Wandering Eyes

Me Tsui Yu-sak believes his gun sprinter Music Addition felt the effects of a blazing hot pace earlier this month when he put in a career-worst performance at Happy Valley.The four-year-old raced on the speed, attempting to match engines with known front-runner Handsome Bo Bo after drawing wide, but tailed off to be beaten comfortably as a $5.9 second favourite.The Australian import was also without his usual jockey Silvestre de Sousa after he was forced to withdraw mid-meeting due to a back… View the full article

Starlight Racing's Cutting Humor put himself on the map March 24 with a win over favorite Mucho Gusto in the $800,000 Sunland Park Derby (G3) at Sunland Park. View the full article

Showing the class of her pedigree, Chasing Yesterday once again proved the betting public correct as she broke slow in the March 24 Sunland Park Oaks but was able to make up ground, take over the lead, and pull away to a 1 1/4-length victory. View the full article

Starlight Racing’s CUTTING HUMOR (c, 3, First Samurai–Pun, by Pulpit) bounced back from a seventh-place finish as the favorite in the GIII Southwest S. to annex this lucrative GI Kentucky Derby prep in track record time. Well supported at the windows again–especially late–the $400,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga was off at 2-1 and was parked out in the clear early by Hall of Famer John Velazquez as favored Bob Baffert trainee Mucho Gusto (Much Macho Man) showed the way with local hope Hustle Up (Abstraction) applying pressure with El Camino Real Derby hero Anothertwistafate (Scat Daddy) in the pocket spot. Cutting Humor looked to have Mucho Gusto’s number as he ranged up ominously heading for home, and while the chalk briefly fought back, Cutting Humor had too much in the tank. Anothertwistafate finally got going in midstretch, and cut the margin of victory to just a neck at the line. Cutting Humor stopped the clock in 1:46.94, lowering the previous record time of 1:47 1/5. Cutting Humor was second in his sprint debut in the Belmont slop Sept. 9, and settled for third in a salty Keeneland route Oct. 7. behind subsequent GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. runner-up Plus Que Parfait (Point of Entry) and eventual GII Fasig-Tipton Holy Bull S. upsetter Harvey Wallbanger (Congrats). He broke through at a mile at Gulfstream Park West Nov. 17, and resurfaced to be second behind GII Xpressbet Fountain of Youth S. runner-up Bourbon War (Tapit) in a Gulfstream optional claimer Jan. 18. He missed the break before making a middle move in the GIII Southwest, and was looking to become the third also-ran from that heat to come back to score. Third finisher Long Range Toddy (Take Charge Indy) took a division of the GII Rebel S. last weekend, while pacesetter Gray Attempt (Graydar) cut back to annex Oaklawn’s Gazebo S. Saturday. Runner-up Sueno (Atreides) was third in Saturday’s GII Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby. Sales history: $135,000 yrl KEEJAN ’17; $400,000 yrl ’17 FTSAUG. Lifetime Record: 6-2-2-1. O-Starlight Racing. B-Dell Hancock & Bernie Sams (Ky). T-Todd A Pletcher. View the full article

Horses' test result March 25 View the full article

CS Chin fined $200 View the full article

A new initiative called “I Am Horse Racing” was announced Sunday. According to a release, “It was created with a simple goal in mind. A group of like-minded individuals all from within the industry coming together to share the stories of those who dedicate their lives to racing.” Click for an introduction video featuring Christina Blacker; or for the group’s first release, a profile of exercise rider Kelsey Faucon. View the full article

As the resumption of live racing at Santa Anita looms nearer, the picture is becoming steadily clearer over the potential rules of engagement, following an announcement earlier this month of a sweeping set of new medication and safety protocols to be implemented at Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields. Nevertheless, question marks linger over a number of important details. Entries were made Sunday morning for next Friday, Mar. 29, marking the return of live racing at Santa Anita after a hiatus of more than a month in the wake of 22 equine fatalities at the facility since the start of the winter-spring meet. Santa Anita racing secretary Steve Lym also announced on Sunday a new system at entry time, which adds an additional layer of scrutiny on “at-risk” horses. Lym explained that after entries are taken, the horses’ respective past performances will be scrutinized for certain patterns. The racing office will then contact trainers of horses identified as being at higher risk of catastrophic injury and, if necessary, a commission veterinarian will conduct a physical examination of the horse. This system will begin when entries are taken at Santa Anita for next Saturday and Sunday, said Lym. This system mirrors the one in place for morning workouts. Currently, trainers must notify the racing office 24 hours before breezing. Lym said that on Monday, the notification time on workers will be extended to 48 hours. “Part of the reason for that was to give the staff enough time to examine the horses that need examining,” said Lym. There will be no requirement for private attending veterinarians to sign off on a horse’s soundness prior it breezing, which had been raised as a possible new policy, he said. Many of the proposed new rules are pending approval by the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) at its hotly anticipated scheduled meeting on Thursday, Mar. 28 at Santa Anita. Santa Anita could release a statement over the next few days for the horsemen, “just so they know what they’re entering for,” said Lym. He warned, however, that while the CHRB is expected to approve the proposed rules, the horsemen should be prepared for the possibility of further changes at the meeting. On the agenda at Thursday’s CHRB meeting are a variety of items, including discussion and action on proposed medication changes at Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields. CHRB equine medical director Rick Arthur explained to the TDN some of the specifics to the new medication rules, “if the board moves forward as currently expected.” There will be “no authorized threshold” for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) and corticosteroids, and no “stacking” of these drugs, either; by house rule, the stand-down for intra-articular corticosteroids will be extended to 14 days–double the current recommended withdrawal period based on thresholds. The stand-down times for permitted NSAIDS have also been altered, with the withdrawal time for Phenylbutazone extended to 48-hours, for example. The stand-down for shockwave therapy will remain the same–10 days. The medication rules are “pretty back and white,” said Jeff Blea, a Santa Anita-based private veterinarian. “The one thing that’s a little bit of a grey area is corticosteroid injections,” he said. “It’s very clear it’s a 14-day stand-down time. It’s not clear, as far as levels of medications… They say at 14 days we should be safe, so I think we’re going to have to go on that premise for the time being.” Blea said that, besides the expected changes to use of NSAIDS and corticosteroids, “there’s not much difference” to the rules currently in place. But he added that the ambiguity over some of the specifics has been a cause for concern. “There are two things trainers and veterinarians don’t want. One is a positive test. And two is a dead horse,” he said. On Thursday’s meeting agenda is an item giving the board the option of making any possible changes to authorized therapeutic medications applicable state-wide for 12 months. Josh Rubenstein, president of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, wrote in an email that “while Del Mar is in communication with the TOC, CHRB and others on our upcoming meet, we don’t believe it’s productive, at this time, to comment on specific changes that may be in place this summer.” Del Mar’s license application for its 2019 summer race meet is scheduled to be heard by the CHRB’s meeting in May, and so, “in the next 30 to 60 days we’ll be in a position to address the implementation of enhanced procedures to maintain the highest standards for both equine and rider welfare, safety and care programs,” Rubenstein wrote. “What we can say now is Del Mar is proud of the progress we’ve made over the last several years and our team is committed to the continuation of the industry’s most progressive safety and welfare protocols.” A participatory teleconference Saturday at Santa Anita involving trainers, and official and private veterinarians was “very productive” and “informative,” said California Thoroughbred Trainers executive director, Alan Balch, after the meeting concluded. “The trainers are going to have to take into account all that they learned today in making entries,” Balch said, adding that the tone of the meeting was “very serious.” “We believe this is an interdependent sport and industry, and we strongly believe that when decisions are made, they should be made on a cooperative basis with everyone involved in the same room, at the same time, at the same place,” said Balch. “And we sure would like to see that going forward because that type of cooperative approach to rule changing really is the best way to avoid any misunderstand or misinformation.” Among a number of other topics discussed at Saturday’s teleconference, Balch said, was the proposed changes to use of the riding crop. The changes still allow jockeys to carry a whip, but they will not be permitted to use it in anyway except what is necessary for the safety of the horse or the rider. According to Balch. “The trainers will be very pleased to go with whatever the riding crop rule is, however it’s modified.” There are two separate parts to these proposed changes. The first concerns an “in house” rule change applicable only to Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields. The second is a proposed regulatory amendment that would restrict the use of riding crops at all racetracks in California. “We have no way of knowing whether a majority of commissioners would vote to make this a regulatory matter,” wrote the CHRB’s public information officer, Mike Marten, in an email. “If the Board does decide to move forward with an amendment, that process could easily take as long as seven months and would require a 45-day public notice and comment period followed by a public hearing, leaving plenty of time for a thorough discussion of all aspects of the proposal.” Jockeys’ Guild national manager Terry Meyocks said that the Guild is currently “still in discussion” with The Stronach Group, and that there could be greater clarity on the situation by the start of the week. Another agenda item concerns the proposed change to the use of Lasix at Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields, cutting in half the permitted level from 10cc to 5cc. An agreement on this issue was reached on Mar. 16 between the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC) and TSG. Not mentioned in the package for Thursday’s meeting is the other part of the proposed change concerning Lasix–that 2-year-olds starting in 2020 will race entirely Lasix free. Because the horses in question aren’t yet of racing age, and therefore not competing at the current Santa Anita meet, “I don’t know if the CHRB will address it at this meet,” said TOC’s director of racing and Northern California operations, Elizabeth Morey. “I don’t know if it gets heard at the CHRB meeting this year, or if it gets heard at a CHRB meeting when we actually go through the license application process for the Santa Anita winter-spring meet.” According to trainer Leonard Powell, it’s the question of enforcement of these proposed rule changes about which he has the greatest concerns. “Everybody knows that they don’t have the man-power to enforce all these rules,” he said. “The main thing with rules, people will accept most of them if they are fair and everybody has to follow them, but if they’re not fair, then that’s what they raise questions.” Powell also said that he has doubts about the specifics concerning proposed changes to use of the riding crop. “Let’s say a jockey whips his horse and wins a race, do you fine the jockey? Do you DQ him? And if you DQ him, where do you DQ him? Behind the second horse? Behind the third horse? Let’s say you have a five-horse field and all five jockeys whip their horses, do they all get disqualified?” he said. “Many of these rules are good, but they’re all a little utopic. They didn’t seem to have thought about how they’re going to work in the real world.” Earlier on Sunday, Daily Racing Form reported that Gunmetal Gray, winner of the GIII Sham S., suffered a condylar fracture after a workout at Santa Anita on Sunday morning, and was to undergo surgery later in the day. Terry Finley, president and chief executive of West Point Thoroughbreds, which co-owns the colt, said the injury “doesn’t appear to be career-threatening.” Santa Anita also announced Sunday its for when racing is expected to resume. The $600,000 GI Santa Anita H. will be run on GI Santa Anita Derby Day, Saturday, Apr. 6. View the full article

Idaho (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}–Hveger {Aus}, Danehill), a MGSW and dual Classic-placed full-brother to champion Highland Reel (Ire), has been retired and will stand at Beeches Stud under the Coolmore National Hunt banner, Coolmore announced on Sunday. Knocked down for 750,000gns during the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale to M.V. Magnier, the ‘TDN Rising Star’ raced for a Coolmore partnership of Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith and Mrs. John Magnier. “Idaho was a very solid, consistent racehorse–sound, clear-winded with a good mind,” said his trainer Aidan O’Brien of the son of G2 South Australian Oaks heroine Hveger. “I think he would have been an impressive winner of the St Leger but for getting brought down in the straight and he showed that when winning the Hardwicke S. at Royal Ascot.” Third in the 2016 G1 Investec Derby and second later that year in the Irish equivalent back at The Curragh, the 6-year-old earned his first group victory in the G2 Great Voltigeur S. at York. After unseating his rider in the G1 St Leger, he returned at four to win the G2 Hardwicke S. and placed in the G1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth S. Last year Idaho added the G3 Diamond Ormonde S. to his win column and also ran third in the G1 Goodwood Cup. He retires with a mark of 23-4-2-5 and earned $1,634,798. The bay is a full-brother to multiple highweight and MG1SW Highland Reel (Ire), English MGSP Cape of Good Hope (Ire), and a half to Australian MG1SP Valdemoro (Aus) (Encosta de Lago {Aus}). Added Beeches Manager Robert McCarthy, “Idaho is an outstanding individual with plenty of size and scope and a great walk. He was a very genuine and talented racehorse who performed at the highest level from two to five years and is a full-brother to a superstar in Highland Reel.” View the full article

By My Standards (Goldencents) and War of Will (War Front), the upset winner and beaten favorite, respectively, in Saturday’s GII Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby, were both doing well Sunday according to their trainers. By My Standards will ship from Fair Grounds to Churchill Downs on Tuesday morning to prepare for the May 4 GI Kentucky Derby. “Hopefully we’ll get an easy breeze in 12, 13, 14 days,” said conditioner Bret Calhoun, who has never had a starter in the Kentucky Derby before. “He worked a little quicker up to this race than he had previously, so hopefully we can take it easy first work back then give him another easy one after that. Then we’ll do a little bit more after that in the middle there. He’s ready. We have to maintain what we’ve got. The Derby is a whole different deal. It’s not just the race, it’s everything that goes into going up there. We’ll do a lot of stuff preparing him for that. He’s got a great mind, we’re lucky in that sense that he’ll handle everything.” Things did not go nearly as smoothly on Saturday for impressive GIII Lecomte S. and GII Risen Star S. War of Will, who took some awkward steps shortly after the start and was “significantly off” after finishing ninth, according to trainer Mark Casse. Casse issued a more upbeat report Sunday morning, and said a start on the first Saturday in May was still a possibility for the Gary Barber colorbearer. “It’s amazing how much better he was today,” Casse said. “I just feel fortunate that he’s okay first and foremost. We’re fairly certain that he probably caught his patella a little bit right at the start. So what we’ll do is we’ll do some exercising and probably laser treatment to strengthen the patella muscle. But we feel optimistic that we can still make the Derby.” War of Will will ship to Keeneland on Tuesday and remain under the supervision of Casse’s assistant trainer David Carroll. “We’re going to change his exercise a bit for a while, just try to strengthen his patella ligaments,” Casse said. “It’s something that as a trainer for 40 years, I’ve been dealing with patella ligaments since the beginning of my career, but I’ve never seen one catch like that one did. But the good news is he was happy this morning.” GII Fair Grounds Oaks heroine Street Band (Istan) was also reportedly in fine fettle Sunday, while beaten favorite Serengeti Empress (Alternation) was fine after bleeding and being vanned off. Trainer Tom Amoss told the Fair Grounds press department that “no time table and no racing plans” had yet been made for the latter. View the full article

Chester Thomas is headed to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) after his 3-year-old colt By My Standards captured the $1 million Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby (G2) by three-quarters of a length over Spinoff. View the full article

California’s proposed phasing-out of both Lasix and whip usage have dominated the sport over the past week, and the discussion won’t end even after the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) votes on both of those issues at its Thursday meeting. Not only is there contentious disagreement within the industry over whether there should be any change at all to race-day medication policies and the whipping of horses, but there has been open speculation about the timing and true reasons for these drastic proposals, which were first floated on Mar. 14 by The Stronach Group (TSG) and require official approval by the CHRB before they can be enacted. TSG is in a “damned if it does, damned if it doesn’t” position regarding its ambitious slate of safety and welfare protocols. There is no shortage of critics labeling the Lasix rollback and anti-whipping proposals as public-relations ploys designed to distract attention from the 22 equine deaths at TSG’s current Santa Anita Park meet. Even if you assume there are some spin-doctor threads within the overall fabric, at least TSG is taking assertive steps to address areas of grave fundamental concern that the industry’s alphabet-soup collective of conferences, study groups, round tables and coalitions has been unable or unwilling to meet head-on. Sure, it would have been more altruistic if TSG had announced all of these changes proactively at an earlier point in time instead of when the company was under siege for a gruesome rash of fatalities. But still, a time frame of two weeks from the announcement of those policies to their potential voting in by one of the more respected racing commissions in the country is a huge deal and a potentially historic feat in an industry where meaningful change creeps along at a glacial pace. It’s quite possible that in a few decades, historians of our sport will point to something called the “Lasix era” that might span 1974-2024. When New York became the last holdout state to allow race-day Lasix in 1995, the United States foal crop was 31,884. California is making its move to curtail it on the heels of a 2018 crop estimated at 21,500. The number of horses has plummeted, but the basic economic factor that drives the use of Lasix in our sport remains largely unchanged over those 23 years. In May of 1995, when New York’s Racing and Wagering Board voted unanimously to permit race-day Lasix, New York Racing Association president Kenny Noe bluntly told the New York Times, “We’re living in a different era in horse racing. We used to race from April 1 to November, running seven races a day. Now, we race around the calendar, nine or 10 or more races a day. There’s no point in sticking your head in the sand. Tracks want bigger fields of horses, and every state wants racing to produce more money.” California’s proposed barring of the whip (sorry, but I refuse to call it the “cushion crop” like TSG does in a recent press release) except for safety-related control will likely end up being an easier transition than the Lasix rollback. Jockeys in general are pretty resourceful and adaptable, and most will be athletically gifted enough to gravitate away from stick work as a primary motivator. The most interesting development will arrive several years from now, when the next generation of riders might eventually decide that carrying a whip essentially for emergency use only isn’t worth the bother of not having two hands entirely free at all times. CHRB executive director Rick Baedeker told TDN colleague Bill Finley last week that if the new rule passes, not only will jockeys be fined and/or suspended should they whip a horse, but the horse they are riding could be disqualified. You can bet on the inevitability of some initial letter-of-the-law, tone-setting, controversial disqualifications that get winners taken down under circumstances that would never warrant an inquiry under the current system. But that’s fine. Nobody ever said meaningful change comes easy. Trademark Trouble (Part One) I spoke to two trademark attorneys last week in the wake of the city of Baltimore’s lawsuit against TSG that is attempting to keep the GI Preakness S. in Baltimore by (among other legal threats) seizing the trademark “and other intangible and intellectual property” associated with the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. Both experts were in agreement on three points: 1) Yes, the city could theoretically seize the Preakness trademark by eminent domain because it’s considered property, just like a piece of land; 2) The burden of proof would be quite high, and Baltimore would have to demonstrate an overwhelming public interest in order to do so, and 3) The city likely only filed the lawsuit as an attempt to force TSG to negotiate over keeping the Preakness at Pimlico Race Course. But one of the attorneys, Michael Kondoudis, brought up the interesting legal subplot of jurisdiction, which caught his eye because TSG is not listed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as the owner of record for the “Preakness Stakes” trademark. Instead, the registered owner is “Maryland Jockey Club of Baltimore City,” which he said is important because it establishes that the trademark is something that can be litigated in a Baltimore court. Kondoudis said if TSG had wanted to at any previous point in time, the company could have amended the USPTO records to reflect that the trademark is owned by the parent company, which has its principal place of business in Canada. The cost for that change, he added, would have been $40. “But for whatever reason, [TSG] got caught, and that trademark looks like it’s in the jurisdiction,” Kondoudis said. “So technically, [the plaintiffs] have jurisdiction right now.” Kondoudis added that TSG could still try to reassign ownership of the trademark. “It could be enough, but it might not be enough to get out of jurisdictional reach. Those are facts and circumstances that will be litigated during the course of the trial.” This is not the first time that Baltimore has used the threat of eminent domain to try and keep the Preakness at Pimlico. A similar scenario played out in 2009, when another Stronach-related firm, the bankrupt Magna, was part-owner of the Maryland Jockey Club tracks. Pimlico and Laurel Park were set to be auctioned, and the Maryland governor signed legislation giving the state eminent domain rights over the Preakness. The auction ended up getting postponed four times, and in 2010 Magna sold the tracks to its parent company, MI Developments. In 2011, those racing and gaming assets were acquired by TSG. Trademark Trouble (Part Two) The story that topped TDN‘s most-read list for a while last week involved announcer Dave Johnson suing the moviemakers of the 2014 film “St. Vincent” for the actor Bill Murray’s unauthorized use of Johnson’s famous (and trademarked) phrase “And down the stretch they come!” Federal lawsuits don’t generally conjure up images of generosity. But as Johnson’s attorney, Andrew Mollica, told TDN, Johnson’s vigilant defense of his trademark hardly equates to a “money grab.” That’s because with very little fanfare or notice, for years now, Johnson has donated any money the courts have awarded him as compensation for unauthorized infringement to charitable causes. “Every penny,” Johnson said when reached via phone on Friday. Johnson didn’t want to get into specifics, but he noted “retired racehorses, disabled jockeys, and two scholarships” among causes that have benefitted from other people uttering those six specific words with Johnson’s iconic emphasis on the word “Down!” “I’m just trying to pay it forward,” he explained Johnson said he first started using the phrase at Santa Anita in the 1970s in an attempt to punctuate his stretch calls so they could be heard by huge live crowds over a “Marx Brothers”-era sound system. The big gray horse Vigors was then a fan favorite, and Johnson noticed that TV stations often picked up his race calls right when he uttered “And down the stretch they come!” The rest, he said with a chuckle, is history. View the full article

Now that Gray Attempt's hind-end problems appear behind him, trainer Jinks Fires reported March 24 that he's looking ahead to the $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1) April 13 at Oaklawn Park. View the full article

Green Fields’ Mr Melody (Scat Daddy) was testing Group 1 waters for only the second time in Chukyo’s Takamatsunomiya Kinen, and came through with a half-length victory over Seiun Kosei (Jpn) (Admire Moon {Jpn}) in the 1200-metre feature. The dark bay raced in between horses just behind the first flight in fourth and saved ground entering the lone turn. In tight quarters, the 6-1 third choice shifted out a path and edged toward the front inside the final 300 metres, before grinding past a stubborn Seiun Kosei to his outside and holding off the belated rally of Shonan Anthem (Jpn) (Jungle Pocket {Jpn}) up the inside. Seiun Kosei was a head to the good of the latter, with favoured Danon Smash (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}) another half-length away in fourth. “He was in good form and I was able to race him as planned,” said reinsman Yuichi Fukunaga. “I tried to position him toward the front and was able to find an open space in the lane at the right time. He’s a capable horse, behing able to handle his first Group 1 1200-metre race on turf with a win. There are many options for him going forward as he can also cover 1400 metres, as well as a dirt surface.” Mr Melody donned cap and gown at first asking going 1300 metres at Tokyo in November of 2017 and won the G3 Chunichi Sports Sho Falcon S. just four starts later trying turf for the first time in March of 2018. Fourth in the G1 NHK Mile Cup at Tokyo last May, he dropped to fifth in the Listed Oro Cup, but ran second in the G2 Hanshin Cup on Dec. 22. The half-brother to the GIII Chicago H. bridesmaid Trendy Lady (Unbridled’s Song) was last seen running seventh in the G3 Hankyu Hai sprinting 1400 metres at Hanshin on Feb. 24. Pedigree Notes One of 27 top-flight winners for his much-lamented late sire Scat Daddy, Mr Melody’s second dam is the GII El Encino S. and GIII Monrovia H. heroine Klassy Kim (Silent Screen), while his third dam, Kool Arrival (Relaunch), scored her biggest win in the GI Las Virgenes S. and also ran third in the GI Santa Anita Oaks. The March foal was originally a $75,000 RNA from the 2015 Keeneland November Sale, but caught the eye of bloodstock agent David Meah, who purchased the bay for $100,000 out of the 2016 Keeneland September Sale on behalf of George Yeager’s B G Thoroughbreds. Meah later sold the colt for $400,000 to Emmanuel de Seroux’s Narvick International out of the 2017 OBSAPR sale. (Click here for a feature by Alan Carasso on David Meah). Sunday, Chukyo, Japan TAKAMATSUNOMIYA KINEN-G1, ¥215,400,000 (US$1,959,540/£1,483,306/€1,733,577), Chukyo, 3-24, 4yo/up, 1200mT, 1:07.30, fm. 1–MR MELODY, 126, c, 4, Scat Daddy 1st Dam: Trusty Lady, by Deputy Minister 2nd Dam: Klassy Kim, by Silent Screen 3rd Dam: Kool Arrival, by Relaunch 1ST GROUP 1 WIN. ($75,000 RNA Wlg ’15 KEENOV; $100,000 Ylg ’16 KEESEP; $400,000 2yo ’17 OBSAPR). O-Green Fields; B-Bell Tower Thoroughbreds (KY); T-Hideaki Fujiwara; J-Yuichi Fukunaga. ¥113,780,000. Lifetime Record: 10-4-3-0. *1/2 to Trendy Lady (Unbridled’s Song), GSP-US, $199,299. **27th G1SW for his sire (by Johannesburg). Werk Nick Rating: A. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. 2–Seiun Kosei (Jpn), 126, h, 6, Admire Moon (Jpn)— Observant, by Capote. (¥13,000,000 Ylg ’14 JRHAJUL). O-Shigeyuki Nishiyama; B-Sakurai Farm (Jpn). ¥45,080,000. 3–Shonan Anthem (Jpn), 126, h, 6, Jungle Pocket (Jpn)– Voladores (Jpn), by Kurofune. O-Shonan Inc.; B-Morinaga Bokujo (Jpn). ¥28,540,000. Margins: HF, HD, HF. Odds: 6.80, 107.00, 357.90. Also Ran: Danon Smash (Jpn), Teehaff (Jon), Let’s Go Donki (Jpn), Dea Regalo (Jpn), Logi Cry (Jpn), Ares Barows (Jpn), Rhein Spirit (Jpn), Daimei Fuji (Jpn), Peisha Felicita (Jpn), Hiruno Devaro (Jpn), Nac Venus (Jpn), Mozu Superflare, Daimei Princess (Jpn), Snow Dragon (Jpn), Love Kampf (Jpn). Click for the JRA chart or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. JRA Video. View the full article

The Arena Racing Company, who agreed to commit to unlocking levy contributions for all eligible races for the month of March, has extended its agreement for another week until Apr. 8, Racing Post reported on Sunday. The extension applies to all ARC-owned fixtures from Apr. 1-8 and all Class 4-6 races on the flat and Class 3-5 races over jumps during that time period. “Constructive discussions between horsemen, racecourses, and BHA have been ongoing in recent weeks,” said an ARC spokesman to Racing Post on Saturday. “To allow further time for an agreement to be reached, we have taken the step to unlock eligible races for the first week of April.” View the full article

MG1SW Laurens (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}), who races for John Dance and trainer Karl Burke, is eyeing a return in the May 18 G1 Lockinge S. at Newbury, Racing Post reported on Sunday. Successful in the G1 Prix Saint-Alary, G1 Prix de Diane, G1 Matron S. and G1 Kingdom of Bahrain Sun Chariot S. as a sophomore, the bay tired to eighth when last seen in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. at Ascot in October. “She’s all good at the moment, we’ve started stepping her up into more serious work and she seems to be in great shape,” Dance told Racing Post. “Everyone seems to be happy with her and PJ [McDonald] had his first sit on her last week and said she dragged him to the top of the gallops. As always, you keep your fingers crossed things go smoothly, but if they do then we should make a reappearance in the Lockinge. It’s a fairly warm race to come back in, but there aren’t too many races we can go for.” View the full article

HALLANDALE, FL – The last time Juvenal Diaz’s Omega Farms had a consignment at the Fasig-Tipton Florida sale was 2012 when the auction was held at Palm Meadows. The Ocala-based operation will be making its debut in Hallandale when the auction makes its fifth appearance at Gulfstream Park Wednesday. “I thought I had some horses who belonged here,” Diaz said of his decision to sell at the boutique auction. “I think they have pedigree and they have talent. We are going to give them the chance.” Diaz will offer three horses at the Gulfstream sale, led off by a colt by Hard Spun out of Grade I winner Malibu Mint (Malibu Moon) (hip 74). The juvenile, a $75,000 purchase at the Keeneland September sale, is a full-brother to recent stakes-placed sophomore Malibu Party. “He is a little immature–he is just turning two,” Diaz said of the Mar. 22 foal. “He looks like his dad, he looks like a stallion. The sister is little, but this is a big colt.” Omega Farms will offer hip 136, a colt by Into Mischief, on behalf of a client. The bay, a Mar. 30 foal, is the first out of Sky Mirage (Sky Mesa), a half-sister to Group 1 winner Kinsale King (Yankee Victor) and graded stakes winner Victoria’s Wildcat (Bellamy Road). “This horse trains like a storm,” Diaz said of the $240,000 Keeneland September graduate. “Instead of trying to get him to go faster, I was trying to get him to slow down. He keeps himself fit. I just try to teach him how to run and that’s it. He is full of energy and smart, but he wants to go all the time.” The Omega trio is rounded out by hip 163, a colt from the first crop of GI Belmont S. winner Tonalist (Tapit) out of stakes winner and graded placed West Coast Swing (Gone West). The bay was a $35,000 Keeneland September purchase. West Coast Swing is out of an unraced full-sister to champion Dance Smartly (Danzig). “He is a beautiful horse,” Diaz said of hip 163. “He is a beautiful mover and very smart. People want a classy horse and he has a Classic pedigree to be any kind of horse. His mother is a stakes winner by Gone West–you don’t see those kind of mares anymore. And the second dam is a full-sister to Dance Smartly. He looks like one of those horses.” Diaz, who said he aims to pinhook only six to eight horses a year, has an impressive list of graduates come out of his operation, led by champion Blind Luck (Pollard’s Vision), who he purchased for $11,000 as a Fasig-Tipton July yearling in 2008 before selling privately after she RNA’d for $10,000 at OBS April the following spring. Grade I winner Glitter Woman (Glitterman), an $8,000 July yearling, also failed to find a new buyer at OBS April in 1996. And Gentlemen’s Bet (Half Ours), bred by Diaz, was withdrawn from two juvenile sales in 2011. In the farm’s last Fasig Florida consignment in 2012, future graded stakes winner Baby J (J Be K) RNA’d for $65,000 after working a furlong in :10 2/5. “I don’t think I’ve ever had the fastest works–I just train them like they are going to go to the races.” Diaz said. Taking Gentlemen’s Bet, third in the 2013 GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint, as an example, Diaz said, “He was just a laid-back horse and I didn’t push him. So I had to scratch him because I wasn’t going to get anything for him. And this is a horse that can go :43 in change in the Breeders’ Cup. But he was a laid-back colt and I hate to push them. I don’t want to do that. I concentrate on bringing them to the sale with sound mind and body and if they look good doing it, they are not afraid to buy them from me. They don’t have to have the fastest work and a lot of people know that about me.” A day ahead of Monday’s under-tack preview of the Gulfstream auction, Diaz acknowledged the importance of the pre-sale workout. “It all depends on the work,” he said. “Everything has to be that day. Not earlier or later.” Still he cautioned buyers to beware of basing all their decisions on the fastest workout times. “I always try to tell the sales companies, ‘Why don’t you advertise what the horse worked in and then what he did after he worked that way. I know :10 is faster than :11. Anybody can see that. It makes sense. But in racehorses, it doesn’t work that way.” Diaz pointed out Saturday’s GII Louisiana Derby winner By My Standards (Goldencents). “If you look at the Louisiana Derby horse, he worked in :10 3/5 at OBS when everybody goes :9 4/5s and a hundred horses work in :10 flat. He went in :10 3/5 and he won the Louisiana Derby yesterday. If that gets publicized, maybe the owners won’t be afraid to buy a horse, so it’s not a horse that goes in :10 1/5 will bring $1 million and one that goes in :10 3/5 brings $30,000.” The under-tack show for the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale will begin at 9 a.m. Monday. The sale will be held Wednesday in the track’s paddock, with bidding scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. View the full article

HALLANDALE, FL – As David Scanlon prepares for his first consignment of the juvenile sales season at Wednesday’s Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Selected 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, his program received some timely headlines when By My Standards (Goldencents) upset Saturday’s GII Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds. Scanlon sold the colt for $150,000 at last year’s OBS April Sale. “He was a beautiful horse,” Scanlon recalled. “He was a little young, but he was a big, beautiful-framed horse. He came into the sale nice, but he worked on a tough day last year. That was the day we had the 15 mph headwinds. So he worked :10 3/5, which wasn’t ideal, but still he was a good mover. He was just a horse who had all the right parts, but he hadn’t filled out yet.” Scanlon wasn’t surprised By My Standards became a graded stakes winner, but he did admit that the success had come sooner than anticipated. “I had heard he had been working well and I knew his maiden win was good,” Scanlon said. “I had kept up with Josh Stephens, who bought him, and he told me he was doing well. When I saw the entries, I said, ‘Man, he must really be doing good for him to come off the maiden and be entered here.’ It wouldn’t surprise me that he was a horse that, down the road, going two turns, was going to be a decent horse.” By My Standards’ exploits came at a perfect time for Scanlon, who will offer two juveniles at the Gulfstream sale, followed by 25 at the OBS April sale and an additional 17 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale. “The timing couldn’t be better,” Scanlon said. “It’s perfect timing when you’re heading into the bulk of the sales to get an update like that. We were thrilled–it gives your consignment a little bit extra.” Scanlon’s Gulfstream team is made up of a colt by Shakin It Up (hip 83) and a filly by Liam’s Map (hip 138). Hip 83 is out of Mon Ange (Wolf Power {SAf}), a half-sister to Grade I placed Key Hunter (Jade Hunter)) and to the dam of multiple graded stakes winner Pants on Fire (Jump Start). He was an $80,000 purchase at last year’s Fasig-Tipton July sale. “The Shakin It Up, maybe we didn’t pay as much as some of the horses in here, but he’s a really pretty, mature horse with a really good body,” Scanlon said. “We figured with him, I was looking for a really nice horse at a decent price and he fit the picture. Sometimes we go for the off-sire a little bit. I’m a big fan of doing that, just going for the athletic individual. When you are working with a budget a little bit, sometimes you have to give something up and sometimes I’ll say, ‘Hey, I’ll take the athlete,’ and maybe give up the well-known sire power.” That approach worked for Scanlon three years ago when he purchased a bay youngster by Friesan Fire for $35,000 as a yearling in 2015 and resold him the following May in Timonium for $825,000. That successful pinhook turned into subsequent Grade I winner Army Mule. Hip 138 is from the highly hyped first crop of multiple Grade I winner Liam’s Map. Out of graded stakes placed Sonja’s Angel (Smoke Glacken), she was purchased by Bruno DeBerdt on behalf of Khalid Mishref for $190,000 at last year’s Keeneland September sale. “The Liam’s Map has the pedigree and is by a hot first-year sire,” Scanlon said. “I knew she would work well here.” Scanlon said he expects to see a continued demand for high-end horses at the Gulfstream sale, but he is also hoping for a broadening of the middle market. “I think it’s going to be a good sale,” he said. “It’s kind of like everything else, good horses are going to sell well. And you just hope for a strong middle market to get a good clearance and a good horse sale.” View the full article

It was a mating of two of the best racehorses of modern times, both maidens in the breeding shed if not on the track. So how is Songbird (Medaglia d’Oro)’s first foal, a filly by Arrogate (Unbridled’s Song), coming along? Lucas Marquardt visited the pair and Wayne Sweezey at Timber Town Farm recently to check in on the new mom and her baby; chatted as well with Juddmonte’s Leif Aaron about Arrogate’s first foals; and spoke to Mike Smith, who rode both champions. A composite of the conversations appears below. Marquardt: Wayne, you could have bred this mare to anybody in the world. Why did you choose Arrogate? Sweezey: To watch the horse run and the way he drops his head and moves, he’s just such an impressive creature. And so obviously we were drawn to that. And we spent a lot of time on pedigree and matings. A lot of folks would go, “How could you breed a maiden to a maiden?” And that’s a fair argument. In this particular situation, you’re looking at two exceptional individuals and I think [Songbird owner] Mandy [Pope] thought it was worth it a shot to take with Arrogate, just because of how exceptional the two of them were. So that was part of it. And then, the Unbridled’s Song and Medaglia [cross] worked well, and from a phenotype standpoint, Arrogate had a lot of leg and this mare has got leg but not as much as he does. We like a big horse on this end. It just seemed like a good fit. And we got what we wanted. {"id":3,"instanceName":"Articles No Playlist","videos":[{"videoType":"HTML5","title":"Meet the first foal from Songbird, by Arrogate","description":"","info":"","thumbImg":"","mp4":"https://player.vimeo.com/external/325890803.sd.mp4?s=c525ec8e692b77b05076f4451a534d957b173d5d&profile_id=165","enable_mp4_download":"no","prerollAD":"yes","prerollGotoLink":"prerollGotoLink","preroll_mp4_title":"preroll_mp4_title","preroll_mp4":"https://player.vimeo.com/external/318074516.sd.mp4?s=217c0d020e6dc10d62cf791ddb75884d2ada24a8&profile_id=165","prerollSkipTimer":"5","midrollAD":"no","midrollAD_displayTime":"midrollAD_displayTime","midrollGotoLink":"midrollGotoLink","midroll_mp4":"midroll_mp4","midrollSkipTimer":"midrollSkipTimer","postrollAD":"no","postrollGotoLink":"postrollGotoLink","postroll_mp4":"postroll_mp4","postrollSkipTimer":"postrollSkipTimer","popupAdShow":"no","popupImg":"popupImg","popupAdStartTime":"popupAdStartTime","popupAdEndTime":"popupAdEndTime","popupAdGoToLink":"popupAdGoToLink"}],"instanceTheme":"light","playerLayout":"fitToContainer","videoPlayerWidth":720,"videoPlayerHeight":405,"videoRatio":1.7777777777778,"videoRatioStretch":true,"videoPlayerShadow":"effect1","colorAccent":"#000000","posterImg":"","posterImgOnVideoFinish":"","logoShow":"No","logoPath":"","logoPosition":"bottom-right","logoClickable":"No","logoGoToLink":"","allowSkipAd":true,"advertisementTitle":"Ad","skipAdvertisementText":"Skip Ad","skipAdText":"You can skip this ad in","playBtnTooltipTxt":"Play","pauseBtnTooltipTxt":"Pause","rewindBtnTooltipTxt":"Rewind","downloadVideoBtnTooltipTxt":"Download video","qualityBtnOpenedTooltipTxt":"Close settings","qualityBtnClosedTooltipTxt":"Settings","muteBtnTooltipTxt":"Mute","unmuteBtnTooltipTxt":"Unmute","fullscreenBtnTooltipTxt":"Fullscreen","exitFullscreenBtnTooltipTxt":"Exit fullscreen","infoBtnTooltipTxt":"Show info","embedBtnTooltipTxt":"Embed","shareBtnTooltipTxt":"Share","volumeTooltipTxt":"Volume","playlistBtnClosedTooltipTxt":"Show playlist","playlistBtnOpenedTooltipTxt":"Hide playlist","facebookBtnTooltipTxt":"Share on Facebook","twitterBtnTooltipTxt":"Share on Twitter","googlePlusBtnTooltipTxt":"Share on Google+","lastBtnTooltipTxt":"Go to last video","firstBtnTooltipTxt":"Go to first video","nextBtnTooltipTxt":"Play next video","previousBtnTooltipTxt":"Play previous video","shuffleBtnOnTooltipTxt":"Shuffle on","shuffleBtnOffTooltipTxt":"Shuffle off","nowPlayingTooltipTxt":"NOW PLAYING","embedWindowTitle1":"SHARE THIS PLAYER:","embedWindowTitle2":"EMBED THIS VIDEO IN YOUR SITE:","embedWindowTitle3":"SHARE LINK TO THIS PLAYER:","lightBox":false,"lightBoxAutoplay":false,"lightBoxThumbnail":"","lightBoxThumbnailWidth":400,"lightBoxThumbnailHeight":220,"lightBoxCloseOnOutsideClick":true,"onFinish":"Play next video","autoplay":false,"loadRandomVideoOnStart":"No","shuffle":"No","playlist":"Off","playlistBehaviourOnPageload":"opened (default)","playlistScrollType":"light","preloadSelfHosted":"none","hideVideoSource":true,"showAllControls":true,"rightClickMenu":true,"autohideControls":2,"hideControlsOnMouseOut":"No","nowPlayingText":"Yes","infoShow":"No","shareShow":"No","facebookShow":"No","twitterShow":"No","mailShow":"No","facebookShareName":"","facebookShareLink":"","facebookShareDescription":"","facebookSharePicture":"","twitterText":"","twitterLink":"","twitterHashtags":"","twitterVia":"","googlePlus":"","embedShow":"No","embedCodeSrc":"","embedCodeW":720,"embedCodeH":405,"embedShareLink":"","youtubeControls":"custom controls","youtubeSkin":"dark","youtubeColor":"red","youtubeQuality":"default","youtubeShowRelatedVideos":"Yes","vimeoColor":"00adef","showGlobalPrerollAds":false,"globalPrerollAds":"url1;url2;url3;url4;url5","globalPrerollAdsSkipTimer":5,"globalPrerollAdsGotoLink":"","videoType":"HTML5 (self-hosted)","submit":"Save Changes","rootFolder":"http:\/\/wp.tdn.pmadv.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/Elite-video-player\/"} Marquardt: How did this mating come about? Aaron: Not many horses ever achieve that kind of greatness. To take a young mare like her, and a young stallion like ours, who had similar accomplishments on the track, and breed them together was a special opportunity. [Mandy] could have gone to any horse in the world to breed Songbird to, and she actually mentioned after she bought her that she was thinking about Galileo (Ire), Tapit, Frankel (GB), and she picked Arrogate. We were very excited about that. She’s a filly that ran a 107 Beyer, which is huge, and Arrogate ran a 122. She had a devastating cruising speed and so did we. Marquardt: How strong was the rest of Arrogate’s first book which produced the foals we’re just now seeing on the ground? Aaron: About one-quarter of his first book were Grade I winners or Grade I-winning producers, which is a phenomenal number. It was, I think, 30 in total, which is something not a lot of people can boast, especially in their first crop. The only stallion that covered more Grade I winners or Grade I-winning producers last year was Tapit. There are a lot of really nice proven horses underneath us in that list, which is something we’re very proud of. I think it shows the kind of support that breeders were willing to give this horse. Marquardt: Describe the foal. Sweezey: Initially, the foal was a mini-me for Songbird. It might as well have been her twin, just in a foal size. She has a great hind leg and lovely shoulder; the same package as the mother. So initially I thought we were going to get more of a replica of Songbird than, say, Arrogate, in the leg we were looking for. But the foal is almost two months old now, and she’s starting to get some leg on her. We looked at all the foals when Mandy was in town. I stood back objectively and looked at this little filly, and, I was like, `Wow.’ [Juddmonte General Manager] Garrett [O’Rourke] hasn’t seen her in a while and I’m sure he’ll be impressed when he sees her because she is developing some leg. She is a beautiful mover and just a lovely, lovely filly. Marquardt: Leif, would you agree? Aaron: Yes. It’s very exciting. When you have a maiden mare like that, sometimes you don’t expect big, strong foals. This is a big, strong foal. The horse has a lot of leg. It’s kind of reminiscent of Songbird, to be honest. Just a ton of quality, really, overall. You couldn’t hope for more with this first foal and she’s been a great mother to the foal and I think they’re very pleased with what they have. We were honored to have Songbird in Arrogate’s first book. She was 13-for-14 on the racetrack, but of those races, nine of them were Grade Is, I think at seven different tracks. You take two horses that are very similar in their running styles, very similar in their accomplishments and breed them together and yeah, that’s exciting. If you believe in the phrase `black cat, black kitten,’ that foal has a lot of opportunity in front of her. Marquardt: When you looked at Arrogate as a prospect and went to Juddmonte to inspect him, what impressed you? Sweezey: When I fist looked at him, he’s a typical Unbridled’s Song. He’s scopey and he’s got a lot of leg. He was actually a little bit bigger than I anticipated when I got up to him. He’s filled out to be an absolutely stunning horse. So with his size and scope, and she being a kind of thicker type, but strong and thick, from a phenotype standpoint we thought we might put those two things together and get a beautiful animal. And I think the end result has given us that. We have gotten the horse that we bred for. With a little bit of luck, Mike Smith will be on this one in another couple of years. Marquardt: You’ve been around a long time so you’ve had the opportunity to ride offspring of horses that you’ve ridden. Does that give you any kind of advantage? Do you think about that at all when you go into a race? Smith: You definitely think about it. You see if they have the same types of mannerisms. I know in people we do, and you do see it a lot in horses. A lot of times you’ll find the same things about them which is good to know. It can’t hurt anyway. But when they’re blessed with that abundance of talent all you got to do is point them in the right direction and they run. They’re bred to run and they love to run. That just run through the wind. I’ve got to stay fit, and stay healthy, so I can maybe get an opportunity to ride her. I’m hoping, anyway. I plan on riding another three, four, five years, so there’s a good chance. View the full article

On an Irish season-opener to remember for Jim Bolger, Ballylinch Stud’s Normandel (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) completed a treble for the yard on the Naas fixture when capturing the G3 Lodge Park Stud Irish EBF Park Express S. on Sunday. Formerly with Pia Brandt in France, the 14-1 shot who had debuted for her new stable when fourth in the 12-furlong Listed Finale S. here in November was held up in rear initially by Kevin Manning. Tackling the smooth-travelling 6-4 favourite Yulong Gold Fairy (GB) (Mount Nelson {GB}) with two furlongs to race, the bay saw the mile out better to score by a head from the strong-finishing Hand On Heart (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}), with Yulong Gold Fairy eventually a half-length away in third. Bolger is thinking that this trip is her maximum. “She will stay at around seven furlongs or a mile. She won a listed race in France at a mile and a quarter, but I think she’s better at seven or a mile,” he said. “She handles that ground well. She’s a very sound filly and I’d imagine she will go on better ground as well.” Pedigree Notes Normandel, who had been second in the G3 Prix d’Aumale over this trip at Chantilly as a juvenile and won the 10-furlong Listed Prix Melisande at Compiegne in June 2017 for Gerard Augustin-Normand, is a half-sister to Brandt’s star performer Mont Ormel (Fr) (Air Chief Marshal {Ire}) who took the 2016 G1 Grand Prix de Paris before switching to Hong Kong where he was known as Helene Charisma. The dam Lidana (Ire) (King’s Best) is a half to the G1 Premio Vittorio di Capua and G1 Grosser Dallmayr-Preis-winning sire Linngari (Ire) (Indian Ridge {Ire}) from the Aga Khan family of the listed-winning and G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup runner-up Livadiya (Ire) (Shernazar {Ire}). Lidana’s 2017 filly La Vespiere (Fr) is a full-sister to Mont Ormel, while she also has a yearling full-sister to Normandel named Norrey (Fr). Sunday, Naas, Ireland LODGE PARK STUD IRISH EBF PARK EXPRESS S.-G3, €77,500, Naas, 3-24, 3yo/up, f/m, 8fT, 1:49.31, y/s. 1–NORMANDEL (FR), 137, m, 5, by Le Havre (Ire) 1st Dam: Lidana (Ire), by King’s Best 2nd Dam: Lidakiya (Ire), by Kahyasi (Ire) 3rd Dam: Lilissa (Ire), by Doyoun (Ire) 1ST GROUP WIN. (€280,000 RNA HRA ’17 ARARC). O-Ballylinch Stud; B-S.A. Franklin Finance (FR); T-Jim Bolger; J-Kevin Manning. €45,725. Lifetime Record: SW & GSP-Fr, 13-3-1-1, $133,304. *1/2 to 2013 Mont Ormel (Fr) (Air Chief Marshal {Ire}), Hwt. 3yo-Fr at 11-14f, G1SW-Fr & GSP-HK, $916,797. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick Rating: B. 2–Hand On Heart (Ire), 137, f, 4, Mastercraftsman (Ire)–Insight (Fr), by Sadler’s Wells. (€75,000 Ylg ’16 GOFORB). O-Flaxman Stables Ireland Ltd & Mrs M V Magnier & Mrs John Magnier; B-Niarchos Family (IRE); T-Fozzy Stack. €14,725. 3–Yulong Gold Fairy (GB), 140, f, 4, Mount Nelson (GB)–Quite a Thing (GB), by Dutch Art (GB). (3,000gns Wlg ’15 TATFOA; €8,000 Ylg ’16 GOFSPT). O-Zhang Yuesheng; B-Lady Fairhaven (GB); T-Dermot Weld. €6,975. Margins: HD, HF, 1HF. Odds: 14.00, 20.00, 1.50. Also Ran: Iiex Excelsa (Ire), Fresnel (GB), Delphinia (Ire), Ellthea (Ire), Drombeg Dream (Ire), Rionach (GB). Click for the Racing Post result or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. View the full article

When living concurrently amid an uninterrupted supply of excellence, at what point do we take it for granted and accept it as the norm? The era of super-sire Galileo (Ire) with his numerous Derby-winning and Group 1-supplying sons is something that will continue to be written about in the ages to come. Showing no signs of slowing down at the age of 21, Galileo is casually superseding his own standard-setting sire’s records, last year overtaking his number of individual Group 1 winners and bringing his own tally to 75. Considering that the next best active European sire is Dubawi (Ire), with half that figure of Group 1 scorers, and that most elite sires that go down in the history books only manage on average about 25 to 30 top-level horses in their lifetime, only highlights how special Galileo is. While Galileo is creating his own records, producing champion after champion, his well-bred sons are becoming more and more common among the stallion ranks. If you want to breed to a champion son of Galileo, there is no doubt that there are plenty of options. The question is, at what point does the market become so saturated that we sit back and ignore Group 1-producing Classic winners, wondering if Galileo is going to become the sire of sires that his father did. To put a couple of things into perspective, let’s take a glance back at Sadler’s Wells, who, believe it or not, had his doubters in his early (and late) days regarding his likelihood of becoming a sire of sires. Sadler’s Wells ended up having 38 sons that produced at least one Group 1 winner. These include the heavyweights of Galileo, Montjeu (Ire), High Chaparral (Ire), Fort Wood, In The Wings (GB), El Prado (Ire) and Scenic (Ire), who produced 174 Group 1 winners between them. We all know that his sons have been some of the most prominent names and breed-shaping individuals across the entire globe. A further note is that Galileo and High Chaparral were conceived when Sadler’s Wells was 16 and 17, respectively, followed by Alexandrova (Ire), Ask (Ire) and Listen (Ire) among seven Group 1 winners when he was over 20. Similarly, Mr. Prospector produced Kingmambo when he was 19 and Smart Strike and Fusaichi Pegasus when he was 21 and 26. Danzig also conceived War Front and Hard Spun at the age of 24 and 26, to mention just a few. So the likelihood of Galileo continuing his production merits into his twilight years is high. To date, 14 of Galileo’s sons have already produced at least one Group 1 winner. I’m sure this permits the title of ‘sire of sires’ even now, but in the interest of taking excellence as mediocrity, let’s scrutinise some of his sons that we have available to us at stud to date. Which one is looking the most likely heir to the throne? This is the obvious question, and when assessing sons of such a phenomenon, it is easy to expect each to equal his excellence, when in reality having even a quarter of his success will still make them an outstanding sire. Trusting that Galileo will produce the next super-sire, just as his father and grandfather did, we must not cast aside potential stalwarts too hastily. Last year alone we had one son produce the Derby winner, another son gave us the highest-rated horse in the world, another supplied a dual ‘Arc’ heroine, with potential for being the first to claim a third, another provided the Melbourne Cup winner and another churned out a Group 1 winner from just 21 runners in a first crop of 2-year-olds. New Approach (Ire), Frankel (GB), Nathaniel (Ire) and Teofilo (Ire) are well established among the stallion ranks now with 30 Group 1 winners between them. As well as this, dual Derby hero Australia (GB) made a breakthrough with his first 2-year-olds in having a Group 2 winner and three Group 1-placed colts. He looks to be on the brink of an avalanche of success in 2019. Prix du Jockey Club winner and champion 3-year-old in France, Intello (Ger), also produced a Group 1 winner from his first bunch of 3-year-olds among seven other stakes winners. Just to reiterate, that was in 2018 alone. The genes to success are strong and each one of his top-performing sons are passing on the traits. Along with those who have runners, those waiting in the wings include dual Classic winner Gleneagles (Ire), a four-time Group 1-winning descendant from a world-renowned stallion family. He is standing alongside another brilliant miler and Classic winner in The Gurkha (Ire). Successful in the stallion-making Poule d’Essai des Poulains, The Gurkha followed up in the Sussex S. before his career was cut short after suffering a displaced colon. All with first foals of 2019, Ulysses (Ire), Highland Reel (Ire) and Churchill (Ire) need no introduction or reminder of their feats. This regally-bred trio will prompt endless debate, doubters and gloaters as we wait to see how well they pass on their father’s genetic make-up. There are quite a few options when choosing a top-class son of Galileo but, leaving a personal favourite and the most bizarre of cases until last, let’s look at Ruler Of The World (Ire). A Derby winner and brother to a champion, he is already the sire of a Group 1 winner from his first crop of 2-year-olds. This 2-year-old crop consists of only 42 foals due to an injury during the covering season. Just 21 of these foals have run to date and they happen to include G1 Newmarket Fillies’ Mile star, Iridessa (Ire). She was bred by Ruler Of The World’s trainer, Aidan O’Brien and his wife Annemarie, and is trained by their son Joseph. Indisputably, a Derby winner by the most assuring sire of sires in the world who has already produced a Group 1 winner from extremely limited opportunities, standing for €8,000 this year, is a no-brainer. Or is this where too much of a good thing comes into play? Has Galileo produced so many promising sons that these credentials can be overlooked? Perhaps this is leading back to the fashion of wanting a sales horse. A sprinter. A horse that is ready to run yesterday. Contrary to sales-ground demands, sprinters are actually the group of horses with the least opportunity to win stakes races. At every age group, there is more opportunity for milers and middle-distance horses than for those running over five or six furlongs. Perhaps because the races run beyond seven furlongs don’t start until later in the season, people have associated sprinters as being the early horses overall, but unless your goal is to breed or buy a nursery or maiden winner, the real results are not early results. A sprint doesn’t even feature in the top 10 of Europe’s best Group 1 races and while the middle-distance and staying horses are routinely traded to Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and the U.S.A., the international market for European-bred sprinters is not one of demand. Luck is preparation meeting the moment of opportunity and if you want a greater chance of success, breeding to race beyond seven furlongs provides the most opportunity. Keeping up with fashion is fine but having a higher chance of producing a top racehorse is better. Ultimately, it is all about maximising our chances of breeding the best racehorse possible. If 38 of Sadler’s Wells’s sons were Group 1 producers, the odds are that Galileo will beat that record too, so just because there seems to be a surplus of extraordinary sons available does not necessarily mean there is mediocrity among them. Shrewd breeders may well take advantage of both value and opportunity. So, when does too much of a good thing actually become a bad thing? The answer is when it goes to waste. View the full article

Two years ago, Josephine Gordon left her Lambourn base to move to Newmarket to take up an enticing job in the fast-rising stable of Hugo Palmer. The reigning champion apprentice at that time, with two Lesters to her name in 2016, she hit the ground running in British racing’s unofficial HQ, following Hayley Turner in becoming only the second woman to ride more than 100 winners in a year. Gordon’s tally by the end of 2017 was 106, but last year she rode 50 fewer winners during a season interrupted in high summer by a hand injury incurred in the starting stalls. In many ways, this year will be take two for the jockey who cut her teeth pony racing in Devon. She’s out on her own now since announcing in February that she will ride as a freelance, and as her new home town shrugs off the last vestiges of winter and prepares for the turf season to burst into life, she too is looking ahead to a bright new dawn. “My last five months with Stan Moore I was pretty much freelancing anyway, spending three days up here and the rest in Lambourn, and I think that was when things were at their best and really happening,” says Gordon between finishing a morning’s riding out before heading to Lingfield. “I have to start over again in that respect and make some new connections and renew old connections, but hopefully this will be the right decision.” If the 25-year-old has a more reserved nature than some of the other women who have made their names in the saddle in recent years, her talent speaks for itself, even if she finds herself enduring a quieter spell in recent months. Like many jockeys, male or female, she has experienced enough of the tougher times to ensure that when the high days come around again, as they surely will, those moments will bring sustenance with the joy. She did, after all, wait 18 months between her first and second wins as an apprentice, before the rollercoaster started to crank its way up in 2015. “When things are going well it’s brilliant and you’re busy, but the game itself is so up and down and it can change just like that,” she reflects. “It all seemed to happen so fast. I loved it but it happened fast and then the first year and a half at Hugo’s went really well with group winners, listed winners.” She adds, “When I broke my hand I wasn’t overly worried, I thought it would only be four or five weeks off, but you soon get forgotten about. I don’t want to use that as an excuse but I really struggled to get going again. I was getting rides before I broke my hand and I’m not so much now. So something had to change and I’m back working a lot harder again. “I feel for Bryony [Frost]. She had her big winner at the Cheltenham Festival and now she’s broken her collarbone. It just shows that we don’t know what’s around the corner.” During the winter, Gordon has been riding out for various trainers in Newmarket, including Ed Dunlop and Gay Kelleway, as well as putting her skills to use in a parallel field by helping fellow jockey John Egan prepare his select team of juveniles for the forthcoming breeze-up sales. She says, “At the moment I’m riding out for anyone I can really and I’m getting some extra experience riding the breeze-up horses. I’ve only ever had experience with the breeze-ups when I was with Jo Hughes and it was one horse that I had broken in and done everything with myself, but this has been really fun this winter as it’s a different aspect. It’s exciting seeing them change and progress. I’ve just been away for a week and I’ve seen a difference in them even in that short time.” She continues, “Riding the babies, you’re still learning every day, and every trainer does it differently. When you get into a routine riding for certain trainers you know how they like their horses to be ridden, so I’m learning all that again. There are advantages and disadvantages to being freelance but having the freedom to ride for different people is interesting.” The increasing success of female members of the weighing-room, in which Gordon has played a significant part, not least in being the first woman to ride and win for Godolphin, means that for the next wave of jockeys acceptance will be granted, as long as talent is evident. “There are loads of girls coming through now, on the flat and over jumps, so much so that it’s not even really a big thing any more. I certainly don’t feel there’s a barrier being female,” notes Gordon. “I think Hollie Doyle has improved a ton, I think she’s very good. We sat down and talked when she was thinking about moving to Archie Watson’s. It was the same for me when I left Stan, I didn’t know what was the best thing to do. It’s not like an office job which you could be in for 10 years. In racing you could be out of a job in six months.” She’s clearly enjoying spending part of each morning riding out alongside Egan, one of the more senior jockeys on the circuit, and has sought advice from her other riding colleagues. “We have a great laugh,” she admits. “I’ve really been enjoying riding John’s horses. When I thought about going freelance I talked to a lot of the other jockeys to see what they thought. They’ve been there and done that, the older jockeys, and some of the girls ask me for advice now, which I hope will continue to happen.” A stop-start winter, which included breaks for equine flu and, to a degree, a short spell of boycotts of Arena Racing tracks by owners and trainers, has been a challenge for a number of jockeys, Gordon included. Now she has her sights set on returning to the heights of 2017, which saw her win a brace of Group 3 victories for Palmer and notch success in a listed race for Saeed bin Suroor. “It’s exciting to see what will happen,” she says. “I’m working extra hard this year to try to change things and there’s always a buzz when you know you’re about to be riding on the turf. I’ve just bought a house here. Newmarket is very different to Lambourn but I do like it here and I finally feel at home now. It’s all systems go.” View the full article

Because it’s a synthetic track, one cannot exactly say that the “dust” has settled from the exuberant show that the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company put on at the first 2-year-old sale of the season earlier this month. But if observers and stat mavens thought there was a bit of a “bounce” in the surface, they’ve got another think coming. Although the breeze times were almost uniformly off the charts, the graphs below show they were not so different than those posted last year for an eighth of a mile. However, there was a major disparity in the quarter mile times below 21.2 seconds, which ironically turned out to be the median time (we call it Par) for the distance in both years. Indeed, the more we looked at it, the more we realized that the “major disparity” may have been due to the substantial numbers that breezed that were sired by members of the Freshmen crop of 2019–and that raised more than a bit of an curiosity. So, we went on a hunt. By the time we’d chased all the stats down, we had enough data to suggest that the Freshman crop had more than a little impact on the two of the many factors that we associate with a successful breeze: time and stride length. Even though we take more factors into account in our BreezeFigs algorithm (such as angulation, efficiency, power follow-through), work time and how it matches stride time is a factor.While speed is very important, we have discovered over the years that stride length can give more of a clue to future success. For example, we compile all the 2-year-old race records for all the horses that breezed (not just sold) at each of the major sales every year and the results are always in the same ballpark as they were for the recently concluded compilation for the 2018 sales–i.e. more than 90% of the 34 stakes winners last year that came out of those sales had stride lengths that were longer than average for their sex for distance and day they breezed. When we saw how this year’s breeze times compared to last year’s, we went deeper into the stats and isolated the “wild card,” which is the freshmen crops, in a way this gives us an idea how the crop might do against the general population when they start meeting older horses. Just as important, we also get a sharper focus on which ones might fare against their peers. The results of the study showed that 150 foals by 29 stallions in the 2019 crop breezed at OBS March (31% of the breezes) as opposed to 108 foals by 22 sires that breezed last year (23% of the breezes). The overall stride lengths for both sales at a furlong were about the same for the freshmen and the sale as a whole, but the difference in the quarter-mile stride lengths was another story. The 2019 sale as a whole had about 12%-per-foot longer stride lengths at a quarter than last year. The 2019 freshmen, however, had about a 25%-per-foot advantage over the sale as a whole, and a 50%-per-foot superior to the freshmen of 2018–that latter stat is quite significant. In two of our dispatches last year, we looked at the yearlings by the current freshman crop and came to a conclusion that this could be the most uniformly strong bunch of young stallions to come along in quite some time. While we, like many others, gave a tip of the hat to American Pharoah, Honor Code and Liam’s Map as probably best situated for the long run, there were several others whose offspring caught the eye, and biomechanical favoritism. It was interesting that of the top three, only American Pharoah was represented by enough that breezed (six) to qualify for a closer look. Our minimum of five that breezed gave us good data on a number of the 29 freshmen which are likely to fill out their cards in April (although it must be said that Liam’s Map, as well as American Pharoah, will be very well represented at this week’s Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale). Here, then, is an impressionistic round-up, by self-serving category, of what we saw in person, and on spreadsheets, in Ocala. Run Like an Egyptian: American Pharoah sent out half a dozen and five of them rang more than one bell. They look like they can stalk and pounce and may do it earlier than most expected. Florida Break-Outs: Never was a horse better named than The Big Beast, whose first crop left tongues wagging about uniform size, fastest furlong (9.3), and stride length consistency. He’s a son of the good-sized Yes It’s True, so Bold Ruler is looking down upon him with a smile. Khozan is an interesting son of Distorted Humor whose offspring moved well and looked well and just may run well. “B” All You Can Be: Bayern snuck up on a lot of observers at the yearling sales and came through with seven speedy runners here who showed a variety of potential aptitudes that buyers liked. “C” Here: Five stallions whose names begin with C sent out an almost uniformly diverse bunch–that expression meaning that there were some really nice ones and a few which didn’t quite catch the ring. Carpe Diem and Commissioner showed more overall consistency in speed vs. stride lengths, but Constitution and Competitive Edge had some high moments while Florida-based Chitu looks like he might get the speedy type. Devil You Say: Probably the surprise of the sale, the five fillies and one colt by Daredevil, a son of More Than Ready, were fast and almost uniform in admirable stride lengths. Break the Rules: This correspondent has often startled folks with a self-made axiom, “Never breed to a stallion whose name you can’t pronounce.” What, then, do we do about Fast Anna, who is, mind you, a male? Based on the performances of the six of his offspring that breezed at OBS the answer is that the ones in April will be worth looking at. The Profile Still Holds: Based on our program which projects the potential of a stallion to succeed as a sire when his biomechanics are matched against various books of mares, Palace Malice, Tapiture and Wicked Strong all scored relatively well. Each had a bevy of breezers at OBS and there were some neat ones and some that may miss the mark as racehorses, but overall they projected as stallions who are worth noting for all the upcoming sales. And that will be a very long season which may shake out projected leaders once the major sales are done in Florida, Kentucky, Maryland and California. Meanwhile, their offspring will be bouncing along. 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Top Australian sprinters Brave Smash and Viddora will be denied the opportunity to race in next month’s Group One Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1,200m) at Sha Tin due to an unforeseen quarantine technicality.Interim measures agreed upon between Australia and Hong Kong earlier this month will not allow horses currently in Dubai for this week’s World Cup meeting to stop by Hong Kong and immediately re-enter Australia.The basic measures mean horses can only travel from Australia to Hong Kong and… View the full article

Silvestre de Sousa departs Hong Kong on Sunday night with somewhat of a sour taste in his mouth after an eventful final day saw him win the feature, lose a second victory at the hands of the stewards and earn a two-meeting ban for his troubles.De Sousa was aboard Right Choice as it produced its fifth win from six starts – and fourth in a row – in the Class Two Kowloon Cricket Club Centenary Cup (1,600m) on Sunday and was also aboard Utopia Life when it crossed the line in first place.However,… View the full article