turf season | Horse Racing Free Tips

Saturday may be April Fools' Day but there will be no fool's errand for the 17 juveniles charged with getting their racing careers off to a bright start in Britain's traditional turf season opener, the Pertemps Network EBF Brocklesby S.

Love it or loathe it, the Brocklesby carries with it that great sigh of relief from Flat fans that winter is at last over and 'proper racing' can now commence. For the men and women behind the stallions with their first runners this season, it is also an important marker, and four of the 17 runners this year represent three freshman sires.

Magna Grecia (Ire) drew first blood in the first-season sires' title race of 2023 when the Amy Murphy-trained Myconian (Ire) won the Prix du Debut at Saint-Cloud. The 2019 2,000 Guineas winner, whose half-brother St Mark's Basilica (Fr) has since followed him to the Coolmore stallion yard, also features among the sires of the Brocklesby runners, with the Andrew Balding-trained Loaded Gun (Ire) high up in the betting at Doncaster. A half-brother to the dual sprint winner Another Bertie (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}), Loaded Gun was bred by Khalid Mishref and Joe Hernon, and is a son of the Cheveley Park Stud-bred mare Temerity (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), won won over seven furlongs at two.

Karl Burke enjoys plenty of success with his juveniles and is represented by Indication Call (Ire), a son of Ballyhane Stud's Soldier's Call (GB), who has had two runners to date in Ireland including Friday's Dundalk runner-up Lightening Army (Ire). Bred by Mcr Bloodstock, Indication Call hails from a family that the trainer knows well, as his dam Queen Elsa (Ire) is a Frozen Power (Ire) half-sister to the Burke-trained G2 Mill Reef S. winner Toocoolforschool (Ire), who is by Soldier's Call's sire Showcasing (GB).

Eyeros (Ire), trained by Stan Moore and bred by Gleann Ard Stud, is another by Soldier's Call in the field and is out of the unraced Aga Khan-bred mare Tildiyna (Ire) (Sinner {Ire}), a grand-daughter of Timarida (Ire) (Kalaglow {Ire}), the winner of three Group 1 races in Ireland, America and Germany, including the Irish Champion S.

Dave Evans will saddle Go To Work (Ire), bred by Tally-Ho Stud, which is also home to his sire Inns Of Court (Ire). The gelding is out of the New Approach (Ire) mare Forgiving Flower (GB), a half-sister to Japanese Grade 3 winner Live Concert (Ire) (Singspiel {Ire}) and to the Listed winner Charleston Lady (GB) (Hurricane Run {Ire}).

Tally-Ho Stud is also now home to last year's Brocklesby winner, Persian Force (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}), who went on to win the G2 July S. and finish runner-up to Blackbeard (Ire) (No Nay Never) in the G1 Prix Morny for Amo Racing. The 2021 winner Chipotle (GB) (Havana Gold {Ire}) also proved to be a smart and hardy campaigner, winning four times at two for Eve Johnson Houghton, including at Royal Ascot, while arguably the smartest recent winner of them all was The Last Lion (Ire) (Choisir {Aus}), whose busy juvenile campaign of 2016 culminated in victory in the G1 Middle Park S.

Amo Racing also has the favourite for this year's contest in the Starspangledbanner (Aus) colt Valadero (Ire). A €250,000 yearling bred by the Irish National Stud, Valadero is trained by Dominic Ffrench Davis.

“Persian Force was obviously an incredibly special horse who was verging on Group 1 standard,” said Tom Pennington, Amo's racing and operations manager. “Valadero is a very nice colt who has been very straightforward to deal with and his work's been good. I wouldn't say we're confident, but he does go there in very good shape.”

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Although winter weather has delayed a planned aeration project to aid with drainage on the Laurel Park turf course, track management is projecting that with a little help from Mother Nature, grass racing could begin by Apr. 17.

Speaking at the Feb. 25 Maryland Racing Commission meeting, Sal Sinatra, the president of the Maryland Jockey Club, which owns Laurel and Pimlico Race Course, described the turf maintenance as similar to work that is often undertaken on golf courses.

Except that at Laurel, Sinatra said, this “deep drill and fill” involves going down “12 to 18 inches instead of the usual eight inches.”

In a typical drill and fill project, once a drill bit cores out a column that is generally an inch or less wide, the machine inserts new, clean growing media (usually sand) into the soil to improve water movement and oxygen levels without damaging the deep roots that are typical in racecourse grass mixes.

“I think we're hopeful that by mid-April,” the course will be ready for racing, Sinatra said, adding that “we have stakes scheduled on the 17th, and that's our goal.

“The most important thing right now is assisting in drainage, particularly from all the excess rolling [of the course] for a few years that's compacted it,” Sinatra continued. “I think if we can get that done early, we should be okay to run mid-April.”

Sinatra also updated the commission on main-track maintenance performed earlier this winter on a problem area near the five-furlong pole.

“We have pipes under there and it looks like a spring runs directly under there,” Sinatra said, adding that the maintenance crew did a “pretty massive repair,” but that only time will tell if it's a permanent fix.

“I think the best approach is going to be when we get probably to Pimlico and get some good weather to be able to go back and [dig down into the Laurel track to make sure] that it didn't bubble back up,” Sinatra said.

“That's what's happened no matter how much limestone and stuff [we're] putting there,” Sinatra continued. “The water underneath is eroding it, and then we hit that dip. Hopefully [we] got past that. But I know [the maintenance crew] went down quite a bit and we actually had to extend [the pipe] last time. So I'm hoping that this is the time [that the issue is resolved].”

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