Kumin And Partners Remain In Baffert’s Corner Despite Medina Spirit Controversy

Sol Kumin's Madaket Stables, along with partners SF Bloodstock and Starlight Racing, remain committed to trainer Bob Baffert despite his recent controversies. The partnership, nicknamed “The Avengers,” continues to send horses to the embattled conditioner even with questions surrounding Baffert's ability to participate in the Triple Crown classics that he has dominated for much of the last quarter-century. In a recent conversation with the Blood-Horse's Bob Ehalt and Byron King, Kumin reiterated the group's continued confidence in the California-based Baffert.

“We bought over 30 2-year-olds that we plan to send to Bob,” Kumin said. “We have sent about 25 already. We plan to continue to support him.”

“The Avengers” hit it big with Baffert in 2020, with Grade 1 winners Authentic, Charlatan, and Eight Rings all part of their initial consignment of horses that the group had sent to California. Kumin and Starlight also partnered with China Horse Club and WinStar Farm in ownership of Justify, the 13th Triple Crown winner, also trained by the Hall of Famer. However, recent issues like Medina Spirit's positive tests for betamethasone and other positive tests for regulated substances in Charlatan and Gamine in 2020 have caused clients like Spendthrift and My Racehorse to move horses out of Baffert's barn for now.

While they await the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission's ultimate decision on Medina Spirit, tracks like Monmouth Park, Del Mar, and Santa Anita Park continue to permit Baffert to enter horses. For now, the New York Racing Association has temporary suspended the Hall of Fame trainer from running horses at their tracks while Churchill Downs, Inc. has taken a more strident position, barring Baffert from entering his horses at any of their properties for two years.

Read more at The Blood-Horse.

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Charlatan To Get Time Off At Margaux Farm; Future Plans Uncertain

Trainer Bob Baffert's multiple Grade 1 winner Charlatan has been sidelined, reports the Daily Racing Form. The 4-year-old son of Speightstown did not exit his May 15 breeze at Churchill in good form, and has been sent to Margaux Farm in Midway, Ky.

“Charlatan wasn't 100 percent after his most recent breeze on May 15,” co-owner Sol Kumin told DRF. “Under veterinary advice he will get some time off and a decision on his racing career will be determined upon reevaluation late June.”

Charlatan had been aimed at the G1 Met Mile at Belmont Park on June 5, but the New York Racing Association temporarily suspended Baffert-trained runners due to the trainer's multiple positive tests over the past year, as well as the ongoing Medina Spirit/Kentucky Derby controversy.

Winner of the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby (initially disqualified for a lidocaine positive, but restored as the winner by the racing commission last month) and G1 Malibu Stakes, Charlatan ran second to Mishriff in the $20 million Saudi Cup in his only start of 2021.

Read more at the Daily Racing Form.

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Miami Voice Tops Arqana Online Sale

Miami Voice (Ire) (Shalaa) (lot 1), a debut winner at Fontainebleau on Mar. 12 for trainer Alessandro Botti, topped three lots sold during Arqana Online's latest sale on Friday. The 3-year-old colt was bought for €250,000 by Mandore International Agency and Meridian International, with Nicolas de Watrigant explaining the transaction was made on behalf of a partnership.

“We've bought him for a syndicate that is made up of Alain Jathiere, Gerard Augustin-Normand, Carlo Ancelotti and Sol Kumin”, de Watrigant said. “He'll continue his career with Alessandro Botti.”

Miami Voice is out of Lou (Fr) (Kendargent {Fr}), an unraced half-sister to triple Group 1 winner and sire Charm Spirit (Ire) and also from the family of last year's G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches scorer Dream And Do (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}).

Three of the six lots offered were sold during the sale. De Watrigant also swooped at €150,000 for another 3-year-old colt, Sotoro (Fr) (Toronado {Ire}) (lot 3), who was third in the Listed Prix Montenica on Mar. 18 for trainer Edouard Montfort. De Watrigant confirmed that Sotoro is for Sol Kumin's Madaket Stables. “He'll stay in France in view to running in the Prix Djebel if the ground is good because Edouard says he is in very good form,” de Watrigant said. “However, if it rains, he'll go straight to the United States.”

Boogie (Fr) (Sri Putra {GB}) (lot 4), second on his debut over hurdles at Compiegne in the Prix d'Essai des Poulains, was bought by Yannick Fouin for €80,000.

Arqana President Eric Hoyeau and executive director Freddy Powell said, “We would like to thank all the vendors and bidders that have trusted in us in the organisation of this sale, and we wish the best to the new owners with their purchases. We are satisfied overall, and Arqana Online is a good opportunity to showcase recent performers. The buyers were there, and once again it has proved that this type of sale represents a good opportunity between two physical sales.”

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‘Not Another One Like Her’: Monomoy Girl Begins 2021 Campaign In Bayakoa

If Monomoy Girl were a boy and a prospect for the 2015 NFL Draft, the evaluation probably wouldn't have been overly flattering.

Monomoy Girl was by Tapizar, not Tapit, purchased at the 2016 Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $100,000 not $1 million and debuted on the grass in September 2017 at Indiana Grand, not Saratoga.

But her story mirrors that quarterback from the University of Michigan, deemed too skinny and slow to make it big in the NFL. Tom Brady was a sixth-round selection in 2000, the 199th player overall, and the seventh quarterback taken. Brady, 43, recently won his seventh Super Bowl and now has more rings than any NFL franchise.

Like Brady, Monomoy Girl's draft grade would call for a total rewrite for scouts, too. She's a two-time Eclipse Award winner, two-time Breeders' Cup champion and destined for enshrinement in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

Measurables, in both cases, were meaningless.

“I think that's a fair assessment,” said Brad Cox, who has trained Monomoy Girl throughout her nearly flawless career. “There's not another one like her, as far as how she came up and transferred to the dirt. She's a special horse.”

Monomoy Girl will begin authoring another chapter, possibly the final chapter, in her brilliant racing career Sunday at Oaklawn when she makes her 6-year-old debut in the $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) for older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles. Probable post time for the Bayakoa, which goes as the ninth of 10 races, is 5:11 p.m. (Central). Racing begins at 1 p.m.

The projected six-horse Bayakoa field from the rail out: Chance to Shine, Ken Tohill to ride, 115 pounds, 12-1 on the morning line; Another Broad, Joel Rosario, 115, 6-1; Finite, Ricardo Santana Jr., 119, 9-5; Istan Council, Joe Talamo, 115, 6-1; Our Super Freak, David Cohen, 115, 6-1; and Monomoy Girl, Florent Geroux, 119, even money.

Two other stakes are on Sunday's card, the $150,000 Dixie Belle for 3-year-old filly sprinters and the $150,000 Downthedustyroad for female Arkansas-bred sprinters.

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen and owners Alex and JoAnn Lieblong of Conway, Ark., have the program favorites in both races – unbeaten Abrogate (5-2) in the Dixie Belle and multiple Oaklawn stakes winner Bye Bye J (3-1) in the Downthedustyroad.

But Sunday's unquestioned headliner is Monomoy Girl, among the most accomplished horses ever entered at Oaklawn.

Monomoy Girl has a 13-2-0 record from 15 lifetime starts and earnings of $4,426,818. One of her losses was a disqualification (stretch interference in the 2018 Cotillion), the other also self-inflicted (lugged in and out late and beaten a neck in the 2017 Golden Rod). Seven victories have come in Grade 1 company, including the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff (2018 and 2020) and the $1 million Kentucky Oaks in 2018 at Churchill Downs. She has won at six tracks. She won her first two career starts on turf before switching, ultra-successfully, to dirt.

Monomoy Girl was the country's champion 3-year-old filly of 2018 and after missing 2019 because of injury and illness was crowned champion older dirt female of 2020. She was unbeaten in four races last year, including the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff Nov. 7 at Keeneland in her last start.

“To me, she's one of the best fillies that's ever lived,” said bloodstock agent Liz Crow, who selected and purchased Monomoy Girl for her original owner, Sol Kumin. “I know that maybe sounds a little aggressive, but she did win the Breeders' Cup twice and she's one of only three fillies, I think, or four fillies to ever do that. She's the only filly in history to win the five Grade 1s she won as a 3-year-old, the Oaks, the Ashland, the Acorn, the Coaching Club and the Breeders' Cup. To me, she's done it all. She's really answered all the questions, and she deserves to be a Hall of Famer, I think, one day.”

The Bayakoa will mark Monomoy Girl's first start in Hot Springs. Cox said he's using the race as a prep for the $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) April 17 at Oaklawn. Monomoy Girl had been under consideration for the Apple Blossom, among the country's signature two-turn events for older fillies and mares, in 2019 before being derailed and was “very, very close” to making her 2020 comeback, Cox said, in a late-season allowance race at Oaklawn. Instead, it came in mid-May at Churchill Downs.

“When we brought her back in the allowance race at Churchill, that was a lot of pressure, having been off 18 months, whatever it was,” Cox said. “Here, it's not as if we ever took her out of training. We backed off of her after the Breeders' Cup, but we never shut her down. We continued to train her lightly throughout November and December. I feel confident that she's pretty tight and pretty much ready to go. I'm excited to bring her up here. It's a great racing town and they appreciate good horses.”

Monomoy Girl arrived Wednesday night in Hot Springs after being based this winter at Fair Grounds.

Cox's go-to rider, Florent Geroux, has ridden Monomoy Girl in her last 14 starts. Geroux said Monomoy Girl has flourished because of a “big heart” and the resolve to reach the finish line first.

“She's a very gifted, talented mare,” Geroux said. “She takes her track with her. It's not like's only good at Churchill or Keeneland. She goes anywhere, East Coast, Midwest, and does great everywhere she goes. I think that's one of the main assets for her.”

The Bayakoa also will mark Monomoy Girl's first start since Spendthrift Farm purchased her for $9.5 million in November at Fasig-Tipton's Kentucky Fall Mixed Sale. Monomoy Girl will join Spendthrift's broodmare band upon retirement, but that figures to be in 2022 after the famed racing/breeding operation of founder B. Wayne Hughes opted to keep her training with Cox this year.

Spendthrift stallion sales manager Mark Toothaker said his affinity for Monomoy Girl began after a conversation with Arkansas horseman Dan White in the fall of 2017, shortly before the horse, then 2 for 2, made her stakes and dirt debut in the $80,000 Rags to Riches at Churchill Downs.

Toothaker said White was struck by Monomoy Girl's efficient action and believed she had a “big chance” to win. Monomoy Girl delivered, by 6 ½ emphatic lengths.

“That was really the first time I got her on my radar,” said Toothaker, who grew up in Van Buren, Ark., about 130 miles northwest of Hot Springs. “Boy, who would have ever dreamed she'd go on and do what she did. Just incredible. I think it goes back to the first time that I ever had a chance to see her, just as a fan. Just the efficiency that she moved with and the amount of ground that she covered. She's got what all the champions have got. Just got the killer instinct and she's going to beat you. She's going to run right by you and break your heart. She's got that 'it' factor. No doubt about it.”

In addition to Spendthrift, Monomoy Girl is now campaigned by MyRacehorse, which offers fractional ownership to investors, and Kumin, who bought back into the mare. Crow co-owns ELiTE Sales, which consigned Monomoy Girl to Fasig-Tipton's Kentucky Fall Mixed Sale and is an integral part of Kumin's racing team.

“I think this is just the cherry on top, this year,” Crow said. “I think Hot Springs is one of the best places in the country for racing fans and I really hope everybody enjoys getting to watch her run live. I think that's what this year is all about. Hopefully, she gives a lot of fans an opportunity to enjoy her.”

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