Shared News | Horse Racing Free Tips

Black-Eyed Susan Card Kicks Off Preakness Weekend

BALTIMORE, MD–The past two weeks has seen the kind of drama that one might expect in soap opera, laden with twists and turns that have left even the most seasoned turfwriters scratching their heads in disbelief. However, despite the all head-snapping headlines, the days leading up to this year's Preakness at Pimlico were business as usual. Thursday morning's activity matched the Baltimore weather, brisk and clear, with everything seemingly running without any major glitches. Following a brief hiatus because of the COVID pandemic, the morning tours were back in force at Pimlico, and given the robust turnout, it appeared fans remained eager to come out and experience racing's biggest events. Meanwhile, the 1/ST team of vets were clearly getting their steps in, making their rounds throughout the Preakness barns, while the typical mass of reporters milled about waiting for the reigning Kentucky Derby champ Mage (Good Magic) to make his way to the track promptly after the break at about 8:45a.m.

Faiza Puts Unbeaten Record on the Line
Friday's card at Pimlico is highlighted by a trio of graded stakes, anchored by the nine-furlong GII George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan S. The one clearly to beat is the undefeated Michael Lund Petersen's Faiza (Girvin), who has reeled off four consecutive graded victories, including the GI Starlet S. last December. This season, she won the GIII Las Virgenes S. and GIII Santa Ysabel S. before taking the GII Santa Anita Oaks.

“She's very professional. She's got a really good mind,” said trainer Bob Baffert. “Every time [Flavien] Prat rides, he says there is so much more in the tank because she doesn't win by a lot. I think [the Black-Eyed Susan] is going to be a step up. She will be running against more horses, so you never know. But she's doing really well.”

In Faiza's latest start in the Apr. 8 Santa Anita Oaks, she rolled home an impressive 6 1/2-length winner.

“She was really on when he asked her to go. I trained her a little bit stiffer for that one because I figured it was going to be a tougher race,” Baffert explained. “She looks great. She's healthy. She's really in the zone right now. I think she would have been tough in the [Kentucky] Oaks, but we'll find out in the Black-Eyed Susan.”

Flying a bit under the radar is Madaket Stables' Balpool (Uncaptured), who rides a two-race win skein. A comfortable winner going a mile at the Big A Apr. 7, the Florida-bred followed up with another in an off-turf renewal of the Memories of Silver S. at that venue Apr. 29.

“We were kind of scratching our heads as to what kind of filly she was,” admitted trainer Rob Atras. “That allowance race came up, so we figured we'd give her another shot in there and she really handled that field well that day. She really finished up good and kind of ran away from them. We got a little lucky with the stake [coming off the turf] but she still beat a couple decent fillies in there so, to me, it looks like she's progressing and getting better with every start. We're kind of excited about her and we're hoping that if we do run that she'll take another step forward.”

Brad Cox offers a two-pronged attack with Don Alberto's Merlazza (Medaglia d'Oro) and Godolphin homebred Comparative (Street Sense). The former won two of her first three starts before adding a victory in Oaklawn's Valley Of The Vapors S. Apr. 22.

“We have been pointing to this race with her since she won the first level allowance at the Fair Grounds [Mar. 25],” confirmed Cox.

Florent Geroux, who was aboard for her first three starts before being replaced by Joel Rosario for her latest, gets back aboard Friday.

In regard to her latest victory, Cox explained, “I just liked the way the race came up at Oaklawn. I thought she fit very well. It was a bit oddly run since there wasn't much pace and she sat behind horses and Joel did a good job of getting her out and letting her finish up.”

Although stepping up to graded company for the first time, Cox remains confident the Don Alberto homebred is up to the task.

“She's had two solid works since at Churchill and she shipped well and looks amazing,” he said. “I think she'll handle the mile and an eighth. It's her first attempt at graded stakes company but I think she's that caliber.”

And another reason to run at Pimlico?

“I obviously want to keep her away from Wet Paint,” he said with a chuckle.

Comparative needed several tries to get going, but finally broke through going 8 1/2 furlongs at the Fair Grounds in February before making it two straight in a Keeneland optional claimer Apr. 7. Luis Saez was aboard for both her career victories.

“I think Merlazza is probably a little bit quicker off the blocks than Comparative, but I think I would like Luis to keep Comparative involved [early],” Cox explained. “I think she does her best running when she's up close, and she showed that in her last two. She's stepping up in competition and we're going to need to see her move forward.”

Friday Undercard Packs Competitive Affairs
Cox also packs a punch in the six-furlong GIII Miss Preakness S. with morning line favorite Key of Life (Mo Town). The winner of three consecutive races last season, including the Myrtlewood S. at Keeneland, the bay finished third in the mud in the Dixie Belle S. at Oaklawn in February before annexing two straight in the Purple Mountain S. followed by the seven-furlong Beaumont S. at Keeneland Apr. 16.

“That's a good race,” said Cox of the Miss Preakness. “It's not a big field but it's a competitive group. There are some other fillies in there with speed, so I think it's going to be a jock's race. Flavien [Prat] is going to have to figure out a trip from down on the inside. They'll obviously need to get out and get some position, but hopefully, we can have enough late so she can finish down the lane.”

Trying to play the role of spoiler in the Miss Preakness is undefeated Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic). All three of her wins have been recorded while facing New York-bred competition, including her sole start in 2023 in the East View S. at Aqueduct Mar. 24. She is campaigned by famed Hall of Fame football coach Bill Parcell's August Dawn Farm.

In the male handicap division, Twin Creeks' Law Professor (Constitution) will try and collect his first graded score since taking the 2021 renewal of the GII Santa Anita Mathis Mile. Victorious in last season's Tapit S. at Kentucky Downs before finishing runner-up to Life Is Good in the GI Woodward S. and a fifth in the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, the gelding launched 2023 with a win in the Queen's County S. at Aqueduct in January before coming home third in Oaklawn's GIII Razorback H. Feb. 18. Well supported in a muddy renewal of the nine-furling Excelsior Apr. 1, he came home a 4 1/4-length winner. Manny Franco, who was aboard for both wins this season, gets the call.

Also coming into this year's Pimlico Special off a win is Lucky Seven Stable's Rattle N Roll (Connect), victorious in the GIII Ben Ali S. at Keeneland Apr. 22. Trained by Ken McPeek, the chestnut won three races at the stakes level, including the GIII Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park.

The post Black-Eyed Susan Card Kicks Off Preakness Weekend appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

McGaughey Colt Primed for a Breakout Performance

At this year's GI Preakness S., Shug McGaughey is aiming to win his own version of the Triple Crown. The Hall of Fame trainer won the third leg of the series in 1989, when Easy Goer famously defeated Sunday Silence in the GI Belmont S., and then Orb (Malibu Moon) earned the Kentucky horseman a GI Kentucky Derby score in 2013.

This Saturday, McGaughey could claim his final Triple Crown jewel with a promising contender in Perform (Good Magic).

On Thursday morning shortly after eight, as Perform walked the Preakness stakes barn shedrow following an easy gallop, McGaughey reflected on the significance of a potential victory at Pimlico.

“It would mean a lot,” he said. “It's really at the top of my list. I'm very excited about the opportunity and if I could get all three of them it would really mean a lot. Then I could start all over again.”

McGaughey has not had a Preakness starter since Orb ran fourth here 10 years ago.

“I'm excited,” he said. “I like this weekend down here. I think it's a lot of fun. You see a lot of people that you don't see year-round. There's a lot of enthusiasm and I'm glad to be here. I've never won it and if he's standing in the stall, I'm still never going to win it.”

While Perform is coming into the Preakness coming off two straight wins, it took a few tries for the colt's true ability to shine through. After five starts all going a mile or less, he stretched out to a mile and 40 yards at Tampa Bay Downs on Mar. 11 and pulled away to win by 2 3/4 lengths.

“His maiden races going short were okay, but then when I stretched him out around two turns, it made a big difference,” McGaughey said. “We ran him at Tampa and Irad Ortiz rode him. He got him to relax really well coming off the sprints and he finished really well.”

McGaughey considered several spots for the colt's next start, but ultimately landed on the Federico Tesio S. going a mile and an eighth at Laurel Park. While Perform took the lead at the top of the stretch in his maiden win, he showed that he could work through traffic at Laurel. After stumbling at the start, the sophomore sat near the back of the field with Feargal Lynch aboard and then weaved through horses late to get up in the nick of time.

Perform acclimates to the track at Pimlico | Sara Gordon

“I listened to Feargul's interview [after the race] and he said it was too bad that the horse wasn't nominated to the Preakness because he's that kind of horse, but I knew something he didn't know,” McGaughey said with a laugh.

Perform is owned in partnership by Woodford Racing, Lane's End Farm, Phipps Stable, Ken Langone and Edward Hudson Jr. When McGaughey approached the group about supplementing their new stakes winner to the Preakness, it was an easy sell.

With 15-1 morning line odds, Perform drew the number six post position for Saturday's race. Local jockey Feargal Lynch retains the mount to take on his first start in the Preakness.

“He rode him great and knows the racetrack,” said McGaughey. “Why not?”

The conditioner explained that he was particularly impressed with Perform's final breeze at Belmont last Sunday going four furlongs in :48.09 (2/44).

Now that Perform has had a few mornings to acclimate at Pimlico, McGaughey said that the track and the distance should fit his colt's running style.

“It should be right in his bread basket,” he noted. “He seems to be getting over the track really well in his gallops and we'll see if he likes it on Saturday.”

Eddie Woods picked Perform out as a yearling, purchasing him for $230,000 out of the Beau Lane Bloodstock consignment at the 2021 Keeneland September Sale for his Quarter Pole Enterprises. The son of Good Magic is out of the Tale of Ekati mare Jane Says, whose second dam is Broodmare of the Year Leslie's Lady (Tricky Creek).

“He was a very strong, well-proportioned horse,” Woods recalled. “He was good-looking with a beautiful head and he was a good mover.”

A few months after the purchase, TDN visited Eddie Woods Stable in Ocala. When asked to predict who would be the top first-crop sires in 2022, Woods mentioned Good Magic as a leading candidate and pointed out the Good Magic colt out of Jane Says, who would later be called Perform, as evidence.

“The Good Magics are very nice horses,” Woods said in February of 2022. “Laid back, kind of Curlin-y type horses. We have a Good Magic out of Jane Says colt who is a beautiful-looking horse…we're real happy with him.”

While Perform went on to breeze in :10 1/5 at the OBS March Sale, he got sick soon after and was forced to scratch from the sale. He went home to the Woods base and had returned to breezing when David Ingordo visited the farm and purchased the colt for the current ownership group.

Eddie Woods Stable was represented by Preakness winner Big Brown (Boundary) in 2008 and this year, their program's graduates include two Preakness contenders in Perform and National Treasure (Quality Road).

Perform is one of three sons of Good Magic entered in the Preakness along with GI Kentucky Derby hero Mage and last year's GI Champagne S. victor Blazing Sevens. Good Magic currently leads the way as the leading second-crop sire.

“He looks like a top-end sire and rightly so,” Woods said of the red hot stallion. “They're all pretty good, high-energy horses. They train well and are very professional about everything.”

The post McGaughey Colt Primed for a Breakout Performance appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Friday Insights: Pair Of Undefeated Fillies Square Off

2nd-CD, $134K, OC, 3yo, f, 6f, 6:28 p.m.
A pair of fillies will look to stay unbeaten in their third career starts at Churchill Downs on Friday evening.

'TDN Rising Star' SUNDAY SHOES (Pioneerof the Nile) came from off the pace breaking her maiden sprinting at Turfway Park Feb. 15, then got up by 3/4 of a length in Florence Apr. 1 in the Serena's Song S. over next-out stakes winner Jill Jitterbug (Cross Traffic). The $500,000 Keeneland September Yearling sale purchase trained by Wesley Ward counts among her female family Grade I winners like third dam Easy Now (Danzig) and her half-brother, Easy Goer (Alydar).

Another filly with a perfect record is the WinStar-bred and Juddmonte-owned Dazzling Blue (Into Mischief) from the barn of Brad Cox. She comes out of the same sale and went for the same price as her rival here, but her debut victory came under the Twin Spires late in her juvenile campaign when she won by 4 1/2 lengths before winning the Letellier Memorial S. Dec. 26 at Fair Grounds.

Opposing them is a more experienced layoff runner from trainer Larry Rivelli's shedrow with Jareth Loveberry aboard. Back to Ohio (Midshipman) sold last year for $385,000 at the OBS April sale and broke her maiden during the summer at Presque Isle Downs. She then proceeded to win three of her next four races in minor stakes along the Ohio-Pennsylvania circuit with the last coming around two turns Oct. 29 in the Best of Ohio John W. Galbreath S. at Mahoning Valley by 7 1/4 lengths. TJCIS PPS

The post Friday Insights: Pair Of Undefeated Fillies Square Off appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

After Preakness, Maryland Racing Will Return To Laurel, But For How Long?

Pimlico, the home of a Triple Crown race, is rundown and needs to be torn down and rebuilt. Its sister track, Laurel isn't in much better shape. To have two tracks in such condition does not make for a sustainable model for the future of Maryland racing, a problem that track owners and politicians have been trying solve for more than a decade.

But the latest round of give-and-take appears to have yielded a solution. Money once earmarked for a rebuild of both Pimlico and Laurel is expected to be used solely to rebuild Pimlico and to create a racing facility worthy of hosting the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. But there won't be any money left over for Laurel, which likely means the track is nearing the finish line.

The scenario has shifted dramatically since 2019 when the Stronach Group, which operates both Maryland tracks, was hoping to rebuild Laurel and close Pimlico. That would have meant moving the GI Preakness S. to Laurel. That led to the city of Baltimore filing suit against the Stronach Group trying to block them from closing Pimlico.

Under political pressure to keep Pimlico open, track ownership pivoted and along with horseman, breeders, political leaders and others, got behind a new plan. In May of 2020, The Racing and Community Development Act (RCDA) of 2020 was signed into law by then Governor Larry Hogan and on the surface, it seemed to be the answer to all of Maryland's problems. The legislation called for the Maryland Stadium Authority to issue up to $375 million in bonds that were earmarked to pay for a rebuild of both tracks. The Preakness was going to stay in Baltimore, Pimlico was not going to close and the Stronach Group would be able to go forward with its plans to have a new and improved Laurel as the centerpiece of the Maryland racing circuit.

“This is a very important day in the future of Maryland racing,” Alan Foreman, general counsel for the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, said when the legislation was signed into law.

And then the world shut down.

Within weeks of the RCDA being signed, COVID-19 was in full throttle and that meant that nothing was going to happen anytime soon when it came to building new racetracks in the state.

It's been a bit more than three years since the RCDA legislation was approved and the pandemic is a thing of the past. But, when it comes to Pimlico and Laurel, time has stood still. Untouched, they remain in the same poor condition that they were in 2020. No shovels have hit the ground and not a penny of government money has been spent to improve either track.

The problem is that the bill that was signed in 2020 is no longer a viable solution in 2023. Three years later, the $375 million originally budgeted to rebuild both tracks is not nearly enough to pay for the projects. By some estimates, due to inflation, the cost to rebuild both tracks has doubled. Additionally, rising interest rates have led to the bonds being worth less.

“Almost to the day that the RCDA was signed by governor the world shut down and COVID hit,” said Alan Rifkin, an attorney who represents the Stronach Group in Maryland. “Nothing was happening. When the world re-opened, interest rates and inflation went through the roof. The inflationary spiral was so substantial that things like lumber, concrete and steel cost 20 to 30% more right after COVID than they had been previously. The other problem is that the $375 million we estimated would only produce today about $220 million in proceeds. As you pay more in interest to bond holders, there's less in the proceeds after interest payments are made. From the interest rate spiral and the inflationary spiral, that has meant that there is not enough money to do both Laurel and Pimlico. No matter how much you stretch the blanket, the blanket cannot cover the entire bed. That is the problem.”

But there should be enough money to rebuild one of the tracks, and everything points to that being Pimlico and not Laurel. Pimlico will be spared because that is what the city and the state politicians want, since a new track and a Triple Crown race remains a big part of the fabric of Baltimore. And its apparent that without the blessing of political leaders in the state there is no way that the money needed to rebuild one track or the other would be made available to the Stronach Group.

“The legislature and the Governor's office, the powers that be, have directed the parties to prioritize Pimlico,” Rifkin said. “We understand that there is not enough money to do both capital projects. The policy makers have instructed all of us in the industry working on this to prioritize Pimlico. We know that as a fact.”

“If there is going to be any redevelopment of the racetracks in Maryland, Pimlico has to be locked into that,” Foreman said. “That's because of the Preakness and because of the importance of the racetrack to the city of Baltimore. They are inextricably linked.”

Closing Laurel would solve some problems, but also create some others, namely what to do with all the horses stabled there. The Pimlico backstretch is not big enough to handle the state's horse population. A new training center that could accommodate as many as 1,000 horses would need to be built. Rifkin said that keeping Laurel open as a training facility is not likely to happen.

Mage | Jim McCue

Another issue may be the vision the Stronach Group has for a Maryland racing circuit with just one track. Rifkin maintains that the current structure, which includes year-round racing, is not economically viable. Not only does he want to see just one track, he wants to see a shorter racing season. That is something that could lead to a contentious relationship with horsemen.

“I don't think it should come as a surprise to anyone that operating two racing facilities 20 miles apart from one another is not conducive to profitability or, for that matter, sustainability under the current circumstances,” he said. “That is why we continue to raise the question of industry-wide restructuring in an effort to right size the number of facilities and right size the number of racing days in order to best ensure a viable, sustainable and profitable racing industry for years to come.”

Those are problems for another day. The emphasis now is on hitting the reset button on a project that would give Maryland racing a quality, modern facility that works for such a big event as the Preakness. With there still being a number of issues that have to be resolved before construction can begin on a new track, it's not clear what the timeline might be.

“There have been so many estimates so far as when a new Pimlico would be up and running,” Foreman said. “There was a time that people were estimating it would be ready for this year's Preakness. And as you know, the wrecking ball hasn't hit the grandstand yet. During construction Laurel will have to be operating during the time it will takes to construct a new Pimlico. I don't think the wrecking ball will hit Pimlico until a plan has been established for the racing industry in terms of year-round racing. That means that a training center site will have to be identified and plans for it will have to be developed. It's conceivable that construction could start after the Preakness next year, but a lot of work will have to be done between now and then to accommodate that happening.”

No matter when it happens, the future of Maryland racing is set to look nothing like the present. Pimlico is the more celebrated of the two tracks because it is the home of the Preakness, but Laurel has quite a history of its own. It opened on Oct. 2, 1911. In 1952, they ran the first ever Washington D.C. International, the first U.S. race that sought horses from overseas and it soon became one of the biggest events on the calendar. In 1984, the track was sold to Frank J. De Francis and his partners, Robert and John “Tommy” Manfuso, who brought several innovative improvements to Laurel.

But progress needs to be made in Maryland and most agree that the only way that will happen is if Laurel is razed and that a new Pimlico becomes the centerpiece of the future of Maryland racing.

The post After Preakness, Maryland Racing Will Return To Laurel, But For How Long? appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post