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‘Improving’ Taiba Races Away In Pennsylvania Derby

If the GI Kentucky Derby all came a bit too soon for 'TDN Rising Star' Taiba (c, 3, Gun Runner–Needmore Flattery, by Flatter), Saturday's GI betPARX Pennsylvania Derby showed that he is close to–or is already–the finished project, enjoying the run of the race in before shooting clear in the stretch to defeat Kentucky Derby third Zandon (Upstart) by three solid lengths. Cyberknife (Gun Runner), who got the better trip and the better of a final-furlong tussle with Taiba in the GI TVG.com Haskell S. earlier this summer, outfinished Simplification (Not This Time) for third.

“Gun Runner is an unbelievable sire and this guy looks more like Gun Runner than a lot of them,” said trainer Bob Baffert, winning his fourth Pennsylvania Derrby. “I was just so excited watching it. I was not loving it on the backside, but once he tipped out it was like, 'Wow! Look at this guy!' We have such a great team and to get rewarded with a win like this makes it all worth it. Fantastic.”

Ridden for speed by Mike Smith, in the irons for the Derby victories of the Baffert-trained West Coast (Flatter) in 2017 and McKinzie (Street Sense) the following year, Taiba dueled early on with White Abarrio (Race Day) through an opening quarter in :23.27, but when it was clear that the latter was going to make the lead at all costs, the chestnut was eased back into a ground-saving fourth from close up. Simplification and 'Rising Star' We The People (Constitution) added some fuel to the pace fire, but Taiba continued to travel well behind the first flight of runners while being asked a bit rounding the far turn.

Angled out sharply around Simplification in upper stretch, Taiba hit the front outside the eighth pole and was punched out mostly hands and heels to hit the line a clear-cut winner. Zandon sat an inside trip beneath Joel Rosario and made steady progress up the inside, but could not reach the winner. Cyberknife looked to exchange bumps with We The People while launching his own bid and was up in the final jump for third.

While GI Runhappy Travers S. winner Epicenter (Not This Time) is the head of the 3-year-old class, Baffert was subtly making the case for Taiba post-race. The colt does hold the distinction of being one of two members of the group to have won multiple Grade Is going long this season. Jack Christopher is a two-time winner at the top-level around one turn.

“You want to be the best 3-year-old,” the conditioner said. “This was the spot that puts him right there. He is just a tough horse. He is powerful. He is a heavily muscled horse and you would not think he would run this far. He has speed but he will sit behind horses. He comes running and he is just a fighter.”

A $170,000 purchase out of the 2020 Fasig-Tipton October Sale, Taiba was the second-priciest offering at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale on Gary Young's bid of $1.7-million on behalf of Amr Zedan. The chestnut was named a no-brainer 'Rising Star' following a 7 1/2-length debut victory for Baffert over six furlongs at Santa Anita Mar. 5, but was turned over to Tim Yakteen and he did what not even Justify could do–win the Runhappy Santa Anita Derby off just a maiden victory Apr. 9. Bet to under 6-1 despite his inexperience entering the May 7 GI Kentucky Derby, Taiba never truly reached contention and tired to finish 12th. Connections were content to allow the rest of the Triple Crown to pass them by and, with Baffert off his suspension, he was routed for the Haskell. Consigned to a wide run into the stretch, he came to win the race a furlong out, but was outfinished at the fence by Cyberknife, denying Baffert a 10th win in the race.

From here, Taiba is likely to chart a course that lands at Keeneland on the first Saturday in November.

“If all is good, we are going to point to the Breeders' Cup Classic. You know, horse racing changes day by day. I'm not looking forward to running against Life Is Good (Into Mischief) and Flightline (Tapit). Those are two very fast horses.”

Bayern (Offlee Wild) used the Pennsylvania Derby as a springboard to his much-ballyhooed success in the 2014 Classic.

Pedigree Notes:

Taiba is the lone foal to race out of Needmore Flattery, a mare that would have made E. F. Hutton proud. The Ohio-bred did it the hard way in her career, making 39 trips to the races from ages two to five for owner and Taiba breeder Bruce Ryan, resulting in 17 visits to the winner's circle, nine of those in state-bred stakes races, for earnings north of $732,000.

After producing a colt by Uncle Mo for her first foal, one that Ryan elected to buy back for $112,000 at FTKNOV in 2019, the breeder cashed out, selling Neeedmore Flattery to Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals's Yeguada Centurion for $195,000 back in foal to Uncle Mo at KEENOV the following month. The mare was sent to France, foaled a filly in Ireland, and that produce–now named Tita Mimosa (Ire)–is in training and worked a half-mile in :48.60 (8/75) at Monmouth Park Sept. 18. Needmore Flattery's last listed produce is a French-bred yearling colt by G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Waldgeist (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) that is catalogued as hip 51 to next month's Arqana October Yearling Sale.

Saturday, Parx Racing
PENNSYLVANIA DERBY-GI, $1,000,000, Parx Racing, 9-24, 3yo, 1 1/8m, 1:48.67, ft.
1–TAIBA, 126, c, 3, by Gun Runner

1st Dam: Needmore Flattery (MSW, $732,103), by Flatter
2nd Dam: Kiosk, by Left Banker
3rd Dam: Phone Switch, by Phone Trick
($140,000 Ylg '20 FTKOCT; $1,700,000 2yo '21 FTFMAR).
O-Zedan Racing Stables, Inc.; B-Bruce C Ryan (KY); T-Bob
Baffert; J-Mike E. Smith. $546,000. 'TDN Rising Star'
Lifetime Record: 5-3-1-0, $1,236,200.
Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Zandon, 126, c, 3, Upstart–Memories Prevail, by Creative
Cause. ($170,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-Jeff Drown; B-Brereton
Jones (KY); T-Chad C. Brown. $182,000.
3–Cyberknife, 126, c, 3, Gun Runner–Awesome Flower, by
Flower Alley. ($400,000 Ylg '20 FTKSEL). O-Gold Square LLC;
B-Kenneth L. Ramsey & Sarah K. Ramsey (KY); T-Brad H. Cox.
$91,000.
Margins: 3, 3 3/4, HD. Odds: 1.40, 3.30, 4.10.
Also Ran: Simplification, White Abarrio, B Dawk, Naval Aviator, We the People, Skippylongstocking, Tawny Port, Icy Storm.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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Haskell Rematch Highlights Saturday’s Graded Stakes Slate

After putting on a show on the Jersey Shore earlier this summer, the Gun Runner-sired GI TVG.com Haskell S. exacta of Cyberknife and 'TDN Rising Star' Taiba co-headline a loaded renewal of the GI Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Saturday.

Was it a tale of two trips or did the best horse just win that day at Monmouth Park? You be the judge.

While subsequent GI Runhappy Travers S. runner-up Cyberknife awaited racing room leaving the quarter pole, the hard-ridden Taiba began to wind up beneath Mike Smith with a four-wide blitz. Florent Geroux, meanwhile, found a seam aboard the GI Arkansas Derby winner along the rail as favored 'Rising Star' Jack Christopher (Munnings) began to back out of it at the furlong marker. Cyberknife ran to daylight from there and outbattled the GI Runhappy Santa Anita Derby winner by a game head in a race that didn't deserve a loser.

“He's a Grade I horse and it's a Grade I race,” trainer Brad Cox said of Cyberknife and Saturday's $1-million affair. “And look, I'm excited about matching up with Taiba. He's a very good horse, a Grade I winner in his own right. There are some other very good horses in the race. It looks like a really good group of horses.”

That “really good group of horses” also includes the rail-drawn GISW Zandon (Upstart), who should appreciate the turnback to nine furlongs following a third-place finish in the Travers; the Cox-trained GIII Ohio Derby winner and GII Jim Dandy S. third Tawny Port (Pioneerof the Nile); the top three finishers of the GIII West Virginia Derby–Skippylongstocking (Exaggerator), 'Rising Star' We the People (Constitution) and Simplification (Not This Time); and GI Curlin Florida Derby winner and Ohio Derby runner-up White Abarrio (Race Day), who finished a puzzling seventh last out in the Haskell.

Saturday in the Parx…

The loaded 13-race program at Parx also features four other graded events, led by the GI Cotillion for 3-year-old fillies.

In addition to seeking a record fourth Pennsylvania Derby victory with 5-2 morning-line favorite Taiba, Hall of Famer Bob Baffert will also ship in Cotillion second-choice Adare Manor (Uncle Mo) from his Santa Anita base. The runaway GIII Las Virgenes S. heroine has been training lights out since finishing second as the favorite in the GII Black-Eyed Susan S. May 20.

“She is training really well,” Baffert said. “I could have run her in a softer spot. This will be a class check for her.”

After chasing home runaway division leader Nest (Curlin) in Saratoga's GI Coaching Club American Oaks and GI Alabama S., the classy Secret Oath (Arrogate) seeks her first win since capturing the GI Kentucky Oaks. She is the 2-1 morning-line favorite.

“She is only getting stronger,” Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said. “She sure is filling out and getting better and holding a lot of weight. She is probably maturing into the filly that we wanted her to be.”

Todd Pletcher will be represented by a formidable trio in Alabama third Goddess of Fire (Mineshaft), streaking local Cathryn Sophia S. winner and 'Rising Star' Green Up (Upstart) and GIII Monmouth Oaks heroine and 'Rising Star' Shahama (Munnings).

The card also features wide-open renewals of the GII Gallant Bob S. and GIII Turf Monster S., while a field of nine marathoners will line up for the GIII Greenwood Cup.

The day's graded stakes action is rounded out by Saturday evening's GIII Dogwood S. at Churchill Downs, featuring the return of champion and 'Rising Star' Echo Zulu (Gun Runner), who was a vet scratch at the gate prior to Belmont's GI Acorn S. June 11; and Belmont at the Big A's GIII Athenia S.

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Taiba, Cyberknife Renew Rivalry in Pennsylvania Derby

Last seen fighting out a tight finish in the GI TVG.com Haskell Invitational S. in neighboring New Jersey in mid-July, 'TDN Rising Star' Taiba (Gun Runner) and Cyberknife (Gun Runner) are the top two choices on the morning line for what appears a contentious renewal of the $1-million GI betPARX Pennsylvania Derby Saturday afternoon in suburban Philadelphia.

A veteran of just four starts, Taiba–a $1.7-million purchase by Zedan Racing Stables out of last year's Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale–took the GI Runhappy Santa Anita Derby at second asking, but the GI Kentucky Derby was perhaps too much, too soon, as the chestnut could do no better than 12th. Freshened for the Haskell, he made what appeared to be a winning move down the center of the track, but the rail-rallying Cyberknife spoiled the party. Trainer Bob Baffert, who won this race three times between 2014 and 2018, says it's all systems go this weekend.

“He likes to be in the clear, so that is good. He doesn't like being on the inside,” Baffert said of Taiba, who drew the eight hole and is the 5-2 favorite on the morning line. “I would rather be the five or the six, but this will be OK. Cyberknife is a tough horse; they are all good horses in here. Million-dollar races are not easy; they are not supposed to be easy. As always, you have to break. We had a little bit of a rough trip in the last one [Haskell]. I know he is doing well and we are all set.”

Cyberknife pressed on to the GI Runhappy Travers S., finishing better than five lengths behind divisional leader Epicenter (Not This Time) and narrowly ahead of Zandon (Upstart). He is one of two in the race for Brad Cox, who will also tighten the girth around GIII Ohio Derby hero and GII Jim Dandy S. third Tawny Port (Pioneerof the Nile). The 3-1 morning-line second pick, Cyberknife has post five, while Tawny Port drew gate seven.

“We've pointed Tawny Port for this race since the Jim Dandy,” Cox said. “Everything is going great with him. Once again, he's got to step up to prove that he belongs at this level. With Cyberknife, it wasn't a whole lot of, coming out of the Travers and 'we're going to go to Parx' way of thinking. I thought we might go straight to the Breeders' Cup. He had a really good breeze last weekend. Time-wise it wasn't anything crazy fast, but it's how he's doing, how he looks, how he's acting. This is one last swing at a Grade I around two turns for straight 3-year-olds.”

The filly counterpart, the GI Cotillion S., drew a field of nine headed by GI Longines Kentucky Oaks heroine Secret Oath (Arrogate). The competition includes the progressive 'TDN Rising Star' stablemates Shahama (Munnings) and Green Up (Upstart) and the Baffert-trained GIII Las Virgenes S. romper Adare Manor (Uncle Mo).

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This Side Up: Will Travers Stars Stick to Script?

Our sport thrives on anticipation; our business, on outcomes. But actually it can take a while to unpick one from the other–especially when even a race as storied as the GI Runhappy Travers S. is not just an end in itself, but also a potential means to viability for the whole program of whoever is lucky enough to own the winner.

In principle, the bare couple of minutes dividing anticipation from outcome at Saratoga on Saturday will be history tangibly in the making. From the flux of hopes and interests vested in the maturing Thoroughbreds that enter the gate, a single name will suddenly be petrified into the pantheon.

In reality, however, it's very seldom that we can know quite what it is we might be looking at. In terms of volunteering a stallion of due stature, for instance, it has to be acknowledged that the Travers overall shares a rather patchy profile with the GI Kentucky Derby either side of the last horse to win both, Street Sense in 2007. Take out Bernardini, who won the Travers the year before, and it's only recently that a couple of young stallions have begun to shore things up again for either race.

Poignantly, it does appear as though the spectacular flowering of Arrogate in 2016 was a legitimate signpost–only for the road to plunge clean off a cliff. Those bidding for his final crop of yearlings at Keeneland in a few days' time will be contesting a legacy that has very quickly evolved, from an unsurprisingly slow start, via the charismatic endeavors of Secret Oath and now Artorius.

(Listen to this column as a podcast.)

For the time being, at any rate, Artorius does feel like quite a good example of the way we tend to look into the future through the prism of the past. He brings a fairly irresistible narrative into the Travers, being even more lightly raced than was his sire when picking up the pieces against exhausted Triple Crown protagonists. And, being out of an elite Ghostzapper racemare, he does look tantalizingly eligible to salvage Arrogate's legacy, if only he can cope with this steep elevation in grade. Yet it's almost as though those high emotional stakes have somehow been loaded into odds that imply some ordained destiny.

Yet who would presume to predict the future, when even the past can take so long to separate itself into coherence? Nobody, of course, could have foreseen the tragic denouement of Arrogate's tale. But most of us were pretty sure of where we stood with Gun Runner, when he staggered into third in the Travers, fully 15 lengths behind Arrogate: a horse that had shown his hand, precocious enough to run third in the Derby but apparently tapering off by this point. Gun Runner persevered, however, and after observing Arrogate reach the bottom of the barrel–presumably an oil barrel–in Dubai, he ran up to that sequence of five Grade Is by an aggregate 27 1/2 lengths.

And now here he is, poised to seal one of the most remarkable stud debuts of recent times with two runners–and don't forget that he would have a third, but for the local prohibition of Taiba's trainer–in a race that offers a pretty instructive snapshot of the shifting landscape among Kentucky stallions. Another young gun, Upstart, fields a son who has had this race in mind ever since that fleeting flirtation with an uncontested coronation on the home turn in the Derby; while Not This Time, consolidating his own outstanding start, matches Gun Runner with two: Epicenter, whose candidature for divisional honors makes a Grade I feel pretty imperative, and Ain't Life Grand.

Of the established elite, indeed, only Medaglia d'Oro can muster a candidate to emulate his 2002 success in outsider Gilded Age. To be fair, he also has a stake in proceedings through the dam of Ain't Life Grand, Cat Moves. This is the only mare owned by Peggy and Ray Shattuck, whose homebred GII Iowa Derby winner would hardly be as stupefying a result here as Rich Strike, himself of course by a Travers winner in Keen Ice, back at Churchill in May. While expectations for Rich Strike seem pretty much back to what they were on Derby day, Ain't Life Grand announced himself at Saratoga with a molten 45.88 workout last week, fastest of 79 clocked that morning.

Ain't Life Grand with Tammy Fox aboard | Sarah Andrew

Certainly the game could do with another fairytale. There's no need to dwell on the potential for awkwardness, in showcasing our best to the outside world, when three of eight runners are saddled by a trainer currently subject to such uncomfortable attention. Having been raised locally, this race is one he would prize perhaps beyond any other. But there you go: all of us have to accept that human capacity for anticipation is distinctly finite; and that fulfilment belongs to the complex, unpredictable realm of outcomes.

Setting all that aside, my own anticipations remain stubborn as ever. As Chad Brown would agree, he is only one of many whose dreams are centered on these three horses. And our community could seek no more flattering representation, to those beyond, than Brereton C. Jones and his family at Airdrie Stud, breeders of Zandon. And if this colt can mark the 50th anniversary of the farm's foundation by finally getting it all together here, even greater laurels would be on the line just down the road at Keeneland in the fall.

Yes, I know: all I'm doing is choosing a different script from the one that appears to favor Artorius so inexorably. I'm shoehorning Zandon's ostensible need for a particular tactical scenario, and a different kind of race from the cat-and-mouse of his latest start, into a storyline of far greater neatness and symmetry than tends to be indulged by this unsentimental, unpredictable world. But we're all sports fans first. We all enjoy our anticipation while it lasts. And we can leave dealing with all those business outcomes until such time as we know what they actually are.

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