Todd Pletcher | Horse Racing Free Tips

Pletcher Sends Out Lucifer’s Lair In Quest Of Sixth Victory In Adirondack

Impressive debut winners Ava's Grace and Lucifer's Lair along with Make Mischief, runner-up in the Grade 3 Schuylerville on Opening Day, headline a compact but competitive field of six for Wednesday's 104th running of the Grade 2, $150,000 Adirondack for 2-year-old fillies at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

The 6 1/2-furlong Adirondack is the second in Saratoga's series of three races for juvenile fillies, following the six-furlong Schuylerville on July 16 and preceding the Grade 1, $250,000 Spinaway at seven furlongs on September 6.

Trainer Todd Pletcher is a five-time winner of the Adirondack, one fewer than his Hall of Fame mentor D. Wayne Lukas, most recently taking back-to-back editions in 2016-17 with Nonna Mela and Pure Silver, respectively.

Pletcher will be represented this year by The Elkstone Group's Maryland homebred Lucifer's Lair. The bay's sire, Quality Road, won the Grade 2 Amsterdam in 2009 and Grade 1 Woodward in 2010 at Saratoga, while the dam, Devil's Cave, also was a graded-stakes winner going long on the dirt.

Lucifer's Lair was unveiled on July 19 at the Spa, pressing a brisk pace going 5 ½ furlongs before forging a short lead entering the stretch and going on to win by three lengths in 1:05.33.

“She had trained like a filly that was capable of winning her debut. She's a pretty professional, straightforward sort so we were hoping for a good race,” Pletcher said. “She was early to come in and we had a good foundation into her, so we felt like we had her pretty fit going into that. By Quality Road, you would think that she would improve stretching out, as well.”

Lucifer's Lair tuned up for the Adirondack with a half-mile work in 49.49 seconds over Saratoga's main track on August 6. Meet-leading rider Irad Ortiz, Jr., aboard for her debut triumph, gets the return call from post 5.

“We were very pleased with her debut. She's been training good since then and had a nice breeze yesterday, so it seems like she's ready to go again,” Pletcher said. “Certainly it's going to be a tough race, but it's the logical next move.”

Southern Equine Stables' homebred Ava's Grace will be making her Saratoga debut in the Adirondack, exiting a come-from-behind half-length victory in 59.38 seconds for five furlongs on July 3 at Ellis Park.

The bay Laoban filly was then shipped to Saratoga where she shows three breezes over the main track, the most recent a five-furlong drill in 1:01.19 on August 4 for trainer Robertino Diodoro.

“We worked her the other day and she handled it impressively. To work five-eighths by herself as a 2-year-old, she's really developing into a nice filly,” Diodoro said. “It's going to be a big test for her, but she's doing everything right. What I like is she's doing everything right and her works have been a little better and a little better each time.

“I always say a big part of all these horses, but especially young horses, is the mental part,” he added. “Especially with fillies. She's about as smart as they come and as classy as they come. She's a very classy filly.”

Ava's Grace broke from the rail in her debut and rated in fifth before steadily making up ground to get within a neck of the lead at the top of the stretch under jockey David Cohen, who gets the assignment again from post 1.

“She wasn't as prepared a first-time starter as we usually have them. It was kind of a rush situation for a couple different reasons but she handled everything amazingly well, from the paddock to the gate,” Diodoro said. “A lot of times when you do stuff like that with a filly you'll blow their mind, but it didn't even faze her. She's come back really well and shipped up here well. We've had her up to the gate, we've had her in the paddock. She acts like a nice, late 3-year-old filly. She's just very professional.”

Diodoro said her poise may come from the sire. Also campaigned by Southern Equine with McCormick Racing, Laoban ran third in the Grade 3 Sham and second in the Grade 3 Gotham in 2016, not breaking his maiden until later that summer in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga, following off-the-board efforts in the Grade 1 Blue Grass and Grade 1 Preakness.

“We've got a couple more Laobans down at Ellis and they're all the same way. They're just very professional, they're good-looking horses and very smart horses. I know it's a new sire, but it could be a little trademark coming here,” Diodoro said. “A friend of mine has got one at Prairie Meadows and without me even saying anything, he started telling me about this Laoban he's got. He said the same thing, he acts like a nice 3-year-old.”

Diodoro said he will leave the decision up to Cohen but expects Ava's Grace to be among the top flight in the Adirondack.

“I think she could be closer. She broke out of the one hole last time. She's had a little more gate experience now. I think she'll be forwardly placed, very forwardly placed. It's going to be interesting. It's always neat with these young horses, to watch them develop,” Diodoro said. “She's a good-sized filly. She'll grow a little more in height but, to be honest, I think she's the perfect size. She's just put together nice.”

Trainer Mark Casse won last year's Adirondack with Perfect Alibi, and he'll attempt to defend his title with Gary Barber's Make Mischief. The daughter of Into Mischief, debuted with a five-furlong maiden special weight victory on June 18 at Belmont Park, then set the pace in the Schuylerville for a half-mile before giving way to finish second behind Dayoutoftheoffice.

Hall of Famer John Velazquez and Make Mischief will break from post 2.

Heider Family Stables' Thoughtfully first made headlines last summer at Saratoga by fetching $950,000 at Fasig-Tipton's Selected Yearling Sale, then ran to her price tag in debut, an 8 ¾-length maiden special weight romp on June 11 at Churchill Downs for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, a two-time Adirondack winner. She has breezed five times at Saratoga including a bullet five furlongs in 1:00.91 on August 3.

Up on the Tapit filly in debut, Ricardo Santana, Jr. rides back from post 4.

AVQ Racing's Lilac Lace will try the dirt after graduating at first asking in a 5 ½-furlong turf sprint on July 12 at Keeneland. Trainer Anthony Quartorolo enlisted Hall of Famer Javier Castellano to ride from post 3.

Completing the field is Michael J. Ryan's Beautiful Farewell, winless in two starts including a fifth, beaten 2 ½ lengths, in a six-furlong maiden special weight on August 2 at Saratoga. Joel Rosario climbs aboard for the first time from outside post 6.

The Adirondack is slated as Race 9 on Wednesday's 10-race card, which offers a first post of 12:50 p.m. Eastern. Saratoga Live will present daily television coverage of the 40-day summer meet on FOX Sports and MSG Networks. For the complete Saratoga Live broadcast schedule, and additional programming information, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule.

NYRA Bets is the official wagering platform of Saratoga Race Course, and the best way to bet every race of the 40-day summer meet. Available to horseplayers nationwide, NYRA Bets is currently offering a $200 new member bonus in addition to a host of special weekly offers. The NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at www.NYRABets.com.

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Jack Sisterson Talks Vexatious, Returning Calumet to Glory On TDN Writers’ Room

Two years ago, when it was announced that legendary Calumet Farm was hiring Jack Sisterson as its primary trainer, there was skepticism. At just 33 years old, with only experience as an assistant to his name, it was fair to question whether or not Sisterson was prepared to carry the flag for such a powerful racing and breeding brand. Those questions have now been answered–resoundingly in the affirmative, as just a short while later, Sisterson has not only proved equal to the task, but appears on his way to the even larger accomplishment of restoring historic Calumet to the glory of its heyday.

Still in the afterglow of pulling off a colossal upset of champion Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute) with Calumet’s Vexatious (Giant’s Causeway) in the GI Personal Ensign S. at Saratoga, Sisterson joined the TDN Writers’ Room podcast presented by Keeneland Wednesday to talk about his first Grade I victory, his hands-on education in racing and the bright future for him and Calumet.

Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Sisterson spoke on how he adapted his training approach to fit Vexatious, who is reaching her career peak at the age of six.

“She has an extremely high cruising speed, and she can carry that over a distance of ground,” he said. “What we found with her, she’s a filly that loves to train at 5:30. She goes right out when the track opens, because that’s what she wants. She’s very businesslike and wants to get on with it. And when I initially got her, if I asked her to go three-quarters of a mile in a workout, she would put so much effort into it that she was doing too much in the mornings and not leaving it for the afternoon. So we decided to back up all of her works to half a mile and crossed our fingers that would result in her being a little bit more energetic in the afternoons. It’s slightly worrisome when you just breeze them half a mile–do they have enough foundation in them to compete at that classic type of distance on the dirt? But with her, she puts so much effort into her gallops and half-mile breezes that she’s in that happy stage of her career at the moment.”

Asked about the process that led to his hiring by Calumet, Sisterson credited former boss Doug O’Neill and compared the aura of Calumet to another iconic brand from his upbringing playing soccer in England.

“Initially, when I had this small conversation with them, I’d never been to the farm before,” he said. “I was working for Doug at the time, who still to this day is very supportive of everything I do, which I’m very grateful for. It was Doug who pushed me out there, saying, ‘If you don’t do it, I’m going to do it.’ Being from England and a soccer player, when you grow up, there’s Manchester United, at the top of the league with so much history and success. I assumed Calumet was the Manchester United of farms. Why would they want someone like me? I’m nobody. It was honoring, humbling. I’m just a very, very, very small piece of so much hard work that goes in behind the scenes that people don’t see.”

It was soccer that first brought Sisterson to the United States and sent him on his path to stardom in the Thoroughbred racing world. Having a lifelong passion for both sports, Sisterson killed two birds with one stone by enrolling at the University of Louisville, which led to a first racing gig working alongside a Hall of Fame trainer.

“From as far as I can remember, there was racing on TV or we were going to some big racing events in the Northeast of England,” he recalled. “I fell in love with it from day one and always wanted to have some involvement in it. I was fortunate enough to be offered a soccer scholarship at Louisville, which offered the equine program. And in return, I worked summers for Todd Pletcher. That was my first introduction to the American side of racing.”

Elsewhere on the show, the writers analyzed last weekend’s major stakes action, previewed Saturday’s GI Runhappy Travers S. and took stock of where the 3-year-old picture stands exactly one month away from the GI Kentucky Derby. Then, in the West Point Thoroughbreds news segment, they reacted to the news of increased restrictions on out-of-state jockeys attempting the ride in the Derby, even as fans are still slated to be on track with much more lax requirements. Click here to watch the podcast on Vimeo, and click here for the audio-only version.

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Nonna Madeline Shows Off Her Two-Turn Chops In Summer Colony

Trainer Todd Pletcher said last week that he was optimistic two turns could continue to suit Nonna Madeline's strengths. The 4-year-old daughter of Candy Ride proved her connections prophetic, dueling with Golden Award into the stretch before pulling away to a 1 1/4-length win in Wednesday's $85,000 Summer Colony for fillies and mares 4-years-old and up at Saratoga Race Course.

Owned by Teresa Viola Racing Stales and St. Elias Stable, Nonna Madeline entered looking for her first win of the campaign after back-to-back runner-up efforts, including at 1 1/16 miles on April 16 at Oaklawn Park. Stretching out to 1 1/8 miles for the first time, Nonna Madeline, the even-money favorite, stayed just off 3-2 Golden Award's early fractions as she led the five-horse field through an opening quarter-mile in 23.31 seconds, the half in 46.22 and three-quarters in 1:09.66 on the fast main track.

Irad Ortiz, Jr. moved Nonna Madeline up from the outside, taking command entering the stretch. At the top of the straightaway, Ortiz, Jr. gave left-handed encouragement to ward off Golden Award's bid to retake the lead near the rail. Nonna Madeline hit the wire in a 1:49.13 final time, earning her first stakes win in seven attempts.

“I had a perfect trip,” Ortiz, Jr. said. “We didn't know what [Golden Award] was going to do. I just went with my plan to come running out of there and if I can make the lead easy, make it, and if something else changed, Todd let me do whatever I needed to do.

“The other horse [Golden Award] was right there in the first turn,” he continued. “She broke sharp, so I just sat second beside her. We were going a little fast but I didn't have too many options. She was the filly to beat so I had to stay there. She was very comfortable. She wasn't going that keen, and on the backside she relaxed a little bit and she was still in the race. She never backed up, so that was great.”

Pletcher trained three-fifths of the field, with Bellera and Always Shopping running third and fourth, respectively, while the Rob Atras-conditioned Bossy Bride completed the order of finish in fifth.

“I didn't anticipate that they would go that fast. It sort of turned into a match race up front, and I'm proud of her for digging in and finding more the first time going a mile and an eighth,” Pletcher said. “She was coming out of some faster races so we anticipated we'd be close.

“Like I said before the race, you can have a plan but you're not sure what everyone else's plans are,” he added. “We were in a good position for that filly, and I thought [stablemate] Bellera was sitting an ideal trip and just kind of ran evenly. It was a big effort from Nonna Madeline and nice to see her get a stakes win.”

Nonna Madeline made her first Saratoga appearance since running twice as a juvenile in 2018, finishing second in the Grade 3 Schuylerville and fifth in the Grade 1 Spinaway. On Wednesday, she returned $4.30 on a $2 win bet and improved her career earnings to $202,190.

“The more we've done with her and having had the opportunity to run her two turns at Oaklawn, I thought there was a decent chance she'd see out the mile and an eighth,” Pletcher said. “To be honest with you, I looked at this one hoping to get that stake win for her. Now that we've got that, we can be a little more ambitious.”

Golden Award, trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott and ridden by Junior Alvarado, finished 7 ¼ lengths in front of Bellera, placing for the 10th time in 14 career races for the 5-year-old Medaglia d'Oro mare.

“I had a great trip,” Alvarado said. “I thought there was going to be a little more competition at the end but my horse and the winner took it from the beginning. We were head-to-head the whole way, and I think today the other horse was best. We were just second-best.”

Bellera, who capped her 2019 with a win in the Grade 3 Comely in November at Aqueduct Racetrack and last out ran third in the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap in June, earned blacktype for the fifth time in six starts.

Live racing resumes Thursday at Saratoga with a nine-race card that includes the $100,000 New York Stallion Stakes Series Cab Calloway for state-bred 3-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles on the turf in Race 8 at 5:14 p.m. First post is 1:10 p.m.

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘What Kind Of A Person Am I?’

It may have been “just” a West Virginia-bred maiden race at Charles Town on July 16, but there was a time that 54-year-old owner Bill Goodman considered it a win just that Eternal Heart was still alive.

The filly, a 3-year-old daughter of First Samurai, has already endured and overcome more adversity than most horses face in a lifetime. As a yearling, Eternal Heart's nervous system was attacked by a parasite, Sarcocystis neurona, the culprit behind the debilitating and often deadly disease Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (EPM).

Her recovery is a story about perseverance, about faith, and, above all, about the people who work incredibly hard to do right by the animals with whose lives they are entrusted.

“This business gets a really bad rap, but I've seen some people do some amazing things,” Goodman said, his voice wavering as the emotion overwhelmed him. “They get this horse, this West Virginia-bred with these issues, and just treated her like she was Ruffian or something. That's just the kind of people who are in this business. People like this need to be known. And the little guys don't get the chance for these good horses, and they should, because she would never be where she is if she had been in any other barn.”

Like any good blockbuster film, the journey began with a midlife crisis.

In 2011, Goodman was managing an Irish pub for a friend in Miami, Fla., and had never worked around horses. He loved the races, however, and spent many an afternoon playing the ponies at Gulfstream Park.

“One morning at like six a.m., as I was putting the night deposit in the bank, I just had this thought, 'I don't want to be here, I don't want to do this anymore,'” Goodman explained. “I said to myself, 'I think I'll go to Gulfstream Park, and I'm gonna get a license, and I'm gonna get a job there. So I walked through the back gate, having never walked a horse in my life.”

Goodman was told no at almost every barn, but trainer Peter Gulyas saw him walking the backside and quickly agreed to show Goodman the ropes. That lasted for several months, but when Gulyas got down to just four horses, he had to let Goodman go.

Ever the pragmatist, Goodman called the phone number on trainer Todd Pletcher's website, and got connected with assistant Whit Beckman at Keeneland. Beckman hired him to hot-walk over the phone, and Goodman drove up to Lexington that very night, arriving at Keeneland at three in the morning.

“I worked for Todd for just three weeks, and then I got to go to the Derby at Churchill with Gemologist,” Goodman said. “I was just in heaven. We went from there to Saratoga, and I started asking about learning how to groom. By the time we went to Florida, I had my first four horses.”

Goodman cared for some top horses for Pletcher, attending three Kentucky Derbies and three Breeders' Cups with his charges. Among his favorites were We Miss Artie, My Miss Sophia, Competitive Edge and Ectot.

“I learned a lot from Todd,” said Goodman. “I was very lucky.”

Tragedy struck in 2017 when Goodman's father died. Pletcher told the groom to take as much time off as he needed, that he would always have a job when he was ready to come back.

Goodman had been thinking about shifting into the bloodstock business anyway, and his father's passing allowed him to step back and start working toward that goal. In 2018, he started looking for his first horse, and he finally found her at the October Fasig-Tipton Midlantic yearling sale at Timonium.

Under the banner WJG Legacy Equine (his father's initials), Goodman purchased Eternal Heart for $50,000. He'd gone a bit above his budget, but he just felt there was something special about the compact chestnut filly.

Eternal Heart was sent to Susan Montanye's farm in Florida for her early education, and everything proceeded according to schedule for the first several weeks.

On Oct. 28, Goodman got the call.

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Goodman said. “It was 11:31 in the morning, and the phone rang and it was Susan. I knew right away something was wrong. I remember picking up the phone, and I just said, 'Uh oh.' And she said, 'Yeah, Uh-oh.'”

Eternal Heart's right ear was at a 90-degree angle to her head, her right eye wasn't blinking, and the skin was sagging on the right side of her face.

“She looked like she'd had a stroke, basically,” said Goodman.

Veterinarians quickly diagnosed the filly as neurologic, and started treating her intensely right away. She regained the blinking in her right eye after 24 hours, but two weeks later Goodman got another call.

The parasite, which had originally attached to the filly's brain stem, had migrated to her spinal cord after the aggressive treatment. Now, Eternal Heart was losing control of her hind end, and the prognosis wasn't good.

Goodman was told that euthanasia was the best remaining option, and his insurance company called to offer him a full payout for the filly's $50,000 value.

“I couldn't make the decision, and the vet said she wasn't in pain,” Goodman said. “So I put my head in the sand like an ostrich and said, 'Keep treating her.'”

Montanye suggested that it might not be a bad idea to have Nieke Mailfat, an Eastern medicine specialist, take a look at the filly. Goodman agreed.

“Nieke looked at the filly and she told me, 'I can't make her a racehorse, but I think I can make her a horse,'” Goodman remembered. “Right then it was like, what do I do now? If I put her down now, what kind of a person am I? Yeah, I could get my money back, but how am I gonna live with that?

“I thought I was prepared for it, but you're now in charge of this life. I knew right away when they told me, I knew it was going to be a moral decision.”

Prior to treatment, Eternal Heart registered about a 4.5 on the neurologic scale, which runs from 1 to 5 with 5 being the worst. Mailfat told Goodman that if there was no improvement in three weeks, the filly would never get better.

In just four days, though, Eternal Heart was showing marked improvements. She'd moved to about a 3.5 on the neurologic scale, and after two weeks she was able to go out in a little round pen.

“She was wobbly but she never fell, and she was just happy to be out,” Goodman said. “I was down there constantly, and she didn't look like the same filly. She's always been a good keeper, though. She'll eat you out of house and home, so that probably saved her.”

In January 2019, Montanye called to say the filly was doing so much better that she wanted to put a saddle on her and tack walk her. Taking small steps forward, Eternal Heart progressed to walking around with a rider on, lunging in the round pen, then jogging on the track by mid-February. In March, they started to let her gallop a bit.

“She was still a little bit unsteady, but she never tripped or stumbled, she just continued to get better,” Goodman said. “Still, the thought process was, 'She can one day be a horse.'”

By May, Eternal Heart told her caretakers that she was ready to stretch her legs in her first “breeze.” By July, the filly showed off her improvement with a work in company, going a quarter in 25 ½ seconds.

“Now the thought process changes to, 'Wow, maybe she can race,'” said Goodman. “Susan said it was time for her to move on, and I decided to send her to Caio Caramori.”

The son of trainer Eduardo Caramori, Caio operates out of the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington. The two met because Goodman had become friends with Pletcher assistant Byron Hughes. Hughes and Caio Caramori were childhood friends, and Hughes brokered the introduction shortly after Goodman started working for Pletcher.

Goodman and Caramori started playing golf together and talking horses. Eventually, their friendship progressed to the point that Goodman would stay on Caramori's parents' farm whenever Pletcher's string was based in Lexington, and Goodman even lived there for a while after his father died.

“Sending her to Caio was unquestionably the best decision I've made, because she would never be where she is today without him and his wife, Emma,” Goodman said. “They're just good people.”

Emma Caramori and baby Cora visit Eternal Heart

Eternal Heart arrived in Lexington on July 17, and Caramori quickly suggested treating her for EPM once again. The trainer warned Goodman that treating the filly might cause her to regress in the short term, but he felt strongly that it was the best thing for her moving forward.

She did regress, but after a week Eternal Heart started going the right way again. Caramori was almost ready to start looking for a race for her in December, but since she'd missed out on so much early training, Eternal Heart just hadn't had the physical preparation to be ready to race at two.

Caramori turned her out for 90 days over the winter in Florida, then started to bring her back again. She'd jog one day, then be turned out the next day for nearly a month before Caramori resumed full training with her in April.

“Caio just treated her like she was his own horse,” Goodman said. “I was in the stall a lot, but when I had to leave Florida to go work for Dermot (Magner), I knew she was in good hands.”

When Eternal Heart was ready, Caramori set up a breeze with company, a filly who had won at first asking. Working from the gate, Eternal Heart was a couple steps slow at the start and got out-breezed.

“Caio called me and said, 'Don't be disappointed,'” remembered Goodman. “It was hard not to be, but the next week he called again and said, 'Eternal Heart told me she wants a rematch.'”

In their next matchup, Eternal Heart blew the doors off her rival. It was time to enter her in a race.

Goodman drove down to West Virginia on July 16 to watch Eternal Heart win at first asking, racing without Lasix and topping her nearest rival by three-quarters of a length to earn $16,125.

“I'll never forget when she turned into the paddock at Charles Town, she had this look on her face like 'I'm not in Kansas anymore,'” said Goodman. “In the race, she split horses and then she just never let anybody get by her. The jockey, J.D. Acosta, told me after the race, 'Man, she is so green but she has so much talent.' His agent called the next day and said he wants to keep riding her!”

Future plans for Eternal Heart call for the filly to stay in West Virginia, where there are multiple conditions she can run through.

“Even if she never wins again, just that she did what she did, it's so impressive,” said Goodman. “She's already paid me back, big-time. … She's just got this something about her, she just doesn't want to lose. It's pretty humbling, actually. For two years, she has consumed every moment of my thoughts.”

Working with horses has filled a place in Goodman's life he hadn't known was empty, and the journey with Eternal Heart has reemphasized just how important it is to find the right people and to never give up.

“Caio and Susan and everybody, they've made her into a racehorse,” Goodman said. “They've protected her and they've protected me, and they've put up with me. I've been fortunate to make good decisions, and those good decisions were a product of how I was raised and the people who raised me. Just hanging around people who are good people, and who are going to do the right thing.”

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