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Laoban’s Simply Ravishing Simply Uncatchable in Darley Alcibiades

One day before saddling $35,000 bargain buy Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) to take on the boys in the GI Preakness S., trainer Ken McPeek was represented by the one-two finishers in Keeneland’s GI Darley Alcibiades S. Friday. New York-bred Simply Ravishing (Laoban), just a $50,000 Fasig-Tipton October yearling herself, dominated her competition on the front end and ran up the score to 6 1/4 lengths. ‘TDN Rising Stars’ Crazy Beautiful (Liam’s Map) and Travel Column (Frosted) fought it out for second and third. This was McPeek’s fifth win in the Alcibiades, which carried with it an automatic berth into the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies over the same track and trip in five weeks. Simply Ravishing belied 14-1 odds to take her turf debut in an open Saratoga maiden special weight Aug. 2, and doubled up when much the best in the rained-off P.G. Johnson S. over seven panels there Sept. 3. She was the 2-1 favorite Friday off a standout 81 Beyer Speed Figure.

Friday, Keeneland
DARLEY ALCIBIADES S.-GI, $350,000, Keeneland, 10-2, 2yo, f, 1 1/16m, 1:43.58, ft.
1–SIMPLY RAVISHING, 122, f, 2, by Laoban
1st Dam: Four Wishes, by More Than Ready
2nd Dam: Emilyna, by Valid Wager
3rd Dam: Piano Affect, by Fappiano
1ST GRADED STAKES WIN, 1ST GRADE I WIN. ($50,000 Ylg ’19
FTKOCT). O-Harold Lerner LLC, Magdalena Racing (Sherri
McPeek) & Nehoc Stables; B-Meg Levy (NY); T-Kenneth G.
McPeek; J-Luis Saez. $210,000. Lifetime Record: 3-3-0-0,
$304,600. Werk Nick Rating: C. Click for the
eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Crazy Beautiful, 122, f, 2, by Liam’s Map
1st Dam: Indian Burn, by Indian Charlie
2nd Dam: Christmas Affair, by Black Tie Affair (Ire)
3rd Dam: Anna Lisa Beth, by Topsider
($250,000 Ylg ’19 FTKOCT). ‘TDN Rising Star’ O-Phoenix
Thoroughbred, LTD; B-Carolyn R Vogel (KY); T-Kenneth G.
McPeek. $70,000.
3–Travel Column, 122, f, 2, by Frosted
1st Dam: Swingit, by Victory Gallop
2nd Dam: Free Ransom, by Our Native
3rd Dam: Pay the Ransom, by J. O. Tobin
($850,000 Ylg ’19 FTSAUG). ‘TDN Rising Star’ O-OXO Equine
LLC; B-Mr. & Mrs. Bayne Welker Jr. & Denali Stud (KY); T-Brad
H. Cox. $35,000.
Margins: 6 1/4, 1 1/4, 4 3/4. Odds: 2.20, 2.00, 4.20.
Also Ran: Thoughtfully, Oliviaofthedesert, Xtrema, Gramercy.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.

Away on top from her outside draw, Simply Ravishing worked her way to the lead and rail and doled out splits of :24.43, :48.59 and 1:12.94 with Crazy Beautiful in nearest pursuit. She spun for home still well within herself, and ran up the score with bounding strides to emerge as the main challenger to West Coast-based divisional leader and ‘Rising Star’ Princess Noor (Not This Time).

McPeek will need one more win in the Alcibiades to tie Lukas.

“I don’t think we know how good she is,” his assistant Alan Shell said. “She’s won on turf, dirt, going short, going long. It’s just real exciting. We’re just so thankful we have owners like Mr. [Harold] Lerner and Jack Cohen and Magdalena Racing that are behind us. They made a commitment when they bought this filly. They buy the best horses. Kenny did a great job picking her out. It’s all a team effort.”

Pedigree Notes:
Simply Ravishing, who became the first stakes winner for freshman sire Laoban when she captured the P. G. Johnson S. at Saratoga Sept. 3, upped the ante considerably with the New York stallion’s first Grade I win as a sire in the Darley Alcibiades. The stallion son of Uncle Mo has one other black-type horse from his four winners to date in GII Adirondack S. third-place finisher Ava’s Grace. Uncle Mo has gotten off to a stellar start as a sire of sires, with other freshman sires Nyquist and Outwork making a big splash in the division. Simply Ravishing is the only foal to race out of the More Than Ready mare Four Wishes, who was bred to Speightster for 2021. Simply Ravishing contributes the first black-type in three generations to her dam’s side, with only her granddam’s half-sister Valid Affect (Valid Appeal) marking up the page with a black-type win and a graded placing, both in 1997. Four Wishes was purchased by Meg Levy of Bluewater Sales for just $500 in 2017 after she had been abandoned at a boarding farm.

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Angel Montano, Longtime Kentucky Trainer, Dies on 80th Birthday

Angel O. Montano Sr., a longtime Kentucky-based trainer, died Oct. 1. The Churchill Downs publicity department confirmed the death, noting in a Twitter posting that his passing coincided with the date of his 80th birthday.

Daily Racing Form reported the cause of death as numerous health issues complicated by a recent hospitalization for COVID-19.

According to a 2010 profile in the Evansville Courier & Press, Montano arrived in Louisville at age 17, taking a three-day bus ride from his native Mexico City after his contract as a jockey was purchased by a Kentucky-based owner. But he was hurt in a spill while galloping a horse in the morning and never rode in a race.

Montano rose through the ranks on the backstretch and in 1961 started training on his own, earning a reputation for being able to bring out the best in cheaper horses. He was admired and respected by backside employees and horse owners alike for treating his animals and other people with dignity and respect.

Despite keeping relatively small stables, over the decades Montano won three seasonal training titles at Churchill Downs, five at old Miles Park in Louisville, four at old Latonia (now Turfway Park), and four at Ellis Park, according to the Courier & Press feature story.

On the 1995 GI Kentucky Derby undercard, the Montano-trained Goldseeker Bud, a 20-1 long shot, upset the previous year’s Derby champ, Go For Gin, in the GIII Churchill Downs H. It was the only graded-stakes score of Montano’s nearly 60-year career.

“I can’t ask for any better,” Montano told the Courier & Press in 2010.”I’ve got my wife and seven kids, who all graduated from college and are doing great. And I’ve got my horses and friends. The racetrack has been good to me. The horse business can be good to me. It’s been a good life.”

Montano’s wife of 58 years, Patricia, also known as “Mom Pat,” predeceased him in 2018.

Visitation hours are Oct. 7 from 2-8 p.m. at Ratterman Brothers Funeral Home, 12900 Shelbyville Road in Louisville (this is the East Louisville location; please note there are two Rattermans locations in the city). A funeral service will be held Oct. 8 at 10 a.m., with details to be posted here.

Montano’s family is asking for memorial gifts in his honor to be donated to the Backside Learning Center at Churchill Downs.

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FOX Sports to Broadcast Arc

FOX Sports will present live coverage and analysis of Sunday’s G1 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the New York Racing Association announced Friday. Sunday’s broadcast will air on FS1 from 9:30-11 a.m. ET, with the Arc featuring 6-year-old mare Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) for a record third win in the race. Coverage will also include the G1 Prix de l’Opera Longines for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up at 1 1/4 miles on the turf. Both races are part of the Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” Challenge Series, with the winner of the Arc earning a guaranteed spot in the GI Breeders’ Cup Turf, and Prix de l’Opera heroine stamping her ticket to the GI Breeders’ Cup F/M Turf. Post time for the Arc is 10:05 a.m. and the Prix de l’Opera 10:50 a.m.

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Tiz the Law Fires Bullet at Big Sandy

Sackatoga Stable’s top sophomore Tiz the Law (Constitution) breezed a speedy, best-of-six five furlongs in :57.87 at Belmont Park Friday morning under regular breeze rider Heather Smullen. “I didn’t want to see him go that fast, but he came out of the work well,” trainer Barclay Tagg said. “He scoped well and everything is going good with him.” Upset when second in the GI Kentucky Derby Sept. 5, the four-time Grade I winner is skipping Saturday’s GI Preakness S. and training up to the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland Nov. 7.

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