Todd Pletcher | Horse Racing Free Tips

China Horse Club’s Breeding Operation Continues To Branch Out

A new chapter in the evolution of China Horse Club has been written with confirmation that the first yearling produced by one of its American-based Grade 1-winning racehorses is now taking its formative steps towards a racing career.

Yellow Agate, who became the China Horse Club's inaugural Grade 1 winner in the United States, is again blazing a trail for the internationally-minded operation, closing the final loop in a long-standing plan to buy and race elite fillies before breeding them to sell at major markets the world over.

“This is an exciting time for the Club. A long-term plan set in process several years ago is now coming full circle,” said Michael Wallace, chief operating officer for the China Horse Club. “In 2015 we started a plan to selectively purchase quality fillies from major sales around the world. The objective being to develop some of them into Grade 1 winners on the track and, in time, for these Grade 1 winning fillies and mares to become a cornerstone of our breeding operations in major markets.

“That has now happened,” he continued. “Earlier this year we had First Seal's first yearling offered publicly at auction in Australia and this spring we have the first yearling by one of our American stars, Yellow Agate, taking the first steps in his career for his new owners.”

In April, a Snitzel colt out of G1 Flight Stakes winner First Seal topped the 2020 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, Australia's premier yearling sale, when Coolmore Australia won out with a final bid of $1,800,000 Australian (US$1,315,751). The athletic colt has recently turned two and is in the care of champion trainer Chris Waller.

The Curlin x Yellow Agate colt is currently being broken in at Stonestreet Farm before joining the operation of Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. Pletcher's record grows season upon season and its achievements with the China Horse Club and partners are representative of this. He trained former G1 Florida Derby winner and now WinStar Farm-based sire Audible, Kentucky Oaks contender Ivy Bell and currently oversees the careers of the stakes-winner Valiance and the above-average Fearless.

Yellow Agate was purchased from the 2015 Keeneland September Yearling Sale and franked that assessment by becoming a Grade 1 winner at just her second start in the 2016 Frizette Stakes. That explosive performance was a career highlight for the athletic bay who joined China Horse Club's U.S.-based breeding operation after an injury setback.

The 2008 Eclipse Horse of the Year, Curlin, was chosen as the first mate for Yellow Agate. In the ensuing years the champion racehorse has continued to build on his imposing record as a sire and there is every reason to be buoyant about this latest prospect by Yellow Agate.

“The Curlin x Yellow Agate yearling is a stunning colt, he really is,” Wallace said. “He has always been highlighted rated in our system and just continue to develop physically. He is a really powerful type who gets over ground well.

“Earlier this year Yellow Agate delivered a filly by Quality Road and she is just exceptional,”Wallace continued. “The mare is doing a wonderful job to China Horse Club. She is the racetrack graduate we hoped for and she is throwing her athletic frame into her progeny and giving them the chance to replicate what she was able to do on the track.”

Yellow Agate was covered again by star stallion Quality Road in March. In Australia, China Horse Club's talismanic First Seal was covered by champion first, second and third-season sire Zoustar earlier this month.

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Honor Roll Presented By The Runhappy Meet At Kentucky Downs: Social Paranoia’s Road From The Sale Ring To The Dueling Grounds Derby

Joe Seitz remembers $75,000 being a “fair price” when the now 4-year-old Social Paranoia sold as part of the Brookdale Sales consignment at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July Yearling Sale in 2017.

Street Boss, the colt's sire, was standing for $10,000 live foal at Darley when Social Paranoia was conceived, so 7.5 times the stud fee was a profitable multiple for his breeders, Mineola Farm and Silent Grove Farm.

Social Paranoia's buyer and current owner, Stuart Grant's The Elkstone Group, has enjoyed an even higher multiple off the purchase price. After 15 career starts for trainer Todd Pletcher, Social Paranoia has earned $929,710, more than one-third of that coming from his 2019 victory at Kentucky Downs in the $600,000 Exacta Systems Dueling Grounds Derby.

Ridden by Jose Ortiz, Social Paranoia raced closed to the lead on the European-style turf layout at Kentucky Downs, moved to the lead inside the furlong pole and edged clear late to win by a half-length. His time of 2:08.50 for 1 5/16 miles established a new course record.

“I remember him clearly when he was at Fasig-Tipton,” Seitz said recently. “He was very popular, an awesome sale horse. We got $75,000, which was a fine price, but I had hoped he would do more.

“Fortunately, he got in the right hands, with Stuart Grant and Todd Pletcher.”

Slow to leave the maiden ranks (though he was third in the Grade 3 Pilgrim in the last of five starts at two), Social Paranoia scored his initial career win in his first start at three at Gulfstream Park and has exclusively competed in stakes competition ever since.

His big score at Kentucky Downs was the final start of 2019 for Social Paranoia, who began his 2020 campaign with a victory in the G3 Appleton Stakes at Gulfstream. Most recently he unleashed a furious stretch rally to win the G3 Poker Stakes at Belmont on July 4. He's just resumed training after a minor setback following the Poker and was not nominated for any stakes at the upcoming Runhappy Kentucky Downs meet, according to Pletcher.

Brookdale will be offering a full-brother to Social Paranoia in Book 2 of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

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Still Embattled In Civil Suit, Ahmed Zayat Files For Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, Listing String Of Racing Creditors

Ahmed Zayat, best known in horse racing as the owner of 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah through his Zayat Stables, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection on Sept. 8. Paperwork filed in United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey lists a long string of trainers, veterinarians, transport companies, and others as creditors for expenses totaling tens of millions of dollars.

Unlike Chapter 13 or 11 bankruptcy, Chapter 7 does not involve the filing of a repayment plan. Rather, a bankruptcy trustee is appointed to gather and sell assets and pay creditors when possible. Some of the debtor's property may be exempt, but anything nonexempt will be liquidated.

A lengthy list of creditors attached to the filing revealed a number of horse trainers owed amounts in the six figures, among them Bob Baffert, who is owed $227,884.17, Brad Cox ($194,836.19), Mike Maker ($120,921.88), Richard Baltas ($316,070.12), Steve Asmussen ($102,541.10) and Todd Pletcher ($125,598.69). Rudy Rodriguez, who was awarded a judgment by a New York court for $394,437.19, is also listed. Jorge Navarro's JN Racing is owed $63,822.01.

Veterinary hospitals Hagyard Equine Medical ($38,999.53), Rood and Riddle ($54,346.77), and Kentucky Equine Medical Associates ($19,937.32) are also on the list, as are numerous therapists, individual veterinarians, van companies, and others.

Several financial advisement companies and individuals are listed, with notes they are owed six or seven figures each. One $250,000 debt is listed for the PMG Operating Account, whose address corresponds to Meadows Gaming.

Some, though not all, of these creditors' claims are marked as disputed.

Zayat and his racing operation were named in a civil lawsuit earlier this year in Fayette County Circuit Court from New York investment firm MGG Investments, stemming from a $30 million loan he took out in 2016. MGG won a summary judgment in the amount of $24.5 million earlier this year, representing the remaining balance Zayat Stables owes on the loan. Zayat Stables has countersued, and the bankruptcy paperwork listed the final amount owed to MGG as unknown for the moment. Control of Zayat Stables has been placed into the hands of a court-appointed receiver, who has raced a few of the stable's remaining horses and sold many of them, with an aim to maximize profit in the court of liquidating the operation.

Cedarview Capital, a New York hedge fund, is owed $7.9 million. In documents filed as part of the MGG suit, Zayat indicated he had paid over $1 million in interest to Cedarview, and stated it was one of the lenders he took on alongside MGG. In emails dated January of this year, Zayat claimed to have traveled to China in an attempt to attract investors to inject cash into the stable in order to “make the company fiscally functional” and to repay MGG and Cedarview.

In 2009, Zayat Stable filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after Zayat was sued by Fifth Third Bank for allegedly defaulting on $34 million in equine loans.

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Happy Saver Stays Perfect With Federico Tesio Triumph: Preakness ‘On The Radar’

Wertheimer and Frere's homebred Happy Saver, stepping up to stakes company for the first time, kept his perfect record intact through three starts with a popular and professional 1 1/2-length victory in Monday's $100,000 Federico Tesio at Laurel Park in Maryland.

The 39^th running of the 1 1/8-mile Tesio for 3-year-olds was the third of five $100,000 stakes on a special 10-race Labor Day holiday program that capped Laurel's Preakness Prep Weekend. For the fifth straight year, the Tesio served as a 'Win and In' event to the 145^th Preakness (G1) Oct. 3 at Pimlico Race Course.

Seven-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher, watching from Saratoga where he won the training title, said the Preakness would be on the radar for Happy Saver, a chestnut son of Super Saver, who in 2010 gave Pletcher his first of two Kentucky Derby (G1) wins. Not Triple Crown nominated, Happy Saver would need to be supplemented for $25,000 to run.

“It's hard to win any races, much less your first three and step up in distance in your second start and into a stake in your third start. It's impressive he's been able to do that on three different surfaces, so I'm really pleased with his progress,” Pletcher said. “He's three-for-three and if he comes out and trains accordingly we'll consider stepping up and taking a shot.”

Happy Saver ($2.40), out of the Distorted Humor mare Happy Week, completed the distance over a fast main track in 1:49.15 – the fastest nine-furlong Tesio since Marciano won the 2001 edition in 1:49 when it was held at Pimlico Race Course. The Tesio was contested at 1 1/16 miles from 1981-91 and 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015. It was not run in 2012.

It was the second career Tesio win for both Pletcher and jockey Trevor McCarthy. Pletcher won in 2002 with Smoked Em, while McCarthy was first with Bodhisattva in 2015.

“He really turned it on that last eighth of a mile, the last quarter. They were running,” McCarthy said. “This horse is all class. Everything you want to do, he'll do for you. It was just a big privilege to be on him today. I have to thank Todd and his whole crew for doing such a great job.”

Winner of the Heft Stakes last December at Laurel but unraced since a fourth-place finish in the Withers (G3) Feb. 1 at Aqueduct, Monday Morning Qb broke sharply and was intent on the lead, rolling through a quarter-mile in 24.76 seconds and a half in 48.82 while Amen Corner chased along the rail and McCarthy kept Happy Saver in the clear three wide in third.

Monday Morning Qb was still there after going six furlongs in 1:13.69 when McCarthy began to move on Happy Saver and the top two gained distance from the rest of the field. Happy Saver nudged a head front once straightened for home and was set down for the drive while Monday Morning Qb determinedly kept on to his inside.

“He really warmed up well for me today. I was really impressed with the way he warmed up. He broke really strong and those speed horses on the outside didn't break very well. I knew [Monday Morning Qb] would break good off the layoff. I didn't know how fit that horse would be today but I just left him alone and let my horse get in a great stride and a great rhythm,” McCarthy said. “When [Monday Morning Qb] came to him galloping out, he rebroke. He was pretty impressive.”

Monday Morning Qb was a clear second, nine lengths ahead of late-running Big City Bob, followed by Mexican Wonder Boy, Amen Corner and Letmeno, who stumbled out of the gate and trailed throughout. Plot the Dots was scratched.

Happy Saver went unraced at 2, breaking his maiden at first asking in a seven-furlong sprint June 20 at Belmont Park then stepping up to open allowance company July 26 at Saratoga to win by four lengths at 1 1/8 miles. The Tesio was his first race against straight 3-year-olds.

“I just kind of told Trevor a little bit about the horse and told him he can ride him tactically however he wanted. He won first time out going wire to wire basically seven-eighths and then he came from off the pace and got some good education his second start so I told him to just use his best judgment,” Pletcher said. “He was in the clear, stalking. That was the horse that I felt like we had to beat. The horse put up a good fight but our horse was able to keep finding a little more.”

The Tesio is named for the noted Italian breeder, owner and trainer whose hombreds Nearco and Ribot dominate Thoroughbred bloodlines around the world. Tesio died in Italy in 1954 at age 85.

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