gamine, Ce Ce's recent nemesis in the GI Ballerina H. at Saratoga.

“It's out of my control. I can only worry about what's in front of me,” McCarthy said, of the Filly and Mare Sprint. “There'll also be 10 others.”

Next weekend looks like a busy one indeed for the barn.

In terms of Santa Anita's opening weekend, the likes of Friar's Road (Quality Road) and Chilean import Master Piece (Chi) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) are nominated for the GII John Henry Turf Championship, Fast Jet Court (Brz) (Courtier) and Rideforthecause (Candy Ride {Arg}) are being aimed at the GI Rodeo Drive S., while Stellar Sound (Tapit) is a possible for the GII Zenyatta S., if she doesn't join Ce Ce in the Chillingsworth.

Over at Churchill Downs next Saturday, Independence Hall (Constitution) is being primed for the GIII Lukas Classic S., and Rushie (Liam's Map) for the GIII Ack Ack S.

McCarthy wouldn't have it any other way.

“It's a nice position to be in,” he said. “It's the sort of position you're always aiming to be in, getting to be in all the big ones.”

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