Wandering Eyes

Nine months after his last appearance, an eighth-place finish in the Jan. 27 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) at Gulfstream Park, grade 1 winner Sharp Azteca has been retired. View the full article

Godolphin colt missed ten weeks to recover from incident at Ascot View the full article

Growing up around the track indelibly molds a young mind. And even those who don’t find traditional careers in racing find themselves drawn back to the backstretch. Case in point: Shelby Landeros (née Wilkes), the daughter of Classic-winning trainer Ian Wilkes and wife of jockey Chris Landeros. Although she didn’t grow up a horse lover, Shelby is passionate about supporting the humans and animals who are cogs in the Thoroughbred industry. Born in Arlington Heights, Chicago, Landeros grew up in Louisville. Ian Wilkes made his name as assistant trainer to the legendary Carl Nafzger, working with GI Kentucky Derby winners Unbridled (Fappiano) and Street Sense (Street Cry {Ire}). “My parents are from Australia and they came here permanently in ’93,” the 27-year-old Landeros said. “My dad was an assistant trainer for Carl Nafzger for a while. I think he’s been on his own for about 11 years now.” Since branching out on his own, Wilkes has conditioned 2012 GI Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Fort Larned (E Dubai), star sprinter Capt. Candyman Can (Candy Ride {Arg}), and multiple graded stakes winner McCraken (Ghostzapper). Landeros herself has been in two Derby winner’s circles: first, in Unbridled’s 1990 Run for the Roses triumph, while her mother was six months pregnant with her, and the second, of course, 17 years later. She vividly remembers Fort Larned’s Classic, recalling, “My roommates from college laugh and Chris pulls up the footage, but I made the NBC coverage cheering for this horse and it’s the most mortifying clip I’ve ever seen in my life. But it’s memorable because it’s there and I’m standing right there with Dad and my brother’s behind me and we’re screaming for this horse to win [what] at the time [was] the richest race in the country.” Her mother-Ian’s wife, Tracey-also gallops horses for her husband, and her brother, Brodie Wilkes, now works as his father’s assistant trainer at Del Mar. However, Landeros said, “I never really rode horses. I know how to ride; I can sit on a horse and trot. But I never really showed any interest.” She added that, “For a long time, I actually didn’t really love the industry because my dad traveled with it, which meant he was gone a lot.” Wilkes noted, “It’s something I never forced onto Shelby. It was always her choice. I never pushed her to be away from the track, never pushed her to be at the track, to be with horses, because training was mine and Tracey’s lives. She had to make her own mind up in where she wanted to be and what she wanted to do.” As a teen, in search of a summer job, Landeros walked hots for her dad and she began to truly appreciate track life. “Of course, everyone appreciates dressing up for the big days and whatnot,” she said. “That’s what my parents used to joke-I would just turn up for the big days in the big hats and everything. But now it’s like a whole different ball game, because I’m more invested in what my dad does and I love supporting him, and now I have Chris, so I’m on the whole other side of things.” Landeros carved out her own path, attending Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia, where she studied health sciences. “I intended on being an athletic trainer and working with sports teams in the athletic training rooms and whatnot, like it’s not personal training, it’s working with their injuries,” she said. “You do the therapies with them before they get sent to physical therapy.” But additional certification required further graduate school, and Landeros “didn’t have it in” her to do that post-graduation. So she moved back to Kentucky, keeping busy by working at Starbucks-until Mr. Right galloped up. In a modern-day love story, Shelby met her future husband on Facebook. At the time, Chris Landeros was riding at Indiana Downs and came across Shelby via the “People You May Know” function on the social media platform. The two became “friends” and began messaging back and forth. “He was very persistent,” Shelby recalled. “I think it was like eight months of messaging, and me sending, like, one line back to him, and so one day, after we were dating, someone was like, ‘Well, why did you keep messaging her?’ [He said,] ‘Well, she kept responding,’ so I did, and here we are.” Landeros admitted, “He was a jockey and I’ve never been interested in dating anyone in the industry because if dad would start using him and if something happened between us and that’s his business, I wouldn’t want to interfere with it.” But once she and her future husband started dating, Landeros told her father, “‘Business is business; don’t worry. You don’t have to use him because of me,'” and Wilkes replied, “I’ll use him because I like him as a rider.” Engaged 11 months after they first began dating, Shelby and Chris scheduled their wedding day around a particularly important occasion: Derby Day. They wed on May 9, 2016, in Kentucky, for practical reasons. Landeros remembered, “So my entire family is in Australia and when I say ‘my entire family,’ the only two people I have over here are my mom and my dad. So I figured, if we’re going to get married in the spring, let’s just do it right after [the] Derby because everyone will be here, including Chris’s buddies who are jockeys who would’ve flown in to ride.” Now, Chris regularly rides for his father-in-law. “Chris has done a very good job, but business is business, too,” Wilkes said. “Family is family, but business is business. If any one of them-and Brodie-is doing something wrong, I’ll tell him because it’s important. It’s a business and same with Chris. When we leave the track, it’s over; it’s family then.” Landeros observed, “And they’re both very good about, you get off the horse, you talk about it, and when they walk away we can go to dinner together and we don’t bring it up. It’s time for family and that’s nice, because it is hard for some people to keep work at work and it can make the family situation a bit stressful, especially since Chris works for him.” But Chris’s career is blossoming, as he rides for both his father-in-law and other trainers. Making the family atmosphere that much more exciting is the presence of Shelby and Chris’s son, Beckham, born in September 2017. Now a stay-at-home mom, Landeros says that finding work-life balance is tricky. “Chris has workers in the morning, the afternoon he has to go ride, and when he comes home he wants a break and I want a break and I’m like, ‘This is a lot,'” she said, “But it’s nice in a sense that everyone [at the track] has kids-whether some of them are a little older-the majority of us have babies, so there’s always someone around. I’m very close with Shea Leparoux [daughter of the late trainer Mike Mitchell and wife of jockey Julien Leparoux] and she just had a baby in December and has a 2-year-old and they’re down here in Florida, so it’s nice when I can talk to her about things or we get the babies together.” In 2017, Landeros and her husband decided to give back by getting involved in Hats Off to the Horses. The annual fundraiser involves industry couples posing alongside retired racehorses at Old Friends Farm and modeling hats crafted by milliner Sally Faith Steinman of Maggie Mae Designs; the hats are then auctioned off, the proceeds benefitting Old Friends. Shea and Julien Leparoux got involved previously and then recommended the Landeroses. For their photoshoot, the Landeroses cozied up to Danthebluegrassman (Pioneering) and former turf star and fan favorite Little Mike (Spanish Steps). Landeros modeled a Little Mike-inspired chapeau and said, “It was actually fun because Little Mike won the Breeders’ Cup [Turf] in 2012 and that was the same year my dad won the Classic with Fort Larned, so I knew who he was. We did the hat for him and he had just come off the track, too, so he was still a little fresh for me.” Landeros was happy to oblige, saying, “I’ve grown up with horses, I’ve been to Old Friends, and Michael [Blowen] out there is great. He always takes us around when we go out there and I try to send people [who ask], ‘Oh, what should we do in Kentucky or Lexington?’ [I’d say,] ‘Go visit Old Friends, donate, go see all the horses.’ Everyone, whether industry-related or not, wants to save horses and the sad part is you can’t always save every single one of them, so for someone to take time and create a property and create a home for these horses to have somewhere to go when they’re done with their careers, it’s great, especially since it’s nonprofit. They live on donations and anything I can do to help get money that way makes me feel better.” Beckham, who first visited the track at six days old, might be too tall to follow in his father’s bootprints. “At his growth rate, I don’t know if he’s going to be a jockey,” his mother admitted. “But he’s going to be on horses. We’re out at the track all the time because Beckham doesn’t nap at home, so to get him to nap, I have to go out and do things, so I’m just going to go to the track to watch Chris ride or watch my dad’s horses. So we get out in the fresh air and wander around. It’s a pretty germy place; we’re building up immunities.” Wilkes loves having his grandson around the track, saying cheerfully, “You never realize until you have a grandson what it’s like and the fun things about it. As I told Shelby, I said, “I’m going to spoil him and [for] all those years you gave me a hard time, I’ll get even.'” Wilkes also appreciates the people his children have grown into. Seeing them excel is “very rewarding” as he admires “what they do and how they’re accomplished in their young lives,” especially how they respect those around them. Particularly special is seeing Carl Nafzger and wife Wanda bonding with Beckham. He added, “They’re like our American mother and father and they’re grandparents to the kids and now they’ve got a great-grandson. They adore Beckham.” He added, “That’s special to see, too.” View the full article

All-sources handle at the Del Mar summer meeting, which concluded Monday, rose 6.8% to $13.4 million per day, which follows a 5.1% increase from 2016 to 2017. Off-track wagering accounted for much of the spike, with a 10.8% increase in betting by out-of-state patrons and a 14.1% jump from California ADW customers. “Across the board, we’ve hit all our marks with a wonderful display of teamwork in a group effort,” said Del Mar Thoroughbred Club CEO Joe Harper. “Our owners, our trainers, our jockeys-everyone is pulling their oars in the same direction. It is amazing what positive things can happen when we all get on the same page to put on a first-rate show. The bar was set very high in 2017, but here we’ve gone and jumped far over it in a very gratifying summer.” Field size ticked up slightly from 8.6 runners per race to 8.7 over the seven-week season, following an increase from 8.3 in 2017. Southern California’s popular “Ship & Win” program drew 105 new runners to the track from out-of-state. “The response from our horsemen and horsewomen to our program at Del Mar has been just terrific,” said executive vice president for racing Tom Robbins. “We have a wonderful partnership going right now and we’ll continue to work to make it even better.” View the full article

Gelfenstein Farm’s Grade I winner Sharp Azteca (Freud-So Sharp, by Saint Liam) has been retired from racing, according to a post on trainer Jorge Navarro’s website. Capturing the GI Cigar Mile H. as one of four graded stakes victories last season, the dark bay hadn’t raced since finishing eighth in the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational Jan. 27 at Gulfstream. No decision has been made yet on where the 5-year-old will stand stud. “It has been an honor for me to train a horse like Sharp Azteca,” said Navarro. “He’s the type of horse that every trainer wants to have in his barn. Winner of six stakes races, including the Cigar Mile, one of the most prestigious races in America run over a mile on dirt. From the first day I saw Sharp Azteca, I knew that he was a special horse. Together, we managed to compete at the highest level at 10 different racetracks. I would like to thank Mr. Rodriguez and Mr. Scharf for entrusting me with the care of Sharp Azteca, a horse that I will always carry in my heart. I’m pretty sure that, just as he was a brilliant runner, he will also be an extraordinary stallion.” View the full article

Drayden Van Dyke was six wins back in the Del Mar rider standings Aug. 18, but he jumped into the lead with a track record-tying seven wins the following day and never looked back to earn his first major Southern California riding championship at the 79th Del Mar summer meeting. The 23-year-old native of Louisville, Ky. overtook Flavien Prat and finished the meet with 42 wins to Prat’s 37. Van Dyke had captured titles at the brief Los Alamitos meetings during an Eclipse Award-winning apprentice campaign in 2014, but the championship was a first at Del Mar or Santa Anita in five years on the circuit. He also triumphed in nine stakes and led all riders in earnings with $2,754,118. On the training side, Peter Miller, who led for the majority of the meeting, finished as easily the summer’s top conditioner with 31 victories from 114 starters, 10 wins ahead of Doug O’Neill. The total tied for the second-most at Del Mar this century, one behind the 32 tallies Bob Baffert posted in 2000. John Sadler, who finished sixth with 15 wins, saw eight of those come in stakes, highlighted by Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky)’s dominant victory in the GI TVG Pacific Classic. In the owner standings, Kosta and Pete Hronis’s Hronis Racing narrowly beat back the challenge of Rockingham Ranch to pick up their fourth title in the past six years at Del Mar. The pair, from Delano, Ca., topped all owners with 11 victories and-buoyed by Acclerate’s heroics-$1,277,954 in purses, proving best in both departments for the second year in a row. Rockingham Ranch finished one back with 10 scores. View the full article

LA TESTE DE BUCH, France—Trade took a while to hit its stride during the first session of the Osarus September Yearling Sale but it finished with a bit of a flourish as Pierre Yves-Bureau went to €115,000 for a second-crop colt by Anodin (Ire) to race in the colours of stallion’s breeders, Gerard and Alain Wertheimer. Sold as lot 126 through Haras de l’Hotellerie, the half-brother to six multiple winners is a son of the Woodman mare Bahia Gold, herself a daughter of the G2 Prix d’Astarte victrix Lady Winner (Fr) (Fabulous Dancer) from a family that includes Juddmonte’s Group 1 winner Aryenne (Fr). “There are a lot of nice Anodin yearlings in the sale but this is the one I liked the best,” said Bureau, who divulged that the Wertheimers have sent the young Haras du Quesnay resident another 25 mares this year. “We want to continue to support the stallion as we did at the [Arqana] V.2, and as we have done with Intello (Ger). It’s our way of thanking the breeders, like Haras de l’Hotellerie, who have supported Anodin. We’re very pleased with the start he has made with his first runners.” That first crop includes another Wertheimer yearling purchase, Harmless (Fr), bought in Deauville for €35,000 and now the winner of the listed Prix Roland de Chambure with an entry for the G1 Qatar Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere on Arc day. Making their first visit to La Teste for this sale, Peter and Ross Doyle made their presence felt when signing for the second-top lot of the session on behalf of Middleham Park Racing. The Haras de Grandcamp consignee by the farm’s resident sire Dabirsim (Fr) (lot 110) brought the hammer down at €98,000. Out of the Tertullian mare Amazing Bounty (Fr), a half-sister to the German listed winner Amazing Beauty (Ger) (Bahamian Bounty {GB}), the colt’s full-brother All This Time (Ger) is already a winner and listed-placed in France. “He’s a very nice colt, very easy on the eye, and a good mover who looks like he’ll make a nice 2-year-old type,” said Ross Doyle, who added that, like Middleham Park Racing’s unbeaten juvenile Boitron (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}), the colt will be trained in England by Richard Hannon. Bought at this sale last year by Sylvain Vidal and Nicolas de Watrigant, Boitron races in partnership for Middleham Park and Gerard Augustin-Normand and is under consideration to be supplemented for the G1 Vincent O’Brien National S. during the Irish Champions Weekend after winning at listed level in mid-August. “We’re going to leave the decision until as late as possible to see what the ground is like but we’re definitely thinking about it,” said Tim Palin of Middleham Park. Within the first half an hour of the session, a strong, dark brown son of Manduro (Ger) (lot 9) also from the draft of Haras de l’Hotellerie created an early flutter when selling for €65,000 to Ghislain Bozo. The Meridian International agent has so far bought seven winners of assorted Scandinavian Derbys and this colt will be aimed that way eventually after starting out in Chantilly. “He’s for a Scandinavian client of Pia Brandt and will be trained in France to begin with but will hopefully be considered for the Scandinavian Classics in the future,” said Bozo. Marc-Antoine Berghgracht went to €45,000 for lot 61, a colt by Makfi whose full-brother Mon Cheri (Fr) is a Slovakian Derby winner and whose dam Skysweeper (Fr) (Hurricane Run {Ire}) is a half-sister to Royal Hunt Cup and listed winner GM Hopkins (GB), by Makfi’s sire Dubawi (Ire). Along with a range of French owners and trainers, international support for Osarus came from Tom Biggs of Blandford Bloodstock, attending the sale with trainer Archie Watson, who signed for three yearlings including a first-crop colt by Haras de Colleville’s Galiway (GB) (lot 26). Mark Johnston and Gay Kelleway both made multiple purchases, while breeze-up pinhookers Ambrose O’Mullane and Mary Reynolds of Ardglas Stables, Thomond O’Mara, Katie Walsh and Con Marnane were all on the list of buyers. In line with the market trend elsewhere in Europe this season, figures dipped a little overall during the first day, though the median held steady at €16,000. The average was down to €20,280 from €21,636, and the aggregate stood at €1,920,000, down from €2,437,000. The clearance rate dropped four points but was still a reasonably encouraging 79% for 100 horses sold from 127 offered. The second session of the sale commences slightly earlier today at 12 noon local time. View the full article

The $250,000 Old Friends Stakes at Kentucky Downs Sept. 6 is for horses who haven't won a stakes race in 2018. That doesn't mean there isn't an overflow of proven quality in the overflow field of 15. View the full article

Average daily all-sources handle at the 2018 Del Mar summer meeting improved 6.8% to $13.44 million as the track built on gains enjoyed in 2017. View the full article

G1 St Leger candidate Wells Farhh Go (Ire) (Farhh {GB}) has been ruled out of that Sept. 15 Classic and the remainder of the year after suffering a fracture on the gallops on Tuesday morning. “It’s a real sickener, he cantered this morning and came back lame behind,” said trainer Tim Easterby. “It turns out it’s a stress fracture and that’s his season finished. Hopefully he’ll be back next year, but you can obviously not say these things for certain. I suppose the saving grace is that it’s not a tendon.” “If everything does go to plan with how it heals, I’d like to think he’d be back for the start of next season, but obviously you just don’t know at this stage,” Easterby added. Wells Farhh Go won the G3 Acomb S. last year and had scooped the G3 Bahrain Trophy in July before finishing fourth in the Aug. 22 G2 Great Voltigeur S. View the full article

G1 Irish Oaks and G1 Yorkshire Oaks winner Sea Of Class (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) is likely to train up to the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Oct. 7, but whether the 3-year-old filly and current ante-post favourite is ultimately supplemented could depend on the ground. “I don’t think she’ll run before [the Arc]; she’s in the Prix Vermeille [on Sept. 16] but I don’t fancy that,” trainer William Haggas told At The Races. “I think there’s every likelihood that if she’s OK, she’ll be supplemented for the Arc, but I’m very concerned about the ground. I can’t believe its still dry and it’s not going to stay dry for long I’m sure.” “If the ground is good or faster on Arc day and she’s OK, then she’ll be there,” the trainer added. “Very few horses are very effective on fast and soft ground. I suspect she won’t like [soft ground]; her action suggests she flicks off the top of the ground. There’s every chance now we’re going to keep her as a 4-year-old so if it’s soft, it’s a lot of money to supplement and we can go next year.” View the full article

This year’s Trainers Commentary Competition will be held Sept. 22 in Newmarket and will see local trainers and racing journalists try their hand at calling a race for charity. The sixth confirmed participants are trainers Charlie Fellowes, George Scott, Richard Spencer and Ed Vaughan, as well as journalist Lee Mottershead and presenter Hayley Moore. A seventh and final participant will be announced at a later date. Each participant will raise funds in aid of Newmarket Open Weekend beneficiaries, and the top fundraiser will receive the Julian Wilson Memorial Trophy and lunch for six at the Rowley Mile’s Champions Gallery at the 2019 Craven meeting. Fellowes, chairman of the Open Weekend, said, “The Trainers Commentary Competition is a fantastic annual occasion and we are very pleased to welcome another round of eager participants for 2018. We are particularly excited to welcome Lee Mottershead and Hayley Moore, who excel in their day-to-day roles but who are both keen to experiment with commentating on a race.” “Once again our commentary competition is raising money for a range of worthy causes in Newmarket and I am calling on the support of the racing community to help us raise as much money as possible. Newmarket Racecourses has again generously offered a fantastic prize to the winner and we hope that provides participants with an added incentive to raise money via their Just Giving pages. I would like to thank all this year’s participants for their time and commitment to the competition in support of the beneficiaries for the 32Red Newmarket Open Weekend–may the best man or woman win!” View the full article

Bold Stitch and Super Hoppy are both chasing a hat-trick of wins but they face their toughest task to date when they contest the Class Two Big Wave Bay Handicap (1,200m) at Happy Valley on Wednesday night. The Tony Millard-trained Bold Stitch came from the clouds last season when everything finally clicked for him, winning four of his five starts after taking just two of his first 23. He saved his best performance for the final day of the season – scoring by six lengths – and jockey... View the full article

Trainer Francis Lui Kin-wai wants to see how Group One winning sprinter Lucky Bubbles comes through his next trial before confirming a trip to Japan for the Sprinters Stakes. The gelding put in a solid effort when fifth in a 1,050m barrier trial on Sha Tin’s all-weather track on Tuesday morning, slow early before finishing off reasonably well. Lucky Bubbles has been entered for the 1,200m Group One at Nakayama on September 30, with Brett Prebble booked to ride, but Lui will keep his... View the full article

After securing the first grade 1 win of his career with Mind Control Sept. 3 in the $350,000 Hopeful Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course, trainer Gregory Sacco's thoughts turned to his father. View the full article

A day after a man was shot outside the Del Mar gates when he allegedly brandished a gun, Del Mar Thoroughbred Club CEO Joe Harper said security protocol at the racetrack likely will not change substantially in the future. View the full article

A day after a man was shot outside the Del Mar gates when he allegedly brandished a gun, Del Mar Thoroughbred Club chief executive officer Joe Harper said security protocol at the racetrack likely will not change substantially in the future. View the full article

BG Stables' homebred Feeling Strong did his sire proud Sept. 3 when he broke his maiden at Del Mar. View the full article

Trainer Bob Baffert came into the $300,000 Del Mar Futurity (G1) confident both of his entries were talented colts, but he felt Gary and Mary West's Game Winner would be better around two turns. View the full article

GAME WINNER (c, 2, Candy Ride {Arg}–Indyan Giving, by A.P. Indy) backed up his dominant ‘TDN Rising Star’-earning debut victory with a rallying victory in the GI Del Mar Futurity Monday. Running away to a 5 3/4-length tally Aug. 18, the $110,000 Keeneland September graduate was brought back on relatively short rest here while removing blinkers after drilling a bullet five furlongs in :59 3/5 (1/33) Aug. 29. Away well from his outside draw, the bay was unhurried early and dropped back toward the rear of the field as Rowayton (Into Mischief) tore away through a :22.53 quarter. Game Winner began to advance in tandem with stablemate and fellow ‘Rising Star’ Roadster (Quality Road) passing a half in :45.35, but they both still had several lengths to find at the top of the lane. Rowayton, however, started to hit a wall inside the furlong grounds while never switching leads, and Game Winner, the less fancied of the two Bafferts at 8-5 compared to Roadster’s 3-5, had the stronger late punch to take over in deep stretch and score by 1 1/2 lengths in 1:23.18. Rowayton held off Roadster for the place. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $216,000. O-Gary & Mary West; B-Summer Wind Equine (KY); T-Bob Baffert. View the full article

Nine days after his ride aboard Take a Leap in the fourth race at Del Mar Aug. 25, the stewards at the San Diego County racetrack suspended jockey Kent Desormeaux three racing days. View the full article

Jockey Corey Lanerie captured one more race on the Sept. 3 closing card to finish Ellis Park's 2018 meet with 30 victories out of 137 mounts after missing the first six days following the death of his wife, Shantel. View the full article

Shadwell Stable's Qurbaan prevailed in a blanket finish Sept. 3 to win the $250,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap (G2T) at Saratoga Race Course in his stateside debut. View the full article

RAYANA (f, 2, Scat Daddy–Tipping Point, by Speightstown) showed speed from her outside draw and never looked back, taking them all the way and giving Bob Baffert a rare turf juvenile winner on closing day at Del Mar. Picked up for $130,000 as a Keeneland September yearling, the Arkansas-bred showed a steady string of stamina-building works for this unveiling, capped by a six-furlong spin in 1:14 flat (3/3) on the local main Aug. 28. Given a 3-1 chance, the dark bay broke sharply and pulled her way to the front, leading clear through fractions of :22.97 and :46.98. Held together strongly by leading rider Drayden Van Dyke, she turned for home with her ears pricked, lengthened her stride to create an unassailable advantage and came home a 1 1/4-length victress over odds-on Colonial Creed (Jimmy Creed). The running time for the mile was 1:35.98, which was 1.19 seconds faster than ‘TDN Rising Star’ Summering (War Front) ran in taking the Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf S. four races earlier. The winner has a yearling half-sister by Icon Ike named Tailorbeswift and a weanling Blame half-brother. Her dam was bred to Ordained this season. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $36,000. O-Sheikhk Rashid Bin Humaid Al Nuaimi; B-James W. Matheney, Jr. (AR); T-Bob Baffert. View the full article

Glen Hill Farm's homebred Summering followed up her eye-catching debut victory at Del Mar with her first stakes win Sept. 3 in the $100,000 Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf. View the full article