Bay Storm Holds Off Wakanaka In Ladies Turf Sprint

This year, she was on the winning side of the photo. After coming up just a nose short to MG1SW Campanelle (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) in this race just last year, Bay Storm (Kantharos) parlayed a victory in Ellis Park's KY Downs Preview Mint Ladies Turf Sprint S. into a win in the real thing as she held off a closing Wakanaka (Ire) (Power {GB}) right on the wire.

After making her first two starts of 2023 at Santa Anita, the 5-year-old came east and checked in a valiant second to GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint winner Caravel (Mizzen Mast) in the Unbridled Sidney S. at Churchill May 5. Fourth beaten just a length in Belmont's Intercontinental S. June 9, Bay Storm prepped for this spot with her aforementioned win as the favorite as Ellis Park Aug. 5.

Away in the front pack Saturday in a race impacted by the post-time scratch of Gal in a Rush (Ghostzapper), the 5-2 second choice broke clear of the field in the opening furlong but was quickly joined into the turn by Tony Ann (Cairo Prince). Hugging the rail around the sweeping bend through a half in :45.80, Bay Storm exchanged minor contact with Tony Ann and held off a host of challengers to her outside including the race favorite in Wakanaka who came flying from last but just missed as the three horses hit the line together.

When asked if this win took the sting out of last year's defeat, winning trainer Jonathan Thomas answered: “Without a doubt. She really deserves this. She's got a crazy good resume. I think that's her (17th) lifetime start and she's only been off the board twice. It's a real credit to her, a graded-stakes winner. George Isaacs and the Bridlewood team have been really patient with her. It's kind of like a bow on a present. It feels good to have gotten her that win.”

“She broke in the air,” added jockey Florent Geroux. “She recovered and came back on the inside of Tyler [Gaffalione aboard Tony Ann] and made the lead. She ran great here last year on this track [losing the Ladies Sprint by a nose to Campanelle]. It was a big advantage. She is a fighter. It's very simple here, they either like it or they don't. She fought today.”

Pedigree Note:

Out of a stakes winning and graded-stakes placed dam, Bay Storm brought $400,000 as a 2-year-old at the OBS Spring 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale. Her winning 3-year-old half-brother, Pensacola (Into Mischief), was himself a $600,000 2-year-old out of last year's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale. With the win, Bay Storm becomes the 39th graded-stakes winner for sire Kantharos. Stormy Regatta has a yearling American Pharoah filly, reported a colt by Essential Quality this spring and was bred back to Justify.

Saturday, Kentucky Downs
AGS LADIES TURF SPRINT S.-GII, $900,000, Kentucky Downs, 9-9, 3yo/up, f/m, 6 1/2fT, 1:17.06, fm.
1–BAY STORM, 123, m, 5, by Kantharos
                1st Dam: Stormy Regatta (MSW & GSP, $160,310),
                                  by Midshipman
                2nd Dam: Storm Front, by A.P. Indy
                3rd Dam: Storm Alert, by Storm Cat
1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($400,000 2yo '20 OBSAPR).
O-Bridlewood Farm; B-Candy Meadows LLC (KY); T-Jonathan
Thomas; J-Florent Geroux. $604,560. Lifetime Record:
17-6-6-3, $1,313,315. Werk Nick Rating: A. Click for the
eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or free Equineline.com
catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Wakanaka (Ire), 121, m, 5, Power (GB)–Storyline (Ire), by
Kodiac (GB). (£3,500 Ylg '19 GOFFPR; $975,000 RNA 4yo '22
KEENOV). O-Team Valor International and Gary Barber; B-Mrs
Jean Brennan (IRE); T-William I. Mott. $117,600.
3–Tony Ann, 121, m, 5, Cairo Prince–Never Ever, by In Excess
(Ire). 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. O-A Venneri Racing, Inc. and
Anthony Fanticola; B-Alex Venneri Racing, LLC (KY); T-Philip
D'Amato. $98,800.
Margins: NK, HD, 2HF. Odds: 2.87, 2.75, 5.56.
Also Ran: Our Flash Drive, Train to Artemus, Quaria Comet, Fast and Feminine. Scratched: Gal in a Rush, Unbridled Mary.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPshttp://www.equineline.com/tdn/pedigree.cfm?tk=SAR&cy=USA&rd=09/07/2015&rn=9&de=D  &ref=9104432. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

The post Bay Storm Holds Off Wakanaka In Ladies Turf Sprint appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

“Best of Both Worlds”: Mott at Home at Saratoga

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – When three veteran turf writers approached him at his Saratoga barn last week, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott impishly decided to reverse roles. Before the journalists were able to offer more than a hello, Mott started asking pretty much the same questions he knew were coming his way.

For several seconds, the interviewee was the light-hearted interviewer.

Mott knows the drill. He has been training horses since he was a teenager in Mobridge, South Dakota, was inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame at the age of 45–the youngest flat trainer in history–in 1998 and in the 25 years since has further burnished his reputation as one of the Thoroughbred racing's all-time greats. Equibase stats show him ranked fourth in career purse earnings with $330,933,373 and eighth in victories with 5,323. The great Cigar delivered 19 of those wins–16 in a row–and $9,999,815 in earnings to those totals in the mid-1990s.

With a crew of accomplished stakes runners, Mott will once again be a major player during the 155th summer of racing in Saratoga that starts Thursday. While Cody's Wish (Curlin), who is being considered for the GI Whitney S. on Aug. 5, may have the highest profile at the moment, he is not the only star in Mott's barn located next to the Oklahoma training track. Also in residence along the shedrow are champion sprinter Elite Power (Curlin) and multiple graded stakes winners Casa Creed (Jimmy Creed), Frank's Rockette (Into Mischief), War Like Goddess (English Channel), Art Collector (Bernardini), and Caramel Swirl (Union Rags). Graded stakes winners Poppy Flower (Lea) and Wakanaka (Ire) (Power {GB}) are still at Belmont Park. Art Collector is the only one not being pointed to a Saratoga start.

After stepping back into his familiar role of talking about his horses and upcoming races, Mott acknowledged that he was upbeat and ready for the upcoming season.

“I am, all the time. I don't panic as much as I used to. I don't get the anxiety that I used to have,” he said. “I'm excited and I'm looking forward to it. There was a point when I thought I had to be leading trainer here. It's like, 'Oh, I was leading trainer last year. I've got to do it again.' I don't feel that. I just hope each individual horse does well.”

Mott saddled his first horse at Saratoga in 1984, has been at the meet every year since 1987 and won or shared the training title nine times between 1992 and 2007. These days he often finishes third behind the dominant duo of Todd Pletcher and Chad Brown.

“Naturally, I don't have quite as many as some of them,” Mott said. “I have a large stable. I have the same large stable, like I used to have, but some of these guys have got huge stables.”

Last year, he was fifth in wins with 16 from 114 starters. Brown snagged the title with 42 wins from 197 starts and Pletcher was next with 38 wins from 159 starters. With Olympiad (Speightstown)'s victory in the $1-million GI Jockey Club Gold Cup, Mott finished third in purse earnings with his personal best of $3,262,117.

With Eddie Davis up, Cody's Wish gallops Wednesday morning | Sarah Andrew

Godolphin homebred Cody's Wish could give Mott his first victory in the $1-million Whitney. The 4-year-old colt has won six in a row and nine of 10 starts since breaking his maiden in October 2021. In his most recent start, Cody's Wish won the GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan Mile H. at Belmont Park. He has proved effective at two turns, winning the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile in November. Mott said the challenge will be the distance, to see if he can stretch out a bit more and continue his dominant run at 1 1/8 miles.

“He has not won at nine furlongs,” Mott said. “We know what he can do at a mile. Now older and more experienced, seasoned, maybe the mile and an eighth is more within his reach.”

Mott is leaning toward the Whitney because he doesn't have any other options on the Saratoga schedule. He is not interested in running Cody's Wish in the six-furlong GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt on July 29–his 70th birthday–as it is Elite Power's preferred distance. The more suitable seven-furlong GI Forego S., which Cody's Wish won last year, is on Aug. 26

“That's a long way, a long time to wait,” Mott said. “You kind of get forced into thinking about other things. If they had a flat mile race here that was a million dollars, we'd be looking at that but they don't have it. The Whitney is one of the two more prestigious races they run up here and he is a possible to run in it.”

Mott has won 464 races in 2,646 starts and earned $41,065,994 in purses at Saratoga. According to Equibase, he has 91 stakes victories at the Spa. Since he notched his first graded stakes win at Saratoga in 1990 with Chief Honcho in the GII Jim Dandy, his horses have prevailed in 29 different graded stakes with a total of 65 winners. Twenty-five have been in GI races.

Despite all that success in Saratoga, Mott has yet to win either the Whitney or the GI Travers S. He is 0-for-11 in the Whitney with three seconds. In the Travers, he has two seconds in 10 starts.

War Like Goddess trains Wednesday at the Spa | Sarah Andrew

Through the years he has won the GII National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame S. and the GII Glens Falls S. seven times each, the GI Fourstardave H. and the GII Bernard Baruch H. five times each and the GI Diana S. and the Jim Dandy four times. Since being hired as Bert and Diana Firestone's trainer in 1987, he has had at least one graded stakes win in 34 of 36 seasons at Saratoga.

Casa Creed will be Mott's first stakes runner of the meet in Saturday's GIII Kelso S., formerly run as the Forbidden Apple. He picked up his third Saratoga win last year in the Fourstardave. Mott said that Poppy Flower and Wakanaka could run in the GIII Caress S. on July 22. Frank's Rockette is preparing for the GII Honorable Miss H. on July 26. War Like Goddess is headed to the Glens Falls on Aug. 3, a race she has won the last two summers. Caramel Swirl may make her next start in the GI Ballerina on Aug. 26.

In the early 1980s, Mott was based at Churchill Downs and had emerged as a top, young trainer. He recalls that it took some courage to make his first venture to Saratoga in 1984.

“Absolutely,” he said. “It was to see the people that were here and who you're running against and everything. Yeah, it was a big deal to me. It was a big deal.”

That summer he picked up three seconds in seven starts. The next year, he brought four horses and each of them ended up second. He skipped 1986 and in 1987 made his first trip to the winner's circle.

For many years, Mott has been based in Saratoga from April to November when the training track is open. His main barn was once used by Hall of Famer MacKenzie Miller.

“This is actually home, and I wouldn't want to do it any other way,” he said. “At this moment. I think I've got the best of both worlds right now. I have no complaints.”

The post “Best of Both Worlds”: Mott at Home at Saratoga appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Shantisara Leads Field For Pegasus Filly & Mare Turf

A field of 11, headlined by 2-1 morning-line favorite GISW Shantisara (Ire) (Coulsty {Ire}) is expected to line up for Saturday's GIII TAA Pegasus World Cup Filly & Mare Turf Invitational for older females.

The 7-2 second choice, Dalika (Ger) (Pastorious {Ger}), will make her 32nd career start in the Pegasus for trainer Albert Stall, Jr.

“There's not a horse in America that is more battle-tested than her,” said Stall. “She couldn't be more fit and couldn't be more of a warrior, so we got that going for us, too.”

Queen Goddess (Empire Maker) is the 5-1 third choice for owners Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Gary Barber. The 5-year-old is coming off a 2 1/2-length victory Dec. 31 in the GIII Robert J. Frankel S. at Santa Anita for trainer Michael McCarthny. Luis Saez is scheduled to ride.

Another contender is 8-1 shot Lady Rockstar (GB) (Frankel {GB}) for trainer Brendan Walsh.

Team Valor International and Gary Barber's Wakanaka (Ire) (Power {GB}, returns at 10-1 in the Pegasus event where she made her North American debut last year. The 5-year-old Irish-bred mare started her career in Italy, where she won six of her nine starts. Since arriving in North America, Wakanaka has won a pair of stakes, including the GII Dance Smartly S. at Woodbine.

“When she first came here, she wasn't that good around two turns,” said Barry Irwin, chief executive officer for Team Valor. “But as she's raced and trained, she's gotten smarter and better. She's physically improved. She's a lot better now than she was last year. She's got a really good turn of foot. She's not a very big filly, but she's got a lot of power when she turns it on.”

The remainder of the field includes: Perseverancia (California Chrome) (15-1), Artie's Princess (We Miss Artie) (20-1), Sweet Enough (GB) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) (20-1), and Justify My Love (Brz) (Agnes Gold {Jpn}) (30-1).

The post Shantisara Leads Field For Pegasus Filly & Mare Turf appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Blea on Del Mar’s Churchill Shippers, Wakanaka Scratched from Matriarch

In the midst of the Equine Herpesvirus (EHV-1) outbreak at Churchill Downs, Del Mar had accepted three shippers from the Louisville track Tuesday, Nov. 29, the same day a horse at Churchill first showed symptoms of the contagious disease. One of the horses, Bill Mott's MGSW Wakanaka (Ire) (Power {GB}), had a suspicious test and will not be permitted to start in Sunday's GI Matriarch S. She was 5-1 on the morning line.

Dr. Jeff Blea, the equine medical director for the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB), released the following statement Saturday:

“Three horses arrived at the Del Mar Race Track from Churchill Downs on Tuesday, Nov. 29. Due to the recent EHV-1 issue identified at Churchill Downs, the horses were placed in a quarantine barn with biosecurity measures implemented upon arrival, which continue to remain in place. Since their arrival, all three horses remain healthy and show no clinical signs of illness. Furthermore, bloodwork has been and continues to remain normal.

“The horses were tested for EHV-1 at UC Davis and all horses were negative for EHV-1 in blood. However, one horse, Wakanaka, was mildly positive on a nasal swab sample with a very low viral load. The viral load was too weak to differentiate between neuropathogenic and non-neuropathogenic EHV-1. This is only one test at a single time point, so we will continue to monitor the situation. Out an abundance of caution, Wakanaka will not be allowed to compete in the Dec. 4 Matriarch S. as planned.”

The post Blea on Del Mar’s Churchill Shippers, Wakanaka Scratched from Matriarch appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights