Steve Asmussen Plans Big Season for Skelly

After emerging in good form from his GIII Count Fleet Sprint H. victory, MGSW Skelly (Practical Joke) will look to climb the class ladder with future targets including the GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. and the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint, announced trainer Steve Asmussen Sunday morning.

Having posted the meet's best time for six furlongs at 1:08.82 in that Count Fleet effort, beating the prior mark of 1:09.38, which he also set in his 2024 debut, the Oaklawn star will be setting his sights on bigger prizes this summer and autumn.

“I think that the two main targets for the rest of the year are the Vanderbilt at Saratoga and Breeders' Cup,” Asmussen said. “I do know I want to keep him at three-quarters of a mile.”

The Count Fleet was Skelly's first race back in the States since having his seven-race winning streak snapped by Remake (Jpn) (Lani) in the G3 Riyadh Dirt Sprint.

“Very fortunate to have him,” Asmussen said. “Believe it or not, [Skelly] went to Saudi [Arabia] and came back faster. Speaks volumes about who he is.”

The Vanderbilt runs July 27 at Saratoga and the Breeders' Cup Sprint will go Nov. 2 at Del Mar.

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Sanford Bacon Passes Away

Longtime New York breeder Sanford Bacon passed away Friday. He was 95. Bacon bred hard-knocking Say Florida Sandy (Personal Flag), a multiple graded stakes winner and earner of over $2 million, as well as his half-sister Dancin Renee (Distinctive Pro). Both were named New York-bred champions. Say Florida Sandy was New York Horse of the Year in 2001 and 2002 and a three-time champion sprinter in the state. Graded stakes winner Dancin Renee was named New York Horse of the Year, as well as champion sprinter and champion older female, in 1997.

Bacon bred and campaigned Dancin Renee's six-time stakes-winning daughter Risky Rachel (Limehouse). Risky Rachel produced stakes-placed Risky Mischief (Into Mischief), as well as $1-million Fasig-Tipton March 2-year-old Yale (Scat Daddy).

“He was a great friend and I always enjoyed getting a phone call from him during training in the morning because it was always an interesting conversation, to say the least,” said Steve Venosa, whose SGV Thoroughbreds consigned the seven-figure juvenile to the Gulfstream sale in 2018. “He was definitely one of a kind and there will never be another one like him.”

No services had been announced as of Sunday afternoon.

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On Derby Bubble, Grand Mo the First Breezes at Gulfstream Park

Grand Mo the First (Uncle Mo), last seen finishing third in the GI Curlin Florida Derby, went out Sunday morning at Gulfstream Park for a five-furlong maintenance work clocked in 1:03.95. It was his first breeze since the Mar. 30 race.

With the defection of GSW No More Time (Not This Time), Victor Barboza Jr.'s charge sits 21st under the Derby guidelines that will determine the final field.

“I think 21 is a good position. Next week, the horse will breeze at Gulfstream, and if everything is OK, he will go to Churchill,” said Barboza, adding the effort was everything he was looking for out of his horse. “It was a very relaxed breeze. It was important for me for him to finish strong after the wire.”

Barboza added, “It's been a dream since I was a child in Venezuela. Every year, I watched the Kentucky Derby. I have a good chance today to enter.”

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McKinzie Filly Fastest at OBS Finale

A filly from the first crop of multiple Grade I winner McKinzie (hip 1143) equaled the fastest quarter-mile work of the seven-session under-tack show for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training when covering the distance in :20 1/5 Sunday in Central Florida. The juvenile is consigned by Eddie Woods on behalf of breeders Brent and Beth Harris.

“We expected her to work well,” Woods said. “I'm not going to say I thought she would go in :20 1/5. That would be ridiculous. But she really stepped on it. She's a very honest filly.”

The bay filly is out of D'Fashion (D'Wildcat) and is a half-sister to stakes winner and graded-placed Strategic Dreams (Archarcharch). She RNA'd for $65,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale.

“She's done really well since we got her,” Woods said. “She was a inexpensive RNA for the most part in September, but she's changed significantly since then, from a physical point of view. It's like night and day. She belongs to the Harris brothers up in Kentucky and I got her through Padraig Campion of Blandford Stud.”

McKinzie's first crop of 2-year-olds have been working well at OBS this spring and, led by a $750,000 colt, were well-received at the March sale.

“They act like they are nice horses,” Woods said of the Gainesway stallion's first crop. “They are very professional. They all try really hard like he did. He ran for a long time himself and they look like they are going to do the same thing.”

A filly by Practical Joke (hip 1187) became the fourth juvenile of the week to work a furlong in :9 3/5 during Sunday's final session of the under-tack show. Out of Emerald Gal (Gilded Time), the bay is a half-sister to multiple graded-stakes winner Sarah Sis (Sharp Humor). She was purchased by Carlo Vaccarezza for $25,000 at Keeneland last September and is consigned by Top Line Sales.

While the under-tack show was interrupted by an unexpected off day due to severe weather Thursday, buyers and sellers were back on schedule Sunday.

“We usually have two show days between the breeze show and the sale, but it used to be one,” Woods said Sunday afternoon. “And the extra day was purposefully put in there for that reason. If we come up on a bad day, we have a swing day in there, so it worked well. A lot of people got a lot of horses looked at that morning before the rain got too bad. And there are people who are only starting to come in here anyway, so it didn't effect them at all. We were pretty steady showing today and hopefully we will be very busy tomorrow.”

The OBS Spring sale will be held Tuesday through Friday with bidding beginning each day at 10:30 a.m.

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