Wandering Eyes

Ryan Moore will ride raging Golden Slipper (G1) favorite Storm Boy in the March 23 AU$5 million race at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse in Sydney. The star jockey will be aiming to make it back-to-back wins in the crucial stallion-making contest.View the full article

CHELTENHAM, UK–Believe it or not, Willie Mullins drew a blank on day three of the 2024 Cheltenham Festival, with Capodanno (Fr) (Manduro {Ger}) and Jade De Grugy (Fr) (Doctor Dino {Fr}) faring best of their trainer's 11 runners on that card when finishing fourth in their respective races. Twenty-four hours without a winner at the Festival is a long time in Willie's world, the one in which he hit the target six times across the first two days of the meeting. Thankfully for him after Thursday's 'drought', there was a strong case to be made that the team he'd assembled for day four was his most formidable yet, certainly numerically as his 25 runners on the card surpassed the 20 he saddled on Wednesday. It also took the total number of horses he ran this week to a scarcely believable 75. There was a time when having 75 runners at the Cheltenham Festival in a lifetime would have been a notable achievement for a trainer, but Mullins has a habit of making the extraordinary look ordinary, with no better example than the milestone he celebrated on Wednesday when saddling his 100th winner at the meeting. As for extraordinary equine talent, there are few better examples around at present than Galopin Des Champs (Fr), who led the Mullins battalions into war on Friday when tasked with trying to defend the G1 Cheltenham Gold Cup crown he won so impressively in 2023. It looked a deep Gold Cup on paper with six other top-level winners featuring in an 11-strong field but, just like his trainer, Galopin Des Champs is capable of making remarkable feats of brilliance look rather routine, arriving at Cheltenham this year with eight Grade 1 wins to his name already and being backed into odds-on favouritism as if a ninth was in no doubt whatsoever. Any punters who took the short odds wouldn't have had too many anxious moments in the race itself, bar the presence of the loose Fastorslow (Fr) (Saint Des Saints {Fr})–who unseated J. J. Slevin early on the final circuit–as the field kicked for home on the run from four out. From there Galopin Des Champs gradually moved up to press L'Homme Presse (Fr) (Diamond Boy {Fr}) at the head of affairs and it was all but over as a contest when he moved to the front with a typically fluent jump two out, ultimately winning by three and a half lengths from Gerri Colombe (Fr) (Saddler Maker {Ire}) having drawn right away on the approach to the last. “I just think he put himself in the superstar category, to do what he did in the way that he did it,” Mullins said of the winner afterwards. “I think we have to say, we're coming back next year to try to win a third one if we can. He has the ability to do it–he just has to stay sound, I think.” The eight-year-old was providing both Mullins and jockey Paul Townend with their fourth Gold Cup victories apiece, having matched the two wins of the stable's Al Boum Photo (Fr) (Buck's Boum {Fr}) in 2019 and 2020. Mullins is also unique now as the only trainer to have saddled two different multiple winners of the sport's blue riband. As for Galopin Des Champs, he too is totally unique in being the only progeny of any real note produced by the late Timos (Ger), who put up one of his best efforts as a racehorse when filling the runner-up spot in the 2010 G2 Grand Prix de Chantilly for trainer Thierry Doumen. Doumen stood Timos himself as a stallion before selling him to Tunisia at a time when Galopin Des Champs was yet to arrive on the scene to put his sire's name in lights. Timos later moved to Libya where he sadly died, with the circumstances of his death being described as “shady” by Doumen when speaking to The Nick Luck Daily Podcast in March last year. Galopin Des Champs might well be the first and last Cheltenham Festival sired by Timos, but the winner of the St. James's Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters' Chase that followed, Sine Nomine (GB), came from a much more familiar source in the shape of Haras de la Tuilerie resident Saint Des Saints (Fr). Already twice on the scoreboard on Thursday with Monmiral (Fr) and Protektorat (Fr), Saint Des Saints's tally of three winners saw him share bragging rights among the leading stallions at this year's Festival with Flemensfirth, who was represented by the Grade 1 winners Ballyburn (Ire) and Grey Dawning (Ire), plus Ben Pauling's TrustATrader Plate Handicap Chase hero Shakem Up'Arry (Ire). Dual champion sire Flemensfirth was a big loss to the Coolmore National Hunt ranks when he died in May 2023, having been retired from active stud duties in 2020, and so too Milan (GB) when he passed in 2022. Champion National Hunt sire himself in the 2019/20 season, Milan added to his list of Festival winners in this year's finale as Better Days Ahead (Ire)–a £350,000 purchase at the 2022 Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale–ran out a determined winner of the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle for Gordon Elliott and promising young rider Danny Gilligan. G1 Stayers' Hurdle-winning trainer Elliott finished the meeting with three winners having also struck in the G1 Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle earlier on Friday's card with Stellar Story (Ire). By Shantou–the leading sire at last year's Festival with two winners– the Gigginstown House Stud-owned Stellar Story was another six-figure purchase at the 2022 Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale when selling for £310,000. Grange Stud's Walk In The Park (Ire) is the standout name among the stallions still plying their trade on the Coolmore National Hunt roster and his two winners at this year's Festival were notable for both being out of the same mare, Sway (Fr) (Califet {Fr}), who was a Listed winner over hurdles at Auteuil as a three-year-old. Having subsequently raced in Britain in the familiar silks of J. P. McManus, Sway is now proving herself a prolific producer for her powerful owner with five winners from six foals to have raced. Inothewayurthinkin (Ire) looked potentially the pick of them so far when running away with Thursday's Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup Amateur Jockeys' Handicap Chase, though his full-sister Limerick Lace (Ire) might have something say about that after she led home a one-two for McManus when seeing off Dinoblue (Fr) (Doctor Dino {Fr}) to win the G2 Mrs Paddy Power Mares' Chase on Friday's card. Both winners were trained by Gavin Cromwell. McManus also won the G1 JCB Triumph Hurdle which kicked off the final day of the meeting with the Mullins-trained Majborough (Fr). Like Timos, Majborough's sire, Martinborough (Jpn), might be a new name to many National Hunt enthusiasts, a Japanese Group 3 winner who is based at Haras de la Baie in France. He's certainly thrown up a good one in Majborough, though, a four-year-old who had previously been described as a Gold Cup horse of the future by Mullins and certainly looked a horse with plenty of talent when overhauling stablemate Kargese (Fr) (Jeu St Eloi {Fr}) to win the premier Grade 1 event for juveniles. “He's a chaser, isn't he?” said Mullins after the victory. “When he came into the yard and they said he was our Triumph Hurdle horse, I said I thought he was a Gold Cup horse, a three-mile chaser. He's very 'trained' at the moment, a bit angular, like all the French horses. But when he comes in from a summer's grass, he will be some beast.” That, of course, was winner number 101 at the Festival for Mullins, who wasted no time adding to his unprecedented tally in the BetMGM County Handicap Hurdle as Absurde (Fr) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) finished best of all to deny Dan Skelton's L'Eau Du Sud (Fr) (Lord Du Sud {Fr}). It was a rare moment of agony in an otherwise jubilant week for Skelton and it was rather fitting that it should be provided by Mullins. The pair topped the training charts at the end of the Festival with nine wins for Mullins to Skelton's four, a British stable fighting back but just not able to match the might of the Closutton machine which has now churned out 103 Festival winners–and counting–with few better than the exceptional dual Gold Cup hero Galopin Des Champs. The post Galopin Des Champs Seals Golden Week For Mullins, Again appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Race purses in South Australia will receive a 15% hike across the board, including in the state's four group 1s, with the welcoming of a new seven-year sponsorship.View the full article

Fair Grounds and Turfway Park will team up March 23 to offer bettors a special $1 Pick 5. The Pick 5 features an all-stakes sequence led by the $1 million Louisiana Derby (G2) and $700,000 Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3).View the full article

With $800,000 and the Horseplayer of the Year Eclipse Award to the winner, the official prize structure of this weekend's 25th National Horseplayers Championship in Las Vegas was posted in a Friday release by the host of the contest, the NTRA. At the conclusion of the Final Table on Sunday, total cash prizes offered over the three days come to $3,013,550. The top 77 are guaranteed money with that final finisher receiving $10,150. The top five payouts are: First Place–$800,000 Second Place–$250,000 Third Place–$200,000 Fourth Place–$150,000 Fifth Place–$125,000 Along with following the leaderboard action through At the Races with Steve Byk, new to the NHC will be a Final Table livestream, co-hosted by Byk and Rick Hammerle, that can be found on the NTRA's X handle, YouTube channel and on their website for the final seven races of the contest. Click here for more information. The post 2024 National Horseplayers Championship Official Prize Structure Released, Leaderboard Links Available appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

A California Association of Racing Fairs proposal calls for a continuation of racing in Northern California this fall at Pleasanton for a 26-day meet, according to documents submitted before a pivotal California Horse Racing Board meeting March 21.View the full article

The successful dual-hemisphere stallion Starspangledbanner (Aus), the sire of recent G1 Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup winner and G1 Al Quoz Sprint aspirant California Spangle (Ire), supplied the HK$5.4 million (£541,837/US$690,352) top price as the last of 14 horses through the ring during Friday's Hong Kong International Sale in the parade ring at Sha Tin Racecourse. Lot 20 was purchased by the Hong Kong Jockey Club from the draft of Chasemore Farm for 550,000gns during Book 2 at Tattersalls October in 2022. The British-bred 3-year-old is a full-brother to the treble Group 3-placed galloper Breege (Ire) and offered further pedigree appeal, as his dam Wowcha (Ire) (Zoffany) is a half-sister to six winners, including Starspangledbanner's champion The Wow Signal (Ire), G2 Airlie Stud S. winner Matrika (Ire) (No Nay Never) and Japanese multiple group winner and Group 1-placed Unicorn Lion (Ire) (No Nay Never). The successful bidder was Cheung Kwok Wing sitting alongside Danny Shum, who trains the most prolific graduate of the HKIS, the outstanding six-times Group 1 winner Romantic Warrior (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}). Sale topper! HK$5.4 million for a son of Starspangledbanner… #HKIS | #HKracing pic.twitter.com/MSERi8aILt — HKJC Racing (@HKJC_Racing) March 15, 2024 So Wing Keung signed the winning ticket at HK$4.2 million (£421,429/US$536,940) on lot 7, a New Zealand-bred son of Savabeel (Aus) and Kona (Aus) (New Approach {Ire}), also the dam of the multiple listed-placed Hilo (Aus) (Lonhro {Aus}). A September-foaled 3-year-old gelding, the bay was hammered down to the HKJC team for NZ$290,000 at the 2022 NZB Premier Yearling Sale. From a statistical standpoint, the 2024 renewal of the HKIS was significantly down on the same event from 12 months ago. Turnover of HK$46.3 million (£4.65 million/US$5.92 million) declined by 35.3%, while the average of HK$3.31 million (£331,389/US$422,795) represented a drop of 30.7%. The median price of HK$3.2 million (£321,088/US$409,097) dropped by 27.3%. “We have a lot of confidence in the horses that we have offered and what we're probably seeing is that when we bought these horses two years ago is that we were operating in a very intense yearling market, so we've bought these horses at the very top of the market and we're seeing a softening in horse sales around the world, which we've seen tonight, we've also seen a softening in our wagering turnover and also in the local stock market,” offered Danny Rolston, the Hong Kong Jockey Club's Executive Manager, International Sale/Owners Advisory Services. “I think the story of the night is that the sale has seen a bit of a drop in average, but with that comes an opportunity that we were able to give forward to our permit holders with some really nice horses.” The post Starspangledbanner Gelding Tops Hong Kong International Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

By Jonny Turner The MLT Wyndham Cup is far from just another race for two local lads who would love to etch their name in its history books. Trainers Craig Ferguson and Regan Todd will step out two runners in the 3200m feature on the track where their successful careers began. Ferguson made the recent Southland Harness Racing Awards his own thanks to a series of feature race wins. Though the Wyndham Cup doesn’t carry the Group race status that some of his recent success has come in, it rates right at the top of the trainer-driver’s list of races he’d dearly love to win. “Being a Wyndham local it is a race I would love to win, I have driven the winner of it before but to train one too would be a big thrill,” Ferguson said. Da Vinci must overcome a 30m handicap if he is to win the Wyndham Cup. He’s currently the second favourite on the fixed odds at $3.60, with Pinseeker at $3.20. With the way the horse has been beginning in his standing start races, he should give himself a chance to do just that. “He has been going really good and his work along with that has been getting better as well,” Ferguson said. “I have been really happy with him and hopefully he can keep going as good as he has been.” Regan Todd treks south from Canterbury to line up Play Philly in Saturday’s feature. A last start winner at Rangiora she was at a $51 quote on Friday while trainer Ricky Gutsell adds to the local flavour with Hacksaw Ridge, to be driven by Nathan Williamson. Ferguson starts Louies Girl for the first time since a Group 1 placing at Addington in Saturday’s Macca Lodge/Nevele R Stud Southern Oaks heat (1.28pm). With just one trial under her belt, the three-year-old is sure to improve, but Ferguson feels she is ready to be highly competitive. “She has trialled nicely, we have probably gotten to this race a little bit earlier than we would have liked.” “But to line up in the last two heats of the series, she needs to be here.” “She is working well enough to go a nice race and she has got the speed to be getting over top of them.” “The small field should help her, too.” Cochise will have his first start for the Ferguson barn in Saturday’s opener, the Marshall’s Excavating Ltd/Wyndham Workouts Trot (11.45am). After a trial win on the track, the trotter is set to start favourite on debut. “He did it nice enough and his work since that run has been nice.” “The only question is that he is a trotter and a first starter, so it will depend on how he handles his first time at the races.” Netherton Franco ($4.80FF) steps up in grade for the Ferguson barn in race 9. Appropriatey it’s the Craig Ferguson Stables Mobile Pace (3.17pm). Though she takes on better opposition than she has recently, she does so with her work on the up. “She has always shown at home that she has the ability, but a couple of times there I have thought she might have gone a little bit better.” “She does seem, at this stage, to have turned the corner.” “Her win at Cromwell was good, she was waiting on them up the straight.” “I think from the draw, she is a player.” Ferguson takes several outside drives at Wyndham with Robyns Hustler looking a cheeky hope on the back of a handy last start fifth. X X X Racing journalist Jonny Turner gives his take on which horses look well placed to show their best on Wyndham Cup Day at Young Quinn Raceway on Saturday. Franco Ezra Race patterns could put Franco Ezra in the perfect spot in the Kindergarten Stakes Prelude. There is risk about the Stonewall Stud pacer who made a complete hash of his debut at Ascot Park recently. But Franco Ezra put it all together in a recent workout at Winton, showing off his handy motor in the process. The two-year-old looks a big chance of settling in front, or at least a few lengths ahead of the favourite Always Dreaming. Though Always Dreaming deserves top billing and is arguably the best horse in the race at this stage, barrier 7 could set up a tricky task for him. Considering the difference between the win prices they are likely to start at, Franco Ezra looks a strong value option. Dont Ask This mare has shown she is in the zone in her last two starts, producing a big win at Cromwell and an arguably bigger second placing at Ascot Park. Dont Ask was only nabbed late by Sally Lindenny in their latest outings after sitting parked for much of the race, with both horses looking serious winning threats at Wyndham. The advantage Dont Ask has this week is that she meets the victor 10m better off, compared to their handicaps at Ascot Park. The risk around Dont Ask in the past has been she has been a little inconsistent at times, but after putting two excellent runs together, now might be the time to put some more faith in her. Dawson There has been talk about Dawson’s potential from the moment he hit the trials track and so far, he has lived up to expectations. The three-year-old faces a new kind of challenge on Saturday when stepping up to race hardy, older horses in the grades. And Dawson looks well up for it. Barrier 5 looks workable for the smart pacer and he should take plenty of holding out, especially considering a couple of his main rivals have drawn wider on the front line, or on the second row. Brookies Player His formline might suggest punters enter with caution, but that may only mean there is some value about the gritty pacer. The five-year-old got too far back in his last start at Ascot Park and couldn’t make ground, but there was nothing wrong with his effort. On Saturday, Brookies Player will start from inside barrier 7 in a mobile race for the first time since December. The pacer has consistently started from either the second row or wide on the front line while also mixing it better standing start races. Back into a workable grade and from barrier 4, Brookies Player looks a serious winning threat on Saturday. Louretta Moving off the unruly and into a winnable race looks a key scenario for Louretta on Saturday. The filly comes south after strong efforts in Canterbury while effectively giving her rivals a head-start. Of course, Louretta has been on the unruly for a reason and she has made mistakes in her short career so far. But trainer Regan Todd wouldn’t be taking the mare off the unruly position if he didn’t see improvement in her manners.From barrier 5, expect Louretta to land handy to the pace and be within striking distance on the home turn. View the full article

They say that life is what happens to us when we're busy making other plans. But even in a game where so much turns on chance, for better or worse, you can't just throw your hands up and leave it all to fate. After all, the countervailing dynamic to life on a horse farm is unchangingly cyclical: foaling, mating, breaking, prepping, to everything there is a season. Within those patterns, sure, we know to expect much unpredictability. But that's how horses teach us the long game, to be patient and wait until you can see the whole picture. Few in our community knows all this better than Craig Bandoroff. His whole life has turned on fleeting episodes of good and bad luck, from the terrible spill that ended his career as a jockey to the serendipitous encounters at university-with a professor from another program, for instance, who reconciled him to a changed relationship with horses; and, above all, with his future wife-that ultimately adapted his gifts to the foundation of Denali Stud. At the same time, Bandoroff and his wife Holly have had many years to think about and plan for the transfer of responsibility for the business they built from scratch to their son Conrad. As has quickly become apparent in this series, there's seldom a formal and specific moment of transition. But for the past couple of years Bandoroff has progressively backed into semi-retirement, with the combined benefit of expert counsel and his own reflection. “I think the one thing I've learned in the process is that there's a reason a lot of successions don't work out,” he says. “And the reason is…because it's really hard to do! You need the right balance on both sides. The father has to be of the right mindset. And the son or daughter a) has to be capable; and b) has to be given the time to come into the position and become ready to take over. It's like a relay race. When you're starting out, the successor is the one waiting in the block. And eventually you get there and hand on the baton, and first they're one step away, then they're 10 steps away, and then they're gone.” In the meantime, however, there's that critical moment when you might easily drop the baton and, to avoid that, for a few strides you both have to be flat out and in step. “Exactly,” agrees Bandoroff. “Now we did hire a family consultant, to help us through it, and that was invaluable. But at the end of the day you have to do it your way because everybody's different, and every successor is different. So you just figure out the balance. But there are some real caveats. Really everybody says the same thing: at some point you have to give up the control, you can't hover over them. And the ones that don't make it are the fathers that didn't get out of the way, that just wouldn't vacate.” Bandoroff didn't really have that problem, in that he was positively eager to gear down. “What happened with me I've learned to be very common,” he says. “You just hit a wall. I was doing it all myself, there are a lot of moving parts, and you just reach the point where you say, 'Man, I'm not 40 anymore, I just can't keep going at the same pace.'” Again, they were lucky in that Conrad had long manifested both desire and eligibility to take the legacy forward. Neither of those, of course, are ever guaranteed. Neither of Conrad's sisters had ever evinced any interest, instead discovering vocations that put the horse business in due perspective. One, for instance, is nursing at the prestigious Cincinnati Children's Hospital. “Like I say: we sell horses, she saves lives,” Bandoroff says proudly. “And the other daughter works in government policy for an investment bank, really keeping track of the political stream. We joke that the girls obviously got the brains. But they didn't get the horse gene, and Conrad definitely did.” And what if he hadn't? “I guess then you just sell, you take the money and move on,” Bandoroff says with a shrug. “And, in all honesty, that's pretty much what I always expected to happen. But at a pretty early age Conrad showed that this was the direction he wanted to go. And after urging, pleading, begging him to do something else, once we made the commitment to him, it was, 'Okay, if you want to do this, then let's see if you can jump through all the hoops.” Craig and Conrad Bandoroff | Keeneland Over the years Bandoroff has seen plenty of people fail to meet this kind of challenge, and he put corresponding groundwork into the succession. “I took it on with a sense that I had to do this right,” he says. “I was dealing with something that took Holly and me 30-plus years to build. That's a lot of sweat equity. And I'm dealing with my son. So we set out on a plan to give him the tools we thought he'd need to be successful. And he embraced everything we ever suggested.” Both father and son acknowledge a huge debt to the Godolphin Flying Start program, which broadened Conrad's horizons so generously. Even those raised to the best standards at home can only benefit from seeing how other horsemen, in other environments, meet the universal challenges of the Thoroughbred. And Bandoroff, for his own part, not only consulted esteemed peers to borrow lessons learned in parallel situations; he even took a course at Harvard that included a module on succession and family business. “Thirty years might not be nearly as long as some, but it's still a long time, especially when you've started from ground zero,” he says. “I think if you make the judgment that the successor is not capable, then you need a Plan B. But in our case I saw very clearly that the successor had all the tools. That doesn't mean it's easy. And of course you can think that, and then it doesn't happen. But in this case I feel it's happening. I see it.” So how about those moments, in the transition, when there were the inevitable disagreements? You've renounced control, but this could be some question of strategy vital to the future of a business that involves everybody in the clan. “Honestly, or maybe remarkably, Conrad and I have had very few lock-horn moments,” Bandoroff says. “But, yes, that's where you say to yourself, 'Look, I can't screw this up. Because if I do, not only am I screwing up the business that we built, but I'm screwing up my family.' I was never one to sit there and say, 'Oh gosh, look what I did and how wonderful it is.' But you want to keep this thing going. Which is harder: to build the business, or to keep it up there? And the answer is that both are hard. No question, whether it's Conrad or Walker Hancock or Bret Jones, they definitely had a big head start-but it's still really hard.” The privileges of succession certainly come with commensurate burdens. The clients who lose their favorite mare, for instance: that call is now Conrad's to make. “Yes it is!” Bandoroff exclaims with relief. “After a storm last year, we had a real bad call that had to be made. And I just sat there and said to myself, 'Well, I'm glad I don't have to pick up that phone.' I still have clients I'm closely involved with. But I've told Conrad, 'Look, you have to be the rainmaker now. I never enjoyed that part of it and I'm not going to do it anymore.' And he gets that. But that's where the pressure comes. “Every once in a while there'll be something where you say to yourself, 'Hey, this is going to be a bumpy landing.' There was one time I could see from a distance it probably wasn't going to end well. But I made some big mistakes along the way, that cost me a lot, and I know that you don't forget those. The good news is that you're only ever a phone call away. There's going to be a day, hopefully quite a few years from now, where you're not. But at this stage I think we just try not to let the boat drift too far off course at any point. You're never going to let it crash, obviously. But in the end it's going to be harder for them to learn from mistakes, if you're not going to let them make any.” All that said, when your life and your work have so long been conflated, you can't just sever yourself from decades of routine overnight. Bandoroff still starts every day with TDN, albeit nowadays a winter sanctuary in Bald Head Island, N.C., is embraced with a clearer conscience. The Bandoroff men at Keeneland November | Keeneland “At first, this word 'retirement' is out there like some panacea or some oasis in the desert,” he says. “And then you get there and, well, there's lots that's great, but you also realize how some of the stuff you're leaving behind is really important to you, too. So what makes handing off nice is that I had the opportunity to say, 'Look, I still do want to be involved in certain things and not in others.' I get to do what I want to do, when I want to do it; or what I have to do, when I have to do it. The good part is when the 'have to' is over, I go back to the 'want to' and that's the whole key. But as opposed to a CEO who retires from some company and it's over, I was able to do it on my terms. And that's working out great. That's still being able to go into the ring and buy a mare that could down the line maybe become a foundation type for us.” Certainly Bandoroff is at pains to keep looking forward, and not to dwell on his own past, remarkable as it has been. “Look, I think everybody knows the story about how my arm was paralyzed,” he says. “And yeah, there were a couple of years after that happened, it was a tough road and a long one. And thank God I had family to support me and help me get through it. And then by happenstance, at the University of Virginia I met this couple who had a farm and hunters and went out to visit them one day. And they said, 'Oh, come on, why don't you get on a horse?' And I did. That gene had gone dormant, but they got it reignited and then it all went in a different direction. And it's a crazy thing to say, but maybe it was the best thing that ever happened to me.” Having glimpsed a path, he came to Kentucky for direction. His first mentor here was the “awesome” Fred Seitz; and then the man who was transforming the whole business, Lee Eaton. On top of that, it was transferring to college here that had enabled him to meet Holly. “I always said that for me it was love at first sight, it just took her a little longer to be convinced,” he says with a grin. “If you don't like Holly, you don't like human beings. She's one of those angels without wings. But once we started our own operation, she had to learn the horse business or she was going to be a very lonely woman. Because it is all-consuming: not a lifestyle, but a life. So Holly embraced that, and became integral to everything that we were able to do. I can tell you, without Holly, there wouldn't have been a Denali Stud to hand off because I would just have just pissed somebody off and that would have been the end of it!” Apart from anything else, of course, Holly has been a priceless pivot between her husband and son during this whole process of transition; and, moreover, she never let them forget that Conrad also has sisters. “And rightly so,” Bandoroff says. “Conrad and I spend a lot of time together, do a lot of things together, but his sisters obviously have to be part of the equation. And we're very fortunate that the accountant that set it all up did so in such a way that everybody in the family was tied to the success of Denali Stud.” One way or another, then, that split-second of disaster at Garden State Park in 1974 ultimately opened the door to a whole new life. Bandoroff impatiently dismisses pointless retrospection. What would have happened, had he renounced horses as intended when going to the University of Virginia? Or, before that, how far might he have gone as a jockey but for what happened? “Who knows? Who cares, right?” he says with a shrug. “People said I had talent and, looking at the pictures, I look pretty good on a horse. Doesn't matter. Look, it's a good story and it turned out good. “I'm not going to be arrogant and say we have pulled this off, but I will say that I couldn't be happier with where we are. Conrad has grown into the role as the leader of the company in every way I could hope. That gives me a sense of pride I can't really describe.” That was enhanced by a note Bandoroff received from one of the great achievers of the global business, remarking that Conrad had clearly inherited his values. “It's always been really important to me to raise horses in the manner that they have a chance to go on and be good horses,” he reflects. “And I think when people think of us, they associate us with quality. We've always wanted a person to walk up to that barn and say, 'I really like this horse-and these people have sold good horses before.'” Bandoroff feels that our walk of life makes a rather better job of succession than most others. “The statistics tell you that in the 'real' world a large percentage fail,” he says. “I think the success rate in our cottage population is very high. I think what makes it different, for us, is the land. There's something about both the land and the horse that's a little different from inheriting machines that push out widgets. “One of the real joys now is that we can both be at the barn and, instead of somebody coming up to me, they go up to Conrad. Maybe for some people that would hurt their feelings. But, to me, it's the greatest feeling in the world. It took a long time to get to that spot. “Conrad started with me eight years ago, which is honestly hard to believe. In many ways, he has the baton now and he's moving farther away on his own. I feel like he and Claire are the faces of Denali Stud now. It's their company. As I look out at the ocean, that's a wonderful thing to be able to say.” The post ‘Succession’ Presented by Neuman Equine Insurance: Craig Bandoroff, Denali Stud appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

4th-SA, $65K, MSW, 3yo, f, 6f, 5:32 p.m. QUICK BROWN FOX (Justify), the first foal out of MGISW Bast, debuts Saturday for owner/breeder Spendthrift Farm and trainer Richard Mandella. Spendthrift went to $4.2m, a top-four price, at FTKNOV in 2020 for the daughter of Uncle Mo who earned over $850,000 on the track for trainer Bob Baffert. Bast herself is out of $1.5m Eaton Bloodstock broodmare buy Laffina (Arch) and the family has plenty of graded-stakes caliber runners led by GISW and $1.2m FTKNOV broodmare Fault (Blame) and SW/MGSP South Bennd (Algorithms). Quick Brown Fox fired a best-of-five bullet in her most recent work, going six furlongs in 1:13 Feb. 29 for Mandella who puts Joel Rosario aboard on the debut. TJCIS PPS 1st-GP, $89K, MSW, 3yo, 1m, 1:10 p.m. Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable went to $360,000 to secure Whiskey N Soda (Vino Rosso) as a yearling at Keeneland in 2022 and the Triple Crown-nominated colt debuts Saturday with trainer Todd Pletcher. Dam Bible Belt has already produced several stakes horses including MSP Gospel Way (Brody's Cause), SP Happy Boy Rocket (Runhappy) and GSP Hardworkcleanlivin (Colonel John). TJCIS PPS 8th-FG, $57K, MSW, 3yo, 1 1/16m, 5:15 p.m. Making his second start, Gun Party (Curlin) was a $1.7m yearling at Keeneland in 2022 and ran a good second at 10-1 odds over a sloppy Fair Grounds track behind next-out GIII Gothan S. runner up Just a Touch (Justify). The Steve Asmussen trainee, who posted an 80 Beyer Speed Figure in that loss, lines up on the rail inside another son of Curlin looking for redemption in Cornishman. That Godolphin homebred, starting for the third time Saturday off a pair of seconds, keeps Florent Geroux aboard for Brad Cox and also hopes for a dry track off catching the slop at 1 1/16 miles over the local course Feb .17. TJCIS PPS The post Saturday Insights: First Foal Out Of MGISW Bast Debuts At Santa Anita appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Hall of Fame jockey and long-time Florida steward Walter Blum died early Thursday, Mar. 14 due to complications of lung disease, announced his son Walter Blum Jr. on social media. He was 89. The story was first reported by the Daily Racing Form (DRF). The Brooklyn, N.Y. native started his racing career young as a hotwalker before launching into riding in 1953 at 19, and leading the country in wins in both 1963 and 1964. While largely riding in New York and New Jersey, Blum did travel for high-profile rides. Despite having only one Triple Crown series victory–in 1971 when Pass Catcher denied Canonero II the Triple Crown in the Belmont–he'd counted a victory in nearly every major New York stakes, including the Whitney, Frizette, Prioress, Brooklyn, Metropolitan, Test, etc. as well as finding the winner's enclosure in the Santa Anita and Florida Derbys. He also tallied the notable achievement of beating two equine Hall of Famers when his charges defeated five-time Horse of the Year Kelso and the great Buckpasser. Blum was named the George Woolf Memorial Award winner in 1964 and served as president of The Jockeys' Guild for five years starting in 1969. Upon retirement from the saddle in 1975, Blum had 4,382 wins from 28,673 starts, and at that time, only four other jockeys could claim more victories. From there, he secured his first tenure as a steward at Atlantic City Race Course before taking the state steward position in Florida in 1978, where he served until his retirement in 2004. “The world lost a star last night,” said Walter Blum Jr. in his Facebook post. “I love you with all my heart dad. I'm going to miss you so much. I can't believe you're gone. I've lost my best friend.” The post Hall of Famer Walter Blum Dies appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Hall of Fame jockey and former racing steward Walter Blum has died at the age of 89. Blum was one of the winningest riders of all time when he retired from the saddle in 1975.View the full article

Quite a few horses have lately nourished the illusion that we might, collectively, actually know what we're doing. Sierre Leone (Gun Runner), for instance, is threatening to make sense of the second-highest price paid for an American yearling in 2022; while Newgate (Into Mischief) is steadily working off a $850,000 debt of his own, while similarly bringing closer the real payday at stud. But last weekend we were given yet another reminder of the genetic powder-keg lit by a mating strategy that can only have prompted a supercilious smile in any professional analyst who happened to notice it at the time. Certainly it feels safe to assume that Cecilia “Cee” Straub-Rubens required none of the systems or software being expensively peddled today in order to decide that Cee's Tizzy loves Cee's Song. Straub-Rubens had bought both as yearlings, Song for $50,000 in 1987 and Tizzy for $72,000 the following year. After their serial matings produced first Budroyale and then the mighty Tiznow, the sire was given little credit by those who in 2001 gave the Straub-Rubens estate $2.6 million for Cee's Song. Instead they repeatedly “upgraded” the mare to Storm Cat. Luckily two of these $500,000 covers were funded by the sale of the final Tizzy-Song yearling, who had been acquired in utero. That filly would go on to produce Oxbow; another Tizzy-Song sibling meanwhile came up with Paynter; while still another is now granddam of GI Kentucky Oaks fancy Tarifa (Bernardini). Happily a parallel line persists between this amazing dynasty and its founder, whose daughter Pamela Cee Ziebarth retained another of the Tizzy-Song crew, Tizsweet, long enough to breed (with Michael Cooper) an El Prado (Ire) filly named Sweetitiz. She never made the track but Ziebarth retained her to breed half-dozen named foals–much the best of whom was So Sweetitiz (Grand Slam), whose four wins in Ziebarth's silks included a couple in stakes company. And now So Sweetitiz has restored to elite participation the program that launched her family, through the success of her daughter Sweet Azteca (Sharp Azteca) in the GI Beholder Mile. That was a remarkable performance on only her fourth start, beating five-time graded scorer Adare Manor (Uncle Mo). For Tarifa and now Sweet Azteca to be simultaneously elaborating the legacy–with siblings respectively figuring as their second and third dams–confirms the Tizzy-Song “marriage” as one of the happiest quirks of the modern breed. Nonetheless we owe a footnote to Sweet Azteca's sire, who had just embarked on his second year at stud when his former trainer was arrested. The shocking revelations about Jorge Navarro surely hastened a slump in support for a stallion who had amassed no fewer than 194 other mares, besides So Sweetitiz, in his debut book in 2019. By 2021, he was down to 36, and it was a similar story in 2022–the year he launched his first runners. Well, not even Justify, Bolt d'Oro or Good Magic (all working from similarly large crops) could match Sharp Azteca's 35 individual winners as a freshman. Unfortunately, this evidence of an authentic genetic prowess appears to have come too late. Although his book revived to 113 last year, in the fall it was announced that the son of Freud was off to Shizunai Stallion Station. While Sweet Azteca is his first graded stakes winner, we know that emigration to Japan often proves the prelude to a transformation in fortune. And remember that two of the four foals Halo gave blue hen Ballade (Herbager {Fr}) eye each other across Sharp Azteca's pedigree: Saint Ballado as sire of his damsire Saint Liam, and Glorious Song as dam of Freud's damsire Rahy. In the meantime, it's fun to note that Sweet Azteca's grandsire Freud and third dam Tizsweet are respectively siblings to Giant's Causeway and Tiznow, joint authors of one of the great modern races. Moreover the contrast in their parentage–Storm Cat-Mariah's Storm vs. Cee's Tizzy-Cee's Song–reproves us that we remain an awfully long way from figuring it all out. Will We See the Joke Come Derby Day? Both his sophomore starts having turned into such messy races, he's yet to be dignified by flashy numbers. But don't underestimate Domestic Product (Practical Joke) after he scrambled home in the GIII Tampa Bay Derby. In the GIII Holy Bull S., everybody was so preoccupied with the disappointing comeback of the champion juvenile that few gave adequate heed to the way Domestic Product finished for second, despite absolutely everything going wrong through the race (involved in bumping early, battled his rider against the slow pace, wide on the turn). Now he has somehow overcome another cortege of a race, summoning amazing late splits to collar a useful rival who had been much better positioned. Domestic Product (center, green cap) | SV Photography For now, however, his longest race remains the nine-furlong maiden he won at Belmont last fall. And while it has obviously turned out that he had a class edge there, it still feels paradoxical that he was equal to such a searching test as a juvenile. His sire flattened into fifth in his own Derby bid, and duly returned to the GI Hopeful course and distance for the GI Allen Jerkens. Since retiring to Ashford in 2018, Practical Joke has been treated primarily as a conduit of Into Mischief speed, and even his tragic son Practical Move appeared to approach the limit of his stamina when himself on the Classic trail last spring. Practical Joke has had good performers over longer trips in Chile, but domestically the likes of Skelly and Tejano Twist have branded him as a speed influence. We know how Into Mischief himself has managed to stretch out his stock with the upgrading of his mares, and conceivably that may yet happen for Practical Joke as his own fee moves rapidly north–now $65,000, after he covered a staggering 252 mares at $25,000 last year. He has maintained monster books throughout and, given the sheer volume of his commercial output, his ratios have held up very respectably. But his dam was a talented sprinter by Distorted Humor out of a Gilded Time mare, and overall the family appears to offer little latent stretch. Domestic Product himself is out of an unraced mare by Paynter, who may well have put some fuel in the tank. But her own mother (albeit sister to a nine-furlong graded stakes winner on turf) was a stakes sprinter by Cherokee Run, who won the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint in the colors of J. Mack Robinson's daughter. The Atlanta businessman–who helped to launch a young fashion designer named Yves Saint Laurent–bred the second, third and fourth dams of Domestic Product and collectively they suggest limited foundation for a second turn. Domestic Product must have been a fairly ordinary weanling, as owner-breeder Klaravich Stables sold his dam–plus a Complexity filly in utero–at Keeneland that November for just $37,000. With her brother's timely update (plus a :10 flat breeze) behind her, the Complexity filly made $220,000 from Louis Dubois, agent for Wesley Ward, when offered by Sequel Bloodstock at OBS on Tuesday. Poignantly, however, this is the bargain mare's final foal: she aborted her next one, and has since succumbed to laminitis. What a strange, marvelous, head-wrecking game this is! Drummer Finally in Rhythm The emergence of Kinza (Carpe Diem) among the leading fillies of her crop was pretty timely, with her GIII Santa Ysabel S. success coming on the eve of a new 2-year-old sales cycle. She was an inspired pinhook by Grassroots Training and Sales, from $30,000 OBS October yearling to $350,000 Timonium 2-year-old last year. Her sire had by then been given a new lease of life in Louisiana, having been reduced to just 11 mares in 2021, his final spring in Kentucky. We have long become familiar, however, with the ability of Bob Baffert–not forgetting the reciprocal genius of Donato Lanni–to discover elite caliber in left-field horses that had often, somewhere along the line, fallen within reach of many a humble barn. Those achievements, over the years, have naturally earned the support of bigger spenders, not least the gentleman who signed the docket for Kinza. For quite a while Michael Lund Peterson could have been forgiven for thinking that the $850,000 he gave for a colt from the debut crop of Gun Runner at OBS April in 2021 was not going to pay off quite as well as the likes of Gamine (Into Mischief). Flying Drummer (Gun Runner) was the outsider of three Baffert runners when duly only fifth of seven behind Corniche in the GI American Pharoah S. and, though he did break his maiden on the last day of the year, he then disappeared for 17 months. After resurfacing briefly last summer, he was again sidelined until an impressive comeback at Santa Anita in January. Having posted a 94 Beyer there, last weekend Flying Drummer doubled down for a 9 1/2-length romp that confirmed his connections are now being rewarded for their perseverance. Admittedly they will have to keep reaping the rewards on the track, as the 5-year-old has meanwhile been gelded. Obviously we're not going to run short of sons of Gun Runner at stud, but it would have been nice to see damsire Successful Appeal retain some tenuous influence on the breed. His daughters also gave us the mare Letruska (Super Saver) and the gelded C Z Rocket (City Zip), which may leave only Tapwrit to recycle some of that Florida zip on any scale. Absolutely His Fault The most precocious broodmare sire in town these days is clearly Blame, whose latest star in that role is thriving GII Azeri S. winner Tiny Temper (Arrogate). Her dam Don't Blame Me only won a maiden, but she was placed in her only start in graded company and Brookstone Farm did well to buy her for $120,000 at the same Keeneland November Sale in 2020 where the weanling Tiny Temper herself was found by Hunter Valley Farm for $240,000. At the time Don't Blame Me was carrying a filly by Gun Runner, who made $350,000 as a yearling. Nice work, but Tiny Temper herself is very much a tribute to the long game. For she and her dam were both sold only following the death that summer of their breeder Alan S. Kline, who had bought Tiny Temper's fourth dam for $17,000 back in 1983. At the time she was carrying a Dr. Blum filly, who went on to be stakes-placed herself before producing perhaps the Kline program's two most accomplished graduates, stakes winner Forestier (Forestry) and graded stakes winner Unbridled Hope (Unbridled). Kline, whose Maryland farm bore the charming name of Honey Acres, sent Forestier to Blame in 2011 and the result was Don't Blame Me. That was the stallion's first year at Claiborne, so the mating can only go down as a successful guess. But the evidence is now out there for all to see. If your broodmare band is lacking a little something, then perhaps it's high time you, too, took the Blame. The post Breeding Digest: A Family that Just Gets Sweeter appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

After a nationwide vote among his peers, Junior Alvarado has won the 2024 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, Santa Anita Park announced via press release Friday. Presented annually at the Great RIP since 1950, the award honors riders whose careers and personal character earn esteem individually as well as for the sport. Alvarado garnered national attention in 2023 as the regular rider of Horse of the Year Cody's Wish and more recently spoiled Japan's hopes in the world's richest race, the G1 Saudi Cup, aboard G1SW-KSA & MGISP Senor Buscador (Mineshaft). Going into March, Alvarado has 2,117 career victories with his top mounts also including the likes of champion MGISW Just F Y I (Justify), GISW Olympiad (Speightstown), and MGISW Art Collector (Bernardini). The George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award is named for the late Hall of Fame rider who won the inaugural Santa Anita Handicap Feb. 23, 1935 and later piloted Seabiscuit to victory over Triple Crown winner War Admiral in the great match race at Pimlico in 1938. A date for the presentation ceremony has not been announced yet but will be held in the spring. The post Junior Alvarado Wins 2024 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Saturday's top tips from the Post's racing teamView the full article

The Road, presented by Gainesway and Darby Dan FarmView the full article

Jockey Junior Alvarado has won the 2024 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, decided by a nationwide vote of his fellow riders. View the full article

All-Star Mile winner Pride Of Jenni was too good, too tough and too fast. View the full article

John Size’s star four-year-old returns to normal training after missing two days of work earlier this weekView the full article

Mauritian jockey heads to Sha Tin on Saturday with a book boasting a host of in-form gallopersView the full article

South Australian racing has received a timely boost ahead of the state’s major carnival for the year, with Adelaie’s four upcoming Group One races elevated to purses of A$1 million. On Friday morning, Racing SA, the SAJC and Sportsbet announced a seven-year partnership that immediately delivers a near 100 per cent increase in stakes for the four Group One races this autumn, starting with the Gr.1 Sangster Stakes (1200m) and Gr.1 Australasian Oaks (2000m) at Morphettville on April 27. There will be a A$1 million stake for both the Gr.1 SA Derby (2500m) on May 4 and the Gr.1 Goodwood (1200m) on May 11. The state’s elite sprints the Sangster and Goodwood had been worth A$600,000 each, with the Derby and Oaks races formerly worth A$500,000. Racing SA chair Rob Rorrison said the premium prizemoney on offer will attract the best horses, trainers and jockeys while also ensuring that Racing SA can deliver on its recently released strategic plan. Racing SA is delighted with today’s announcement, which enhances our premium races,” Rorrison said. “Stakeholder feedback during the consultation phase of the recently released strategic plan was consistent in highlighting the need to address the prizemoney levels of the four Group One races conducted in South Australia. “The increase to the Group One prizemoney comes off the back of a 15 per cent increase in prizemoney across the remainder of the racing program. “We look forward to working with Sportsbet and the SAJC to deliver fantastic racing over the Adelaide racing carnival. Sportsbet chief executive Barni Evans said the prizemoney hike for the state’s best races is the start of big things for SA racing. “We are thrilled to partner with Racing SA and the SAJC in this way and the big prizemoney will really put South Australian racing back on the map,” Evans said. SAJC chair Judith Jones said it was pleasing to see an immediate impact of the new partnership. “This is a fantastic announcement for racing in South Australia and for Morphettville, the proud home of Group One racing in this state. “Our commitment towards creating these million-dollar races represents the single biggest prizemoney investment in more than a decade by the SAJC and demonstrates not only our belief in the future direction being set by Racing SA, but also the renewed financial strength of our club.” View the full article

A friendship formed during the Queensland winter carnival has paved the way for Brisbane jockey Kyle Wilson-Taylor to make his New Zealand debut at Trentham on Saturday. Wilson-Taylor rode trackwork for Matamata trainers Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott when they sent a team of horses across the Tasman last winter, and Wexford Stables have returned the favour with rides on Cupid’s Arrow in Saturday’s Gr.1 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand Oaks (2400m) and Grail Seeker in the Gr.2 Life Direct Wellington Guineas (1400m). Wilson-Taylor has more than 320 winners to his name in a short career so far, headed by a maiden Group One victory aboard Palaisipan in last year’s Tattersall’s Tiara (1400m) at Eagle Farm, but has never previously ridden outside Australia. “We got to know Kyle when we were over there for the Queensland winter carnival,” Scott said. “He’s a hell of a nice young man and a talented, polished rider that does his form well. “He mentioned during the winter that he might like to come over and ride in New Zealand at some stage, and then he rang us out of the blue about a fortnight ago and asked if we had anything coming up. We had quite a nice team shaping up for Oaks Day at Trentham, so we jumped at the chance to bring him over. He’s really looking forward to having his first rides in New Zealand.” Cupid’s Arrow began her career with two unplaced finishes in December, then ran third and second in a pair of 1600m races during January. The El Roca filly cleared maiden ranks with a strong late burst over 1800m at Taupo on February 14, then capped her Oaks build-up with a close fourth against older Rating 65 rivals at Matamata on February 29. “She’s an improving filly that’s racing very well over a bit of ground,” Scott said. “She lacked a little bit of luck against those older horses last time, but worked to the line nicely. “We think she’ll stay the 2400m trip well, and any give in the ground will be no bother for her.” Grail Seeker has already been a multiple black-type placegetter this season, starting with a runner-up finish behind Just As Sharp in the Listed Trevor & Corallie Eagle Memorial (1500m). She went on to run third to her stablemate Molly Bloom in the Gr.2 Eight Carat Classic (1600m), then second behind Sudbina in the Gr.3 Desert Gold Stakes (1600m). The Iffraaj filly is stepping down in trip after her last-start sixth in the Gr.2 David & Karyn Ellis Fillies’ Classic (2000m). “She just didn’t quite settle over the 2000m last start, and her bloodlines don’t really suggest that the 2400m of the Oaks would suit her,” Scott said. “We gave her a couple of weeks on the farm after that last race and she’s freshened up well. “Going back down to one turn and having a bit more speed in the race should help her to settle a bit better. She’s got a good load of ability there, and we think she’ll be finding the line strongly.” Wilson-Taylor’s other rides at Trentham on Saturday are the Tony Pike-trained Arundel Castle in the Jennian Homes Sires’ Prelude (1200m), the David Haworth-trained Orlov in the The Bold One & Agraforum New Zealand St Leger (2600m), Mike Moroney and Pam Gerard’s Reputation in the Gr.3 Wentwood Grange Cuddle Stakes (1600m), and the John Wheeler-trained Black Betty in the Natural Lighting and Ventilation Wellington Premier (2200m). O’Sullivan and Scott, meanwhile, have Saxs ‘n’ Silks as first emergency for the Oaks and also accepted for the Natural Lighting and Ventilation Wellington Premier, while last-start winner Geriatrix will join Grail Seeker in the Wellington Guineas line-up. “Saxs ‘n’ Silks hasn’t won a race yet, but she’s been very competitive in some good company,” Scott said. “She’s another one that didn’t have all favours in her most recent run. She’s fit and is bred to stay, so she wouldn’t be without a chance if she happened to get a run in the Oaks. “It was good to see Geriatrix back in winning form last start. It looks like 1400m is his best trip at this stage, and a big roomy track will help him. He’s a fit, focused colt and has plenty of talent. We think he can be right in the finish in the Guineas.” Saturday’s Trentham meeting marks the conclusion of the NZB Filly of the Year Series, which has the Oaks as its 11th and final leg. Standout Wexford Stables filly Molly Bloom will not run in that race, but she holds an unassailable lead in the Filly of the Year standings with 28 points. Molly Bloom finished second in a trial at Taupo on Thursday, and the high-class daughter of Ace High is a potential candidate for the Gr.1 New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1600m) at Ellerslie on March 30. The TAB currently rates her a $4.50 second favourite for that race behind La Crique ($3.20). “For her to win Filly of the Year is a wonderful result,” Scott said. “She certainly deserves it. She’s been classy, consistent and so honest all the way through the season. The Filly of the Year title is great recognition of that, and it’s something that all of us at Wexford can be very proud of. “Her trial at Taupo was what we were hoping for. We were really pleased with how she paraded, and then she found some good rhythm in the trial. She appears to have pulled up very well from it, but we’ll just monitor her for the next couple of days before firming up our plans.” View the full article

Cambridge trainers Roger James and Robert Wellwood have enjoyed a spectacular summer with their three-year-olds, and they are hoping Saturday’s Gr.2 Life Direct Wellington Guineas (1400m) at Trentham brings more of the same. Three-year-olds from Kingsclere Stables have recorded five stakes wins since November 30, kicking off with a four-length romp by Zabmanzor in the Gr.3 Wellington Stakes (1600m) at Otaki. That talented Almanzor colt later went on to finish second in the Gr.1 Levin Classic (1600m) at Trentham, where he was beaten by a long head by Quintessa, then ran fourth in the Gr.2 Waikato Guineas (1600m). Sudbina stormed home from last to take out the Gr.3 Desert Gold Stakes (1600m) at Trentham on January 20, while the eight weeks since then have seen Orchestral make Ellerslie her own with extraordinary performances in the Karaka Millions 3YO (1600m), the Gr.2 Avondale Guineas (2100m) and the Gr.1 New Zealand Derby (2400m). The headline act for the in-form stable this Saturday is the Wellington Guineas favourite Irish Legacy, who was arguably unlucky not to add to the stable’s three-year-old roll of honour in her last-start third placing in the Gr.3 Mufhasa Stakes (1400m) at Ellerslie. She found herself near the tail of the Mufhasa Stakes field and hopelessly blocked with 300m remaining, but rider Ryan Elliot weaved a way through and she dashed into an eye-catching third behind Certainly and Moet Down. She clocked the fastest last 800m (46.48 seconds), 600m (34.25) and 200m (11.52) in the race. The Mufhasa was only the second career start for the blue-blooded filly, who had outclassed her maiden opposition by almost three lengths on debut at Taupo on February 14. The daughter of champion Australian sire I Am Invincible races in the colours of her breeder and part-owner Christopher Grace. She is the first foal out of Grace’s superb mare Shillelagh, who won the Gr.1 Cantala Stakes (1600m) and Gr.1 Empire Rose Stakes (1600m) at Flemington. “She’s obviously a beautifully bred filly and has made a really good impression in both of her races so far,” Wellwood said. “She won very easily on debut, and then we threw her straight in at the deep end for a Group Three race in her second start and she certainly didn’t disappoint. She had a bit of a luckless run, but the way she finished the race off was quite outstanding. “She’s done everything really well since that race. She’s a very athletic filly and doesn’t take a lot of work, but she’s continuing to progress very well and we’re really happy with her.” Irish Legacy will be accompanied on the trip to Trentham by Apostrophe, who will contest the Gr.3 Wentwood Grange Cuddle Stakes (1600m). The six-year-old daughter of Tavistock has had only two previous starts at the Wellington track, storming home to win a Rating 75 over 1600m in December of 2022 and launching a similarly powerful finish for a close second in the Gr.3 Anniversary Handicap (1600m) in January of this year. Apostrophe’s only start since then was in the Listed Wairarapa Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1600m) at Tauherenikau, where she dropped well back in the running and was never able to move through her gears. “Wellington is a track that really suits her,” Wellwood said. “She can be a bit slow out of the barriers, but a big, fair track like Trentham gives her a better opportunity to overcome that. “She’s going into this race in good shape. She had a very nice gallop between races at Taupo last Friday. She’s probably going to be retired to stud at the end of this preparation, so we’d love to see her pick up a bit more black type before that happens.” View the full article

After an up-and-down campaign ranging from 1200m all the way up to 2100m, Te Akau Racing is hoping to see Tokyo Tycoon back at his brilliant best in the Gr.2 Life Direct Wellington Guineas (1400m) at Trentham on Saturday. The Te Akau team is shooting for a third Wellington Guineas victory in the last four years, having won it with Need I Say More in 2021 and Cognito in 2023. Tokyo Tycoon was New Zealand’s champion two-year-old last season, with four sparkling wins including the Karaka Million 2YO (1200m) and a dominant performance in the Gr.3 Matamata Slipper (1200m). His two-year-old campaign alone netted almost $650,000 in stakes, far surpassing the $125,000 that David Ellis paid to buy him from Karaka 2022. The son of Satono Aladdin kicked off his three-year-old season on a winning note in the Listed El Roca-Sir Colin Meads Trophy (1200m) at Hastings in September, then finished fifth in the Gr.2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas (1400m), third behind Pendragon and Quintessa in a 1200m race at Te Rapa, and last in the Gr.2 Auckland Guineas (1400m) with rider Opie Bosson reporting that he felt indifferent in his action. Tokyo Tycoon ran a big race for fifth in the Karaka Millions 3YO (1600m) in late January, then tested his Gr.1 New Zealand Derby (2400m) credentials in the Gr.2 Avondale Guineas (2100m), where he finished seventh. “We had a crack at getting him to the Derby, but it just didn’t work out and the 2100m in the Avondale Guineas didn’t really suit him,” said Sam Bergerson, who trains in partnership with Mark Walker. “We freshened him up after that and he’s come back really well. We’re very happy with how he’s looking. “This is more than likely going to be his final run for this preparation. If he brings his A-game, we have no doubt that he’d be right in it. But it’s just a matter of whether or not he can recapture the very best form that we know he’s capable of.” Tokyo Tycoon is joined in the Wellington Guineas field by My Lips Are Sealed, who burst on the scene with a dominant maiden victory at Avondale in the spring. Her best performance since then came in her only start at Trentham – a close second in the Gr.3 Eulogy Stakes (1600m), where she was beaten by a nose by leading Gr.1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m) contender Still Bangon. The Ace High filly was freshened after finishing sixth in the Listed Oaks Prelude (1800m) at New Plymouth on February 3. “She’s a little bit like Tokyo Tycoon, where the step up over a longer trip just didn’t quite work out,” Bergerson said. “She had an exhibition gallop between races at Matamata a couple of weeks ago, where her work was really good. “Her only previous run at Trentham was a top run in the Eulogy, so we’re hoping for more of the same. We’re not quite sure what the weather is going to do, but if there is a bit of rain around, it might bring her into it and disadvantage a few of the others.” Te Akau also has a proud recent record in the Gr.1 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand Oaks (2400m), having won it with Amarelinha in 2021 and homebred filly Belle En Rouge a year later. This year’s hopes rest with the promising Almanzor filly Qali Al Farrasha, who was also co-bred by Te Akau Stud. She was a four-length maiden winner at Matamata before being beaten by a neck by Positivity when second in the Gr.3 Sunline Vase (2100m). “That was a really good effort,” Bergerson said. “Stepping up in trip was a little bit of a query, and it was her first time in stakes company as well, but she really handled it well. She relaxed beautifully, which we weren’t sure she was going to do. “She loomed up to win in the straight, but Opie (Bosson, jockey) thought she just had a bit of a look around in the last 100m or so. Hopefully she’ll take some good improvement from that experience. “She’s trained on nicely since then. She worked with her talented stablemate Mehzebeen on the course proper on Tuesday morning and it was a very solid piece of work. Opie gave her the tick of approval after that. “Going up to 2400m is a query, but that’s something they’ve all got to do. We think she’s had the right sort of build-up to put her best foot forward.” Petrucci looms as a major lightweight threat in the Listed Lincoln Farms Lightning Handicap (1200m). Her last three appearances have produced a stylish win at Pukekohe on Boxing Day, a second to the exciting Master Fay in the Gr.3 Concorde Handicap (1200m), and a close last-start fourth in the Gr.3 King’s Plate (1200m). “She’s been performing well in strong company,” Bergerson said. “We think this is a nice race for her, getting in on the minimum. Michael McNab knows her well and is going to ride her again. “Our feeling is that she’s a bit better left-handed, so we’re looking forward to getting her to Trentham. Her work has been super leading into it.” Two-year-old colt Altari will audition for next month’s Gr.1 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) with a run in Saturday’s Jennian Homes Sires’ Prelude (1200m). The Savabeel colt’s only previous start produced a smart win over 1200m at Matamata on February 29. “That was a good, tough effort on debut,” Bergerson said. “He was three wide and had every reason to chuck it in, but he kept sticking his neck out and really wanted the win. He’s definitely going to benefit from that too. “It’s not easy taking a two-year-old all the way down to Wellington, but we think he’ll take the travel in his stride. “He’s a really nice horse. We’re hoping to see him run well again on Saturday, and then we can push on to the Sires’ in a few weeks.” View the full article

Graham Eade is excited about the prospects of his promising three-year-old Riviera Rebel, who he is hoping can take the next step in his career at Wingatui on Sunday. The son of Pure Champion has surprised his Riverton trainer with his precocity, having won one and placed in three of his seven starts to date, including a pleasing third placing behind Aberlour and Quintabelle in the Listed Southland Guineas (1600m) at Ascot Park last month. “He went better than what I thought he would last start,” Eade said. “I didn’t think he was quite up to that at this stage, so it was pleasing to see him get that stakes placing.” Eade races the gelding in partnership with his breeder Phil Jeffreys, who sent the Southland trainer a video of Riviera Rebel when he was a juvenile asking if he was interested in taking the youngster on, and Eade didn’t hesitate in accepting the offer. “I have got quite a lot of my horses off him (Jeffreys),” Eade said. “We keep in pretty close contact and he rang me about the horse and asked if I would be interested. They sent me a video of him and he was a real nice mover in the paddock. “He has come a long way in a short time and I never thought he would. He has been a bit of a handful and if it wasn’t for a good farrier and the fella who broke him in, we probably wouldn’t be at this stage, they have done a great job with him as he has been an awkward fella. “He is getting quieter all the time, he is starting to grow up. I think he is only going to get better, he is a stayer in the making.” Riviera Rebel was given a freshen-up following his Southland Guineas run and Eade has been pleased with his progress ahead of the Icon Interior Construction (1600m) on Sunday. “He has had a little break since the Guineas, he is looking great and his work has been good. I am looking forward to it.” Eade doesn’t have any set plans for his gelding post Sunday and said he wants to take things quietly with his charge. “We are taking him one step at a time because I don’t want to push him over the edge,” he said. Eade will also give stablemate Gintys Girl the biggest test in her career to date when she tackles the RMG Publicans Cup (1500m). The daughter of Ghibellines takes a runner-up performance into Sunday where she will jump from barrier five with 54kg on her back, a far less intimidating prospect for Eade than her alternative option. “I thought it was a good, tough run last start,” he said. “She had an awful draw and she toughed it out really well and I think her work has improved. “They gave her two points (for her placing), which put her (rating) up to 65. We nominated her for the 65 mile, but she was going to be carrying 60 kilos whereas she would only carry 54kg in the Cup. It is quite a big drop in weight for her. “We think she will get to 2000m in time. We will just see how she goes on Sunday and that will dictate what we do with her at Riverton.” Meanwhile, Eade said his stakes performer Riviera Rock is enjoying retirement after his racing career was cut short in January following a tendon injury. The nine-year-old gelding was a consistent performer for Eade, winning seven and placing in 19 of his 66 starts, including placing in the Listed Dunedin Gold Cup (2400m) on three occasions. “He is in the paddock now and he is gleaming. We are just trying to find a good home for him,” Eade said. “He has earned $250,000 so he has done pretty well.” View the full article