Todd Pletcher | Horse Racing Free Tips

Nest’s Half-Brother Romps in Sapling

While his half-sister, Nest, has been racking up the Grade I victories at Saratoga this summer, Lost Ark (Violence–Marion Ravenwood, by A.P. Indy) stayed behind in Todd Pletcher's Belmont division with Monmouth's Sapling S. targeted. Mission accomplished, as the 2-year-old remained undefeated in two starts and romped by 7 1/2 lengths in the Sapling.

Shuffled back at the start, but securing a mid-pack spot on the inside, Lost Ark was content to let Bourbon Spirit (Liam's Map) battle it out up front for the :23.94 quarter and :47.51 half. Angled out quite wide on the turn, Lost Ark swished his tail as he unfurled a powerful stride to mow down Bourbon Spirit and finish much the best as the even-money favorite.

“I did not want or expect him to be too far back,” said winning rider Javier Castellano. “It was his first time going two turns and first time going longer so those were my only concerns. I got the ideal trip inside and once I took him out he took off and galloped away. Very professional horse.”

Lost Ark's previous outing came July 3 at Belmont, where he attended the pace before pulling clear for a 5 1/2-length score as he posted a 79 debut Beyer in the 5 1/2-furlong maiden special weight. His dam has now produced two GISWs, a SW, and a MSP from six foals to race. She did not produce foals the last two years, but is currently carrying a full-sibling to Nest and is entered in Keeneland's November sale on opening day. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

SAPLING S., $203,500, Monmouth, 8-27, 2yo, 1m, 1:37.20, ft.
1–LOST ARK, 117, c, 2, by Violence
               1st Dam: Marion Ravenwood (SW, $112,598), by A.P. Indy
               2nd Dam: Andujar, by Quiet American
               3rd Dam: Nureyev's Best, by Nureyev
($275,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP). 1ST BLACK TYPE WIN. O-Harrell
Ventures, LLC; B-Ashview Farm & Colts Neck Stables (KY);
T-Todd A. Pletcher; J-Javier Castellano. $120,000. Lifetime
Record: 2-2-0-0, $169,500. *1/2 to Dr Jack (Pioneerof the
Nile), MSP, $156,155; 1/2 to Nest (Curlin), MGISW,
$1,735,550; 1/2 to Idol (Curlin), GISW, $426,964.
2–Bourbon Spirit, 117, c, 2, Liam's Map–Gifted Glory, by
Tapit. ($115,000 Ylg '21 KEEJAN; $200,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP).
1ST BLACK TYPE. O-Flurry Racing Stables LLC and Titletown
Racing Stables; B-St. Elias Stables, LLC (KY); T-Brad H. Cox.
$40,000.
3–Major Dude, 117, c, 2, Bolt d'Oro–Mary Rita, by Distorted
Humor. ($550,000 Ylg '21 FTSAUG). 1ST BLACK TYPE.
O-Spendthrift Farm LLC; B-Clearsky Farms (KY); T-Todd A.
Pletcher. $20,000.
Margins: 7HF, HD, 2 3/4. Odds: 1.00, 9.40, 4.60.
Also Ran: American Blaze, Freedom Road, Saloon, V Mart, Minister for Magic.

The post Nest’s Half-Brother Romps in Sapling appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Malathaat Back on Top in Star-Studded Personal Ensign

Shadwell Stable's 'TDN Rising Star' Malathaat (Curlin) had settled for second to re-opposing Clairiere (Curlin) in both the GI Ogden Phipps S. downstate June 11 and local GII Shuvee S. July 24, but she got rolling in the Saratoga stretch Saturday to blow past the talented tandem of Search Results (Flatter) and Letruska (Super Saver) and post a half-length victory over the former in the GI Personal Ensign S. Clairiere, the 8-5 favorite, acted up in the gate then lagged far back while seemingly not herself.

Having bested Search Results by a neck in last year's GI Longines Kentucky Oaks, Malathaat–a $1,050,000 KEESEP yearling–was narrowly upset in her next start, the track-and-trip GI Coaching Club American Oaks that July. She atoned a month later when defeating Clairiere in the GI Alabama S., and was a close third (a head better than Clairiere) in November's GI Breeders' Cup Distaff at Del Mar, which featured a meltdown pace that did in champion older mare Letruska.

Crowned champion 3-year-old filly at the Eclipse Awards, Malathaat resurfaced to take Keeneland's GIII Doubledogdare S. Apr. 22 before her back-to-back rematches with fellow Stonestreet-bred Clairiere.

Let go as the 16-5 fourth choice in this field of five, Malathaat had only Clairiere beat early as Letruska showed the way with Search Results prompting through sensible splits. Malathaat snuck up the fence under Hall of Famer John Velazquez to take over third from Crazy Beautiful (Liam's Map) down the backside, but seemed out-footed slightly by the top two as they entered the stretch. Velazquez steered Malathaat out into the clear as Search Results headed Letruska, and the hulking Malathaat built up a full head of steam by midstretch to reel in Search Results like she had in last year's Oaks.

“It was very, very nice to see her come back to prove how good a horse she really is,” said Velazquez, who on Thursday became the first rider to reach 1,000 Saratoga wins. “We know she's a good horse. It's hard to tell why she was so dull last time. But today, I just made sure that she was in the game and she showed it. When I pulled her out at the three-sixteenths pole and asked her, she was in the game… Riding good horses is what keeps you coming back. I'm blessed to have this opportunity and to still be doing this.”

Pletcher, who was celebrating his third Personal Ensign victory, said, “It's all about seeing her perform to her capabilities and with all due respect to the rest of the field, we always feel like when she shows up and runs her A-race, that she's the top 4-year-old filly in the country and I think she showed that today.

“I was glad that Search Results was at least keeping some pace but one of my concerns going in was the potential to not be a good pace set up and we've added the blinkers (before the Shuvee) more to keep her more focused than to add more speed and just let her run her race. I thought Johnny rode a super race.”

As for Clairiere's head-scratching performance, jockey Joel Rosario said, “She broke well and then they were kind of getting away from me. She took a long time today to find her stride. She was still coming in the end. She was acting with a little energy [in the gate] and sometimes those things happen. She jumped up a couple times but she was OK. It was not her day, I guess.”

Saturday, Saratoga
PERSONAL ENSIGN S.-GI, $558,000, Saratoga, 8-27, 4yo/up, f/m, 1 1/8m, 1:48.30, ft.
1–MALATHAAT, 124, f, 4, by Curlin
                1st Dam: Dreaming of Julia (GISW, $874,500), by A.P. Indy
                2nd Dam: Dream Rush, by Wild Rush
                3rd Dam: Turbo Dream, by Unbridled
($1,050,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-Shadwell Stable; B-Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher; J-John R. Velazquez. $320,000. Lifetime Record: Ch. 3-year-old filly,12-8-3-1, $2,378,825. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Search Results, 122, f, 4, by Flatter
                1st Dam: Co Cola (GSP), by Candy Ride (Arg)
                2nd Dam: Yong Musician, by Yonaguska
                3rd Dam: Alljazz, by Stop the Music
($310,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-Klaravich Stables, Inc.; B-Machmer Hall (KY); T-Chad C. Brown. $112,000.
3–Letruska, 124, m, 6, by Super Saver
                1st Dam: Magic Appeal (GSP), by Successful Appeal
                2nd Dam: Call Her Magic, by Caller I. D.
                3rd Dam: Malibu Magic, by Encino
O/B-St. George Stables, LLC (KY); T-Fausto Gutierrez. $60,000.
Margins: HF, 2, 6. Odds: 3.20, 3.10, 2.40.
Also Ran: Crazy Beautiful, Clairiere.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPshttp://www.equineline.com/tdn/pedigree.cfm?tk=SAR&cy=USA&rd=09/07/2015&rn=9&de=D &ref=9104432. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

Pedigree Notes:

Malathaat is one of 90 stakes winner and 48 graded winners for her sire, who was represented earlier on the card by new Grade I winner Cody's Wish in the Forego S. She is bred identically to stablemate Nest (Curlin), who looks a lock to provide her sire and trainer with a second consecutive champion 3-year-old filly trophy.

Malathaat was the most expensive yearling filly by Curlin in 2019 (co-fifth among both sexes), and the market certainly hasn't cooled off on the Hill 'n' Dale resident since then. A $600,000 Curlin colt topped the Fasig-Tipton July sale, and he had three fetch seven figures earlier this month across the street, including a $2-million filly bred on the same cross. Curlin's next two highest sellers at that Fasig auction were out of daughters by A.P. Indy sons.

Malathaat's dam annexed the 2012 GI Frizette S. and earned a gaudy 114 Beyer when airing by 21 3/4 lengths in the 2013 GII Gulfstream Park Oaks. The daughter of MGISW Dream Rush has a 2-year-old full-sister named Julia Shining who last breezed up in Saratoga last Friday. Next in the pipeline is a Medaglia d'Oro filly, followed by another Curlin filly foaled Apr. 4. Dreaming of Julia was bred to Into Mischief for 2023.

The post Malathaat Back on Top in Star-Studded Personal Ensign appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Record-Setting International Sire More Than Ready Dies

More Than Ready (Southern Halo–Woodman's Girl, by Woodman), whose 216 worldwide stakes winners is the fourth highest total of all time, was euthanized the morning of Aug. 26 at WinStar Farm due to the cumulative effects of old age. He was 25 years old.

“More Than Ready was an amazing horse who touched everyone he came in contact with,” said Elliott Walden, president, CEO, and racing manager of WinStar Farm. “He may not have been the biggest horse in the barn, but he more than made up for it in class, balance, and character. His expressions said it all. We will greatly miss him at the farm.”

Larry McGinnis, longtime stallion manager at WinStar Farm, said of the legend's passing, “To me, he was more than a great stallion, he was a great friend. It was an honor to take care of such a remarkable horse. I will miss him.”

Bred in Kentucky by Woodlynn Farm Inc., More Than Ready was purchased by Edward Rosen, agent for owner Jim Scatuorchio, for $187,000 at the 1998 Keeneland September sale and won his first five starts for trainer Todd Pletcher, including the GIII Tremont S. and GII Sanford S. before tasting defeat for the first time when stretched to a mile in the GI Champagne S. Dead-heat winner of the GII Hutcheson S. in his sophomore debut, More Than Ready was second in the GII Louisiana Derby and was beaten a head when runner-up in the GI Toyota Blue Grass S. ahead of a meritorious fourth to Fusaichi Pegasus in the GI Kentucky Derby. Focusing on one-turn races for the balance of the season, More Than Ready earned Grade I laurels in Saratoga's King's Bishop S. and was second to stablemate Trippi (End Sweep) in the GI Vosburgh S. He retired to Vinery Kentucky for the 2001 breeding season with seven wins from 17 starts and earnings of $1,026,229, and was one of several Vinery stallions that moved to WinStar upon the closure of that nursery.

We lost a legend today.
With heavy hearts we announce the passing of legendary sire More Than Ready. He will be greatly missed. pic.twitter.com/38hDd2MVZS

— WinStar Farm (@WinStarFarm) August 26, 2022

A Dual-Hemisphere Sensation…

A stallion blessed with tremendous fertility, More Than Ready is the sire of an eye-popping and record-setting 2118 winners to date (72.4% winners to starters), making him the world's most prolific sire of individual winners. With a victory in the GII Wonder Again S. in June 2022, Klaravich Stables' Consumer Spending provided the stallion with his 100th worldwide winner at the group/graded level and the victory occurred on the same Belmont program where Morethanreadyeddie–named in honor of the aforementioned Rosen–won his maiden at first asking over five furlongs. Of his black-type winners (only Galileo {Ire}, Danehill and Sadler's Wells have more), some 26 have struck at the top level in seven racing jurisdictions, including Hong Kong and South Africa. The sire of 17 winners and three stakes winners from his first American crop in 2004, More Than Ready was an instant hit in Australia, where he shuttled to Vinery Stud to serve mares Southern Hemisphere time. To date, he has sired 971 winners in the U.S. and Canada and 905 in Australia and New Zealand. His progeny earnings are in excess of $219 million.

With Australasia's emphasis on speed and precocity, his foals hit the ground running, with six black-type winners among his 17 first-crop winners overall, including G1 Champagne S. heroine Carry On Cutie (Aus). His early Australian crops also featured Benicio (Aus), winner of the 2006 G1 Victoria Derby; Sebring (Aus) and Phelan Ready (Aus), victorious in the prestigious G1 Golden Slipper S. in 2008 and 2009, respectively; G1 Blue Diamond S. hero Samaready (Aus); and G1 Western Australian Derby victress Dreamaway (Aus). More Than Ready has also proven especially potent with Danehill-line mares, resulting in the likes of Group 1 winners More Joyous (Aus), Prized Icon (Aus) and More Than Sacred (Aus) in addition to Benicio (Aus), Sebring (Aus), Perfectly Ready (Aus) and Dreamaway (Aus). More Than Ready's other Southern Hemisphere Group 1 winners include Gimmethegreenlight (Aus) and Entisaar (Aus) in South Africa; and More Than Sacred in New Zealand. His progeny were brilliant enough in the early parts of their careers to score in races like the G1 Golden Slipper and G1 Blue Diamond S., but were equally effective at trips of 2000 meters and beyond in Australian fixtures such as the Queen Elizabeth S., and he accounted for Derby winners in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia. In total, More Than Ready has sired Group 1/Grade I winners in seven countries.

Trainer Todd Pletcher and More Than Ready | Horsephotos

The top-level winners were a bit slower to come at home, but Buster's Ready became More Than Ready's first American Grade I winner in the 2011 Mother Goose S. Verrazano, raced in partnership by Kevin Scatuorchio's Let's Go Stable, became his sire's first male GISW in the 2013 Wood Memorial S. and Daredevil–also raced by Let's Go in partnership–his first Grade I-winning juvenile in the 2014 Champagne S. More Than Ready's son Catholic Boy holds the rare distinction of winning Grade Is on two surfaces–the GI Belmont Derby on turf and the GI Travers S. on the dirt. Catholic Boy is one of four sons of More Than Ready at stud in Kentucky (Copper Bullet, Daredevil, Funtastic), while Verrazano has gone on to become a productive stallion in South America.

More Than Ready is the leading sire of Breeders' Cup winners to date with seven and accounted for multiple Breeders' Cup winners on two separate occasions. He was represented by the winners of the Breeders' Cup juvenile turf events in 2010 (Pluck, More Than Real), while champion Roy H won the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint in 2017 and 2018. 'TDN Rising Star' and future Eclipse Award winner Rushing Fall posted the first of her six career Grade Is in the 2017 GI Juvenile Fillies' Turf. Uni (GB)–another maternal granddaughter of Danehill–beat the boys in the 2019 GI Breeders' Cup Mile. More Than Ready has been represented by 13 champions around the world. Among More Than Ready's 16 offspring that earned the 'Rising Star' distinction is the versatile Emmanuel, third in the GI Toyota Blue Grass S. and front-running winner of his turf debut in the GII Pennine Ridge S. at Belmont this past June. More Than Ready is the only sire to have an Eclipse Award Champion each year from 2017 to 2020.

A Broodmare Sire of Note…

More Than Ready is the broodmare sire of fully 135 stakes winners, 61 group or graded winners and 15 at the top level, including GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf hero Structor (Palace Malice), top Australian sprinter Bivouac (Aus) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}), the rags-to-riches Group 1-winning juvenile filly Miracles of Life (Aus) (Not A Single Doubt {Aus}) and Hong Kong champion Wellington (Aus). Other U.S. graded winners from More Than Ready mares include Kauai Katie (Malibu Moon), Breeders' Cup winner Four Wheel Drive (American Pharoah) and 'TDN Rising Star' and leading turf distaffer Regal Glory (Animal Kingdom), whose dam Mary's Follies is also responsible for Japan's top dirt galloper Cafe Pharoah (American Pharoah) and Night Prowler (Giant's Causeway), a dual graded winner in the U.S. whose success extended to Barbados and that island nation's richest event, the Barbados Gold Cup.

Rosen Remembers 'Life-Changing' Horse…

Eddie Rosen has been involved with any number of successful horses over the course of his bloodstock career, but it's safe to say none left the impression the same way More Than Ready did.

“Most people are aware of all the amazing statistics he compiled as the greatest dual-hemisphere sire in history, his versatility in the ability to sire dirt, turf, long and sprint winners,” he reflected. “Sometimes forgotten is what a great 2-year-old he was, reeling off the first five starts of his career in spectacular fashion. My family and I will always cherish the wonderful memories sharing his career with the Scatuorchio family. For me, he was life-changing. During Derby week this year, I was able to visit with him and give him one last peppermint. I will miss him dearly!”

The post Record-Setting International Sire More Than Ready Dies appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Lukas to Train for MyRacehorse

Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas is the newest addition to the MyRacehorse cast of trainers, as he will condition a yearling colt by Arrogate out of well-bred stakes-placed runner and producer Smart Shopping (Smart Strike) for the micro-share syndication company. The colt was purchased for $300,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale as hip 79.

“Adding a world-class name such as D. Wayne Lukas to MyRacehorse is an honor,” MyRacehorse CEO Michael Behrens said. “Teaming up to provide our owners with the opportunity to say their horse is trained by the 'Coach', and an Arrogate no less, is very exciting and what we strive to provide as we celebrate racehorse ownership with our growing owner base.”

Lukas also trains Arrogate's 2022 GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Secret Oath.

“D. Wayne Lukas is still the King at the age of 86 as evidenced by his success in this year's Kentucky Oaks with Secret Oath,” said Roderick Wachman, MyRacehorse's Global Head of Bloodstock and Racing. “A supreme master of his trade and one who has mentored some of the best trainers in the business, Wayne's horsemanship skills to this day are to be revered.”