Wandering Eyes

Silkino revels over the 1100m again View the full article

Duric weaves his Magic in a tight finish View the full article

Horses' body weights July 13 View the full article

Track conditions and course scratchings July 13 View the full article

Gold City not quite a Gilt-edged Derby chance, but Harry still hopeful View the full article

Early scratchings July 13 View the full article

All OK for Korean trio at arrival View the full article

Mike Lakow has been hired to serve as racing secretary for all meets at Aqueduct Racetrack, the New York Racing Association announced July 12. View the full article

Hawke's Bay-owned Donardo scored an emphatic win on the flat at Wanganui on Thursday of last week but his future will be as a jumper, according to Waipukurau trainer Lucy de Lautour.She now owns the five-year-old gelding with her... View the full article

Monmouth Park realized $2,279,166 in sports betting revenue (total handle minus the paid-out winnings) during its first 17 days of operation since New Jersey legalized sports betting June 14. Total handle at New Jersey’s three sports bet-taking properties for the partial month of June was $16,409,616 according to the first sports-wagering revenue report released July 12 by the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement. Borgata Hotel Casino and Ocean Resort Casino were the two other properties that reported sports betting revenue. The sports book at the Meadowlands racetrack is scheduled to open this Saturday. Although the handle figure for each individual property was not included in the state’s report, the Asbury Park Press reported Monmouth’s total sports betting handle was $8,176,212. It is unclear, however, exactly how the money bet on sports at Monmouth will translate to purse enhancements for Thoroughbred horsemen. When TDN inquired as to what the splits might be or if a sports betting revenue-sharing agreement for purses is formally in place, Tom Lucci, the track’s media relations director, replied “Monmouth Park officials will not be making any statement.” The New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association’s advisor and attorney is Dennis Drazin, who helped to lead the state’s long-shot United States Supreme Court battle to have the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) declared unconstitutional. Drazin is also the chairman and chief executive of Darby Development LLC, which operates Monmouth Park “We are extremely pleased with our numbers,” Drazin told the Asbury Park Press Thursday. “We think they show there is a huge appetite for sports betting. To be generating these numbers early, and it’s not even football season yet, speaks enormously of the potential for when football season comes around. So we’re thrilled by the early numbers.” The Asbury Park Press also speculated that the live racing product could be a beneficiary of crossover horse betting handle now that the track is open daily for sports betting. On nine weekend/holiday racing dates between June 14 and July 12, the Asbury publication reported that Monmouth’s on-track handle was up 3.4% over the same dates in 2017. View the full article

Mike Lakow has been hired as the racing secretary for all Aqueduct meets, NYRA announced Thursday. Previously serving as NYRA racing secretary from 1993-2005, he will assume responsibilities beginning with the Saratoga meet. “With Mike’s hire, and the addition of Pat Pope at Belmont Park, NYRA has now filled out our racing office with some of the most experienced and knowledgeable officials involved in the game today,” said Martin Panza, NYRA’s Senior Vice President of Racing Operations. “Their collective experience, combined with the talent that exists in the office, will serve our horsemen and women well moving forward.” View the full article

Despite an active, ongoing lawsuit initiated by The Stronach Group (TSG) against the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) over a law requiring racetracks to contract with off-track betting (OTB) facilities for simulcasting as a condition of licensure, the Stronach-owned Golden Gate Fields is willing to comply with that law for the time being so that its Aug. 22-Oct. 2 racing meet won’t be scuttled. Although regulators, track representatives, and OTB licensees more or less agreed at Thursday’s CHRB meeting that this was not an ideal scenario, the CHRB voted unanimously to approve Golden Gate’s license to race its upcoming meet so long as all of the under-negotiation simulcasting agreements are filed with the agency by next Wednesday, July 18. “I recognize this is not a perfect solution,” said CHRB chairman Chuck Winner. “Wherever there are disagreements, you’re never going to get a perfect solution that’s going to satisfy everybody. It’s never going to happen. [But] the objective here…is to try to make sure that this summer meet is going to be run.” Scott Daruty, the president at TSG’s Monarch Content Management, LLC, who spoke on behalf of Golden Gate, reported that he has a signed agreement in hand with the Sonoma County Fair simulcasting facility, and that TSG is engaged in an ongoing negotiations with the California Authority of Racing Fairs (CARF) that would cover other northern California OTB venues. He added that the two parties have arrived at an “agreement in principal” that is “99% reflective” of what a finished contract will look like. Daruty told The Paulick Report last week that TSG believes the OTB network in northern California is “outdated, inefficient and ineffective. We have ideas how it can be better structured, but the CHRB has mandated that we have to do everything the old way. The purpose of the lawsuit is to get a court to interpret how the law works.” Larry Swartzlander, the CARF executive director, expressed concerns at the meeting that even if this short-term agreement salvages the upcoming meet, he is concerned the exact same issues will arise again when Golden Gate’s next license application rolls around, triggering a “kicking the can down the road again” repeat of the impasse. Greg Avioli, president and chief executive officer the Thoroughbred Owners of California, said “We do support the deal as the best alternative in the midst of a bunch of not-great alternatives.” View the full article

Fresh off a victory in last month's Trillium Stakes (G3), Gamble's Ghost heads into the July 15 stakes feature in winning form for her connections, who are looking to repeat in the $125,000 Ontario Matron Stakes (G3) at Woodbine. View the full article

The Barretts Sales July 25 paddock sale of race-ready horses at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club will be canceled and combined into an Oct. 16 yearlings and all-age auction at Fairplex, the auction company announced Thursday. The news, which was delivered during the public commentary period of the July 12 California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) meeting by Kim Lloyd, the general manager of Barretts, was met with a rebuke by commissioner Madeline Auerbach. “I am concerned about the sales, obviously,” Auerbach said. “I’m concerned for the breeders in the state, and I’m concerned for people bringing in horses.” Barretts is owned and operated by the Los Angeles County Fair Association, a 501(c)5 mutual benefit corporation, and its headquarters is located on the Fairplex fairgrounds in Pomona, which had hosted an annual Thoroughbred meet until 2014. “Fairplex did it strictly for a cost-saving measure. That was their reasoning with me, and that’s what I was told,” Lloyd said when asked by Auerbach to explain the logic behind the move. Lloyd added that the Barretts Aug. 28 select yearling sale at Del Mar would be unaffected. “I just want to put it on the record that I would anticipate that Pomona and the management of the Los Angeles County Fair system will guarantee us that those next two sales will go through as scheduled, because any more postponements or hitches can’t be tolerated by the industry or by any of us,” Auerbach warned. “They have assured me that they will, but I agree with you,” Lloyd replied. “I definitely think that we need to have further communication to ensure the future of these two sales.” View the full article

“Inside the Winner’s Circle, Presented by Keeneland” is a series showcasing graduates of the Keeneland September sale that have gone on to achieve success on racing’s biggest stages. Mark Taylor always knew Roaring Lion (Kitten’s Joy) had quality as a yearling. He was sired by a top-class stallion in Kitten’s Joy, came from a successful female family with deep ties to Taylor Made and moved like poetry in motion when he opened up his stride in the fields of Taylor Made Farm. The promising colt, who was bred by Jan Vandebos Naify’s RanJan Racing and raised on a tract of land at the Taylor Made property that had yielded the likes of champions Speightstown and Ashado, seemed destined to a successful career on the racetrack. Flash forward two years, the beautiful moving colt with a powerful stride has realized that potential–and more–on the racetrack. Acquired by the shrewd eye of bloodstock agent David Redvers on behalf of Qatar Racing for $160,000 as a Keeneland September yearling, the gray made an immediate impact as an American-bred competing on the English turf. His crowning achievement to date came last Saturday, when he uncorked a powerful stretch rally to capture the G1 Coral-Eclipse S. As Roaring Lion engaged in his literal uphill battle in the stretch run at Sandown Park, there were understandably a number of interested viewers watching from afar back in Jessamine County, Kentucky. “It was so exciting,” said Taylor. “He was wide and it didn’t look like he was going to get up. He’s just such a class horse. When he hit the wire, his ears were straight up, twitching back and forth. He just had this look in his eye like he knew he had won. He understands the game–he was so professional.” In the aftermath of the race, Taylor took some time to reflect on the colt’s early days on the farm. “He was just a beautiful mover,” Taylor said. “He was a good-looking horse standing there on the end of the shank. But when he took off moving, it was like, ‘Wow.’ He went from being okay to really sexy once he started moving. The way he would unhinge his shoulders and how fluid he was in his walk, he just had this swagger to him–you could just sit there and watch it all day… He was very straightforward. There’s no story about how he had to overcome this or that.” Following in the footsteps in the same pastures as a number of accomplished Aaron and Marie Jones horses–most recently MGSW & MGISP Irap (Tiznow)–Roaring Lion was entered in Book 1 of the September Sale with high hopes. Yet while the colt’s time as a yearling was decidedly straightforward, his reception on the sales grounds was a bit more complicated. Taylor observed that because Roaring Lion had a pedigree that crossed an exceptional turf stallion with a female line that enjoyed most of its success on dirt, many buyers did not know what to make of him. Without obvious appeal to high-budget European buyers and Classic-seeking American buyers, the door was left open to an opportunistic investor with a discerning eye. “Kitten’s Joy is a world-class stallion, but he’s definitely got more of a turf resume,” Taylor said. “Roaring Lion is out of a Street Sense mare, but had more of a dirt pedigree. Where do you put a horse like this? He ended up being in Book 1, but he was what I call a ‘tweener.’ He had turf appeal, and I think that’s why David Redvers ended up landing on him… He wasn’t incredibly expensive. I think a lot of the American buyers looked past him because they thought he would be a grass horse, and that’s not what they’re first looking for.” Crediting Redvers for snagging the colt for a seemingly modest price, Taylor said that Roaring Lion is a testament to the depth of the catalog at Keeneland September. “Year after year, it’s such a unique thing with the volume of quality that’s there,” Taylor said. “It gives buyers a chance to find a world-class horse at a reasonable price. If you work the sale and you know what you’re looking for–and you got to find your spot–there’s nothing like Keeneland September for buyers across the world and in America.” A large factor in any consignor’s success, of course, is ensuring that their horses land in capable hands, and Roaring Lion’s achievement at the highest level on the racetrack helped bolster an already substantial legacy of success at Taylor Made. “It’s a great sense of pride,” Taylor said. “He was the 99th Grade/Group 1 winner that we’ve either raised on the farm or sold for our customers, and later that same day Catholic Boy (More Than Ready) became the 100th. Grade I winners are so hard to come by, and getting to 100 is a testimonial to the quality of customer base we’ve been able to grow over the years and the stability of great team members that try to serve our customers the best we can year in and year out.” Taylor Made’s longstanding partnership with the Naify family has yielded significant results, with Roaring Lion and Bronson (Medaglia d’Oro)–a half-brother to Roaring Lion’s dam Vionnet (Street Sense)–carrying the banner in recent years. Bronson sold for $350,000 at Keeneland September and recently finished third in the GIII Louisville H. May 19. “The family that he’s from has been just amazingly consistent producing stakes horses over the last decade,” Taylor said. “His granddam [MGSW] Cambiocorsa has just been an amazing producer. All [of her progeny] had been bred by Jan Naify and her late husband Bob. They did a really nice job developing that family. The third dam, Ultrafleet, is by Afleet, who was one of the first stallions that Taylor Made was involved with as the co-syndicate manager with John Gaines. It’s funny, I think when I was in high school, my brother Duncan had me going out and taking Polaroid photos of every mare that was bred to Afleet that year so we could track their conformation. I think I went and took a picture of Social Conduct, the fourth dam.” Although Taylor Made has had more than its fair share of success stories over the years, Taylor said seeing one of their horses go on to Grade/Group 1 glory never gets old–particularly when the ties to the family are so deeply embedded in the farm’s history. “It just makes you proud to be somehow associated with developing that kind of racehorse,” Taylor concluded. View the full article

While bigger battles could reshape the Northern California racing and wagering landscape, they will not impact the upcoming Golden Gate Fields meeting. View the full article

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Friday’s Insights features a son of the 2013 G1 Pretty Polly S. heroine Ambivalent (Ire) (Authorized {Ire}). 4.10 Newmarket, Mdn, £12,000, 2yo, 7fT AL HILALEE (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) is one of four to represent Godolphin in a race the operation have fared well in recently. A son of the 2013 G1 Pretty Polly S. heroine Ambivalent (Ire) (Authorized {Ire}), the 300,000gns TATOCT graduate meets Ballydoyle’s Mount Tabora (Scat Daddy), the $750,000 KEENOV half-brother to G1 Matron S. winner Chachamaidee (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}) who was green when fifth on debut at The Curragh last month. View the full article

The second running of the world’s richest turf sprint, the A$13-million The Everest, could have an American entrant, as trainer Wesley Ward is strongly considering sending GIII Shakertown S. winner and G1 Diamond Jubilee S. (video) third-place getter Bound For Nowhere (The Factor) for the 1200-meter test at Sydney’s Royal Randwick Saturday, Oct. 13. The story was first reported by Australian website Racing.com. Ward told the TDN Thursday that Bound For Nowhere has emerged from his run at Royal Ascot none the worse for the effort and has been resting doing “absolutely nothing” since his return to Kentucky. Should he make the trip to Australia, Bound For Nowhere would board a flight with dual-hemisphere shuttle stallion, including American Pharoah. Seven horses are already booked for The Everest. Bound For Nowhere’s participation hinges on Ward–who owns the 4-year-old colt–securing an agreement with one of the remaining five shareholders, a group that includes Coolmore Stud, a farm with which Ward has had a long-standing and successful relationship. Coolmore won the Diamond Jubilee with Merchant Navy (Aus) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}), but he has been retired to stud. It remains possible, however, that Coolmore could field its own runner for The Everest. “We have one week from [Thursday] if we could work something out with a slot holder and if not, there wouldn’t really be anything lost since he’s getting time off anyways and he’d be ready to charge forward wherever I decided to run him next,” Ward said. Assuming he were to make the trip, Bound For Nowhere would be under the care of Ward’s colleague and good friend Gai Waterhouse, Ward said. Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s Cannonball (Catienus) represented Ward in Australia in 2010, but he was a horse who was over the top and on a downward slide, by the trainer’s own admission. Bound For Nowhere is a different proposition altogether, he asserts. “This guy is probably in the prime of his life and he’s on an upward spiral,” Ward said of the $310,000 Keeneland September grad. “The Everest was something that I wanted to have the opportunity to think about and am glad that I have that opportunity. He’s put all the weight back on that he lost from his travels and everything is looking very good with the horse. We have a chance to go down early, maybe have a prep race before, so the timing is very good. But everything is a concern,” he added, referencing the long trip and the need for Bound For Nowhere to handle a right-handed way of going. If a decision is made against The Everest, the Breeders’ Cup would be the target for Bound For Nowhere. Ward is considering a comeback in the $750,000 Tourist Mile Sept. 1 at Kentucky Downs. Both the GI Breeders’ Cup Mile and GI Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint are options for Bound For Nowhere, Ward said. The trainer is thrilled to have the chance to even consider a race like The Everest, but the situation remains fluid. “It’s a sprint race and that’s what I do best–turf sprinters–and like I said, I have a horse that seems to be at the top of his game,” Ward said. “It all sounds very good, but a lot has to work out. If I stay here, I don’t have to leave the state of Kentucky to get to the Breeders’ Cup [at Churchill Downs Nov. 2 and 3]. I just want to make the right decision for the horse.” View the full article

NEWMARKET, UK—The Tattersalls July Sale is routinely an international affair and among the destinations for some of the leading lights of Thursday’s horses-in-training sessions are Singapore, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Australia and America. After the blue-blooded breeding prospects on offer throughout the opening day, Thursday’s fare was of a less fancy variety but demand remained strong from start to finish and a clearance rate of 96% for the pre- and post-racing sections tells its own story of the lure of European bloodstock for farther-flung racing nations. The second-day figures were almost identical to those posted during the same session 12 months ago. Once again, a total of 171 horses changed hands, accruing an aggregate of 3,483,000gns, a fraction down on last year’s returns. The median was down by 4% at 12,000gns and the average slipped by just 1% to 20,368gns. One horse who will be returning whence he came is the well-credentialed German campaigner Degas (Ger) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}), catalogued under a wildcard entry as lot 579A from the stable of Markus Klug for owner-breeder Gestut Rottgen. The 5-year-old was a winner on his last start in the G3 Grosser Preis der Wirtschaft on June 24 and he holds an entry in Sunday’s G2 Meilen Trophy at Cologne, in which he will run in the colours of his new owner Eckhard Sauren. “Mr Sauren is a very successful owner in Germany and asked me to try to buy the horse for him,” said Jamie Railton after bidding 100,000gns for the gelding who has also won the G3 Europa Meile and was runner-up in the G2 Mehl-Mulhens Rennen (German 2,000 Guineas). Degas is a son of the treble listed winner Diatribe (GB) (Tertullian) , herself a daughter of the German champion 3-year-old filly Diacada (Ger) (Cadeaux Genereux {GB}). The only other horse to sell for six figures, late in the session, was the George Scott-trained Olympic Odyssey (GB) (Camelot {GB}), whose first handicap victory on June 18 was followed three days later by a narrow runner-up finish which boosted his rating to 70. Sold as lot 626, the 3-year-old, who raced in the colours of Scott’s father-in-law and brother-in-law Bill and Tim Gredley, fetched 100,000gns to a bid from Stephen Hillen and will now switch codes. The agent said, “He’s for a new client, and will be going jumping. He’s a gorgeous horse by Camelot who has such a good stint of things of late. He’ll have an easy month now, and then go to his new base in England.” Heading farther afield is 3-year-old De Medici (Ire) (Makfi {GB}), twice a winner this year for owner-breeder Al Asayl Bloodstock and Archie Watson, who will race on for Yulong Investments after being selected by Michael Donohoe of BBA Ireland for 95,000gns. “He might head to Singapore or Australia,” said Donohoe of lot 436. “Yulong is building up quite a big string in Singapore now. This horse is a good-looking type, he vetted well and came highly recommended by Archie Watson. Qatar’s champion trainer Gassim Al Ghazali is one of this sale’s staunchest supporters and on Thursday bought another 18 horses to join his team at Al Rayyan for a total of 936,000gns. Among them was the listed-placed four-time winner Volatile (GB) (Poet’s Voice {Gb}) (lot 517), bought from Jamie Osborne and the Melbourne 10 for 85,000gns, and Shadwell’s recent Beverley winner Alrahaal (GB) (Raven’s Pass) (lot 583), an 82,000gns purchase. Yorkshire trainer Mick Easterby had a productive day and among his purchases through agent Bobby O’Ryan was the Shadwell campaigner Manzil (Ire) (Bated Breath {GB}) (lot 463), who was formerly trained by Dermot Weld and won a 10-furlong Down Royal maiden at the end of June. “He came highly recommended,” said O’Ryan, who signed the ticket at 85,000gns. “We hope that he’ll be one for the John Smith’s Cup at York next year.” By Bated Breath and with a rating of 85, Manzil looks a progressive type and was sold by Shadwell. The Giant’s Causeway 3-year-old Hinde Street (lot 474), a son of GI Matron S. winner Marylebone (Unbridled’s Song) and brother to stakes scorer Bow Bells, is on his way to Saudi Arabia after being bought by Faisal Bin Mishref al Qahtani for 82,000gns. Formerly trained by John Gosden for Michael Tabor, he will now be campaigned towards the country’s prestigious King’s Cup. View the full article

Goddess, a daughter of Derby winner Camelot out of a half sister to champion Galileo, bolted into contention for next year's classics with a 10-length victory in a seven-furlong maiden at Leopardstown. View the full article

Having run to his hype in earning his first graded stakes win last month, Tom Conway's King Zachary aims to show his class again as the clear standout in a field of nine for the Indiana Derby (G3) at Indiana Grand. View the full article

Headley Bell, managing partner of Mill Ridge Farm in Lexington, favors long-sleeved button-down shirts and khakis, is exceedingly polite and gentlemanly, and has the unaffected air of a country squire about him. He has the pedigree to back up this image, as the grandson of Hal Price Headley, one of the founders of Keeneland, an exemplary horseman, and the master of the legendary Beaumont Farm; and as the son of Alice Chandler, now 92, who established Mill Ridge in 1962 on Beaumont land on the death of her father, stood world-class sires Diesis and Gone West, and bred Epsom Derby winner Sir Ivor 53 years ago. If you put the microscope to him, Headley Bell is a fifth-generation horseman and his son Price Bell Jr., who is a part of the Mill Ridge equation as well as a partner in Bell’s noted bloodstock consultancy Nicoma, is sixth generation. Mill Ridge sits on 650 acres–Alice Chandler inherited 286 acres to start the farm–and is home to about 200 head nowadays, including 85 mares, mostly boarders for a group of high-end clients. At the moment it stands one semi-private horse, Keep Up (Unbridled’s Song), and before him stood Johar (Gone West), Commendable (Gone West), and Anees (Unbridled) after the commercially robust era of Diesis and Gone West. The farm has the capability to stand six stallions as a boutique operation. Bell has been managing Mill Ridge since 2008 and in recent years he’d “been navigating the waters, really waiting for the right opportunity” for the next commercial stallion prospect for the farm. Last week, a few days before announcing it to the press, Bell called to say that Mill Ridge had its horse. He is John and Jerry Amerman’s four-year-old homebred Oscar Performance (Kitten’s Joy–Devine Actress, by Theatrical {Ire}), a multiple Grade I winner at two and three and the sensational winner of the Glll Poker S. on the turf at Belmont in his season debut in mid-June. True to his name, the athletic bay had indeed put up an Oscar-worthy performance by shattering a 20-year track record with a final time of 1:31.23 for the mile. Altogether, Oscar Performance is a winner of seven of 12 starts and $1,967,632 to date, and his notable wins also include the GI Belmont Derby and the GI Secretariat S. at Arlington, both at a mile and a quarter last year, and the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at a mile, a race in which he set fractions of 1:09.44 and 1:21.07 on his way to 1:33.28, in 2016. Bell noted that the 16-hand colt is athletic, attractive, physically correct, and races Lasix-free, aside from being handier and faster than most of the Kitten’s Joys. Back in March in Ocala–yes, at Craig Bernick’s annual crawfish boil at Glen Hill Farm–Bell had mentioned that he was interested in Oscar Performance, but it wasn’t until about a week before the Poker, Bell said, that he and his son had approached the colt’s owner/breeders about tying up the colt for Mill Ridge. Syndication It helped that the Amermans are clients of the farm and that Bell is their pedigree advisor and had played a hand in Oscar Performance’s mating. Also, the Amermans board their mares at the farm–Oscar Performance was foaled at Mill Ridge–and enjoy an excellent relationship with Alice Chandler and her son and grandson. “We are mutually fans of each other, that’s number one,” Bell said. “And when this horse had demonstrated his talents early on, it became a no brainer. He won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf so well and then went on and was the best at three on turf for his age, and his numbers were so strong. I know the only thing you might have contemplated was the turf angle–but we considered that an opportunity. It was fabulous because the Amermans had come in about a week before the Poker, and that’s when we kind of planted the seed, because it had been seven months since he’d run before. Strategically, we felt it if he won the Poker, it was time to be thinking about setting up the structure [of the syndicate]. Little did we know he was going to break the track record. The Amermans are great and the horse is great, in our opinion, so it’s a great marriage. Mill Ridge will be the syndicate manager.” Mill Ridge itself owns only five mares, but Bell noted that his access to a “wide swath of relationships” was an attraction to the Amermans. “We’ve got the best clients. We work with the best, as far as I’m concerned. We love our people. Ultimately, the goal is to make the stallion, and we–and the Amermans–will be working towards that goal. He’s a horse we believe in,” Bell said. To that end, Bell said the horse would be syndicated into 40 shares, with the Amermans retaining 10 shares. At the moment, 15 shares are being offered for $75,000 each with a projected stud fee of $15,000 based on what Oscar Performance has accomplished to date. After Oscar Performance is retired later this year, Bell said the other 15 shares will be offered at market value, which could be as high as $125,000, he speculated, if the colt were to win the Gl Breeders’ Cup Mile and stand for $25,000. The initial offering is a chance to get into the horse at a potentially discounted rate, and the traditional 40-share syndicate structure that was also used for Diesis and Gone West is transparent and a straightforward mechanism designed to attract owner/breeder participation–an important foundation for making a stallion. Bell said the horse would be managed judiciously at stud with a cap of 140 mares, and each shareholder will receive a bonus season the first four years and thereafter will participate in the bonus pool. He also noted that any shareholder that doesn’t initially get a mare in foal on his or her share season would be compensated $15,000 from the bonus pool. Pedigree Bell is a pedigree guy and has an obvious penchant for turf racing and turf sires. For clients, he’s been associated with the matings of Arc winners Trempolino (Sharpen Up {GB}) and Suave Dancer (Green Dancer), Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Artie Schiller (El Prado {Ire}), European champion Rainbow View (Dynaformer), and Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro (Dynaformer), among many others. When he called last week, he was preparing a trip to Belmont to watch Analyze It, a colt he bred with his wife and Nicoma, run second by a head in the GI Belmont Derby. Analyze It is from the first crop of the Phipps-bred turf star Point of Entry (Dynaformer). Likewise, Oscar Performance was bred for turf. His sire Kitten’s Joy (El Prado {Ire}) was a U.S. turf champion in 2004; his dam Devine Actress was a winner on turf and a stakes winner on all-weather; and his broodmare sire Theatrical (Ire) was a U.S. turf champion in 1987. Oscar Performance’s brother Oscar Nominated is, like him, a bona fide turf horse and a graded-stakes winning millionaire. Because horses like Analyze It, Oscar Performance, and Oscar Nominated have flourished in recent all-turf domestic careers– and because a stallion like Kitten’s Joy was able to lead the general sire list in the US in 2013 primarily with turf and all-weather runners–Bell correctly sees future opportunities expanding both here and abroad for horses like Oscar Performance. This turf “revolution” was examined in detail in an earlier column here, and there’s no doubt that the landscape now is better situated to take advantage of turf horses. Kitten’s Joy, in fact, put an exclamation mark to it a few days after the Oscar Performance announcement when his son Roaring Lion won the G1 Coral-Eclipse S. at Sandown over 10 furlongs. Two years earlier, another son of Kitten’s Joy, Hawkbill, had won the same race. Bell said he was one of the few outside Ken and Sarah Ramsey to initially use Kitten’s Joy, and the reason for his attraction was his sire El Prado, the first son of Sadler’s Wells to make an impact on dirt racing in the U.S., something that continues through his outstanding son Medaglia d’Oro at Darley. Bell’s attraction, however, wasn’t the Sadler’s Wells part of the pedigree as much as it was El Prado’s dam, Lady Capulet. Bell thinks the speedy and precocious El Prado, a champion Irish 2-year-old, took more after his dam than sire, and that might be either insight or sentimentality, if not both, shaping his opinion. Lady Capulet was bred by Claiborne and was by Sir Ivor from Cap and Bells, by Tom Fool. Owned by Robert Sangster and trained by Vincent O’Brien, Lady Capulet remarkably won the Irish 1000 Guineas on her racing debut. Her sire was bred by Bell’s mother from a family long held by Hal Price Headley and traced to Headley’s champion 2-year-old Alcibiades, Sir Ivor’s fourth dam. Tom Fool meanwhile was bred by Headley’s nephew Duval A. Headley and was a champion at two and a champion sprinter, older horse, and Horse of the Year at four for Greentree Stud. Tom Fool, who sired Odgen Phipps’s outstanding Buckpasser, was sired by the Headley-bred Menow, a champion 2-year-old colt by Pharamond ll. The latter had been imported from Europe by Headley to stand at Beaumont, where Menow later stood as well. More importantly, Menow was produced from none other than Alcibiades. Lady Capulet, therefore, was inbred 5×4 to Alcibiades through Sir Ivor and Tom Fool and additionally has Pharamond ll, a precocious two-year-old, 4×4 in her pedigree. That’s a lot of speed and precocity in Lady Capulet’s ancestry and it certainly makes Bell’s theory about El Prado plausible. The construction of Oscar Performance’s pedigree has some interesting inbreeding as well. He has the three-quarter brothers Sadler’s Wells and Nureyev balanced on both sides of his pedigree and is therefore 5×4 to the blue hen Special. He’s also 4×4 to Northern Dancer and 5×5 to Hail to Reason, the sire of Roberto. It has strength in its tail-female lineage as well, tracing back to Ogden Phipps’s Lady Pitt, his seventh dam and the ancestress of a massive amount of high-quality stakes winners. The sires scattered throughout the female family constitute a Who’s Who, too, with Mr. Prospector, Seattle Slew, and Danzig all included. Kitten’s Joy, who’s out of a Roberto-line mare, has enjoyed a successful union with mares that contain Roberto in their pedigrees–there are at least 18 black type winners by Kitten’s Joy that are inbred to Roberto, including six Grade I winners–and Oscar Performance offers breeders this possibility as well. Bell knows this, and as a patron of Roberto-line horses he’s sure to exploit this construct as well as others. He’s a sophisticated analyst and thinker as well as a practical horseman and he has the tools and relationships to make Oscar Performance the next big thing at Mill Ridge. But more importantly, he has the horse he’s been waiting for. Sid Fernando is president and CEO of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc., originator of the Werk Nick Rating and eNicks. View the full article

Here’s a story. With very short paragraphs. To see if the picture touches the featured image. If we have ads. That are close. View the full article

LUTSKY (c, 2, Yes It’s True–Reen, by Forestry) continued a red-hot streak for trainer Jason Servis with a sharp wire-to-wire debut score at Belmont. Sold for $135,000 at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic after breezing a quarter-mile in :21 4/5, the bay was bet strongly throughout in this New York-bred event and broke like he was shot out of a cannon as the 17-10 chalk. Showing the way through a :22.70 quarter, he easily shook loose from his closest pursuers after straightening for home and cruised under the wire to graduate by a geared-down five lengths in a sharp 1:03.68. Stop Me If You Can (Giant Surprise) completed the exacta, just ahead of Trance (Dialed In), who ran sneaky well despite a slow break and considerable greenness. The winner has a yearling half-sister by Verrazano. Sales History: $25,000 Ylg ’17 KEEJAN; $37,000 Ylg ’17 FTSAUG. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $37,200. O-Down Neck Stables & Jeffrey Lutsky; B-Pine Ridge Stables Ltd (NY); T-Jason Servis. View the full article

Draft Pick could be well-positioned to capitalize in lucrative stakes races in the East, but first comes a start at home in the $150,000 Los Alamitos Derby (G3) July 14. View the full article