Wandering Eyes

Allied Racing Stable’s Mr. Money (Goldencents) seeks his second consecutive victory under the Twin Spires in Saturday evening’s GIII Matt Winn S. The Bret Calhoun pupil cut back off a fifth behind stablemate By My Standards (Goldencents) in the nine-panel GII Louisiana Derby to romp in the GIII Pat Day Mile S. on GI Kentucky Derby day May 4. He was further flattered when runner-up Hog Creek Hustle (Overanalyze) came back to annex the GI Woody Stephens S. last week at Belmont. “He trained super into the Pat Day Mile and he’s doing awesome,” Calhoun said of Mr. Money. “He’s always done everything the right way when he trains in the morning and shows so much talent every day when he steps on the racetrack.” Signalman (General Quarters) also boasts solid local form, having annexed the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. here last November after a well-beaten second to Knicks Go (Paynter) in the GI Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland and a third in the local GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. His best finish this year was a third in the GII Toyota Blue Grass S. back in Lexington Apr. 6, and he was most recently ninth in the GI Preakness S. May 18. Knicks Go was 70-1 when he ran away with the Breeders’ Futurity, and 40-1 when he split champion Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg}) and Signal Man at the Breeders’ Cup. He was 11th as the favorite in the Kentucky Jockey Club S., however, and hasn’t appeared to improve in three outings this term. His closest finish was his last, when he was fourth in the GIII Stonestreet Lexington S. behind Preakness third Owendale (Into Mischief). Nolo Contesto (Pioneerof the Nile) is an intriguing out-of-town shipper invading for the powerhouse team of Hronis Racing and John Sadler that will also be represented in the GII Stephen Foster S. by Gift Box (Twirling Candy). The last horse to have beaten leading sophomore Omaha Beach (War Front) when he did so in a January Santa Anita maiden special weight, he finished second to ‘TDN Rising Star’ Roadster (Quality Road) in a Mar. 1 optional claimer and fourth behind that foe in the GI Santa Anita Derby Apr. 6. The post Mr. Money Looks to ‘Winn’ Some More of It appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

I wasn’t talking to you last week as I had no runners last weekend but it was fantastic to see the horses running so well. All credit to the team at Bankhouse where we had five straight winners. We continue to have a great bunch of owners, so hopefully, those winners are a sign of […] The post Donal McCain Blog – Weekend Runners appeared first on RaceBets Blog EN. View the full article

This wasn’t the feature we had planned when TDN visited Sheila Lavery’s County Meath stable at the end of May. Naturally, the talk then was of Lady Kaya (Ire). Of her spirited runner-up finish in the 1000 Guineas at a distance just beyond her compass. Of her next task: a return to Britain for the most prestigious meeting of the year, Royal Ascot. Of the pride she brought to the trainer and her team who look after 36 horses—a mere ripple, really, in a pool in which rival trainers splash about with battalions numbering into the hundreds. All that changed on Tuesday. During Lady Kaya’s final piece of work before her planned run in next week’s Commonwealth Cup, a life which had already delivered so much on early promise was cruelly cut short when the filly fractured a hind leg and was unable to be saved. It is the fear in all our hearts. A dream died instantly, but for Lavery, in those moments as she watched jockey Robbie Colgan pull up Lady Kaya and realised something was terribly wrong, her mind, typically, was far from big-race glory. “I saw it happen on the Curragh and all my thoughts were of saving the horse. Royal Ascot didn’t matter, it was just about helping her,” she said on Tuesday evening. “People outside the racing world think that we don’t care about the horses but we do.” Nobody who spends more than a handful of minutes at Lavery’s farm just outside Summerhill could be in any doubt as to the veracity of this statement. It is a busy yard, with a small, friendly team of riders and a smaller, friendly pack of dogs. If such a thing as a peaceful bustle exists, then it’s what you’ll find as the morning work is undertaken. Thirty-plus horses are exercised with gentle exchanges between trainer and riders. There’s no jibbing, no fuss, just the occasional hand on a neck strap if a dog’s head happens to pop up in the grass alongside the circular, undulating canter that encompasses the property. Lady Kaya wasn’t really supposed to come here. The trainer’s niece, Joanne Lavery, in embarking on the pinhooking business she is establishing at Drumree Lodge Stud, bought the weanling daughter of Dandy Man (Ire) from her breeder John O’Connor of Ballylinch Stud fame. When she failed to match her €15,000 foal price at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale, Joanne decided to keep her to race. “We were driving home from the sale and someone rang Joanne and offered €12,000, but she wanted €15,000 and she stuck to it,” Lavery recalled. After Lady Kaya beat subsequent Oaks runner-up Pink Dogwood (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) by 10 lengths at the Curragh on only her second start last August, Joanne would have had to do a lot more sticking to her guns as the offers came in for her filly. Plenty of owners would have been tempted to sell, but the Lavery family’s faith in their charge was rewarded by classy performances from the filly in the best of company, including a runner-up finish to Skitter Scatter (Scat Daddy) in the G1 Moyglare Stud S. A winter break was followed by a winning resumption in the G3 Ballylinch Stud ‘Priory Belle’ 1000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown—providing her trainer with a first Pattern race victory and her breeder the chance to present the trophy—before what transpired to be her final race in the 1000 Guineas. Reflecting on Lady Kaya’s early days, Lavery pinpoints her emergence as a potential stable star as the catalyst for Robbie Colgan’s transformation from being a National Hunt jockey to riding on the Flat. She says of her key team member who lives next door to the yard, “Robbie doesn’t say much but what he does say is pertinent. When the babies start cantering he will occasionally say, ‘she goes well’, and you know when Robbie says that you’re onto something good. But at the time Robbie wasn’t riding the Flat horses, so both Ronan Whelan and Gary Carroll had ridden her work and they both said that she was way above average. And I think she was the one that really pushed it for Robbie, because he said he’d do the weight. And that was it then. I think she gave him the inspiration—and the other boys were as sick as turkeys when they heard.” It is not at all surprising that Lavery remained loyal to the relatively little known Colgan when doubtless she could have taken her pick of jockeys as Group 1 entries loomed. “Apart from days when he’s racing, he’s been in with me every morning since I started,” she says. “I asked him loads during that time whether he could do the weight because he’s just class. And then he just started to, but he didn’t tell me at first. I went to Limerick one day and Robbie was riding at 9st 2lbs and I had a runner at 9st 8lbs with someone else on the horse. I looked at him and I felt dreadful, then later I gave out to him and he started to tell me last year when he could do the weight. Now I put him on everything.” What is more surprising is the realisation that Lavery has only been training for six years. With the influx of new trainers typically being male 30-somethings, a 52-year-old woman taking out her licence is refreshingly outside the norm but, as a former eventer, she is not lacking in equine experience, and she is all too familiar with the rollercoaster ride which one must endure to live a life with horses. “I’ve always bred, and then when something hadn’t sold I did a bit of pre-training,” she says. “Years ago I said I’d always like to train a good filly, and over the years I’d looked at it but they didn’t allow you to train as a restricted trainer of 2-year-olds. But then eventually I just started with four horses and it’s kind of grown ever since. I’m six years in but I’ve been in horses an awfully long time, and you know the downside and you’re used to the disappointments. But am I enjoying it? Yeah. It’s not a job, it’s a way of life and I love the horses.” She cites the recently retired former champion jockey Pat Smullen as a great sounding board in her career to date. “He’s been fantastic, even from day one I’d bring a horse to the Curragh and Pat would sit up—he mightn’t necessarily ride it in a race but he’d sit up—and I kind of knew what this horse was in the back of my mind and then Pat would work up the Old Vic [gallop] and he’d come back and he’d tell me exactly what the horse was. And I’m looking at him and inwardly thinking, ‘yeah, you’re right’, and he’d tell you so you knew exactly what you had and where you were. He mightn’t realise how much help he has been, but he has.” Around the time Lavery joined the training ranks, she was already associated with a good filly, Viztoria (Ire) (Oratorio {Ire}), whom she had in training with Eddie Lynam. “I wasn’t silly enough to take her on,” she says of Viztoria, another inexpensively bought yearling who came good by winning four stakes races over three seasons. Retained as a broodmare, she now has a Dandy Man yearling filly and a Dark Angel (Ire) filly foal, but she too has brought her share of heartache. “She aborted her first foal and then last year in July her Australia yearling colicked in the field. We’d just had our first double the day before in Galway, and it was great, and everyone’s saying ‘well done’ and in your head, you’re just thinking….” Lavery doesn’t quite find the words to finish the sentence. Once again, it was the animal in distress rather than success that was uppermost in her mind. The horsewoman clearly not only has an eye for a youngster—she buys almost all the horses she trains at what could be deemed sensible prices—but also an intuitive approach to training which allows the horses to come to hand without being pushed too hard too soon. “They might work up behind a horse and then pick up but we don’t work them off the bridle, we don’t gun them,” she says. “So not until they go to the races do we really know. For Lady Kaya’s first run when she was third, we knew we had something special, but I said to Robbie, ‘just educate her, just ride her, don’t give her a hard time’. And I think if he had picked up the stick she could have won, but she was third and it was the best thing ever when she came out the next time and won. With fillies, we just give them a nice introduction the first time.” It is perhaps too much to hope, especially when hearts and nerves are still raw, that lightning might strike twice, but the approach outlined above already appears to be paying dividends with recent maiden winner Lil Grey (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}). The Newtown Stud-bred filly was bought at the Goffs Sportsman’s Yearling Sale for €12,000 by the trainer and her brother John, who plays a vital role as the major owner in the stable and has put together a syndicate of friends to race Lil Grey. She was second on debut to Mohican Heights (Ire) (Australia {GB}), who heads to the London Sale on Monday and is entered in the Chesham S., while Lil Grey reappeared on June 7 to beat a classily-bred field and is herself an intended starter in the G3 Albany S. “Like Lady Kaya, she is a long-striding filly and we just like to let her bowl along on her own,” explains the trainer from alongside the canter as a streak of quicksilver breezes by, light on her feet like a dancer, Colgan in the saddle. Lavery had already planned an outing for the Friday of Royal Ascot. That she now hopes to take a young filly in place of her late stable star will come as only small consolation, but it stands as testament to her ability for finding the right horse with which to take aim at major targets from a relatively small team. Everyone knows how hard it is to find a good one. Just look at the number of darts fired at the board by the big operations each year in the hope of hitting a bullseye, and still sometimes they miss. Lavery has already proved that her aim is true when a talented horse comes her way. Once the sadness of this week’s desperate loss subsides, the hunt will resume for the next horse to put her stable back in the spotlight. Indeed, she may already have found her. The post Lavery’s Intuitive Approach Paves Way To Success appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Tough Toowoomba mare Ruby Guru will get her chance in the Listed Ipswich Cup (2150m) after trainer Michael Nolan decided she had too much weight in a restricted class race. The consistent Ruby Guru would have been favourite in the Provincial Stayers Final (2500m) also at Ipswich on Saturday. When Ruby Guru got 59kg in the Stayers' Final and 54kg in the Cup, Nolan said he took a punt and accepted in the Listed race. "As it turned out a couple of the higher weighted horses in the Cup didn't accept... View the full article

Many people’s minds are already wandering towards Royal Ascot next week but we still have a decent weekend of racing to look forward to. Kaeso is looking to win en route to the Royal Hunt Cup, we might see an Ebor winner in the shape of Mekong and Well Done Fox will be looking to […] The post Weekend Preview – Kaeso On The Hunt For Glory appeared first on RaceBets Blog EN. View the full article

The Hong Kong Jockey Club has called on exciting young Brazilian jockey Vagner Borges to boost its flagging riding ranks for the final five meetings of the 2018-19 season.While the Jockey Club has 23 riders on its roster, things have been lean of late due to injuries and suspensions, with only 17 riders stepping out at Sha Tin this weekend after only 15 jockeys rode last Saturday, leaving owners and trainers limited for choice.“Vagner has been someone the club has been looking at for some time… View the full article

Former Te Akau runner Torcedor is being set to tackle the Gr.1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) later this year. The son of Fastnet Rock won two Group Three races for his former high-profile owners, who included Sir Patrck Hogan, Sir Peter Vela, Mohammed Moussa, and Laurie Laxon. Torcedor also went on to place at Group One level in the Goodwood Cup (3200m), Ascot Gold Cup (4000m) and Irish St Leger (2800m) before his sale to Australian Bloodstock. Now in the care of Andreas Wohler, Australian Bloodstock co... View the full article

Jumps jockey Lemmy Douglas was injured when his mount The Bieber fell at the third hurdle in the Open Phar Lap Raceway Hurdles (3000m) at Timaru on Friday. Douglas took a heavy fall on the $2.60 favourite and has shoulder and collarbone injuries. The 25-year-old Englishman will not be riding at Awapuni on Saturday. $22 chance Additup won the event, while Delacroix was an impressive winner over the bigger fences when taking out the Equine Veterinary Services Steeples (4280m).... View the full article

The Hawke's Bay/Poverty Bay Thoroughbred Breeders’ annual foal walk around several properties in Hawke's Bay will be held on Sunday, June 30. The walk will start at Guy and Brigid Lowry's property at 305 Kawera Rd, Okawa, at 10am sharp. At the completion of the foal walk a luncheon has been arranged at Off The Track Restaurant in Havelock Rd. For luncheon bookings RSVP Sharyn Craig at mike.sharyn@xtra.co.nz... View the full article

Wet track specialist Rosewood will get her favoured heavy 11 surface on Saturday when she lines-up in the Redstag Open Handicap (1500m) at Awapuni, and trainer Marilyn Paewai is hoping she can go one better than last start. The daughter of Redwood was luckless when runner-up to Dolcetto in the Listed Ag Challenge Stakes (1600m) after a gap closed on her down the straight and she had to regather her momentum to make a late inside dash. Paewai was philosophical about the run and said her five-year... View the full article

Howie Mathews has Sampson in first-class order for Saturday's Listed Ipswich Cup (2150m) but the Otaki trainer has his eye on an even bigger prize seven days later. Mathews, whose current Queensland adventure could lead to a more permanent move to the sunshine state, is using the Ipswich Cup as a springboard to Saturday week's Gr.3 Tattersall's Cup (3000m) at Eagle Farm. "If we get a bit of rain between now and then, that's when he's got a really big chance - up over 3000m and back to Eagle Farm... View the full article

Walker-Woodworth combination claims first treble View the full article

Catch The Tiger sheds maiden status View the full article

Track conditions and course scratchings June 14 View the full article

Track conditions and course scratchings June 14 View the full article

Horses' body weights June 14 View the full article

Lim’s Cruiser has taken England in his stride View the full article

Early scratchings June 14 View the full article

OCALA, FL–Trade continued to be steady during the second session of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s June Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale in Central Florida Thursday, with numbers ticking up from the auction’s corresponding 2018 figures as horses continued to find new homes at the last juvenile auction of the season. Through two sessions, OBS has sold 399 juveniles for a total of $13,635,200. The average of $34,173 was up 4% over the 2018 figure, while the median rose 20% to $18,000. A total of 535 horses have gone through the OBS sales ring so far, with 136 failing to sell for a buy-back rate of 25.4%. It was 27.7% with the addition of post-sale transactions at this point a year ago. David Davila of Backstretch Farms made the highest bid of the week so far, going to $445,000 to acquire a filly by Ghostzapper (hip 653) from the de Meric Sales consignment Thursday. The filly is one of 12 to bring $200,000 or over through the two sessions. During Thursday’s session, 202 horses sold for a gross of $7,359,700 and an average of $36,434. The session median was $17,500 and the buy-back rate was 25.7%. “I think it’s a much better sale today and I think it’s a really realistic sale for some of these horses,” said consignor Pat Hoppel. “Some of these horses, we’re moving them on and getting them sold, getting them into different hands. And that helps the business. You’ve got to have big trade. If you keep the big trade going, you’ve got it. It’s when things stall out and we can’t trade horses it’s bad, but they are seeming to get horses moved–some for a lot and some for not much, but it lets everybody get a new start.” The OBS June sale concludes Friday with a session beginning at 10 a.m. Ghostzapper Filly to Davila Ocala attorney David Davila made one of his biggest equine purchases to date Thursday at OBS, going to $445,000 to secure a filly by Ghostzapper for his Backstretch Farms. The bay, out of graded stakes winner Palanka City (Carson City), was consigned by de Meric Sales. “She is the perfect specimen for a filly,” Davila said of hip 653. “She is very balanced.” Asked if it was the biggest ticket he’s signed, Davila, still relatively new to ownership, admitted, “This is close. It was a little bit higher than we wanted to go, but she was worth it.” Davila owns 75-acre Backstretch Farms in Central Florida. His War Bridle (Shakin It Up) was fourth in this year’s Pasco S. The juvenile will ship to Saratoga to be trained by Jorge Abreu. De Meric Sales purchased the filly, who worked the furlong in a co-bullet :9 4/5 last week, for $190,000 at last year’s Keeneland September sale. She was withdrawn from the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale earlier this year. “We are thrilled with the price,” Tristan de Meric said. “We knew she was a top filly. That’s why we took her to Miami in the first place. She just missed the boat down there, but we always believed in her. We gave her another chance here and I’m glad they found her. She is a very special filly. And we wish the best of luck to David.” Hines Strikes for Graydar Colt Nick Hines, who has been busy shopping at all levels of the June market, made his biggest purchase of the auction when going to $260,000 to acquire a colt by Graydar on behalf of an undisclosed client. “He was probably the most athletic horse, pound for pound, by an underrated stallion,” Hines said of hip 672. “His work (:10 flat) was effortless, his balance is indisputable and his soundness goes without saying. I think he is a class individual. He is correct, he is very forward, but he obviously knows how talented he is. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg for him.” The gray colt is out of stakes placed Pink Diamond (Mineshaft) and is a half to graded placed Zulfikhar (Bodemeister). He was consigned by Costanzo Sales and was purchased by South Paw for $57,000 at last year’s Keeneland September sale. Hines said the June sale offers something for buyers at all levels. “It’s been difficult [to buy] on the higher end,” he said. “I think in the six-figure range, it’s very difficult. This is that type of sale. It’s June. I am buying horses for $10,000 and I’m signing tickets for $260,000, so that’s a pretty broad range. As a scout and a bloodstock consultant, I think you have to be very open-minded. There is a horse here for everybody.” Uncle Mo Colt to Heiligbrodt Bill Heiligbrodt, still basking in the glory of Mitole (Eskendereya)’s win in Saturday’s GI Met Mile, added a son of Uncle Mo to his racing stable when going to $255,000 to acquire hip 572 from the Wavertree Stables consignment Thursday in Ocala. “I loved the way he looked,” Heiligbrodt said of the colt, who will be trained by Steve Asmussen. “He’s breezed twice now and really well. I’ll give him a little time and see how good he is.” The dark bay colt is out of Grade I placed Modification (Vindication) and is a half to multiple graded placed Sawyer’s Hill (Spring at Last). Asked if he thought he might have found another Mitole, Heiligbrodt said with a laugh, “You don’t find Mitole. That’s a once in a lifetime. I hope this horse will be good, let’s put it that way. We’ll give him some time and see how he does.” Wavertree Stables consigned the colt on behalf of Hoby and Layna Kight, who purchased him for $350,000 at last year’s Keeneland September sale. He RNA’d for $485,000 after working a quarter in :20 3/5 at the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale. He was re-routed to the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May sale, but missed that engagement with a sore shin. “Maybe I paid too much for him, but he was a runner,” Kight said. “That’s the most I’ve paid for one in a long time, but I thought he was as good a horse as there was in Book 1. He went :20 3/5 at Gulfstream and I couldn’t sell him and then he had a little bit of a shin, so I didn’t have him quite ready for Maryland, that’s why he was here.” Kight said the colt was hampered by a less-than-ideal vet report. “The vets beat me up a little bit on sesamoiditis, that was it,” he said. “I probably shouldn’t have been able to get him bought in September if he had vetted really good, but that [sesamoiditis] never stops them and it didn’t stop him this time. He continued, “We really loved him and we just needed to sell him because we had so much in him. We were prepared to race him, but Steve [Asmussen] loved him, too.” Ryan Strikes for More Than Ready Filly Bloodstock agent Mike Ryan, often busy filling orders for clients, found a filly he plans to race himself and bought out pinhooking partners to secure the daughter of More Than Ready for $225,000 early in Thursday’s second session of the OBS June sale. “We’ve had a lot of success with More Than Ready–he’s no secret,” Ryan said. “And we liked her from the get-go. She’s a medium-sized, quality filly who showed plenty of pace. She is very clean, she’s ready to go on. I think she could run in six to eight weeks in Saratoga. That’s what we bought her for.” Consigned by Niall Brennan Stables, hip 457 is out of stakes winner Knit One Purr Too (Tale of the Cat). The dark bay filly worked a furlong during last week’s under-tack preview in :10 flat. Bred by Jamm, which acquired the mare with this filly in utero for $400,000 at the 2016 Keeneland November sale, the juvenile was purchased by Hades Bloodstock for $150,000 at last year’s Keeneland September sale. “I bought out Niall and the other partners,” Ryan said. “We bought her as a yearling and I liked her all along. So I bought her for myself and I might take in a partner.” Ryan, whose successes with More Than Ready include e Five Racing Thoroughbreds’ multiple Grade I winner Rushing Fall, has between 15 and 20 horses in training himself. “I’m in the breeding business as well,” Ryan said. “If they run well, we will retire them and breed them. It’s part of our portfolio. We like the whole process–racing, breeding and selling. But if you want to try buy quality fillies who have shown something on the track, they are hard to come by. So if she turns out to be a useful filly, she’ll certainly be a nice broodmare. She’ll be a good outcross being by More Than Ready.” Tiznow Colt Joins Bourbon Lane Partnership A colt by Tiznow (Hip 438) will be joining the Bourbon Lane Stable partnership after bloodstock agent Mike McMahon made a final bid of $210,000 to acquire the juvenile Thursday in Ocala. Ian Wilkes will train the youngster, who was consigned by Randy Bradshaw. Out of multiple graded stakes winner Juanita (Mineshaft), the bay colt’s half-brother Wings of Dawn (Medaglia d’Oro) is a two-time winner since the catalogue. He was purchased by Bradshaw for $210,000 at last year’s Keeneland September sale and was making his second trip through the sales ring this year after RNA’ing for $205,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream following a :10 4/5 furlong work. He worked a quarter-mile in :21 2/5 last week. “We are big fans of the sire, he is known as the big-horse sire for a reason,” McMahon said. “We like the update to the mare’s page–that was a positive over Miami. The horse trained solidly for a guy we respect and trust a lot and that was a real positive. We have horses at Hidden Brook. Our trainer Mark Roberts and Randy share the track, so he’s a horse we’ve known about a long time. There weren’t a lot of negatives. We were just hopeful we could get him.” Of the colt’s appearance in Hallandale, McMahon said, “We didn’t bid on him at Gulfstream. He galloped well there the whole week, he prepped well. He just kind of turned in a flat work there. But it was early in the year and Randy had a lot of faith in him.” Founded in 2010, the Bourbon Lane Stable managed by McMahon and Hill was on the Triple Crown trail this spring with graded stakes placed Bourbon War (Tapit). Hoppels Double Up at OBS Jesse Hoppel’s Coastal Equine enjoyed pinhooking success Thursday in Ocala when selling a filly by Jack Milton (hip 586) for $110,000 to Team Casse, agent. Hoppel purchased the dark bay for $12,000 at last year’s Keeneland September sale. Not to be outdone, and just some 20 hips later, Hoppel’s father Pat sold a colt by Raison d’Etat (hip 609) for $180,000 to Larry Zap, as agent for Joseph Ciaglia, Jr. through his Hoppel’s Horse and Cattle Co. consignment. The elder Hoppel had purchased the dark bay for $10,000 at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Midlantic October sale. From the first crop of Grade I winner Jack Milton (War Front), hip 586 impressed Jesse Hoppel last September. “The filly had a great walk and a great way of moving,” he explained. “She looks precocious, she looks fast, she looks like she could make someone happy real soon. She’s a bigger version of the filly I bought. She was a little rough, but you’ve got to look through that. She’s a May foal and she’s only going to get better for those guys as time goes by.” Of the youngster’s $12,000 price tag last fall, Hoppel said, “I try not to spend a lot of money when I buy my horses. I try to emphasize physical and then hopefully I can find something on the paper that is exciting that coincides with the physical I need. I was glad to get her and now I’m really happy I had her.” After outdoing his son’s result with hip 609, Pat Hoppel deadpanned, “I’m older. I ought to do better.” Hip 609, out of Neith (Dynaformer), worked the day’s quarter-mile bullet time of :20 4/5 last week. “When I first bought him, I was just hoping he’d come the right way,” Hoppel said. “You’ve got to check all of the boxes and everything has to be right. And he did. He never slowed up. We struggled with the sire, he’s a little bit unknown, but he’s out of a Dynaformer mare and he worked really, really well. We’ve had a lot of horses work well. This horse worked as good as our really good horses. I thought he would get over $100,000 and then it was a matter of how bad they wanted him.” Rengifo’s Golden Rock on the Rise Keiber Rengifo lived out his dream of becoming a jockey, riding some 18 winners on the Midlantic circuit in 2015, 2016 and 2017, but now the Venezuelan native is dedicated to building up his Golden Rock Thoroughbreds, which will send 18 horses through the ring at this week’s OBS June sale. “I have had Golden Rock for almost two years,” Rengifo said. “About five years ago, I started breezing horses for Hartley/DeRenzo. I breezed horses for them for four or five years and then after that, I rode races in Maryland. I did that for a while, but it was a little tough after I lost my apprentice, so I made the decision to come back to Ocala. Randy [Hartley] and Dean [DeRenzo] gave me the opportunity to breeze for them again.” With the backing of his family, Rengifo made the decision to branch out on his own. “Last year, I made the decision to buy some horses for myself–nothing too expensive because I just started and I didn’t have any big clients,” he explained. “So I did it for myself and my family–I have the support of my mom and wife and two babies and my dad. So it’s a family business. I am trying to build it up and find clients.” His graduates are already succeeding on the racetrack. One of the graduates from his consignment at last year’s OBS March sale is the stakes placed Dunph (Temple City). Sold for $27,500 a year ago, the sophomore has earned over $165,000. Another graduate, Ta (Rattlesnake Bridge), sold for $40,000 at last year’s OBS June sale and is now stakes placed for Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt and trainer Steve Asmussen. In addition to purchasing about 16 pinhooking prospects himself at last fall’s yearling sales, Rengifo has been supported by clients like Jose Camejo, Alexandro Centofanti and Nick de Caro. He is also training several horses for Evelyn Benoit’s Brittlyn Stables. “This year, I had a great sale in March and April, in Maryland and now in June,” Rengifo said. “It’s a big market and I’m still doing great. I just try to keep working hard–I think that’s the key.” Rengifo’s top seller at the June sale so far is hip 548, a filly by Ghostzapper, who sold to Randy Bradshaw for $62,000. Of his initial introduction to racing, Rengifo said, “My uncle was a rider in Venezuela. That’s how I got into the horse business. When I was young, I wanted to be a jockey. When I came here from Venezuela, for a while I did ride. I didn’t do very well, but my dream came true. Right now, I’m so blessed to be in Ocala with my family.” Walden Bloodstock Debuts at OBS June Ben Walden, along with his wife Elaine, have been camped out in the OBS sales pavilion overlooking the back walking ring while deep in study of the June catalogue. The couple is reinventing their involvement in the industry a year and a half after dispersing their bloodstock at the 2017 Keeneland November sale and have chosen the June sale to unveil their Walden Bloodstock. “We’re establishing, late in life, a different twist to our vocation,” Walden explained. “We are shifting our focus to buying and selling horses. Of course, we’ve done that for many years on our own account, but it’s a different world. And with the farm sold and most of our horses sold, we wanted to stay in the business. We thought very seriously about getting out, but we couldn’t reconcile it in our hearts or our minds.” The new direction for the former owners of Vinery, as well as ventures from Gracefield to Hurricane Hall and Pauls Mill–was kicked off this week in Ocala. “This was the first sale on the calendar that came up chronologically after we’d come to this decision,” Walden said. “We are just going to approach it like we have approached the business in past, whether it be stallions or selling yearlings or consigning horses. At this sale, we are trying to stumble on a few young horses that are sound and look like they can run and that we like at decent value like we’ve always tried to find. He continued, “We have a handful of clients that we’re looking for. We haven’t struck yet, but we have one that we’re going to try to buy later [Thursday]. The cupboard is a little bare in that [client] department, but we’ve got our old Rolodex and we’ve made some phone calls to old partners and old clients.” After looking for race prospects for clients at the June sale, the Waldens will shift their focus to the yearling market, which opens next month with the Fasig-Tipton July Sale and continues with the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale in August. “At this point, I don’t have a plan specifically other than we’ll look for young horses for a couple people we are trying to find racehorses for here, we’ll transfer over to yearlings,” Walden said. “My brother [WinStar president Elliott Walden] has given me some partnership ideas and we’ll maybe put a little filly partnership together. We’re starting to give that some thought. After this sale, when we get home we’ll have a little bit of time before July and Saratoga.” Walden is also eagerly looking forward to the bloodstock sales in Kentucky in November. “The broodmares have always been our strength, as far as buying mares, finding those mares with deep pedigrees who started out a little slow–the pedigree has a way of seeking its way out. So I really look forward to the fall and I think I can really bring something to the table for some folks who might be trying to build on their broodmare bands. And we’ve always pinhooked weanlings and we might get into that again. Right now, we’re just starting out and we don’t really have it all mapped out yet.” The Waldens’ 21-year-old daughter Hope, an advanced eventer and talented artist, has developed the new initiative’s logo and her interests will also provide an additional outlet for the bloodstock agency. “We’ve learned to love the event world,” Walden said. “We don’t know much about the hunter/jumpers, but there are a lot of good people in eventing and we’re going to have an arm in the bloodstock agency where we try to buy event prospects, whether they be advanced, intermediate, novice, or young rider prospects. Elaine and Hope are going to head that arm. So there will be a crossover into the sport horse world and we’ll just see if we can develop that end of it.” The post Steady Trade Continues at OBS June appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

It will finally be back to business as usual on the racetrack for Maximum Security as he will make his first start since the Kentucky Derby, facing five fellow 3-year-olds in the $150,000 TVG.com Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park June 16. View the full article

SHEDARESTHEDEVIL (f, 2, Daredevil–Starship Warpspeed, by Congrats) overcame a slow start and leveled off strongly down the lane to graduate on debut Thursday at Churchill, becoming the first North American winner for her freshman sire (by More Than Ready). Flashing consistent speed in her morning activity, highlighted by a half-mile bullet in :47 2/5 (1/48) May 16 at Keeneland, the $100,000 Keeneland November buy was backed as the 13-5 second favorite here and broke tardily from her rail draw. Quickly advancing into contention behind pacesetting Collude (Secret Circle) past a :22.58 quarter, the bay was angled off the inside into the three path nearing the turn for home. Drawing on even terms in mid-stretch, she forged by Collude a furlong out and skipped clear to a 3 1/2-length success over that rival in 1:04.84. The winner, who follows up the first worldwide victor by her sire Wednesday at Hamilton in Great Britain, has a yearling half-sister by Outwork and a filly of this season by Speightster. Sales History: $100,000 Wlg ’17 KEENOV. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $57,000. O-Glencrest Farm; B-WinStar Farm LLC (KY); T-Norm W. Casse. The post Daredevil Debutante Gets Off the Mark in Sharp Debut at Churchill appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Trainer Bill Mott is part of Country House's connections who will be honored at June 15 at Churchill Downs and he will also be saddling starters in three of the graded stakes on the Saturday card. 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 pair of pricey sales horses. 2.35 Sandown, Mdn, £7,400, 2yo, 7fT RIOT (IRE) (Kingman {GB}) cost €850,000 at the Goffs Orby Sale, which made him the highest-priced colt of the flagship auction and the joint-third highest-priced lot overall. A half-brother to the Listed Tetrarch S. scorer Alkasser (Ire) (Shamardal) from the family of Dandy Man (Ire) and the G2 Queen Mary S. winner Anthem Alexander (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}), Qatar Racing’s newcomer represents the John Gosden stable in this fascinating encounter with Godolphin’s Visible Charm (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}). The second-highest lot at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale at 575,000gns, the Charlie Appleby-trained half-brother to the GI Canadian International hero Erupt (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) was runner-up to ‘TDN Rising Star’ Pierre Lapin (Ire) (Cappella Sansevero {GB}) on debut at Haydock last month. The post Observations: June 14, 2019 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

Three horses from three countries are tied for the title of World’s Best Racehorse in the latest Longines-sponsored rankings released on Thursday. Sharing a mark of 125 are Hong Kong’s six-time Group 1 winner Beauty Generation (NZ) (Road To Rock {Aus}) and two horses that have since been retired: America’s GI Pegasus World Cup winner City of Light (Quality Road) and Australia’s Winx (Aus) (Street Cry {Ire}). Another Australian, G1 TJ Smith S. winner Santa Ana Lane (Aus) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), occupies the fourth spot with a rating of 124, while Happy Clapper (Aus) (Teofilo {Ire}), a frequent placegetter behind Winx, shares fifth with G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup winner Magical (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) on a mark of 123. The post Three Tied For World’s Best appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article

NYRA’s Cross Country Pick 5 Saturday will feature action from Belmont, Monmouth Park and Delaware Park. It will include Delaware’s GIII Obeah S., Belmont race seven, Monmouth’s Honey Bee S., Belmont race eight and Belmont’s Dancin Renee S. The minimum bet for this multi-race wager is 50 cents. The post NYRA Teams With Monmouth and Delaware for Cross Country Pick 5 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article