saratoga | Horse Racing Free Tips

Justify Colt Becomes Latest Rising Star at the Spa

Rosedown Racing Stables LLC's Champions Dream (Justify–Dancinginherdreams, by Tapit) entered this unveiling with sparking clocker reports and lots of buzz, and made his $425,000 OBS March price tag and 6-5 odds on the tote look like value as he earned 'TDN Rising Star' status Saturday at The Spa.

Just a $25,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by G.W. and Karen Parrish's Parrish Farms–reportedly due to concerns about his feet–the grey blossomed into a $425,000 OBS March juvenile off a sharp :20 4/5 breeze.

Turned over to Danny Gargan, the son of 2015 GII Pocahontas S. romper and fellow 'Rising Star' Dacinginherdreams was looking to become just his trainer's second juvenile debut winner at Saratoga over at least the past five years–the other among 25 to try was subsequent three-time stakes winner Dakota Gold (Freud) almost exactly a year ago.

The 13-10 chalk took a narrow early advantage and set a pressured first quarter of :22.94 before sneaking away through a :45.81 half. Cagliostro (Upstart)–himself a $385,000 OBS grad–took a run at the leader into the stretch, but Champions Dream swatted that one away and kept on to maintain a 2 1/4-length edge on the line. Well-bred longshot Prairie Dunes (Curlin) closed well to spice up the exacta.

Champions Dream becomes the 12th winner for his fast-starting freshman sire (by Scat Daddy), and third to follow that Triple Crown winner in being named a 'Rising Star'. Justify has sired three graded stakes winners thus far, and has two daughters in Sunday's GI Spinaway S.

Champions Dream is the fourth foal and first winner out of his dam, who is half to stakes-winning juvenile Doubled (Exchange Rate) and the dam of GSW/GISP Texas Wedge (Colonel John) and a full to GSP Good Pick Nick. Dancinginherdreams has a yearling colt by Flameaway (Scat Daddy), a foal filly by the same John Oxley colorbearer and she revisited the Darby Dan resident once more for 2023.

6th-Saratoga, $105,000, Msw, 9-3, 2yo, 7f, 1:23.68, ft, 2 1/4 lengths.
CHAMPIONS DREAM, c, 2, Justify
                1st Dam: Dancinginherdreams (GSW, $328,516), by Tapit
                2nd Dam: Mayan Milagra, by Meinfee
                3rd Dam: Dhaka, by Icecapade
Sales history: $25,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP; $425,000 2yo '22 OBSMAR. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $57,750. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG. Free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
O-Rosedown Racing Stables, LLC; B-John C. Oxley (KY); T-Danny Gargan.

The post Justify Colt Becomes Latest Rising Star at the Spa appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Sunday Insights: Debuting Carla Bred On Wildly Successful Cross

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency

1st-DMR, $80K, Msw, 2yo, f, 5 1/2f, post time: 4:00 p.m. ET
Michael Petersen and Willow Grace Farm, who campaign last year's GI Del Mar Debutante winner Grace Adler (Curlin) in partnership, team up for the Sunday opener at Del Mar with $950K Keeneland September acquisition CARLA (Medaglia d'Oro). The February foal is the first produce from Naples Princess (Distorted Humor), a full-sister to SW Banker's Buy and a half to SW City Dweller (Carson City) and SW Glacken's Gal (Smoke Glacken), the dam of GII Davona Dale S. victress Live Lively (Medaglia d'Oro). The hugely productive cross of Medaglia d'Oro over Distorted Humor mares has yielded the likes of two-time Hong Kong Horse of the Year Golden Sixty (Aus) and additional Grade I winners Elate and New Money Honey, while extending to Forty Niner-line dams brings in the likes of multiple champion Songbird and Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra. TJCIS PPs

2nd-KD, $150K, Msw, 2yo, 1mT, post time: 1:58 p.m. ET
The debuting Carnaby Street got American Pharoah on the board in the opening race of the meet Thursday afternoon and ON THE TEAR looks to continue the momentum here. A $350K KEESEP purchase, the Springhouse Farm-bred is a half-brother to this year's Star Shoot S. heroine Beautiful Empire (Classic Empire) and his dam, purchased by Springhouse for $260K in foal to Shanghai Bobby at Fasig-Tipton November in 2016, is a half-sister to successful young sire Practical Joke (Into Mischief). Life At Sea (West Coast) is the third foal to race out of Irish Jasper (First Defence), three times a graded winner sprinting on the main track. TJCIS PPs

6th-SAR, $105K, Msw, 2yo, f, 7f, post time: 3:20 p.m. ET
It's been an outstanding meet for Curlin and Stonestreet homebred PURE PAULINE will attempt to open her account at first asking Sunday. Inheriting the chestnut coloring of both her sire and of her GII Black-Eyed Susan S.-winning dam Keen Pauline (Pulpit), the Apr. 24 is bred on a variant of the cross over A.P. Indy-line mares that has tossed up Malathaat, Nest and Cody's Wish, each a Grade I winner during the current meet at Saratoga. Curlin is also represented by the rail-drawn third-time starter Take Charge Briana, whose dam Take Charge Tressa is a full-sister to MGISW and Spendthrift sire Omaha Beach (War Front). TJCIS PPs

7th-SAR, $105K, Msw, 2yo, f, 1 1/16mT, post time: 3:53 p.m. ET
PROUVER (Justify), a $310K graduate of last year's Keeneland September sale, is a daughter of Ready to Act (More Than Ready), who won her maiden at first asking sprinting over the local turf course and was well on her way to victory in the 2013 GII Natalma S. when she abruptly ducked in and unseated jockey Rajiv Maragh. The gray filly would go on to win the 2014 Sweetest Chant S. over the Gulfstream turf course and the GII Beaumont S. at Keeneland when the race was contested on the Polytrack. This is the extended female family of GI Hollywood Gold Cup hero and GI Pacific Classic third Mast Track (Mizzen Mast). Writteninthestars (Malibu Moon), a $110K KEESEP yearling turned $500K Fasig-Tipton Midlantic juvenile (:10 2/5, see below), is out of a half-sister to GSW Sparky Ville (Candy Ride {Arg}) and hails from the family of GISWs Harmony Lodge and Pinehurst and MGSW Graeme Hall. TJCIS PPs

The post Sunday Insights: Debuting Carla Bred On Wildly Successful Cross appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Juvenile Fillies Take Centerstage at the Spa Sunday

A talented field of 10 juvenile fillies will throw down in Sunday's featured GI Spinaway S. at Saratoga.

Kaling (Practical Joke) will exit from the rail following a 'TDN Rising Star' performance on debut for Todd Pletcher at the Spa July 24.

Pletcher's former boss D. Wayne Lukas will be very well-represented as well via last out GIII Adirondack S. Aug. 7 heroine Naughty Gal (Into Mischief). The duo share a co-leading six Spinaway victories.

“I enjoy it and I pull for him,” Lukas said of facing the aforementioned fellow Hall of Fame trainer. “Let's just hope that we keep it in the family. On numerous occasions when we've been in the same field and they're turning for home, if it doesn't look like we can win my wife and I both will start hollering for Todd. That's a very satisfying thing.”

Just Cindy (Justify), unbeaten heroine of the GIII Schuylerville S. on opening day, breaks one to the outside of the latter in post five.

Wonder Wheel (Into Mischief), recently profiled in these pages, is also perfect in two attempts, last seen running away with Churchill's Debutante S. July 4.

Sunday's other graded action includes: Del Mar's 'Win and You're In' GIII Green Flash H. for turf sprinters, featuring the race's defending winner and 2021 GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint runner-up Lieutenant Dan (Grazen); and the GIII Torrey Pines S. for 3-year-old fillies.

Last out GII National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame S. winner Ready to Purrform (Kitten's Joy), meanwhile, headlines the $750,000 GIII Big Ass Fans Dueling Grounds Derby at Kentucky Downs.

The post Juvenile Fillies Take Centerstage at the Spa Sunday appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Lukas ‘Hopeful’ On Final Weekend At The Spa

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Here we are on the final weekend of the Saratoga season and–no surprise–D. Wayne Lukas is ready to take swings in both of the historic Grade I races for 2-year-olds.

The Hall of Fame trainer, who turned 87 Friday, will saddle Holy Cow Stable's Naughty Gal (Into Mischief) Sunday in the GI Spinaway S. The next afternoon, Lukas will send out BC Stable's Bourbon Bash (City of Light) and Western Ghent (American Pharoah) in the GI Hopeful, the final stake of the 154th season of Saratoga racing.

Lukas skipped the last two years because of a combination of Covid-19 and a downturn in the quality of his stable, but came back to Saratoga this summer with 16 horses for what has been a productive meet. Through Friday, the Lukas stable had a record of 4-6-2 from 23 starts with earnings of $607,889. During the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, he signed the tickets for five yearlings for $2.725 million.

Three of Lukas' Saratoga wins came from his stakes starters. Bourbon Bash handled a maiden special weight field by eight lengths Aug. 13. Western Ghent, co-owned by Lukas and his wife Laurie, won a $75,000 maiden claimer Aug. 25. Naughty Gal, the GIII Adirondack winner Aug. 7, prevailed by 2 1/4 lengths despite running greenly and drifting out in the stretch under Luis Saez.

“She's corrected that, for sure, and I feel comfortable,” Lukas said, “And, of course, Luis is going to be a lot more familiar with who she is. The power steering kicked in and she overreacted to what he was trying to do. We wanted to be in the four or five-hole and we didn't want to be an eight or nine He ended up there so quick it surprised him.”

Lukas and his former assistant and fellow Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher top the Spinaway trainers's standings with six victories each. In 23 starts, Lukas has a 6-5-3 record in the seven-furlong race. He won with Tiltalating (Tilt Up) in 1984, the first year he ran at the track. His most recent winner was Golden Attraction in 1995.

Figuring out who belongs in a graded stake, Lukas said, comes down to experience.

“Well, if you've been doing it for 60 years, you get a pretty good cross section of what works and what won't,” he said. “I've been guilty my whole career of entering in stakes that I have no idea what the competition's ability is. That goes for everyday races. I'll enter in non-winners of two and somebody will say this or that about the race and I have no idea. But I know what wins non-winners of two. I've seen it enough that I know that I'm competitive in a non-winners of two unless Secretariat shows up or Ruffian.”

Before the 40-day meet July 14, Lukas expected BC Stable's Summer Promise (Uncle Mo) to be his Spinaway horse. However, she finished second in the GIII Schuylerville on opening day and Naughty Gal moved up in the pecking order in the stable with her Adirondack triumph.

“She's going into it and the other one's not,” Lukas said. “I'm running the best one I've got at this point.”

Lukas said Naughty Gal is an obvious standout.

“Awful strong. Big, powerful filly,” he said. “One of the best horsemen I know called me the other day and said 'Boy, that's a good-looking (SOB) you ran in the Adirondack. He was watching on television. She's a picture of conformation. For her age, her development, strength, size is incredible. She's really a study. You want to study one how they're supposed to look, she's it in every way. That's why I say the seven furlongs should just be right in her wheelhouse.”

Never shy about promoting his horses, Lukas said Naughty Gal is a filly with a future.

“Big time. And I'm anxious to run her two turns,” he said. “That's where I really want to see her run.”

If things go well in the Spinaway, Lukas said Naughty Gal is on the road to the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies in November at Keeneland.

“No bones about it,” he said. “I'm pointing her right there.”

Lukas is the career leader in Hopeful wins with eight from 32 starts. Pletcher and Steve Asmussen are next with three each.

Bourbon Bash was a well-beaten second to the Chad Brown-trained Blazing Sevens (Good Magic) in his first try July 24, but earned his trip to the Hopeful with the romp in his second start.

“He's a real immature colt, but I think he'll also relish the seven-eighths,” Lukas said. “He was getting in cruise control the other day. The only thing that is a little bit disturbing is the race was slow. Of course, it wasn't slow for him. When they say the race was slow, I always say, 'Well, he beat everybody that showed up.' I wondered about the time a little bit. I'm talking to Chad Brown and he said, 'You know, my colt is the one that beat yours' when I first started him. I said, 'well, it will be interesting the next time.'”

The post Lukas ‘Hopeful’ On Final Weekend At The Spa appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post