Wandering Eyes

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

Bernardo Pinheiro to ride at Singapore Derby meeting View the full article

Richard Mandella is preparing for Fox Hill Farms' Omaha Beach to return to more serious work in the coming weeks. View the full article

Leading hoop Matthew Cameron will finish the season as the highest earning jockey in New Zealand this term, and he put the cherry on his season with victory aboard Mac Attacka at Ruakaka on Saturday. His win aboard the Chris Gibbs and Michelle Bradley-trained gelding took his prizemoney for the season over the $3 million mark, the first time he has achieved that feat in his 18 years in the saddle. “It was a good milestone and I didn’t realise until the following day that I had reached it,”... View the full article

In a field that consists of three Chad Brown-trainees and two entered by Wesley Ward, Winter Sunset will have her work cut out for her in the $150,000 Lake George Stakes (G3T) July 19 at Saratoga Race Course. View the full article

Del Mar's focus turns to the local California-breds in the seaside oval's July 18 feature, the $150,000 Fleet Treat Stakes. View the full article

The Week in Review, by Bill Finley Had you told Bob Baffert and owners Gary and Mary West back in early November that their Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg)} would go through the first half of his 3-year-old season injury free yet not win a race until July 13, they no doubt would have been shocked. So would have everyone else. Everything that Game Winner did in 2018 suggested that he was a superstar in the making. He went four for four, won the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, was named 2-year-old champion and was in the hands of a trainer who has no equal when it comes to winning Triple Crown races. Yet, it took four starts into the year until he won for the first time, the victory coming in Saturday’s GIII Los Alamitos Derby. He won by five lengths in his first start after finishing a wide sixth in the GI Kentucky Derby. The win only told us so much about Game Winner. He faced just three opponents and went off at odds of 1-20. A loss was almost unimaginable. Yet, he did show enough to suggest that the first half of his year was the aberration and that Game Winner is ready to reclaim his status as the best male dirt horse in his crop. But that still has to be proven on the racetrack, starting with the GI Runhappy Travers S. Baffert believes that Game Winner’s three losses to start the year had a lot more to do with circumstances than the colt’s ability. “When I shipped him to Oaklawn [for the GII Rebel S.], that race was really hard on him,” he said. “He ran wide and he wasn’t ready for what was a gut-wrenching race for him. He and Omaha Beach (War Front) ran so hard, so he went backwards on me a little bit after that. He got a little light on me. We ran him back in the [GI] Santa Anita Derby and the track was really deep. With all the stuff that was going on at the time at Santa Anita, they kept adding more and more sand. They were trying to make it as safe as possible, but they also made it really deep and demanding and that was hard on him. In the Derby, he got wiped out leaving there and was very wide. He ran his race, but didn’t run like he can.” Rather than point for either the GI Preakness S. or the GI Belmont S., Baffert decided to simply regroup. He gave Game Winner over three months off and went back to blinkers. Game Winner wore them in his first start and won, but Baffert took them off afterwards because he thought they could make the horse too rank. With the understanding that he had not picked the most difficult of spots, Baffert still liked what he saw from Game Winner in the Los Al race. “I told (jockey) Joel (Rosario) to just get away from there, sit there with them, and just let him run the last part,” the trainer said. “I didn’t want a gut-wrenching racing out of him. That’s exactly how it worked out. The last eighth went in under 12 [seconds, :11.45, to be precise]. You could tell he just kicked in gear when he asked him to go. He came back and it looked like he never took a deep breath.” The test, though, will be the Travers. Is Game Winner ready to climb back to the top of the division or will it turn out that he is just one of many good 3 year-olds? “The Travers will be the race that is going to separate them all,” Baffert said. “It’s been a murky 3-year-old season. The Travers will separate the men from the boys.” Baffert added that his first pick would have been to run Game Winner in Saturday’s GI TVG.com Haskell Invitational, but decided not to do so because it made little sense for the Wests to run their two 3-year-old stars against one another at this point in the season. The Wests’ Maximum Security (New Year’s Day) will be the likely favorite in Monmouth Park’s signature race. Don’t Forget About Mr. Money Last weekend’s racing included another win by a talented 3-year-old who could yet prove to be among the best of this bunch. Mr. Money (Goldencents) has largely flown under the radar since his connections have decided to focus on the next level down when it comes to 3 year-old races. But when Mr. Money won Saturday’s GIII Indiana Derby, that marked his third straight stakes win. He’s ready for prime time. “That’s been discussed a lot,” trainer Bret Calhoun said when asked if the connections planned on trying Grade I company. “We almost decided to run him in the Haskell. But our goal all along has been to keep him as fresh and as healthy as he possibly can be through his 3-year-old campaign. We felt we’d take a shot at the top when everything lined up right. Going against Maximum Security and King for a Day (Uncle Mo) in the Haskell in their own backyard didn’t seem like the right thing to do.” Calhoun said Mr. Money is being considered for the Travers. The other option is for him to go first in the GIII West Virginia Derby, and if he is successful there, try the heavyweights in the GI Pennsylvania Derby. The Comeback of Peter Brant As is so often the case after a graded stakes race is run on the grass in New York, most of the attention was focused on winning trainer Chad Brown. Such was the scenario after the GI Diana S. Saturday at Saratoga. Brown ran four of the six horses in the race and finished one, two, three. It was his fourth straight win in the race and fifth overall. He is now tied with Hall of Famer Elliott Burch for most Diana wins and it’s not hard to see Brown winning this race seven or eight more times before his career is over. Remember, he is only 40. But let’s not forget the impact his owner, Peter Brant, had on this race. He owned three of the four Brown-trained horses and his champion Sistercharlie (Ire) (Myboycharlie {Ire}) won the race for the second straight year. Brant’s story might be unprecedented in racing. He was one of the top owners in the sport for years, left abruptly, stayed away for 17 years and has returned with a vengeance. Since 2017, the first year he had run a horse since 2000, he has won 36 of 115 starts and has had eight graded stakes winners, including two Grade I winners. The other is Raging Bull (Fr) (Dark Angel {Ire}), the winner of the 2018 GI Hollywood Derby. In his second go as a major owner, most of his success has come with grass horses. The first time around, Brant was always a major player when it came to dirt stars like Mogambo and Gulch. He was also a co-owner, along with Claiborne Farm, of Kentucky Derby and Belmont winner Swale. It will be interesting to see if his next move is to tell Brown to direct some of his assets toward acquiring the type of horse that can give him a Classic win. The Slugger Who is Hitting .430 Throughout his MLB career, Mike Napoli was always one of those swing-for-the-fences guys. The end result was often a home run or a strikeout, one of the reasons why he had a .246 career batting average before retiring following the 2017 season. In his new pursuit, horse racing, Napoli looks like Rogers Hornsby. Now a racehorse owner, he never started a horse before the beginning of this year, but has already won 28 races and was the leading owner at the recently-concluded Gulfstream meet. He is 28-for-65 on the year–that’s a batting average of .430. Even Ted Williams never hit higher than .406. Speaking of Former Red Sox Players Anyone who bet on the winner of Saturday’s first race at Arlington hit a “Slam Johnson,” and with the horse paying $21.20, walked away with a lot of “iron.” The horses’s name was Eckersley (Congrats). If you’re a Red Sox fan, you get it. If not, well, nevermind. The post The Week in Review: Game Winner Finally Seems Ready to Deliver On His 3-Year-Old Potential appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

New maiden special weight races for 2-year-olds that went through the public auction ring and were either sold or bought back at a price of $45,000 or less will be unveiled on the July 17-18 race cards at Saratoga Race Course. View the full article

The successful return of reigning champion turf female Sistercharlie to the races and Elate's display of class July 13 helped launch the two distaffers into the top 10 of this week's NTRA Top Thoroughbred Poll. View the full article

Gary and Mary West's Maximum Security turned in a "super" work at Monmouth Park July 15 in his last serious prep for the $1 million TVG.com Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1), trainer Jason Servis said. View the full article

Officials at France Galop have taken steps to ensure the criticism from racegoers which followed last year’s G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe meeting will not be repeated. Many who attended the redeveloped ParisLongchamp track cited problems in getting food and drink, being unable to place bets and found a lack of toilet facilities. Having been closed for two years while the new facility was built, those in charge insist lessons have been learned. “The Arc wouldn’t be the Arc without the English and Irish participation,” said Olivier Delloye, Director General of France Galop. “The first edition of the Arc at ParisLongchamp didn’t meet racegoers’ expectations. We were sad people left the racecourse disappointed and we are keen to do better this year. The second year is going smoothly, we have improved a number of things and people feel much more at home.” Among the improvements is an increase of 60% on the number of pop-up restaurants after complaints of long queues, a total of 17 new bars will be in situ with an additional 50 beer pumps and a lawn area just after the winning post, known as the Pelouse de l’Arc, will be the site of the biggest temporary pub in the Parisian region. There will be 400 outlets taking bets–a 25% increase on last year–while the number of toilet facilities will rise by 30% also. Ticket prices have been reduced too– admissions which last year cost €75 and €45, respectively, have had €10 knocked off, while entry to the centre of the course is as little as €10, a reduction of €5. “We had more than 30 meetings before the Arc, but the Arc is the Arc and our biggest mistake was forgetting how much more the English and Irish like to bet and drink, not as many went to Chantilly the two years it was there,” said Delloye. “We want to improve their experience. We now run successful Thursday night meetings with entertainment and get up to 9,000 people and we have been coping well with that. We hope that those who came last year come back again and with Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) going for a third Arc, it could be special.” The post ParisLongchamp Sports Improvements Pre-Arc appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

A look at racing coverage on radio and television for Haskell Week compiled by America's Best Racing. View the full article

The New York Racing Association has entered into a partnership with Wynn Resorts’ newly-opened Encore Boston Harbor, an integrated luxury gaming resort located in Great Boston. The partnership includes the second floor of the new 1863 Club at Saratoga Race Course presented by Encore Boston Harbor, two races–the Saratoga Oaks Aug. 2 and the GI Forego S. Aug. 24–presented by Encore Boston Harbor and two handicapping contests presented by Encore Boston Harbor–the Saratoga Challenge Aug. 9 and Fourstardave Challenge Aug. 10. “We’re excited to partner with Encore Boston Harbor this summer at Saratoga Race Course. The luxury resort and casino is an ideal match for our new hospitality venue,” said NYRA CEO & President Dave O’Rourke. “Wynn Resorts has a proven track record of providing the finest hotels, dining and gaming the casino industry has to offer. We look forward to welcoming racing fans to the second floor of the 1863 Club in partnership with Encore Boston Harbor.” The post NYRA Partners With Encore Boston Harbor at Saratoga appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

(Part one of a two-part TDN series) Denny Firestone has operated a small stable of claimers out of Penn National since 1993, long enough to remember when the man everyone knew as “the killer buyer” would arrive once a week or so and fill up his van with horses who no longer had much earnings potential. The next stop would more often than not be the New Holland sale in nearby New Holland, Pa., where they would be purchased at auction by dealers with contracts with slaughterhouses. They would then be shipped to a slaughterhouse, where they would be killed and their meat shipped overseas to places where the eating of horse meat is an acceptable part of the culture. “It’s not like everybody talked about it all the time, but everyone knew what was going on and where these horses were going,” Firestone said. “It was something that was accepted.” That’s not the case anymore. In 2010, Penn National became one of many tracks in the U.S. to announce that any owner or trainer caught knowingly selling a horse for slaughter would have their stalls revoked and may be barred from all of the tracks owned by the company. In addition, the horsemen stepped in and started a program called “New Start” in 2013. Every time a horse is entered, the owner must pay a $10 fee to fund the program. Jockeys finishing first or second in a race also make a small contribution. Any trainer who wants to find a home for their horse can donate it to New Start–no questions asked. New Start will not refuse any horse, and then will work with and rehabilitate the horse until it can find a safe home. Program coordinator Lauren Zagnit estimates that in its six years, it has found homes for 600 horses. She realizes it’s not a perfect solution, but said she believed the program had made a big difference when it comes to keeping horses from Penn National out of the slaughter pipeline. “Not everybody comes to us and we can only help the people who do,” she said. “But a lot do. Just recently we had a trainer who never dealt with us starting to give us his horses when they couldn’t race anymore. I think we’re making a difference.” Firestone said he agrees. He says that the truck does not come around any more and says he has not heard of any Penn National trainer sending a horse to slaughter since the ban went into effect in 2010. “The trainers know now that they just cannot mess around with this,” he said. “They won’t take the risk of getting caught and getting thrown out. I can’t prove that no horse leaves Penn National [for] the slaughterhouse, but I just do not ever hear of that happening anymore. Nobody ever wanted to send horses to the killers, but there were not a lot of options. Now, with a program like New Start the owners all have alternatives.” The progress that has been made at Penn National is indicative of steps that have been taken at racetracks throughout the country. Where many people were once willing to look the other way, for the most part, the sending of a Thoroughbred to slaughter is no longer a practice this sport accepts or tolerates. It’s important to note, right off the bat, that slaughter and humane euthanasia are not the same thing; putting a horse down humanely in its paddock is often a kind thing to do for a suffering or uncomfortable animal. Trucking that animal a thousand miles or more, packed in a trailer with others, and killed in a way that no animal with a flight response should be killed. On a mild day late last fall, the TDN visited New Holland, a rundown facility in southeastern Pennsylvania where many of the buyers and sellers are Amish. On a similar investigative trip made there by this reporter in 1997, there were dozens of Thoroughbreds that were sold, most of them selling for prices so low it was clear the market felt their only value was the meat on their bones. Twenty-one years later, the TDN could identify only one Thoroughbred among the many breeds of horses in the sale, a 11-year-old mare named Averil’s Girl. She had not raced since 2010 and had never been bred. The TDN, which identified her through her tattoo number, was not able to discern where the horse had come from. “Ten, 12 years ago, horses would come [to New Holland] right off the track,” said Bev Strauss of Mid-Atlantic Horse Rescue. “Yes, the trainers themselves would drive the trucks. Those days are long gone. It started to end around 2010. It’s all been all about awareness. So many tracks in the Mid-Atlantic have set up really good aftercare programs and those programs have kept horses out of places like New Holland.” Simply because far fewer horses are being bred today than 20 years ago, the number of Thoroughbreds sent to slaughter has almost certainly decreased. And Strauss is in the majority among those working with horse rescue groups when she says the industry has done a good job finding ways of keeping horses out of the slaughter pipeline. Yet, the slaughter of the Thoroughbred still exists and remains just one more public relations nightmare for an industry that has never before faced so much pressure from animal rights groups and the media. Some media outlets have been lumping the slaughter and breakdown issues together, and don’t always play fair. When HBO’s Real Sports did a segment on the many current horse welfare and safety issues facing the sport, particularly the rash of breakdowns at Santa Anita, it featured a particularly gory segment that followed a horse from Mountaineer Park straight to a slaughterhouse. Yet, conveniently, it was not made clear that the footage was shot in 2008 and neither was it mentioned that since then both Mountaineer and the West Virginia Racing Commission have instituted rules whereby anyone caught selling a horse to slaughter is banned. No mention of the other strides taken by the sport were made either. With Real Sports, 2019 and 2008 were treated as one and the same. But some remain skeptical when it comes to how much has changed since 2008. Some believe that because trainers know they are risking their careers, they are now skipping the auctions and sending the horses directly to the killer buyers, therefore avoiding the many watchdogs on the constant lookout for horses coming off the track that may have, in the past, wound up at places like New Holland. “There are trainers who are not reaching out to rescues and saying, ‘Would you be willing to take care of these Thoroughbreds that we don’t want?'” said Heather Freeman, who runs the rescue Helping Equines Regain Dignity (HERD) in North Carolina. “Some people say it has gotten a whole lot better. In the three years I have been doing this, I’m seeing more Thoroughbreds now than ever. When I first started, it was more a case where you’d see the older, broken-down Thoroughbreds that had been off the track for a while and had been doing something else since they stopped racing. What I am seeing and hearing is that there are trainers who pick up the phone and say, ‘I’ve got 20 horses, come get them. Just make sure they’re not advertised or end up in the auctions. They have to go straight to kill.’ That’s happening more every day.” One buyer involved in the slaughter business who agreed to talk to the TDN only on the condition of anonymity said he sees many straight-off-the-track Thoroughbreds who come to him with lip tattoos that have been altered or covered over with markers so that no one can identify the horse. “The reason you see fewer horses showing up at the auctions is because people are shipping them right to the dealers and avoiding the auctions,” said Jason Sexton, whose company Sexton Horse & Mule buys at slaughter auctions and ships horses to slaughterhouses in Mexico. “They don’t want to hear all the chaos they’d have to deal with if they took them to the auction because someone would find out. So they send them straight to a slaughter buyer. We see this every week.” The statistics indicate that fewer Thoroughbreds are in fact being slaughtered than would have been the case 10-12 years ago, but proving that is impossible. According to data compiled by the Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA), the number of horses slaughtered in Mexico and Canada peaked in 2012 with the total reaching 170,014. In 2017, the most recent year available, the number was 88,249. However, no data is kept by those tracking horse slaughter on the breeds of horses that are winding up in a slaughterhouse. No horse has legally been slaughtered in the U.S. since 2007. The existing slaughterhouses had to close because the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) decided to no longer provide inspectors to man the plants and horses cannot be legally slaughtered without USDA oversight. However, that had little effect on the number of horses from the U.S. winding up in the slaughter pipeline as dealers instead began shipping them to Mexico and Canada. “I can only tell you so much because of the lack of numbers available to us,” said EWA President John Holland. “My opinion would be things are better when it comes to the Thoroughbred. They have tried to make things better where, really, the people involved with other breeds haven’t. Gradually, slowly but surely, the horse slaughter business is being strangled.” North American Thoroughbreds have likely ended up being slaughtered since the very inception of the sport itself. It’s not that people wanted their horses to go to slaughter, but there were only a handful of alternatives available to them. If a horse were sound, they might be able to find someone who would take it as a riding horse. If it were not sound, it might be very difficult to find the horse a new home. When someone came around offering $250 or so for the horse and no paperwork had to be exchanged and no questions were asked, many people chose that route. It was a grisly part of the sport that operated in the shadows. Few talked about it; some people at the racetrack, particularly at the top-tier racetracks, may not even have known what was going on and the public seemed to have no idea that thousands of Thoroughbreds each year were going from the backstretches of American racetracks to the dinner tables of people living in places like Belgium, Japan, Poland, China and elsewhere. It was also more acceptable in a different time in America; older readers will remember when the grocery store shelves were stocked with Alpo Horse Meat Chunks. Today, people want cage-free eggs and humanely treated meat. Now, virtually everyone, those within the industry and those in the general public, knows that the slaughter of Thoroughbreds is a reality, but this is no longer the sport’s dirty little secret. It is something the industry is addressing and something where a great deal of headway has been made. There is no one tipping point when it came to the racing industry’s about-face regarding attitude about aftercare and slaughter, but a good place to start is with the formation of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF) in 1983. A racing outsider named Monique Koehler, an advertising executive, became aware of the slaughter issue and made it a personal mission to do something about it. She started the TRF, which not only became the first rescue operation in the U.S. and raised needed attention to the issue, but also partnered with prisons, which had their inmates care for the horses. Koehler was also at the forefront of the movement to help those in need–be they prison inmates, autistic children or soldiers returning from war with post-traumatic stress–through horse therapy. Years later, scientific studies are proving that interacting with horses can help solve myriad psychological problems. Years later, it was discovered that Exceller, the only horse ever to defeat two Triple Crown winners, Affirmed and Seattle Slew, was slaughtered in Sweden in 1997. In 2002, Ferdinand, the 1986 GI Kentucky Derby winner, reportedly died in a slaughterhouse in Japan. Not only did the deaths of these two horses raise a tremendous amount of awareness, it made people realize that virtually any horse could end up this way, not just a failed $3,500 claimer. The TRF would eventually be joined by dozens of fellow rescue groups, all of them led by people who were appalled that an equine athlete could end up being slaughtered. “I was buying horses from horse sales before it was the cool thing to do,” said Donna Keen, who runs Remember Me Rescue in Burleson, Texas. “I’d go and look for Thoroughbreds at the killer sales, and that’s probably going back 20 years ago. They were easy to retrain as jumpers and sell. I was buying and selling horses just to help find some of the retired racehorses homes. I guess about 2008 we heard about a horse named Lights On Broadway that had ended up in a bad situation and I offered to give him a home. When we took Lights we found out that he had been the Texas-bred Horse of the Year and it was then that I realized what a serious problem this industry had if a horse like that could end up that close to being slaughtered. It was really an eye-opening experience and we decided to get much more serious about our rescue. I couldn’t bear to see what was happening to these horses.” It wasn’t just Keen. The entire sport started to wake up. Not only was this a horribly inhumane way to treat the horses who worked so hard for the benefit of humans, but it was a practice that the vast majority of the American public found unacceptable. The tide had to turn, and one of the first major steps in that direction was taken by Suffolk Downs in 2008 when it instituted a policy whereby any trainer caught knowingly selling a horse for slaughter would be banned from the grounds. Today, most racetracks have similar policies. Another important step was taken in 2012 with the formation of the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (TAA). Up to that point, there was a hodgepodge of unaffiliated rescue groups; some were well-funded, some were trying to save horses with virtually no economic resources, some were perfectly reputable, and some maybe not so. Someone needed to herd the cats and oversee the Thoroughbred aftercare effort. The TAA did just that. Its efforts in the fund-raising department have provided dozens of organizations with the resources to be able to save horses. “We are not any different than any other industry that has gone and looked at itself and said, ‘How can we be environmentally responsible, ethically responsible?'” said TAA Operations Consultant Stacie Clark. “Knowing what we know in this industry, why would we not do the right thing? Given public opinion about all the things in our sport, this is one problem we can actually fix. At the TAA alone, there are 70 organizations that are accredited. And their biggest obstacle is funding. Because if they have the money to do so they will find a second job for this horse, maybe as a show horse, a therapy horse. People are starting to understand this and that’s why these programs are exploding.” The post Industry Has Made Important Strides on Slaughter Issue, But More Can Be Done appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Fasig-Tipton has catalogued 332 head for its upcoming New York-bred Yearlings Sale, which will be held Aug. 11 and 12 at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion in Saratoga. Sunday’s session of the two-day auction will begin at 7 p.m., while Monday’s session begins at noon. “We have five recent graded stakes winners featured on this year’s catalogue, including Diversify and Fourstar Crook, who captured last year’s prestigious GI Whitney S. and GI Flower Bowl S., respectively,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. “This sale, and the New York-bred program in general, produces horses for racing’s biggest stages.” The New York-bred Yearlings Sale catalogue is now available on-line at www.fasigtipton.com and print catalogues are also available. The post F-T New York-Bred Yearlings Catalogue On-Line appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Abdullah Menahi’s G2 Norfolk S. runner-up Ventura Rebel (GB) (Pastoral Pursuits {GB}) is coming into the July 20 £250,000 Weatherbys Super Sprint in fine form, according to trainer Richard Fahey. One of five Fahey-trained runners pointing to the lucrative Newbury contest, the bay will aim to give his trainer his third victory in six years. Fahey, who also has G2 Queen Mary S. sixth Mighty Spirit (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) and the maiden winners Show Me Show Me (GB) (Showcasing {GB}), who won the Brocklesby, and Baileys in Bloom (Fr) (Supplicant {GB}), among his possible entrants, told the Weatherbys notes team, “I’d say Ventura Rebel will run in the Super Sprint because it’s an ideal race for him. We gave him a bit of a chance after Royal Ascot, and we didn’t contemplate Newmarket as he’d had three runs already. He’s in great form and I couldn’t be any happier with him. He’s improving all of the time and on paper he’s the one to beat. Anything that beats him will deserve to win. “It’s a big pot for the market we are dealing in and so it’s a race we like to target. We tend to deal in the lower end of the market and a lot of our horses don’t cost a lot, so it’s a good race for us. We’ve had some good results there, and it’s a good day out for the owners.” Trainer Richard Hannon, who has won the Weatherbys Super Sprint on nine occasions, has eight nominated, the star entrants being Separate (GB) (Cable Bay {Ire}), who was second at Windsor on June 29 and the winning Ocasio Cortez (Ire) (Gutaifan {Ire}). Hannon also lifted the 2018 edition with Ginger Nut (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire}). Hannon said, “I’d say Ventura Rebel looks a certainty for Richard Fahey, but Separate [second to a potentially smart newcomer at Windsor last time] would have a chance, and Ocasio Cortez is pretty quick. They would probably be my best chances.” The post Ventura Rebel Returns in Weatherbys Super Sprint appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Over the last few months we’ve had a number of overseas equine visitors in our midst in Newmarket ahead of Royal Ascot and on Saturday morning a new face appeared on the heath. Cheval Grand (JPN) (Heart’s Cry {JPN}), the winner of the Japan Cup in 2017, ventured outside Japan for the first time earlier this year when travelling to Meydan for the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic, in which he finished runner-up to Old Persian (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}). He will remain in the UK for the G1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth S. followed by the G1 Juddmonte International before returning to his home country for a fourth tilt at the Japan Cup, a race in which he has finished in the first four in three attempts. In many respects, Cheval Grand typifies his country’s approach to racing and breeding. A grandson of Sunday Silence out of Halwa Sweet (JPN) (Machiavellian), a daughter of the well-credentialed import Halwa Song (Nureyev), he is still racing at the highest level as a 7-year-old stallion and, more importantly, he won’t be shunned when he retires to stud himself. His best runs have all come at a mile and a half but he has also twice been runner-up in the G1 Tenno Sho over two miles. Cheval Grand boasts a proper pedigree. His fourth dam is Glorious Song, whose sons include Singspiel (Ire) (a name which pops up pleasingly frequently in Japanese pedigrees) and Rahy, while his dam’s half-brother Martinborough (JPN) (Deep Impact {Ire}) is at stud in France. Halwa Sweet has also produced G1 Dubai Turf winner Vivlos (JPN) (Deep Impact {JPN}) as well as her full-sister, the dual Grade 1-winning miler and Japanese Oaks and Guineas runner-up Verxina (JPN). To date, Cheval Grand has won just over ¥1 billion (£7.4m/€8.2m) in prize-money from his 30 starts. These sort of returns are of course a key driver in ensuring that wealthy businessmen and women continue to invest heavily in the Japanese racing scene, as witnessed at last week’s record-breaking JRHA Select Sale, where turnover reached ¥20.5 billion (£151m/€168m) from the sale of 416 foals and yearlings across two days. There was no one dominant buyer, but the vendors’ list was dominated by one entity: Cheval Grand’s breeder, Northern Farm. The largest of the three separate operations run by the Yoshida brothers, Northern Farm—and Northern Horse Park, where the sale was held—is the property of Katsumi Yoshida and was responsible for 181 of the 455 horses offered for sale. One only needs to glance at a list of mares owned by Katsumi, or his brother Teruya Yoshida at Shadai Farm, to imagine the vast investment they have made in plucking the best broodmares from all corners of the world. Their reward is found in the sales ring and on the racecourse, not to mention in the high regard in which Japanese gallopers are held the world over. A first For Japan There are six entries from Japan for the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the race which looms largest on the country’s international wishlist. Deep Impact himself came to Paris in 2006 to challenge for France’s biggest prize but, after finishing third past the post was later disqualified when a banned substance was found in a post-race sample. If Japan is first past the post this year, it could well be the British-bred Galileo (Ire) colt from Ballydoyle, who loomed menacingly in the Derby when a close third to his stable-mate Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and then posted one of the best performances of Royal Ascot in the G2 King Edward VII S. His follow-up on Sunday when landing his first win at the highest level in the Grand Prix de Paris certainly makes him a credible threat to Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) in her bid for an historic third Arc victory. Japan is another feather in the cap of his breeder Newsells Park Stud, which is enjoying a good season courtesy of the likes of Soffia (GB), Demarchelier (GB) and Tapisserie (GB), and also stands Enable’s sire. Japan is out of the Danehill mare Shastye (Ire), who has provided Andreas Jacobs’s operation with some notable moments on the track and in the sales ring. Japan’s full-siblings Secret Gesture (GB) and Sir Isaac Newton (GB) are both group winners, the former having finished runner-up in the Oaks and German Oaks. Sir Isaac Newton was a 3.6 million gns October yearling and subsequent years have seen Shastye become a darling of Book 1, with her offspring selling for 800,000gns, 1.35m gns, 1.3m gns (Japan) and 3.4m gns. That final price was given for Japan’s brother Mogul (GB), who was the second-top lot of the most recent Tattersalls October Sale behind a full-brother to Too Darn Hot (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) and is also in training at Ballydoyle. It’s A Kind Of Magic Japan is of course a product of the Galileo-Danehill cross which was lent an extra magic sparkle by Frankel (GB). Repeat matings of his dam Kind (Ire) with the champion sire resulted in another multiple Group 1 winner who in any other family would be a standout. In the case of Noble Mission (GB), who completed his racing career with victory in the same race in which Frankel took his bow, he’s destined always to be remembered for his relationship to the champion, but he is also proving that Lane’s End Farm’s faith in him as a stallion prospect was not misguided. In Newmarket last week Frankel was all the rage as his son New King (GB) topped the Tattersalls July Sale at 450,000gns and daughter Veracious (GB) became his eighth Group 1 winner in the Falmouth S. Noble Mission was also involved in the stakes-race results, however, via his G3 Bahrain Trophy-winning son Spanish Mission, who could well be aimed at the St Leger after his impressive staying performance. Spanish Mission, trained by David Simcock for The Hon. Earle Mack and Team Valor, is the second group/graded winner for his sire this year after Code Of Honor, winner of the GII Fountain of Youth S. The latter was subsequently runner-up in the Kentucky Derby and followed up with another win in the GIII Dwyer S. on July 6. All five of Kind’s sons of racing age have ended up at stud—Bullet Train (GB) (Sadler’s Wells) and Proconsul (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) are now in Ireland while Morpheus (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) is in France—and her listed-winning daughter Joyeuse (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) is adding her own chapter to the story as the dam of dual winner and G1 Coronation S.-placed Jubiloso (GB) (Shamardal). Communique’s Love For HQ Communique may be trained on the heavenly Yorkshire moors but he clearly has a liking for the East Anglian air as his four outings to Newmarket’s two racecourses have seen him triumph on every occasion. The likeable and robust colt is the best son of Casamento (Ire), who is now standing at Sunnyhill Stud, and he notched his second Group 2 win of the year in the Princess of Wales’s S. for Mark Johnston, whose stable has been operating at a 25% winning strike-rate over the last fortnight. Among the leading trainer’s four winners at the July meeting was also Raffle Prize, another to run in Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum’s silver silks. She too was posting her second Group 2 win of the season, her Duchess of Cambridge S. win following the Queen Mary S. at Royal Ascot. Notably, Frankie Dettori, was in the saddle for both, and he also steered the young sheikh’s Vale Of Kent (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) to victory in the Bunbury Cup on Saturday. Dettori may have fallen from grace as far as Sheikh Mohammed is concerned but when a jockey is riding with the vigour and supreme confidence of the evergreen Italian, it’s wise to let bygones be bygones. Incidentally, the aforementioned Veracious and Raffle Prize both continued a real purple patch for the mighty Pivotal (GB) as broodmare sire. The Cheveley Park Stud veteran belied his 26 years when parading for guests at a stallion parade last week and the price of his daughters in the sales ring will only continue to rise as their rarity value increases in the years to come. One Master (GB) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) fought Veracious all the way to the line to provide the quinella for Pivotal’s broodmare daughters in the Falmouth, while the busy Peach Tree (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) landed the G3 Stanerra S. at Leopardstown on Thursday, following on from stakes wins for Exhort (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}), Defoe (Ire) (Dalakhani {Ire}), Rebecca Rocks (GB) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}), Advertise (GB) (Showcasing {GB}) and Magical (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in recent weeks. Must You Go Gleneagles (Ire) continues to pour on the class at the head of the freshman sires’ table, with the G2 Tattersalls July S. win of Royal Lytham (Fr) adding to the listed Windsor Castle S. victory of Southern Hills (Ire) at Royal Ascot, meaning that the young son of Galileo is well ahead on earnings. His strike-rate of six winners from 17 runners is none too shabby either, even though he is some way short of the numerical lead shown by Gutaifan (Ire) on 13, Cable Bay (Ire) on 12 and Night Of Thunder (Ire) on 11, though it is worth highlighting the particularly good winners-to-runners strike-rate for Night Of Thunder of 55%. He’s unlikely to be winning any prizes, and commercially he was overlooked from the start, but it is interesting to note that Shadwell’s treble group winner Mustajeeb (GB) already has two winners on the board from just three runners. Following a double strike for the John Ryan-trained Bill Neigh (GB), Ryan’s fellow Newmarket trainer Charlie McBride sent Intimate Moment (GB) to Yarmouth last week, where she recorded a three-length victory over five furlongs. Bred in partnership by Dukes Studs and Overbury Stud, the latter being the base for Mustajeeb for his first two seasons, Intimate Moment is a half-sister to the 102-rated Group 3-placed Firebeam (GB) (Cadeaux Genereux {GB}), out of the Nicolotte (GB) mare Firebelly (GB). After a break in 2018 when quarantine complications meant he was unable to be exported to South Africa, Mustajeeb stood a season at Haras de Fleury in France this year and he will have another new home in Sweden for the 2020 season. He not only hails from the same family as Tamayuz (GB) but is by his sire, Nayef. Mustajeeb covered 35 then 16 mares his short stint at Overbury Stud in 2016 and ’17 and could well end up as being one who got away from British breeders if he turns out to be anywhere near as decent as the under-rated Tamayuz. “I’m pleased to see him make a good start, and especially to see Intimate Moment win so nicely,” said Overbury Stud’s Simon Sweeting, who also stood Kuroshio (Aus) for one season before lack of support ensured that he did not return from Darley Australia for the following three years. “As Kuroshio has shown, they don’t need to cover big books to get some decent runners.” After the early success of the likes of Kurious (GB) and Dunkerron (GB), Kuroshio, who covered 31 mares the first time around, returned to the northern hemisphere this season to stand at Ireland’s Clongiffen Stud. Jumping Back To The Flat In an extremely rare, if not unique occurrence, a Cheltenham Festival winner made a victorious appearance on the Flat in America on Saturday. Veneer Of Charm (Ire) (Fast Company {Ire}) landed the G3 Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle at Cheltenham in 2018 for Gordon Elliott and after four subsequent winless appearances has switched to the stable of Richard J Hendricks, who sent him out for three unplaced starts over hurdles before successfully trying him in an allowance race at Delaware Park over 8½ furlongs. A winner on the level in Ireland for Michael O’Callaghan before being bought by Elliott and Mouse O’Ryan, Veneer Of Charm is a brother to Godolphin’s smart performer Devonshire (Ire), who was third in the Irish 1000 Guineas and won the G2 Lanwades Stud S., and a half-brother to Hurryupharriet (Ire), victrix of the listed Harry Rosebery S. Veneer Of Charm was in good company when it came to European-bred winners in the U.S. on Saturday, with former Grade 1 winner Capla Temptress (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) also striking at Delaware, Juddmonte’s Juliet Foxtrot (GB) (Dansili {GB}) winning the GIII Modesty H., and Sistercharlie (Ire) (Myboycharlie {Ire}) notching her fifth Grade 1 success in the Diana S. at Saratoga. The latter provided yet another reminder, if one were needed, that her dam Starlet’s Sister (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who also produced this year’s G1 Prix du Jockey Club winner Sottsass (Fr) (Pivotal {FR}), is now one of the most celebrated broodmares in France, where she resides at Ecurie des Monceaux. A Boost For Imagery Francisco Bernal of Outsider Bloodstock made a fair splash at last year’s breeding stock sales on behalf of an unnamed Spanish breeder of sport horses looking to build up a Thoroughbred broodmare band in France. The breeder has already had a decent update for one of the mares purchased, Imagery (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}), whose daughter Ismene (Ger) (Tertullian) won Sunday’s listed BBAG Diana Trial at Mulheim for owner-breeder Baron Von Ullmann of Gestut Schlenderhan. She will now head to the Preis der Diana (German Oaks) on Aug. 4. A listed winner herself, Imagery is a sister G3 Bavarian Classic winner Imonso (Ger) and half-sister to dual Group 3 winner Idealist (Ger) (Tiger Hill {Ire}). At 95,000gns, and sold in foal to Adlerflug (Ger), she was the least expensive of six mares bought by Bernal at the Tattersalls December Sale last year for a total of 1,145,000gns. This followed the purchase of the top lot at the Goffs November Foal Sale, a daughter of Kingman (GB) from Jockey Hall Stud, for €350,000, as well as a half-sister to Sinndar (Ire) from the mares’ sale for €210,000. Crombez Off At The Double Sunday proved to be a red-letter day for new French trainer Anne-Sophie Crombez, who posted the first and second winners of her career nine hours apart at Le Touquet and then ParisLongchamp on its headline Bastille Day card. Dieppe-born Crombez, a former eventer and amateur rider, is the partner of British trainer Gay Kelleway. She has been a licensed trainer in Chantilly only since June, having permanently taken over Kelleway’s temporary French licence. The pair have long had runners in Crombez’s native country and it was fitting that the first winner for Crombez as a trainer came in the colours of Kelleway, who was the first woman ever to ride a winner at Royal Ascot. Crombez has sent out only Elieden (Ire) (Camacho {Ire}) and Debatable (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}) to date from the stable rented from Miriam Bollack-Badel, and they each won on their second start in France under her name. “I’m so pleased for Anne-Sophie, she’s been working so hard and she really deserved that,” Kelleway told the TDN on Monday. “She has seven horses at the moment. We’ve brought a few back to Newmarket as we’re still learning about what works best in France, although we’ve been running horses over there together for five or six years. She continued, “I think Anne-Sophie has blended the best of English and French training methods. She is running the show in France and I am investing in the stable and trying to attract more owners for her. You can make racing pay in France and that’s what we’re trying to do.” The post The Weekly Wrap: Japan To The Fore appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. 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Following the announcement of the Nov. 22 £200,000 Bahrain International Trophy, the 2000-metre contest will be the aim of Phoenix Thoroughbreds, Phoenix CEO Amer Abdulaziz announced on Monday. The Bahrain native was a multiple champion owner there in the 1980s, where his family ran a stud farm breeding purebred Arabians. “We are a global company, but Bahrain racing is very important to me,” explained Abdulaziz. “It’s my roots, where I came from, and I’ve always been involved in horses there. I grew up going to that racetrack, it has a lot of value for me, and I’m really attached to it. For us [Bahrain] to be hosting an international race like that is superb and Phoenix Thoroughbreds and myself are excited about it and determined to be part of it as well.” The post Phoenix T’breds Targets Bahrain International Trophy appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Thanks to the victories of Anthony Van Dyck in the Derby, Circus Maximus in the St James’s Palace S. and Sovereign in the Irish Derby, the great Galileo owed three of his first five Group 1s of 2019 to granddaughters of Danehill. This suggested that time is moving on from the days when the perennial champion sire’s partnership with Danehill’s daughters was widely considered the world’s pre-eminent nick. This nick had produced the wonderful total of 50 black-type winners–some 17% of its 303 foals–and those 50 featured the Classic winners Frankel, Intello, Golden Lilac, Roderic O’Connor and Cima de Triomphe. The cross’s first 12 Group 1 winners also included such illustrious performers as Teofilo, Highland Reel, Noble Mission and Maybe. That 17% black-type winners compares to Galileo’s overall figure of 11%. One noticeable aspect of this success story with Danehill’s daughters was that only three of these first 12 Group 1 winners had been born after 2010, these being the Yorkshire Oaks winner Tapestry in 2011, the King George and Breeders’ Cup Turf hero Highland Reel in 2012 and the Belmont Derby winner Deauville in 2013. In other words, there had been no Galileo/Danehill Group 1 winners from the 2014 and 2015 crops and there were reasons for thinking that this marvellously successful combination was beginning to slow down. After all, Danehill’s eldest daughters were born as long ago as 1991 and his youngest in 2004, so the number still in production is declining and those that are left are now elderly. Fortunately, last week provided several reminders of the potency of this cross. Frankel added another Group 1 winner to his collection when Veracious landed the Falmouth S., while his brother Noble Mission–already sire of the Kentucky Derby second Code of Honor–added a second very smart first crop winner when Spanish Mission took the G3 Bahrain Trophy. Not to be left out, Regal Reality’s sire Intello was responsible for Slalom, who bounced back from his disappointing Prix du Jockey-Club effort to finish a fine second after a slow start in the G1 Grand Prix de Paris. However, the Grand Prix also provided the Galileo-Danehill nick with its 13th Group 1 winner in the shape of Japan, already an impressive winner of the G2 King Edward VII S. since his close third in the Derby. It is going to be interesting to see whether Japan can keep on improving, which is quite possible if the careers of Highland Reel and Frankel are anything to go by. Like Japan, Highland Reel enjoyed Group 2 success as a juvenile and he took a little longer to become a Group 1 winner, landing the Secretariat S. in the August of his 3-year-old season. Significantly, a further six Group 1 successes were to follow over the next few years. It is also going to be interesting to see how many more high-class performers will emerge from Galileo’s association with Danehill’s daughters. Kind, the dam of Frankel and Noble Mission, has a yearling filly by Galileo and is hopefully pregnant again to her 2019 visit. Another Juddmonte star, Banks Hill, has a yearling brother to the Group 1-winning Romantica. Highland Reel has a 2-year-old brother called Nobel Prize, who is also a brother to the Irish Derby second Idaho. Deauville has a yearling brother, plus a 2-year-old sister called Warrior Queen, while the precocious Maybe is the first of eight foals sired by Galileo from Sumora. The others include a 2-year-old filly called Pushkinskaya and a yearling filly, in addition to Sumora’s useful 3-year-old Barbados. Japan is himself Galileo’s third group winner out of Shastye, who produced her sixth Galileo foal, a filly, in January this year at the age of 18. It is well documented that Shastye has proved a rare bargain since she was bought by John Warren, on behalf of Newsells Park Stud, for 625,000gns at the 2005 December Sales. Her 2012 Galileo colt, Sir Isaac Newton, sold for 3,600,000gns, and her 2015 filly Secret Gaze and 2016 colt, Japan, respectively sold for 1,350,000gns and 1,300,000gns. Less popular was her first Galileo foal, Secret Gesture, who failed to find a buyer at 230,000gns in 2011. Secret Gesture made amends by carrying the Newsells Park colours to victory in a Newbury maiden at two and in the Lingfield Oaks Trial at three. Qatar Racing then bought into her and it was their colours which she carried when second to Talent in the 2013 Oaks. Even though a Group 1 victory eluded her during a lengthy career, Secret Gesture won the G2 Middleton S. in 2015 and it took $3,500,000 for Godolphin to buy her in 2016, in foal to War Front. She produced fillies by Dubawi in 2018 and 2019. It could be relevant to Japan’s future that Secret Gesture raced mainly at around a mile and a quarter after her placed efforts in the Oaks and Yorkshire Oaks. It was also over a mile and a quarter that Japan’s brother Sir Isaac Newton won the Listed Wolferton H. at Royal Ascot and the G3 International S. at The Curragh. Their dam, the listed-placed Shastye, stayed well for a daughter of Danehill, winning over a mile and a half at Lingfield and over a furlong further at Chepstow. She can thank her dam Saganeca for her stamina. The bare bones of Saganeca’s racing record make unimpressive reading, as she retired the winner of only one of her 25 starts, with her record sounding about right for a filly who had sold twice as a yearling, for only $16,000 and $30,000. However, the daughter of Arc winner Sagace was far, far better than those figures suggest. Her one victory had come in the G2 Prix de Royallieu at three, when she was also good enough to finish fourth in the G1 Prix Vermeille. The following year, 1992, saw Saganeca finish a close second in the G1 Gran Premio di Milano and fifth of 18, beaten under four lengths, in the G1 Arc. The compilers of the International Classifications rated her 119. Saganeca also had the attraction of having the outstanding mare La Mirambule as her third dam. Unbeaten in three juvenile starts, La Mirambule established herself as France’s champion 3-year-old filly of 1952 by taking the Prix Vermeille by eight lengths as a prelude to her second in the Arc. La Mirambule then passed on her talent to her sons Tambourine (1962 Irish Derby) and Nasram (1964 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S.). Eric Puerari must have found it hard to believe his luck when he was able to buy Saganeca for only $165,000 on behalf of Jean-Luc Lagardere in January 1994. Lagardere too had reason to pinch himself when Saganeca’s first four foals included the Arc-winning Sagamix, his G2 Prix de Malleret-winning sister Sage Et Jolie and the Group 1-winning Highest Honor colt Sagacity, who was third in Sakhee’s Arc de Triomphe. Remarkably, Shastye is the third daughter of Saganeca to have produced a Group 1 winner, as Sage Et Jolie is the dam of Prix d’Ispahan winner Sageburg and Sagalina was responsible for the Prix Saint-Alary winner Sagawara. The post Pedigree Insights: Japan appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Forty stakes races worth over $7.3 million are on tap for Del Mar's 80th summer season, which opens July 17 with the $100,000 Runhappy Oceanside headlining a 10-race card. View the full article

The Hong Kong Jockey Club has withstood a turbulent few months, riding the wave of a strong finish to set a record for racing turnover of HK$124.819 billion.It has been a roller-coaster ride in terms of betting turnover this season, the early numbers strong before a dramatic drop-off from March to June, but a late resurgence saw the overall number increase by 0.4 per cent on 2017-18.While Hongkongers bet less for the third consecutive year (a drop of 1.6 per cent to HK$105.996 billion), that… View the full article