Tag: Shared News

Get Smokin Has Ironhorse, Partners On the Road Again

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — In the spring of 2018, Bucchero (Kantharos) took the Ironhorse Racing Stable on the ride of a lifetime. Having burst onto the scene with an upset victory in Keeneland's GII Woodford S. the previous fall, the popular Indiana-bred finished fourth, beaten just one length, in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint. Behind him that afternoon were the likes of Lady Aurelia (Scat Daddy) and Marsha (Ire), both world-class turf sprinters, and it got IHR managing partner Harlan Malter's wheel's spinning. If Bucchero could mix it with those at home, why not try them on their home turf?

Malter and his IHR partners eagerly accepted an invitation to Royal Ascot for the 2018 G1 King's Stand S. over a straight and undulating five-furlong trip. Bucchero acquitted himself exceptionally well against some of the best European short-trackers in recent memory like Blue Point (Ire) (Shamardal), Battaash (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) and Mabs Cross (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}), just missing fourth while beaten under five lengths.

The flames had been fanned and this weekend at Meydan Racecourse, a half a world away, Get Smokin (Get Stormy) faces a diverse bunch in the G1 Al Quoz Sprint on the G1 Dubai World Cup undercard.

“I think once you're exposed to international racing and the enthusiasm and passion that the rest of the world has toward all of the racing, it makes you want to put your horse on that stage,” Malter said last week from his home in Southern California. “You have to have the right horse. And when we went with Bucchero, we were 50-1, but the horse ran as competitively on the world stage as you possibly could have hoped. And we feel the same way about Get Smokin.”

Malter and partners BlackRidge Stables LLC, T-N-T Equine Holdings LLC and Saratoga Seven Racing Partners acquired Get Smokin in a private transaction late last year.

“We've been working with [bloodstock agent] Phil Hager for about three years now, and he came to us with the horse,” Malter said when asked how they came to own the 5-year-old. “He had picked the horse out as a yearling [$11,000 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky in 2018] and had stayed quite involved with his progress both through his friendship with [trainer] Tom Bush and with the [previous owners the] Sullivans.

He continued, “They were starting to disperse a little bit of some of their holdings, and they had kind of leaned on Phil to hopefully find a really good spot for the horse to end up in. And so he came to us with the possibility of purchasing the horse. We were able to put together a really, really good team of Ironhorse partners plus some outside partners who were super game and have been really great to own the horse with. There's some very obvious similarities to another horse that we campaigned internationally, a chestnut with four white socks, but the thing that really, really caught our eye about the horse is, you just don't see a horse that's more game than this horse. If you look at his past performances, it's littered with the top turf horses in the country the last two years.”

Get Smokin posted a front-running defeat of the classy Decorated Invader (Declaration of War) in the 2020 GIII Hill Prince S. going Belmont's one-turn mile and made the majority of the running in that year's GI Hollywood Derby over a stamina-stretching nine panels, only to be swarmed late to finish a close fourth to divisional leaders Domestic Spending (GB) (Kingman {GB}), Smooth Like Strait (Midnight Lute) and Gufo (Declaration of War). A four-race campaign in 2021 included a 3/4-length success in the GIII Tampa Bay S. from just off the pace and he also annexed a graded-stakes quality renewal of the Seek Again S. in May. He was sidelined off a fifth in the GIII Poker S. and resumed with a very useful runner-up effort in defense of his title in the Tampa Bay S. Feb. 5, going a good gallop before just running out of fitness late in his first run for his new owners.

“I think any time you give a horse some time off, you don't know exactly how tight they'll be when they come back. So we were thrilled,” Malter said. “[Trainer] Mark [Casse] said he was extremely happy with the way he was training. So we were excited about the way of coming into it. And he put in exactly the effort we had hoped off a break like that.”

 

 

 

Malter is well aware that the task ahead in the Al Quoz will not be an easy one, as Get Smokin is set to face a distance and configuration he is generally unaccustomed to. The competition in the race, contested over a straight six furlongs, figures extremely strong, including last-out G3 Nad Al Sheba Turf Sprint romper Man of Promise (Into Mischief), European Group 1 winners Emaraaty Ana (GB) (Shamardal) and A Case of You (Ire) (Hot Streak {Ire}) and GI Jaipur S. hero and recent G3 1351 Turf Sprint runner-up Casa Creed (Jimmy Creed) among what is expected to be a full field. Flavien Prat has accepted the mount in the race won last year by fellow Yankee Extravagant Kid (Kiss the Kid).

“In talking to people who have experience with Dubai and some of the past success, and some of the Americans going over, the cutback milers have fared quite well,” Malter said. “The near miss by Long on Value (Value Plus) comes to mind. It is one of those situations where you don't know that he can't do it, and you don't know that he can do it. And we tend to lean to the side that we don't know that he can't do it. So he's the type of horse that gives you a ton out of the gate going through turns, and immediately pretty much rates himself. And he gives you a kick toward the end.

He added, “It's really going to be a lot up to how he decides to handle early, faster fractions, because he's never really been exposed to them. And what we obviously hope is that we've put one of the best riders in America on him, who's run this type of race before. And we'll leave it to him and the horse to see how they're feeling when the gates open. But we do feel like, with the speed he has, he should be able to position himself quite handy. And you hope that a horse that is normally used to going a much longer distance should have plenty left for the last two furlongs.”

Win, lose or draw Saturday, the allure of traveling horses has led Malter, Ironhorse and his partners to the sprawling Meydan Racecourse. And he is relishing the opportunity.

“When you get a chance to have the world bring their horses to a single race and put your head in there and let your horse be seen on that stage, it really does become about the horse,” he offered. “And giving the horse the chance. This is a unique opportunity to give your horse a chance to show what he's got against the top horses in the world and really make a mark. And we would definitely not go unless we thought this horse was going to be very competitive.”

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The Week in Review: Wayne Lukas Rolls the Dice

In an era where most every trainer has grown way too cautious and overly patient, 86-year-old Wayne Lukas has emerged as a breath of fresh air.

Lukas announced last week that he was going to run his star filly Secret Oath (Arrogate) in the Apr. 2 GI Arkansas Derby against the colts instead of in the safer pick, the GIII Fantasy S. run the same day. It's not just a bold choice, it is a smart choice. With the contingent of males heading to the Arkansas Derby an unusually weak one, Secret Oath figures to be the favorite in a race where the purse is $1.25 million and the winner gets 100 points for the Derby. She can absolutely win. The Fantasy goes for $600,000.

And while Lukas says the horse, no matter how she performs in the Arkansas Derby, is still being pointed for the GI Kentucky Oaks, don't believe him for a minute. If she wins the Arkansas Derby, she'll run in the GI Kentucky Derby. Lukas is too much of a swashbuckler not to take that chance. This is right out of his play book.

A filly last ran in the Derby in 2010 when Devil May Care (Malibu Moon) finished 10th. In 2016, Churchill went to a new system, awarding qualifying points in traditional preps for the race rather than going by earnings in graded stakes races. That meant that a filly had to run in a prep against males to have any chance of making it into the Derby field. Up until now, no one has even tried.

Enter Lukas. He didn't become one of the greatest trainers of all time by being timid.

He won the 1984 Arkansas Derby with the filly Althea, who came into that race just seven days after winning the Fantasy. It was the last time a filly won the Arkansas Derby. She didn't fare well in the Kentucky Derby, she was 19th. But she was there. In 1988, he sent Winning Colors from the GI Santa Anita Oaks straight to the GI Santa Anita Derby, which she won. Four weeks later, she became only the third filly in history to win the Kentucky Derby. Lady's Secret ran against males seven times and beat them in the 1986 GI Whitney H., a win that helped her secure the Horse of the Year title. Serena's Song won the 1995 GII Jim Beam before running 16th in the Derby, the fourth Lukas-trained filly to start in the race. She went on to win the 1995 GI Haskell Invitational. In 1996, she missed by just a neck when second in the Whitney.

Secret Oath, a late developer, didn't hit her stride until she got to Oaklawn. She won a Dec. 31 allowance there by 8 1/4 lengths and then won the Martha Washington S. by 7 1/4. Next up was a start in the GIII Honeybee S. and she crushed them again, winning by 7 1/2 lengths.

Maybe she's not as good as a Winning Colors or a Lady's Secret, but she doesn't have to be…particularly when it comes to winning the Arkansas Derby. Many of the starters will be coming out of the GII Rebel, which was a mess. It was won by 75-1 shot Un Ojo (Laoban) and the odds-on favorite from the Baffert stable, Newgrange (Violence), was a dull sixth. The Rebel went in 1:45.69 for the mile-and-a-sixteenth. Six races earlier in the Honeybee, Secret Oath went almost a second faster, in 1:44.74.

In T.D. Thornton's latest Derby Top 12, not a single confirmed Arkansas Derby starter made the list.

Among the colts eyeing the Derby, there are no stand outs, no one to fear. The best horse may be Baffert's Messier (Empire Maker) and, due to Baffert's problems, he may not be in the field. There's also the Echo Zulu (Gun Runner) factor. Last year's Eclipse Award-winning juvenile filly champ will make her 3-year-old debut Saturday at the Fair Grounds in the GII Fair Grounds Oaks. If she picks up right where she left off she might just be better than any of the colts eyeing the Derby.

Then there's the “what's best for the game” angle. During a prolonged period where scandals have dominated the headlines, the sport could really use a feel-good story. To see a revered icon attempt to win the Kentucky Derby, 23 years after he last won the race and to do so with a filly at age 86, is something everyone can rally around. This could be Lukas's last chance, and he appears ready to go for it. Good for him.

Speaking Of Old-Timers…

How about Rated R Superstar (Kodiak Kid) winning a $500,000 graded stakes race at age nine? The veteran pulled off the feat Saturday at Oaklawn when winning the GIII Essex H. by 2 1/4 lengths.

Owner Danny Caldwell and trainer Federico Villafranco took a big chance last year when claiming the horse for $50,000 as an 8-year-old. But he's more than paid them back. He's won four times since and earned $300,000 in the Essex for the richest win of his career. Rated R Superstar won his first graded stakes way back in 2016 when he captured the GIII Carry Back S. at Oaklawn. He's won six stakes races, including the 2019 Essex, which was ungraded that year. He'll go next in the GII Oaklawn H. Apr. 23.

The New Arlington Million

People love to hate Churchill Downs, but when they do something right they should be recognized for it. The announcement last week that Churchill will hold a one-day meet Aug. 13 and will host the GI Arlington Million, the GI Beverly D. S. and the GII Secretariat S. was a welcome one. Yet, it was met with a lot of negativity.

Chris Block, president of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, which represents horse owners and trainers, told nbcchicago.com that the Million's move “is another reminder that Churchill Downs shuttered Arlington Park and abandoned Illinois horse racing, compromising hundreds of jobs throughout our state.”

Yes, it would be much better if Arlington Park were still open and hosting those races, but that was not going to happen. The only alternative to the Million being run at Churchill was that it wouldn't be run at all. This is better. The sport can't easily afford losing such a historic race.

The Million, by the way, hasn't always been run at Arlington. With Arlington in the process of being rebuilt after the fire, it was run at Woodbine in 1988.

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Blazingbellablu Named Washington Horse of the Year

Blazingbellablu (Grazen) became the sixth 3-year-old distaffer to be named Washington Horse of the Year when she was recognized during the Washington Thoroughbred Champions Annual Awards and dinner held at Emerald Downs racetrack in Auburn Saturday. A homebred for Petra Lewin's Rainbow Meadows Farm and trainer Charlie Essex, the filly won the Kent S. at Emerald Downs last July.

Also honored during Saturday's ceremony: 3yo champion Coastal Kid (Coast Guard); 2yo champion Cobra Jet (Curlin to Mischief); 2yo filly champion Koron (Nationhood); champion older horse and champion sprinter Papa's Golden Boy (Harbor the Gold); champion older female Itsallinthenotes (Ministers Wild Cat); and champion turf horse Harbored Memories (Harbor the Gold).

Mr. and Mrs. Frederick L. Pabst, breeders of Koron, were named 2021 Washington breeders of the year and their stallion Conveyance topped the state sire list. Both titles are awarded by earnings.

Brookie Girl (Proud Citizen), who produced Papa's Golden Boy, was named the state's leading broodmare.

Retiring Washington Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association (WTBOA) General Manager M. Anne Sweet became the 23rd recipient of the S. J. Agnew Special Achievement Award for her nearly 44 years of service to the WTBOA and the Washington Thoroughbred industry.

Trainer Marshall Allen's efforts to help save longtime horse owner Jim Foulkes last year on the Emerald Downs' backside were acknowledged with the Race Track Chaplaincy of America White Horse Award.

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Mating Plans, Presented by Spendthrift: Bonne Chance Farm

With the 2022 breeding season underway, we continue to feature a series of breeders' mating plans. Today we have Leah Alessandroni, Bloodstock and Office Manager of Bonne Chance Farm.

GLORY AND POWER (m, 8, Medaglia d'Oro – Dance Quietly, by A. P. Indy) to be bred to Essential Quality

   We bought this mare as a weanling and she went on to become a winner for us. Her first foal was Momentous (Speightstown), who was an debut impressive winner at Fair Grounds on Feb. 19. This mare is out of a half-sister to MGISW Saint Liam (Saint Ballado) and Quiet Giant (Giant's Causeway), who of course is the dam of Gun Runner, so it's a really big and active family. We bred her to Tapit in 2019 and that colt was really well-received as a yearling. She has a Street Sense yearling that is also really nice.

Knowing that Glory and Power might not yet have a runner when we were looking at matings for 2022, we really thought hard about this mare. We were getting good reports from WinStar on Momentous, we liked all the other foals she'd had, and she was actually one of the last mares we settled on. We decided to send her to Essential Quality. She can be a bit of a tricky mare to mate physically and he is such a good physical. He's a strong horse and his race record speaks for itself. He was one of the more exciting first-year stallions this year. With this mating we also liked that she had already been to Tapit and it's a similar cross, but with Elusive Quality on the bottom it really offers us access to a different line. I think it's a really interesting mating in terms of the pieces coming together and it's one we're very excited about.

Bonne Chance Farm welcomed their first second-generation foal this year, an Uncle Mo filly out of SW Iva | Bonne Chance Twitter

IVA (m, 6, Scat Daddy – Sushi Empire, by Empire Maker) to be bred to Quality Road

   This is a really special mare for us. She was one of the first foals that was born here at our farm in Kentucky in 2016. We actually bought her dam, Sushi Empire, when she was in foal with Iva. Iva herself became a stakes winner for us, winning the 2019 Cincinnati Trophy S. That was our first blacktype win as breeders. This year Iva had her first foal, an Uncle Mo filly, and it was kind of a full-circle moment for us with her giving us our first second-generation foal as breeders.

This mare is from a really nice family that includes MGSW Marchfield (A. P. Indy) and her dam, Sushi Empire, was also a stakes winner.

Iva is exactly what you would expect a Scat Daddy mare out of an Empire Maker dam to look like. When we were thinking of matings, we wanted a bigger, rangier stallion that offered some stretch. Quality Road had such an incredible 2021 with the champion 2-year-old and he had huge sales. This year he has already had Emblem Road win the G1 Saudi Cup. He's definitely a stallion that when you're looking to breed a quality, proven sire to a young mare, it's a no-brainer. In contrast to Glory and Power, this was probably the first mating that we decided on this year.

GOIABA (m, 8, Speightstown – Christies Treasure, by Belong To Me) to be bred to Curlin

   Goiaba is a full-sister to the Japanese Group 1 winner Mozu Superflare (Speightstown). She is another mare that we bought early on as a yearling and she was a winner for us. She is from one of the most active families that we have on the farm right now. Mozu Superflare is doing great things in Japan and she has two half-sisters who have produce Grade I winners or Grade I-placed horses. It's the family of GIIISW Sacristy (Pulpit) and GISP Flor de La Mar (Tiznow).

Goiaba herself is a really nice, honest mare. She's a strong physical and is what we would consider a pretty typical Speightstown mare. She had her first foal last year. It's an Into Mischief filly that is without a doubt the nicest yearling we have this year. This year she is in foal to Medaglia d'Oro.

When we were looking to find a stallion for her this year, we thought long and hard about it. Any time you have a horse with a pedigree like this, you have to look at the big guns and so we settled on Curlin. We actually haven't bred to him yet, and so when we came to the table this year to talk about matings we all agreed that if we didn't use Curlin, we were missing a big opportunity this year. This mating will be offering a different branch of Mr. Prospector and it's maybe not super conventional, but it's another one we're excited about in sending Curlin a mare of this caliber with such an up-and-coming family that is actively producing all over the world. It's one of our biggest star power matings of the year.

LUCAS STREET (m, 18, Silver Deputy – Ruby Park, by Bold Ruckus) to be bred to Maxfield

Lucas Street is one of our more veteran mares here and she is the dam of 2015 GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Wavell Avenue (Harlington). We bought this mare privately a few years ago. She had a colt by Improbable this year.

Because she's a proven producer, when we purchased her it was an opportunity to get into some of the more commercial, popular stallion lines. Considering that she's a highly-desirable mare, we really wanted to breed her to a first-year stallion this year. The stud fee price point is usually appealing for those guys and you can see a return at the sales.

The stallion that we settled on for her this year was Maxfield. We are very conscious about who we breed this mare to physically and as soon as he walked out, it was a no-brainer for us. I think he's one of the strongest physicals of the group of stallions this year and he was such an honest, hard-knocking racehorse. With him being a Street Sense out of a Bernardini mare, those are two individual sires that we had considered for her in the past and for whatever reasons we never landed on them, so now we have the opportunity to get to both of those sires here.

From a breeding standpoint, this is going to be a very commercial pedigree and it still gives us a lot of options. If it's a colt, maybe we're a little more commercial. If it's a filly, she will have a strong pedigree under her and we've set ourselves up nicely to have a future broodmare. There was really no downside to this one.

ELEMENTAR (m, 10, More Than Ready – Val Marie, by Coronado's Quest) to be bred to American Pharoah

   This is a bit of a younger mare whose pedigree is developing. She is a half-sister to MGSW Grand Adventure (Grand Slam), a champion Grass Horse in Canada. Elementar has had several foals for us including Ready To Purrform (Kitten's Joy), who won the Laurel Futurity last year. Her 2020 foal is a filly by Bernardini and not long after she foaled, we had pretty much decided to keep her to race ourselves. She also has a yearling colt by Runhappy.

The stallion we settled on for her this year is American Pharoah. Every year he has been in the conversation for her, but in the past we weren't sure if she warranted the stud fee. When Ready to Purrform won the Laurel Futurity, the mare earned her way to that level. I think at $80,000 this year for American Pharoah, that has to be a gift with what he's already done this year. This is probably my favorite mating physically. She's a beautiful, balanced mare and all of her foals have been really good movers and I think the same can be said of American Pharoah. This direct cross has already been extremely successful with G1SW Café Pharaoh and MGSW Four Wheel Drive, so all that gave us confidence to send her to him.

MAY BE NOW (m, 14, Smart Strike — Dans La Ville (Chi), by Winning) to be bred to Uncle Mo

   May Be Now is a three-quarters sister to GISW Al's Gal (English Channel) and she is the dam of champion and MG1SW Ivar (Brz) (Agnes Gold {Jpn}). This mare was in our operation in South America and she was brought here to our American operation with the intention to sell. We sold her in 2017 in foal to Hard Spun and shortly after, Ivar hit the track and set the world on fire in Argentina. We quickly set to buy this mare back and when we did, she was again in foal to Hard Spun. That filly, foaled in 2020, is now in our racing stable. May Be Now also has a lovely yearling by Yoshida.

She is not in foal this year but we are sending her to Uncle Mo. He's a stallion that we all love. I think we've used him almost every year. This mare has not always been sent to super commercial stallions in the past, so this can generate a commercial mating but at the same time if it's a filly, we have the option of having a really strong broodmare. The mare is a very typical Smart Strike and I think Uncle Mo offers some size that she will benefit from.

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