Tag: Shared News

Tanya Gunther on Justique and Her Full-Sister at Glennwood

Tanya Gunther was thrilled to watch the latest 'TDN Rising Star' Justique (Justify) trounce the competition in her breathtaking debut, but the horsewoman admitted that a few thoughts of what could have been flashed through her head as she remembered the promising filly's early days spent at Glennwood Farm.

“I didn't really want to sell her,” Gunther said with an acquiescing smile. “Most of our yearlings do go to the sale, but I was a bit sad when we let her go.”

Bred by Tanya's father John Gunther in partnership with Eurowest Bloodstock, Justique is the sixth foal out of the Gunthers' graded stakes-producing homebred mare Grazie Mille (Bernardini). When the dark bay foal arrived in March of 2020, the Gunthers were caught on the other side of the Atlantic at the start of the pandemic.

Tanya Gunther received regular photo updates of Justique throughout the year. When she finally returned to Glennwood, she made up for lost time with the youngster as she worked with the filly throughout the summer of her yearling year.

“I was down in our filly barn a lot through our prep season, so I spent a lot of time with her,” Gunther explained. “I got to know her very well and she was a favorite of mine. She had a very athletic look about her, sort of the Scat Daddy and Justify aspect coming through.”

Justique would sell for $725,000 at the Keeneland September Sale before joining the John Shirreffs barn to race for C R K Stable.

“I really hoped that she would be something special and so far, she looks pretty interesting,” Gunther said.

While Gunther may have had to part with Grazie Mille's first daughter of Justify, Justique's full-sister arrived at Glennwood in March this year and Gunther said that this filly will almost definitely stay with their operation.

“She's an exceptional individual,” Gunther reported. “She is very pretty, leggy and has great scope on her. She's just a beauty, much like Justique was as a foal.”

A shiny chestnut with a touch of chrome, this youngster has the definite stamp of her sire who once meandered the very same paddocks at Glennwood before achieving Triple Crown glory. Glennwood Farm is an enthusiastic supporter of the Coolmore sire and Gunther said that she is finding common trends in Justify's progeny.

“I have found that while his offspring may not always be chestnut with the blaze, they definitely have a physique that I see a resemblance of him,” she explained. “While [Justique and her sister] are different colors, they are very much of a similar model.”

Each of these daughters of Justify represent their breeder on both sides of their pedigree. John Gunther purchased their second dam, Molto Vita (Carson City), for $24,000 in 2000. She won the 2004 GIII Thoroughbred Club of America S. and collected over half a million in earnings before retiring to stud. Her third foal, Grazie Mille, broke her maiden impressively for Chad Brown, but was forced to retire prematurely.

“She was a very talented racehorse, but she chipped a knee and we had to retire her early,” Gunther recalled. “I think she would have been a stakes horse and her trainer did as well.”

Grazie Mille's first foal Mo Town (Uncle Mo) earned the 'Rising Star' nod at two and went on to dual-surface success in the GII Remsen S. and GI Hollywood Derby before joining the roster at Ashford Stud. Along with studmate Justify, he is represented by his first crop of runners this year.

With immeasurable upside potential for Grazie Mille and her growing produce record, Gunther has high hopes for the accomplished homebred mare.

“We had the fortune of breeding her to Uncle Mo early on before he had runners and that was how she got rolling as a broodmare with progeny behind her name, so now it's hopefully onward and upward from there.”

The post Tanya Gunther on Justique and Her Full-Sister at Glennwood appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Friday Racing Insights: American Pharoah Half To Hoppertunity Debuts At Del Mar

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8th-DMR, $80K, Msw, 3yo/up, 6 1/2f, 10:27 p.m.

   A $475,000 KEESEP yearling purchase by the Three Amigos, AMERICAN REFUGEE (American Pharoah) will be the 13th foal to race out of the GSP mare Refugee (Unaccounted For). This makes him a half-brother to MGISW & $4.7 million earner Hoppertunity (Any Given Saturday) and MGISW & 'TDN Rising Star' Executiveprivilege (First Samurai). This is also the family of champion 3-year-old filly & MGISW Davona Dale (Best Turn). Trained by Bob Baffert, who famously campaigned his sire and both of his half-siblings, and owned by the trio of Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman who also raced both half-siblings, American Refugee posted a near-bullet work July 23, going five furlongs in :59 1/5 (3/86) and followed that up with six furlongs in 1:12 4/5 (2/5) July 29. TJCIS PPs

4th-ELP, $80K, Msw, 2yo, f, 5f, 3:14 p.m.

   From the first crop of Triple Crown champion Justify, AUNT SHIRLEY debuts Friday for owner/breeder WinStar Farm LLC. The chestnut filly is out of a half-sister to MG1SW Decorated Knight (GB) (Gailieo {Ire}). Third dam Mariah's Storm (Rahy) is best known for producing the likes of European horse of the year and leading sire Giant's Causeway (Storm Cat) and New York-based sire Freud (Storm Cat). Second Dam Pearling's half-sister You'resothrilling (Storm Cat) has gone on to produce eight straight winners from as many to race including: G1 Tattersalls Irish Two Thousand Guineas winner Gleneagles (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), MG1SW Happily (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), G1 Prix de Diane Longines winner Joan of Arc (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), and G1 Etihad Airways Irish One Thousand Guineas victor Marvellous (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) amongst others. TJCIS PPs

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American Pharoah Colt Tries The Turf in Japan

In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for this Saturday running at Niigata Racecourse, featuring the offspring of a couple of Coolmore sires, one looking to build on a promising debut and the other looking for a second straight victory. Sunday's TDN will include four US-breds making their respective first trips to the races:

1st-NII, ¥9,900,000 ($74k), Maiden, 2yo, 2000mT
PSY BREAKER (c, 2, Uncle Mo–Downside Scenario, by Scat Daddy), a $400,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase, gave an excellent account of himself going this distance at Fukushima July 10, running on gamely to be beaten a half-length into second. The Mar. 30 foal is a half-brother to 'TDN Rising Star' Mutasaabeq (Into Mischief), and his dam–who was acquired for $250,000 carrying the colt that would become Mutasaabeq at Keeneland January in 2018–was resold to Stonestreet for $1.15 million back in foal to Into Mischief at Keeneland November last fall. Downside Scenario is a half-sister to Cool Cowboy (Kodiak Kowboy), twice a Group 3-winning sprinter in Dubai. B-BlackRidge Stables LLC (KY)

9th-NII, ¥30,400,000 ($229k), Allowance, 2yo, 1400mT
ADVANCE PHAROAH (c, 2, American Pharoah–Fair Huntress, by Tiznow) debuted with a sound runner-up effort going 1400 meters over the dirt at Tokyo June 19, but shortened up to graduate nicely over 1150 meters at Fukushima last time July 17 (see below, SC 10). The $140,000 KEESEP yearling has the pedigree to take to this new surface, as his unraced dam is a half-sister to Grade III winner Devil By Design (Medaglia d'Oro), who produced GI American Oaks heroine Competitionofideas (Speightstown); and turf stakes winner Kolo (Dynaformer). B-John D Gunther & American Pharoah Syndicate (KY)

 

The post American Pharoah Colt Tries The Turf in Japan appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Town and Country Brings More Mischief to Saratoga

The team at Town and Country Farms knew they had a good one when heading into the Keeneland September sale last fall and its Into Mischief colt delivered in the sales ring when selling to the stallion-making partnership of SF Bloodstock/Starlight Racing/Madaket for $850,000. Now named Newgate, he began to justify the price tag with a 'TDN Rising Star'-worthy debut at Del Mar last Saturday (video). The Courtelis family's operation will be hoping history repeats itself when it sends a full-sister to the colt through the sales ring during the second session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearling Sale next Tuesday.

“She looks absolutely great coming into the sale and is probably our best yearling on the farm,” Town and Country's Chief Executive Officer Shannon Potter said of the yearling, who is catalogued as hip 165 at the two-day boutique auction. “We are really optimistic about what could happen in Saratoga.”

Newgate and the yearling filly are out of Majestic Presence (Majestic Warrior), who was third in the 2014 GIII Delta Downs Princess S. She was purchased by Town and Country while in foal to Runhappy for $360,000 at the 2017 Keeneland November sale.

“She was a big, pretty mare,” Potter said of Majestic Presence's appeal. “When I say pretty, she was really pretty. She was 16.1, she was nice and correct. She had a little bit of race record under her. She had everything that I was looking for and in that price range, she just fit all of those things. And she had a decent pedigree at the time. But now everything is filling in and coming together.”

A half-sister to graded winner Victress (Include) and to the dam of 2019 GII Summertime Oaks winner My Majestic Rose (Majestic Warrior), Majestic Presence has done nothing but impress Potter since joining the Town and Country broodmare band of some 30 head five years ago.

“Majestic Presence puts a really good foal on the ground every year,” Potter said. “I can't say enough about her, because whatever you breed her to, it always comes out looking really well.”

The mare's Runhappy colt sold for $230,000 at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale and her Candy Ride (Arg) colt–who sold for $250,000 at the 2020 Keeneland September sale–just romped home an 8 1/2-length winner in his second start in a $20,000 maiden claimer at Saratoga July 15.

Newgate, the mare's third foal, was special from the start, according to Potter.

“He was just outstanding from the get-go and a very good foal,” Potter said. “By the time he was a yearling, he checked everybody's boxes as far as what you were looking for at the yearling sales.”

Sent off the prohibitive 1-2 favorite after plenty of pre-race hype, Newgate was no surprise while making his debut for the Bob Baffert barn last week.

“He was very, very impressive,” Potter said of the debut effort. “When [SF Bloodstock's] Tom Ryan and [Starlight Racing's] Jack Wolf and the gang got him, we were super excited that he was in their possession and we knew he was going to go to a top-class trainer. We were really high on that horse going into the race because we had heard so much from those guys and other people who thought that he was one of the top horses in Baffert's string–and we all know how many he has in his string.”

Majestic Presence has a weanling filly by Into Mischief's GI Kentucky Derby-winning son Authentic, “who is really good,” according to Potter. “We are just going to cross our fingers and put a little bubble wrap around her.”

The 10-year-old mare was bred back to champion and first-year sire Essential Quality.

“She has been bred to Into Mischief quite a few times and I was trying to breed her to something fresh and young,” Potter said of the mating decision. “And I really like Essential Quality. I thought most of the stuff that he has or maybe doesn't have, she would add to and we were just trying to totally freshen her up with a young stallion, and a promising young stallion at that.”

Through the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment, Town and Country will offer three yearlings at next week's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale. The operation will be represented by hip 23, a colt by Candy Ride (Arg) who was co-bred with Off The Hook. Out of Mighty Eros (Freud), the yearling is a half-brother to graded winner and Grade I placed Faypien (Ghostzapper).

“[Off the Hook's] Joe Appelbaum and I are really good friends,” Potter said. “And we've done this back-to-back. He has a really good mare, so we took a shot and did that together. And this is as good a Candy Ride as I've seen. He is totally not your typical Candy Ride. He is very big, he has really nice feet on him and he just looks like a classic two-turn type of horse.”

Hip 48 is a filly by Medaglia d'Oro out of group winner Pretty Perfect (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), a mare Town and Country purchased for $1.125 million at the 2018 Keeneland November sale.

“She is not your typical Medaglia d'Oro filly,” Potter said. “She has a lot of bone and a lot substance, body and hip and all of that. She has a wonderful walk to her. She is just going to be a nice pick up there for an end user, I would think.”

Potter has high hopes for the trio in Saratoga.

“Martin [Deanda], our yearling guy, and all the guys in our yearlings barn have done a really good job of prepping them and getting these three horses ready at the farm,” Potter said.

Fasig-Tipton got the yearling auction season off to a strong start with its July sale last month and Potter hopes that trend continues in Saratoga.

“If you look at July, it was good,” he said. “I am thinking it will be close to the same [at Saratoga]. I guess we will have to wait and see. But we are optimistic about where the business is right now and what is going on. So hopefully it will still stay strong.”

The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale will be held next Monday and Tuesday at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion. Each session begins at 6:30 p.m.

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