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Munnings Colt Best of Strong Bunch in Champagne

Apparently, 'Jacks' are wild where it comes to the GI Champagne S., in the last couple years, at least.

Twelve months after Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) put on a show in the 'Win and You're In' qualifier for the GI TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile, Presented by TAA, 'TDN Rising Star' Jack Christopher (Munnings) turned in a dazzling performance of his own, racing away to a 2 3/4-length success to stamp himself as one of the favorites on Breeders' Cup Friday, Nov. 5.

Accorded 'Captain Obvious' Rising Star status after covering six furlongs in 1:09.85 to thrash a field of Travers Day maidens by 8 3/4 lengths Aug. 28, the chestnut–who bears a striking resemblance to his Ashford Stud-based stallion–was sent off as the 17-10 favorite in the Champagne. It was a field short on numbers, but high on quality that included GI Hopeful S. hero Gunite (Gun Runner), GSW, Hopeful runner-up and 'Rising Star' Wit (Practical Joke) and 10-length Saratoga maiden romper and 'Rising Star' My Prankster (Into Mischief).

In the end, Jack Christopher left them all eating his dust.

Away fairly, the $135,000 Fasig-Tipton October acquisition landed in third position early, but was angled out and around longshot Kavod (Lea) in the opening quarter-mile and assured that Gunite would not get away with cheap fractions. Just off the leader's flank through a half-mile in a solid :46.49, Jack Christopher traveled ominously well on the turn as the top two pulled well clear of the trailing quartet. The chalk claimed a hard-ridden Gunite under a hold at the five-sixteenths pole, opened an unassailable advantage and was ridden out to a comfortable victory. Commandperformance (Union Rags), runner-up in a muddy Spa maiden in his lone previous appearance Sept. 6, raced at the tail of the field with the notoriously slow-starting Wit, but made good overland progress into the stretch and was gaining late. Wit did manage to close up the fence for third while no menace to the top two. The disappointment of the race was My Prankster, who was niggled at fully five furlongs from home and never landed a blow in a distant fourth.

“We knew we had speed and Jose [Ortiz] and I agreed to not take that away from him. We just wanted to break out of there and get a good spot,” said winning trainer Chad Brown, whose previous Champagne winners include Practical Joke (2016) and Complexity (2018). “He was a horse that identified himself as early on as his first work. I was on the phone with the connections saying, 'This is potentially a really good horse. I can't believe what I just saw.' He's just been brilliant in every work. There was some buzz around him before he ran, and he lived up to it.”

The last horse to complete the Champagne/Breeders' Cup Juvenile double was Uncle Mo in 2011, though Brown's lone Juvenile winner, Good Magic (Curlin), was second to Firenze Fire (Poseidon's Warrior) in the 2017 Champagne before causing an upset at Del Mar.

Pedigree Notes:

Jack Christopher is the 52nd stakes winner, 21st graded winner and fourth top-level winner for the very reliable and versatile Munnings, joining dual GISW I'm A Chatterbox, this year's GI Madison S. heroine Kimari and GI A. G. Vanderbilt H. victor El Deal, a Louisiana-based stallion who has already been represented by two black-type winners from his first crop to the races this year. Jack Christopher is the first graded winner of any variety out of a daughter of Half Ours (Unbridled's Song), who passed away earlier this year.

A Jan. 30 foal, Jack Christopher is out of a daughter of Blushing Ogygian, the dam of MGISW and successful dual-hemisphere stallion Street Boss (Street Cry {Ire}) and to MGSP Habiboo (Unbridled's Song), who counts GSWs Bellera (Bernardini) and Life Imitates Art (More Than Ready) among her produce. Third dam Fruhlingshochzeit was a half-sister to the likeable handicap horse Running Stag (Cozzene).

Rushin No Blushin is the dam of a yearling Mo Town filly, a $5,000 KEENOV weanling last year, was empty to Munnings this year and was most recently covered by Complexity.

Saturday, Belmont
CHAMPAGNE S.-GI, $500,000, Belmont, 10-2, 2yo, 1m, 1:37.31, ft.
1–JACK CHRISTOPHER, 122, c, 2, by Munnings
1st Dam: Rushin No Blushin, by Half Ours
2nd Dam: Blushing Ogygian, by Ogygian
3rd Dam: Fruhlingshochzeit, by Blushing Groom (Fr)
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN, 1ST GRADE I
WIN. 'TDN Rising Star' ($145,000 RNA Ylg '20 FTKSEL;
$135,000 Ylg '20 FTKOCT). O-Bakke, Jim, Isbister, Gerald,
Coolmore Stud and Brant, Peter M.; B-Castleton Lyons & Kilboy
Estate (KY); T-Chad C. Brown; J-Jose L. Ortiz. $275,000.
Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $330,000. Werk Nick Rating: D+.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Commandperformance, 122, c, 2, Union Rags–Smitten, by
Tapit. ($220,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-Repole Stable and St. Elias
Stable; B-Damara Farm LC (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher. $100,000.
3–Wit, 122, c, 2, Practical Joke–Numero d'Oro, by Medaglia
d'Oro. ($575,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). 'TDN Rising Star' O-Repole Stable, St. Elias
Stable and Gainesway Stable (Antony Beck); B-Rosilyn Polan
(KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher. $60,000.
Margins: 2 3/4, 7, 4. Odds: 1.70, 12.60, 2.45.
Also Ran: My Prankster, Gunite, Kavod. 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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Knicks Go All Alone in Final Classic Prep

Going…going… gone. Leading older horse Knicks Go (Paynter), as expected, punched his ticket to the GI Breeders' Cup Classic with a facile victory in Saturday's GIII Lukas Classic S. at Churchill Downs.

The overwhelming 1-9 favorite took his usual spot on the front end and led the field of six through very manageable fractions of :23.53 and :47.27. Joel Rosario hit the gas entering the far turn, and Knicks Go responded in spades. He passed the quarter pole as the one to catch, cornered for home in the four path and cruised down the lane to a comfortable score under very confident handling. It was four lengths back to Independence Hall (Constitution) in second.

“We're excited to get this race under our belt,” winning trainer Brad Cox said. “He's a fast horse and he's dangerous when he gets to show that speed around two turns. Joel gave him an easy trip on the front end. He seemed like he was able to take a breather and open back up around the turn. On to the Breeders' Cup.”

Rosario added, “I kept him off the rail today a little bit but he was going very easy. He's a really fast horse and he did what he needed to do. He's always been an impressive horse to ride and always been quick. Today, he did things very easily and now on to bigger things.”

Fourth as the 4-5 favorite in the GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan H. around a one-turn mile at Belmont June 5, the gray returned to his best form around two turns when airing in the GIII Cornhusker H. at Prairie Meadows in July with a gaudy 113 Beyer Speed Figure and was coming off another dominant tally in Saratoga's GI Whitney S. Aug. 7.

Knicks Go's loaded resume also includes top-level wins in the 2018 GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity, 2020 GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and this year's GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S.

Pedigree Notes:

Knicks Go stands alone as the only Grade I winner to date for Paynter, who has four graded winners among his 19 black-type winners. The breeding of Knicks Go has been well-documented, with his dam's last two matings being significantly upgraded: Kosmo's Buddy has a yearling filly by Justify and a filly by Ghostzapper of this year. Ghostzapper, like Paynter, is a son of Awesome Again.

Knicks Go, the fifth Maryland-bred generation of his family, is one of 10 stakes winners out of daughters of the Danzig sire Outflanker.

The Moore family's GreenMount Farm claimed the two-time stakes winner Kosmo's Buddy for $40,000 in her penultimate career start at Monmouth in 2010. She RNA'd for $195,000 at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Mixed Sale.

Saturday, Churchill Downs
LUKAS CLASSIC S.-GIII, $337,000, Churchill Downs, 10-2, 3yo/up, 1 1/8m, 1:47.85, ft.
1–KNICKS GO, 125, h, 5, by Paynter
                1st Dam: Kosmo's Buddy (MSW, $298,095), by Outflanker
                2nd Dam: Vaulted, by Allen's Prospect
                3rd Dam: Aube d'Or, by Medaille d'Or
($40,000 Wlg '16 KEENOV; $87,000 Ylg '17 KEESEP). O-Korea
Racing Authority; B-Angie Moore (MD); T-Brad H. Cox; J-Joel
Rosario. $184,140. Lifetime Record: MGISW, 23-9-3-1, $5,553,135.
Werk Nick Rating: F. Click for the
eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Independence Hall, 121, c, 4, Constitution–Kalahari Cat, by
Cape Town. ($100,000 Ylg '18 KEESEP; $200,000 RNA 2yo '19
FTFMAR). O-Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Twin Creeks
Racing Stables, LLC, WinStar Farm, LLC, Kathleen & Robert
Verratti; B-Woodford Thoroughbreds, LLC (KY); T-Michael W.
McCarthy. $79,400.
3–Shared Sense, 121, r, 4, Street Sense–Collective, by
Bernardini. O/B-Godolphin (KY); T-Brad H. Cox. $39,700.
Margins: 4, 1HF, HD. Odds: 0.10, 10.00, 27.70.
Also Ran: Tacitus, Chess Chief, Sprawl.
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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Andy Belfiore Named Executive Director of FHBPA

Industry veteran Andy Belfiore, who has honed her skills on both the backside and on executive teams, has been named the new Executive Director of the Florida Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association (FHBPA). For the last two years, Belfiore has been the Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association's Project Manager for the Mid-Atlantic Strategic Plan to Reduce Equine Fatalities. The Massachusetts native spent the four years prior to that as Executive Director of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association.

“The FHBPA board members as well as myself are delighted that Andy accepted our offer to serve as Executive Director,” said FHBPA President Stephen Screnci. “With her experience, knowledge, and industry contacts, she's undoubtedly the perfect fit.”

Belfiore's extensive CV also includes serving as Executive Director of the TAKE2 Second Career Thoroughbred Program Inc. and as co-Chair of the Board of the Backstretch Employee Service Team. She has also been part of the communications and marketing departments at New York Racing Association and spent 18 years as the editor-in-chief of TDN. Additionally, she is also a former hotwalker, groom, exercise rider, and assistant trainer.

“I'm looking forward to working with Stephen and the Florida HBPA,” Belfiore said. “Racing in South Florida faces its challenges, but the horsemen have elected a terrific board, and Stephen has proven to be a strong leader. I'm excited to be a part of the team.”

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Breeders’ Cup Box Auction to Honor Richardson

Thoroughbred Charities of America is auctioning off a 2021 Breeders' Cup Stretch Run box at Del Mar to benefit the Race to Give campaign. The box was donated to honor the memory of Dr. J. David Richardson, who passed away in September.

The six-person box, 4G, is on Del Mar's third level, and was donated by Richardson's friend, Dr. James B. Threlkel. It is valid for Friday, Nov. 5 and Saturday, Nov. 6, and includes preferred parking passing for Friday and Saturday. Stretch run boxes are located before the wire.

“Dr. J. David Richardson was a man for all seasons,” said Threlkel. “He was an outstanding surgeon and surgical educator, a successful horseman, a true scholar and gentleman and a friend to many. He was a leader who rose to top leadership positions in many Surgical and Thoroughbred horse racing organizations and in his daily activities. He possessed the ultimate surgical talent of being able to identify problems and then fixing them. It is said that no man is irreplaceable, but David Richardson come pretty close. We shared many interests. This donation is a small, inadequate token of my esteem and love for my dear friend. My family and I will miss you, Dave.”

To bid on the box, visit www.tca.org, or click here.

The Race to Give is an online giving and awareness program to support Thoroughbred aftercare launched by Hagyard Equine Medical Institute and the TCA. RaceToGive.org is its website and central hub.

Richardson, a beloved and distinguished Kentucky-based surgeon who owned and bred Thoroughbreds for nearly half a century, died Sept. 7 in Saratoga Springs, New York, after developing pneumonia related to COVID-19.

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