Tag: TDN Rising Star

Godolphin Colt Becomes Dubawi’s 35th TDN Rising Star

Making his debut in the same seven-furlong Leicester novice contest won 12 months ago by his smart stablemate Naval Power (GB) (Teofilo {Ire}), Godolphin's Great Truth (GB) (Dubawi {Ire})–Beyond Reason {Ire}, by Australia {GB}) created a big impression to become the operation's latest TDN Rising Star. Content to track the leading pair throughout the strongly-run early stages, the Charlie Appleby-trained 8-11 favourite loomed on the front end under James Doyle two out as he received a bump from the front-running Paladin (Ire) (Justify).

Striding on from there, the first foal out of the G2 Prix du Calvados and G3 Prix Six Perfections-winning dam veered right through greenness but still managed to power to a 5 1/2-length success from fellow newcomer Love You Darling (GB) (Land Force {Ire}), with 1 1/4 lengths back to the useful yardstick Phone Tag (GB) (Havana Grey {GB}) in third. Great Truth is the 35th TDN Rising Star for his outstanding sire in a list including Zarak (Fr), Coronet (GB), Benbatl (GB), Wild Illusion (GB), Too Darn Hot (GB), In Italian (GB) and Eldar Eldarov (GB).

“I sat on him last week and he showed that he had ability in his work,” Doyle said. “He was quite green cantering to post today and he took his eye off the ball and had a bit of a wander once he got to the front, but he responded good. That will come with experience and I couldn't be happier. Beyond Reason was a handy mare for us and it'll be interesting to see how far he'll get, as he's quite a reactive horse. I didn't expect him to quicken up quite as much as he did, as at home he had been going through his gears gradually but was probably just sleeping a bit.”

Pedigree Notes

Beyond Reason, a classy juvenile who was also third in the G2 Cape Verdi as a 4-year-old, also has a yearling full-brother to the winner and a colt foal by Lope De Vega (Ire). She is out of No Explaining (Ire) (Azamour {Ire}) who was successful in the GIII Gallorette H. and was third in the GII Dance Smartly S. and GII Lake George S. The family includes the GII American H. scorer Bayamo (Ire) (Valanour {Ire}), who was also runner-up in the GI Eddie Read H. and GI Charles Whittingham Memorial H.

1st-Leicester, £9,000, Novice, 6-29, 2yo, 7fT, 1:24.35, gd.
GREAT TRUTH (GB), c, 2, by Dubawi (Ire)
     1st Dam: Beyond Reason (Ire) (MGSW-Fr, GSP-UAE, $257,805), by Australia (GB)
     2nd Dam: No Explaining (Ire), by Azamour (Ire)
     3rd Dam: Claustra (Fr), by Green Desert
Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $6,141. O/B-Godolphin (GB); T-Charlie Appleby. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

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The Week In Review: The Legend Of ‘Red’-Trainer Saddles Winner At Age 96

Trainer Robert “Red” McKenzie doesn't get much ink south of the border here in the States, but he is a living legend on the western Canada racing circuit. With practically zero fanfare or notice, McKenzie added to his impressive list of lifetime accomplishments Friday night when he saddled Entitled Star (Roi Charmant), a 10-year-old mare he owns, to a 25-1 upset victory in a $4,000 claimer in the second race at Century Mile in Edmonton.

The win was significant because McKenzie is 96 years old.

The feat could very well be a record in Canada. It's shy, however, of what is anecdotally credited as the North American record for oldest trainer to win a Thoroughbred race. That honor goes to Jerry Bozzo, who saddled a winner on Oct. 11, 2018, at Gulfstream Park West, just two weeks before his 98th birthday. Bozzo died one month after winning that final race.

The prior record belonged to trainer Noble Threewitt, who visited the Santa Anita winner's circle about two months after celebrating his 95th birthday in 2006. He died in 2010 at age 99.

Entitled Star, who sports a robust 13-for-80 lifetime mark, was ridden by apprentice jockey Meagan Fraser. The two have a connection: Entitled Star was responsible for giving Fraser her first career win last September at Century Mile.

McKenzie has started two horses for a combined five starts this year, and the victory was his first of the season. Equibase credits him with 623 lifetime victories, but that database only goes back to 1976, when McKenzie was closing in on age 50 and already had four successful decades of horsemanship under his belt. Numerous published reports credit him with at least 1,000 more victories dating back to the 1940s.

An October 2022 profile by Curtis Stock in Canadian Thoroughbred noted that McKenzie is up at 5:30 a.m. every morning and “still pedals his bicycle around the Century Mile backstretch, acting like a guy half his age.”

McKenzie started getting on horses in 1937 at age 10 at an Edmonton riding academy. By 13 he had his first bush-track mounts on what was then known as western Canada's long-since-defunct “B” circuit of small-town half-milers and county fairs. By 17, he was the B circuit's leading jockey with 87 victories, scoring in stakes like the Red Deer Derby (twice) and Rimbey Derby.

With a knack for winning races in bunches while tacking just 93 pounds, McKenzie soon graduated to the “A” tracks of the old Western Canada Association. But young Red's body began sprouting faster than his career, and he outgrew riding after 300 wins as a jockey. Not wanting to go through the rigors of reducing, he turned to training, which he had already begun learning to do long before he got his license.

McKenzie cultivated a winning touch with everything from 2-year-olds to older horses, from claimers to stakes, gaining an advantage by shoeing his own trainees. Over the decades he won the Canadian, Saskatchewan, and Alberta Derbies, and although he sometimes ventured to the higher-profile Toronto tracks or occasionally to Northern California or New York with the right horse, western Canada was his home. His best horse was Grandin Park, an Alberta-bred who campaigned from 1972 through 1980, amassing a 29-17-14 record from 116 starts.

TDN could not reach McKenzie prior to deadline for this story to ask his thoughts on winning a race at age 96.

But 15 years ago, when McKenzie was 81, he told Horse Racing Alberta in a video interview, “Age is just a number. If you've got nothin' to do, you'll get old awful fast. Horses can keep you young, I think.”

Geaux Rocket Ride | Benoit Photo

On the western horizon…

With the reported injury to Two Phil's (Hard Spun), let's not forget the talent in the sophomore division currently parked out west. Three horses who had to be withdrawn from Kentucky Derby consideration because of fevers earlier in the spring are at various stages in getting back on track.

Geaux Rocket Ride (Candy Ride {Arg}) won the Affirmed S. at Santa Anita back on June 4. He's being aimed for the Haskell.

Skinner (Curlin), who was third in the GI Santa Anita Derby, will reportedly contest the July 8 Los Alamitos Derby.

Practical Move (Practical Joke), who beat both Geaux Rocket Ride and Skinner at Santa Anita, has yet to post a published workout since being scratched two days before the Derby.

There's also early-season phenom and 2-for-2 'TDN Rising Star' Arabian Knight (Uncle Mo), who is unraced since winning the Jan. 28 GIII Southwest S. He also appears Haskell-bound, with five published works since May 29 at Santa Anita, the last two of them bullet moves.

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Kingman’s TDN Rising Star Age Of Kings Wins The Jersey

Things hadn't gone smoothly for Westerberg, Magnier, Tabor, Smith and Brant's TDN Rising Star Age Of Kings (Ire) (Kingman {GB}–Turret Rocks {Ire}, by Fastnet Rock {Aus}) since last summer, but it finally clicked into place for the talented Ballydoyle second-string and Wayne Lordan in Saturday's G3 Jersey S. at Royal Ascot. In the shadow of Ryan Moore's choice The Antarctic (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), the 1.1million gns Book 1 graduate was nevertheless let go at a surprising 22-1 given that Aidan O'Brien had run him first time up this season in the G1 Irish 2000 Guineas.

Placed close to the strong early pace set by the 11-4 favourite Covey (GB) (Frankel {GB}), the son of the G2 May Hill S. winner Turret Rocks was committed inside the two and had to fight to the line as the closers came. Finding it in time, he prevailed by a length and a neck from fellow outsiders Zoology (GB) (Zoustar {Aus}) and Streets Of Gold (Ire) (Havana Gold {Ire}) respectively to provide his trainer with an 85th Royal winner and deliver a 12th Royal Ascot trainer's title.

 

Granted his TDN Rising Star tag following his emphatic Curragh conditions win at the beginning of last June, Age Of Kings had come here days later to contest the G2 Coventry S. and was seventh before returning to Kildare to be a close fourth in the G2 Railway S. on his third start in 25 days. Whether that busy workload cost him afterwards is hard to say, but it was significant that he was the stable's chosen representative in Leopardstown's G3 Tyros S. in July which is always a marker of merit when it comes to Ballydoyle's juveniles. Only third there before disappearing off the radar, he was a surprise member of the line-up for the Irish Guineas and although he was 10th he was beaten less than eight lengths by Paddington (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}).

“Wayne kept it uncomplicated and said he'd get a mile if we wanted,” O'Brien said. “The Guineas was only his first run of the year, it was a very good run and he came forward from that.” Lordan added, “At two he had a few runs and maybe got a bit weak, but he's come back and he's stepped forward nicely, even in his work.”

Trainer James Ferguson said of Zoology, “They went very hard and, in the mid-stage of the race, you just think he's struggling to keep up but they've all come back and he's stayed on very well. It's a tough race this and the fast ground certainly suited him. He has done absolutely nothing wrong and ran a super race in the Greenham, when he obviously didn't like the ground. Back on a sounder surface, he's run an absolute belter of a race and I've got very high hopes for this horse. I think he could be a superstar.”

Streets Of Gold's trainer Eve Johnson Houghton said, “That's probably the hardest race he has run in and, on Timeform figures, that's probably the highest he's ever run to. He is in the Bunbury Cup, we might go there or we might try to find an easy race to win–we will see.”

Pedigree Notes
Age Of Kings is the first foal out of the aforementioned Turret Rocks, who also took the G3 Blue Wind S. and G3 Meld S. and was runner-up in the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac and third in the G1 Pretty Polly S. for Jim Bolger. She is a half-sister to Beyond Thankful (Ire) (Whipper), who captured the G3 Newcastle Cup and was second in the G3 Killavullan S, while this is also the family of the G2 Fuji TV Sho Spring S. winner and G1 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) third Galore Creek (Jpn) (Kinshasa no Kiseki {Aus}), the G3 Stanerra S. winner Cimeara (Ire) (Vocalised) and her 2-year-old full-sister Comhra (Ire) who was third in last month's G1 Irish 1000 Guineas. Turret Rocks, who is also related to the brilliant Goldikova (Ire) (Anabaa), has the 2-year-old colt by Too Darn Hot (GB) who was a 600,000gns purchase by David Redvers at last year's Book 1 Sale. Named Trafalgar Square (Ire), he is followed by a yearling full-brother to Age Of Kings.

Saturday, Royal Ascot, Britain
JERSEY S.-G3, £150,000, Ascot, 6-24, 3yo, 7fT, 1:26.93, g/f.
1–AGE OF KINGS (IRE), 129, c, 3, by Kingman (GB)
1st Dam: Turret Rocks (Ire) (MGSW & G1SP-Ire, GSW-Eng & G1SP-Fr, $396,000), by Fastnet Rock (Aus)
2nd Dam: Beyond Compare (Ire), by Galileo (Ire)
3rd Dam: Gold Bust (GB), by Nashwan
1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN; 1ST GROUP WIN. (1,100,000gns Ylg '21 TATOCT). O-Westerberg, Magnier, Tabor, Smith & Brant; B-Farmleigh Bloodstock Ltd (IRE); T-Aidan O'Brien; J-Wayne Lordan. £85,065. Lifetime Record: GSP-Ire, 7-2-1-1, $136,790. Werk Nick Rating: A. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Zoology (GB), 129, c, 3, Zoustar (Aus)–Peach Melba (GB), by Dream Ahead. 1ST BLACK TYPE; 1ST GROUP BLACK TYPE. (90,000gns Wlg '20 TATFOA). O-Qatar Racing Ltd; B-R Kent & Executors of Lady Lonsdale (GB); T-James Ferguson. £32,250.
3–Streets Of Gold (Ire), 129, c, 3, Havana Gold (Ire)–Truly Honoured (GB), by Frankel (GB). 1ST GROUP BLACK TYPE. (£27,000 Ylg '21 TATIRY). O-J Allison & G C Stevens; B-Vimal & Gillian Khosla (IRE); T-Eve Johnson Houghton. £16,140.
Margins: 1, NK, NK. Odds: 22.00, 22.00, 28.00.
Also Ran: Holloway Boy (GB), Olivia Maralda (Ire), Holguin (GB), Flight Plan (GB), Thunderbear (Ire), Covey (GB), Alexander John (Ire), Enfjaar (Ire), Mysterious Night (Ire), The Antarctic (Ire), Empty Metaphor (Ire), Quar Shamar (Ger).

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Coronation Glory For Siyouni’s TDN Rising Star Tahiyra

Coming through in a highly tactical renewal of the G1 Coronation S. at Royal Ascot on Friday, The Aga Khan's TDN Rising Star Tahiyra (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}–Tarana {Ire}, by Cape Cross {Ire}) showed her class to widen her portfolio which already included an Irish 1000 Guineas and Moyglare Stud S. Sent off the 8-13 favourite to bridge a 45-year gap for Dermot Weld in this prestige event, the half-sister to Rosewell House's recent superstar Tarnawa (Ire) (Shamardal) was instantly faced with adversity and a conundrum for Chris Hayes as she missed the break a fraction and ended up in rear off the steady pace.

With Ryan Moore content to saunter in front on Meditate (Ire) (No Nay Never), Hayes opted to sit chilly at the back to save his mount's acceleration as he had with the same target to aim at in the Moyglare in very different conditions back in September. Unleashing a 11.59 penultimate split down the outer as she and Sounds Of Heaven (GB) (Kingman {GB}) made a sandwich of Remarquee (GB) (Kingman {GB}) approaching the furlong pole, Tahiyra had forged ahead by the time the latter was in full flight. Despite Remarquee's eye-catching flourish, a length separated them at the line with a head back to Sounds Of Heaven in third.

There was an inquiry, but the result remained unaltered and Siyouni had his notable St James's Palace-Coronation double. “I can't wait to ride this filly in a truly-run mile race and see what she is really capable of,” Hayes said in the immediate aftermath. “She slipped coming out of the gates, it was Plan B and it was a slow pace so she did well considering she was running at a quickening pace. I knew this filly could over-race and that I could be there too soon, so it wasn't going to be straightforward and I just had to ride her like she was the best filly and the fastest in the field.”

 

For Weld, who saddled Sutton Place to win this in an entirely different era as a young man at the end of his twenties in 1978, this 18th Royal success was proof of the unending expertise of the septuagenarian. “I have been very fortunate in life,” he said. “She has brilliant speed and I suppose she's learning more about racing and getting more professional. I thought she won fair and square. Her sister was a brilliant racemare and this one is equally good. They are different sorts, this one has more pace. I enjoy so much training these fillies, I know the families and do my best to train them.”

Weld is set on giving Tahiyra a break now, after three tough encounters since the start of last month and having openly expressed that Newmarket's 1000 Guineas was coming a touch too soon. “I think the plan always was to give her a nice holiday, a nice break,” he added. “She's had a very busy spring and early summer and we will look at a programme for her in the autumn.”

While Remarquee lost some momentum when checked at the furlong pole, her trainer Ralph Beckett was not feeling unlucky. “She has run her legs off today,” he said. “By the time she did get rolling, the gap was closing–you don't see many of ours with a sheepskin noseband and she wears it because she is still green and has not had that much racing. I am not disappointed with her in the slightest. The Guineas was a non-event–she had only had two starts and is a slow learner! She will go for the Falmouth next, I think that will suit.”

Sounds Of Heaven's jockey Ronan Whelan said, “It was a great run. On paper it looked straightforward from my point of view and thankfully the race went like that. My filly has run a belter and I think there is more to come from her. She is not the finished article yet. She will be better as the year goes on.”

Pedigree Notes
Tahiyra's dam is the Listed Oyster S. and Listed Martin Malony S. winner and G3 Curragh Cup-placed Tarana, whose first foal was the aforementioned triple top-level scorer and Breeders' Cup Turf heroine Tarnawa. The second dam Tarakala (Ire) (Dr Fong) captured the Listed Galtres S. and was third in the G3 Noblesse S. and is related to the G1 Prix Royal-Oak hero and G1 Prix du Cadran runner-up Tiraaz (Lear Fan), the G1 Phoenix S. heroine Damson (Ire) (Entrepreneur {GB}) who took the G2 Queen Mary S. at this meeting in 2004 and that year's G3 Norfolk S. winner Blue Dakota (Ire) (Namid {GB}). Also connected to the G1 Prix Morny-winning sire Arcano (Ire) (Oasis Dream {GB}) and the G1 Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp heroine Gilt Edge Girl (GB) (Monsieur Bond {Ire}), Tarana has an exciting prospect in the 2-year-old colt Tarafi (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) and a yearling filly by Lope De Vega (Ire).

Friday, Royal Ascot, Britain
CORONATION S.-G1, £600,000, Ascot, 6-23, 3yo, f, 7f 213yT, 1:41.69, g/f.
1–TAHIYRA (IRE), 128, f, 3, by Siyouni (Fr)
1st Dam: Tarana (Ire) (MSW & GSP-Ire, $141,525), by Cape Cross (Ire)
2nd Dam: Tarakala (Ire), by Dr Fong
3rd Dam: Tarakana, by Shahrastani
O-H H The Aga Khan; B-H H The Aga Khan's Studs SC (IRE); T-Dermot Weld; J-Chris Hayes. £340,260. Lifetime Record: MG1SW-Ire, 5-4-1-0, $1,125,915. *1/2 to Tarnawa (Ire) (Shamardal), MG1SW-Fr, GISW-US, MGSW & G1SP-Ire, $4,508,464. Werk Nick Rating: A+++ *Triple Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Remarquee (GB), 128, f, 3, Kingman (GB)–Regardez (GB), by Champs Elysees (GB). 1ST GROUP 1 BLACK TYPE. O-J H Richmond-Watson; B-Lawn Stud (GB); T-Ralph Beckett. £129,000.
3–Sounds Of Heaven (GB), 128, f, 3, Kingman (GB)–Ring The Bell (Ire), by Galileo (Ire). 1ST GROUP BLACK TYPE; 1ST GROUP 1 BLACK TYPE. (650,000gns Ylg '21 TATOCT). O-Craig Bernick & John Camilleri; B-Fairway Thoroughbreds Pty Ltd (GB); T-Jessica Harrington. £64,560.
Margins: 1, HD, 1. Odds: 0.62, 25.00, 16.00.
Also Ran: Meditate (Ire), Queen For You (Ire), Mammas Girl (GB). Scratched: Comhra (Ire).

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