Todd Pletcher | Horse Racing Free Tips

Curlin’s Nest Completes Double for Hot Connections in Demoiselle

Repole Stable, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Michael House's Nest (Curlin) completed a juvenile Grade II double for trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. as she out-kicked two-for-two New York-bred Venti Valentine (Firing Line) in Saturday afternoon's GII Demoiselle S. at the Big A. It was a record seventh Demoiselle victory for Pletcher, who one race earlier sent out Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo) to a similarly hard-fought score in the GII Remsen S. The Lyster family's Ashview Farm and Richard Santulli's Colts Neck Stables bred both the Remsen and Demoiselle winners.

A five-length debut graduate going 8 1/2 panels at Belmont Sept. 25, Nest was a close third in the Nov. 5 Tempted, finishing a neck behind re-opposing Magic Circle (Kantharos). Nest was hung wide in midpack Saturday as Magic Circle raced clear through splits of :25.05 and :50.72. She mounted a four-wide bid approaching the quarter pole, with Venti Valenti glued to her left flank and the pacesetter struggling her leads but still up by daylight. Nest lengthened her stride and had a bit more to give late, reporting home a half-length clear of Venti Valentine in 1:55.07 (compared to 1:53.61 for the Remsen). An objection lodged by Venti Valentine's rider John Velazquez against the winner was disallowed.

“She ran a good race today, we were looking forward to the distance and she got the job done today,” said Ortiz, who rode four winners on the afternoon and survived at least two potential disqualifications after a high-profile DQ on Friday. “I knew [Magic Circle] was inside and came out. I was just surprised that they claimed foul on me, honestly. I grabbed a hold of my filly, corrected her, went to the left hand and went straight. I didn't do anything to the other horse, so I don't know why they claimed foul, but it is what it is.”

Pletcher took last year's Demoiselle with eventual GI Longines Kentucky Oaks heroine and likely champion 3-year-old Malathaat (Curlin), and won back-to-back renewals with Repole in 2012 and 2013 (Unlimited Budget and Stopchargingmaria) amidst a three-year streak. He'd go on to saddle the GI Cigar Mile H. exacta one race later on Saturday.

“There have been some tight finishes and a little drama to go along with it, but I'm thankful to be on the right side of it all,” said the Hall of Famer. “[Nest] was never able to take over and save much ground, but she got the job done. I'm obviously very happy to be on the winning end.”

As for what could be on the agenda next for Nest, who picked up 10 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points Saturday, Pletcher said, “We'll take her to Palm Beach Downs and map out a game plan with Mike [Repole] and the rest of the owners, but she'll get a freshening after this win.”

Saturday, Aqueduct
DEMOISELLE S.-GII, $250,000, Aqueduct, 12-4, 2yo, f, 1 1/8m, 1:55.07, ft.
1–NEST, 118, f, 2, by Curlin
1st Dam: Marion Ravenwood (SW, $112,598), by A.P. Indy
2nd Dam: Andujar, by Quiet American
3rd Dam: Nureyev's Best, by Nureyev
1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($350,000
Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-Repole Stable, Eclipse Thoroughbred
Partners & Michael House; B-Ashview Farm & Colts Neck
Stables (KY); T-Todd A Pletcher; J-Irad Ortiz Jr. $137,500.
Lifetime Record: 3-2-0-1, $205,000. *Full to Idol, GISW,
$416,964; and half to Dr Jack (Pioneerof the Nile), MSP. Click
for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick Rating:
A+++ *Triple Plus*.
2–Venti Valentine, 120, f, 2, Firing Line–Glory Gold, by
Medaglia d'Oro. 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. O-NY Final Furlong
Racing Stable & Parkland Thoroughbreds; B-Final Furlong
Racing Stable & Maspeth Stable (NY); T-Jorge R Abreu.
$50,000.
3–Magic Circle, 118, f, 2, Kantharos–Magic Humor, by Distorted
Humor. 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($50,000 Ylg '20 KEEJAN;
$110,000 2yo '21 OBSAPR). O-J W Singer LLC; B-Manitou Farm
LLC (KY); T-Rudy R Rodriguez. $30,000.
Margins: NK, 3/4, 3HF. Odds: 1.75, 6.20, 5.40.
Also Ran: Nostalgic, Tap the Faith, Full Count Felicia, Miss Interpret, Golden Essence. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

Pedigree Notes:
Nest becomes the 87th stakes winner (46th graded) for Hill 'n' Dale super sire Curlin. She is bred on the same cross as the aforementioned Malathaat, along with fellow two-turn GISWs Global Campaign and her full-brother Idol and this year's pricey GSW and 'TDN Rising Star' First Captain. Legendary A.P. Indy is up to 245 stakes winners (115 graded) as a broodmare sire. A.P. Indy's son Bernardini is the damsire of two of Curlin's 16 Grade I winners himself and he was out of a Quiet American mare, as is Nest's dam.

Repole co-campaigned Curlin's highest earner to date, in Pletcher-trained Eclipse champion Vino Rosso; and Eclipse and Pletcher teamed up on the career of MGISW filly Curalina (Curlin).

Nest's dam Marion Ravenwood was herself a stakes winner at the Big A and sold for $400,000 at the 2017 Keeneland September sale while in foal to Pioneerof the Nile. Idol, this year's GI Santa Anita H. winner, sold the following September as a yearling for $375,000 at Keeneland. The first foal bred by Ashview and Colts Neck became fellow useful two-turner Dr Jack, and agent Steve Young purchased Marion Ravenwood's current yearling colt by Violence for $275,000 this September. Marion Ravenwood, whose dam was GSW/MGISP, was bred to Curlin and Quality Road for 2022.

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Uncle Mo’s Mo Donegal Gets the Bob in Remsen

Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo) and Zandon (Upstart)–the top two choices in Saturday's GII Remsen S. at the Big A–both entered off promising last-out maiden victories and put on a show down the stretch with the former getting there by a hard-fought nose while surviving a stewards' inquiry in the process.

The rail-drawn, 7-5 chance Mo Donegal sat the trip in an inside fourth through easy fractions of :25.18 and :51.47 established by longshot Fromanothamutha (Unified). Locked and loaded beneath the hot-handed Irad Ortiz, Jr. rounding the far turn, he swung widest of all and into the clear in the five path at the top of the stretch.

Slightly favored Zandon, a debut winner going six furlongs at Belmont last time Oct. 9, got first run and struck the front approaching the eighth pole.

Mo Donegal was traveling nicely and looked en route to a convincing score as he began to uncork down the stretch, but Zandon fought back gamely on the inside. Mo Donegal kept on coming, however, and got the bob, and while it appeared on the head-on like the pair made contact just before the line, possibly as a result of Ortiz, Jr. angling in on Mo Donegal, the result was allowed to stand. It was a long way back to Midnight Chrome (California Chrome) in third.

“We were watching the inquiry upstairs and they put it into four screens so it was hard to see, obviously they came close together right at the finish,” winning trainer Todd Pletcher said. “I'd have to watch it again. I couldn't see from up there if they touched or not, but Irad [Ortiz, Jr.] did say it was right at the wire.”

Ortiz, Jr. added, “We were down the lane fighting in a big race. [John Velazquez] was riding his horse and I was riding mine. It was a good race and we got together a little before the wire, but it was a beautiful race. [Mo Donegal] tried his hardest and I did my best. We got lucky with the head bob and got there.”

Third with some trouble in his sprint debut at Belmont Sept. 30, the $250,000 KEESEP yearling relished the stretch out to a one-turn 1 1/16 miles in Elmont Oct. 21, earning an 82 Beyer Speed Figure while defeating the aforementioned Fromanothamutha by 1 1/2 lengths. The third-place finisher that day Life Is Great (Tapiture) returned with a blowout maiden victory at the Big A Nov. 20. Mo Donegal was making his two-turn debut in the Remsen, which offered 10-4-2-1 GI Kentucky Derby qualifying points.

This was the third Remsen win for Pletcher and second for Jerry Crawford's Donegal Racing, which annexed the early Triple Crown trail event in 2011 with Dale Romans-trained O'Prado Again.

Pletcher added, “I thought he ran great. He was getting a good, ground-saving trip and put himself in a good spot. He kind of had to angle out a little bit and lost some ground there but it looked like when he got there he is still trying to figure out how to polish it off. The other horse battled back.”

On a potential next start, he said, “I'll talk to Jerry [Crawford] and we'll see, but before the race we talked about going to Florida and wintering there. There's tons of options. We can always come back up here from there or go any direction.”

The unlucky Zandon, owned by Jeff Drown and trained by Chad Brown, raced three wide on both turns and covered 46 feet more than Mo Donegal, according to Trakus.

“[Mo Donegal] should have come down,” Brown said. “We got beat an inch. I thought we had the best horse in the race, so it's disappointing. But he's a nice horse so we'll get him going and train him towards the Derby.”

Pedigree Notes:

Callingmissbrown has had three foals on the ground, including a yearling filly by Into Mischief who brought $500,000 at Keeneland September from Solis/Litt, and is doing her part to carry on the promise shown in her own dam, Island Sand. The latter's wins included the 2004 GI Acorn and she sold for $4.2 million at the 2007 Keeneland November sale to Kern Lillingston Association while carrying her second foal by A.P. Indy. While she did produce a number of winners, including MGISP Maya Malibu (Malibu Moon), Island Sand brought just $52,000 from John Ropes at Keeneland's same sale in 2019 and was bred to the late Bernardini for next term. Callingmissbrown herself was bred to Curlin.

With only his seventh crop of racing age, Ashford Stud's Uncle Mo has churned out a remarkable number of top horses with Mo Donegal his 75th Northern Hemisphere-foaled stakes winner. Champion Nyquist leads his 40 graded winners, with additional GISW Mo Town his sire's first Remsen scorer in 2016. Other than Mo Donegal, Uncle Mo has no other stakes performers out of daughters of Pulpit, although he does have two by Pulpit's sire, A.P. Indy, and one by Pulpit's best sire son, Tapit. The late Pulpit is the broodmare sire of 85 stakes winners.

Saturday, Aqueduct
REMSEN S.-GII, $250,000, Aqueduct, 12-4, 2yo, 1 1/8m, 1:53.61, ft.
1–MO DONEGAL, 118, c, 2, by Uncle Mo
                1st Dam: Callingmissbrown, by Pulpit
                2nd Dam: Island Sand, by Tabasco Cat
                3rd Dam: Sue's Last Dance, by Forty Niner
   1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($250,000
Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-Donegal Racing; B-Ashview Farm & Colts
Neck Stables (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher; J-Irad Ortiz, Jr.
$137,500. Lifetime Record: 3-2-0-1, $197,800. Click for the
   eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick Rating: A+++
   *Triple Plus*.
2–Zandon, 118, c, 2, Upstart–Memories Prevail, by Creative
Cause. 1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($170,000
Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-Jeff Drown; B-Brereton C. Jones (KY);
T-Chad C. Brown. $50,000.
3–Midnight Chrome, 118, c, 2, California Chrome–Tipsy At
Midnight, by Midnight Lute. 1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED
BLACK TYPE. ($35,000 Ylg '20 FTKOCT). O-Alexandria Stable;
B-New Dawn Stable, LLC & Deo Volente Farms (KY); T-J. Tyler
Servis. $30,000.
Margins: NO, 9 3/4, NK. Odds: 1.45, 1.35, 41.25.
Also Ran: Mr Jefferson, Eloquist, Who Hoo Thats Me, Fromanothamutha, Judge Davis. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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Nest Seeks Black-Type Badge in Demoiselle

Todd Pletcher looks to double up in Saturday's juvenile events, sending out morning-line favorite Nest (Curlin) in Aqueduct's GII Demoiselle S. just 30 minutes after he saddles Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo) in the GII Remsen S. Romping by five lengths in her two-turn Belmont unveiling Nov. 5, the $350,000 KEESEP purchase checked in third in Belmont's one-mile Tempted S. Nov. 5. Pletcher also saddles Miss Interpret (Street Sense), winner of an off-the-turf renewal of the P.G. Johnson S.

“She should love the mile and an eighth. She had a good work on Saturday morning so she's right on course,” Pletcher said.

Tempted runner-up Magic Circle (Kantharos) also returns in this test. A decisive winner first out at Saratoga Sept. 5, the chestnut checked in fourth to future champion Echo Zulu (Gun Runner) in the GI Frizette S. at Big Sandy Oct. 3.

Tap the Faith (Tapit), a $1.25-million KEESEP buy and daughter of GISW Embellish the Lace (Super Saver), enters off a late-rallying score in her career bow at Belmont Nov. 7.

“I'm running back a little bit quick in the Demoiselle, but she's been working too well so I've got to go,” trainer Christophe Clement said. “She's sound and she looks good. I would have liked an extra week or two, but that's the way it goes. She'll get a rest after this.”

Bill Mott also sends out an impressive debut winner in this test in Godolphin homebred Nostalgic (Medaglia d'Oro). The bay ran away to a 7 3/4-length decision going 1 1/16 miles in Elmont Oct. 22.

Venti Valentine (Firing Line) faces open company for the first time after defeating her fellow Empire-breds in her first two starts. Closing from well back to get up by a nose in a NY-bred event going six panels at Belmont Sept. 26, the chestnut was a good-looking winner of a sloppy renewal of the state-bred Maid of the Mist S. there Oct. 30.

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Pletcher Duo Loom Large in Cigar Mile

Todd Pletcher has won the GI Cigar Mile four times with the most recent being the 2012 renewal won by Stay Thirsty (Bernardini). The Hall of Famer has a strong chance to take home his fifth Cigar Mile title Saturday when he saddles the two top choices Americanrevolution (Constitution) and Following Sea (Runhappy).

Americanrevolution was moved to Pletcher after his debut and won his first three starts for his new barn, including dominant score in the state-bred New York Derby July 19 at Finger Lakes and Albany S. Aug. 27 at Saratoga. Third when returned to open company and stepped up to the big leagues for the Sept. 25 GI Pennsylvania Derby, the flashy chestnut put on a show in a sloppy renewal of the Empire Classic H. At Belmont Oct. 30, splashing home an 11 3/4-length winner and earning a 108 Beyer Speed Figure in the process.

“He's been very consistent, and he's accomplished a lot in a short period of time,” Pletcher said. “He's made a lot of progress. It's another class test and he's dropping back in distance which is always a challenge, but he deserves a chance.”

Following Sea earned the 'TDN Rising Star' nod for his impressive second-out graduation at Oaklawn Apr. 10 while under the care of Bob Baffert. Part of a group of Spendthrift runners transferred to Pletcher after the GI Kentucky Derby, the bay romped in a Belmont allowance June 3 and completed the trifecta when stretched to two turns for the GI Haskell Invitational S. July 17. He was third again next out behind Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) and his GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile-winning stablemate Life is Good (Into Mischief) in the GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S. at Saratoga Aug. 28. Following Sea scored a good-looking victory in Belmont's GII Vosburgh S. Oct. 9 and was a respectable third in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint S. at Del Mar last out Nov. 6.

“He still has to prove himself going further,” Pletcher said. “He was impressive in the Vosburgh and his allowance race and in his maiden win sprinting. He's always given us the impression of a horse that will run further, and he's certainly built like one that would.”

Independence Hall (Constitution) looks to close his career in style with a long-awaited Grade I score. A black-type winner at two, three and now four, the dark bay was third in the GII Californian S. Apr. 17 and was subsequently shelved. Fifth in the GI Pacific Classic when he returned Aug. 21, Independence Hall was second to likely Horse of the Year Knicks Go (Paynter) in the Oct. 2 GIII Lukas Classic and powered home a 7 1/4-length winner of the GII Hagyard Fayette S. in the slop at Keeneland Oct. 30. MGISW and Fayette runner-up Code of Honor (Noble Mission {GB}) also returns here.

Dirt Mile runner-up and GII Pat O'Brien S. winner Ginobili (Munnings) ships east along with Independence Hall for this prestigious event.

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