Wandering Eyes

Undefeated ‘TDN Rising Star’ Instagrand (Into Mischief), dominant winner of the GII Best Pal S., is favored at 4-1 in the GI Sentient Jet Breeders’ Cup Juvenile future wager. His red hot sire is the 7-2 favorite in the BC Juvenile Sires Future Wager second pool. Wagering opens Friday at noon and concludes Sunday at 6:00p.m. with 23 unique betting interests and one “All Others” wager. Currently sitting second at 6-1 is fellow ‘TDN Rising Star’ Roadster (Quality Road), who is scheduled to run in the upcoming GI Del Mar Futurity. GII Saratoga Special S. winner Call Paul (Friesan Fire) and ‘TDN Rising Star’ Mucho (Blame) are both quoted at 8-1. View the full article

Champion West Coast (Flatter) returned to the worktab at Del Mar Tuesday morning for the first time since finishing second in the G1 Dubai World Cup Mar. 31, covering a half-mile in :48.80 under Dana Barnes (11/28). “Hopefully he will be ready for the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic if all goes well with his training,” Hall of Famer Bob Baffert said Wednesday afternoon. “I am very happy with him. It is going to be tight, but we could also run in the [GI] Clark [H. at Churchill Downs Nov. 23].” On the worktab for Baffert Wednesday were GI Del Mar Futurity-bound ‘TDN Rising Star’ Roadster (Quality Road), who worked five panels in 1:00.20 (6/33); and ‘TDN Rising Star’ Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg}), who breezed a best-of-33 five furlongs in :59.60. View the full article

The visitation and funeral services for John Asher have been finalized. View the full article

Bob Baffert said there isn't a race target set for West Coast, but indicated he'll get more clarity on the situation when the colt gets up to Santa Anita Park after Del Mar closes for the summer and works six furlongs. View the full article

Prairie Meadows Vice President of Racing Derron Heldt, track superintendent Lamont Marks, and starter Tom Benjamin were inducted into the track’s Hall of Fame Friday, Aug. 10. “I am sincerely flattered to be recognized by Prairie Meadows for my contributions to the racing operation. My crew and I have always done our best to give the horsemen a safe and fair racetrack,” said Marks. View the full article

Woodford Thoroughbreds will be consolidating its operations to its Ocala, FL, farm Jan. 1 and the Kentucky farm will be closed. However, Woodford will still breed their mares in Kentucky. “Unfortunately, Matt Lyons, who has managed the Woodford Farm operations for the past 10 years has chosen not to relocate to Florida,” said Woodford owner John Sykes. “Matt has done a fantastic job in building the Woodford brand and elevating Woodford’s standing in the industry. Matt will continue to direct Woodford operations until the transition is complete and will provide advisory services to Woodford, as needed.” John Gleason will, in addition to his role as trainer and general manager of the racing and training division, assume the role of farm operations. Gleason has been with Woodford for five years. Shannon Castagnola will assume a new role as Director of Marketing and Client Relations. She will look at ways to provide our clients with access to our horse produce while in their development regardless of what stage they are in. Also included on the Woodford Team will be Lincoln Collins of Kern Thoroughbreds. Collins will provide advisory services to Woodford’s bloodstock division. He will be responsible for mare acquisition, breeding plans and will directly oversee Woodford’s Thoroughbred holdings. Woodford is, likewise, pleased to announce that Beth Bayer will become Director of Sales consignment at Woodford. By agreement, Beth will continue her farm operations and sales consignment at OBS in the January and October sales. Woodford will sell its produce through Bayer’s consignment for those two sales events beginning in 2019. “We welcome these two seasoned veterans to the Woodford Team,” said Sykes. “They will begin participating in the Woodford Operations effective October 2018 but will assume their primary roles January 1, 2019. I greatly appreciate Matt Lyons for his leadership at Woodford. Words cannot express my personal feelings for Matt and his wife Michelle for the contributions they have made. I look forward to continuing our relationship in the years to come and wish them the greatest success.” View the full article

The visitation and funeral services for John Asher have been finalized. View the full article

DONCASTER, UK–Trevor and Libby Harris produced the Goffs Premier Sale’s top lot two years ago and there was a sense of deja vu as the couple’s Lordship Stud offering delivered the highest point of the second afternoon’s trade. That particular £280,000 individual turned out to be Yafta (GB) (Dark Angel {Ire}), recent winner of the G3 Hackwood S. for Richard Hannon and Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, and pattern race dreams will undoubtedly be held by the new connections of his close relative. On that same day at Doncaster in 2016, John Dance had spent an unprecedented £220,000 on the filly who has made his name as an owner, this season’s G1 Prix de Diane S. winner Laurens (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}). It was Dance who swooped for Lordship’s lot 267, consigned like Yafta by Highclere Stud, when Daniel Creighton signed for her for £240,000 on his behalf. Their latest acquisition is a daughter of Acclamation (GB) representing the same Swiss Lake family that the Harrises Newmarket operation have nurtured so carefully. Although her dam Swiss Kiss (GB)(Dansili {GB}) did not hit the heights on the track to such an extent as siblings like Swiss Diva (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) and Yafta’s dam Swiss Dream (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}), her smart genes make her a valuable commodity. “We like this place,” said Trevor Harris with a smile. “I’m pleased. She’s going to a good home and will be well bred up. Swiss Kiss lost her pregnancy last year but she’s in foal to Dark Angel.” As with on Tuesday, when he had also been active, Dance was not on the scene and Creighton spoke on his behalf. “She was just a lovely mover–very Acclamation,” he said. “She has the pedigree and John is in to breeding so it’s a very alive page. John and [wife] Jess came here Sunday and Monday and loved her.” “We’ll decide on the trainer–it might be Karl Burke again if they want to go down the same route. We beat Angus Gold to buy Laurens and have done it again here.” On Laurens herself, who was a slight disappointment in last week’s G1 Yorkshire Oaks S., Creighton revealed: “She’ll go back in trip; basically she didn’t stay. They had to give it a go and see if they could go down the Arc route with her but there’s the likes of the Matron and the Champion S. at Ascot left.” Action during the rest of the session appeared to reflect the wider theme of the current market. As with last week’s events at Arqana, there was good money for the right horse and a total of 18 individuals reached six figures on the day. Such standards have been set over in recent times that it was understandable to note that trade was still a little patchy. A new Premier record had still been set through the £380,000 made early on Tuesday by lot 20, the Newsells Park Stud-consigned son of Gleneagles (Ire), and that figure never looked likely to be toppled. The overall clearance race from the 473 yearlings offered was a healthy 89%, up 1% on 12 months ago. However, the aggregate was £19,084,500, which was 3% down, with the average falling 11% from £50,687 in 2017 to £45,331. The median also dropped 5% to £35,000 from £37,000. Goffs UK’s managing director Tony Williams said: “We came into this sale determined to break the £300,000 mark and to do so is a huge achievement as we smashed the previous record by £100,000, setting a new high of £380,000. That’s a real statement for this sale and the type of yearling it now attracts and, along with the Classic winner Laurens, encapsulates the evolution this sale has undergone.” “This sale has undergone six consecutive years of growth and to match last year’s record-breaking figures was always going to be tough. However, we have achieved the second-highest figures in this sale’s history for which we are delighted and to finish with a clearance rate of 89% demonstrates the strength of the market here at Doncaster.” “We have received overwhelming praise from our vendors and buyers alike on what has been a very strong sale and it will be interesting to reflect on the figures as the sale season continues. I would like to thank our vendors and buyers who came from around the world and wish them all the very best.” Angel Rises For Highclere… Highclere later provided what was to prove the third-highest seller of the day by consigning lot 318 for £170,000. The son of Dark Angel {Ire} and G3 Ballyogan S. winner Age Of Chivalry (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), a half-brother to three winners already, ought to be a sharp sort for Richard Hannon to get to grips with after Peter and Ross Doyle secured the final bid. “I thought he was the best of the sale,” Ross Doyle said whilst Hannon set the wheels in motion for an as-then unnamed owner. “We’ve had a lot of success with the stallion and the mare looks decent, so it made a lot of sense.” From very similar lines a little later was lot 337, a son of Kodiac (GB) out of Age Of Chivalry’s dam Aravonian (GB) (Night Shift), who won a maiden in her racing career but has fared considerably better as a broodmare. He caught the attention of Shadwell’s Angus Gold at £135,000. “The mare has a bit of age on her now, but he’s a good, athletic sort who was bought to go to Mark Johnston,” Gold said. Gold had to dig deeper into the Shadwell reserves and up to £190,000 for lot 388, a professional-looking son of the increasingly popular Showcasing (GB). He is a third foal of listed winner City Image (Ire) (Elusive City), and from the immediate family of the outstanding French mare Elusive Wave (Ire) (Elusive City). “He’s a smashing horse – one of the most straightforward I’ve seen all week,” Gold said. “He looked a 2-year-old and I think a lot of people wanted him so I thought we might struggle. I valued him at around £200,000, so I’m thrilled we got him.” Shadwell ultimately laid out £1,435 on 13 yearlings and were jostling for supremacy with SackvilleDonald as the sale’s top purchaser. That honour narrowly fell to the latter, with 25 at a total of £1,453,000 including the Gleneagles top lot. Cheveley Repeats Pattern… David and Patricia Thompson’s Cheveley Park Stud might generally be regarded as sellers but such a successful business will always need to replenish its stocks and managing director Chris Richardson saw off the likes of Joseph O’Brien for lot 301, a Dark Angel (Ire) filly out of Wiltshire Life (Ire) (Camacho {GB}) for £150,000. “She was very athletic and Mrs Thompson was interested in her from a pedigree point of view because it’s the same cross as with Juliet Capulet, who we won the Rockfel S. with,” Richardson explained. It was two years ago that at Goffs Orby that Cheveley Park had acquired Juliet Capulet from Yeomanstown for €235,000. Richardson has a little more on his plate at the moment with the Thompsons reviving their interest in the National Hunt sphere. Their most famous chaser to date was Party Politics (GB), who carried Patricia Thompson’s purple and pink silks to success in the 1992 Grand National at Aintree. Those colours, however, have been retired and in future, the National Hunt horses will also run in the usual Cheveley Park livery of red, white and blue. “Jumping is more Mr Thompson’s interest and Mrs Thompson thought it was better that the colours were changed around,” Richardson added. “There are quite a few more horses now, with some trained in Ireland by Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott and Henry de Bromhead.” First Crop Update… There will be scant opportunities to purchase the progeny of The Wow Signal (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}), who died from laminitis earlier in the year after producing only two tiny crops. As John Quinn had prepared the late stallion to win the G1 Prix Morny S., it was no surprise to see the Yorkshire trainer showing interest in his only offering at the sale, lot 384. However, he was seen off in the end as the son of Chickasaw, consigned by Mark Dwyer’s Oaks Farm Stables, went to Con Marnane for £32,000. “My brother David trained [the dam’s half-brother] Santo Padre, so I know the family well,” Marnane explained. “He’ll probably come back here to breeze, and if he doesn’t sell, we’ll race him.” There was also interest in several other new sires. Yeomanstown’s Gutaifan (Ire) hit £100,000 on two occasions through lot 308 and lot 420, whilst these sales have also seen the first yearlings from Tweenhills’s Hot Streak (Ire), and his lot 501 closed the sale. A son of Irishstone (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) and half-brother to winning Acclamation colt Stone Of Destiny (GB) ended up in David Redvers’s hands for £105,000. Thankfully, Starspangledbanner himself is still going strong and he was responsible for the day’s final serious piece of theatre. Lot 477, a grey colt with a distinctly brown hue, provided as much relief as delight for Anna Sundstrom’s risk-taking pinhooking venture. She had bought the son of Glowing Star (Ire) (Clodovil {Ire}) for €78,000 last November and the bidding here eventually rolled up to £140,000 until he was knocked down to Cormac McCormack on behalf of “a new and enthusiastic client.” “I was so nervous,” Sundstrom admitted. “He was the most beautiful foal. I was worried about the colour but that’s the Clodovil coming through. I bought about 10 [to pinhook] and it’s a lot of money invested for me. We bred Home Of The Brave so I have always loved Starspangledbanner. I bought two last year and the other is selling at Goffs Orby.” View the full article

Though champion Good Magic (Curlin) did not come out of his lackluster performance in the GI Travers S. with any apparent problems, his owners have decided to send him to Stonestreet Farm in Lexington in order to give him an extended break. Stonestreet is the co-owner of Good Magic along with Bob Edwards’s e Five Racing. “We’ll go back to Kentucky and will get him checked out and then turn him out and let him be a horse for a little bit,” Edwards said. “We’ll let him tell us what he wants to do next. He’ll get treated like a king at Stonestreet. Once he’s in Kentucky, we’ll let the horse tell us what he wants to do. He doesn’t look terrible. He was a little dull personality-wise after the race. He’s a competitor and maybe he was disappointed in himself. He’s back to his old self, happy and friendly. It’s nice to see him back that way.” Edwards believes that a long campaign finally caught up with Good Magic. “It was probably a combination of things, including going through the Derby preps and the [GI] Kentucky Derby and the [GI] Preakness and then the [GI] Haskell. It was a long campaign and it takes a lot out of a horse. He just didn’t fire. He came out of the gate a little off and just couldn’t make up the speed. It was a speed-oriented race. That 1-2-3 spot around the track was super fast that day. The winner ran an unbelievable race and deserved to win. He deserves some time off. He’s done real well by us and he hasn’t been out of training at all and has been running hard since the [GII] Fountain of Youth and now deserves a break.” Good Magic was never a threat at any point in the race, which was won by Catholic Boy (More Than Ready). He broke awkwardly, but managed to move into sixth down the backstretch. From there, though, he began to back up and finished ninth of 10. He was beaten 15 1/2 lengths. Edwards, who, during his brief time as an owner, has not experienced many setbacks, admits he was a bit numb after the race. “You have to draw a line through it,” he said. “It’s his only bad race and everybody has a bad race now and then. I had my 24-hour period of mourning. We’re not used to getting pounded like that. I texted [Stonestreet’s] Barbara [Banke] and asked what the acceptable mourning period is and she said one day. Like any sport you have to have a short memory” Because the Haskell is a ‘Win and You’re in” race for the Breeders’ Cup, Good Magic will not have to pay entry fees to enter the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic. “We have a free pass to get into the Breeders’ Cup and we don’t want to waste it,” Edwards said. “If the horse tells us he wants to go there we’ll go there. If it doesn’t look like he’s ready we won’t go.” A well-bred horse who is a Grade I winner at two and three, Good Magic has already established his credentials as a sire, but Edwards said that it is likely he will run next year. “He’s a competitor so I expect he’s going to want to sign another year contract and compete again,” he said. “I had dinner with Barbara a few nights ago. They’re not opposed to running him next year and neither am I. There’s some big money races out there. Look how well they did with Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}).” As for the other top horse in his barn, Edwards said that Rushing Fall (More Than Ready) came out of her win in the GII Lake Placid in good shape and will be pointed for the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland. “She’s a monster,” he said. “She’s something special. She’s only a few stalls apart from Good Magic and it’s amazing how much bigger than him she is.” View the full article

5th-DEL, $34K, Msw, 2yo, f, 1m70ydsT, post time: 3:15 p.m. ET MONKEYS UNCLE (Uncle Mo), a $180K Fasig-Tipton July yearling, breezed an eighth of a mile in :10 2/5 and was hammered down to Roy and Gretchen Jackson’s Lael Stable for $300K at this year OBS March Sale. The February-foaled dark bay is a granddaughter of MGISW Lazy Slusan (Slewvescent), the dam of GISW Last Full Measure (Empire Maker). TJCIS PPs 7th-SAR, $75K, Msw, (S), 2yo, 5 1/2f, post time: 4:24 p.m. ET POPPY’S DESTINY (Orb) fetched $175K at last year’s Keeneland September sale and improved into a $300K OBSMAR breezer after drilling a furlong in :9 4/5. The dark bay is a son of Canadian stakes winner Plethora (First Samurai), a half-sister to multiple stakes-placed juvenile Congo (Johannesburg). The deeper female family includes European Group 3 winner Long Lashes (Rock Hard Ten). Risp (Violence), a son of MSW & MGSP Five Star Momma (Five Star Day), was the most expensive of his sire’s 31 foals to sell as weanlings in 2017, hammering to Sullimar Stables’ Mary Sullivan for $275K at KEENOV. TJCIS PPs View the full article

A colt by Unusual Heat topped the Barretts Select Yearling Sale when selling for $250,000 to Samantha Siegel’s Jay Em Ess Stable Tuesday at Del Mar. The yearling (hip 11) was one of six to bring $100,000 or more during the one-session auction and three of those six-figure offerings were purchased by Siegel. Siegel, who purchased last year’s sale-topping daughter of Bodemeister, also acquired a colt by Goldencents (hip 33) and a filly by Fed Biz (hip 83), both for $130,000 Tuesday evening. In all, 42 yearlings grossed $2,632,000. The average of $62,667 was up 52.6% from a year, while the median jumped 56.3% to $50,000. With 38 horses reported not sold, the buy-back rate was 47.5%. The sale-topping yearling was bred and consigned by Harris Farms and is from the final crop of Unusual Heat, who stood at the Coalinga nursery and led the sire lists by earnings in California in four straight years. “The mare might not have been bred to Unusual Heat had he not stood at the farm,” said Harris Farms general manager Dave McGlothlin. “It was such a fitting way to go out with the last crop of his yearlings to have the sale topper at Del Mar.” The yearling is out of Cinema Paradisa (Capote), who was purchased by Harris Farms for $34,000 at the 2005 Keeneland November sale. The colt is a half-brother to multiple stakes placed Moving Desert (Desert Code) and Sambamzajammin (Heatseeker {Ire}). “We referred to him as a rock star because he was just a standout from the time he was foaled,” McGlothlin said of the sale topper. “We talked about him when he was 60-90 days old in a little paddock adjacent to the foaling barn, how outstanding he was at the time, and he maintained that throughout.” While polarized markets–with high demand for only the top offerings–have been the norm at auctions across the country in recent years, McGlothlin said the issue is magnified in California, as reflected in the sale’s hefty buy-back rate. “The upper end always does well,” he said. “I was disappointed in the number of RNAs. We would have liked to see it a little stronger in the middle of the sale. But the market is what it is. I think it’s just a matter of us having the right product for the buyers. We need to define our product probably a little more.” “[The market] is even more polarized in California,” McGlothlin continued. “We don’t have the depth of the market that exists back East with the availability of venues for them to race. We’re out here on the island.” The Select Yearling Sale was the final auction to be conducted by Barretts at Del Mar. The sales company will host one final sale, the Fall Sale of Yearlings and Horses of Racing Ages in Pomona Oct. 16. Fasig-Tipton will host a 2-year-olds in training sale at Santa Anita next June and plans for a yearling sale in Arcadia in late September. McGlothlin said an influx of commercial stallions was pivotal to the success of the California breeding industry going forward. “If we bring in some more strong stallions, I think the industry will support them,” he said. “But, as farms, we need to do that to give them viable options. I think we need to do more to bring in those types of stallions.” View the full article

Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith will be honored with Donna Barton Brothers, Jim Gluckson and Marty McGee during the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters 59th annual awards dinner Oct. 31 at Whiskey Dry by Edward Lee in Louisville, Kentucky. Smith will receive the Mr. Fitz Award for typifying the spirit of racing. Barton Brothers, one of the leading female jockeys of all time when she retired in 1998, will receive the Jim McKay Award for excellence in broadcasting. Gluckson, a longtime publicist and head of media relations for Breeders’ Cup, will receive the Joe Palmer Award for meritorious service to racing. McGee, who has been with Daily Racing Form since 1992, will receive the Walter Haight Award for career excellence in turf writing. View the full article

The two men who know Saxon Warrior better than anyone believe the best is yet to come, with Aidan O'Brien stressing the Juddmonte International (G1) was simply part one of a three-race autumn series. View the full article

Multiple Grade I winner Accelerate (Lookin at Lucky–Issues, by Awesome Again) will stand at Lane’s End Farm at the conclusion of his racing career, the farm announced Wednesday. “Accelerate has proven to be the best mile and a quarter horse in training in America,” said Lane’s End’s Bill Farish. “In his five starts this year, he’s won four, including three Grade Is and has run three of the five fastest Beyers all year: 115, 111, 110.” Campaigned by Hronis Racing and trainer John Sadler, Accelerate was most recently a romping 12 1/2-length winner of the Aug. 18 GI TVG Pacific Classic at Del Mar. His 2018 campaign has also included victories in the GI Santa Anita H., GI Gold Cup at Santa Anita and GII San Pasqual S. He bested champion Arrogate to take last year’s GII San Diego H. and, as a sophomore in 2016, he won GII Los Alamitos Derby and was third behind Tamarkuz and Gun Runner in the GI Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. “Accelerate has been a superstar from the beginning,” Sadler said. “He was a good 3-year-old, running third to two very good horses in the Breeders’ Cup, he beat Arrogate as a 4-year-old, and this year he’s proved he is one of, if not the best, active horses in America.” Accelerate’s sire Lookin at Lucky is a son of Lane’s End’s champion sire Smart Strike. “Accelerate is the kind of horse that we seek out, that we believe in,” Lane’s End owner Will Farish said. “Tough, sound, fast, Classic distance handicap horses. These are the type of racehorses that have made Lane’s End Stallions what it is today.” On the board in 18 of 20 starts to date, Accelerate has won eight times and earned $2,312,480. “We have been very fortunate to own a horse of Accelerate’s caliber,” said Kosta Hronis. “Undoubtedly, he will be an exciting addition to the Lane’s End roster and we look forward to following his stallion career upon retirement from racing.” View the full article

Multiple group winner Sovereign Debt (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}-Kelsey Rose {GB}, by Most Welcome {GB}) has been retired from racing at age nine. After tangling at the top level at four with the likes of Farhh (GB), Declaration of War and Lethal Force (Ire)-his best finish of the season being a second in the G1 Lockinge S.-Sovereign Debt was absent from the track in 2014 and resurfaced at six for trainer Dandy Nicholls, for whom he won four black-type contests during a very busy 6-year-old campaign. Sovereign Debt would win at stakes level at least once during each of the next three seasons, last year picking up victories in the G2 bet365 Mile and the G3 Diomed S. for trainer Ruth Carr, to whom the horse was transferred when Nicholls retired shortly before his death. Sovereign Debt won the Listed Ganton S. at York on June 15 and was last seen running fourth in an Epsom conditions race on Monday. “Sov ran well at Epsom on Monday giving weight away all round but a decision was made this morning to retire him as his joints aren’t what they used to be,” Carr said. “He owes nobody a thing and deserves a long and happy retirement. For the time being he will stay here at Mowbray but he’s such a fantastic looking horse with masses of presence it would be a shame if he wasn’t seen out and about, maybe, in the showing world in future.” View the full article

Jockey James Doyle said he will try to trim a bit of weight to continue his partnership with star filly Sea Of Class (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) in the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Oct. 7. Doyle generally doesn’t ride below 8st 12lb, but the age and sex allowance for the G1 Irish Oaks and G1 Yorkshire Oaks winner would see her line up under 8st 9lb. “The Arc looks to be the right race for her,” Doyle said of the current ante-post favourite. “I haven’t spoken to [trainer] William [Haggas] since she won so I don’t know how far along they are as to what to go for next. She’ll only have 8st 9lb in the Arc which would be the lightest I’ve done for three or four years. I did do it in Australia about 18 months ago but that was a little bit easier, so that’s another factor.” Sea Of Class has won four straight, with her only defeat coming when second on debut at Newmarket in April. “I didn’t sleep much the night before [the Yorkshire Oaks on Aug. 23], I was that excited about jumping on her again, she’s just exceptional,” Doyle told At The Races. “We didn’t go overly quick, but she went through her gears so well and she won like a superstar really. There was plenty of strength in depth in the race as well, which gives you plenty of confidence. She’s got a lovely cruising speed, but a very good turn of foot. We went pretty good fractions in the Oaks over in Ireland and she quickened off that and we went pretty steady the other day. She really drops down and accelerates.” View the full article

Fairmount Park-based trainer Scott Becker landed the 1,000th victory of his career when D' Rapper won the sixth race Aug. 28 at this home track. View the full article

Only a couple of weeks now to the St Leger, truly part of the Turf’s family silver. It will do well, mind, to match the 2017 running. Let’s hope Capri (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) can soon get back on track and remind us how he was too good for Crystal Ocean (Sea The Stars {Ire}), Stradivarius (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), Rekindling (High Chaparral {Ire}) et al. Whatever has been ailing him, in particular, it’s been a tough summer at Ballydoyle. A lot of water has passed under the bridge, certainly, since his stablemate Saxon Warrior (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Ire}) won the G1 2000 Guineas. Most of us, back then, were pretty optimistic that Saxon Warrior might now be heading to Doncaster to make it a Triple Crown year both sides of the Atlantic. As it is, Saxon Warrior was evidently among those hit hardest by the yard’s problems. Aidan O’Brien sounds happy enough that his latest performance, at York last week, will bring him on again. The trainer will pardon those of us on the outside, however, if a fourth consecutive defeat makes Saxon Warrior seem a slightly more specific enigma. Many are urging a return to a mile, perceived as a bare minimum when Saxon Warrior won the Guineas. But to square up in the G1 Eclipse S. to a horse as good as Roaring Lion (Kitten’s Joy) has become, over a stiff track and just a week after that searching race in the Irish Derby, makes it hard to believe that Saxon Warrior has much of an issue with 10 furlongs. Actually, I always feel people tend to be too prescriptive about distances. A lot of variables–surface, pace, track, tactics, fitness, maturity–go into the impression a horse gives, from one day to the next, of his optimal trip. But we tend to be still more culpably prescriptive in terms of an animal’s ability to handle either turf or dirt. Race distance is a spectrum, allowing marginal and continuous shifts one way or another. But for a top-class European turf horse to run on dirt generally requires a long-haul flight. If such a gamble is even considered, it will typically be only at the end of a long season at the Breeders’ Cup–and there has been a deplorable tendency, in recent years, not even to consider that. I have complained about this trend before, and will doubtless do so again, so let’s just stick to the merits or otherwise of this particular case. Because Saxon Warrior, happily, represents the one major European outfit that reliably grasps the two huge incentives that elude so many others. One is that the potential rewards vastly outweigh the minimal damage to a stallion’s reputation, if beaten when rolling the dice on dirt. The other is that horses are far more versatile, so far as racing surface is concerned, than we tend to allow. I won’t reprise more than one, albeit a favourite, of the countless examples. Because what a horse like Sheikh Albadou (Green Desert) shows–as a GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner out of a half-sister to winners of the G2 Yorkshire Cup and G1 Ascot Gold Cup–is that an animal’s make and motion are more important, when it comes to handling dirt, than his family tree. And when I look at Saxon Warrior, whose physical capacities have long been identified as exceptional at Ballydoyle, I see a naval gun, not a cutlass. In the Guineas, and indeed in beating Roaring Lion as a juvenile, he carried rather than altered his speed. He is fast, all right: a Classic miler after all. And he has never looked a horse who needs to regroup off the bridle, to fill his lungs and let the stamina kick in. But nor does he have nimble, slick acceleration, or an especially extravagant reach. Instead he looks like a heavyweight boxer who can flatten any opponent, provided he can pin them on the ropes. It’s just that the odd one or two, a little lighter on their feet, have been able to give him the slip. In other words, he looks a horse worth a shot on the dirt. Yes, he’s out of a Galileo mare. But he is also a grandson of Sunday Silence. It’s worth reiterating the extremes balanced in the pedigree of Saxon Warrior’s sire. Deep Impact’s maternal family is undiluted turf, and that surface has also been favoured by his best stock– albeit few tend to be given much choice in the matter. But Sunday Silence’s sire Halo was out of a half-sister to the dam of Northern Dancer, who himself appears in each of the other three “quarters” of Saxon Warrior’s family tree. Northern Dancer, of course, is the ultimate “crossover” paragon. In Europe, purely as a result of opportunity, his line has come to be perceived as turf oriented. But it was fascinating to hear MV Magnier invoke the stallion who essentially founded the family firm when buying a yearling by its freshman sire American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) at Arqana’s August Sale. And by dint of its willingness to experiment–not to mention its need for outcross blood–the same firm has shown the rest of the world the transferability of Scat Daddy (Johannesburg) and, at one remove, War Front (Danzig) too. Deep Impact, for his part, seemed on the brink of a revolutionary impact when Saxon Warrior’s Guineas success was promptly followed up by Study Of Man in the G1 Prix du Jockey-Club. But the latter was turned over at Deauville last time, while the filly September (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) has so far been confined to a single, dispiriting start at three. In the meantime, Europe has instead pondered an alternative source of fresh blood in the sire of Roaring Lion. For the fact that David Redvers was able to bring this colt back for $160,000 should wake up more parochial investors not only to untapped European potential in Kitten’s Joy (sire of two Eclipse S. winners in three years) but also the overall value available to those enterprising enough to spend Leger week at Keeneland. Kitten’s Joy has admittedly established himself as a turf influence, much like his sire and grandsire. But Medaglia d’Oro is also a son of El Prado (Sadler’s Wells). Aptitude for a surface depends on a genetic flux expressed, not in mere statistics, but in physiological detail. Saxon Warrior’s owners will presumably persevere towards the Classic with Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy), though ultimately put in his place by the only other horse sharing the benefits of a speed-favouring Travers. Because he, too, may improve for his first run since a disappointment and a break. But it’s not as though a helter-skelter mile against Alpha Centauri (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) and company would, at this stage, look a particularly viable Breeders’ Cup target for Saxon Warrior. O’Brien is talking about the G1 Qipco Irish Champion S. for Saxon Warrior, and then possibly a drop to a mile. And the last thing he or his patrons need is advice from anyone else. But it might just be worth throwing into the mix the last two Win-And-You’re-In options for the Classic: the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup and the GI Awesome Again S. Because Saxon Warrior, right now, still looks an enigma that might call for a more fundamental variation. View the full article

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY–A just 29, trainer Ray Handal has come a long way since attending the races with his father as child at their home track of Caymanas Park in Jamaica. He’s up to almost 30 head, and is wrapping up a very strong Saratoga meet that has so far seen his 18 starters win four times (22%) with a particularly stellar in-the-money rate of 61%. Among his wins at the Spa was a victory in last Friday’s Fleet Indian S. with New York-bred sophomore filly English Soul (English Channel). “My dad and I used to go to the racetrack starting when I was a little kid. He loved betting the ponies and he’d take me out at a young age and teach me how to read the Racing Form,” Handal said earlier this week after climbing off his last trainee for the morning. “He actually has a degenerative disease, retinis pigmentosa, so as his eyesight got progressively worse, he taught me how to read the form and we loved doing that. I just love the challenge of handicapping, and then later fell in love with the horses.” Handal and his family moved to Ft. Lauderdale, FL when he was 11, and he continued to frequent the races at Calder Race Course and Gulfstream Park. He started walking hots at Calder in his teens, and eventually found his way up to Colonial Downs while working for trainer Larry Bates. From there a spot opened up with Hall of Famer Jonathan Sheppard up in Saratoga, and that’s when Handal’s racing education reached another level. “We had to stop at Jonathan Sheppard’s farm in Pennsylvania on the way up to pick up some horses, but there was some mix-up so we had to stay overnight,” Handal recalled. “I got there and I was just amazed. It was unlike anywhere I had ever seen despite going to the racetrack and watching horses train forever. I wanted to just stay there and learn about it, so on a whim I went to Jonathan and asked to stay there. I told him I wanted to learn how to ride. He asked me how much I weighed–135 lbs.–and he said that was perfect. So he brought me on, and I worked my tail off there. You get started at 6:30 a.m., work all day–train them, ride them, bathe them yourself. It builds a lot of character, and you learn so much–it was like going to school. I just soaked it all in.” Handal’s next boss was another revered Midlantic horseman in Michael Matz. “That’s where I really polished up a lot of my horsemanship skills and took it to another level,” Handal said. “I worked as a foreman and just helped with whatever was needed. I soaked a lot in; I’d go in with the vets every time they’d come in the barn. It was like finishing school for me. Michael’s an amazing horseman just from the ground up–he knows all aspects of the game.” Still just 18 at that point, Handal joined Kenny McPeek’s team in a role he describes as almost an assistant. He had the privilege of riding some of McPeek’s top runners at the time, including Grade I winner Noble’s Promise and SW/GISP Beautician. “Working for Kenny, you really learn the business aspect of it. That’s where I got my training on how to run a business. It was a fun ride–he took me to a bunch of different places, including Royal Ascot. I’d go to Palm Meadows in the winter, Saratoga in the summer and Keeneland in the spring and fall, so it was awesome.” It had always been Handal’s dream to study under Tony Dutrow, so one summer, he made his pitch. “I was just always fascinated by his training style,” Handal said of Dutrow. “I’d seen him train his horses since I was a little kid, and I always wanted to be his assistant before I started training on my own. So I sat down with him one summer at Saratoga, told him how badly I wanted to work for him, and he told me, ‘You’re way too young. You need at least five more years.’ So, I’d see him every summer and tell him, ‘I’m ready when you want me to jump on the team.'” Eventually Dutrow, in need of an assistant to oversee things at Aqueduct, reached out to Handal. Dutrow gave him a lot of responsibility, and therefore a taste of what being out on one’s own is like. “Tony knew that I wanted to train on my own someday, so he always put me in that spot,” Handal said. “He’d say, ‘Here’s the feed guy’s number–you keep the feed stocked up’ or ‘Here’s the racing office number–you call and make entries.’ He’d call me and ask if there was anything to claim. It was my job to go through the form and let him know if there was anything we had to look at.” While with Dutrow, Handal also developed a relationship with the owner who would eventually give him his first horses–Andy Cohen of Sunrise Stables. Cohen had sent Dutrow four horses by his freshman stallion Frost Giant, and Dutrow and Handal did very well with that group, which included GI Kentucky Derby starter Giant Finish. Frost Giant broke the record for progeny earnings by a New York-based freshman in 2012. “Andy always said, ‘When you’re ready, just let me know and we’ll definitely support you and send you some horses.’ So, a couple years down the line, Tony got to the point where he kind of wanted to consolidate his strings and see every horse train, so when he decided to shut down his Aqueduct string, I wasn’t thrilled about leaving. Not that I didn’t like Fair Hill, but I wanted to be on the racetrack and it’s not the racetrack, so as much as I love Tony, it was just time for me to move on.” After one last job as an assistant, this time for Tom Morley, Handal went out on his own with a pair of horses given to him by Cohen. His first starter, Wundahowigothere (Big Brown), a daughter of Grade I winner Wonder Lady Anne L, ran a strong third at Aqueduct on Nov. 19, 2014. Two days later, Handal’s second starter Chase the Giant (Frost Giant) blew up the tote at 65-1 as a main-track-only entrant in a maiden special weight. “Things just kind of sparked from there,” Handal said. “I got a lot of attention for winning at 65-1. I didn’t win another race for like six months after [Wundahowigothere] won [in January of 2015], but it was a pretty cool ride.” Things moved slowly for Handal for a while until he reached out to Mike Piazza of Zilla Stables. Piazza offered him a chance to get more involved in the claiming game. “I needed to start claiming more–I needed to do something to get the numbers up and get a spark going,” Handal said. “So I reached out to Mike Piazza, and he offered me a no-expense claim model, where they pay for the claim, and I was responsible for the additional expenses. It isn’t always the best model for a young trainer, but I knew it was either that or go out of business at that point, so I had nothing to lose. We started claiming, and everything started winning or running second. They rattled off some wins and that got people’s attention. From there it snowballed. When you get the win percentage up and start winning races, the phone starts ringing and we went from there. Now we’re up to the level where I’m claiming on the high end, as well as going to the sales and buying young horses, which is ultimately what I want to do.” Handal’s most successful young sales horse to date is one he conditions for Zilla, the aforementioned English Soul. A $55,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic juvenile last May, the New York-bred took the East View S. in January and fended off all comers Aug. 24 to narrowly annex the $200,000 Fleet Indian. With earnings of $287,634 from a record of 8-4-2-1, the chestnut will likely make her next start in the GIII Charles Town Oaks going a two-turn seven furlongs Sept. 22. “They haven’t seen the best of this filly,” Handal said. “I think she’s going to be a really good horse–better than just a nice New York-bred stakes horse.” Handal, who works the sales with Oracle Bloodstock’s Conor Foley and Jim Hatchett, was involved in three auction purchases of horses who are currently sophomores–all have won. He made nine purchases this year. Of his current crop of babies, Handal may be most excited about unraced filly I’llhandalthecash (Point of Entry). Signed for at $150,000 by Oracle on behalf of Dark Horse Stable after breezing at OBS April in :10 flat, she is expected to debut early in the Belmont fall meet. “She’s got all the right parts; she’s very racey,” Handal said. “She goes out there and breezes by herself, breezes in company. We’re excited to see her run. I’d love to try and win with her first out to get her into stakes company while there’s still grass racing.” Handal, who says the individualized attention he provides, the benefits that come from getting on his horses in the mornings, and the culture and camaraderie he instills among his team have been his keys to success, is looking forward to continuing to add to his stable in the upcoming sales season. He expects his budget to be at least double of what it was this past year. “Just getting nicer quality stock,” Handal said when asked of his goals. “Everyone wants to win a Grade I, or the Derby or a Breeders’ Cup race. I know all that stuff will come. My main goal right now is focusing on the sales and buying younger horses and showing what we can really do with an extended budget and some really good horses. Not only can I claim and be successful, but I can buy young horses and be successful as well.” View the full article

British racing will adopt a “one team” stewarding model beginning in 2019. The new model, unveiled by the British Horseracing Authority on Wednesday, is intended to improve standards of officiating, increase consistency, transparency and accountability and to bring British racing in line with other sporting bodies and other racing jurisdictions while also respecting and utilising the history, tradition and significant expertise of the current model. A new chief steward role, under BHA employment, will be introduced, as will a multi-skilled BHA raceday assistant role to ensure that the stewarding team is better joined up with other raceday functions. Voluntary stewards will make up the Stewards’ Panel Chair with responsibility for chairing stewards enquiries and ensuring procedural fairness. Brant Dunshea, chief regulatory officer of the BHA, said, “We believe that the new officiating model retains the best elements of the current model, while raising the bar on integrity, welfare and the management of risk and major incidents. We expect this to bring together all our raceday teams, including our volunteer and professional stewards and other officials, into a more coherent, supportive, consistent, flexible and effective operation. Threats and challenges are always best addressed by working as a team, and this ‘one team’ concept is central to the development of the new model we will be establishing.” View the full article

After all the hoopla surrounding the official opening of Conghua Racecourse, the rubber hits the road at Sha Tin on Sunday when 12 horses who have been training in the mainland race for the first time. There are plenty of questions ahead of the opening of the new season – particularly surrounding the new dynamics in the jockey ranks – but the one that has the biggest long-term ramifications surrounds the horses who have been based in Conghua: will it improve their performance? Of... View the full article

Hong Kong Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges has poured freezing water on horse racing happening in Hainan Island any year soon. As the Jockey Club opened its new hi-tech HK$3.7 billion Conghua Racecourse, near Guangzhou in southern China, Engelbrecht-Bresges said its focus was on the Greater Bay Area project – and not on the island of Hainan. Frenzied speculation took hold on “China’s Hawaii” in April when President Xi Jinping announced his... View the full article

Jockey Club officials still don’t know when the quarantine stand-off with Australia will be resolved but remain hopeful it will be before December’s Longines Hong Kong International Races. The issue was sparked by the addition of Conghua Racecourse to Hong Kong’s biosecurity zone last year through its status as an equine disease-free zone, prompting Australia to change Hong Kong’s quarantine status on October 2 last year until it evaluated the risk. It meant horses... View the full article

Saimee not expecting uprising from little Reddot against giants View the full article

Brown unsheaths Excalibur in Moonbeam Vase View the full article