Keeneland Catalogs 111 for April Selected HORA Sale

Keeneland has cataloged 111 horses for its April Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale, to be held Friday, Apr. 26 following the races on closing day of the Spring Meet. Click here for the online catalog.

Keeneland will accept approved supplemental entries to the April Sale until the sale date.

On Apr. 26, the final race will go off at approximately 5:09 p.m., and the April Sale will begin at 6:30 p.m. The auction will livestreamed on www.Keeneland.com.

“The April Sale will benefit from the excitement generated by our Spring Meet and the fact that all eyes of the racing world are on the Bluegrass at this time of year,” Keeneland Vice President of Sales Tony Lacy said. “The auction is well placed on the calendar because in many ways the summer racing season begins when the final race of our Spring Meet is run. Buyers will find tremendous opportunities to add to their stables at this sale on the eve of Kentucky Derby week.”

Among the most accomplished horses cataloged are:

 

Dana's Beauty, a 6-year-old daughter of Not This Time who has won her past two races, most recently the Latonia S. Mar. 23. She is out of the winning City Zip mare City Siren, a half-sister to recent Keeneland stakes winner Bo Cruz, who took the GIII Commonwealth S.  and from the family of GI Preakness winner and sire Cloud Computing.

 

Dynamic One, a 6-year-old horse by Union Rags who captured the GII Suburban S. and was second in the GII Wood Memorial S.  and GIII Ben Ali S. From the family of Racing Hall of Famer Personal Ensign, Dynamic One is entered in Keeneland's GIII Ben Ali S. Apr. 20.

 

Escapologist, a 4-year-old colt by Good Magic coming off a victory in a Mar. 30 allowance optional claimer at Oaklawn Park, where he earned a 93 Beyer. He is out of the winning After Market mare Revealing Moment, a full sister to multiple Grade I winner Belle Gallantey.

 

Expected Value, a 4-year-old colt by Flatter who won his most recent race at Aqueduct in March. His dam is stakes winner Midnight Visit, by Henny Hughes.

 

Fuerteventura, a 5-year-old gelding by Summer Front who is a multiple stakes winner and Grade III-placed runner. In March, he took the Cotton Fitzsimmons S. on turf at Turf Paradise.

 

Noted, a multiple stakes-winning and Grade II-placed 3-year-old colt by Cairo Prince. Out of the winning Proud Citizen mare Sea View Millie, he is from the family of Grade II winner and sire Mark Valeski and Grade III winner Albano.

 

Sir London, a 5-year-old gelding by Malibu Moon who is coming off a victory in March at Gulfstream Park.

 

Smile Happy, a millionaire who is a multiple Grade 2 winner and was second in Keeneland's GI Toyota Blue Grass S. The 5-year-old gelding by Runhappy is entered in the Apr. 20 GIII Ben Ali S. at Keeneland.

 

Tiz the Bomb, a millionaire, Grade II-winning gelding who was second in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf. The 5-year-old is by Hit It a Bomb.

 

Watchtower, a 3-year-old filly by Demarchelier (GB) who is unbeaten in two races this year on turf at Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs. She is out of Zloty, a winning stakes-placed daughter of Exchange Rate.

 

Click here for the enhanced digital catalog on www.Keeneland.com. The catalog, also available through the Equineline Sales Catalog iPad app, includes pedigrees, Equibase past performances and race videos, Daily Racing Form past performances, and Ragozin and Thoro-Graph figures. Consignors may upload photographs and walking videos.

A print catalog is now available for pickup from the Welcome Center at Keeneland along with a separate booklet with Equibase past performances. A supplemental catalog also will be printed prior to the sale.

Consignments will be stabled and a barn order list produced and distributed around Monday, Apr. 22 when the catalog– including supplements–is close to final.

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Sunday Insights: Lake Superior Set For Del Mar Debut

5th-DMR, $82K, Msw, 2yo, 1mT, 6:37 p.m.

Campaigned by the same ownership group as 'TDN Rising Star' Prince of Monaco (Speightstown), $1.05-million Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase LAKE SUPERIOR (Quality Road) makes his first appearance on closing day at Del Mar for trainer Bob Baffert. Dam Celibataire (Broken Vow) also produced the dark bay colt's full-brother SW Stillwater Cove. Out of a female family which includes his dam's full-sister MGSW Interactif, Lake Superior will have the services of the meet's leading rider, Juan Hernandez. TJCIS PPS

2nd-MTH, $57K, Msw, 2yo, 6f, 1:10 p.m.

Heading to the Jersey Shore, Monmouth cards a maiden race which includes firsters like $300,000 OBS March Sale buy Bolt of Aurum (Bolt d'Oro), whose dam Scenic Road (Quality Road) is a full-sister to GIII LeComte S. victor Guest Suite. Also drawn is $300,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale grad Dollar Liberty (Gun Runner) out of Debase the Dollar (Malibu Moon). That dam has produced seven foals with three winners out of four to race, and is a half-sister herself to GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup S. heroine La Coronel (Colonel John). Between this pair to the inside you'll find Tiz Marks Spirit (Mor Spirit), who counts GII Castle & Key Bourbon S. hero Tiz the Bomb (Hit It a Bomb) as a half-brother. TJCIS PPS

2nd-KD, $150K, Msw, 2yo, f, 1mT, 2:02 p.m.

Taking to the Kentucky Down grass course before that meet wraps is first-time starter Everland (Arrogate) for George Strawbridge. The homebred is the first of three foals for Ever Changing (Tapit). Her second dam Rainbow View (Dynaformer) was crowned European Champion 2-year-old filly in 2008 and her grand dam is a half-sister to both GI Arlington Million S. runner-up Just As Well (A.P. Indy) and GII Longines Dixie S. winner Utley (Smart Strike). TJCIS PPS

4th-DMR, $82K, Msw, 2yo, f, 5 1/2f, 6:05 p.m.

Halone (Justify), a Baoma homebred, debuts for Bob Baffert. Out of Sea Gift (A.P. Indy), the chestnut filly is a half-sister to GIII Sunland Derby champ Chitu (Henny Hughes). Her dam is also responsible for GIII Santa Ysabel S. heroine Beautiful Gift (Medgalia d'Oro), who was purchased by Katusmi Yoshida at the Fasig-Tipton Fall Mixed Sale last year for $2 million and whose Feb. 22 foal by Into Mischief, her first, just went to the KY Company for ¥160 million at the JRA Yearling and Foal Sale. TJCIS PPS

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Belmont Turf Takes Center Stage Saturday

by Stefanie Grimm & Patrycja Szpyra

With the Fourth of July holiday weekend in the rear-view mirror, the summer turf season kicks into high gear starting with a pair of Grade I's at Belmont Park Saturday. The home team takes on a new wave of European challengers in the 1 1/4-mile GI Caesars Belmont Derby Invitational S., the first leg of the Caesars Turf Triple Series.

Tiz the Bomb (Hit It a Bomb), last seen finishing ninth behind longshot GI Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike (Keen Ice), finally gets back to the surface that he's shown plenty of success on previously. Tiz the Bomb scored back-to-back victories on the grass in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile S. Sept. 6 and Keeneland's GII Castle & Key Bourbon S. Oct. 10. He ended his 2-year-old campaign with just a half-length defeat to Modern Games (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar Nov. 5, his most recent try on grass.

After an unsuccessful 3-year-old debut in the GIII Holy Bull S., Tiz the Bomb returned to form with two wins on the all-weather surface at Turfway Park, taking both the John Battaglia Memorial S. Mar. 5 and GIII Jeff Ruby Steaks S. Apr. 2. He defeated eventual Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike (Keen Ice) in the latter.

“We gave him a Kentucky Derby chance,” trainer Ken McPeek said. “He ran respectable, but he's certainly not as good on the dirt as he is on the grass.”

McPeek will also saddle Kentucky Derby 11th Classic Causeway (Giant's Causeway), who will be making his first start on the turf. The GIII Sam F. Davis S. and the GII Tampa Bay Derby winner, previously trained by Brian Lynch, was third in Thistledown's GIII Ohio Derby June 25.

Topping the European contenders is Godolphin homebred Nations Pride (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), who, barring his poor effort most recently in the G1 Cazoo Derby at Epsom June 4, previously won four straight, including a seven-length win in the Newmarket S. Apr. 29 over the same 1 1/4-mile distance he'll try Saturday.

Stone Age (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), drawn wide in post 13, also exits a disappointing showing like his aforementioned rival in the Cazoo Derby. Prior to that, he showed good form in taking the G3 Derby Trial S. at Leopardstown May 8 and also when finishing second in the 2021 G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud.

Also on tap over Belmont's turf course Saturday is the 1 1/4- mile GI Belmont Oaks Invitational S., which features a similar combination of American and European-bred contenders. Chad Brown brings a trio of options starting with 'TDN Rising Star' Haughty (Empire Maker), who ended her juvenile season with only a three-quarter length defeat to Pizza Bianca (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf Nov. 5 at Del Mar.

McKulick (GB) (Frankel {GB}) enters for Brown off a second- place finish in the 1 1/8-mile GIII Regret S. at Churchill Downs June 4. She was also second behind fellow Oaks rival New Year's Eve (Kitten's Joy) in the GII Edgewood S. May 6.

Rounding out Brown's entries is Consumer Spending (More Than Ready), who enters having won four of her last five starts. While no match for Pizza Bianca in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, she began her 3-year-old season with back-to-back wins. She turned the tables on Pizza Bianca in Aqueduct's Memories of Silver S. Apr. 24, then added the GII Wonder Again S. at Belmont June 9.

Hailing from the barn of Aidan O'Brien, Concert Hall (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) is listed as the 3-1 morning-line favorite. The 2021 G3 Weld Park S. winner was stretched out in distance as a 3-year-old. Her form this season includes a third-place finish in the G1 Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas May 22, a fourth-place finish in the G1 Cazoo Oaks June 3, and a fifth-place finish in the G1 Pretty Polly S. at Curragh June 26.

Five Line Up for Suburban

The Belmont dirt will showcase older horses going 1 1/4 miles in the GII Suburban S. Shug McGaughey brings in 'TDN Rising Star' First Captain (Curlin), who enters off a career-best performance in the GIII Pimlico Special S. May 20. Dynamic One (Union Rags) is listed as the 7-5 morning-line favorite in the field of five. After getting seven months off following his seventh-place effort in the GI Travers S. Aug. 28, he returned as a 4-year-old with increasingly positive results. He checked in third off the layoff in the GIII Challenger S. at Tampa Mar. 12, was second in the GIII Ben Ali S. Apr. 23, and most recently won the Blame S. June 4 at Churchill. The field also includes defending Suburban champion Max Player (Honor Code).

The Belmont card also includes the GIII Victory Ride S. for 3-year-old fillies. Marylou Whitney Stables's Pretty Birdie (Bird Song) was second in her last two, completing the exacta behind Matareya (Pioneerof the Nile) in the GII Eight Belles S. May 6 and Wicked Halo (Gun Runner) in the Leslie's Lady Overnight S. June 12. The field also includes Happy Soul (Runhappy), second last time in Pimlico's GIII Miss Preakness S. May 20.

Smaller Circuit Graded Stakes Attract Big Names

Horseshoe Indianapolis–formerly Indiana Grand–may've changed its name, but the industry's heavy hitters came with their runners just the same for the GIII Indiana Derby and GIII Indiana Oaks, scheduled to go as the last two races on the card.

In the nightcap contest for the colts, 75-1 longshot GII Rebel S. conqueror Un Ojo (Laoban) returns off a three-month layoff in his first attempt for trainer Robertino Diodoro. Conditioner Kenny McPeek's GISW Rattle N Roll (Connect) is cross-entered here and in the Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows after ending his five-race losing streak last weekend in the July 2 American Derby at Churchill Downs. Texas Derby winner King Ottoman (Curlin), trained by Steve Asmussen, and the Brad Cox-trained Best Actor (Flatter)–a $330,000 KEESEP purchase for Gary and Mary West–round a talented, if lightly raced, field.

The Indiana Oaks is shaping up to be a battle of the trainers as McPeek and Cox send out a pair each. Juddmonte homebred Patna (Into Mischief) and GI Ashland S. third Interstatedaydream (Classic Empire) will fly the flag of the latter. Nine-length maiden winner Silverleaf (Speightster) and the rapidly improving Runaway Wife (Gun Runner) will look to cap a potentially big day for McPeek.

Shifting to Prairie Meadows for the evening, the GIII Prairie Meadows Cornhusker H. attracted the evergreen gelding Rated R Superstar (Kodiak Kowboy), looking to rebound from a pair of disappointing efforts, including in Lone Star's May 30 GIII Steve Sexton Mile S. That race was won by the horse to his inside, the re-opposing Silver Prospector (Declaration of War). Warrant (Constitution), second last out in the GII Brooklyn H. June 11 and second Mar. 5 in the GI Santa Anita H., aims to secure his first win of the season.

A field of eight fillies will do battle for the GIII Iowa Oaks crown, led by the Todd Pletcher-trained Falconet (Uncle Mo) and local Panther S. victress Butterbean (Klimt). Candy Raid (Candy Ride {Arg}), a surprise winner of the Apr. 2 Bourbonette Oaks, is cross-entered in the Indiana Oaks.

Marathon Runners Chime In From Delaware

A big weekend of racing will also be rolling at Delaware Park as a field of 10 lines up to contest the grassy GIII Robert G. Dick Memorial S., featuring over half of the Keertana S. field, including first and second-place finishers Temple City Terror (Temple City) and Stand Tall (Uncle Mo).

The main track filly and mare marathoners will also have their day in the (most likely not present) Delaware sun in the GII Delaware Handicap, with the streaking Serena's Song S. and Obeah S. heroine Miss Leslie (Paynter) leading the charge.

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This Side Up: Renewal Starts at Grass Roots

If this is seeing the future, then maybe it really will work. Among all these tiny, straggling groups negotiating the arid wastes of the dirt stakes program, we finally reach a true oasis in the GI Caesars Belmont Derby Inv. Here is a field that matches quality with quantity: a win for the owners, and a win for the bettors.

It is also, lest we forget, staged on a benign surface. As such, it is also a win for a whole community that needs to present its way of life to the wider world with absolute confidence. To a degree, you could almost say that the rapid maturity of the elite turf schedule devised by NYRA has become one way for the East Coast to complement the fantastic recent work, celebrated here a couple of weeks ago, on the dirt tracks of California.

In fact, you could even argue that it also dovetails with the progressive aspirations that have just inaugurated the HISA era. We know that some people will cling stubbornly to the wreckage, fiercely opposing federal interference with their constitutional right to treat the training of Thoroughbreds as a branch of pharmacology. But it's good to see so many industry stakeholders beginning to see the bigger picture; to recognize the trouble we've been inviting for ourselves, and to do something about it.

 

Click the play button below to listen to this week's edition of This Side Up.

 

 

And that's heartening, because right now we only have to look around to realize what a special product we have to share, if only we get our act together.

Look at last weekend, and look what's coming down the tracks, and shout it from the rooftops: we have a great game here. Provided we care for them as they deserve–and that includes the provision of scrupulously maintained dirt tracks, and a properly respected turf/synthetics division–we could have no more captivating advocate than these noble horses of ours.

So long as we have Saratoga, we still have a chance. Much as can again be said of Santa Anita, here's a sanctuary from the cares of life to win over even the most surly and snarling of sceptics. And the meet looks more exciting than ever after Olympiad (Speightstown) and Life Is Good (Into Mischief) threw down the gauntlet for the GI Whitney S.

The one pity is that they've dropped all talk of Flightline (Tapit) shipping back across for that race, too. Connections would evidently rather stay in his backyard, this time, even at the cost of a more abrupt step up in distance. We won't reprise our irritation that this huge talent should have become such an extreme example of the modern horseman's dread of actually racing a racehorse. But we all know that while life may indeed be good, it seldom contrives its very best possibilities. And experience sadly tells us that the idea of all three of these horses converging on the same race at the Breeders' Cup, in the same form as now, is a fanciful one.

What we do know is that right here, right now, we could put on one of the great races of our time. Nobody can be complacent about that happening in November, especially if their respective fortunes in the meantime happen to make the Dirt Mile more tempting than the Classic. Of course, we can't expect individual horsemen to base their gameplan on sheer altruism, when they need to redeem such heavy stakes already committed to the industry. But it does just seem a shame that when people start comparing horses to greats of the past, very often they don't see them measured even against the best of their contemporaries.

That became a familiar charge against Frankel (GB), albeit without eroding his status as one of the undisputed giants of the breed. The relentless style trademarked by his stock, in what is proving a no less brilliant stud career, has only heightened regret that he spurned both the Arc and the Breeders' Cup Classic.

Frankel / Juddmonte

But we have long become bleakly familiar with the schism nowadays dividing the industries either side of the pond. The only real trafficking between them today is about plugging the gaps in American grass racing. Frankel's two daughters in the GI Belmont Oaks show that this can be done by participation or trade: one, homebred by Godolphin, mounts a raid from Newmarket; the other was imported from that same town as a yearling. A third way is elaborated, however, by the presence in the colts' race of Stone Age (Ire), a White Birch-bred son of Galileo (Ire) shared by farm owner Peter Brant with partners from Coolmore. It's a massive tribute to the impresarios behind the Turf Triple that once again, as with last year's winner Bolshoi Ballet (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), this race has been chosen as the next target for Ballydoyle's principal candidate in the Epsom Derby itself.

Yet while the import market for European horses-in-training and yearlings grows ever stronger, it somehow remains impossible even for highly eligible European stallions to achieve commercial traction in Kentucky. Flintshire (GB) (Dansili {GB}) was retired as the highest earner in the history of the Juddmonte program, and supplanted only by a member of his own family in Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}). Yet during his final spring in the Bluegrass–when his first crop had just turned three, one of its members flying into fifth of 19 in the G1 Prix du Jockey-Club–he was outrageously reduced to just eight mares.

American horsemen increasingly talk a good game about turf, but in practice most of them are no less culpable than Europeans about dirt blood. I know this is a drum I have long since banged to a pulp, but it's worth reflecting that all four of Stone Age's grandparents were bred in Kentucky: the icons Sadler's Wells and Urban Sea obviously stand behind Galileo, while his dam is by Danzig's son Anabaa out of an Alysheba mare. Stone Age's maternal line actually tapers to none other than La Troienne (Fr), but as eighth dam she is also the first not to have been conceived with Kentucky seed.

For sure, some horses are more versatile than others. Tiz The Bomb (Hit It A Bomb), for instance, was plainly born for chlorophyll. His connections were originally talking about a tilt at the Classics in Britain, only to be seduced to Churchill–understandably enough–when he found himself with those coveted starting points. Look closer, however, and you'll see that this horse, too, cautions against a prescriptive view of surfaces: his first two dams are by avowed dirt influences, in Tiznow and A.P. Indy, yet both ended up on turf.

His trainer also saddles recent recruit Classic Causeway (Giant's Causeway), famously one of three colts from the final crop of one of the last of the old school, a crossover force in both careers. As befits a son of the Iron Horse, he is being turned round just two weeks after his debut for the barn. That kind of thing makes Kenny McPeek a real outlier, in this day and age. And that's why, when I see the future, actually I don't see it working at all.

Not, that is, until breeders start renewing the kind of cross-pollination that previously opened such dynamic cycles in the evolution of the Thoroughbred, from Nasrullah going one way to all those sons of Northern Dancer going the other. In those days, we bred robust horses by the constant, mutual invigoration of the gene pool, either side of the water. If cynical, in-and-out, fast-buck trading in the freshman window is producing horses that can only run every couple of months, that's actually a welfare issue. So while we have found one welcome oasis, we must navigate with care if our final destination is not to prove a mirage.

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