Saturday Insights: Pricey City Of Light Colt Gets Going at Keeneland

6th-KEE, $100k, Msw, 3yo, 6 1/2f, post time: 3:40 p.m. ET
SOLEVO (City of Light) is the second foal to the races out of the stakes-placed Pleasant Mine (Mineshaft), who was acquired by Windylea Farm New York for $200,000 with this foal in utero at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton November Sale. The Kentucky-bred dark bay colt made a solid return on that investment when hammering for $170,000 at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton July Sale and fetched $685,000 from trainer Cherie DeVaux at last year's OBS April Sale after breezing a furlong in :10 1/5. The colt's third dam produced GI Carter H. hero Swagger Jack (Smart Strike). Moreau (Speightstown) is a maternal grandson of Danehill (Danzig)'s MGSW full-sister Harpia, whose daughter Unreachable (Giant's Causeway) is responsible for this year's G1 February S. winner Lemon Pop (Lemon Drop Kid) and Equivoque (Good Magic), a good-looking debut winner at this track Apr. 8. TJCIS PPs

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Speightstown Filly Blazes Quarter-Mile at OBS Wednesday

A filly by Speightstown (hip 618) zipped a quarter-mile in a track record-tying :20 1/5, while six horses shared the day's fastest furlong time, during the fourth session of the under-tack show for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training in Central Florida Wednesday. Hip 618, who worked just after 11:30 a.m. and with temperatures approaching 80 degrees, is consigned by Juan Centeno's All Dreams Equine.

“You never know if they can go that fast, but she prepped pretty fast,” Centeno said. “I knew she could at least tie that prep or improve on it and obviously, she improved. But she's always been that filly who gives her all every time. She just has a natural talent. Every time she goes up there, it's all business. When she is in the stall, she's nice and relaxed. I think she has a brilliant future.”

The filly is out of the unraced Last Dance (Revolutionary), who is a half-sister to graded winner Speightster (Speightstown) and is out of a full-sister to Dance Smartly.

Centeno purchased the filly for $17,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale.

“She is not perfect,” Centeno said. “Her conformation wasn't perfect. That's probably why people passed on her last year. But we took our chances because she has a beautiful body. And you never know how they are going to come out. You have to play and see what happens. In the early days, you start seeing which ones really start shining from the rest and she was one of those. She was not that fast, but she was always better than the rest.”

The filly's :20 1/5 breeze ties the record for the fastest quarter-mile over the OBS surface, matching, among others, the time of future Grade I winner Princess Noor (Not This Time), who sold for $1.35 million at the 2020 Spring sale.

Asked what it was like to lead his speedy filly up to the track Wednesday morning, Centeno said, “Before you go, you feel sick. You just hope she doesn't take a bad step or anything. It's just nerve-wracking. And after it, you feel so proud for her. She's the one who did it all. It's just a special feeling in your heart to say, 'Wow. Look at these beautiful things.' They can make you feel so wonderful.”

A Day at the Beach for Wavertree

Six juveniles shared the fastest furlong time of :9 4/5 during Wednesday's session of the under-tack show and two were fillies from the first crop of Omaha Beach from the Wavertree Stables consignment, which also sent out a colt by the multiple Grade I winner to work the day's second-fastest quarter-mile time of :20 3/5.

“We went up there with high expectations,” said Wavertree's Ciaran Dunne. “They were horses who had trained really well all year and had advertised themselves in their works as fast horses. And I think they all showed up.”

Working during the day's first set, hip 532 was first to hit the :9 4/5 mark on the day for Wavertree. The bay filly is out of Intelyhente (Smart Stride), a full-sister to graded winner Bel Air Beauty and dam of stakes-placed Count Alexander (Scat Daddy), who Wavertree sold at the 2017 OBS June sale.

“She is huge,” Dunne said of the filly. “She looks like a colt. She's probably 16 hands, plus. We had her half-brother and that probably played a part in us being as strong as we were [in buying her last year]. We thought he was a very good horse. I think he was a better horse than his race record probably panned out to be–he was very unlucky in a couple of races. But she is a bigger, stronger version of him. You could have passed him off as the filly and her as the colt.”

Hip 667 turned in her :9 4/5 work around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. The chestnut filly is out of Malibu Pride (Malibu Moon), a full-sister to By The Light, who produced multiple Grade I winner By the Moon (Indian Charlie).

“She's a medium-sized filly,” Dunne said. “She's real compact and very well-balanced. She's been lightning fast since the first time we said, 'Go.' We spent the spring trying to slow her down. She's really, really quick with a beautiful female family underneath.”

Both fillies were purchased by Paul Reddam and Dunne's Red Wings Enterprises pinhooking partnership for $200,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale.

“Paul has been my partner in Red Wings for many years,” Dunne said. “He is a guy who really goes with his gut feeling. He was very high on Omaha Beach going into the yearling sales and his marching orders were to buy as many Omaha Beaches as I could. I think I called him at one point and said, 'Is that enough?' and the response I got was, 'no.' So we have to give him the credit–or the blame–for the number of Omaha Beaches we have.”

On behalf of Houston third baseman Alex Bregman, Wavertree sent out a son of Omaha Beach (hip 617) to work a quarter-mile in :20 3/5 in the opening minutes of Wednesday's session of the under-tack show. The bay colt is out of stakes-placed Lantiz (Tizway).

Bloodstock agent Mike Akers purchased the colt on behalf of Bregman Family Racing for $185,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton July sale.

“This is a lovely horse. He doesn't necessarily look fast, which is interesting for as fast as he is,” Dunne said. “He looks like a horse with a bit of stretch that will go a route of ground.”

Bregman was represented by a bullet worker by No Nay Never who worked in :20 4/5 during Monday's second session of the under-tack show.

“Mike Akers has done a really job for Alex sourcing racehorses and obviously now pinhooks,” Dunne said. “I think they are good team and they work together well.”

Omaha Beach now has three juveniles to work in :9 4/5 this week at OBS. Mayberry Farm sent out a colt by the freshman sire (hip 466, video) to work in that time Tuesday.

Omaha Beach, winner of the GI Arkansas Derby and GI Santa Anita Sprint Championship, was scratched as the morning-line favorite three days before the 2019 GI Kentucky Derby. He stands at Spendthrift Farm for $30,000.

“They are lovely horses,” Dunne said of the first-season sire's progeny. “They have a shape to them. They have a bit of size and scope. They move really well. Thankfully, all of those things have transferred as you would want them to from yearlings to 2-year-olds. Once we started training them, we were very pleased. They are nice horses to be around and mentally very easy to deal with. They thrive on work. The more we've done with them, the better they were and the happier they were. Obviously, I am a big fan today.”

Also working the furlong bullet Wednesday was a filly by Divining Rod (hip 544, video) who is a half-sister to GI Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Aloha West (Hard Spun) consigned by Best a Luck Farm; a colt by Maximus Mischief (hip 632, video) consigned by Kings Equine; a colt by Tapwrit (hip 634, video), who is a half to multiple graded-placed Dream Marie (Graydar) and consigned by Top Line Sales; and a colt by Solomini (hip 692, video), who is a half to graded winner Lookin to Strike (Lookin at Lucky) and consigned by Randy Miles.

The under-tack show continues through Saturday with sessions beginning each day at 8 .m. The Spring sale will be held next Tuesday through Friday. Bidding commences at 10:30 a.m. daily.

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Which Sire Has Had The Most Rising Stars? It’s Tapit

Since 2004, we've shined the spotlight on over 1,500 'TDN Rising Stars' worldwide, recognition given to a horse early on its career who has done something so impressive on the racetrack that our team believes they will go on to become graded stakes winners.  A horse is designated as a 'Rising Star' by the TDN staff after a careful and comprehensive review of many factors–including the quality of the field, margin and time of victory, pedigree, sales price and more.

Over the years, it has become a badge of honor for a sire to produce a Rising Star. So which sires have been the most prolific when it comes to having one of their progeny be named a Rising Star? Below is our Top 10, which includes only sires based in North America. The list probably won't surprise you. Good sires produce good horses.

 

Sire (#Rising Stars)

1) Tapit (51)
Not only is the 22-year-old Tapit one of the top sires in the history of the sport, but he has been around nearly as long as the Rising Stars have. He got his first Rising Star way back in 2010 when Trappe Shot won a maiden special weight race for 3-year-olds at Gulfstream Park. The TDN team was not wrong about Trappe Shot, who went on to win the GII True North H. in 2011. A year earlier, he won the Long Branch S. and ran second in the GI Haskell Invitational S. As a sire, Trappe Shot has had two Rising Stars.

Tapit was just getting started. Constitution was named a Rising Star in 2014 after winning a maiden special weight race at Gulfstream. He would go on to win the GI Florida Derby and the GI Donn H. Constitution turned out to be a top sire in his own right and had produced seven TDN Rising Stars. The hits kept on coming with subsequent Rising Stars by Tapit including 2014 GI Belmont S. winner Tonalist and Essential Quality, the 3-year-old champion of 2021, whose victories include wins in the Belmont, the GI Travers S., the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile and the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity.

And, no, the team didn't miss out on Flightline. Arguably the best horse Tapit has ever produced, he was named a Rising Star after he broke his maiden on April 24, 2021 at Santa Anita. You know the rest of the story.

We didn't always get it right. One of Tapit's early Rising Stars was Tapit It Rich, who broke his maiden on Oct. 12, 2013 at Santa Anita. He ran five more times and never won again.

2) Into Mischief (36)
The main thing separating Tapit and Into Mischief is how long they have been at stud as Into Mischief is four years younger than his rival stallion.
Into Mischief started churning out Rising Stars from the start. His first was Goldencents, who was named a Rising Star after he broke his maiden in 2012 at Del Mar. A top horse throughout his career, Goldencents went on to win, among other races, the GI Santa Anita Derby and two runnings in the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile. As a sire, he's had two Rising Stars. Other notable Rising Stars by Into Mischief include GI Kentucky Derby winner Mandaloun, multiple Grade I winner Life Is Good and 2020 champion female sprinter Gamine.

There are two Rising Stars by Into Mischief who are among the top candidates for this year's Kentucky Derby in Newgate and Giant Mischief.

We did not tab 2020 Kentucky Derby winner Authentic, among the better horses Into Mischief has produced, as a Rising Star.

3) Distorted Humor (28)
Another sire who has been picking up Rising Stars for years. He got his first Rising Star way back in 2005 with Halo Humor, a maiden winner at Saratoga who was a Louisiana-bred. Halo Humor did not go on to win a graded stakes, but plenty of other Rising Stars by Distorted Humor did. The list includes such graded stakes winners as Any Given Saturday, Alternation, Cowtown Cat. There's also Maclean's Music, who, though he raced just once, has gone on to be a top sire.

With Momos having earned Rising Star status in 2020, Distorted Humor's time as a producer of Rising Stars has covered a span of 15 years.

4) Medaglia d'Oro (24)
Another prolific sire who has been around for a while and has churned out two dozen Rising Stars, starting with Dashing Debby in 2009, who broke her maiden in the JJ'sdream S. at Calder.
In 2015, the team nailed it when naming Songbird a Rising Star after she broke her maiden at Del Mar. She, of course, went on to be a major star who was the champion 2-year-old filly in 2015 and the champion 3-year-old filly in 2016. She won eight Grade I races.
Elate, named a Rising Star in 2016, became another top performer for her sire and had Grade I wins in the Alabama S. and the Beldame S.

4) Unbridled's Song (24)
His list is topped by Arrogate, named a Rising Star after he won a 2016 maiden special weight race at Santa Anita. Considered one of the best horses of this century, he had a run that won't soon be forgotten, winning, in order, the Travers, the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. and the GI Dubai World Cup. Arrogate has produced three Rising Stars so far during his brief time as a stallion.

Unbridled's Song's list of Rising Stars also includes Liam's Map, the winner of the GI Woodward S. and the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.

6) Speightstown (23)
He got off to a fast start as a Rising Stars sire as his second ever Rising Star was Munnings. Named a Rising Star in 2008, he won three Grade II races and went on to be a top stallion, who has had 10 Rising Stars. Other notable Rising Stars by Speightstown include Speighster, Echo Town, Charlatan and Nashville. Another sire who has been producing Rising Stars over the course of three decades, he had his most recent Rising Star last year when Andiamo a Firenze broke his maiden at Belmont Park.

6) Curlin (23)
Curlin picked up his first Rising Star in 2013 with Del Mar maiden winner Socialbug. That horse didn't go on to win a graded stakes, but plenty of other Rising Stars by Curlin did. His most successful Rising Star was no doubt Malathaat, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2021 and the champion older dirt female of 2022. Her dam, Dreaming of Julia, also deserves mention as she is also the dam of Malathaat's full sister and Rising Star Julia Shining. Julia Shining was named a Rising Star after breaking her maiden last fall at Keeneland and has since gone on to win the GII Demoiselle S. (The record for most Rising Stars for a broodmare is six, held by Delta Princess, the dam of Royal Delta). Curlin's most recent Rising Star is Faustin, who is a Kentucky Derby candidate after finishing second in the GII San Vicente S.

8) Malibu Moon (22)
Another sire who has been producing Rising Stars for what seems like forever. He had his first Rising Star in 2007 and his most recent came in 2021 with H P Moon, a maiden winner at Pimlico. His top Rising Star is Carina Mia, who captured the GI Acorn S.

9) Bernardini (19)
Bernardini's list is topped by Cavorting, a three-time Grade I winner who captured the GI Test S., the GI Ogden Phipps S. and the Personal Ensign. Grade I winner Dame Dorothy is another Rising Star by Bernardini. She is the dam of Spice Is Nice, a Rising Star by Curlin.

9) Storm Cat (19)
Considering that he was retired from study duty in 2008, it's remarkable that Storm Cat made the Top 10. Where would he be if Rising Stars went back to 1990 when his first crop appeared on the racetrack? He picked up his first Rising Star in 2005 with Where's That Tiger, a winner at the Curragh. In the U.S., the list of Rising Stars by Storm Cat includes Grade I winners Bluegrass Cat and Life Is Sweet, the winner of the 2009 GI Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic. He had his last Rising Star in 2011 with Hoorayforhollywood, a maiden winner at Santa Anita.

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Violence’s Drew’s Gold Stays Undefeated In Jimmy Winkfield

A debut winner at Churchill Downs in May 2022, Drew's Gold went to the sidelines for the next eight months before making a winning return to the races at Laurel Park Jan. 28. Favored at 8-5 for his first try against stakes company in New York, the colt pressed the pace, keeping things tight up front for early leader Kool Kathmandu (Frosted). Outside with plenty of run left, he drew alongside a new leader in Clubhouse and went right on by past the quarter pole, stretching his lead down the lane to win by open lengths and stay undefeated in his short career.

“I loved seeing that [the good break] because what he was doing is he was getting himself left and then he was taking off up the backside,” said winning trainer James Chapman. “Whenever you've got to grab a horse like that, it takes a lot out of them. He [Jose Gomez] was able to ride him with one rhythm today, which I think helped him. He likes to sit with horses and watch horses, so when he broke good, I figured we had a really good chance.”

A half-sister to a stakes winner in American Frolic (Blame), Drew's Gold has only one younger sibling–a yearling half-brother by the late Laoban. Frolic's Revenge visited City of Light for a 2023 foal. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

JIMMY WINKFIELD S., $97,000, Aqueduct, 2-11, 3yo, 6f, 1:13.09, ft.
1–DREW'S GOLD, 120, c, 3, by Violence
                1st Dam: Frolic's Revenge (MSW, $346,075), by Vindication
                2nd Dam: Stormy Frolic, by Summer Squall
                3rd Dam: Lindsay Frolic, by Mt. Livermore
($25,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP). 1ST BLACK TYPE WIN. O-James K.
Chapman & Stuart Tsujimoto; B-Woodford Thoroughbreds, LLC
(KY); T-James K. Chapman; J-Jose Antonio Gomez. $55,000.
Lifetime Record: 3-3-0-0, $140,120. *1/2 to American Frolic
(Blame), SW, $246,159.
2–Clubhouse, 118, c, 3, Speightstown–Wild Ridge, by Tapit.
($180,000 Wlg '20 KEENOV; $425,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP).
1ST BLACK TYPE. O-Harrell Ventures, LLC & Starlight Racing;
B-Blue Heaven Farm & Speightstown Syndicate (KY); T-Todd A.
Pletcher. $20,000.
3–Joey Freshwater, 118, c, 3, Jimmy Creed–Lake Turkana,
by More Than Ready. ($6,000 RNA Wlg '20 KEENOV; $45,000
Ylg '21 KEESEP; $35,000 2yo '22 OBSOPN). 1ST BLACK TYPE.
O-Winning Move Stable; B-Dr. Aaron Sones, Dr. Naoya Yoshida
& Dr. Eric Crawford (KY); T-Linda Rice. $12,000.
Margins: 4 1/4, 3/4, 9 1/4. Odds: 1.75, 2.60, 3.10.
Also Ran: Daydreaming Boy, Kool Kathmandu.

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