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Mother Goose in Play for ‘Rising Star’ Always Carina

Three Chimneys Farm, trainer Chad Brown and a 'TDN Rising Star' 3-year-old filly.

Shades of GISWs and 'Rising Stars' Carina Mia (Malibu Moon) and Guarana (Ghostzapper) were on display at Belmont Park last week when Always Carina (f, 3, by Malibu Moon–Miss Always Ready, by More Than Ready) romped to 'TDN Rising Star' status for those same connections in an allowance optional claimer.

The aforementioned pair, of course, both enjoyed memorable wins at three in Belmont's GI Acorn S.

“Hopefully, she can step into those kind of shoes,” Three Chimneys Vice Chairman Doug Cauthen said. “We have always thought a lot of her from day one. It's encouraging seeing her show up like that.”

Cauthen continued, “We were getting excited that she could be an early filly that could be ready to run before Saratoga [last year], and by the way she was acting, we had dreams of 2-year-old stakes races. Chad thought last year that she was one of his better fillies and made similar comments this year as well.”

Between the COVID-19 pandemic and a minor setback last summer-Always Carina was up to multiple five-eighths breezes at Brown's Saratoga base in August-the Three Chimneys homebred debuted much later than originally anticipated.

She proved well worth the wait, however, dueling free to graduate first out sprinting in the Aqueduct mud Apr. 11. She handled the stretch to a mile with aplomb in her second go, romping by 9 3/4 lengths in front-running fashion despite stumbling at the start.

After earning very strong Beyer Speed Figures of 94 and 92 in her first two starts, respectively, a race like the GII Mother Goose S. going 1 1/16 miles around one turn in Elmont June 26 could be next.

“That's definitely on the radar,” Cauthen said. “It's clearly in her sights. Hopefully, she makes that and can perform well and heads on to Saratoga afterward. Malibu Moon, they can be fast and they can carry it, too. All options are open and Chad will just let her tell him what she's up to. There's two-turn races down the road if it looks like that's what she likes.”

A half-sister to the Brown-trained GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Structor (Palace Malice), Always Carina is also closely related to GII Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf heroine More Than Real (More Than Ready). Always Carina's 'Rising Star' performance took place just two days after the untimely passing of her leading sire, Spendthrift stalwart Malibu Moon. The previously mentioned Carina Mia shares the same sire.

“It's a huge loss for Kentucky and obviously for all the people involved,” Cauthen said. “What an amazing sire he was starting from the bottom and making his way up. I've always had great respect for stallions like that because nothing was handed to them. In this mating, he added just a little bit of substance and strength to the physicality. We felt like she could handle what substance he usually would put in his progeny. We were lucky it worked out.”

Cauthen concluded, “It's nice to see her put it together in her races now. It's what every owner and breeder dreams of. Being a half a Structor, that was a big reason Chad was designated to get her. It's an important family to Three Chimneys, and, of course, with Structor being by [Three Chimneys stallion] Palace Malice, that's just the icing on the cake.”

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Fasig-Tipton’s Steve Dance Dies at 78

Steve Dance, a senior member of Fasig-Tipton's auction team for five decades, passed away suddenly on Tuesday morning at his home in Jarrettsville, MD, which he shared with his wife Nancy. He was in his 78th year and it was suspected he suffered a massive heart attack. Steve worked until the last day of his life and the many sellers and buyers at Fasig-Tipton's Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, just a week ago in Timonium, would have seen him plying his lifelong trade on the auction stand in his beloved home state.

Hiram “Steve” Dance was born in 1943 in the small, country town of Towson, just a few miles north of Baltimore. The then-struggling Thoroughbred auction company, Fasig-Tipton, in the late 1940's had appointed Humphrey Finney, another Towson resident, as its president. Although Finney left Towson in 1953, Steve's uncle, “Laddie” Dance, Humphrey's son John Finney and Larry Ensor, all subsequent luminaries at Fasig-Tipton and all “Towsonites,” befriended the younger Steve and found a variety of jobs for him at a rapidly expanding number of the company's nationwide auctions. Honing his horse auction skills under the likes of George Swinebroad, Laddie Dance and Ralph Retler was a daunting task, but Steve's hard work, reliability and enthusiasm paid off and he became a full-time auctioneer and bid spotter for the company in 1972.

From that time forward, Steve did not miss a single Fasig-Tipton auction in a career which lasted for an enviable fifty years.

But the glamor and celebrity of the Thoroughbred world did not monopolize Steve as it did with many of his peers. Again, until the day he died, Steve owned and operated the company founded by his grandfather in 1912, the Milton J Dance Auction Company. From the company's present base in Towson, Steve sold everything from pots and pans, to antiques, to multi-million dollar mansions. And, if there was such a thing as spare time, he traveled the length and breadth of the country selling and bid-spotting at celebrated motorcycle auctions from Daytona, FL to Sturgis, ND.

His “metier” was undoubtedly the Thoroughbred horse, but his passion was motorcycles–BMW motorcycles to be precise. Steve was a riding encyclopedia of BMW bikes and owned up to 20 at a time in his busiest years. He rode them all over North America–Alaska to New York to Florida. He converted me to BMW's in the mid 1980's and, without question, our ride together from the 2-year-old sale in Miami to the 2-year-old sale in Dallas was the greatest road trip two friends could make.

Steve found great happiness in later life, when, in 2011, he married his soulmate and loving companion Nancy, who survives him in Jarrettsville. Steve is also survived by his two daughters Erica and Whitney, his son Lee, step-daughter with Nancy, Layne, and three brothers, Andy, Scott and Tom.

Notice of funeral arrangements will follow.

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First Winner for Connect in Indiana

Whatstheconnection became the first winner for freshman sire Connect (Curlin) at Indiana Grand Tuesday. Given an 8-1 chance in this debut, the chestnut broke on top from his rail draw and shot out to a clear lead, clicking off a :22.31 opening quarter. Turning for home in front, the homebred held off a pair of late challengers to win by a half-length. Mowins, a son of freshman sire Mohaymen, completed the exacta.

Connect was a four-time stakes winner, topped by a victory in the 2016 GI Cigar Mile for the late Paul Pompa. His dam Decorator is a half to MGSW & MGISP sire E Dubai (Mr. Prospector) and GISW No Matter What (Nureyev), who is the dam of European champion Rainboow View (Dynaformer), GSW & MGISP Just As Well (A.P. Indy) and GSW Utley (Smart Strike). Decorator produced a City of Light filly in 2020 and an Arrogate filly in 2021.

7th-Indiana Grand, $31,000, Msw, 5-25, 2yo, 5f, :59.78, ft, 1/2 length.

WHATSTHECONNECTION (c, 2, Connect–Decorator, by Storm Cat) Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $18,600. O/B-Knowles Farm, LLC (KY); T-John Ennis. *$27,000 RNA Ylg '20 KEESEP.

Click for the Equibase.com chart.

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Parx Backstretch Raid Yields Significant Contraband

Recent backstretch raids staged by the Pennsylvania Racing Commission at Parx have uncovered what Director of Thoroughbred Horse Racing at Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Tom Chuckas described as a “significant amount of contraband” and “items that have no business on the backside.”

Chuckas made the revelations during a regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday of the Pennsylvania Racing Commission. The meeting was held over Zoom and a one-minute-and-twenty second segment was captured and posted on Twitter by veterinarian Kathryn Papp. Pennsylvania Racing Commissioner Russell Jones took part in the meeting and confirmed the authenticity of Papp's Twitter post.

“No names were given to us but I know they found a lot of (expletive),” Jones told the TDN. “They found a lot of evidence, syringes, whatever you call that stuff. Whatever it is they found, a lot of stuff that you might think is incriminating.”

Jones said the raid was conducted “over the weekend,” but did not know if it was conducted on Saturday or Sunday or both days.

In what may or may not be a related development, there were 25 scratches from Tuesday's card at Parx, including nine horses who were ordered scratched by the stewards. The stewards' scratches included all three horses entered by trainer Richard Vega.

Chuckas, who did not return a phone call seeking comment, told those on the Zoom call that the investigation was extensive.

“We went through the barn area and the tack rooms,” he said. “We did six solo barn searches, six tack room searches. In addition to that we looked at given grooms' quarters and five external tack rooms. Sixty-six out-of-competition tests were performed. In our enforcement action, I can say without getting into too much detail that a significant amount of contraband was discovered. Dealing with medications, unlabeled compounded or expired…I regret to say they were contraband items that have no business on the backside, with needles and syringes and some other things that we discovered.”

A subsequent request to the racing commission asking for them to release the minutes of Tuesday's session also went unanswered.

“Whatever it is, they found a lot of stuff that you might think is incriminating,” Jones said, adding that “they had a very active weekend.”

Chuckas said he was not at liberty to reveal the names of those trainers who were involved while the investigation is ongoing.

Jones said that the racing commission had not been able to conduct normal investigations during the height of the COVID pandemic and was just now starting to catch up. Chuckas implied that similar investigations at the state's other two Thoroughbred racetracks, Presque Isle Downs and Penn National, were imminent.

“Moving forward, I think it is fair to say that the other tracks will receive the same enforcement action,” he said.

Jones said that he had become concerned that so much time had passed since the last time the commission launched such an investigation.

“I'm thrilled there is something to start with,” Jones said. “I had been impatient. They were great about doing out-of-competition testing in 2019 but in 2020 it was a fraction of what we did before. They're going to be ongoing normal procedure now, as far as out-of-competition testing goes. We've got a lot of stuff that we are working on now that ought to come to fruition. I hope these raids, or whatever you call them, are going to provide something that's worth reporting.”

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