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Recent Private Buy South Bend Works Towards Travers

South Bend (Algorithms), a recent addition to the Bill Mott barn, turned in his final breeze Sunday over Saratoga’s Oklahoma Training Track as he eyes next Saturday’s GI Runhappy Travers S. The colt was acquired privately from Sagamore Farm and trainer Stanley Hough after finishing second in the June 27 GIII Ohio Derby by a group that includes Gary Barber, Adam Wachtel, Peter Deutsch and Leonard Schleifer of Pantofel Stable. Working outside of recent GII Suburban S. romper Tacitus (Tapit), South Bend was credited with five furlongs in a best-of-11 1:00.70–Tacitus was clocked in 1:01.15 (2/11).

“He went well He went with Tacitus and they breezed nicely and finished up together,” said Mott. “He made up a length to the finish. We had him go out a little stronger. He’s a nice horse and pretty easy to train.”

Tacitus is being pointed to the GI Woodward S. Sept. 5.

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Travers Longshot First Line Will Try to Keep Momentum Going for Noda

On paper, First Line (First Samurai) would appear to be in over his head in the GI Runhappy Travers S. But his young trainer insists he “will outrun his odds” and sees the horse starting in the GI Kentucky Derby. Orlando Noda is not lacking confidence.

It’s not hard to understand why. Training for just 16 months, Noda, 31, is in the midst of another strong Saratoga meet. With just six horses under his care at the start of the meet last year, he went three for nine. This year, with 18 horses, he is off to a four-for-13 start. The latest win came Saturday with Mystery Bank (The Big Mystery). Making his first start for Noda after being trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., he won a maiden special weight on the grass and paid $18.

“We are grateful everything is working out,” Noda said. “We won for owners who have never won before in Saratoga. Everyone is thrilled that we are performing the way we are in Saratoga against the elite.”

Still training primarily claimers, Noda has long thought that First Line could be his breakout horse. He was trained by Brad Cox before he made his first career start and then privately acquired by Noda, who gallops many of his own horses.

“When I got him I knew he could run,” Noda said. “I’m not a light rider and he was putting in some good works for me. He was immature at the beginning but so game when he came to track. He loves to train. I hyped up the horse even before he started in his first race. I had big plans ever since I got him. I’ve been telling people he’s my Derby horse.”

But First Line wasn’t delivering. He was a distant fourth in his debut in January at Aqueduct and was still winless in three starts entering the Saratoga meet. Noda was able to find a nine-furlong maiden race on July 29 for the gelding’s next start and the result was a narrow win by a neck, good for a 90 Beyer Speed Figure.

“He just needed distance.” Noda said. “That made all the difference.”

First Line will now be coming back in 10 days for the Travers and stepping up from a maiden to a Grade I race where the competition will include the leading 3 year-old in training, Tiz the Law (Constitution). Noda said the first goal is to earn enough points to get into the field for the Derby, but he’s not ruling out a victory. He’s so confident in the horse that he said had the maiden race not filled he still would have entered First Line in the Travers.

“I’m entering to win.” he said of the Travers. “He might surprise some people.”

That Noda even has a Travers horse this early in his career is rather remarkable.

He came up under his father, trainer Jose Noda-Fernandez, who raced in Florida and the Mid-Atlantic. His next stop was Ocala, where he worked for several of the top farms there, including Hartley/DeRenzo and Crupi’s New Castle before joining the Mark Casse team. At each stop along the way, Noda tried to learn as much as he could.

“I learned that if you put a foundation into a horse before you work on speed that makes a horse last longer,” Noda said. “A lot of sale babies get pressed too early in their careers before they have really matured. Then they don’t make it past their 3-year-old year. Over all, everyone has their own opinions on how to train a horse. I think less is more as a baby.”

Ready to go out on his own, he joined forces with his brother Jonathan and formed Noda Brothers LLC. For much of 2019 Noda had no outside clients. It was just he and his brother. He started his first horse in March of last year and after 11 losses won his first race last June.

“You have to start as a claiming trainer to get the owners to notice you and give you those pedigree horses that are bound for stakes races,” he said.

During his brief career, Noda has won with 24 of his 126 starters for a wining rate of 19%. He has had only one prior start in a graded race.

It’s not just First Line, Noda can be ambitious when spotting his horses and isn’t afraid to run them at class levels that may seem to be a stretch.

“A lot of handicappers don’t pick me to win because I am always bumping up horses instead of dropping them,” Noda said. “It is an easier game when you can claim for $32,000 and drop them in for $25,000. Do that and you will win a high percentage. As long as the horse is doing good I want to test the waters going up in class.”

As often happens when a new trainer gets off to a fast start, Noda is getting a lot of inquiries from owners looking to give him horses. He said he has been having problems finding help at Saratoga and can’t take on any extra horses right now, but expects to expand his stable once he returns to Belmont. By the end of the year he expects to have about 40 horses. If he can get a big performance out of First Line in either the Travers or the Derby, that number may rise.

“This horse will fight to the end,” Noda said. “We have to test the waters. You never know.”

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The Next Generation with Shayna Tiller

The TDN has partnered with Amplify Horse Racing to present “The Next Generation,” an ongoing video series featuring young people who were not born into the Thoroughbred business, but are now excelling within the industry.

Growing up next to Laurel Park, 24-year-old Shayna Tiller always felt a strong attraction to horse racing. But it wasn’t until she was in college that she decided to pursue a career in the industry.

On a whim, she applied for an internship with the Saratoga Special. After spending one summer at the Spa, she was hooked for life. Over the past four years, Shayna has been on a whirlwind tour of the industry- doing everything from foaling out mares, chasing down a story on the Saratoga backstretch, working as an exercise rider, and interning for Fasig-Tipton.

Last year, she graduated from the Irish National Stud course. She now works as the Director of Sales for Mill Ridge Farm, and also shares her passion for promoting the stories of the people behind the sport through the ‘Riders Up’ Podcast she created with roommate Autry Graham.

KR: How did you get involved in horse racing?

ST: I’m originally from Laurel, Maryland and I grew up 10 minutes from the racetrack there. My mom and sister are deathly allergic to horses, ironically, so no one in my family was really into it. But my parents are from Bowie, Maryland and my dad always liked to go to the track and he took me with him a couple times. I did one Pony Pal ride there, and I was sold for life.

So I rode horses growing up, and I did a school project in high school on Lasix in horse racing and I interned with some of the state vets there at Laurel and Pimlico. I learned all about it and was kind of hooked from that point.

When I was in college at the University of Maryland, we had to apply for a fake internship as part of the general education requirements. I found an ad for the Saratoga Special, and just decided to apply. So I shipped up to Saratoga, didn’t even know what a blacktype race was, and I was interviewing Todd Pletcher the next day.

They put us up in a barn apartment above the McMahon’s Farm. Ann McMahon drives a car with a license plate that says ‘Funny Cide One’ on it. They raised Funny Cide and he was my favorite horse growing up. So I thought, “Well, I want to come back and learn more.” So I spent my winters with them, and any break I had from college, I was there.

I transferred my last year of college to a smaller agricultural school in Pennsylvania to get more hands-on experience. I galloped in the mornings and interned with the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation when it was in its beginning stages. Then I was with Fasig-Tipton for a while before going to Ireland for the Irish National Stud Program last year.

So I guess as a new person in the industry who knew that I knew nothing, I wanted to get a full perspective on the industry and I was just eating it up. I think that’s what’s so cool, is that people in this industry really allow you to do anything you’re interested in.

KR: What was it that drew you to this industry?

ST: I think that it’s all rooted in a love for the horse. I went to college to be a vet, but when I was going through it, I realized I didn’t really want to do that. When you grow up as a little horse girl you think you’re either going to be a barn manager or maybe manage a tack shop or be a vet. So when I found horse racing, I just saw that you can actually go and make a career for yourself and work in a dynamic industry, and that’s what drew me in.

Being in Saratoga, it’s the most inspiring place you can be, really. I was around the top horses in the country and the top trainers- the people you see on TV. I wanted more and more of it, and it snowballed from there.

KR: What is your favorite part about this business?

ST: I really love the sales. I think what’s so cool about them is you sell horses at different stages of life and you’re trying to find where they’re going to peak. It’s also a bit of a matchmaking project with each horse, so it’s really neat seeing them grow, especially the foals to yearlings and the yearlings to 2-year-olds. You’re trying to find the perfect match of who’s going to purchase them and then you get to see them go on and win races and become big bad race horses that you’ve seen since they were babies. There’s really nothing like it.

KR: Tell us about what you do now.

ST: I’m the Director of Sales at Mill Ridge Farm. Mill Ridge was founded by Alice Chandler in 1962, which is really special for me, being a woman in the industry as well. She was just inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. So it’s kind of cool to be a female working here and carry on her legacy.

In my position, I oversee all of the sales operations, so that consists of recruiting, seeing the horses prep and placing them in sales, and then working in marketing to make sure they reach the right buyers and communicating with clients to help them succeed. I get to do a lot of different things, which is what’s so fun. No day is the same, and obviously going to the sales is a whole other job when I do that.

Another fun thing I do with my roommate Autry Graham is we started a podcast called Riders Up. We’re two young girls in racing and we like to have conversations with different people on the podcast and talk about their lives. It’s not your stereotypical handicapping podcast. You don’t want our picks. We tell the stories behind the business, and it’s really fun. You can find us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and we have an Instagram that we interact with a lot too.

KR: What are your career goals?

ST: I’ve always wanted to have my own consignment, so that’s something that I’m getting a little taste of here at Mill Ridge. I’m hoping in the next 10-plus years, I’ll be able to do that on my own.

KR: If you could change one thing about this industry, what would it be?

ST: I think if I could change one thing, it would be how we interact with the public. I come from a family that knows nothing about horse racing, so every time we have our newest public scandal or whatever the situation may be, I hear it from the public’s standpoint, rather than our standpoint as an industry. I think it’s so important for us to educate the public and tell them what’s really going on and be more transparent, because the more transparent you are, the less you have to lose.

I also think we need to work to appeal to the public. My friends all used to go to the Preakness and they wouldn’t even watch a horse race during the day, but they all got hooked on it from there, and it made them want to go back for more. It was more like a sporting event for them than a serious gambling experience. So I think we need to improve our engagement with the public.

KR: What was it like being a total newcomer in the sport?

ST: I was definitely very intimidated when I first started in racing. It just seems completely isolated and you don’t really know how you’re going to break that barrier. I got into it pretty late. I was in college when I first started, and I was around people who have grown up in it their whole lives and knew all these things that I didn’t even know were possible.

I’ve found though, in racing, how much people do embrace you once you actually get into it and show you want to learn. I have had so many great people who have helped me along the way. It’s kind of incredible. I don’t know why they’ve done so much for me. So I think that was the initial struggle, but now I just feel really lucky to be a part of it, and it’s amazing how much people help you.

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Art Collector Heads Churchill Workers

Bruce Lundsford’s Art Collector (Bernardini), winner of the GII Toyota Blue Grass S. in his latest start, worked over a muddy Churchill Downs track Saturday morning. Trained by Tom Drury, the colt carved out fractions of :12.80 and :24.60 before galloping out five furlongs in 1:01.20 and six panels in 1:14.80.

“It’s so nice to have a horse who is versatile and can really run over any surface,” said Drury. “He did everything very easily this morning and it was really just a perfect work. We are still taking things one day at a time. We just have to get there and we’re keeping our fingers crossed.”

Drury indicated the colt remains on course to make his next start in Sunday’s Runhappy Ellis Park Derby ahead of a tilt at the Sept. 5 GI Kentucky Derby. Also targeting Ellis’ Derby next weekend, Jackie Rojas, Wayne Scherr and Raymond Daniels’ Necker Island (Hard Spun) covered four furlongs in :47.80.

Other possible Kentucky Derby contenders that recorded breezes Saturday were John Oxley’s GIII Lecomte S. winner Enforceable (Tapit) (five furlongs in 1:02.60) and Lloyd Madison Farm’s GIII Indiana Derby runner-up Major Fed (Ghostzapper) (four furlongs in :50.20).

“I was very happy with how [Enforceable] worked this morning,” said 21-year-old Declan Carroll, whose father, David, oversees trainer Mark Casse’s Churchill Downs string. “He did everything in stride. I was just the pilot.”

Highlighting the fairer set Saturday morning, Peter Callahan’s Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) worked five furlongs in 1:01 in preparation for the Aug. 15 GI Alabama S. at Saratoga. The chestnut, who was runner-up behind Art Collector in the Blue Grass last month, carved out intermediate fractions of :13.40, :26.40 and :38.20 before rounding out the move in 1:14.20 for six furlongs, according to Churchill Downs clocker John Nichols.

“She worked really good and handled the muddy surface well,” Brian Hernandez Jr., who was aboard for the work. “She’s a very talented filly as we saw in the Blue Grass how well she handled running against the boys. She cruised along out there this morning.”

Trained by Kenny McPeek, Swiss Skydiver, who is automatically qualified for the Sept. 4 GI Kentucky Oaks with 350 points, annexed the GII Gulfstream Park Oaks, GIII Fantasy S. and GII Santa Anita Oaks earlier this spring.

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