Wandering Eyes

Kok's 2YO draws out, harder to Count on View the full article

Top jumper Jackfrost’s racing career has come to an abrupt end after suffering an injury in Australia. The Brian and Shane Anderton-trained gelding was preparing for an Australian jumps campaign, but will now return home to undergo rehabilitation in preparation for an alternative career. “He’s done his suspensory,” Brian Anderton said. “The vet said he would want 12 months and he didn’t think he would come back as a jumper. “The boys (owners) are doing the right thing by him. They ... View the full article

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Today’s Observations features a half-brother to Australia standout sire Zoustar (Aus) (Northern Meteor (Ire). 5.55 Killarney, Mdn, €15,000, 2yo, 8f 30yT ARTHUR’S KINGDOM (IRE) (Camelot {GB}) bids to build on a highly promising debut second to fellow Ballydoyle trainee Toronto (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) at Leopardstown last month in this maiden won 12 months ago by Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). A €260,000 Goffs Orby half-brother to the triple GI Canadian International hero Joshua Tree (Ire) by Camelot’s sire Montjeu (Ire), the February-foaled bay is joined by two stablemates Emperor of the Sun (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), a half-brother to the Australian sensation Zoustar (Aus) (Northern Meteor {Aus}) and War Cabinet (Galileo {Ire}), a son of the dual Group 1 winner Simply Perfect (GB) (Danehill). The post Observations: July 17, 2019 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Gary and Mary West's 2018 Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Game Winner rose to No. 8 in the latest Breeders' Cup Classic Rankings following his commanding five-length victory in Saturday's Los Alamitos Derby (G3). View the full article

On the heels of a wildly successful JHRA Select Sales, the 2019 Hokkaido Selection (Yearling) Sale was held Tuesday in Shinuzai, Hokkaido, with a colt by Darley Japan’s Pyro leading the session on a bid of ¥38,880,000 (£289,274/€320,182/ US$358,884). Overall, a total of 197 horses from 237 through the ring (83.1% clearance) were reported as sold for gross receipts of just over €3.1 billion (£23,089,319/€25,556,330/ US$28,643,876). Lot 167, a March foal out of five-time winner Ocean Fleet (Jpn) (Afleet {Can}), was acquired by Tomoya Ozasa for the session-topping price. Bred by Murata Bokujo, the bay colt (walking video) hails from the deeper female family of Group 1-winning 2-year-old Scenic (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells) and US GISW Yellow Agate (Gemologist). The sire of nearly 1100 individual winners in Japan, Pyro is represented this season by SW Derma Louvre (Jpn), recent runner-up in the Listed Japan Dirt Derby. The session’s top-selling filly was lot 154, a chestnut from the first crop of Japanese Horse of the Year Maurice (Jpn) (Screen Hero {Jpn}). A Jan. 26 produce bred by Amaba Bokujo, the daughter of Moonlight Bay (Jpn) (High Chaparral {Ire}) is a half-sister to Shigeru Pink Dia (Jpn) (Daiwa Major {Jpn}), herself a ¥17.2-million graduate of this sale two years ago who has finished runner-up in the G2 Tulip Sho and G1 Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas) this season. Click here for full results. The post Pyro Colt Tops Hokkaido Selection Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Breakfast at Saratoga, driven by the Capital District Transportation Authority, welcomes racing fans to enjoy a morning meal on The Porch of the Clubhouse at Saratoga Race Course while the Thoroughbreds train on the main track. Breakfast is held daily from 7 to 9:30 a.m. and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. “Enjoying a trackside breakfast while watching some of the world’s best Thoroughbreds train on Saratoga’s historic track has long been a tradition at the Spa,” said NYRA Director of Guest Services Will Alempijevic. “We encourage those who have long made this a part of their Saratoga experience and fans who have not yet spent a morning at the Spa to join us this year.” The morning breakfast buffet is $18.50 for adults and $9.25 for kids ages 12 and under. Admission is free during breakfast hours. Mornings at Saratoga also welcome fans to go behind the scenes with a free, guided backstretch tram tour, courtesy of CDTA. The post Breakfast at Saratoga Returns appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Drew Couto, the lawyer representing trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, filed a complaint against the Del Mar Turf Club Monday in the Superior Court of San Diego. Couto said the complaint included four causes of action. “One was for an emergency, temporary restraining order, one was for a preliminary injunction, one was for declatory relief and one for breach of contract,” he said. Couto said he was willing to reveal the legal steps he had taken because they were a matter of of public record. However, he declined to comment further or elaborate on what was involved with each complaint. Del Mar has denied to allocate stalls to Hollendorfer or accept any entries from him. Many of the horses he had previously trained have been moved to the barn of Dan Ward, his long-time assistant trainer. Santa Anita banned the Hall of fame trainer last month. Hollendorfer’s former small string in New York, all owned by Larry Best, are now trained by former assistant Don Chatlos Jr. Though Hollendorfer is not under any official suspension, Santa Anita ordered that he vacate the grounds after a fourth horse of his suffered a fatal injury during a meet in which 30 horses died. Before any further steps can be taken by Hollendorfer’s legal team, the court must set a date to hear the complaints filed by Couto. That process can take several months, meaning a hearing might not be held until after the meet is over. However, there are legal means whereby attorneys can ask the court for an expedited hearing. The post Hollendorfer’s Lawyer Files Complaint Against Del Mar appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 7th-SAR, $90K, Msw, 3yo/up, 1mT, 4:32 p.m. ET Rain is in the forecast for Wednesday’s week two opener at Saratoga, but if the day’s seventh event stays on the turf, Chad Brown starts an intriguing pair of debuting sophomores with hefty European bloodlines. Bass Racing’s BORDER TOWN (War Front), a $325,000 RNA at Keeneland September in 2017, is a full-brother to Hit It a Bomb, victor of the 2015 GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, and Brave Anna, who captured the G1 Cheveley Park S. at Newmarket in 2016. The dark bay shows a steady series of breezes going all the way back to April at Palm Meadows, and capped preparations with a half-mile spin in :48 3/5 (3/21) over the Oklahoma dirt July 11. His workmate that day, and for several other breezes, was Klaravich Stables’ Good Governance (GB) (Kingman {GB}), a 120,000gns purchase at Tattersalls October in 2017 who also opens his account here. The bay is out of Group 2 winner Please Sing (GB) (Royal Applause {GB}) and shares a second dam with MGSW turf sprinter Belvoir Bay (GB) (Equiano {Fr}). If the race comes off the grass, WinStar Farm main-track-only firster Off the Record (Distorted Humor) looks to have a big chance. Bought for $150,000 at Fasig-Tipton October, the Rodolphe Brisset trainee is out of a half-sister to GISW Bluegrass Cat (Storm Cat) and MGSW Lord of the Game (Saint Ballado) and shows an array of speedy breezes at his Keeneland base, highlighted by a half-mile gate work in :46 3/5 (1/66) June 26. Eric Fein’s Corcoran (Curlin), another MTO who would be making his career bow, has been working sharply as well, including a five-furlong breeze in 1:00 flat (4/27) June 23 at Belmont. The $500,000 KEESEP buy’s first two dams were unraced, but second dam Jessi Take Charge (War Chant) is a half to MGISW Take Charge Lady (Dehere), the dam of champion Will Take Charge (Unbridled’s Song) and GISW Take Charge Indy (A.P. Indy). TJCIS PPs 9th-DMR, $64K, Alw/Opt. Clm, 3yo/up, 7f, 9:14 p.m. ET Michael Stinson’s KING JACK (Jimmy Creed) kicked away impressively to score by 3 1/4 lengths debuting June 1 at Santa Anita, an effort good enough for ‘TDN Rising Star’ honors, and he tries to go two-for-two in this opening day spot at Del Mar. A $100,000 KEESEP pickup, the chestnut’s first-out score, which earned an 88 Beyer, was further flattered when runner-up Morning Snow (Morning Line) came back to romp by eight lengths with an 86 Beyer June 23 in Arcadia. That one’s trainer, Bob Baffert, will be represented here by the returning Metropol (Shackleford). Hammered to 7-10 favoritism in his October unveiling at Santa Anita, the $200,000 OBS April buy wore down a loose leader to prevail by three-quarters of a length, and sports a sharp worktab for this comeback, punctuated by a six-furlong move in 1:11 4/5 (1/4) July 11 at Los Alamitos. TJCIS PPs The post July 17 Insights: Full to Hit It a Bomb Entered On Spa Turf appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

(Part two of a two-part TDN series) There is one thing that virtually everyone within the racing industry can agree on and be proud of: the sport has come a long way when it comes to keeping retired Thoroughbreds out of the slaughterhouse. But, to many, that’s not good enough. Is zero slaughter a reasonable goal? The story of a former $5,000 claimer from Charles Town named Singlemaltscotch is a fitting example of the difficulties the sport still faces when it comes to saving every horse. He didn’t wind up in a slaughterhouse, but he did come close. The rising awareness of the problem of slaughter and the willingness of so many people to do what they can to save a horse has caused a shift in how many “killer buyers” now operate their businesses. Many have discovered that they can make more money by reselling the horses they buy at auction to people who can’t bear to see a horse go to slaughter. Numerous people have used social media outlets to sell horses they plucked out of auction. They mark up the price they paid for the horse and say that unless the new price is met they will let the horse go to slaughter. The dealers are not afraid to use terms such as “ransom” and “bail.” Singlemaltscotch showed up shortly after making his final career start Apr. 13 at Charles Town, a track owned by Penn National. The horse appeared on a since closed-down Facebook page of a company called Sexton Horse & Mule, which is based in Sneedville, Tenn. Jason Sexton, a part-owner of the business, told the TDN he brought Singlemaltscotch at the Knoxville Livestock Auction. Sexton said that before his Facebook page was shut down “99 percent” of the horses who were posted online were bought by people and given homes. “I think we’re helping the horses,” Sexton said. “Last year we would ship two, three, four semi-loads of horses a week to Mexico. We’d put about 33 to 40 horses in a load. When we first started this deal we were down to shipping one semi-load every other week because we were selling so many through Facebook.” Singlemaltscotch was bought by Heather Freeman’s Helping Equines Regain Dignity (HERD) rescue. Freeman said she paid $900 for the horse and said her understanding is that middlemen like Sexton typically mark up the price of a horse they buy by $100 to $200 when reselling it. “That horse has been at the mercy of a human being since the day it was born,” Freeman said. “We teach them to trust us. We break them, we ride them, we put them in little stalls and make them stand up and they do our bidding and then one day we dispose of them. That is wrong on every level. And I have horses of my own and I have horses that are permanently lame and I take very good care of them. Some will be with me until the day they die at an expense of probably $5,000 a year to me.” Freeman’s plan with Singlemaltscotch was to send him to a farm in North Carolina to recuperate, get whatever vet work he needed and then to retrain him for a second career. But how did Singlemaltscotch show up at the Knoxville auction less than a month after his racing career had ended? What happened to the rules that are in place at Charles Town and on the books of the West Virginia Racing Commission that prohibit a trainer from knowingly selling a horse to slaughter? The TDN‘s attempts to find answers from Charles Town, Penn National and the West Virginia Racing Commission officials led nowhere. Erich Zimny, the vice president of racing operations at Charles Town, replied to an e-mail, but said he would have no comment. Penn National’s racing vice president, Chris McErlean, never responded to a similar e-mail. Roy Cave, who is listed on the West Virginia Racing Commission website as “Charles Town investigator,” did not return a phone call seeking comment. The horse’s last listed owner, John Shuler, spoke to the TDN and gave his side of the story. “I gave the horse to a guy so the horse could pull chuckwagons,” he said, referring to a sport popular in Western Canada. “Once the guy got the horse, he must have taken it and sold it to someone else. Whoever he sold it to must have taken it to the sale. I don’t know how it happened. I had no idea the guy was going to take it to a kill sale. I had dealt with this person before. He had taken two horses of mine and they used them in the chuckwagon races. I think those two are still racing in the chuckwagon races. I was upset when I found out what happened to this horse. I have 28 horses and nothing like this has ever happened to me before.” Though Charles Town officials wouldn’t comment on this case, it’s easy to see why making decisions concerning penalizing trainers when a horse shows up at a slaughter auction are not as easy as they may seem. Though one can argue that trainers should be extremely careful when it comes to who they sell or give a horse away to, it’s not hard to get duped by someone who promises they will take the horse and give it a good home, but then turns around and sells it to slaughterhouse buyers. In that case, is it fair to ban a trainer, which could effectively destroy their career? The other problem is what to do about Thoroughbreds that are many years removed from their racing careers, and how to track how they got to the auction. In the first part of this series the TDN featured a horse named Averil’s Girl, who was put up for sale at New Holland. Now 12, she last raced in 2010 for trainer Steve Jerkens and has never delivered a registered foal. From the time she left the racetrack, her life story remains a mystery, and to place any blame on Jerkens over a horse he trained nine years earlier would be unfair. Like Singlemaltscotch, Averil’s Girl was also posted on a website with the seller asking someone to pay “bail money.” The money was paid and Averil’s Girl wound up at Hidden Pond Farm Equine Rescue in New Hampshire. While a racetrack has the power to ban a trainer who sells a horse to slaughter, there is little if anything that can be done to a breeder or an owner of a pleasure horse who no longer wants to pay the bills for a Thoroughbred who hasn’t raced in years. And even though Averil’s Girl and Singlemaltscotch never made it to a slaughterhouse, there are plenty among the horse rescue community who believe people paying the bail money for these horses may be well-meaning but are doing the wrong thing. “I don’t like it because I’ve seen how they prey on people that have very little money,” said Victoria Keith, who runs the National Thoroughbred Welfare Organization (NTWO), a group started by prominent owner Rick Porter. “I’ve seen way too many times people respond saying, ‘I have to wait for my social security check to get here. I have to wait for a paycheck. I only have $10 that I can spare this time but I’ll give you that $10.’ It preys on those people. It’s driven up the prices at the auctions whereas before I’ve talked to people that are private trainers, and they would go to auctions and buy the nicer horses, and then put some training into them and sell them, and they said they stopped going, because now they get outbid by the kill buyers. People would be a lot better off donating money to legitimate rescues than helping these other people.” Still another shift in the business of selling horses for meat occurred when, in 2015, the European Union announced it would no longer accept horses from Mexican slaughterhouses. The EU was reacting to the fact the most horses in Mexican slaughterhouses came from the U.S., and the vast majority had been treated with drugs at some point in their lives. “I think a huge problem we have is these horses should never be used for food,” said Donna Keen, who operates Remember Me Rescue. “They’re toxic. And it blows me away in a time where everybody wants to eat organic and antibiotic- and steroid-free chicken that they would even think about slaughtering a racehorse since 99.9%-plus of all racehorses have had Bute. Bute never leaves a horse’s system. And with all the other things, the antibiotics and the things that horses get, they should never be eaten.” The Wikipedia page for Phenylbutazone explains that when humans digest metabolites of Bute, they can develop aplastic anemia, a disease in which the body stops producing new blood cells and which was the cause of death of Eleanor Roosevelt and Marie Curie. Oddly, the EU did not enact a similar ban on Canadian slaughterhouses, and Chris Heyde, a well-known animal rights lobbyist, said its efforts in Mexico have done little good since slaughterhouses there were easily able to find customers outside EU countries. Anti-horse slaughter advocates are now resting their hopes on bills introduced in Congress that would prohibit the slaughter of horses in the U.S. and prohibit the export of American horses to other countries for the purpose of slaughter. “I think there is a chance that this will pass, but it’s going to be tough,” Heyde said. “It’s bipartisan and there are so few of those in these divided times. We just need to raise the profile of this issue, which hasn’t been done in a long time.” Backers of the bill got a boost in June when the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) came out in support of its passage. “The slaughter of horses for human consumption is something the NTRA has opposed for many years,” NTRA President and CEO Alex Waldrop said in a statement. “In the last decade alone, thousands of retired U.S. racehorses have been adopted and transitioned to second careers. The development and growth of quality racehorse aftercare programs continue to be a high priority for the industry.” In an interview with the Louisville Courier Journal, Waldrop admitted the NTRA had been non-committal in the past about similar bills because it did not see a clear path to finding suitable homes for the thousands of horses who are retired every year. But Waldrop said in the current climate, it was time to fully get behind anti-slaughter legislation. “Clearly the public is very aware; they’re focused on our industry right now, and that’s a factor,” he told the paper. “The time was right to change our position…times have changed for us.” The passage of any bill that would prohibit the slaughter of horses in the U.S. and the export of horses from the U.S. to other countries for the purpose of slaughter would be by far the most important step ever taken to see that American Thoroughbreds, as well as all breeds, don’t end up on someone’s dinner table. To make that work, there would likely be a need for even more horse rescue groups and a large increase in donations to the TAA and groups it has accredited. But that already seems to be in the works. In late June, the New York Racing Association (NYRA) and the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (NYTHA) issued a joint press release announcing they had come up with a funding mechanism that would donate an estimated $450,000 to the rescue cause. Such announcements guaranteeing financial contributions to horse rescue efforts, whether they come from tracks, horsemen’s groups or philanthropists, are no longer uncommon. The horsemen at Parx have put together a program where an owner has to pay $30 per start with the money going to horse rescue. The program, called Turning for Home, is considered among the best in the country, and all signs point toward Parx having all but guaranteed that no horse will ever leave its gates and head to slaughter. Nonetheless, somewhere in North America, whether in Mexico or Canada or in an unlicensed slaughterhouse in the U.S., horses likely died today. The same will be true tomorrow and the day after that. There are a lot of problems that are unsolvable, both in life, and in racing. Some percentage of racehorses will always break down; some will bleed. Slaughter isn’t one of those problems. It’s something the industry simply has to find the collective will to fix. Much has been done. There’s more to do still. The post Can Every Horse Be Saved from Slaughter? It’s a Worthy But Difficult Goal appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Fasig-Tipton has reached an agreement with Colonial Downs to sponsor the Virginia Oaks at the racetrack's upcoming meet. View the full article

A Chad Brown trifecta in the first Grade I at the Spa this summer last Saturday was the work of established distaff benchmarks, featuring two Breeders’ Cup champions. There could hardly be a more exciting contrast in the barn’s big candidate for the second elite contest of the meet, a week on, with Guarana (Ghostzapper) seeking to corroborate the stunning impact she has made in her first two starts. Brown himself has shared the general sense of awe, admitting that Guarana reminds him strongly of her sire, Ghostzapper–whose 2004 Horse of the Year campaign he observed at close quarters as assistant to the late Bobby Frankel. Even from the outside, her raw talent has been vividly measured by immediate graduation from a 14 3/4-length maiden success at Keeneland to beat GI Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress (Alternation) by six lengths in a stakes record time for the GI Acorn S. on Belmont day. It’s still early days, as such, but the stage is set for Guarana in the GI Coaching Club American Oaks to raise hopes that she could yet redeem a muddled crop of male sophomores. Whatever happens, Guarana has already vindicated a significant investment in her dam by her owner-breeders at Three Chimneys–and, what’s more, she has not been doing so single-handed. For Guarana’s 2-year-old half-sister Magic Dance (More Than Ready), anointed a ‘TDN Rising Star’ after her debut for Steve Asmussen at Churchill on the eve of the Acorn, has since followed up with black-type success in the Debutante S. over the same track, clocking 1:10.26. She too has proceeded to Saratoga. The great news, for Three Chimneys owner Goncalo Torrealba, is that the mare who produced Guarana and Magic Dance is only nine years old. Magical World, a daughter of Distorted Humor out of GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Pleasant Home (Seeking The Gold), was a private purchase from the Phipps family after a solitary success in seven starts for Shug McGaughey. It was there that she first came to the notice of Doug Cauthen, through his brother-in-law Gene Recio. “Obviously, it’s one of those great Phipps families and any time you can get into those is an opportunity,” says the Three Chimneys advisory board vice-chairman and president of Doug Cauthen Thoroughbred Management. “But the history on her was a little interesting: I have to give Gene some credit. “He was helping me a little at the 2-year old sales, so we were down there [at Palm Meadows] early watching the breeze preps. And he’s worked with, and is friendly with, the McGaughey barn and they had told him, ‘Hey, this is a nice filly. You need to come watch her race.’ So we went and I was really impressed with her, physically, in the paddock and she ran a bang-up race: she battled the whole way and looked like she was going to grab the lead at the eighth pole but just flattened out a little, got beat a length or so.” Magical World ended up needing another five starts to break her maiden and was ultimately a disappointment on the track. But when Daisy Phipps alerted Case Clay that the mare would be available, at the right price, the Three Chimneys team could not fail to like the pedigree. Pleasant Home, after all, was out of a half-sister to champion Sky Beauty, from the family of Point of Entry, Dayjur, Tale of Ekati, etc. And then Cauthen, casting his mind back, was able to give them a short cut on her physique. “While she never quite went on, in the way they thought she had the capacity for, she was a memorable physical,” he recalls. “I shared how impressive she was to me, that first race, so once vetted, Three Chimneys bought her without having to see her. At the price, I’d say it wasn’t a cull! I think it [was] simply a business decision: the Phipps limit their broodmare band numbers and had the luxury of having a lot of the family. But Goncalo was bold enough to pay the asking price and, when she arrived, I was pleased to see how she had actually continued to grow up since seeing her 16 months prior: she’s now a big, scopey mare.” Magical World’s first son, by Awesome Again, was deemed “athletic, but a little small, a little feminine.” With Michael Youngs contributing to the matings council of Cauthen, Steve Jackson, Chris Baker and Torrealba, it was resolved to go back to the same line but to seek a little more size and substance from Ghostzapper. “Ghostzapper gets all different types, but the Pleasant Home side of it added just enough stretch and size to the mating,” Cauthen says. “And Ghostzapper added substance and brilliance.” The resulting filly might have been offered at the sales as a yearling, but it was feared that she wouldn’t achieve her true value as being “a little busy in front.” Instead Recio entered her story again. “She was sent to the Recios’ Lynwood Stable to be broken and–though she had this great body, and looked really fast and early–she took a long time to come to hand,” Cauthen says. “And if you look at the history of most Ghostzappers, they usually take a little more time, McCraken being one of the few really precocious ones. And sure enough, Guarana just had a little filling here, a little immaturity there as a 2-year-old. Nothing major, she kept training throughout, but I don’t think she went to the track until late September. “So she’s a great example of how patience pays off. You’ve got to listen to the horse. Her profile and musculature looked like she was ‘now,’ but her body said give me a little more time to mature. And she grew up a lot: she’s real impressive when you look at her now. Time was key. And then she went to someone who’s patient, in Chad.” With that background, it might seem even more daring to fast-track an untested maiden winner straight to Grade I company. “It was certainly Goncalo who first mentioned the Acorn,” says Cauthen. “He wants to run against the best, and threw it out as an option to Chad. But once we saw Serengeti Empress going in there, it was like, ‘Hey, you don’t have to do this.’ But she really gave Chad a great feel because after her last two works prior to the Acorn he said, ‘Let’s go for it.’ Talking to him the day before the Acorn, I couldn’t believe his confidence. And he was right.” Instructively, jockey Jose Ortiz thought so too, renouncing the Oaks winner. “The thing is that Chad, like many of the top trainers, can breeze them with other really good horses,” Cauthen says. “He can test them against top competition any morning he wants. So Chad deserves full credit for pulling the trigger. And the race was phenomenal.” Having also had the option of waiting to drop back for the GI Longines Test, Torrealba has again shown adventure in testing the two-turn water. “Goncalo always wants to take on the best and stretch them and see what happens,” Cauthen says. “She has proven she can rate, so hopefully that will help her stretch it out.” As for her kid sister, she too might have been undervalued at auction, for one or two growing pains, specifically tendonitis as a yearling during sales prep; and obviously Guarana had yet to advertise her genetic wares at that stage. In the event, it was Asmussen who was captivated by Magic Dance when he came to tour the farm yearlings, and she duly arrived at his barn via his father Keith. “She never missed a beat with Mr. Asmussen in El Paso, she was always one of his favorites,” Cauthen reports. Magical World, who has “a real nice yearling colt” by Pioneerof The Nile, is reported in foal to Gun Runner after a barren visit to Into Mischief last year. All in all, these are interesting times at Three Chimneys, with a group of promising young stallions clustered on the roster–though a personal instinct is that very few new sires, here or anywhere else in Kentucky, will ultimately prove better value than the established stalwart, Sky Mesa, at $15,000. Be that as it may, there was legitimate cause for celebration the other day when Fast Anna (Medaglia d’Oro) sealed his brisk start (four winners from ten starters to date) with a first stakes winner: Fast Scene, bred and co-owned by the farm, in the $100,000 My Dear S. at Woodbine. “It’s a renewed operation that needed to add new blood,” Cauthen explained of a roster rejuvenated under the Torrealba family. “So plenty of new sires were brought to the table. Fast Scene was a good physical and it’s a really nice family as well; the second dam is a sister to a Derby winner [Monarchos]. I think our expectations were that she was probably a $75,000 yearling, so when she RNA’d [at $32,000 at Keeneland last September] she was kept. Tim Hamm has done a wonderful job, he was high on her all spring and he was real confident for that race.” Fast Anna is also responsible for the knockout de Meric pinhook Anna’s Fast, who was picked out for $32,500 at the Fasig-Tipton July Sale last year and turned round for $470,000 at OBS March. “She won impressively at Keeneland and then unfortunately the really soft ground at Royal Ascot wasn’t to her liking,” Cauthen says. “I think we’ll see plenty more from her. So yes, Fast Anna is off to a good start. It’s funny because while he was such a fast horse himself, he didn’t really get rolling until he was a 3-year-old. So what we’ve seen is that, for the most part, his progeny start off a little immature and gawky; and they were kind of average weanlings, better yearlings, and then I saw a whole lot of them that were really nice at the 2-year old sales, and they sold really well. I think they’ll continue to develop and improve and, with fillies usually being more precocious, I think we’ll see some colts coming along later in the year.” One edifying feature more or less uniform among the young stallions at Three Chimneys is that their track credentials tend to be underpinned by classy families. “As with these fillies we’ve been talking about, I think pedigree usually does come through,” Cauthen says. “Even if it’s in the third dam, you want to hang your hat on some depth in there somewhere. That’s certainly something Goncalo has always been a big fan of. It worked for him in Brazil, and it is working for him here. You always try to buy as much pedigree as you can afford, though good physicals are important too–so when you can get both, then you’ve really got something. “That’s why I think with Gun Runner you’ve got it all: the pedigree, the race record, and the physical. His foals have been outstanding, and not only the ones at Three Chimneys. Several breeders have come up to say, ‘Wow, it’s one of my best on the farm.’ So that’s exciting, though of course every year’s a new start for a stallion.” Moreover the farm’s experience with Gun Runner, on the track, emboldens Cauthen to hope that Guarana can maintain her dazzling start. “As with all good trainers, I think if you give them enough free rein to lead the decisions–much as Steve [Asmussen] did with Gun Runner–great things can happen,” he says. “Chad compares this filly a lot to Ghostzapper, and very positively. When you think that he’s not only been around that horse, but so many great horses, that gives you a lot of confidence. So now we wait and see what happens. Regardless, she’s a special filly.” The post Overnight Sensation Guarana is Magical Dividend appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Fasig-Tipton will sponsor this year’s Virginia Oaks as racing returns to Colonial Downs for the first time in six years this summer. The $150,000 Fasig-Tipton Virginia Oaks will be run Aug. 31. Also on the card will be the $250,000 GIII Virginia Derby. The Oaks and Derby are part of a 17-race stakes schedule worth $1.8 million. The 15-day meeting will run from Aug. 8 through Sept. 7. “As one of the world’s most respected Thoroughbred auction companies, we are very proud and excited to partner with Fasig-Tipton for our 2019 Colonial Downs race meeting,” said Jill Byrne, Colonial Downs Vice President of Racing Operations. “The timing of Fasig’s Saratoga sale with the opening of our meeting later that week, and its sponsorship of the Fasig-Tipton Virginia Oaks begins a solid foundation to this new agreement.” The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale will be held Aug. 5 and 6 in upstate New York. “Fasig-Tipton is pleased to be partnering with Colonial Downs to sponsor the Virginia Oaks as part of this exciting return of racing to the Richmond area,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. “Our company is highly invested in the Midlantic region, and we also have deep roots in the Virginia Thoroughbred industry. This is a very natural partnership for us.” The post Fasig-Tipton to Sponsor Virginia Oaks appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

The July festival at Newmarket threw up two fine examples of how Galileo (Ire) and Pivotal (GB) combine in pedigrees. The Falmouth S. winner Veracious (GB) was a perfect example of the continuation of the affinity between the pair, this time expressed through Galileo’s son Frankel (GB). Veracious is, of course, the second Group 1 winner by Frankel out of a Pivotal mare, the other being the brilliant Cracksman (GB), who also looked imperious during his July week outing at the Darley stallion parade. In all, combining mares from the Pivotal line with Galileo-line stallions has produced 128 runners and 15 stakes winners for a strike rate of 11.7%. Whilst this is a good return, it doesn’t come close to the 11 stakes winners from 26 runners (42.3%) produced directly by Galileo from mares by Pivotal. Remarkably two mares–Group 1 winner Halfway To Heaven (Ire) and Group 2 scorer Beauty Is Truth (Ire)–are responsible for six of these stakes winners. Magical (Ire), Rhododendron (Ire) and Flying The Flag (Ire) are out of Halfway To Heaven, while Beauty is Truth has supplied The United States (Ire), Hydrangea (Ire) and Hermosa (Ire). Yet another daughter of Pivotal could join these two outstanding mares on three stakes winners in the very near future. She is Pikaboo (GB), whose daughter Peach Tree (Ire) became her dam’s second group winner by Galileo recently at Leopardstown, the same afternoon that another of her daughters, the progressive 2-year-old Love (Ire), broke her maiden. The reverse cross of Pivotal sire sons and Galileo mares has also been making the news recently. Sottsass (Fr), by Pivotal’s son Siyouni (Fr) and out of a Galileo mare, became the first Group 1 winner bred on this cross when he took the Prix du Jockey Club last month, while Maqsad (Fr) had also won at listed level in the spring. Pivotal’s other stallion son, Farhh (GB)–who is having an outstanding year, also got in on the act with Wells Farhh Go (Ire), who returned to action in the Listed Fred Archer S. at the end of June. Most promising of all though could be debutant Al Madhar (Fr), a son of Siyouni from a Galileo mare, who made a big impression winning a hot 14-runner maiden at the July Festival for which he earned a Timeform mark of 95p. For the record, the Pivotal/Galileo line combination has a strike rate of 11.1% stakes winners to runners, not all that far behind the more illustrious reverse cross. The post A Match Made in Heaven appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

MG1SW and ‘TDN Rising Star’ Too Darn Hot (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) will contest the G1 Sussex S. on July 31, John Gosden told Racing Post on Tuesday. The Lord Lloyd-Webber homebred scored his first win of the year in the July 7 G1 Prix Jean Prat. Earlier in the season, the son of the high class Dar Re Mi (GB) (Singspiel {Ire}) was runner-up in the G2 Dante S. and G1 Irish 2000 Guineas prior to running third in the G1 St James’s Palace S. “Too Darn Hot has come out of his win at Deauville in good shape and the plan is to take him to Goodwood for the Sussex S. where the easy mile should suit him,” Gosden told Racing Post. King Of Comedy (Ire) (Kingman {GB}) is also entered but he has other options.” The post Sussex S. is Too Darn Hot’s Next Outing appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Trainer John Gosden is hunting for his third €400,000 G1 Kerrygold Irish Oaks, and he entered €40,000 supplement Star Catcher (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) for Anthony Oppenheimer on Tuesday. A winner of the G2 Ribblesdale S. at Royal Ascot, Star Catcher is one of 13 fillies still in the July 20 1 1/2-mile Classic at The Curragh. Some of the others standing their ground at the latest forfeit stage are Joseph O’Brien trainee and G1 Pretty Polly S. victress Iridessa (Ire) (Ruler Of The World {Ire}), as well as the second-fourth home in the G1 Investec Oaks-Pink Dogwood (Ire) (Camelot {GB}), who ran third in the Pretty Polly and along with Ribblesdale bridesmaid Fleeting (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) is one of six possibles from the Aidan O’Brien yard, and Manuela De Vega (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}). “We would be thinking that Fleeting, Pink Dogwood, [G3 Stanerra S. victress] Peach Tree (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and maybe something else will run,” said Aidan O’Brien to The Curragh notes team. “Both Fleeting and Pink Dogwood ran close together in Epsom and ran very well and have run well since then too.” Trainer Ralph Beckett, who also has G3 Prestige S. heroine Antonia De Vega (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) in, commented, “We’ve left in Antonia De Vaga and Manuela De Vega and we’ll just keep an eye on the ground for Antonia De Vaga. They’re both well in themselves.” The post Star Catcher Supplemented to Irish Oaks appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

The Aug. 10 Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup has received a purse boost of £90,000 on Tuesday, bringing the total prize money on offer up to £360,000, Ascot Racecourse announced. Each race on the card–limited to 10 runners per race–will feature a purse of £60,000 and no entry fees, with purses paid out to last place. The team captains are Tadhg O’Shea (Great Britain & Ireland), Filip Minarik (Europe), Yuga Kawada (Rest of the World) and Hayley Turner (Girls Team), with the teams still being finalized. Among the other riders revealed so far are Danny Tudhope, Vincent Ho, Jamie Kah and Nanako Fujita. There will also be 200 complimentary Queen Anne Enclosure tickets available to racing staff delivered through RacingGroom.com in partnership with the National Trainers Federation (NTF). Full details of how racing staff can apply will be confirmed shortly. Besides a concert with Jessie J among other musicians on tap after the races, there is also £5,000 of special prizes available to active racing staff with runners on the day. “The Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup takes place at a competitive time of year in the ratings band in which we operate,” said Ascot Director of Racing and Communications Nick Smith. “Jockeys ride for total event prize money of £20,000 in addition to their race prize money percentages. In Danny Tudhope, who leads the British jockeys’ championship and rode four winners at Royal Ascot, and in star Japanese jockey, Nanako Fujita, that nation’s highest profile female rider ever and winner of the recent Women Jockeys’ World Cup at Bro Park in Sweden, we have two of the most ‘of the moment’ jockeys riding at present.” The post Shergar Cup Receives Purse Hike appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

2018 G1 Investec Derby scorer Masar (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}-Khawlah {Ire}, by Cape Cross {Ire}) has been retired, Godolphin announced on their website Tuesday. The Charlie Appleby trainee was off the mark at Goodwood in May of his juvenile year, and captured the G3 Solario S. just two starts later at Sandown that September. Third in the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere switched to Chantilly a month later, the Darley homebred ran a credible sixth in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar Stateside and was put away for the winter. As a sophomore, the son of UAE highweight and MGSW Khawlah won the G3 Craven S. second up last spring, and earned a Classic placing when third in the May 5 G1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas prior to his Epsom tally. After stumbling at the start and running fifth in the G2 Hardwicke S. at Royal Ascot, Masar was unplaced in the G2 Princess Of Wales’s S. at Newmarket on July 11. He retires with a mark of 11-4-0-3 and earnings of $1,375,811. “Masar gave us a wonderful day at Epsom last year when he beat Roaring Lion to become the first Derby winner in the Godolphin blue,” said Appleby. “He has come out of his last race in good order, but we feel he owes us nothing and the time is right to retire him from racing. He will be missed by all the team at Moulton Paddocks and I am sure he will be a great addition to the Darley stallion roster.” Stud plans for the 4-year-old, who counts the Arc-winning blue hen Urban Sea (Miswaki) as his fourth dam, are being finalised. The post Godolphin’s Derby Winner Masar Retired appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Now that I’m back riding out again I’m delighted to be able to continue my association with Moyglare Stud in an advisory role. It’s wonderful still to be involved with such a great operation as Moyglare. Eva Bucher-Haefner has helped me so much through my career, as did her dad before her, and we’ve had some great success together on the track. She’s been hugely supportive of my family and me throughout the last year and a half, and now she has given me an opportunity to stay involved with the operation. It’s something that I am really looking forward to doing. I’ll be helping the management team of Malachy Ryan and Fiona Craig and my main role will be still to ride the horses’ work and help Dermot Weld in assessing them at home. My side of things will be very much connected to the racing. Malachy and Fiona are obviously very experienced on the breeding side and I hope I will be a help to them in giving my opinion on the horses, but at the end of the day, Eva is the boss and Dermot is the trainer, and they will make the final decisions regarding the horses. I’ve always enjoyed giving feedback on the horses and I hope I may also be helpful to the jockeys that will be riding them on the race track because over the years I’ve got to know the families so well, their traits and their characteristics. The great thing is that Eva has given me the opportunity to do this on my own terms. I’m back riding out at Dermot Weld’s twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays. The workload is not too strenuous at the moment, which is important as I continue my recovery back to full strength. Eva is adamant that I don’t over-exert myself at the moment and I can’t be thankful enough to her for that. It’s great to be back with the lads every week. It’s hard to stop doing something that you’ve done all your life, and have enjoyed doing all your life. To be back in the swing of things in the yard and hearing all the banter that goes along with that, the enjoyment of it all is therapy in itself. Happy breeders Closer to home we were delighted to have any winner for our farm at York over the weekend with Escobar (Ire), who is a son of one of my favourite horses I’ve ever ridden, Famous Name (GB). It’s lovely for a small farm like ours to see a horse win on a big day and it’s only really now that I appreciate what small breeders do, and the enjoyment you can have watching a horse win like that. We have his full-brother in the field here at home and I’m starting to realise the work that goes into breeding horses, especially on a small scale. Escobar is a hardy horse and David O’Meara has done a very good job with him. He looked like he was lost there for a little while but David has brought him back and freshened him up and he’s put up two very good performances in a week having been second in a good race at Sandown and then winning at York. Hopefully he will have a lot more success with him between now and the end of the season. Our friend neighbour Derek Veitch of Ringfort Stud will be consigning his brother for us at Fairyhouse in September, so hopefully Escobar will help his brother along between now and sales time. Unfortunately we lost their damn this year at the age of 21 but we still have her daughter Bobbi Grace (Ire) (Big Bad Bob), who is a winner and stakes-placed, and she has her first foal on the ground, who I am happy to say is a really lovely filly by my Derby winner Harzand (Ire). Thankfully we still have the bloodlines to carry on with. Ten Up After two of the best 2-year-olds of last year had struggled a little in the earlier part of the season it has been great to see first Too Darn Hot (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) and then Ten Sovereigns (Ire) (No Nay Never) come back to the level of form that they had always promised. People were quick to write off Ten Sovereigns but Aidan O’Brien is very skilled and patient when it comes to bringing these horses along. He had asked him to stretch out over a mile and obviously that didn’t work. Then I think it takes them time to learn how to sprint, and that was evident at Ascot, but he came back to show his true colours in the July Cup in what I thought it was a devastating performance. It was also a really good day for his sire No Nay Never, who did so well with his first 2-year-olds last year and has another good one on his hands in the G2 Superlative Stakes winner Mystery Power (Ire). There’s probably still more that needs to be done with regard to the sprinting programme for 3-year-olds. The initiative of launching the Commonwealth Cup has been hugely appreciated by the industry because it’s very difficult for the 3-year-old sprinters to take on the older horses in the early part of the season. I think perhaps there needs to be a little bit more focus on the first half of the year rather than the second half. As the horses mature as the year goes on I think they are capable of taking on the older sprinters in the autumn, but in the earlier stages of the season I think they’re probably needs to be some more opportunities for those potential group horses in the sprint division. Admittedly, the first five home in the July Cup this year where all 3-year-olds, but that is unusual. At this time of year it is amazing how just a couple of weeks can make a big difference in a horse. The Ballydoyle bandwagon rolled on to ParisLongchamp and Japan (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) put up a good performance, which was perhaps a little bit workmanlike. I don’t think Ryan Moore went for absolutely everything and I like to see a horse who can get through and win without over-exerting himself. It looks like there’s plenty more to come from Japan. I love the way he races in a nice, relaxed manner and he seems to have a really good mind on him. His attitude should give him ample opportunity to have longevity in his career and I think he’s a horse who will play a big part in all those middle-distance races from now until the end of the season. I like those horses like Sea The Stars (Ire) who just do enough to win—that’s what will stand him in good stead as the battles get harder as the year goes on. He’s shown an awful lot in a short period of time and I think there’s only an upside to this horse. He should improve as he heads into an autumn campaign. The post The Pat Smullen Column: Riding Out Is The Best Therapy appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges has labelled the Jockey Club’s Conghua Racecourse the success story of 2018-19 after the HK$3.7 billion facility’s first season in operation.The statistics show horses trained in Conghua are producing above average performances and feedback from trainers has been largely positive after the club took a giant leap into the unknown by expanding its footprint into mainland China.“The success story of this season for us is the successful implementation of… View the full article

Kiwi import Saone broke maiden ranks in impressive style on Tuesday when winning over 1400m at the Ballarat Synthetic meeting. Prepared from the Warrnambool base of Western Australian trainer Lindsey Smith, the daughter of Burgundy had previously run third on debut at Bendigo where she produced slick closing sectionals after being forced to travel wide from barrier 16. Despite resenting the kick-back from the newly laid synthetic surface, Saone motored home once angled into the clear by jo... View the full article

New Zealand racing is set to farewell another member of the Skelton family with the sudden death of Errol Bryan Skelton. Skelton, just a month short of his 82nd birthday, passed away last Friday at home in Levin and a celebration of his life will be held at the Salvation Army Worship and Community Centre in Levin on Thursday at 2pm. The five Skelton brothers – Bill, Frank, Bob, Errol and Max – are synonymous with New Zealand racing, original West Coasters hailing from Cobden in Greymouth and... View the full article

Emerging Australian syndicators Harney Stone Racing celebrated an impressive winning double at Murtoa on Monday with a pair of New Zealand recruits. The smart victories bookended the nine-race programme at the Victorian track. Hapaira opened the day with a five-length win in the Horsham Doors & Glass Maiden Plate (1100m), then Cataracta romped to victory by six lengths in the CHS Group Horsham BM58 Handicap (1100m). Both horses are trained by Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, and the winning jocke... View the full article

Mr Malek is Azzopardi's Derby week special View the full article

Updates on Stewards' follow-ups to Friday meeting View the full article

Brown has two, but Threeandfour would be nice, too View the full article