Triple Crown | Horse Racing Free Tips

O’Neill Believes Distance Should Help Wipe The Slate In Saturday’s Gotham

Navigating the competitive Kentucky Derby trail will force any 3-year-old to eventually branch beyond an established comfort zone, as steeper competition, expanded race distances and more extensive travel becomes necessary as the first Saturday in May approaches.

Reddam Racing's Wipe the Slate will look to embrace those challenges, shipping across the country from his base at Santa Anita in California to compete in Saturday's Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham at Aqueduct Racetrack.

The one-turn mile will offer 50-20-10-5 Derby qualifying points to the top-four finishers and will mark Wipe the Slate's first race outside of the Golden State. The Doug O'Neill trainee ran second in his debut going 6 1/2 furlongs on Nov. 22 at Del Mar before breaking his maiden with an impressive 3 ¼-length score in a seven-furlong sprint on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita to cap his juvenile campaign.

Making his sophomore – and graded stakes debut – Wipe the Slate was stretched out to 1 1/16 miles for his first career route. After bumping a rival, he underwent a wide trip before tiring late, finishing sixth in the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis on Jan. 30 at Santa Anita.

Wipe the Slate has continued to train forwardly since that effort, including a six-furlong work in 1:11.60 on Saturday over the Santa Anita main track. A son of Nyquist, O'Neill's 2016 Kentucky Derby winner, Wipe the Slate will look to benefit from a five-week gap between starts. O'Neill said he expects the Kentucky-bred to handle shipping to the Empire State with aplomb and likes how cutting back to a mile could play to his strength.

“He's always been an impressive colt,” said O'Neill. “I think he'll travel well and I love the one-turn mile for him. We're excited for days ahead.”

O'Neill said Kendrick Carmouche, the current Aqueduct winter meet-leading rider, will pick up the mount for the Gotham.

The Gotham, which will have its 69th running this coming weekend, has historical strong connections to the “Run for the Roses,” with Secretariat winning it in 1973, tying the track record in an effort that helped propel him to one of the most famous Triple Crown runs in the sport's history. Other highlights include Easy Goer setting a track record in the 1989 edition, setting a mark of 1:32.40 that still stands.

While both Secretariat and Easy Goer are Hall of Famers, O'Neill has the potential to join them among the inductees, as the veteran conditioner was named one of 11 finalists for the 2021 National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame class on Wednesday.

O'Neill, primarily based in California, is one of three trainers among the finalists, along with NYRA mainstays Todd Pletcher and Christophe Clement. The 52-year-old O'Neill is a two-time Derby winner in tandem with Reddam Racing, saddling I'll Have Another [who also won the Preakness] in 2012 and following four years later with Nyquist, who ran third in the 2016 Preakness.

O'Neill, who trained his first winner in 1989, has five Breeders' Cup victories to his credit, bolstering a strong resume that features more than 2,500 career wins, including 132 graded stakes. Among his other notable winners was Hall of Famer Lava Man, who won the Hollywood Gold Cup three times and twice both the Santa Anita Handicap and Pacific Classic. Five of his horses have won Eclipse Awards. In addition to his dozens of stakes victories in this country, O'Neill has also tallied international victories in the Godolphin Mile and Japan Cup Dirt.

“The Hall of Fame nomination is a result of working alongside a bunch of amazing horsemen and amazing owners and, of course, amazing horses,” said O'Neill.

The post O’Neill Believes Distance Should Help Wipe The Slate In Saturday’s Gotham appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Candy Man Rocket ‘Smooth As Silk’ In Final Prep For Tampa Bay Derby

Candy Man Rocket, who burst onto the scene as a legitimate Triple Crown candidate by winning the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes here on Feb. 6, and Grade 3 2-year-old winner Sittin On Go are expected to head a large field in Saturday's Grade 2, $400,000 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby.

The 41st annual Tampa Bay Downs showcase is one of five stakes races scheduled on the Festival Day 41 Presented by Lambholm South card. The mile-and-a-sixteenth race for 3-year-olds on the main dirt track is a “Road to the Kentucky Derby” points race, with the top four finishers earning 50, 20, 10 and 5 points toward qualifying for a spot in the Run for the Roses starting gate at Churchill Downs on May 1.

As is always the case this time of year, the majority of attention will shift to the 3-year-old Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve hopefuls.

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott – who won the 2019 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby with Tacitus and that year's Kentucky Derby with Country House, with Tacitus finishing third – sent Candy Man Rocket out for a 4-furlong breeze Sunday at his Payson Park Training Center base in Indiantown, Fla., where the Frank Fletcher Racing Operations-owned colt turned in a time of 48 3/5 seconds, the best of 36 workouts at the half-mile distance.

“He was on his own, he went well and I'm very pleased with him. He looked as smooth as silk,” Mott said via telephone. “He is a good work horse anyway, but I liked the way he did it. The (Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby) has been on our minds since he won the Sam F. Davis. Any time you get a horse that runs well over that racetrack, you have to give it consideration.”

While Kentucky Derby qualifying points can be very crucial, Mott knows the important thing at this stage is to continue to build on the colt's foundation for a possible try at a mile-and-a-quarter at Churchill Downs.

“It seems like he is doing equally as well now as he was before the Davis,” Mott said. “He's got good natural speed away from the gate, which can always be an advantage for any horse, position-wise. The chances of getting a good trip might be better than they would for a deep closer, especially in a big field.”

Junior Alvarado will again come up from Gulfstream Park to ride Candy Man Rocket.

Mott said the owner, Frank Fletcher, is excited about Candy Man Rocket's chances to be the first horse to complete the Sam F. Davis-Tampa Bay Derby double since Destin in 2016.

“He is someone who is enthusiastic about his horses, loves the game and is happy just to have a horse in a race like this,” Mott said.

The trainer said he is still debating the next start for his Sam F. Davis runner-up, breeder-owner Michael Shanley's Nova Rags, who won the Pasco Stakes here on Jan. 16. Mott said the March 13 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn, the March 20 TwinSpires.com Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds and the March 27 Curlin Florida Derby Presented by Hill 'n' Dale Farms at Xalapa are all under consideration.

Sittin On Go, who won the Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes last September at Churchill Downs, is expected to make his first start since a sixth-place finish on Jan. 30 in the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The Albaugh Family Stables-owned colt is trained by Dale Romans.

Also expected to compete in the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby are the third and fourth-place finishers in the Sam F. Davis, Hidden Stash and the gelding Boca Boy. Hidden Stash is owned by BBN Racing and trained by Victoria Oliver and Boca Boy is owned by Kenneth E. Fishbein and trained by Cheryl Winebaugh.

Trainer Todd Pletcher, who has won the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby a record five times, including three in a row from 2015-2017, is expected to return with Woodford Thoroughbreds and WinStar Farm's Promise Keeper. The colt broke his maiden on Feb. 6 at Gulfstream in his second start, winning a mile maiden special weight race by 5 lengths on a sloppy track.

Pletcher is also expected to enter Whisper Hill Farm's Unbridled Honor, who broke his maiden here on the Sam F. Davis undercard going a mile-and-40 yards.

King of Dreams, who broke his maiden at Gulfstream on Jan. 30, is expected to start for owner Victoria's Ranch and trainer Juan Carlos Avila, the same connections who won last year's Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby with 49-1 shot King Guillermo. Victoria's Ranch is the stable name for retired major league slugger Victor Martinez.

Mark Casse, who sent out Prospective to win the 2012 Tampa Bay Derby, is expected to enter D. J. Stable's Helium. The colt was 2-for-2 as a 2-year-old, winning the 7-furlong Display Stakes on Oct. 18 on the all-weather synthetic Tapeta track at Woodbine in Toronto.

Other likely Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby entrants include trainer Shawn H. Davis's Hello Hot Rod, a winner of three of four lifetime starts, including the Jimmy Winkfield Stakes on Jan. 31 at Aqueduct; Moonlite Strike, trainer Saffie A. Joseph, Jr.'s colt who is 2-for-4; Joseph's Super Strong, whose lone start on Dec. 19 at Camarero resulted in a victory in the Grade 1 Classico Agustin Mercado Revron Stakes; and My Liberty, a maiden winner from the barn of Maria Ines Mejia.

The post Candy Man Rocket ‘Smooth As Silk’ In Final Prep For Tampa Bay Derby appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Baffert: ‘We’re All Set’ After Life Is Good Has Final San Felipe Prep

Life Is Good worked six furlongs Sunday morning in 1:12.20 for Saturday's Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes, a major steppingstone to the G1 Runhappy Santa Anita Derby on April 3.

“He went well,” Bob Baffert said of the son of Into Mischief after the 9 a.m. drill. “I'm happy; we're all set.”

Presently, Baffert has five Triple Crown candidates: Life Is Good and Medina Spirit, who go in the San Felipe; San Vicente winner Concert Tour and runner-up Freedom Fighter, set for the Rebel Stakes and the Gotham, respectively; and Spielberg, an impressive second albeit by 4 ¼ lengths behind champion Essential Quality in Saturday's Southwest Stakes.

Baffert, a two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer, seeks to add to his record seven San Felipe victories.

His previous winners were Prime Timber (1999), Point Given (2001), Preachinatthebar (2004), Pioneerof the Nile (2009), Dortmund (2015), Mastery (2017) and Authentic last year.

Deeper Waters In San Felipe For None Above The Law
California-bred None Above the Law could face monster stakes winners who have won against open company when he runs in Saturday's San Felipe Stakes.

A son of Karakonite owned and bred by Kirk and Judy Robison, None Above the Law was second last out in the California Cup Derby at a mile and one-sixteenth on Jan. 16, prompting the pace and taking the lead into the stretch before finishing a length and a half behind victorious Big Fish.

“He showed he can get a distance but the race didn't work out the way we planned,” said Peter Miller, who trains the gray gelding. “We wanted to lay back and make one run, but he kind of made an early run at the five-eighths pole and got a little tired.

“But he's doing well, and obviously the water will be a lot deeper in the San Felipe.”

The San Felipe offers 50 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the winner, 20 to the runner-up, 10 to the third horse and five to the fourth.

Miller, a threat to be leading trainer at any meet in which he participates (he's currently tied for third at Santa Anita with 16 victories, two behind leader Doug O'Neill), also has three horses nominated to Saturday's G2 San Carlos Stakes for four-year-olds and up at seven furlongs, C Z Rocket, Major Cabbie and Shashashakemeup.

“We're going to run two of the three,” he said. “We're not sure which two.”

Entries for Big 'Cap Day will be taken this Wednesday.

The post Baffert: ‘We’re All Set’ After Life Is Good Has Final San Felipe Prep appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

‘Fun To Watch Him Run’: McGaughey Sees Big Future For Greatest Honour

Powered by ground-devouring strides, Courtlandt Farm's Greatest Honour galloped past pacesetter Drain the Clock nearing the finish to capture Saturday's $300,000 Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth (G2) at Gulfstream Park with speed to spare.

“It's kind of fun to watch him run,” Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey said Sunday morning after reporting that all was well with Greatest Honour, who was settling back in at his winter home at Payson Park in Indiantown, Fla.

Greatest Honour finished the 1 1/16-mile stakes for Triple Crown hopefuls at the Hallandale Beach, Fla., track in a manner that hardly told the story of his journey to the Gulfstream Park winner's circle. The dirt that covered the son of Tapit as his pictured was being taken was much more telling of challenges the homebred colt had to overcome in order to come through for the bettors who had made him their even-money favorite.

Although he was getting dirt kicked in his face as he raced in traffic well behind pacesetting Drain the Clock along the length of the backstretch, Greatest Honor was hardly about to play the role of a 90-pound weakling. Once he found running room to his outside on the far turn, the McGaughey trainee flexed his considerable muscle and powered his way to a 1 ½-length victory under Jose Ortiz.

“I knew we were in trouble. I was kind of waiting to see how it unfolded. You know, I'm not one to give up until it's time to give up. I knew things weren't going the way we wanted them to go,” McGaughey said. “They weren't going that fast in front of us. I saw what was happening and I felt like if we could get him to the outside we'd have a chance. That's exactly what happened.”

Greatest Honour's gutsy victory in the Fountain of Youth was considerably more testing that his 5 ¾-length romp in the 1 1/16-mile Holy Bull (G3) Jan. 30 at Gulfstream.

“The Holy Bull – everything went perfect. [Saturday], he didn't get anything perfect and he came back and won,” McGaughey said. “He was doing something he didn't want to do – to run a mile and a sixteenth over this racetrack with the short pole. I'm just glad I don't have to do that anymore.

“I was on the fence whether I wanted to run him back going a mile and a sixteenth here or not,” he added. “I decided that the way he worked last Sunday, it was time to go. Now, we have longer races in front of us. I still think his future is in front of him.”

Greatest Honour is being pointed to the $750,000 Curlin Florida Derby (G1) presented by Hill 'n Dale Farm at Xalapa March 27 at Gulfstream. McGaughey is hoping that Greatest Honour will follow the example set by Orb, whom he saddled for victories in the 2013 Fountain of Youth, 1 1/8-Florida Derby and the 1 ¼-mile Kentucky Derby (G1).

Greatest Honour virtually earned his way into the Kentucky Derby field with his victory in the Fountain of Youth, which offered 50 qualifying points for the May 1^st Derby. He currently sits atop the standings with 60 points.

McGaughey also reported that Performer exited his third-place finish as the favorite in the $200,000 WinStar Gulfstream Park Mile (G2) in good order.

“I think he was fighting the racetrack a little bit,” said McGaughey, whose trainee had captured the Fred W. Hooper (G3) in his previous start. “I think it's one of those things that it just wasn't his day.

The post ‘Fun To Watch Him Run’: McGaughey Sees Big Future For Greatest Honour appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post