TDN Rising Star | Horse Racing Free Tips

Friday’s Racing Insights: $1.2M Curlin Debuts at Gulfstream

6th-GP, $60K, Msw, 4yo/up, 7f, 3:05 p.m.
Fresh off a big win in last weekend's Colonel Liam (Liam's Map) in the GI Pegasus World Cup Turf, Robert and Lawana Lowe are represented here by PIGOTT (Curlin), who makes his belated debut for trainer Todd Pletcher. A $1.2 million KEESEP yearling purchase, the chestnut is a half-brother to GI Hollywood Derby winner Mo Town, who showed versatility winning the GII Remsen S. on the dirt. The trainer-jockey combo of Pletcher and Luis Saez have been deadly at the meet, connecting at a 30% clip. TJCIS PPs

9th-GP, $61K, $75K Opt. Clm., 3yo, 8f, 4:42 p.m.
WinStar Farm and Siena Farm's AMERICAN ICON (Gun Runner) marks his return to Gulfstream following a sparkling TDN Rising Star-earning 8 1/2-length win going seven furlongs Dec. 26. The $400,000 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Select yearling purchase has been firing bullets ever since that gaudy win, including his latest going four furlongs in :48 2/5 (1/16) at Palm Beach Downs Jan 28. Also returning off an impressive first-out win is Iron Works (Distorted Humor), who scored by four lengths while trying six panels in his Jan. 8 debut. A $550,000 OBSAPR purchase, the colt will be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., who partnered with Pletcher last weekend to win the GI Pegasus World Cup with Life Is Good (Into Mischief). TJCIS PPs

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Emmanuel Impresses in Tampa Two-Turn Test

6th-Tampa Bay Downs, $31,000, Alw (NW1X)/Opt. Clm ($75,000), 1-30, 3yo, 1m 40y, 1:40.24, ft, 4 1/2 lengths.
EMMANUEL (c, 3, More Than Ready–Hard Cloth, by Hard Spun) backed up the 'TDN Rising Star' moniker and his place at number five on T.D. Thornton's GI Kentucky Derby Top 12 Sunday as he handled a salty Tampa allowance field with aplomb. A 6 3/4-length debut scorer going a one-turn mile at Gulfstream Dec. 11, he was forced to scratch from a spot similar to this one Jan. 7 when he spiked a fever, but he was backed like a sure thing here at 1-5 for the red-hot Todd Pletcher barn. With locally based Pablo Morales in the irons, the bay wasted little time taking command but was kept off the fence through soft splits of :25.03 and :49.88. Fellow last-out Gulfstream graduate Glider (Quality Road) moved inside of the leader in upper stretch and looked like he might go right on by, but Morales was playing possum. He hadn't moved a muscle yet on Emmanuel to the eighth pole, but as soon as he hit the gas the chalk burst away and ran up the score with impressive ease to march home 4 1/2 lengths to the good. Glider was a clear-cut second ahead of Emmanuel's stablemate In the Union (Union Rags).

“Just a class horse. I felt like I had so many gears underneath me,” Morales said. “Every time I would just move a hair, he would take off a little bit more and just do it easily. He felt [Glider] coming on the inside down the lane, so I decided to give him a little bit of a hand ride and I could feel him extending more and more.

“He just did it easy–it felt like a workout for him. He acts like an old horse who has run 100 times and he gives you what you ask out of him. I'm thankful I was considered to ride him. It was a pleasure.”

Pletcher and WinStar Farm were of course represented on Saturday by fellow 'Rising Star' and impressive $3-million GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. winner Life Is Good (Into Mischief), while Siena Farm is co-owner of $750,000 GIII Southwest S. hero and fellow undefeated 3-year-old colt Newgrange (Violence). Produced by a half-sister to globetrotting MG1SW Hawkbill (Kitten's Joy) and GISW Free Drop Billy (Union Rags), Emmanuel has a 2-year-old Kitten's Joy half-brother who cost $120,000 at Keeneland September and a yearling full-sister. Unraced Hard Cloth, a granddaughter of GISW Serape (Fappiano), visited Munnings last term. Sales history: $350,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $50,400. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
O-WinStar Farm LLC & Siena Farm LLC; B-Helen K. Groves Revocable Trust (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher.

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First U.S. Runner for El Kabeir A ‘Rising Star’

Peter Brant's Salimah (Ire) (El Kabeir), the first American starter for her Yeomanstown Stud-based sire and former 'TDN Rising Star', matched that feat with a highly impressive debut success Saturday afternoon at Tampa Bay Downs.

As skinny as 4-5 in the latter stages of the wagering, the Peter Brant runner eased out all the way to 7-5 and was 13-10 when the gates flew. Off to a hesitant beginning beneath Samy Camacho, Salimah was allowed to find a rhythm and raced with just two of her rivals behind her as they hit the first turn. Quietly ridden through the middle stages and guided out into the clear, the filly–a gray like her sire–was consigned to a four- and five-wide run on the turn and was flushed out into the seven or eight path at the top of the lane. But continuing on undaunted, Salimah leveled off beautifully down the center of the course, hit the front under a full head of steam at the furlong grounds and widened with every stride to score by a good five lengths in a time that belies the strength of the peformance.

Bred by Yeomanstown Stud out of the stakes-winning Promised Money, a mare by the nursery's stalwart stallion Dark Angel (Ire), Salimah–a half-sister to the Group 3-placed Fivethousandtoone (Ire) (Frankel {GB})–cost Brant and company 180,000gns at the 2020 Tattersalls October Yearlings Sale, easily the most expensive of 60 first-crop yearlings by El Kabeir that season. A half-sister to SW Beldale Memory (Ire) (Camacho {GB), Promised Money is the dam of a 2-year-old colt by the outstanding Lope de Vega (Ire) and a yearling filly by Invincible Army (Ire).

El Kabeir cost Zayat Stables co-salestopping $250,000 at the 2013 OBS August Yearling Sale and earned his 'Rising Star' when hosing up by 10 3/4 lengths at second asking at Saratoga in 2014. He closed his freshman campaign with a game success in the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. and celebrated the turn of the calendar with a 4 3/4-length romp in the GIII Jerome S. at Aqueduct. He added a convincing score in the GIII Gotham S. and was also a good third to Frosted in the 2015 GI Wood Memorial S. His first crop to the races has now yielded 18 winners in nine jurisdictions, including Group 2 scorer Don Chicco (GB) and other stakes winner Masekela (Ire) and Sa Filonzana (Ire). El Kabeir is standing his fifth year at stud for a fee of €6,000.

10th-Tampa Bay Downs, $25,150, Msw, 1-22, 3yo, f, 1mT, 1:38.52, fm, 4 3/4 lengths.
SALIMAH (IRE) (f, 3, El Kabeir–Promised Money {Ire} {SW-Ire, SP-Eng}, by Dark Angel {Ire}) Sales history: 180,000gns Ylg '20 TATOCT. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $14,500. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG. Click for the free Equineline.com catalog-style pedigree.
O-Peter M Brant; B-Yeomanstown Stud (IRE); T-Chad C Brown.

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Millionaires Mandaloun, Midnight Bourbon Square Off In Louisiana

Juddmonte's 'TDN Rising Star' Mandaloun (Into Mischief) and Winchell Thoroughbreds' hard-knocking Midnight Bourbon (Tiznow) face each other for the fifth time in their career, each using Saturday's GIII Louisiana S. at a possible steppingstone to the $20-million G1 Saudi Cup in Riyadh Feb. 26.

Mandaloun makes his first start since a late-season injury derailed any hopes of making the Breeders' Cup at Del Mar. Winner of half of his six starts at three, the bay was upset by Midnight Bourbon in the GIII Lecomte S. on this program last year before turning the tables in the GII Risen Star S. the following month. A dull sixth behind Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow) and Midnight Bourbon in the GII Louisiana Derby, the strapping bay ran Medina Spirit (Protonico) to a half-length at odds of 26-1 in the GI Kentucky Derby and may yet be declared that race's official winner. Having passed on the rest of the Triple Crown, Mandaloun was the narrow winner of the June 13 Pegasus S. at Monmouth and was the chief beneficiary when Midnight Bourbon was interfered with in the GI TVG.com Haskell S., crossing the line a nose behind Hot Rod Charlie before being put up.

“Listen, I'm not going to tell you that he's working better than ever because he's always a very, very good work horse to begin with,” said trainer Brad Cox. “I think anybody that watched him train up to the Kentucky Derby could believe the way he ran the way he was training. He's definitely working as well as he was leading up to the Derby, or the Haskell, so we're in a good spot with him. I think this is a race that makes a lot of sense as far as getting back racing and seeing how it goes.”

Midnight Bourbon failed to recover from a slow start in the Run for the Roses, but finished a creditable sixth ahead of a runner-up effort in the GI Preakness S. Nailed by Essential Quality (Tapit) in the final strides of the GI Runhappy Travers S. in August, the bay was second to Hot Rod Charlie in the GI Pennsylvania Derby after some more stretch shenanigans and closed the season with a third as the favorite behind Maxfield (Street Sense) in the GI Clark S. back in Louisville Nov. 26. Blinkers go on for the first time this weekend.

“As good as he's been, I think there is more there,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “It doesn't look like he's finishing [his races] off. He's not exhausted when he comes back. I think we can get a little more out of him. There is the possibility that it makes him more aggressive and that he gets in too big of a hurry. The Louisiana S. is the perfect time to try it.”

Brad Cox also sends out the progressive Warrant (Constitution), last-start winner of the GIII Oklahoma Derby Sept. 26, while Chess Chief (Into Mischief) will be scratched in favor of a start in next weekend's GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational.

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