Spendthrift Farm | Horse Racing Free Tips

Derby Wrap: Authentic ‘Not Even Tired’, On to Preakness

A day after picking up his record-tying sixth GI Kentucky Derby win in a renewal as unorthodox as they come, trainer Bob Baffert said victor Authentic (Into Mischief) “wasn’t even tired” Sunday morning after going wire to wire and turning back odds-on Tiz the Law (Constitution) in Saturday’s Run for the Roses.

“I couldn’t believe it, I thought he might be a little tired today,” Baffert said. “He came out of it well.”

The triumph for Baffert was plenty unorthodox as well. After appearing to have a strangehold on the Derby in the spring, Baffert lost top contenders Charlatan (Speightstown) and Nadal (Blame) to injury. Late bloomer Uncle Chuck (Uncle Mo) then finished up the track in the GI Runhappy Travers S., eliminating him from Derby contention. Finally, in the Churchill Downs paddock Saturday, his Thousand Words (Pioneerof the Nile) flipped and had to be scratched, leaving Authentic as his lone starter. The incident sent longtime Baffert assistant Jimmy Barnes to the hospital with a broken wrist, adding one final touch of emotion to Authentic’s win.

“Jimmy is going to need surgery, I think he’ll need eight screws in his wrist but he actually was here this morning. He’s a trooper,” Baffert said. “I was so emotional yesterday because I wanted him to be there. To me, that was most emotional Derby I’ve ever been involved in because of what happened during that little time frame. It was the most crazy 30 minutes I’ve had in racing.”

“Before May, I was looking so strong and then everything just went wrong,” Baffert continued. “And to pull it off like that was really exciting. Winning the Kentucky Derby is the biggest moment in a trainer’s life. When you win it, it erases everything that has gone bad.”

Roller Coaster Half-Hour for Spendthrift

The late scratch of Thousand Words also affected Spendthrift Farm, which co-owns the colt with Albaugh Family Stables and co-owns Authentic with My Racehorse, Madaket Stables and Starlight Racing.

“It was all so unbelievable. I walked over with the Albaughs and we’re all enjoying the moment and then, the next thing you know [Thousand Words] exploded and went over,” said Mark Toothaker, stallion sales manager of Spendthrift Farm. “The state vet walked over and said he was a scratch. So you had all the emotion of, you are within 20 minutes of having a horse getting ready to run in the Kentucky Derby that we picked out and we’re so excited and as we were walking through the tunnel, I said to our general manger Ned Toffey, ‘If there is a Derby God out there, maybe we can win.’ For Authentic to just keep giving it in the stretch, it was like he had an extra push.”

A trip to Baltimore for the GI Preakness S. Oct. 3 is slated as the next objective for both Authentic and Thousand Words, as the latter escaped his paddock fall without injury. Baffert said both colts will head to the shedrow of Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas to stay for the next few weeks so Baffert doesn’t have to ship them back to California in the interim.

“Being that the Preakness is a few weeks away, I thought it might be too hard on them to go back. So I have an assistant trainer, this D. Wayne Lukas guy here,” Baffert joked. “So they’re going to be in Wayne’s barn. We’re going to run them out of here. If they’re working well and all going well, they’ll go to the Preakness. I didn’t want to take them all the way to California and back. I want to give them every opportunity. We’re planning on [running] both if they’re doing well. Thousand Words, we’ll give him another chance at it. He didn’t have a scratch on him.”

Barnes Back in Action Sunday Morning

Barnes was back to work dark and early Sunday morning, albeit in a compromised capacity. He said he wasn’t going to say anything about his broken right wrist Saturday until he rolled up his sleeve and saw it at the wrong angle.

“When it happened, I wasn’t going to say anything. I was going to say I was OK. I knew it kind of hurt,” he said. “Then I pulled my sleeve up and saw it was pointing a different direction. So I pulled it back down and said, ‘I better say something.'”

Barnes watched the Derby on a phone in the ambulance on his way to Norton Audubon Hospital. He said the ER personnel knew he was connected to the Derby winner, and that the ER doctor actually was a co-breeder of Baffert’s two-time Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Midnight Lute (Real Quiet).

“He didn’t surprise me, the way he trains and the way you watch him move,” Barnes said of Authentic. “He’s just this big leaper. He’s got a huge stride on him. He just got out there motoring along. Johnny V rode him superbly. He committed early and if you’re going to go with him you’re going to be running fast. So they kind of backed off a bit, from what I saw. For him to straighten out and switch leads, because you look at his earlier races and he was very erratic in the stretch in numerous races. But Johnny V, when he pulled his stick through to the left hand and got after him, boy, he just leveled out and said, ‘They’re not going by me today.'”

Asked about the roller coaster of breaking his wrist in a scary paddock accident and then winning a Derby less than a half-hour later, Barnes said of horse racing, “You can be on the floor and then be up in the sky soaring.”

Tiz the Law in Good Shape, Next Start Undetermined

Sackatoga Stable’s beaten favorite Tiz the Law is scheduled to return to New York Tuesday with plans for a next start to be determined.

“I just looked him over,” trainer Barclay Tagg said. “His legs are good. He ate good. Everything’s good.”

The four-time Grade I winner, who went off as the 7-10 chalk Saturday, sustained only the second loss in his eight-race career, with both setbacks coming at Churchill Downs. He was third in last November’s GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. on a sealed sloppy track.

“The jock [Manny Franco] said that when he really had to get down and run, he was kind of swimming on that track. He didn’t like the track,” Tagg said. “You could see it in the stretch. He looked like he was going to go on by and win easy. His last [Beyer] number was a 109 [in the GI Runhappy Travers S.]. He bounced down to a 103 this time … I don’t want to say too much about the Preakness. I just want to see how he is. He’ll go back to New York and we’ll evaluate him.”

“He ran good and came out of it great. I was over at the barn this morning and all is well,” principal owner Jack Knowlton added. “I’ll have [the Preakness] discussion with Barclay and we’ll take a little time to see. My thinking is that we will [go], but we’ll have the horse dictate what’s going to happen. Certainly that would be my preference but we’ve just go to see how he comes out and see how he works when we have the next work in a couple weeks. We’ll have time for a couple works.”

Other Preakness Hopefuls

According to the Pimlico notes team, longshot third finisher in the Derby Mr. Big News (Giant’s Causeway) is likely headed to Baltimore. The three horses who had to scratch the week of the Derby–Art Collector (Bernardini), King Guillermo (Uncle Mo) and Finnick the Fierce (Dialed In)–are also Preakness-bound.

Among other potential Preakness horses are Mystic Guide (Ghostzapper) and Dr Post (Quality Road), respectively first and fourth in Saturday’s GII Jim Dandy S. at Saratoga; Manitoba Derby winner Mongolian Wind (Mucho Macho Man), entered in Monday’s Gold Cup S. at Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg; Lebda (Raison d’Etat), winner of the Miracle Wood S.and Private Terms S. at Laurel over the winter and most recently third in the Robert Hilton Memorial S. Aug. 28 at Charles Town; Pneumatic (Uncle Mo), last-out winner of the Pegasus S. Aug. 15 at Monmouth Park and fourth in the Belmont for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen; and the Baffert-trained Azul Coast (Super Saver), winner of the El Camino Real Derby Feb. 15 at Golden Gate and second to Authentic in the GIII Sham S.

The Federico Tesio S. Monday at Laurel is a ‘Win and In’ qualifier for Triple Crown-nominated horses to the Preakness. Happy Saver (Super Saver), undefeated in two career starts for trainer Todd Pletcher, is the 1-2 program favorite for the 1 1/8-mile Preakness prep.

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Thousand Words ‘Peaking At The Right Time’ For Kentucky Derby Bid

Albaugh Family Stables' and Spendthrift Farm's Thousand Words defeated top three Kentucky Derby candidate Honor A. P. in his most recent start, the listed Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar, but the 3-year-old son of Pioneerof the Nile will likely have double digit odds on Sept. 5. In an interview with America's Best Racing, the Albaugh's racing manager Jason Loutsch reported that Thousand Words is in great form ahead of the Run for the Roses.

“He came out of the race tremendous,” Loutsch said, referring to the Shared Belief victory. “He is doing really, really good. He is peaking at the right time. We're excited.”

The winner of both the G2 Los Alamitos Futurity last fall and G3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes in February, Thousand Words started to go off form in March of this year.

“The horse has a little bit of an attitude,” Loutsch said. “He needed to mature and just wasn't happy. He needed to get healthy and happy and feeling good. He ran a dull race in the San Felipe Stakes (4th) and then we shipped him to Oaklawn Park (for the April 11 Oaklawn Stakes, in which he finished 11th). It was a sloppy track and he broke terrible. We thought if we gave him 30 days off we'd still have time with the Derby delayed this year.

“That's the only real positive for us in the COVID deal. It's been a difficult year for all of us. The only positive is that we gave the horse a little time to mature, he got happy and it allowed us to qualify for the Derby.”

Thousand Words is scheduled to arrive at Churchill Downs on Monday, alongside stablemate Authentic.

Out of the talented sprint mare Pomeroys Pistol, Thousand Words was a $1 million yearling at the Keeneland September sale. The colt was bred in Florida by Hardacre Farm, and has a record of four wins and a second from seven starts with earnings of $327,000.

Bloodlines Presented By California Thoroughbred Breeders Association: Texas Red, Hit It A Bomb Land Early Blows In Freshman Sire Race

With races for 2-year-olds that prohibit Lasix, it was no surprise that the juvenile graded stakes winners at Del Mar on Aug. 8 both raced without the controversial medication. It was, however, a surprise that the winners of the Grade 2 Best Pal and the G2 Sorrento were both by freshmen sires.

The Sorrento's public betting choice at 0.90-to-1 was My Girl Red (by Texas Red), and after leading all the way, the handsome bay filly duly delivered by 4 3/4 lengths from second-choice Get On the Bus (Uncle Mo), who had five lengths on Exchange Vows (Tapiture), the longest price on the odds board.

Bred in Kentucky and racing for breeder Erich Brehm, My Girl Red is out of the stakes-placed Morakami (Fusaichi Pegasus), and the Sorrento winner is one of four stakes horses out of that mare. Brehm, who was a co-owner of Texas Red, purchased Morakami in foal to Street Boss (Street Cry) for $21,000 at the 2017 Keeneland January sale.

A $225,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase, Morakami would have been counted a disappointing broodmare at the time of sale, as none of the mare's racers had earned black type at the time. Two of the mare's foals already in training subsequently became stakes-placed, and the foal she was carrying at the sale is now known as Gold Street, the winner of the 2019 Sugar Bowl Stakes at the Fair Grounds and the 2020 Smarty Jones at Oaklawn Park.

Now unbeaten in two starts, My Girl Red is the first graded winner for either of her parents. Morakami has a yearling filly by Texas Red and a weanling filly of 2020 by leading sire Kitten's Joy (El Prado). The mare was bred to Into Mischief for 2021.

Much like his precocious daughter, Texas Red (Afleet Alex) was a talented 2-year-old, winning the G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile in the absence of champion American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) and becoming one of the early favorites for the next season's classics. The tall bay was sidelined in February 2015 with a hoof abscess, came back to win the G2 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga, then was sidelined once again with bone bruising.

In 2017, Texas Red went to stud in Kentucky at Pope McLean's Crestwood Farm. Pope McLean Jr. said that former Crestwood associate “Phil Hager had a relationship with Brehm, and we partnered with him and his group. Erich leads that ownership group, and most of them stayed in on the horse” as a stallion prospect.

“Erich Brehm has put so much into the horse that this [victory at Del Mar] meant a lot to them,” said Marc McLean. “Morakami was a nice mare already, but Erich bought some other mares for the horse. That makes a difference in the opportunities that a young stallion has.”

With a first crop of “only” 49 foals, Texas Red had a very respectable number of foals for an earlier time, but in today's stallion environment with popular stallions having superbooks of 200 mares or more, the son of Afleet Alex is overachieving to have a graded stakes winner already.

In addition, another daughter of Texas Red, Somuchsugar, finished second in the restricted Miss Ohio Stakes on Aug. 8 to the Constitution filly Alexandria.

Like Texas Red, Hit It a Bomb (War Front) was a Breeders' Cup winner as an unbeaten juvenile, winning the 2015 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf by a neck from Airoforce (Colonel John). Laid off until August of his 3-year-old season, Hit It a Bomb returned with thirds in the G2 Solonaway Stakes and G3 Desmond Stakes and ended his career unplaced in the G1 Breeders' Cup Mile.

Sold to stand at Spendthrift Farm, Hit It a Bomb got a tepid reception from dirt-oriented breeders and has only 38 foals from his first crop. Some of them looked the part of quality racers at last year's sales of yearlings, as Makai brought $140,000 at the Keeneland September sale from Jordan Blair Racing, and Miss Costa Rica brought $95,000 at the same auction. Too many of the yearlings by Hit It a Bomb, however, did not receive the seal of approval from American trainers and pinhookers, with a sales median price of $12,000 from 23 sold.

One of those below the median price was Weston, who sold to Chris Drakos for $7,000 at the Keeneland September sale. Now the winner of the Best Pal Stakes, the bay has improved a lot, and he may not be the only one. Miss Costa Rica returned as a 2-year-old in training at the OBS March sale and sold for $200,000 in this year's strongly depressed market. She and a couple other well-regarded members of the first crop by Hit It a Bomb are reported to be training well and should make starts soon.

A winner on debut, Weston won the Best Pal after laying up with the pace the whole trip and was ahead by a neck at the wire, defeating Girther (Brody's Cause).

Weston is out of the stakes-placed Elke (Dixie Union), and the Hit It a Bomb gelding is the mare's first stakes winner. Elke has also produced the stakes-placed Miss Segovia (Paddy O'Prado) and two other winners of more than $100,000.

As the progeny of a high-class racer who showed his form on turf, gamblers will want to pay special attention to the stock by Hit It a Bomb when they get a chance to race on turf.

Both My Girl Red and Weston were the first winners by their sires, and now they have become the first stakes winners and graded stakes winners for those young stallions trying to secure a future in the breeding world of Kentucky. To secure a position in the stallion hierarchy for 2021, Hit It a Bomb and Texas Red needed to show success early, and they have done well to sire graded winners from relatively small crops very early in their first inning at stud.

The post Bloodlines Presented By California Thoroughbred Breeders Association: Texas Red, Hit It A Bomb Land Early Blows In Freshman Sire Race appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Second Chances: Moonlight d’Oro

In this continuing series, TDN’s Senior Editor Steve Sherack catches up with the connections of promising maidens to keep on your radar.

Moonlight d’Oro (f, 2, Medaglia d’Oro-Venetian Sonata, by Bernardini) stamped herself as a 2-year-old to watch after rolling home through traffic to finish a strong second as the 3-5 favorite in her five-furlong unveiling at Del Mar Aug. 2 (video).

Trained by Hall of Famer Richard Mandella, the $620,000 Keeneland September yearling was outsprinted early and ridden in eighth heading into the far turn. On the move with a wall of horses in front of her as they straightened, the MyRacehorse.com and Spendthrift Farm colorbearer showed plenty of maturity gamely splitting horses in the stretch and rallied smartly late, coming home a field-best final eighth in :12.75, finishing 1 1/4 lengths adrift Roll Up Mo Money (Uncle Mo). Moonlight d’Oro earned a 49 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort.

“We knew going into the race that breaking out of the gate wasn’t necessarily her strong suit and all day long I was kind of pacing around the house going, ‘Man, I wish this race was 5 1/2 or six furlongs,'” MyRacehorse’s Racing Operations and Owner Experience Manager Joe Mishak said.

“Once she didn’t catch a flyer, it really stacked against her going five furlongs. She settled and took plenty of dirt in her face though. It took her a quarter of a mile or three furlongs to figure out what was going on, but the way she did respond and work her way in between horses was very impressive. It’s so intimidating for even older horses to do that, let alone a 2-year-old that doesn’t have the greatest size, either. That was really encouraging, especially knowing she wants to go a longer route of ground.”

Bred in Kentucky by Stonehaven Steadings, Moonlight d’Oro is a half-sister to impressive debut winner Olive Branch (Speightstown), who finished third in her final career start in Saratoga’s GII Adirondack S. as a juvenile for the late Rick Violette. Moonlight d’Oro was produced by a winning full-sister to GSW Wilburn and SW & GSP La Appassionata; and a half-sister to GSW Beethoven (Sky Mesa).

As for what’s next Moonlight d’Oro, Mishak said, “At this stage of the game, it will probably be the end of the Del Mar meet. I’m sure there will be options there, whether it’s another maiden going six or 6 1/2 furlongs or even a race like the [GI Del Mar] Debutante [Sept. 6]. It’s a discussion of how she works the next few times and getting together with Richard to see where he thinks she might be best suited.”

Previous standouts featured in ‘Second Chances’ include: GI Runhappy Santa Anita Derby winner Honor A. P. (Honor Code), Royal Ascot G2 Norfolk S. runner-up Golden Pal (Uncle Mo), MGISW and ‘TDN Rising Star’ Paradise Woods (Union Rags), GSW Backyard Heaven (Tizway), MSW and ‘TDN Rising Star’ Gidu (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) and GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth S. runner-up Candy Tycoon (Twirling Candy).

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