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Kitten’s Joy Colts Clash in With Anticipation

A pair of impressive debut winners by the same sire earlier in the meet at Saratoga, one each from the Shug McGaughey and Chad Brown barns, figure to take the bulk of the play in a seven-horse renewal of the GIII With Anticipation S. for juvenile males going 1 1/16 miles on turf to kick off closing week Wednesday at the Spa.

Given the nod at 7-5 on the morning line is Stuart Janney's homebred Limited Liability (Kitten's Joy). Racing with just one horse beaten early debuting over this course July 31, the gray unleashed a powerful stretch rally to score going away by 2 3/4 lengths. He shows a trio of local breezes in the interim, capped by a sharp half-mile move in :48 1/5 (3/45) on the Oklahoma turf Aug. 27.

Klaravich Stables' Portfolio Company (Kitten's Joy) showed more early foot than his main rival when tugging at his rider early in his unveiling on opening weekend, but settled eventually and took command in the stretch before holding sway for a three-quarter length success as the 6-5 chalk. Bought for $125,000 as a Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearling, the bay has also worked forwardly since his graduation, most notably notching a bullet half-mile on the Oklahoma dirt in :48 flat (1/10) Aug. 20.

Maiden Gooch Go Bragh (Distorted Humor) looks most likely should the favorites falter. Out of a daughter of MGSW turfer Surya (Unbridled), the $130,000 Keeneland September buy finished strongly from last to be runner-up behind promising Dripping Gold (Lemon Drop Kid) on debut here Aug. 7.

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There’s No Cooling Off Sub-Zero’s Jim Bakke

Owner Jim Bakke's experience in horse racing has been fairly typical. He started off with a small stable, didn't have much success and waited for his day to come. It looks like he's not going to have to wait any longer.

Along with Gerald Isbister, Bakke is the co-owner of 'TDN Rising Star' Jack Christopher (Munnings), a Chad Brown-trained colt who brought down the house Saturday with an 8 3/4-length maiden win at Saratoga. Jack Christopher, who is named for Bakke's six-month-old grandson, will head to the GI Champagne S., which could be a springboard to the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Bakke is also the owner of Girl With a Dream (Practical Joke). She broke her maiden impressively on July 24 at Ellis Park and will make her next start in Sunday's GI Spinaway S. for trainer Brad Cox. The hope is that she will earn her way to the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Jack Christopher earned a 92 Beyer figure, just one point less than the leader among 2-year-olds, Big City Lights (Mr. Big).

Bakke is the president and CEO of Sub-Zero, a luxury refrigeration company based in Madison, Wisconsin that has been in the Bakke family since 1945. A longtime racing fan who attended many a running of the GI Kentucky Derby, he decided to get involved in ownership in the late nineties, but did so on a small scale.

“I started out really small with my brother-in-law, Fred Schwartz,” Bakke explained. “He's the one who introduced me to ownership back then. We had been going to the Derby forever and then we decided to buy some horses about 1998, 1999. We were buying just one or two a year, very modest horses. They were all claimers.”

Bakke enjoyed his first taste of real success when Mr Freeze (To Honor and Serve) came around in 2018. Trained by Dale Romans, he earned $1,595,000 and won the 2018 GIII West Virginia Derby, the GIII 2019 Ack Ack S., the 2020 GII Gulfstream Park Mile S. and the 2020 Hagyard Fayette S. He was also second in the 2020 GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational.

Mr. Freeze, a $75,000 Keeneland September purchase, was part of a plan. Bakke was ready to spend a bit more on horses, building up quantity and quality. Mr Freeze is also co-owned by Isbsiter, who is a distributor for Sub-Zero.

“This has been about my love of the game,” he said. “I was hoping to have a little more luck and the way you do that in horse racing is to increase your numbers, the amount of horses you buy every year and who you have buying them for you.”

Bloodstock advisor Bradley Weisbord signed on to work for Bakke and was told to go find more horses like Mr Freeze.

“I have picked really great partners,” said Bakke, whose stable at this time of year usually numbers from 10 to 12. “Chad Brown is the trainer of Jack Christopher and Bradley Weisbord and his team did a tremendous job finding Jack Christopher.”

Bakke said he offers little, if any, input on picking out the horses, but there is a budget. Liz Crow chose Jack Christopher for $135,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall yearling sale, and Girl With a Dream for $115,000 at Keeneland September. That's his price range.

“Potentially, I could buy more expensive horses,” he said. “Over the years, I have bought a few in the 300 to 350 range. But when those horses don't turn out so well, it hurts. Buying them where I'm at right now, if they don't work out we can reload and try again. I have had tremendous luck buying horses in that price range, starting with Mr. Freeze, who I got for $75,000. If you employ people who know what they are looking for and are good at it, I think you can buy a little bit down market and be successful. Let's face it, you need a lot of luck in this game. And even if you do have a successful horse, keeping them sound is another issue. They are so fragile. When you start buying in those upper-price ranges and if your horse doesn't do well or does well and gets hurt, that's just a big bite out of you.”

Bakke is so hands off that he never once spoke to Brown prior to Jack Christopher's debut.

“I think they also appreciate that I don't micro-manage things,” he said. “I don't call them up and ask them how a horse is doing even on a weekly basis. I might call them before a big race or every once in a while. But I don't keep track of the horses on a daily basis. I still have my job back in Madison, so I've got plenty to do on a daily basis.”

Yet, he knew the colt had potential.

“With Jack Christopher, I think Chad was going to wait for the horse to run and let Jack Christopher do the talking,” he said. “I knew he was enthused about the horse because I was getting positive reports.”
While he is optimistic about Jack Christopher's future, Bakke says he tries not to get too carried away with his young horses. With Jack Christopher and Girl With a Dream, that may be hard to do.

“It's great to have these kind of quality 2-year-olds,” he said. “Once in a while, I've hit on a few, but probably nothing like this. Both of them will be running in Grade I's over the next 30 days. We'll see where it goes. It's been a great ride and I'm looking forward to the ride continuing in the future.”

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Jersey Joe No More, Bravo to Ride Permanently in California

When Joe Bravo decided to leave New Jersey because of new regulations banning the use of the whip, his future was unclear. Bravo, 49, needed a place to ride, but leaving the comfortable confines of Monmouth Park might be difficult. He had been riding at the Jersey Shore track since the late eighties and has been leading rider there 13 times.

But rather than struggling outside of the Garden State, Bravo is having a meet to remember at his new home, Del Mar. With a week to go in the meet, Bravo has 20 wins, good for fifth in the standings. His winning percentage (20%) trails only Flavien Prat (27%).

Having proven that he can compete against the best at a top-tier track like Del Mar, Bravo has decided to make Southern California his home base and said he will be ready to go when racing shifts to Santa Anita Sept. 29.

“The old saying is that when one door closes another one opens,” he said. “In hindsight, this has been a complete blessing. It really shook up my life completely and made me pack my bags up and come to the other coast. It was all for the better. I'm so thankful for the opportunities I have had here.”

To test the waters, Bravo shipped west to ride the final three days of the Santa Anita meet and won two races from 10 starts. He could see right away that California horsemen were willing to give him a chance.

“After I got together with my agent, Matt Nakatani, I came here for the end of the Santa Anita meet and I was overwhelmed by the welcome I got from trainers and owners,” he said. “They were saying 'Joe, it's really good to see you out here.' It's one thing to say that, it's another thing to follow up. Look at who I've been riding for. It's all the top connections. There's no better feeling than that.”

Bravo has ridden winners for eight different trainers, including top outfits like John Sadler, Richard Baltas and Phil D'Amato. He's ridden eight winners alone for Sadler. He's also had three stakes wins, capturing the GIII Rancho Bernardo H. with Edgeway (Competitive Edge), the GII Best Pal S. with Pappacap (Gun Runner) and the Osunitas S. with Ippodamia's Girl (Stormy Atlantic).

“That's what everybody works for, to ride in the higher end races,” Bravo said.

Riding for top outfits like the John Sadler barn has obviously helped, but so has a mental adjustment. Looking back, Bravo realizes he had gotten complacent in New Jersey. He stopped working hard and was content to only ride three or four a day. That was good enough for third place in the Monmouth standings last year, but he was no longer a match for Paco Lopez, a younger jockey who had surpassed Bravo as the top rider in New Jersey.

Bravo knew that he had no chance to make it in California if he didn't come out in the mornings and if he didn't agree to ride in lower-level races.

“Of course I miss it. Jersey will always be home,” he said. “That's probably why the last couple of years I was enjoying the good life. The Jersey Shore is really nice and I wasn't really striving that hard for anything. With this shake up, it's revitalized me. I'm working hard and it's been kind of fun with the way things have been shaken up. I got into a little rut [in New Jersey] and horse racing had become a job. I had an easy go of it at Monmouth for a good run, but coming here has revived my career.”

One of the ironies is that he left New Jersey because of its whip rules only to land in the state with the second strictest rules when it comes to the crop. California riders can only hit their mount underhanded and are limited to six strikes a race. Though he says the California rules are definitely better than they are in Jersey, he is no fan of them.

“They are very strict here,” he said. “If you turn your stick up and hit a horse it's an automatic suspension. It was a very big adjustment for me to make. It's almost like riding with handcuffs. You can't get really aggressive. At least you can do some kind of encouragement. It is difficult, but you have to adjust. I do believe there should be riding crop rules. I just wish they would be a little bit more lenient so you can still have competitive horse races. You have to protect the owners, trainers and gamblers. You see some guys who have already hit their horses six times and there's still an eighth of mile to go and he has to stop. It makes it look like the rider has fallen asleep. Instead, they're just trying to follow the California rules.”

After Santa Anita, Bravo can look forward to the Breeders' Cup, which will be run at Del Mar. He's only won one Breeders' Cup race, with Blue Prize (Arg) (Pure Prize) in the 2019 GI Breeders' Cup Distaff, but his success on the circuit should put him in line for some decent Breeders' Cup mounts. In a normal year, after the Breeders' Cup, Bravo would be on his way to Gulfstream. Instead, he will gear up for the long Santa Anita meet that begins Dec. 26. He's not going anywhere.

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Five Stakes Highlight Los Alamitos Meet

The upcoming 10-day Los Angeles County Fair meet at Los Alamitos will feature five stakes races worth $400,000. The richest of the stakes races is the $100,000 Los Alamitos Special. The race at 1 1/16 miles–it was run previously (2018-2019) at 1 1/4 miles–will be run Sept. 19.

The initial stakes of the season is the $75,000 Beverly J. Lewis for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs which will be run Sept. 11.

There are two stakes events for 2-year-olds. The $75,000 Capote S. will be run Sept. 18 and the $75,000 Phone Chatter S. for fillies will be contested Sept. 25. Both races are at 6 1/2 furlongs.

Completing the stakes schedule is the $75,000 E.B. Johnston for 3-year-olds and up bred or sired in California. The one-mile race will be run Sept. 12.

The fair meet begins Friday, Sept. 10 and continues through Sept. 26. Racing will be conducted Friday through Sunday the first two weeks and Thursday through Sunday for the final four days. Post time will be 1 p.m.

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