Speightstown | Horse Racing Free Tips

Malibu Winner Charlatan Likely To Skip Pegasus, Aim For Saudi Cup

Charlatan, who returned to the races after an absence of eight months with a dominating 4 ½-length victory in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif., on opening day Dec. 26, will likely make his next start in the world's richest race, the $20-million Saudi Cup at 1 1/8 miles in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Feb. 20, Bob Baffert said Sunday morning.

The winner receives $10 million.

Charlatan had his first workout Saturday since the Malibu, going four furlongs in 49.80.

The 4-year-old son of Speightstown was making his first start in the seven-furlong Malibu since crossing the wire on top in the first division of the G1 Arkansas Derby last May 2, only to later be disqualified on a medication violation that is under appeal.

The dazzling chestnut colt has reached the finish line ahead of his rivals by a combined margin of 26 1/2 lengths, an average of better than six lengths per race.

“That's the plan right now,” Baffert said of the Saudi Cup. “I've got another week to make up my mind, but he'd be coming back a little quick for the other race ($3-million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park Jan. 23) off a long layoff, and he ran so hard (in the Malibu), I worry about that.

“The thing I like about the Saudi race is it's a one-turn mile-and-an-eighth and Charlatan is so fast. It's a challenge, but it's $20 million.

“That's a lot of money.”

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Jan. 10 Insights

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency

WELL-RELATED SPEIGHTSTOWN DEBUTS

7th-GP, $50K, Msw, 3yo, f, 5fT, 3:11 p.m.

WinStar Stablemates got off to a great start for their 2021 season with a pair of victories and hope to add another with first time starter FIRST HOUR (Speightstown) at Gulfstream Sunday. Her dam General Jeanne (Honour and Glory) is a half to GSW Chace City (Carson City) and MGSW & GISP Justwhistledixie (Dixie Union), who is the dam of GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and sire New Year’s Day (Street Cry {Ire}); MGSW sire Mohaymen (Tapit); and graded winners Enforceable (Tapit) and Kingly (Tapit). This is also the family of MGISW Got Stormy (Get Stormy); MGSW & GISP Smooth Air (Smooth Jazz); and GSW Overdriven (Tale of the Cat). TJCIS PPs

MCGAUGHEY UNVEILS PHIPPS BLUEBLOOD

11th-GP, $50K, Msw, 3yo, f, 1 1/16mT, 5:17p.m.

Shug McGaughey unveils the latest in a long line of blue-blooded Phipps family homebreds at Gulfstream Sunday in DEEP WATER CAY (Pioneerof the Nile). The bay is out of MGSW & MGISP turf distaffer Abaco (Giant’s Causeway), who in turn is a daughter of MGSW Cat Cay (Pleasant Colony). This is also the family of GISW Strolling Along (Danzig). Eddie Kenneally also saddles a well-bred firster in Tiz American (American Pharoah). The bay is a half-sister to Grade I winner American Patriot (War Front), SW Well Humored (Distorted Humor) and MGSP Muqtaser (Distorted Humor). Her dam Life Well Lived (Tiznow) is a full-sister to MG1SW Well Armed and GSW Witty (Distorted Humor), who is the dam of MSW & GSP Bombard (War Front). This is also the family of MGSW Mr. Money (Goldencents). TJCIS PPs

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What’s In a Name: Amniarix

6th-Wolverhampton, £20,000, Cond, 1-4, 4yo/up, f/m, 7f 36y (AWT), 1:26.70, st.
AMNIARIX (f, 4, Speightstown–Bold Lass {Ire}, by Sea the Stars {Ire}) Lifetime Record: 5-3-0-1, $29,465. O/B-Bjorn Nielsen (KY); T-Ed Walker.

The recent Wolverhampton female winner Amniarix is out of a mare named Bold Lass and her namesake was indeed a very brave young woman. Amniarix was the spy codename of Jeannie Rousseau (1919-2017), who was not only a hero of the French Resistance but also an uncompromising survivor of three German prison camps. Jeannie’s command of the German language was apparently perfect and she had access to Nazi war planners as part of her work for a French company in occupied Paris. Her reports to British spymaster R V Jones were remarkable for their quality and led to the famous August 1943 raid on Peenemunde, where the Germans were developing the V-2 missile-bombs. Jeanie was arrested by the Germans in April 1944, just a few weeks before D-Day and the Normandy landings; she was only 25 years of age. Her captivity took her to the camps of Ravensbruck, Torgau, Konigsberg, and to Ravensbruck again–in a truly horrific war odyssey. When the Swedish Red Cross rescued her from Ravensbruck at the end of the war, she weighed only 31kg (70lbs). Spy chief R V Jones was not the only one to think highly of Amniarix/Jeannie Rousseau (he called her “one of the most remarkable young women of her generation”): the CIA awarded her the Seal Medallion in 1993, under Director R James Woolsey. This legendary spy was also modest: she did not talk much with reporters and historians, and her incredible story is not that well known. Therefore, credit is to be given to whoever gave this historic name to this tenacious US-bred 4-year-old filly, whose persistence, by the way, won her the race after having been hampered at the start.

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Baffert On Charlatan’s Malibu: ‘He Exceeded Our Expectations’

It was business as usual Sunday morning for Bob Baffert, less than 24 hours after Charlatan demolished his rivals with a 4 ½-length victory in the Runhappy Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif., the final Grade 1 race of a tumultuous 2020.

It was the 16th Grade 1 win of the year for Baffert, four more than runner-up Chad Brown, enhancing the two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer's chances for an Eclipse Award, although personal triumphs are not high on his priority list.

But with Authentic's Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup Classic victories and pending Horse of the Year honors a mere formality, Baffert assuredly has the credentials to merit such a singular honor.

But this morning it was all about the horse.

“He came back great,” Baffert said of Charlatan, a Speightstown colt making his first start since May 2, when he crossed the wire first by six lengths in the first division of the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby, only to be disqualified on a medication violation that has been appealed.

“We haven't really decided what we're going to do with him yet,” said Baffert. “It's too early. We'll give it a week.

“I thought he was going to need the race but he was a lot readier than I thought. We were hoping he would pick up where he left off, and he exceeded our expectations.

“He's just a brilliant horse. He came out of it in really good shape so we're excited. It was a good way to cap off the year.”

Now it's on to 2021, and Baffert wasn't letting the grass grow under his feet, so to speak.

“I breezed a lot of good horses today,” he said, among them Life Is Good, sensational winner by 9 ½ lengths of his debut race Nov. 22 by 9 ½ lengths for owner China Horse Club, Inc. and WinStar Farm LLC. The $525,000 son of Into Mischief is among five Baffert trainees nominated to Saturday's Grade 3 Sham Stakes for 3-year-olds at one mile.

Life Is Good went six furlongs in a bullet 1:10.60. In all, Baffert supervised 14 recorded works this morning.

“The track was really good today,” he said. “It was faster and they were getting over it good. It had a lot of bounce to it. We're still debating whether Life Is Good will go in the Sham or the seven-eighths (the G2 San Vicente Stakes on Feb. 7). I have to talk to Elliott Walden first.”

Walden is president and CEO of racing operations at WinStar, near Versailles, Ky.

Baffert does plan to enter debut winner Medina Spirit in the Sham.The Florida-bred son of Protonico owned by Zedan Racing Stables Inc. was a three-length winner going 5 ½ furlongs at Los Alamitos on Dec. 11 under Abel Cedillo. Medina Spirit breezed five furlongs today in 1:02.

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