santa anita | Horse Racing Free Tips

Immaculately Bred Curlin Firster Gets ‘Rising Star’ Nod

Things didn't look especially promising for those who crunched Michael Lund Petersen's Faustin (c, 2, Curlin–Hard Not to Like, by Hard Spun) into 90 cents on the dollar in the early stages of the first juvenile test of the new meet at Santa Anita Monday afternoon. But the gunmetal gray colt did his best work through the line to graduate by open lengths and become a new 'TDN Rising Star.'

The March foal was not off to the most alert of beginnings and was no better than midfield and under a very busy ride from Ramon Vazquez as the quarter went up in :21.67. Still cajoled along on the turn, but able to make some headway towards the inside, Faustin advanced to be fourth behind a wall of three rivals as they hit the top of the lane. Hooked wide, with stablemate Sonoran (Ride On Curlin) to catch entering the final furlong, he raced a bit greenly while gathering that one up and strode home to score by a widening 2 3/4-length margin.

Led out unsold on a bid of $285,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale, Faustin breezed an eighth of a mile in :10 flat and was hammered down to Petersen's agent Donato Lanni for $800,000 at OBS this past April. Faustin, who outworked 99 others to earn the half-mile bullet (:46 4/5 from the gate) Dec. 10, is the 23rd 'Rising Star' for Curlin.

A homebred for Hillsbrook Farm and trained by Michael Matz, Hard Not to Like upset the 2014 GI Jenny Wiley S. and was purchased by Speedway Stables for $1.5 million out of that year's Keeneland November sale. Turned over to Christophe Clement, she thrived at five, winning this track's GI Gamely S. and the GI Diana S. before DATTT Farm purchased her for $2.2 million at KEENOV in 2016. Hard Not to Like's foals have been market darlings, her last four having sold for at least a half-million dollars, including her yearling filly by Quality Road that was purchased by Japan's Koji Maeda for $500,000 at Keeneland this past September. Her last listed produce is a weanling colt by Constitution.

Faustin is bred on the exact same cross as champion and successful young sire Good Magic and additional graded winners Irish War Cry and Cordmaker.

4th-Santa Anita, $68,500, Msw, 12-26, 2yo, 6f, 1:10.08, ft, 2 3/4 lengths.
FAUSTIN, c, 2, by Curlin
1st Dam: Hard Not to Like (MGISW-US, SW-Can, $1,262,171), by Hard Spun
2nd Dam: Like A Gem, by Tactical Cat
3rd Dam: It's a Ruby, by Rubiano
Sales history: $285,000 RNA Ylg '21 KEESEP; $800,000 2yo '22 OBSAPR. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $40,200. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
O-Michael Lund Petersen; B-DATTT Farm LLC (KY); T-Bob Baffert.

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Missed The Cut Possible for Dubai, America in 2023

Newmarket-based trainer George Boughey is mapping out a 2023 campaign for Royal Ascot winner Missed The Cut (Quality Road), which includes a potential trip to Dubai and possibly America.

“There's a chance that he could go to America,” Boughey said. “There's a race called the Santa Anita H. on Mar. 4, which is a Grade I on dirt. We'll see, but he's doing very well physically and I always said to [co-owner] Bill Farish and the guys at Lane's End that I didn't want to over-race him this year but I wanted to make him a stakes winner, which we have.”

Following Pontefract maiden and Salisbury novice wins, the 3-year-old captured the Golden Gates H. at the Royal Ascot meeting in June under New Zealand-born rider James McDonald. The Quality Road colt disappointed on his next appearance in the G2 Prix Guillaume d'Ornano at Deauville, but bounced back to make a successful all-weather debut in last month's Listed Churchill S. at Lingfield.

“There's a lot of good horses that have flourished at four, he's still a big baby and all the options are open,” Boughey said. “He's on the list for Dubai and I think we've got to treat him like a good horse and all those top 10-furlong Grade 1s around the world next year will hopefully be where we're looking at.”

Another Boughey trainee set to have her passport stamped in the coming weeks is Perdika (GB) (Unfortunately {Ire}), who notched a fourth successive win in a Kempton nursery earlier this week. While All-Weather Championships Finals Day at Newcastle is an obvious target, the youngster is first bound for Meydan.

“She's probably going to go to Dubai for the winter,” Boughey added. “She could come back for Finals Day, but we'll see. She's already had enough qualifying runs to get her into the race on Finals Day if we wanted and a stiff six (furlongs) there [Newcastle] could suit her. She's due to fly to Dubai on the 29th of this month and can go for those 3-year-old fillies' races. I've never run her on turf, but she worked well on turf before she ran for us and I'd see her as a typical horse to take out there for the winter.”

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2023 George Woolf Award Finalists Announced

Jockeys Daniel Cedeno, Javier Castellano, Terry Houghton, Edwin Maldonado, and Willie Martinez have been named by Santa Anita Park as finalists for the 2023 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award. Determined by a vote of their fellow riders nationwide, the Woolf Award can only be won once in a lifetime. It has been presented annually by Santa Anita since 1950. All of the finalists, except Castellano, are appearing on the ballot for the first time.

The Woolf Award was named in honor of the late George Woolf, known as “The Iceman,” who passed away due to a racing accident at Santa Anita in 1946. The first recipient of the award was Gordon Glisson in 1950, while Joe Bravo was the 73rd recipient this past year. The Woolf Award trophy is a replica of the life-sized statue which adorns Santa Anita's Paddock Gardens area.

The 2023 Woolf Award winner will be announced in February.

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Baltas Suspended a Year, Fined $10,000 for Alleged Medication Violations

Trainer Richard Baltas is facing a one-year suspension and a $10,000 fine for the alleged race-day administration of substances to his horses 21 times over roughly a three-week span this past spring at Santa Anita Park, according to a ruling posted Friday on the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) website.

Baltas told Daily Racing Form that he's “terribly disappointed” and plans to appeal.

In a bit of an odd legal twist, timing-wise, Baltas is already engaged in a legal fight with the CHRB over essentially these very same allegations.

Back on Aug. 17, some 3 1/2 months before the Dec. 2 ruling was even issued, Baltas sued the CHRB, its commissioners, and executive director for at least $12 million in damages, claiming that the CHRB “destroyed” his reputation by issuing the 47-count complaint that led to Friday's ruling.

That lawsuit stated the CHRB allegedly violated Baltas's civil rights and kept materials from him that were related to the accusations, “thereby forcing Baltas to proceed with information and documents that are being withheld and concealed from him…”

The CHRB's original June 21 complaint stated that “Between the dates of 4/15/2022 to 5/8/2022, 23 horses trained by RICHARD BALTAS were administered a substance on days they were entered into races. Surveillance video captured all administrations by employees of BALTAS's barn. The substance was analyzed by University of California, Davis, who reported the presence of Higenamine and Paenol.”

The Dec. 2 ruling stated that Baltas's suspension will run from Dec. 9, 2022, to Dec. 8, 2023, for allegedly violating the following CHRB rules: #1887 (Trainer to Insure Condition of Horse), #1902 (Conduct Detrimental to Horse Racing), and #1843.5 (Medication, Drug, and Other Substances Permitted After Entry in a Race).

More specifically, Baltas was cited for “Oral administrations of 'X-Treme Air Boost' and other substances on race day.” (While the original complaint listed “23 horses,” the ruling stated “21 counts”).

Back when the complaint was issued nearly a half-year ago, Baltas's lawsuit stated that, “None of the counts in the CHRB Complaint are valid, and each of them reflect a malicious intent by the Defendants.”

Baltas has not started a horse since July 15, at Lone Star Park.

His lawsuit stated that on May 10, “Aidan Butler, [acting] on behalf of Santa Anita, notified Baltas that he was prevented from entering any horses at Santa Anita.”

On June 22, 2022, the CHRB filed an ex parte application with the stewards at Los Alamitos Race Course to refuse the entry of two horses trained by Baltas, the lawsuit stated.

The stewards at Los Alamitos summarily denied these two entries “without a hearing or any form of due process,” the lawsuit stated. “The denial constituted a de facto summary suspension.”

Ballas then sent stock to compete at Churchill Downs. But, according to his lawsuit, track management there “issued a de facto suspension…a decision made, once again, without any due process.”

In July, in the wake of the CHRB complaint, a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge denied a request by Baltas to order the CHRB to allow him to enter horses in the state.

Baltas's lawsuit gave the following timeline of events regarding the allegations:

“Baltas had a horse called Noble Reflection scheduled to run in the 10th race at Santa Anita Park on May 8, 2022. A few hours before the race, one of Baltas's employees were seen on videotape administering an oral dose syringe into the horse's mouth.

“A syringe was subsequently recovered from a feed bag that was tested and had allegedly traces of Higenamine and Paeonol, which are organic liquids that are found naturally in Chinese herbs. Notably, after Noble Reflection was scratched from the race, it was tested and the test results were 'clean,' and neither Higenamine nor Paeonol were found in the horse,” the lawsuit stated.

“Based on the film footage of Noble Reflection…on May 10, 2022, the Santa Anita and/or the CHRB and its agents went back retroactively to review videotaped footage of Baltas's horses from April 15, 2022, up through May 8, 2022, and allegedly saw 22 horses trained by Baltas receiving an orally administered liquid that they contend was X-Treme Air Boost, which is a product advertised for use in horses in the Santa Anita Condition Book,” the lawsuit stated.

“Unlike the situation with Noble Reflection, there was no syringe found in the other 21 instances to be tested. Instead, the CHRB assumed the substance in the other 22 cases going back to April 15, 2022, was the same that was found in or on the outside of the syringe found on May 8, 2022. None of the 21 horses that raced ever tested positive for a Controlled or Prohibited Substance,” the lawsuit stated.

“The CHRB has never explained its decision for going back in time to find violations in the past, and its conduct demonstrates that they and/or the Defendants herein intended to target Baltas to find as many violations as possible. Such conduct demonstrates malice and oppression on the part of the CHRB and its Agents,” the lawsuit stated.

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