shug mcgaughey | Horse Racing Free Tips

Signator Becomes 50th Rising Star for Tapit

Signator (Tapit) earned the 'TDN Rising Star' tag with a good-looking score at second asking at Belmont at the Big A. A $1.7-million OBSAPR acquisition after breezing in :20 4/5 for Eddie Woods, he finished up well to be second on debut going six panels at this oval Sept. 16 and was hammered down to 3-5 favoritism to go one better here. Away a beat slow from his inside stall, the gray tugged his way up the fence, sitting near the back of the tightly bunched group. Saving ground off a modest half-mile in :48.73 over a muddy surface, Signator was patiently handled under a smart ride from Javier Castellano, who didn't panic behind a wall of horses turning for home and got the opening he was looking for at the top of the lane. Signator dove through and rolled clear for an impressive 4 1/2-length score over Weekend Tizzy (Bernardini).

Signator is the 50th 'TDN Rising Star' for his perennial leading sire Tapit. He is a full-brother to $900,000 FTSAUG buy and GSW Thoughtfully. He is also a half to GSW Annual Report (Harlan's Holiday) and MSW Giant Payday (Giant's Causeway). His second dam is GISW Furlough (Easy Goer) and this is also the family of top-level scorers Dancing Spree, Fantastic Find and Finder's Fee. Signator also shares the same female family as GSW Feathered (Indian Charlie), dam of unbeaten sensation Flightline (Tapit).

1st-Belmont The Big A, $95,000, Msw, 10-14, 2yo, 1m, 1:37.89, my, 4 1/2 lengths.
SIGNATOR, c, 2, by Tapit
                1st Dam: Pension, by Seeking the Gold
                2nd Dam: Furlough, by Easy Goer
                3rd Dam: Blitely, by Riva Ridge
$1,700,000 2yo '22 OBSAPR. Lifetime Record: 2-1-1-0, $71,250. O-West Point Thoroughbreds, Woodford Racing, LLC, Gainesway Stable (Antony Beck), Phipps Stable, Langone, Ken, Hudson, Jr., Edward J. and Lane's End Racing; B-Gainesway Thoroughbreds Ltd. (KY); T-Claude R. McGaughey III. *Full to Thoughtfully, GSW, $168,214; and 1/2 to Annual Report (Harlan's Holiday), GSW, $186,587; Flores Island (Giant's Causeway), MSP, $244,070; and Giant Payday (Giant's Causeway), MSW, $429,710. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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More Than Ready’s Pleasant Passage Goes Gate-to-Wire in Miss Grillo

Front-running Pleasant Passage dug in resolutely Saturday to honor her recently deceased sire and stamp her ticket to the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. Up in time to belie longer than 15-1 odds on debut at Saratoga Aug. 21, she employed opposite tactics here under new pilot Irad Ortiz, Jr., taking her five rivals along through fractions of :23.81, :49.77 and 1:14.98 over the yielding going. Free Look took a run at her to try and secure a ninth Miss Grillo trophy for Chad Brown, but Pleasant Passage stiff-armed that rival to the wire as favored P.G. Johnson S. winner Be Your Best was left with too much to do after a poor start.

“The way the track is playing, and I knew there wasn't much speed in the race,” said Ortiz, fresh off a victory in the GI Woodward S. one race earlier with Life Is Good (Into Mischief). “The assistant trainer [Anthony Hamilton] told me, 'She's going to be forwardly placed because that's how she's been training.' So I tried to warm her up good… There wasn't too much speed in the race and I knew if I could be in front that would be good for me. It worked out well because I made the lead easily. On the backside, she was nice and relaxed. When I asked her to go, she responded and she was there for me.”

This was the first-ever Miss Grillo win for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey, who said, “She ran well in her first start from a little off the pace coming up the rail. She was very professional. Today, there wasn't any speed in the race and she had trained sharp off her last race. Irad let her do her thing when she broke and he rode a good race on her.”

Saturday, Belmont at the Big A
MISS GRILLO S.-GII, $200,000, Belmont The Big A, 10-1, 2yo, f,
1 1/16mT, 1:45.25, yl.
1–PLEASANT PASSAGE, 120, f, 2, by More Than Ready
                1st Dam: Peaceful Passage, by War Front
                2nd Dam: Flying Passage, by A.P. Indy
                3rd Dam: Chic Shirine, by Mr. Prospector
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. O/B-Emory
Hamilton (KY); T-Claude R. McGaughey III; J-Irad Ortiz, Jr.
$110,000. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $167,750. Werk Nick
Rating: B+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Free Look, 120, f, 2, Tapit–Wild Mint, by Medaglia d'Oro.
1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($300,000 Ylg '21
KEESEP). O-Klaravich Stables, Inc.; B-KatieRich Farms (KY);
T-Chad C. Brown. $40,000.
3–Be Your Best (Ire), 122, f, 2, Muhaarar (GB)–Kamakura, by
Medaglia d'Oro. 'TDN Rising Star' 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE.
O-Michael J. Ryan; B-St. Croix Bloodstock (IRE); T-Horacio De
Paz. $24,000.
Margins: 3/4, 2, 3/4. Odds: 9.60, 1.65, 1.20.
Also Ran: Alluring Angel (GB), Im Just Kiddin, Georgees Spirit.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs.

Pedigree Notes:

Pleasant Passage is the 53rd graded winner and 130th stakes winner in the Northern Hemisphere for her prolific sire, who has sired two prior winners of the Juvenile Fillies Turf. She is the four graded winner and 16th stakes winner of what are sure to be many more for broodmare sire War Front.

The winner hails from the super deep female family developed by Emory Hamilton and her family's King Ranch. Her dam is a half to MGSW/MGISP Hungry Island (More Than Ready), and further down the page is another standout by More Than Ready in the form of MGISW Verrazano. Other highest-level winners from the family include this year's GI Jockey Club Gold Cup hero Olympiad (Speightstown); Preservationist (Arch), who has first yearlings; third dam Chic Shirine (Mr. Prospector) and her champion sister Queena, Serra Lake (Seattle Slew), Somali Lemonade (Lemon Drop Kid), et al.

Pleasant Passage's yearling half-brother by Kitten's Joy was purchased by Legion Bloodstock on behalf of Hoolie Racing for $150,000 at the recently concluded Keeneland September sale. Peaceful Passage, whose one career win from six tries came going 1 1/2 miles on the Kempton all-weather, was bred to Mendelssohn for 2023.

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Oct. 1 Insights: Half to Yaupon Debuts at the Big A

5th-BAQ, $95K, Msw, 2yo, 6 1/2f, 3:05 p.m. EDT

Allen Stable's $575,000 KEESEP acquisition LIMITS OF POWER (Good Magic) makes his career bow in this spot for trainer Chug McGaughey. Out of GISP Modification (Vindication), the dark bay is a half-brother to Grade I-winning sprinter and new Spendthrift stallion Yaupon (Uncle Mo), as well as MGSP Sawyer's Hill (Spring At Last). He breezed a best-of-153 half-mile in :47 flat on the Belmont training track two works back Sept. 17. Chad Brown unveils another pricey graduate of that auction in $475,000 KEESEP buy Inflationary (Into Mischief). The Klaravich Stables colorbearer is out of a full-sister to GSW Excited (Giant's Causeway), dam of SW & MGSP Thrilled (Uncle Mo). TJCIS PPs

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Maryland-Based Stallion Imagining Dies

Imagining (Giant's Causeway–Daydreaming, by A.P. Indy) was euthanized Aug. 23 due to complications from colic, according to a release from Anchor & Hope Farm. The 14-year-old, who won the GI Man O' War S. in 2014 for Phipps Stable and Shug McGaughey, was under the care of veterinarians at New Bolton Center, where surgery was attempted, but the damage was deemed too severe.

“Imagining has been with us since the start in 2015. We want to thank Shug McGaughey and the Phipps family for trusting us to bring a Grade 1-winning millionaire from a prolific Phipps pedigree to Maryland,” said Grace Merryman of Anchor & Hope Farm. “We were proud to do so and will be grateful to Imagining for what he did for us”

A five-time stakes winner and runner-up in an additional four top-level events on the turf, Imagining–whose female family includes Grade I winners Girolamo (A.P. Indy), Got Lucky (A.P. Indy), Super Saver (Maria's Mon) and Bluegrass Cat (Storm Cat)– posted nine victories and seven minor placings from 26 starts for earnings of nearly $1.2 million.

“His kids are routinely on the board around the Mid-Atlantic and they include stakes horses, graded placings, both dirt and turf winners and recently, talented runners over fences,” said Louis Merryman of Anchor & Hope Farm. “With his pedigree, we look forward to seeing the broodmare careers of his daughters.”

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