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Ruler Of The World’s La Petite Coco Back With A Bang In Pretty Polly

Highlighting a stellar training performance by Paddy Twomey, Team Valor's G2 Blandford S. winner La Petite Coco (Ire) (Ruler Of The World {Ire}–La Petite Virginia {Ger}, by Konigstiger {Ger}) led home My Astra (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) and stablemate Rosscarbery (Ger) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) on her seasonal debut in Sunday's G1 Alwasmiyah Pretty Polly S. at The Curragh. Let go at 9-1 with the punters' confidence shaky, the bay tracked the clear leading pair early with Billy Lee showing the same unerring sense of timing he had in the Listed Dash here a day earlier. In front with 1 1/2 furlongs remaining, she pulled out extra to deny the William Haggas-trained 11-4 favourite My Astra by half a length, with the progressive G3 Munster Oaks winner Rosscarbery 1 1/4 lengths away in third. In a later twist, the Cashel-based Twomey was denied a dream result as Rosscarbery was disqualified due to a discrepancy in the weighing-in procedure of jockey Wayne Lordan and the fourth-placed Thunder Kiss (Ire) (Night of Thunder {Ire}) was moved up. “She's a cool customer and takes everything in her stride,” Twomey said of the winner. “She's a joy to have and I'm lucky to have her. She's never put a foot wrong–she's tough and she's doing it herself.”

Trained on her first two starts by Andrew Kinirons, La Petite Coco's initial foray for this stable resulted in a 4 1/4-length defeat of the subsequent G1 Irish 1000 Guineas fourth Belle Image (Ire) (Kodi Bear {Ire}) over a mile at Killarney last May and her next stop happened to be her last defeat as she was second in the 10-furlong Listed Naas Oaks Trial the following month. After a return confidence-boosting win at Killarney in a conditions event over 11 furlongs in July, she registered a 5 1/2-length success in Cork's G3 Give Thanks S. in August before inching out Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in the Blandford here in September, where last year's Pretty Polly heroine Thundering Nights (Ire) (Night of Thunder {Ire}) was three lengths back in third. “The plan was to start mid-season and I didn't think it was outrageous giving her an Arc entry the other day,” Twomey added. “The Yorkshire Oaks, the [QICPO Champions] Fillies and Mares at Ascot and the Breeders' Cup are on her agenda, as a mile and a half is her optimum.”

Barry Irwin was keen to praise Twomey. “He's a fantastic trainer. When we bought the filly we sent her directly to Paddy, we had good hopes but we didn't know that she was this good,” he said. “Today I thought that if she really is as good as he thinks we could win it but I can't believe she hung in there, at the end she was running on fumes. She's a gutsy horse. I've backed off from racing in the United States, I'm not happy with it there. I think it will be getting better, but we've had some issues with guys taking an edge. I have a lot more faith in what's going on here and it's more fun. I've been coming here since 1971, raced a few horses and we've decided to send a few more over here. Our partners enjoy it, I've got 12 people here right now on a trip. We went to Paddy's yesterday and now we're going to England and France. I'm trying to promote to have more racing over here. I've just a few with Paddy but I'm sure we'll have more.”

William Haggas said of My Astra, who had booked her ticket with a 12-length success in Ayr's Listed Rothesay S. and proved to be one of the few who came from far back to get involved in a finish during the weekend, “She ran a great race and was probably beaten by a better one. She was a little bit wide, but I think she needs a bit of space. I didn't see her coming at Ayr and she bolted up, so I wanted to see her confirm that and she did. She wants sloshing soft and Danny [Tudhope] said this is a bit tacky. I think we'll drop Purplepay (Fr) (Zarak {Fr}) back to a mile and try and find a group one race race for her, but it might be a bit difficult. She has penalties now she's won a group two.”

Rosscarbery's disqualification came as a result of Lordan weighing in five pounds light and it is believed that a malfunction of the scales was to blame. Twomey said, “The clerk of the scales told Wayne that he was five pounds too heavy, so he made him take down the saddle and take out the weights and then get back on the scales. He did that and the clerk of the scales then cleared him. He weighed him out with the correct weight and sent him out to the race. Then when he came back the clerk of the scales told him he was five pounds light. I brought the saddle from the weighing room to the filly and put it on. I was under pressure for time, as I had two runners and they took a lot of time messing around, putting in weight and taking out weight. The same saddle that went out came back in and I guess we will have to appeal it. It's a glitch with the clerk of the scales, it's an issue with the IHRB and I'd say my owner won't be impressed.”

Pedigree Notes:

La Petite Coco is the first runner from three live foals out of the unraced La Petite Virginia, who is a half-sister to the G1 Deutsches Derby hero Lavirco (Ger) (Konigsstuhl {Ger}) and his G2 Deutsches St Leger-winning full-brother Laveron (Ger) who was also third in the domestic Derby. La Petite Virginia is out of La Virginia (Ger) (Surumu {Ger}), who is also the second dam of the G3 Badener Stutenpreis winner and G1 Premio Lydia Tesio runner-up Lacy (Ger) (Authorized {Ire}) and the G3 Preis des Winterfavoriten winner Langtang (Ger) (Campanologist).

La Virginia's group 3-winning full-sister La Colorada (Ger) produced the triple group 1-winning champion and leading sire Lomitas (GB), with this being the dam line of Gestut Fahrhof's blue hen Love In (GB) whose descendants include another Deutsches Derby hero in Lagunas (GB), the leading sire Lord of England (Ger) and the G1 Prix de l'Opera heroine Lady Marian (Ger) (Nayef). La Petite Virginia also has the unraced 2-year-old filly La Petite Sissi (Ire) (Ivawood {Ire}).

Sunday, The Curragh, Ireland
ALWASMIYAH PRETTY POLLY-G1, €300,000, Curragh, 6-26, 3yo/up, f/m, 10fT, 2:13.86, yl.
1–LA PETITE COCO (IRE), 138, f, 4, by Ruler Of The World (Ire)
1st Dam: La Petite Virginia (Ger), by Konigstiger (Ger)
2nd Dam: La Virginia (Ger), by Surumu (Ger)
3rd Dam: La Dorada (Ire), by Kronzeuge (Fr)
1ST GROUP 1 WIN. O-Team Valor International LLC; B-Mr B Schone (IRE); T-Paddy Twomey; J-Billy Lee. €180,000. Lifetime Record: 8-5-1-0, $396,444. Werk Nick Rating: A+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–My Astra (Ire), 138, f, 4, Lope de Vega (Ire)–My Titania (Ire), by Sea the Stars (Ire).
1ST GROUP BLACK TYPE, 1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. O/B-Sunderland Holding Inc (IRE); T-William Haggas. €60,000.
3–Thunder Kiss (Ire), 138, m, 5, Night of Thunder (Ire)–Desert Snow (GB), by Teofilo (Ire).
1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. O/B-Newtown Anner Stud (IRE); T-Ger Lyons. €15,000.
Margins: HF, 1 1/4, 1 1/4. Odds: 9.00, 2.75, 20.00.
Also Ran: Concert Hall (Ire), Purplepay (Fr), Dreamloper (Ire), Lyrical Poetry (Ire), Tranquil Lady (Ire), *Rosscarbery (Ger). Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
*Rosscarbery finished third, but was disqualified and placed last.

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Upstart Filly Runs To The Money, ‘Rising Star’ Honors

Sent off a mortal lock at odds of 2-5, Team Valor International's Green Up (Upstart) improved off a big-figure debut second for previous connections and galloped her six overmatched rivals into the ground, earning 'TDN Rising Star' honors for a 6 3/4-length tour-de-force.

Having dramatically outrun odds of 25-1 to be runner-up at Churchill Downs last May behind the subsequently stakes-placed Ontheonesandtwos (Jimmy Creed) for owner Leonard Mattingly and trainer Chris Melton, the $10,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearling graduate was acquired by these high-profile connections a short time thereafter, according to Team Valor's Barry Irwin.

“She's tall and immature. She had a few issues and we gave her plenty of time,” he explained. “We were actually going to run her next week going a mile, but we started getting worried that the race wouldn't fill, so we sprinted her even though she doesn't want to sprint.”

Green Up's most recent breeze, a five-furlong bullet at Palm Beach Downs in 1:01 Mar. 6, had the Virginia-bred sitting on ready. Irwin said the drill was very much in character.

“Her works are unbelievable,” he said. “She goes out there, she stays with her company and just before the wire, she moves a little bit ahead and then on the gallop out she opens up 12 or 15 lengths every time.”

Off to an uneventful beginning for the in-form Irad Ortiz, Jr., Green Up tracked longshot pacesetter Teasing (Tapit)–a full-sister to GI Belmont S. winner Tapwrit–through solid opening splits. Easing alongside that one as the quarter pole loomed, Green Up quickly put daylight on her rivals and stopped the timer in 1:10.04 while never asked through the final eighth of a mile.

“It was as much as I expected and I expected a lot,” Irwin commented. “About three weeks ago, Todd called me and goes, 'this Green Up, she's a graded stakes winner, she's unbelievable.' He says, 'I know trainers never call people up with anything but bad news, so I want to call you with some good news and tell you what a good filly you've got. Pretty exciting to have one like this.”

The winning jockey added: “She did everything right. She did it the right way. She put me in a good position. She did everything so easy. Going to the turn, I just rode her, biding my time. When I asked her she responded really well. She took off.”

A May 9 foal, Green Up is out of an unplaced half-sister to the solid Midlantic handicap horse Just Call Kenny (Jump Start)–also a paternal descendant of A.P. Indy–who counted the GIII Philip H. Iselin S. as his major career victory and who won the 2014 Spectacular Bid S. over this main track. Green Up holds an entry for the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks and is the second Rising Star for Upstart, who is already represented on the Oaks trail by GII Davona Dale S. heroine Kathleen O.

4th-Gulfstream, $53,000, Msw, 3-13, 3yo, f, 6f, 1:10.04, ft, 6 3/4 lengths.
GREEN UP, f, 3, by Upstart
1st Dam: Green Punch, by Two Punch
2nd Dam: Green Jeans, by Green Dancer
3rd Dam: Duds, by Ack Ack
Sales history: $10,000 Ylg '20 EASOCT. Lifetime Record: 2-1-1-0, $44,360. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG. Click for the free Equineline.com catalog-style pedigree.
O-Team Valor International LLC; B-Althea Richards (VA); T-Todd A Pletcher.

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Irwin: What Satisfaction Is There For Owners Who Employ Cheating Trainers?

In this Olympic year, when athletes and officials braved the scourge of COVID against difficult odds to conduct the Summer Games in Japan, I think a lot about what drives these individuals to achieve excellence and from where their satisfaction is derived.

I love and have loved the Olympics since childhood, reveling in the stories of such greats as Jesse Owens, Bob Mathias and Jim Thorpe. Their drive, their talent and their stories live within me and have done so since I was a little kid.

While Track and Field is my favorite sport, horse racing is a close second. I participated in T&F in high school and college, as did my father and brother. The gratification and excitement I felt from competing in athletics, however, pales in comparison to the thrills and satisfaction I have experienced in horse racing.

Watching a steed you are involved with roaring down the stretch on the lead generates a high that beats the short pants off of Athletics.

Satisfaction, however, is more difficult to achieve in horse racing compared with almost any other sporting enterprise, because so many people are involved in racing a horse and the animal itself cannot communicate in the traditional sense with its human caretakers.

On the other hand, when a horse does win a race, the satisfaction is greater because it is so difficult to achieve, especially at the highest levels of the game.

As I have been involved in racing, one way or another, for more than half a century and now am in my seventh decade, I have been struck by a change among owners that is not only profoundly disturbing but possibly a sign that the game may not survive as we have known it.

What I have noticed is not peculiar to horse racing, but to many other aspects of modern society as well, particularly it seems in Western Civilization.

Today we live in a society that cares less for rules and more for winning at all costs. We see this trend not only in sports, but in the financial and pharmaceutical communities where ethics have been stretched to the limits. And the crossover from members of these businesses into racing and their great impact on the track, in the sales ring and at the windows has been something only a blind person could have missed.

I question where the satisfaction comes from in winning races for these owners in this modern era. I question where the good vibes are derived.

I know exactly where it comes from for me. When I am involved in a winner, especially one that achieves a great victory as a result of developing a horse and following a game plan that was months in the making, the satisfaction comes from a job well done with a horse in which I believe.

When our homebred Animal Kingdom won the Kentucky Derby a decade ago, the satisfaction was even greater than that of a usual winner of the Run for the Roses, as his victory was not diminished by connections of the also-rans complaining about troubles in the race.

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To achieve complete satisfaction in winning an important race is very, very difficult. I will never stop thanking my lucky stars it happened in the race we all want to win the most. For me it was a miracle, a blessing and a moment of sheer satisfaction.

In today's environment I wonder where the satisfaction comes from for those owners who have chosen to be involved with trainers that cheat. It seems obvious to me that certain owners gravitate to certain trainers because they share the same “win at all costs” attitude. They share the same disdain for the rules. And they look at themselves as “sharps” in a world of “chumps.”

In this regard, I am a true chump. A chump is a poor bastard that follows the rules, even knowing that if you take an edge your chances of success will increase dramatically.

Today's “enlightened” owner, as a now deceased ex-trainer referred to trainers who cheat using modern methods that include Performance Enhancing Drugs, either knows that the trainer he chooses is a cheater, strongly suspects he is a cheater or is an outright enabler of the cheating trainer.

The satisfaction for these owners comes from a) having pulled off a stroke against horses trained and owned by chumps, b) cashing bets based on information that their steeds are juiced to the gills, c) knowing that the improved form of their horses will translate to big prices at public auction or d) the cherry on top of the cake, a lucrative stallion syndication deal.

The normal, garden-variety satisfaction that Little League parents and coaches feel when their team wins or their kid safely runs out a bunt is not what motivates today's modern owner, who relies on trainers that cheat to win.

I fear that the modern dilemma will lead to the demise of the sport for a few reasons. First, owners that do not cheat are fed up with losing to owners that do and could leave the sport. Secondly, until HISA is up and running, I see absolutely no prospect of positive change, because there is no major racetrack or regulatory agency in any locale that is actively investigating cheating on their grounds.

Racetracks want the horses that cheaters train so they can fill their races. Regulators are like politicians in that their only motivation in life is to keep their jobs.

With no racing press to speak of, save a couple of online outfits, there are precious few journalists remaining to keep the cheaters' feet to the fire.

If my fellow chumps continue to be robbed by owners that employ, sponsor or enable cheating trainers, we chumps may just come to the sad conclusion that not enough satisfaction remains to be had in order to continue to underwrite the sport of horse racing in North America.

And I write this as an owner who has been winning most of the year at a 25 percent clip in major races around the globe. I am not complaining as a loser, I am complaining as a winner.

Barry Irwin is the founder and CEO of Team Valor International

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Mother-To-Be Oleksandra Beats The Boys In Poker Stakes

On Father's Day, it was the mother-to-be who brought home the victory for Team Valor International. Oleksandra (AUS), the lone mare in the field of nine, won the one-mile Grade 3 Poker Stakes by a neck over favored Raging Bull in Sunday's feature on the turf at Belmont Park, Elmont, Ny.

In her fourth start of 2021, Oleksandra, who is currently in foal to Into Mischief, broke a step slow from the gate, bumping into favorite Raging Bull, and was last for the first six furlongs of the one-mile Poker. Jockey Joel Rosario did not panic, though, content to let his mount run at the back of the pack and allow the race to develop in front of them. Get Smokin, winner of the Seek Again Stakes in his previous start, took the lead within the first furlong, with Raased and Tell Your Daddy running close behind, and he held onto that advantage until the final turn.

Favorite Raging Bull found himself boxed in for much of the race, but, as the field entered the stretch, he made his move on the rail, just to the inside of Get Smokin. At the back of the field on that last turn, Rosario took Oleksandra to the outside, moving down the center of the course as Raging Bull began to overtake Get Smokin. Raging Bull got to the lead in that last furlong, but Oleksandra moved past him, taking over first place and determinedly holding off Raging Bull to win the G3 Poker by a head. The final time for the mile was 1:32.11.

Behind Oleksandra and Raging Bull came Front Run the Fed, Sanctuary City, Get Smokin, Penalty, Tell Your Daddy, Raased, and Veronesi.

Oleksandra paid $36.80, $7.30, and $5.40. Raging Bull paid $2.60 and $2.10. Front Run the Fed paid $3.00 to show.

Trainer Neil Drysdale was pleased with Oleksandra's career finale. “Things haven't gone exactly smooth this year for her. We ran in Kentucky and realized she doesn't like the soft going. So, then we decided not to run here [in the Jaipur] because it was raining a lot here too at the time. Since she's more relaxed this year, we decided to try her at a mile hoping she could get the distance, and she did. She's pregnant [in foal to Into Mischief], so this was her swan song. She'll go out on a high note.”

Joel Rosario was not deterred by that slow start. “She always comes out of there like that [slow] but then she can be a little aggressive after. She relaxed very nicely. Neil Drysdale is a tremendous trainer.”

Foaled in Australia, Oleksandra is a daughter of 2011 Grade 1 Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom out of the Caesour mare Alexandra Rose. Bred by her owner Team Valor, this 6-year-old mare was a $1.45 million RNA at the November 2020 Keeneland Breeding Stock sale. This victory in the G3 Poker Stakes is her first win of 2021 and her eighth career victory in 20 starts for career winnings of $705,748.

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