Three Chimneys Farm | Horse Racing Free Tips

Quality Road’s First Defender Earns ‘Rising Star’ Nod On Debut

Gunned to the front from a middle gate by jockey Tyler Gaffalione, First Defender (3, c, Quality Road–Love And Pride, by A.P. Indy) withstood pressure on all sides and a contested early pace at the Fair Grounds to become the newest 'TDN Rising Star'.

Off sharply, the colt found himself sandwiched between horses from the opening strides with Pinfire (Bolt d'Oro) to his inside and Golden Nugget (Mendelssohn) off his outer flank. The trio quickly separated themselves from the rest of the field as they sped through an opening quarter in :21.48. Still bunched together as they rounded the far turn, the race became a question of who could withstand the pressure. First Defender answered to the affirmative, striding away past the furlong marker and opening up close to home for the 5 1/4-length win as the 4-5 favorite. 21-1 shot Quaternion closed to be a clear second.

Out of a dual Grade I-winning dam in Love and Pride, herself a $4.9 million purchase by Three Chimneys out of the 2013 FTKNOV sale, First Defender is already a half-brother to a pair of stakes winners in Bella Runner (Gun Runner) and Princesinha Julia (Pioneerof the Nile). Third dam Cara Rafaela (Quiet American) is responsible for the late MGISW and leading sire Bernardini (A.P. Indy). First Defender is the 14th 'TDN Rising Star' for Quality Road. Love and Pride produced a filly by Volatile last year and was not bred for 2023.

7th-Fair Grounds, $65,000, Msw, 1-21, 3yo, 6f, 1:10.88, ft, 5 1/4 lengths.
FIRST DEFENDER, c, 3, by Quality Road
1st Dam: Love and Pride {MGISW, $985,760}, by A.P. Indy
2nd Dam: Ile de France, by Storm Cat
3rd Dam: Cara Rafaela, by Quiet American
Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $39,000. O-Three Chimneys Farm; B-Three Chimneys Farm, LLC (KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen. *1/2 to Princesinha Julia (Pioneerof the Nile), SW, $111,053; and Bella Runner (Gun Runner), SW, $238,125.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

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Saturday Insights: Ready to Make a ‘Grande’ Entrance

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency

2nd-FG, $65k, Msw, 3yo, f, 6f, 1:30 p.m. ET
EVERGRANDE (Uncle Mo) cost Don Adam's Courtlandt Farms $1.1 million at Keeneland September in 2021, the priciest of the operation's 12 purchases (for $7.55 million) over the course of the opening week of the sale. Produced by a winning Forestry mare, the Apr. 6 foal is bred on the exact cross as champion and GI Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist and hails from the deeper female family of Grade I-winning juvenile Greenwood Lake (Meadowlake). A then-yearling full-brother to Evergrande fetched $600k from Japanese interests at KEESEP last fall. TJCIS PPs

3rd-GP, $84k, Msw, 3yo, 1 1/16mT, 1:09 p.m. ET
IDLE CHATTER (Justify) draws one from the outside in a field of 10 sophomores for this career debut for the Jack Sisterson stable. The chestnut is the latest foal out of Storm Dixie (Catienus), who was signed for by the late Olin Gentry for $1.9 million in foal to Tapit at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton November Sale about 18 months after the mare's foal Princess of Sylmar (Majestic Warrior) upset the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks. Princess of Sylmar fetched $3.1 million at the same event and has bred two winners from four to race in Japan. TJCIS PPs

4th-TAM, $32k, Msw, 3yo, 1m 40yds, 2:22 p.m. ET
RINGSIDE (Curlin), a $1.3-million KEESEP acquisition by M.V. Magnier, is the latest to race out of the stakes-winning Dashing Debby, one of two second-crop juvenile stakes winners for Medaglia d'Oro, and who went on to produce SW Bronze Star (Tapit) as well as Dawn the Destroyer (Speightstown), a stakes-winning sprinter who was second in the 2019 GI Ballerina S. and third in a GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint while racing in the Stonestreet silks. The bay ships up from Palm Meadows off a steady worktab. TJCIS PPs

4th-FG, $65k, Msw, 3yo, f, 6f, 2:30 p.m. ET
SUPER LUXE (Candy Ride {Arg}) was another of the Courtlandt purchases at Keeneland in 2021, hammering for $725k. The March-foaled chestnut has a bit more pedigree power than Evergrande in the first dvision of this race, as she is out of a winning half-sister to SW & MGSP Easyfromthegitgo (Dehere) and GSW Sue's Good News (Woodman), the dam of GISW Tiz Miz Sue (Tiznow) and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint winner Bulletin (City Zip). The filly's third dam includes champion Cozzene (Caro {Ire}), GISW Free Drop Billy (Union Rags) and dual Group 1 winner Hawkbill (Kitten's Joy). TJCIS PPs

7th-FG, $65k, Msw, 3yo, 6f, 4:00 p.m. ET
Milestone-maker Tyler Gaffalione is in town to ride 'TDN Rising Star' Echo Again (Gun Runner) in the GIII Lecomte S. and takes the call here about that one's stablemate FIRST DEFENDER (Quality Road). The bay races as a homebred for Three Chimneys Farm, who purchased the colt's two-time Grade I-winning dam Love and Pride (A.P. Indy) for $4.9 million in foal to Distorted Humor at FTKNOV in 2013. A half-brother to 2022 Zia Park Oaks winner Bella Runner (Gun Runner) and SW Princesinha Julia (Pioneerof the Nile), First Defender hails from the family of Cara Rafaela (Quiet American), the dam of the late and influential sire and broodmare sire Bernardini (A.P. Indy). The competition includes Guadalajara (Justify), a $250k FTKOCT yearling who is out of a half-sister to Japanese Group 1 winner Mr Melody (Scat Daddy). TJCIS PPs

9th-AQU, $80k, Msw, 3yo, 1m, post time: 4:16 p.m.
LIGHT THE WAY (Justify), a homebred for Jay Em Ess Stable, looks to become the seventh winner from eight foals to race from the Siegel family's nine-time SW and GISP By the Light (Malibu Moon), whose dual Grade I-winning daughter By the Moon (Indian Charlie) is responsible for Full Moon Madness (Into Mischief), runner-up to Champions Dream (Justify) in last year's GIII Nashua S. over this course and distance. TJCIS PPs

10th-FG, $65k, Msw, 3yo, 1 1/16m, 5:30 p.m.
KAUAI DAN (Quality Road), bought back on a bid of $240k at KEESEP in 2021, is a son of 'TDN Rising Star' Kauai Katie (Malibu Moon), a $490k Fasig-Tipton Florida juvenile purchase by Stonestreet who would go on to take four graded stakes and finish third in the 2013 GI Acorn S. Kauai Katie is the year-younger full-sister to Winding Way, who achieved the unprecedented and never-since-matched feat of being named a 'Rising Star' just one day and 3000 miles to the west after Kauai Katie. Validating her 'Rising Star' tag, Winding Way won the GIII Rancho Bernardo H. and has since produced Skinner (Curlin), a $510k OBSAPR breezer who was third in last year's GI Runhappy Del Mar Futurity. TJCIS PPs

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Gunite Dazzles In Perryville

In another dominating display of talent, Gunite pounced on dueling rivals and rolled home to a flashy victory in Keeneland's Perryville S.

Second to fleet-footed stakes-winner Conagher (Jimmy Creed) in a non-winners of three at Churchill Downs June 3, he parlayed that effort into victories in that track's Maxfield S., Saratoga's GII Amsterdam S., and a runner-up effort two-back to Jack Christopher (Munnings) in the GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S. Returning to winning ways last out Sept. 24 in the Harrods Creek S. beneath the Twin Spires over familiar foe Conagher, the 3-5 favorite made short work of his rivals here when the real running began.

Perched in third early as Provocateur (Into Mischief) and Of a Revolution (Maclean's Music) battled through :22.38 and :45.82 splits, Tyler Gaffalione was content to range into his striking position approaching the five-sixteenths pole before inhaling the tiring pacesetters. Kicking clear in upper stretch, Gunite meant business as he strode home 3 3/4 lengths best over 25-1 longshot Hoist the Gold (Mineshaft), who valiantly tried to make a race of it.

“[Gunite has shown] beautiful consistency. He has performed at the highest levels and continues to impress. He carries himself like he can do this. He's got a confidence. He accepts what's happening and does it extremely well,” said conditioner Steve Asmussen in a winner's circle interview.

And as for a possible start in the GI Qatar Racing Breeders' Cup Sprint in two weeks' time?

“This was the first test: how he handles Keeneland,” said Asmussen. “I thought he ran really well. He was very comfortable and looked great over the race track. Now it will all be about how he comes back. But we have until Monday [pre-entry deadline] to decide.”

Out of a stakes-winning half-sister to MSW Optionality (Gun Runner) and SP Simply Sovereign (American Pharoah), Gunite is his dam's only foal to the races thus far. Simple Surprise has a 2-year-old full-sister to the winner named Surprise Attack and produced a pair of half-sisters to those–a yearling by Copper Bullet and a 2022 weanling by Tapiture. She went back to Gun Runner for 2023. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

PERRYVILLE S., $250,000, Keeneland, 10-22, 3yo, 7f, 1:23.21, ft.
1–GUNITE, 122, c, 3, by Gun Runner
1st Dam: Simple Surprise (SW, $185,446), by Cowboy Cal
2nd Dam: Simplify, by Pulpit
3rd Dam: Classic Olympio, by Olympio
O/B-Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC (KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen; J-Tyler Gaffalione. $151,125. Lifetime Record: GISW, 12-6-4-1, $965,934.
2–Hoist the Gold, 118, c, 3, Mineshaft–Tacit Approval, by Tapit. ($47,000 RNA Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-Dream Team One Racing Stable; B-Dream Team Racing (KY); T-Dallas Stewart. $48,750.
3–B Dawk, 118, c, 3, Gormley–Mott N Hester, by Super Saver. ($77,000 Ylg '20 KEEJAN; $140,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP; $425,000 2yo '21 EASMAY; $500,000 RNA 3yo '22 KEEAPR). O-West Point Thoroughbreds and Joseph E. Besecker; B-Small Batch Thoroughbreds & Robert Fetkin (KY); T-Doug F. O'Neill. $24,375.
Margins: 3 3/4, 3, 3 3/4. Odds: 0.62, 25.78, 7.02.
Also Ran: Artorius, Friar Laurence, Of a Revolution, Provocateur. Scratched: Pinehurst.

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Thursday Insights: 775k Gun Runner Headlines Field Of Maiden Colts

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency

6th-CD, $120K, Msw, 2yo, 7f, 7:25 p.m.

A $775k Keeneland September purchase by John Williams, the Three Chimneys Farm-bred SIR ROCK (Gun Runner) is out of a half-sister to MGSW Moonlit Promise (Malibu Moon). Third dam Weekend Storm (Storm Bird), herself a half-sister to late horse of the year and leading sire A.P. Indy, also produced MGISW Court Vision (Gulch) as well as GISP Lord Snowdon (Seeking the Gold). Three Chimneys Farm stayed in on the chestnut who runs out of Kelsey Danner's barn.

Calumet Farm homebred Devils Red (More Than Ready), a full-brother to dual Eclipse Award winner and multi-millionaire Roy H, debuts in the same spot for trainer Doug O'Neill and enters off back-to-back bullet five-furlong drills Sept. 17 and Sept. 24.

Also making his first start is Tres Soles (Justify), a $400,000 KEESEP yearling pick up by Winchell Thoroughbreds out of the Steve Asmussen barn. TJCIS PPS

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