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Keeneland Supplements Fifteen to January Sale

Fifteen horses, including the dam of recent GII Los Alamitos Futurity winner Practical Move (Practical Joke), have been supplemented to Keeneland's 2023 January Horses of All Ages Sale. Ack Naughty (Afleet Alex), who soon turns 11, sells in foal on an early cover to Upstart and is consigned by ELiTE, agent.

Also supplemented is 2021 GII San Clemente S. and GIII Senorita S. winner Madone (Vancouver {Aus}) as a racing or broodmare prospect, and four-time Grade 1-placed Reinvestment Risk (Upstart), who was second twice as a juvenile to champion Jackie's Warrior and sells as a stallion prospect.

Other prominent supplements include daughters of Bolt d'Oro, Munnings, Street Sense, Tapit and Zoffany, as well as mares in foal to Practical Joke and Violence.

The latest additions bring the total number of horses cataloged to the January Sale to 1,614. Catalog pages for these horses will be appear online at Keeneland.com and in the Equineline Sales Catalog App on Tuesday, Jan. 3.
The January Sale will cover four sessions from Jan. 9-12, 2023.

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Sharp Purse Increase Announced for Qatar’s Signature Race

The Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club (QREC) this week announced significant purse increases for the 2023 three-day racing H.H. The Amir Festival, including a boost to $2.5 million for the signature H.H. The Amir Trophy. The festival–which is set for Feb. 16-18 and falls a week before the $20 million G1 Saudi Cup at King Abdulaziz Racetrack–will again be contested at Al Rayyan Racecourse.

The H.H. The Amir Trophy, which was previously worth $1 million, is a 1 1/2-mile turf test for 3-year-olds and up.

“Certainly, raising the value of prizes in the most valuable equestrian festivals will bring about a new era in the history of the event, which is expected to be rich excitement contesting among horse owners, trainers and jockeys who have already expressed their great happiness with this development,” H.E. Issa Bin Mohammed Al Mohannadi, QREC Chairman, said. “In fact, this increase will enhance the development of racing and motivate owners to have the best horses and reap such prize money. Naturally, this will lead to raising the standard of racing to match the immense support from the authorities, who spare no effort to this effect and facilitate all requirements for success both at home and overseas.”

Overall, the total prize money for the three-day festival has been increased by more than the double from a year ago to nearly $10 million.

“All the races will be significant and valuable as all owners, trainers and jockeys aspire to be present at the winner's enclosure in this renewal, which will be marked by a new standard of maximized motivations given the generous increase in the prize money. This will eventually lead to the further development of Qatar's horseracing,” Abdulla Rashid Al Kubaisi, QREC Racing Manager, said.

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Dec. 28: Despite Significant Lead by Bolt d’Oro, Rivals Not Going Down Without a Fight

Thanks to Winter Storm Elliott and numerous cancellations of racing cards in the East late last week, the tight battle between Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro), Good Magic (Curlin) and Justify (Scat Daddy) to claim the title of 2022's leading first-crop sire went from a boil to a chill over the Christmas holiday weekend. However, with three days remaining on the calendar this year, both the temperatures and the competition are heating back up, none of the top three willing to claim victory or concede defeat just yet.

Bolt d'Oro kicked off the last week of the year in winning fashion as his son Corona Bolt captured the Sugar Bowl S. at Fair Grounds on Monday by 6 3/4 lengths, picking up a $60,000 check in the process. The $220,000 KEENOV weanling boosted his sire's progeny earnings total to $2,712,616, which is now $184,443 more than Good Magic's second-place figure of $2,528,173.

Bolt d'Oro has three set to run in Turfway Park's fifth race on Thursday night, a race originally carded for last Friday before the track was forced to cancel due to sub-zero temperatures. St. Elmo, Itzos, and Fast Forward are all back to take a stab at the 6 1/2-furlong Msw test, which carries a purse of $70,000. On Friday, Bolt d'Oro will have a pair–Mahina and Bolt's Broad–race a mile on the turf in a $67,000 Msw at Santa Anita, which has been carded as the day's first race. He has four runners entered for New Year's Eve at various tracks.

Repole Stables' homebred Rule It is first for the day on Thursday for Good Magic. The colt, who is trained by Todd Pletcher, is out of the Bernardini mare Enthrall and seeks a first career win in the fifth race at Gulfstream Park, a 7 1/2-furlong Moc turf test. Up North at Aqueduct, Moonflyer will wear a $40,000 price tag when he races 6 1/2 furlongs looking for an initial career win for trainer Rudy Rodriguez, who also co-owns the colt in partnership with Gabrielle Farm, Vincent Scuderi, Michael Imperio, and Theresa Cotrone. Good Magic's final runner heading into the weekend will be Belle Elena in a 6 1/2-furlong Msw worth $34,000 at Delta Downs om Friday.

Not willing to simply settle for third, Justify was represented by two runners in Japan at Hanshin Racecourse on Wednesday. Dona Sweat, a $425,000 KEESEP graduate, finished fourth in a six-furlong maiden race and earned $6,025. Later on the card, Yuttitham was victorious in a $106,284 allowance event, earning $55,498 in the process. With the earnings boost and his runners' current total of $2,477,539, Justify trails Good Magic by just $50,634and has one entered for Saturday at Santa Anita.

Note that Japanese earnings are added every Sunday night, and there may be delayed reporting from other countries, which could postpone the final results in a very tight race into early January.

Current Earnings Standings through racing of Dec. 27:
1st—Bolt d'Oro, $2,712,616
2nd—Good Magic, $2,528173
3rd—Justify, $2,477,539

The TDN sire lists contain full-dollar earnings of Northern Hemisphere foals winning anywhere in the world. To view the current standings updated overnight, click here.

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Trakus to Cease Operations

Trakus, the timing and tracking system introduced to the racing industry at Keeneland in 2006, will cease domestic operations Dec. 31, the company's chairman Barry Weisbord confirmed Wednesday.

“Trakus is closing its domestic operations on 12-31, the tracks have all been informed,” Weisbord said. “We have some international contracts and some of those are going to continue for a period of time, but not a significant amount of time.”

Several tracks which had been utilizing Trakus, including the New York Racing Association tracks, are expected to switch to the Equibase's lower-cost global positioning satellite system.

“It's winding down because it loses too much money,” Weisbord said of Trakus's end. “We lost a lot of money over a long period of time. We finally got to a break-even point and Equibase took some business away from us with their GPS system. We tried to get them to take a good look at our GPS system, but that didn't happen and they went with another company. It put us in a situation that it was untenable to operate.”

When it debuted 16 years ago, Trakus provided racing fans with, not only data which had been unavailable previously, but also graphics which allowed horse players to have a better vision of how races were being run.

“Trakus gave people sophisticated information–like actual feet covered–which many tracks put up on their simulcast shows and simulcast presenters talked about it,” Weisbord said. “It was talked about by fans in the big races–you get beat a head and you travelled 28 feet farther than the winner. People have come to understand those four lengths are meaningful. And we introduced that.”

Through its chicklets, which provided a real-time graphic for every horse in the field, Trakus also introduced a new way to watch racing.

“Having worked in broadcast television where we put up four numbers from a guy with binoculars, we always thought if you ever could have a full-field leader board that was right, that would be the be all and end all,” Weisbord said. “What the chicklets were able to deliver was clarity to that picture. The graphics can tell the story of the race and it doesn't matter how tight the director made the field or if he's scrolling through the field. No matter what he is showing, you know who is second or third in your multiple horse bet. They are showing Flightline drawing off, without the chicklets there, you have no idea who is second or third. That clarity to fans and bettors is critical to making racing more fun to watch. We had no idea how important that was going to be 16 years ago–we didn't know back then that people would be able to watch video on their phones.”

Looking to the future for the technology he helped launch in the industry nearly two decades ago, Weisbord said, “Now, my wish for the industry is that the companies that are continuing to operate continue to provide better data and continue to make better graphics. Because that is what the industry needs to compete with other sports and other forms of entertainment.”

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