Tag: Workout

GISP Hot Rod Charlie Works for O’Neill; Targets Lewis

Already a winner of the GI Kentucky Derby with 2016 hero Nyquist (Uncle Mo) and I’ll Have Another (Flower Alley) in 2012, trainer Doug O’Neill is looking forward to the New Year with Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow), Wipe the Slate (Nyquist) and Team Merchants (Nyquist) among his well-regarded sophomores.

Hot Rod Charlie worked five furlongs at Santa Anita Saturday in a bullet :59.40, fastest of 64 drills at the distance. A narrow winner in his fourth career start at Santa Anita on October, Hot Rod Charlie closed to finish second-at whopping odds of 94-1–behind likely 2020 2-year-old male Eclipse champion Essential Quality (Tapit) in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Nov. 6.

“Hot Rod Charlie is doing great and we’re pointing him to the [GIII] Bob Lewis S.,” said O’Neill, referring to the Robert B. Lewis S. at a mile and a sixteenth Jan.  30.

The Lewis, first run in 1935 as the Santa Catalina S., offers 10 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the winner, four to the runner-up, two to the third-place finisher and one to the fourth.

A son of O’Neill’s former pupil Nyquist, Wipe the Slate also worked Saturday, covering five furlongs in 1:01.20. Wearing blinkers for the first time, Wipe the Slate scored an impressive maiden win Dec. 26 at Santa Anita after finishing second in his debut to undefeated Sham S. winner and ‘TDN Rising Star’ Life Is Good (Into Mischief) at Del Mar Nov. 22.

“Wipe the Slate is doing super, but I’m not sure where he’s going to blend in after that win,” O’Neill said. “It’s been two weeks, so we really haven’t pointed him to the next spot.

Also a son of the 2015 champion juvenile colt, Team Merchants won at second asking at Saratoga Sept. 7 after being fractious in the gate.

“Team Merchants had a little injury, so he’s at the farm until he’s 100%,” O’Neill added, alluding to principal owner J. Paul Reddam’s Ocean Breeze Ranch in Bonsall.

Reddam Racing owned both of O’Neill’s Derby winners and the team also combined to take the Lewis with Great Hunter in 2007 and I’ll Have Another in 2012.

The post GISP Hot Rod Charlie Works for O’Neill; Targets Lewis appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Free Analysis: Jeff Siegel Provides Daily Column, Workout Report For Santa Anita Horseplayers

Daily race-by-race workout information, always a vital tool in the handicapping process, will be available to Santa Anita horse players as part Jeff Siegel's Daily Analysis & Wagering Strategies column when racing resumes on opening day, Saturday, Dec. 26 at the Great Race Place.

A part of the XBTV team, Siegel is widely-regarded as the West Coast's most astute veteran handicapper. His column will be accessible at santaanita.com or xpressbet.com every race day morning as a PDF document that can viewed, printed, or downloaded. The Santa Anita Workout Report will highlight recent drills from “In Today” runners and will include commentary, digitally-timed interior fractions, graded analysis and links to the video of the workouts that are housed in the extensive xbtv.com library.

“This new analytic tool will describe and evaluate each listed drill with the written word but, more importantly, it will easily allow the reader to view many of the actual workouts and form his or her own opinions,“ said Siegel, who was the first to publish workout reports back in the 1970s after co-founding Handicapper's Report. “The Santa Anita Workout Report should be an invaluable reference source for the serious player.”

The daily morning tab at Santa Anita often contains a hundred or more officially-timed workouts, especially on weekends. “Because of the sheer volume, it is difficult to record them all,” said Siegel, “but, truthfully, some workouts are benign, simply for maintenance, and are of little consequence to the handicapping process. The XBTV team focuses on those runners that hold the most interest to the horseplayer, such as maidens, horses returning from layoffs, those in gate drills, and stakes performers.”

The Santa Anita Workout Report, along with Siegel's popular Daily Analysis & Wagering Strategies, will be posted no later than 6 a.m. PDT each racing day and often times the evening before to allow horse players sufficient time to incorporate the information into their handicapping.

The post Free Analysis: Jeff Siegel Provides Daily Column, Workout Report For Santa Anita Horseplayers appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Mr. Big News Tunes Up for Preakness

Third-place GI Kentucky Derby finisher Mr. Big News (Giant’s Causeway) geared up for Pimlico’s Oct. 3 GI Preakness S. with a half-mile breeze in :48 4/5 (22/76) Friday at Churchill Downs. Regular exercise rider Tony Quinones was in irons.

“He was very sharp this morning,” said trainer Bret Calhoun. “I know it was cool. He went a little quicker than we wanted, but did it very easy, well within himself. He was full of energy, kind of what we wanted to see. It was what we wanted or better.”

Mr. Big News earned a free entry in the Preakness with his win in the Apr. 11 Oaklawn S. Calhoun said his charge will work again Saturday, Sept. 26, which will be his final breeze before the Preakness. If it goes smoothly, Mr. Big News will head to Baltimore for the 1 3/16-mile Classic.

“He’s a fit horse; he doesn’t need a lot,” Calhoun said of next week’s work. “I’m not looking for fitness. Just maintain what we’ve got and hold his edge.”

Owner Chester Thomas and Calhoun said the strong finish by Mr. Big News at the end of the Derby helped determine their colt’s Preakness path.

“The free ride in the Preakness was there,” said Calhoun, “but he needed to prove that he belonged with that group of horses.”

The post Mr. Big News Tunes Up for Preakness appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Honor A.P. Tightens Screws in Penultimate Derby Work

GI Runhappy Santa Anita Derby winner Honor A.P. (Honor Code), expected to be no worse than third choice on the morning line for the Sept. 5 GI Kentucky Derby, tightened the screws with a five-furlong work in 1:00.20 (see below) before the first race at Del Mar Saturday. Regular rider Mike Smith, wearing the colors of C R K Stable, was in the irons. Honor A.P. clicked off fractions of :12, :24, :36.20, and :47.60, galloping out three-quarters in 1:12.20 and seven furlongs in 1:25.40.

The bay ridgling worked under the watchful eye of conditioner John Shirreffs, who previously paired up with Smith to win the Derby in 2005 with Giacomo (Holy Bull). In addition to his Santa Anita Derby score, Honor A.P. was most recently second behind Thousand Words (Pioneerof the Nile) Aug. 1 when shortening up by a sixteenth in Del Mar’s Shared Belief S. The sophomore is slated to work one more time at Del Mar next weekend before shipping to Kentucky.

 

 

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