Spendthrift Farm | Horse Racing Free Tips

Dec. 15: Bolt Determinedly Drawing Away

by Margaret Ransom

It's been a quiet week so far for the top stallions brawling it out to claim the title of 2022's leading first-crop sire, but the numbers for all three are likely to move with each having a number of runners over the next few days before the quiet of the Christmas holiday week sets in.

On Thursday, Bolt d'Oro's (Medaglia d'Oro) daughter Bullock captured a $25,000 maiden claiming event at Gulfstream Park by a length and picked up a check for $28,400. In doing so, the filly padded her sire's lead by $121,599 over his rivals with 16 days left on the 2022 calendar. With the win, Bolt d'Oro remains in front with total progeny earnings of $2,575,216, followed by Good Magic (Curlin) at $2,453,617 and Justify (Scat Daddy) with $2,383,960.

All three stallions have at least one entry on Friday, Bolt d'Oro showing the way with three runners. Two–Rocket and Roll and Communication Memo–are set to contest a $90,000 maiden event at Oaklawn Park carded as the afternoon's 6th; and Pinfire will contest a $55,000 maiden event at Fair Grounds, which is also the 6th race. Justify's Pappy Wolfe will tackle Bolt's two in Hot Springs, while Miss New York will represent Good Magic in the 8th at Gulfstream Park, an $80,000 optional claiming event worth $71,000.

Note that Japanese earnings are added every Sunday night, and there may be delayed reporting from other countries, which could postpone the final results in a very tight race into early January. We will also be providing a preview of 2-year-olds entered the next day in North America and beyond.

Current Earnings Standings through racing of Dec. 7:

1st—Bolt d'Oro, $2,575,216

2nd—Good Magic, $2,453,617

3rd—Justify, $2,383,960

The TDN sire lists contain full-dollar earnings of Northern Hemisphere foals winning anywhere in the world. To view the current standings updated overnight, click here.

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Class of 2017: Grading the Rising Stars

Each year, the team at the TDN designates horses early in their career who display enough promise to become an eventual graded-stakes winner. In 2017, a total of 80 horses racing on North American soil received the honor, but how many actually went on to achieve success?

The class is led by the achievements of its lone Eclipse Award winner, 2020 champion turf female Rushing Fall (More Than Ready). A 2-year-old in 2017, the half-sister to SW & MGSP Milam (Street Sense) earned her tag with a half-length defeat of fellow 2017 'Rising Star' classmate Daddy Is A Legend (Scat Daddy) at Belmont Park. Two starts later she would take the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and take the second-most votes behind Caledonia Road (Quality Road) to be champion 2-year-old filly. Rushing Fall raced only four time as a 3-year-old but earned 3 wins and a second, capping her season off with a score in the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup S. She added two more wins at the highest level as a 4-year-old in 2019 before retiring as a 5-year-old with an impressive final record of 15-11-3-0, six of those being grade ones in four consecutive years, and earnings of $2,893,000. Rushing Fall was purchased by M.V Magnier's Coolmore connections for $5.5 million out of the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Night of the Stars sale.

The most successful colt of the 2017 'Rising Star' class, Mckinzie (Street Sense) didn't debut until late in his 2-year-old year, taking a maiden special weight event at Santa Anita in late October before immediately making an impact with a win via disqualification over future MGISP Solomini (Curlin) in the GI Los Alamitos Cash Call Futurity. Though he missed the Triple Crown series as a 3-year-old, McKinzie returned in the fall of 2018 to take the GI Pennsylvania Derby and would finish the year with a win in the GI Malibu S. He would put up one more grade-one win in the 2019 Whitney S. before finishing his career in the fall of 2020 with a record of 18-8-6-0 and earnings of $3,473,360. McKinzie now stands at Gainesway and had his first weanling sell at this year's Keeneland November Sale.

Four more members of the class won multiple times at the grade-one level: Paradise Woods (Union Rags), current WinStar Farm stallion Yoshida (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}), Separationofpowers (Candy Ride {Arg}), and Moonshine Memories (Malibu Moon). Six other 'Rising Stars' of 2017 would go on to win once against grade-one company: Battle of Midway (Smart Strike), current Hill 'n' Dale Farms stallion Army Mule (Friesan Fire), Pavel (Creative Cause), Lady Ivanka (Tiz Wondeful), Mia Mischief (Into Mischief), and Sporting Chance (Tiznow).

Several notable horses, while not grade-one winners, would place at the level multiple times. Perhaps most notably is 2018 Canadian Horse of the Year and 2017 Canadian champion 2-year-old Wonder Gadot (Medaglia d'Oro) who took both the Queen's Plate S. and the Prince of Wales S. as part of the Canadian Triple Crown following a second-place finish to dual Eclipse Award winner Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) in the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks. She would be purchased for $2,000,000 by Japan's KI Farm at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Night of the Stars Sale.

The aforementioned Daddy Is A Legend would hit the board twice in grade-one company behind both Rushing Fall and 2019 champion turf female Uni (GB) (More Than Ready).

There were 16 'Rising Stars' in 2017 who would go on to achieve success in grade two or three events–led by millionaire and current Spendthrift Farm stallion Coal Front (Stay Thirsty).

In total, 28/80 horses who received the 'Rising Star' honor in 2017 would win a graded-stakes race, or 35%. By including those horses that placed in graded events, that number jumps to 49/80, of 61%. An additional nine horses would win at the stakes level and five would be stakes placed. Of the 80, only 17 failed to earn black type in their careers.

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Dec. 13: Despite Big Weekend For Justify, Bolt d’Oro Holds Big Lead

by Margaret Ransom

It was a busy weekend for one of the top three stallions battling it out for the crown as the best first-crop sire of 2022 as Justify was represented by a pair of winners and another two to hit the board, leaving Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro) and Good Magic (Curlin) winless from just a single runner each.

Justify's two winners on American soil both came on Sunday and started with Don Alberto Stable's homebred Alpha Bella, who graduated with a hard-fought victory by a head at Gulfstream Park, surviving a lengthy steward's inquiry/jockey's objection. She earned $36,000 for the win, which helped her sire close some ground on the top two. Several hundred miles to the north, Prove Right picked up a $32,400 check for his one-length victory in an allowance/optional claiming event at Laurel Park for trainer James Chapman and co-owner Stuart Tsujimoto. And in addition to Lap Star's third at at Nakayama in Japan on Saturday, Justify's daughter, Dona Sweat, also contributed to her sire's totals with her runner-up finish in a maiden event at Hanshin on Sunday.

Good Magic's only runner over the weekend was Delusively, who finished fourth at Golden Gate Fields on Saturday. Chiringo, Bolt d'Oro's runner on Sunday, was fourth behind Prove Right at Laurel.

Despite Justify's big weekend, he still trails Bolt d'Oro in total progeny earnings by $196,361, with Good Magic in second and behind by $92,499 with 20 days left in 2022. All three stallions will be represented by multiple runners this week.

Current Earnings Standings through racing of Dec. 7:

1st—Bolt d'Oro, $2,546,116

2nd—Good Magic, $2,446,087

3rd—Justify, $2,349,755

The TDN sire lists contain full-dollar earnings of Northern Hemisphere foals winning anywhere in the world. To view the current standings updated overnight, click here.

The post Dec. 13: Despite Big Weekend For Justify, Bolt d’Oro Holds Big Lead appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Dec 10: Olazabal Drives Green as Sire Bolt d’Oro Makes Cut

First-crop leading earner Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro) continues to stride forward. Atop TDN's board, the sire had a half-dozen chances on Friday to extend his lead over chasers Good Magic (Curlin) and Justify (Scat Daddy). Named for a Spanish golfing legend, 2-year-old colt Olazabal ratcheted up the pressure with a tee-to-green victory in the fifth race at Turfway Park.

Looking to move up in the standings, Justify found the rough when his filly Prove My Love did not make the cut in the race prior as an also-eligible. Across the Pacific though, $400,000 KEESEP sale acquisition Lap Star secured third in race 6 at Nakayama Racecourse in Japan.

That Florence, Kentucky birdie gave the Spendthrift sire an almost $100,000 lead into the weekend over Hill 'n' Dale's own. Both had draws on Saturday with Bolt d'Oro being represented at Los Alamitos in the seventh race with $475,000 KEESEP purchase, Navy Man; and Good Magic with first-timer and morning-line 5-2 favorite, Delusively in the eighth race at Golden Gate.

Sunday's final round of the weekend gives Coolmore America's Justify a pair of opportunities. The first could come on the dirt at Hanshin Racecourse in Japan when $425,000 KEESEP graduate Dona Sweat debuts in the fourth race. Trying to get up and down from the newly-aerated turf fringe at Gulfstream Park will be homebred Alpha Bella. The filly is still looking to break her maiden after three races on the dirt, as she starts for the Don Alberto Stable in the seventh.

Before heading to the clubhouse, the one-seed and three-seed will square off at Laurel Park in a 5 1/2 furlong allowance optional claiming sprint. That eighth race matches Bolt's $260,000 OBSMAR Chiringo against the Triple Crown winner's well-traveled son Prove Right, who is making his 10th start of his young career. Both ran in Aqueduct stakes last out, with the latter quadruple-bogeying the Grade II Remsen S. Dec. 3 to Good Magic's ace, Dubyuhnell.

Current Earnings Standings through racing of Dec. 9:

1st—Bolt d'Oro, $2,543,416

2nd—Good Magic, $2,448,337

3rd—Justify, $2,281,355

TDN sire lists contain full-dollar earnings of Northern Hemisphere foals winning anywhere in the world. To view the current standings updated overnight, click here. Take note, Japanese earnings are added every Sunday night, and there may be delayed reporting from other countries, which could postpone the final results in a very tight race into early January.

The post Dec 10: Olazabal Drives Green as Sire Bolt d’Oro Makes Cut appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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