Top News | Horse Racing Free Tips

Monomoy Girl Arrives at Spendthrift Farm, To Visit Into Mischief Next Year

Two-time Breeders' Cup Champion Monomoy Girl (Tapizar–Drumette, by Henny Hughes) arrived at Spendthrift Farm on Monday, shortly after noon, from Churchill Downs, and the farm announced “unofficially” that she will be bred to perennial leading sire Into Mischief in 2022.

The six-year-old mare was retired from racing last week after she was discovered to have sustained an injury during training.

Spendthrift General Manager Ned Toffey was on site for the arrival and spoke on their decision to send her to Into Mischief.

“It's not a tremendous amount of pedigree research there, it's just one of those breed the best to the best-type things,” he said. “She's certainly among the very best and we feel that Into Mischief is too.”

Monomoy Girl took in her surroundings with ease after stepping off the van in Lexington and then strode into the quarantine barn, where she will reside for the next 30 days.

“Having been retired because of a fairly minor injury, we'll go very slowly with the acclimation process here to her becoming a broodmare,” Toffey said. “[She is in] our regular quarantine barn where Beholder was when she first came to Spendthrift. We'll set up a pen that will let her get outside, eat some grass, get some sun on her back and get used to her surroundings. We'll do some hand walking and continue to take things slow with her. After she's acclimated, probably about 30 days, we'll find her a buddy who will likely be another filly just off the track. They'll eventually work their way into our group of barren and maiden mares here.”

Purchased by Liz Crow for $100,000 at the Keeneland September Sale and originally campaigned by the ownership group of Michael Dubb, Sol Kumin's Monomoy Stables, Stuart Grant's The Elkstone Group and Bethlehem Stables, the Brad Cox trainee was sent through the ring at last year's Fasig-Tipton Night of Stars Sale after taking two editions of the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff in 2018 and 2020. She sold for $9.5 million to Spendthrift Farm there, and MyRacehorse Stable and Madaket Stables soon joined in the partnership. This year, she captured the GIII Bayakoa S. and finished second to MGISW Letruska (Super Saver) in the GI Apple Blossom H.

Toffey said the crew at Spendthrift is thrilled to have Monomoy Girl join the likes of another champion in Beholder at Spendthrift.

“It's really exciting to have these kinds of horses here, to have her join Beholder, and eventually Got Stormy (Get Stormy) will be chiming in here pretty soon herself. It's the kind of broodmare band we'd like to have as a really, really top-notch group of mares and hopefully we'll be able to keep daughters out of these two great mares for years to come.”

The post Monomoy Girl Arrives at Spendthrift Farm, To Visit Into Mischief Next Year appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Eclipse Winner Caressing, Dam of Champion West Coast, Dies

Caressing (Honour and Glory–Lovin Touch, by Majestic Prince), the dam of Eclipse Award winner West Coast (Flatter), passed away due to laminitic conditions at Hermitage Farm Sept. 14. She was 23 years of age and was laid to rest between the paddocks and next to the foaling barn at the Kentucky nursery.

Bred by Brereton C. Jones, Caressing was purchased by Hermitage's Carl Pollard for $180,000 at the 1999 Keeneland September Yearling Sale and was a maiden winner at second asking before adding a seven-length victory in the Bassinet S. at River Downs. Runner-up in the GIII Arlington-Washington Lassie, the dark bay belied odds of 47-1 in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, giving young jockey John Velazquez the second of his 18 championship victories to date and securing the Eclipse Award. She added the GIII La Troienne S. and GIII Singapore Plate at three and retired in 2002 with five wins from 18 starts and earnings of $955,998.

The dam of GSP duo of Gold Hawk (Empire Maker) and Juan and Bina (Indian Charlie), Caressing produced a colt to the cover of Flatter in 2014. Ben Glass, agent for Gary and Mary West, had a budget of $350,000 when the colt went through the ring at Keeneland September in 2015, but Glass went to $425,000 for Caressing's eighth foal. Turned over to Bob Baffert, West Coast made up for lost time at three, winning the Easy Goer S. and the GIII Los Alamitos Derby before defeating each of the Classic winners from 2017–GI Kentucky Derby hero Always Dreaming (Bodemeister), GI Preakness S. winner Cloud Computing (Maclean's Music) and GI Belmont S. victor Tapwrit (Tapit) in the GI Travers S. His third-place effort to Horse of the Year Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) cemented the 3-year-old championship. Now standing at Lane's End, West Coast is represented by his first crop of yearlings this year.

Caressing's first live foal, My Goodness (Storm Cat) was a $475,000 KEESEP yearling and since her export to Japan has been responsible for Danon Kingly (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), winner of this year's G1 Yasuda Kinen, as well as Group 3 winner Danon Legend (Macho Uno) and SW Danon Good (Jpn) (Elusive Quality).

Caressing is the dam of the Pollard-owned 2-year-old colt Touch Code (Honor Code), in training at Saratoga with Bill Mott and a yearling colt by Gun Runner that also be retained.

WATCH: Caressing winning the 2000 BC Juvenile Fillies

The post Eclipse Winner Caressing, Dam of Champion West Coast, Dies appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Daily Average Handle Down at Monmouth; Whip Ban To Blame?

Total all-sources handle at the Monmouth Park meet, which wrapped up Sunday, Sept. 26, showed an increase, hardly a surprise since this year's season included 11 more cards than the 2020 meet, which was shortened due to COVID-19 issues. Monmouth didn't fare nearly as well in the more relevant category of daily average handle. During this year's 55-day meet, average daily handle was $3,154,748, a decline of 17.13% over 2020 figures, when the average handle was $3,807,082. The 2020 Monmouth meet consisted of 44 cards.

The decline begs the question: did some gamblers stay away because of the controversial ban of the whip?

The Monmouth meet was the first in North American racing where whipping in order to encourage the horse was banned, a rule put into place by the New Jersey Racing Commission prior to the meet. Some believed that the lack of whips created an unknown factor that would make handicapping the races a bit of a crapshoot and keep horseplayers away.

“It's difficult to say,” Monmouth's Dennis Drazin said when asked about the impact of the whip ban. “A number of the whales I spoke to told me [the whip ban] was a factor why they weren't betting. There were a number of people who were mixed on the whip rule. Some people said they were uncomfortable with the whip rule and couldn't bet serious money. They told me they might bet a race because they wanted to have a good time and have some action. But they just bet less and didn't make huge bets on those races. I'm sure the whip ban had some effect on our handle, but if I tried to quantify it, I don't know that I could.”

Drazin said several other customers told him they altered the way they handicapped the Monmouth races. One theory is that front-runners would do better in whipless races because jockeys had no means to encourage closers to run their best in the latter stages of the races.

“A lot of others told me they just handicapped differently,” he said. “They cashed a lot of bets because they read the form and they knew what the horses's style would be like. Whatever their philosophy might have been about betting the front-runners, I saw a lot of closers win. too.”

Drazin said that as the meet went on he sensed that everyone, including bettors, seemed to grow more comfortable with the new rules regarding whipping.

“A lot of people, people who were watching our races very carefully, including the heads of a lot of other racetracks, said they thought in the beginning that the rule was very controversial,” he said. “They thought by the end of the meet, no one was talking about it. No one even noticed anything was different.”

Drazin also pointed to problems keeping the races on the grass, particularly early on in the meet. The first 15 races scheduled for the turf were all moved to the main track.

“I think the handle was down because of the weather,” he said. “When it rains, you just get decimated. We had a lot of races come off the turf. Plus, you have to plan for the weather. When you know it's going to rain over the weekend you're not going to write a bunch of turf races.”

While it is unlikely that the New Jersey Racing Commission will rescind the whip rule on its own, Drazin said there could be major changes as early as next July. That is when the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) is supposed to go into effect. Under HISA, it is expected that there will be uniform rules throughout the country, including rules covering the whip.

“What I think will happen is that HISA will take effect next July and they will have a uniform whip rule and New Jersey will have the same rule everyone has,” he said. “My understanding is that HISA's rule will most likely be the same as the rule in Kentucky and then every state in the country will use the same rule. If that happens, the discussion about our not allowing whips will be moot.”

The Kentucky rule limits sets a limit of six overhand hits per race with no more than two strikes in succession.

The post Daily Average Handle Down at Monmouth; Whip Ban To Blame? appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Constitution’s Warrant Rides Rail to OK Derby Score

Warrant earned the first graded victory of his career with a gritty performance in the GIII Oklahoma Derby Sunday night at Remington Park. Settling in fifth behind a contested :23.68 quarter, the chestnut crept closer down the backstretch and Joel Rosario decided to step on the gas as frontrunner Flash of Mischief drifted off the rail nearing the far turn. Taking over from that rival into the lane, Warrant faced a resurgent foe before asserting himself once and for all outside the sixteenth pole and edging clear.

“It was a perfect trip,” said Rosario. “The more I rode him, the more he gave me.”

A second-out graduate going six furlongs Feb. 16 at Fair Grounds, he came up a nose short when second in a Keeneland allowance/optional claimer Apr. 3 and filled the same slot in the Oaklawn S. May 1. Overcoming a wide trip to annex the Texas Derby May 31 at Lone Star, he was runner-up in the GIII West Virginia Derby last out Aug. 7 at Mountaineer.

“We were a little worried he might be a distracted with this being his first time running under the lights, but I think being on the inside kind of helped him,” said winning owner/breeder Steve Davison. “We had a great jockey and a great experience.”

Pedigree Notes:

Warrant, the 15th graded winner for his sire Constitution, is the second graded winner out of Whisper Number, who is also the dam of GII Barbara Fritchie S. winner Ms Locust Point (Dialed In). The 13-year-old mare is a half-sister to graded placed Speightful Affair (Speightstown), who is the dam of multiple stakes winner Mr. Buff (Friend or Foe).

Trainer Brad Cox will have a half-brother to Warrant in the barn next year after the BSW/Crow Colts Group purchased a Good Magic yearling out of Whisper Number for $325,000 at last week's Keeneland September sale.

Sunday, Remington Park

OKLAHOMA DERBY-GIII, $400,000, Remington, 9-26, 3yo, 1 1/8m, 1:50.76, ft.
1–WARRANT, 124, c, 3, by Constitution
                1st Dam: Whisper Number, by First Samurai
                2nd Dam: Santerra, by Tejabo
                3rd Dam: Sioux City, by Carson City
1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. O-Twin Creeks Racing Stables, LLC;
B-Twin Creeks Farm (KY); T-Brad H. Cox; J-Joel Rosario.
$240,000. Lifetime Record: 7-3-3-1, $634,700. *1/2 to Ms
Locust Point (Dialed In), GSW, $675,975. Werk Nick Rating:
   A++. Click for eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Flash of Mischief, 124, c, 3, Into Mischief–Flashy Campaign,
by Political Force. O/B-Jerry Namy (KY); T-Karl Broberg.
$80,000.
3–Super Stock, 124, c, 3, Dialed In–Super Girlie, by Closing
Argument. ($70,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-Erv Woolsey & Keith
Asmussen; B-Pedro & P.J. Gonzalez (KY); T-Steven M.
Asmussen. $44,000.
Margins: 1 3/4, HF, 6 1/4. Odds: 3.20, 20.90, 2.00.
Also Ran: Team Merchants, Mr. Wireless, Defeater, Dial in for Lute, Parrot Head. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

The post Constitution’s Warrant Rides Rail to OK Derby Score appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post