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What’s In a Name: Incitato

Mad Roman Emperor Caligula tried to make his favorite horse INCITATUS a consul, according to legend–and the accounts of maybe partisan historians Suetonius and Cassius Dio.

Clearly aware of this spectacular milestone of executive overreach, Dante Zanelli’s wife Yolanda Del Rosario gave the Italian version of the name–INCITATO–to the colt by GOLDENCENTS out ZABEEL SARAY (by GIROLAMO) her husband bought at Fasig Tipton as a yearling last October. INCITATO, whose literal translation would be “incited” or “spurred”, won his maiden spectacularly in Peru in October and now goes for a Grade 2 on Saturday. Let’s hope this tenacious colt with a powerful closing style creates his own legend.

IN PERU: Incitato, c, 2, Goldencents–Zabeel Saray, by Girolamo. Monterrico, 10-17, Maiden, 1900mT. B-Columbiana Farm LLC (KY). *$7,000 Ylg ’19 FTKOCT.

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Farrier Fund Theme of TRF’s Giving Tuesday Campaign

The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF) is encouraging their supporters to join them online on Dec. 1, for #GivingTuesday. Celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving and the widely-recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving.

“The Hoof makes the Horse” focuses on the important TRF Farrier Fund. The TRF is asking their supporters to help them reach their #Hoofgoals of $15,000 to help offset the costs of approximately 3 months of hoof care for the 500 rescued and retired Thoroughbred racehorses in the TRF herd.

TRF invites the “friends of the herd” to join them on social media, sharing thanks, photos and appreciation for farriers around the world with hashtags #hoofgoals, #honkifyouloveyourfarrier, #drop_your_beautiful_farrier, #farriersrock and #trffarrierfund.

“The permanent retirees at our Kentucky sanctuary farm need their feet trimmed regularly, just like most horses, but sometimes we have to make accommodations for the older ones,” said Sara Davenport, TRF Herd Manager. “Their knees or ankles may not be as flexible as they once were, so my farrier makes sure they are as comfortable as possible, even if that puts him in an uncomfortable position. The horses appreciate the extra time and patience he takes when working with on them. A gentle touch goes a long way. I am thankful to James Pendergast for his care for our horses.”

Details on TRF’s Giving Tuesday fundraiser and activities can be found here.

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A New Heir to War Front’s Throne at Claiborne

War Front is undoubtedly heralded as one of America’s top turf sires, but Claiborne’s Bernie Sams said he finds any stereotype that the stallion is solely a grass producer is unjustifiable.

“I think War Front has been labeled to some extent as a turf sire, but unfairly so because he got his start with dirt stakes winners,” he said. “Then a lot of people started breeding to him and taking a lot of them to Europe. He probably is equally as good on dirt as he is on turf, if we had as many of them here.”

Sams’s theory on War Front’s progeny comes to fruition in the versatile ability displayed by War of Will. The son of War Front is among an elite group that can claim Grade I wins on both dirt and turf, and is the first of War Front’s progeny to snag a Classic victory.

The imposing bay recently joined his sire at Claiborne Farm and will stand for a fee of $25,000 in his first year at stud.

A $175,000 R.N.A at the Keeneland September Sale, War of Will was pinhooked privately by Norman Williamson before selling for €250,000 at the Arquana May Breeze-Up Sale in 2018. The youngster was purchase by Justin Casse and sent to his brother Mark Casse’s barn, where he made his debut on the grass.

While competitive in stakes company at two, the colt failed to break his maiden in four starts and Casse decided to look past the colt’s grass pedigree, switching the blaze-faced bay to the dirt.

The result was a three-race win streak, with a five-length maiden-breaking sophomore debut, followed by a graded stakes double in the GIII LeComte S. and the GII Risen Star S.

That’s when Claiborne started to take notice.

“We started getting interested in War of Will when he won down at Fair Grounds,” Sams said. “He was very impressive. We’d kind of been keeping an eye out for a son of War Front, and he seemed to fit the bill.”

After drawing the first position in last year’s GI Kentucky Derby, rider Tyler Gaffalione had War of Will poised for a perfect ‘up the rail’ victory. But the seam never opened, and they ran seventh in a highly controversial Run for the Roses.

The duo sought redemption and earned it when two weeks later in the GI Preakness S., they again drew the one hole, but this time found an opening and never looked back. The victory gave all connections- owner Gary Barber, Casse and Gaffalione- each their first Preakness win and first-ever Classic win.

“After he won the Preakness was when we got very serious,” Bernie said of the then stallion prospect. “Just with the fact that he was a big, strong son of War Front that had won an American Classic on the dirt going two turns, and had speed.”

War of Will did not see the winner’s circle again last year, so Casse followed a hunch and turned the bay back to the turf for his four-year-old season.

He was rewarded when War of Will took the GI Maker’s Mark Mile S. at Keeneland, defeating Graded and Group I winners Raging Bull (FR) (Dark Angel {Ire}), Without Parole (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and Next Shares (Archarcharch).

“The Grade I at Keeneland on the grass was very exciting,” Sams said. “For him to be a Grade I winner on dirt and turf, there’s a lot of grass racing in America now, so you know it can go both ways with him. And his female family has quite a bit of turf in it.”

War of Will is the ninth foal out of Visions of Clarity (Ire) {Sadler’s Wells), a stakes winner at three in France and half-sister to European champion and Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Spinning World (Nureyev). The mare is also responsible for Irish highweight and Group I winner Pathfork (Distorted Humor), as well as Juddmonte’s three-time graded stakes winner Tacitus (Tapit).

Sams said Claiborne is looking forward to offering their first son of War Front, but that War of Will offers a new aspect to the sire line for breeders.

“To have had Danzig and War Front and now him is very exciting,” he said. “If he could be halfway as successful as those two, it’d be a good deal. There’s definitely more size and scope to him than his father and grandfather. [In terms of] conformation, he sells himself. He’s a big, pretty horse. He’s correct and has plenty of bone.”

War of Will’s appeal is so great, it seems, that he might just end up taking a few mare’s off his sire’s book.

“Everybody has loved him,” Sams said. “I’ve had a couple of people that had asked about breeding to War Front and came out and looked at War of Will and now are going to breed to him and not War Front. So that’s the kind of mares he’s going to end up getting.”

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Controversial 2017 Canadian Derby Declared Official–For Fifth Time

The 2017 GIII Canadian Derby has been declared official–for the fifth time.

But the upholding of the controversial commission-level disqualification of Chief Know It All (Flashy Bull) from western Canada’s most prestigious race might still not end up being the final judgment in a case that has now languished in the courts for three-plus years.

The Alberta Court of Appeal ruling, first reported Nov. 23 by Canadian Press, is the latest twist in the prolonged legal challenge over whether stewards are the final arbiters of foul-related race disqualifications in that province.

This latest judgment–which essentially upholds the right of a quasi-judicial, independent body to overturn race outcome decisions made by track officials in Alberta—stands in stark contrast to the opposite United States federal court ruling from earlier this year that declared Churchill Downs stewards had the full power and final say in DQ’ing the winner of the 2019 GI Kentucky Derby for an in-race foul.

On Aug. 19, 2017, at Northlands Park, Chief Know It All, then owned by Rollingson Racing Stable and trained by Robertino Diodoro, won the $150,000 (CDN) stakes by a half-length.

There was a dead heat for second, and the stewards investigated a foul claim on behalf of one of the runners-up.

The objection focused on whether Chief Know It All came over and impeded rail-running Double Bear (Kentucky Bear) at the head of the stretch or if Double

Bear caused his own stutter-step problem by running up on the left hind of Chief Know It All.

The stewards ruled no foul occurred, leaving up Chief Know It All as the winner.

The connections of Double Bear appealed to Horse Racing Alberta, which has something called an Appeal Tribunal comprised of up to three members who hear appeals on rulings made by horse racing officials, with the ability to render reversals independent of Horse Racing Alberta.

Ten months later, the Appeal Tribunal did indeed reverse the outcome of the 2017 Canadian Derby, DQ’ing Chief Know It All for interference while elevating Double Bear and Trooper John (Colonel John) as dead-heat winners.

Rollingson Racing took the matter to court, seeking a remand back to the original stewards’ decision, but had no luck in two lower court attempts before the case went before the Alberta Court of Appeal, which similarly upheld the tribunal’s power to overrule stewards.

According to Canadian Press, “Rollingson Racing argued that the Appeal Tribunal did not have enough members to make the decision to disqualify, because one of them had been let go partway through the proceedings. The Appeal Court has dismissed the argument [ruling that] a section of Alberta’s horse racing act could be interpreted to allow a former member to return so as to conclude a complaint that was already before the tribunal.”

It was unclear if Rollingson Racing will pursue further legal attempts to fight the DQ.

Chief Know It All has long since left the Rollingson stable and Diodoro’s barn. He won the GII British Columbia Derby at Hastings in his next start after the Canadian Derby, then shipped out to race at Zia, Oaklawn, Prairie Meadows, Canterbury, Turf Paradise and Churchill.

During 2019 and into 2020, he was claimed four times while crossing the finish line first in five of six races at Churchill, Saratoga, Keeneland and Aqueduct.

But in one of those races, on Nov. 14, 2019, Chief Know It All was DQ’d from a 12 1/4-length win at Churchill while also having his claim voided for a Class 3 naproxen positive while under the care of trainer Danny Gargan. The gelding currently competes at the $25,000 claiming level in New York, most recently running third at that level Nov. 13.

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