Abreu Catches Fire Post-Quarantine at Saratoga

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY–While the July portion of the Saratoga season was frustrating, a bunch of mostly wasted racing days for trainer Jorge Abreu, August has been far more rewarding.

With the bulk of his stable stuck in a quarantine after one of his unraced 2-year-old fillies tested positive for equine herpesvirus, Abreu had one win and two seconds from eight starts between July 16 and July 31. Since the quarantine was lifted, Abreu, 47, has four wins and three seconds and from 13 starters.

“All the horses were ready to go,” Abreu said. “I was just waiting for some races.”

Three of those victories came Friday, Aug. 13. In the capper of a productive three days, his fourth trip to the winner's circle was Sunday when Lawrence Goichman's Star Devine (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) won the $120,000 Galway S. on the turf.

Abreu smiled and nodded at the suggestion that the Friday triple made his meet.

“Oh yeah,” he said. “A lot of people only want to win one race here, nevermind three in a day.”

Star Devine, ridden for the first time by Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez drew the outside post in the field of 10 in her return to sprinting after finishing third in a 1 1/16-mile allowance. She was never too far back early in the 5 1/2-furlong Galway and Velazquez moved her into a challenging position on the turn. Some seven wide in the stretch, closer to the outer rail than the inside, she prevailed by a head at 7-1.

“I thought she was going to come from a little bit off the pace, but she broke so sharply and Johnny just took advantage of it,” Abreu said. “I knew she was going to run well. She was just looking for a little cut back. She's better going short than going long.”

Star Devine is likely to run next in the 6 1/2-furlong $500,000 Music City Sept. 12 at Kentucky Downs.

Abreu said the filly, whose illness led to the quarantine at Barn 86, stopping 26 of his 40 horses and all of Kenny McPeek's stable from running, has recovered and is on a farm in New York. She will eventually be sent to a farm in Florida.

“They were going to send her back,” he said. “And I said, 'I don't want her back until next year.'”

Price Talk (Kitten's Joy) started Abreu's big Friday–which yielded $106,700 in first-place money–with a victory by a neck in the second race, paying $5.80 as the favorite. In the fourth, Supply and Demand (Exaggerator) won by a nose and paid $13. Sue Ellen Mishkin (Mohaymen), a Gold Square LLC homebred, won the sixth by 7 1/4 lengths, paying $8.90.

Abreu said he was not surprised with Sue Ellen Mishkin's performance in the maiden special weight for New York-bred 2-year-olds.

“I liked that filly so much I was going to run her first time out in a stake,” he said. “I nominated her for a stake, but then we got in the quarantine and we couldn't run.”

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Star Devine Shines In Galway Stakes At Saratoga

Star Devine made a strong move from the outside and prevailed by a head in a blanket finish to capture Sunday's $120,000 Galway for 3-year-old fillies sprinting 5 1/2 furlongs on the Mellon turf at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Lawrence Goichman's Star Devine notched her first stakes victory, edging Illegal Smile to win for the second time in four career starts.

After a brief delay when Dr B broke through the gate and was re-loaded, Star Devine was sent away from the outermost post under Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez, stalking the pace in fifth position as Wink led the 10-horse field through the opening quarter-mile in :22.13 over firm going.

Out of the turn, Star Devine was kept four-wide with Wink, Mischiefful, and Illegal Smile to her inside with the half in :45.20. After briefly running eye-to-eye with Mischiefful, Star Devine pulled away and then gained on the pacesetter under Velazquez's right-handed encouragement.

Bye Bye made a strong bid up the rail and Illegal Smile, under jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., challenged to the wire, but Star Devine outkicked her rivals to complete the course in 1:02.37 for trainer Jorge Abreu.

“I had not much of a choice [but to go to the outside],” Velazquez said. “I tried to cover up behind Irad and he didn't go in there. Jorge said, 'I don't care where you are, I just don't want you on the lead.' We got a good post from the outside and I saved it for the end. That's the way it worked out.”

Star Devine was a debut winner in April at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, N.Y., before running a competitive fourth in the Grade 3 Soaring Softly in May at Belmont Park. The Irish-bred ran third when stretched out to 1 1/16 miles on the Belmont turf on June 17 but was shortened up for the second running of the Galway while having Velazquez in the irons for the first time.

“I thought she was going to come from a little bit off the pace, but she broke so sharply and Johnny just took advantage of it,” Abreu said. “I knew she was going to run well. She was just looking for a little cut back. She's better going short than going long.

“I was a little concerned around the turn because I thought he was going to take her back and I thought, 'Don't do that', but then she kicked in again,” Abreu added. “He gave her a good ride.”

Off at 7-1, Star Devine paid $17 on a $2 win bet. The Fastnet Rock filly increased her career bankroll to $127,040 and will now target the 6 1/2-furlong $500,000 Music City on September 12 at Kentucky Downs in Franklin, Ky.

“We're going to go to Kentucky Downs,” Abreu said. “I've had some good luck there and I like going there. We'll see how she comes out of it and that's where we'll aim.”

Illegal Smile, one of two entrants for trainer Wesley Ward along with Wink, bested Bye Bye by a head. It was the fourth time in eight starts [1-4-1] Illegal Smile has finished the runner-up.

“That was so close,” Ortiz, Jr. said. “It was a good race. My filly ran hard and gave me everything she had.”

Mischiefful, Tuscan Queen, Alwayz Late, Wink, Goin' Good, Li'l Tootsie, and Dr B completed the order of finish. What a Trick and main-track-only entrant Summer Brew scratched.

Live racing resumes Wednesday at Saratoga with a 10-race card featuring two stakes, starting with steeplechase action via the $150,000 Grade 1 Jonathan Sheppard in the opener at 1:05 p.m. Eastern. The $120,000 Bolton Landing for 2-year-old fillies going 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf is carded as Race 9 at 5:39 p.m.

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‘Rising Stars’ Set To Do Battle in Soaring Softly

Arguably the most interesting graded event being held this weekend not named the Preakness, Saturday's seven-furlong GIII Soaring Softly S. has attracted an evenly matched group of 11 sophomore fillies headed by a pair of 'TDN Rising Stars.'

Tobys Heart (Jack Milton) got the 'Rising Star' nod off a spectacular debut over 5 1/2 furlongs of the Matt Winn turf course at Churchill just shy of a year ago, overcoming a slow break to score by the better part of seven lengths. An easy winner of Saratoga's Bolton Landing S. in August, she was forced to miss the Breeders' Cup via injury and was sixth trying two turns for the first time in the Feb. 27 GIII Hercomesthebride S. at Gulfstream. The dark bay was back to her best in her latest, a rallying, half-length success in the TVG Limestone Turf Sprint S. at Keeneland Apr. 9, for which she earned a career-best 88 Beyer Speed Figure. Saturday's trip should hit her right between the eyes.

Star Devine (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) has the right to excel over further, but takes this next logical step off a 'Rising Star' debut at Aqueduct Apr. 8 in which she spotted her rivals a handful of lengths at the break, but sprinted hard in the final furlong and a half to win going away.

Contrarians could easily land on Hit The Woah (Vancouver {Aus}). The daughter of a precocious G1 Golden Slipper winner, the bay broke her maiden at second asking in a rained-off event at Aqueduct last November, defeating no fewer than five next-out winners in the process. Fourth at odds-on in the Jan. 2 Glitter Woman S. over the Gulfstream main track, the $150,000 KEESEP purchase came with a late run to be third, beaten a half-length, in the one-mile Sanibel Island S. in Hallandale Mar. 27. The slight cutback in trip could be to her advantage.

Invincible Gal (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) broke her maiden on debut over a turf sprint trip last August and makes her first appearance since finishing second in the Tepin S. over a mile and a sixteenth at the Big A in late November.

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Goichman Hoping For Some ‘Devine’ Intervention

When entries were taken the previous Friday for a six-furlong Aqueduct turf maiden scheduled for Thursday, Apr. 8, you can safely assume that owner Larry Goichman wasn't necessarily brimming with confidence. After all, he was pitching his 200,000gns Tattersalls October Book 1 purchase Star Devine (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) in against two well-meant runners from the all-conquering Chad Brown barn, a Godolphin homebred trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott and a second-timer from the always potent Christophe Clement shedrow.

Goichman approached the start with a can-do attitude.

“You've got to be a positive thinker,” he said. “You have to see the invisible and you've got to feel the intangible and then try to achieve the impossible.”

Going three-quarters of a mile leaves little room for error, but the 3-year-old filly's race was nearly over before it really started when she spotted her rivals several lengths at the start.

“When she kind of walked out of the gate, I'm saying, 'Are we going to be able to achieve the impossible.' Then she rounded the turn and you say, 'Wow!'”

Under a letter-perfect ride from Trevor McCarthy, the Jorge Abreu-trained Star Devine flashed home down the center of the Aqueduct turf course to score by a widening 1 1/2-length margin (video), besting Mott's Candy Jar (Candy Ride {Arg}) and Brown's late-running 11-10 chalk Dovima (Union Rags) to become a new 'TDN Rising Star.'

“We're so used to grinding it out, so when you see something that's really special, you're jaw drops,” said Goichman, the founder and president of the Stamford, Connecticut-based SGC Capital. “You can't be a pessimist. It's overcoming the difficult situations that sets apart those of us who are optimists from the pessimists. It's been fun.”

Another Tattersalls Buy For Ryan…

Star Devine was acquired from the draft of Eddie and Eimear Irwin's Marlhill House Stud and caught the eye of noted bloodstock agent Mike Ryan, whose other Tattersalls October purchases in the last few years–on behalf of Seth Klarman–include 'Rising Star' Newspaperofrecord (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) and fellow Grade I winners Digital Age (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and Domestic Spending (GB) (Kingman {GB}), to name a few.

“I am a very big fan [of Fastnet Rock], you don't see too many of them here, and certainly it's a turf family. She's out of a Galileo mare, so if there was ever a recipe for a great turf horse, that's it.”

Star Devine was bred by Rockhart Trading Ltd. and is the second foal from Stars At Night (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), a full-sister to Irish MGSP Exemplar (Ire) and a half-sister to Blue Bunting (Dynaformer), winner of the G1 QIPCO 1000 Guineas, G1 Darley Irish Oaks and G1 Yorkshire Oaks en route to champion 3-year-old filly honors in England in 2011. Stars At Night was purchased by Mick Flanagan for 350,000gns in foal to Mastercraftsman (Ire) at the 2016 Tattersalls December mares sale.

“She was Mike Ryan's first choice,” he continued. “We were talking on the phone and I loved the pictures I saw of her, I loved her walk. Mike is an excellent judge of horses. I love Mike and when he gives his best judgment, 90% of the time he's right on. Just because a horse walks really well–and I loved the way she walked–doesn't mean they can run at all. Mike said, 'This is the one for you,' and I was actually lucky, because that was my last bid. She could have belonged to somebody else.”

Going Back To The Well…

Goichman is no stranger to European bloodlines and knew soon after getting into the business in 1989 that he wanted to cast his net as far and wide as possible to afford him the maximum opportunity for success.

“I realized that I didn't have the pedigrees that I really wanted, so I began to realize that there are a lot of interesting pedigrees available in Europe,” he said. “So, for about five years, I kept going back there and kept buying horses.”

The first mare he acquired from Europe was the unraced Juddmonte Farms-bred Quiet Rumour (Alleged), who Goichman imported from France in 1997. The mare's second foal for the breeder was Beebe Lake (Grand Slam), a stakes winner of better than $195,000. Goichman later bred Quiet Rumour to another son of Gone West–Elusive Quality–and the resulting foal was Elusive Rumour, whose daughter Myhartblongstodady (Scat Daddy) is a two-time stakes winner in New York-bred company and the current star of Goichman's racing operation.

The same year, Goichman struck a deal to purchase the American-bred Baydon Belle (Al Nasr {Fr}), an unplaced half-sister to Sheikh Mohammed's SW & GSP Airport (Lear Fan) from the family of champion Stravinsky (Nureyev), European SW/GSP and American GISP Moscow Ballet (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) and Group 1-winning sprinter Dowsing (Riverman). Covered by Smoke Glacken in her third trip to a U.S. breeding shed, she produced Read the Footnotes, a $320,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic juvenile purchase by Klaravich Stables who won the GII Remsen S. and GIII Nashua S. at two and the GII Fountain of Youth S. at three in 2004. Baydon Belle is also responsible for the stakes-winning Dean Henry (Empire Maker), whose produce includes the stakes-placed Bonita Cat (Tale of the Cat).

Goichman employed the services of John Walsh Bloodstock to buy Bubbling Heights (Fr) (Darshaan {GB}) for 22,000gns in foal to Gold Away (Ire) at the 2000 Tattersalls December Mares sale. She would go on to become the dam of Goichman's talented New York-bred turf distaffer J'ray (Distant View), a four-time winner at the graded level and close to $970,000 earner and herself the dam of two-time black-type winner General Jack (Giant's Causeway).

In 2002, Goichman bought Elhasna (Danzig), a full-sister to Dayjur and a half to MGISW Maplejinsky (Nijinsky II) (dam of champion Sky Beauty), for $92,000 from the Shadwell consignment at Keeneland January. That mare's daughter Shea d'Lady (Crafty Prospector) has gone on to produce MSW Kathryn the Wise (Uncle Mo), whose first foal is a colt by American Pharoah that was born in Kentucky Mar. 5.

Goichman explained his simplistic approach.

“Nothing good falls off an empty wagon, and if a page is not a good wagon, you're not going to be successful,” he said. “You look at the opportunity you have with those European pedigrees and there are years and years of history. We are lucky in the sense that over in Europe, it's hard to keep and race a good horse, because the purses are so lousy. In this country, a lot of people are happy to keep a good racehorse and keep a good broodmare.

He continued, “Two of my better mares came from Juddmonte reductions. [Buying out of reductions] is no longer a secret. People have great success with it. I am a devotee of Tesio and I do focus on what I am doing with my pedigrees. You buy a mare over there and end up with a horse like Read the Footnotes and Dean Henry.”

What To Do For An Encore?…

Goichman said there is most likely a stakes race in Star Devine's near future.

“We're really just in the talking stage, but we think there is an opportunity,” he said. “The [seven-furlong GIII] Soaring Softly S. [May 15 at Belmont] may be the next step. It's about a month timing-wise, it'd give her a chance to stretch her legs and go a bit further. So that's what we're thinking about right now. It's the next logical step and it's right in her back yard.”

Can Star Devine be the next feather in the cap of the eternally optimistic Larry Goichman?

“Time will tell. I hope so, I really do. I hope to be having another conversation after hoisting a trophy!”

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