Wandering Eyes

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. Thursday’s Insights features a half-sister to GSW Golden Valentine (Fr) (Dalakhani {Ire}). 4.20 Chantilly, Debutantes, €25,000, 3yo, f, 8f (AWT) GOLDEN BOX (Kitten’s Joy) debuts for LNJ Foxwoods SC and Alain De Royer-Dupre, with her owners having purchased the G3 Prix Cleopatre-winning dam Gold Round (Ire) (Caerleon) for €520,000 at the 2012 Arqana December Sale. A half-sister to three black-type performers from the family of Goldikova (Ire) (Anabaa), she encounters the Wertheimers’ High Profile (GB) (Dansili {GB}), a Freddy Head-trained half-sister to the multiple Group 1-winning Solow (GB) (Singspiel {Ire}) and SARL Darpat’s Villalar (Fr) (Whipper), a Carlos Laffon-Parias full-sister to the stable’s star of 2018 Recoletos (Fr). View the full article

Thoroughbred owner-breeder Craig Bernick has served on many of horse racing's boards but one thing he sees as lacking in the industry is a vision on how to improve the economics of horse racing. View the full article

The recently concluded 84-day meet at Delta Downs in Vinton, Louisiana, saw new records established in three horsemen’s categories, as Tim Thornton set a new mark for money earned while trainer Karl Broberg and End Zone Athletics Inc. established new standards for wins and earnings. Thornton ended the meeting on 142 wins, shy of Gerard Melancon’s 146 in 2007-2008, but his mounts accumulated $2,894,080 to set a new mark. Broberg continued his dominance en route to an eighth consecutive title at Delta, sending out the winners of 107 races for earnings of $2,017,120. It was the first time a trainer has won 100 races and earned better than $2 million in a single season. End Zone, a major supporter of Broberg, ended the season with 50 trips to the winner’s circle for earnings of $873,545. View the full article

On the day Oaklawn Park made racing history by splitting the $1 million Rebel Stakes (G2) into two divisions, the track also announced an additional $1 million will be available to the overnight purses for the third increase of the 2019 live season. View the full article

Cash is King and D J Stable, who are partners on last year’s juvenile filly champion Jaywalk (Cross Traffic), teamed up to purchase a colt by Medaglia d’Oro for $900,000 during Wednesday’s session of the OBS March sale. Out of graded stakes placed Rashnaa (Tapit), the juvenile was bred by Town and Country Horse Farms and Pollock Farms and was consigned by King’s Equine. He worked a furlong during last week’s under-tack preview in :10 flat. View the full article

Following a distiguished career with the New York Racing Association, in which he rose to the number two executive position, Bill Nader served a first tour of duty with the Hong Kong Jockey Club as its Executive Director of Racing for eight years. Nader returned to the U.S. in January 2016, but just over one year ago, it was announced that he would return to the HKJC as its Director of Racing, Business Operations. On the eve of the BMW Hong Kong Derby and with entries for FWD Champions Day set to close early next week, the TDN’s Alan Carasso posed a series of questions on the current state of Hong Kong Racing, his feelings about the new Conghua Racecourse and Hong Kong’s position on the world racing stage: TDN: Tuesday will mark one year since your return to the saddle at the HKJC? How do you reflect upon the last 12 months? Bill Nader: This is such an amazing place to be for horse racing. It’s very familiar to me, the stakes are high and everything moves fast. The one big difference has been the opening of Conghua, a project I was involved with at the outset and I was able to be back in time for the official opening in August. TDN: The training centre at Conghua is up and running and has been critically acclaimed. Can you articulate just what the CTC means to racing in Hong Kong now and into the future? BN: We now call it CRC–Conghua Racecourse. This might be the single biggest initiative in the history of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, which was founded in 1884. Racing here has graduated from amateur to professional to elite, and Conghua will play a big part in maintaining and improving that status. It allows for an expansion in the horse population and opens up new avenues for success. The facilities are outstanding and we are now operating on a three-track platform of Sha Tin and Happy Valley in Hong Kong with Conghua in Mainland under the umbrella of the Greater Bay area. TDN: CTC, or should I say CRC, is set to stage a day of racing, minus wagering, of course, on March 23. How critical an event is this from the Club’s perspective? BN: It’s historic and it will be one of those rare days that merit the word unforgettable. This is the first-ever Hong Kong Jockey Club race meeting in the Mainland. It is a breakthrough achievement to bring the entire engine across the border, the horses, the prize money, owners, jockeys, trainers, racing officials and television coverage in Hong Kong and China. Many people in attendance will be seeing top-class horse racing for the first time and there will be high ranking Government officials also there to witness the occasion. TDN: The Club certainly must be pleased with the news from the past week that Australian authorities are prepared to loosen the travel restrictions on Australian horses. BN: The interim arrangement came just in time to give us a fighting chance to allow Australian-based horses the opportunity to participate in Champions Day on April 28. This is a critical step forward and we remain keen for DAWR (Australian Department of Agriculture and Water Resources) to complete its evaluation to pave the way for a full reinstatement of bilateral movements of horses between Australia and Hong Kong. We certainly appreciate the work of DAWR and the HKSAR AFCD (Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department) in reaching this interim agreement. TDN: Last year’s Longines Hong Kong International Races saw locally based horses sweep all four events, an historical first. On the one hand, that fact exemplifies the strength of the racing product in Hong Kong, but do you see it as a double-edged sword in any way in that perhaps, like Japan, there may be a hesitance to ship in for races that are increasingly hard to win? BN: I certainly hope not. The prize money is in the top echelon and the entire experience for the owner, trainer, jockey and the horse is positively first class. The value proposition is intact. It would be a real longshot that a clean sweep could happen again, as the overall competition is simply too good. History shows that every part of the world can win here. TDN: Although Hong Kong’s biggest names (i.e. Beauty Generation, Exultant, Mr Stunning) are swerving Dubai World Cup night, the jurisdiction will be represented by at least a few very nice horses, including Southern Legend in the Dubai Turf and Gold Mount in the staying race, the Dubai Gold Cup. How do you assess their chances? BN: Southern Legend is a good horse and is in good form, but he would need to win the race of his life to win the Dubai Turf to match up with Almond Eye and Dream Castle. Gold Mount will be making a big leap from 2000m to 3200m in the Dubai World Cup, but he is proven over 2400 and it will be interesting to see how he goes over that trip. We also have Wishful Thinker for the Al Quoz and another horse named Fight Hero, which finished second in the Korea Sprint last year, a possibility for the Golden Shaheen. TDN: The Club has done some shifting of the calendar to create a mini HKIR day in early spring, including the QE II Cup, the Champions Mile and the Chairman’s Sprint Prize. The races are well positioned relative to DWC night and to a lesser extent, The Championships. What is the Club doing to try to encourage participation from outside of Hong Kong? BN: We did this for the first time last year and attendance was up 50%. We will have the track in top condition and an overseas trainer can bring more than one horse with three major Group 1 races to pick from. Free entries close on March 18 and it is a perfect fit on the global calendar, four weeks after the Dubai World Cup race meeting. The Longines Hong Kong International Races in December is our flagship event, but we now have the second part of a strong one-two punch. It also encourages our Hong Kong owners to compete at the top end as well as solidify the Hong Kong brand as one that is global as opposed to local. TDN: For a jurisdiction as small and insular as Hong Kong, it churns out a huge number of top-class runners, including word’s best miler Beauty Generation. This must be a source of great pride for the Club. BN: This is a great source of pride for all of Hong Kong. Horse racing is such a big part of the social fabric here and you have to remember that this is a small place with only 7.5 million people and 1300 race horses. Beauty Generation has developed into a real star. Hong Kong is also home to 11 of the world’s Top 100 Group 1 races and it has been exciting to see Hong Kong people develop a true appreciation for international racing. TDN: Where do you see Hong Kong racing 10 years from now? BN: It will continue to be an industry leader. This is an almost perfect racing and business model with government and the community as important and respected stakeholders. It has such a solid foundation and now with the implementation and further development of Conghua, it can only get stronger. Ten years from now, I will be watching from somewhere else with interest and I expect great things. View the full article

2018 G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup hero and National Stud first-season stallion Lancaster Bomber (War Front-Sun Shower {Ire}, by Indian Ridge {Ire}) will continue his stallion career in South Africa beginning in the 2019 Southern Hemisphere season, Sporting Post reported on Wednesday. The 5-year-old will stand at Drakenstein Stud Farm, and he will be syndicated and managed by John Freeman’s Freeman Stallions. The bay, whose Northern Hemisphere breeding career is managed by Avenue Bloodstock, is standing his first season at the National Stud for £8,500, Oct. 1, SLF. Out of Sun Shower, the former Coolmore runner is a half-brother to MG1SW and French highweight Excelebration (Ire) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}), to MGSW Mull of Killough (Ire) (Mull of Kintyre) and to Indian MSW Shivalik Showers (Ind) (Dancing Forever). View the full article

For the third time since the racing season opened less than two months ago, officials at Oaklawn Park have announced that the track is adding $1 million to overnight purses. Retroactive to Thursday, Mar. 14, purses for open maiden special weight races will be $90,000 and purses for open allowance races will be $95,000, an increase of $7,000. The announcement came on the same day that the GII Rebel S. was split into two divisions, each worth $750,000. The unsplit Rebel was to offer $1 million. The move was made, in large part, to accommodate California shippers affected by the closing of the main track at Santa Anita. “We pioneered this model beginning in 2000, and have further developed it every year since,” said Oaklawn President Louis Cella. “In fact, just a few years ago we were running open maidens for $40,000 and proud of it. Now they are at $90,000. And, who ever thought we’d be in the position to split the Rebel into two divisions? Today is an extremely proud moment in Oaklawn’s history.” When first mulling over the possibility of a split Rebel, track officials indicated that they would need a minimum of 20 entries. A total of 19 horses was entered Wednesday, but as a good-will gesture, the track opted not to deviate from their plan. “Knowing that some horsemen have very few options this late in the Triple Crown prep season, we felt the right thing to do was to follow through with the plan to split the Rebel,” said Oaklawn General Manager Wayne Smith. “We also wanted to do it for the fans. We wouldn’t even be in this position without the overwhelming support they’ve given us since the start of the season.” Trainer Bob Baffert has the likely favorites in both divisions in the form of ‘TDN Rising Stars’ Improbable (City Zip) and Eclipse Award and GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg}). Saturday’s card also features the $350,000 GII Azeri S. and the $350,000 Essex H. View the full article

I’ve really enjoyed watching the Cheltenham Festival this week and I have my first runner on Thursday, with Testify in the Brown Advisory Plate. I have gone through all the races this Thursday and below are my toughts: JLT Novices’ Chase – Defi Du Seuil I think he’s the classiest horse in the race and would seem to have […] The post Donald McCain Cheltenham Thoughts – Thursday appeared first on RaceBets Blog EN. View the full article

Horses worked over the main track at Santa Anita Park March 13 for the first time since racing was suspended the previous week. View the full article

For horse racing to continue to enjoy acceptance from the general public, participants need to actively communicate the industry's many positives, said an expert on racehorse welfare March 13. View the full article

Jockey Catalino Martinez scored the 1,000th victory of his career March 9 after guiding Barbello to a 2 1/2-length win in the first race at Golden Gate Fields. View the full article

Horses worked over the main track at Santa Anita Park March 13 for the first time since racing was suspended the previous week. View the full article

The third day of the festival sees the best stayers do batlle and with the ground softer than many would have expected there could be some surprise results. JLT Novices’ Chase The opening race on the third day of the festival looks to be a match between old advisories Defi Du Seuil and Lostintranslation. The […] The post Cheltenham Festival 2019 Preview – Thursday appeared first on RaceBets Blog EN. View the full article

Group 1 winner Quorto (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) has sustained an injury in Dubai where he was wintering and will miss the G1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas Godolphin announced on Wednesday morning. The Godolphin homebred ‘TDN Rising Star’ is undefeated in three starts to date, including the July 14 G2 Superlative S. and the Sept. 16 G1 National S. when last seen. “Unfortunately Quorto has suffered a soft tissue injury in training in Dubai which will mean he will have to miss the 2000 Guineas,” said trainer Charlie Appleby. “It’s a real shame as we had high hopes for him this year. We’ll know more when he’s scanned for a second time in a couple of weeks. It’s too early to say when he could be back in action but we’ve been here before with these injuries and we’ll see how he recovers.” View the full article

Of the first six foals delivered this year by Linda Wood on her Menoken Farm in Colorado, three ended up as orphans. Just a case of sheer, vile luck: two mares colicked, another suffered horrible foaling complications. Stuff, for want of a more expressive word, that happens to the best. Because Menoken sets the highest standards in the state, home to its leading stallion every year bar one over the past decade. The farm had, moreover, already suffered disappointment during the winter when Our Rite Of Spring (Stravinsky), a mare Wood had found at the 2017 Keeneland November Sale, aborted a foal by one of Menoken stallions, Zip Quik. He’s a son of the late City Zip, whose own loss has come to seem still more lamentable since the rise of Improbable. The GI Los Alamitos Futurity winner is set to make his delayed reappearance at Oaklawn on Saturday, and his performance could yet redress that harrowing start to the Menoken year. Because Our Rite Of Spring is not just a half-sister to no less a horse than Hard Spun (Danzig). She’s also the dam of Rare Event (A.P. Indy), who was sold to Calumet at the 2016 Keeneland November Sale for $150,000. Smart work by Calumet, that, as Rare Event had been preceded onto the dais by her weanling colt by City Zip: a colt we now know as Improbable. (Taylor Made Sales signed a $110,000 docket for him there, before processing him to Maverick Racing & China Horse Club for $200,000 the following September.) So how much did Wood have to give, a year later, for Our Rite Of Spring? Bearing in mind she was carrying a foal by a $25,000 sire in Noble Mission (GB) (Galileo {Ire})? To be fair, she was 16 years old; and she had a June 11 cover. But was she really worth only $5,000? Last May, Our Rite Of Spring delivered her Noble Mission filly. Wood says she’s a cracker: a willowy, pretty thing with a flaxen tail. And everything, in the meantime, has been falling into place. She’s out of a half-sister to the sire of Hidden Scroll and Spinoff, among the exciting sophomores flying Hard Spun’s flag this year. Her own sire, an unknown quantity when she was in utero, has conjured as good a dirt runner as Code Of Honor from his first crop. And, of course, her half-sister Rare Event is dam of a colt who could end the week as favorite for the GI Kentucky Derby. Wood accepts that Our Rite Of Spring now warrants a more upmarket mating than she can offer her at Menoken. When I spoke to her a couple of days ago, in fact, she was all set to load the mare onto a van to Kentucky. It was simply a case of whether the mountain passes would be clear of snow. In the summer, when Wood has done prepping her other yearlings for sale locally, the Noble Mission filly will make the same journey to get the finishing touches from a consignor better known to the Lexington market. Unless, of course, someone comes in for her first. Not that Wood has even begun touting either the filly or the mare. She says she really ought to write to one or two big Bluegrass studs. But she’s had more important things to do. Another 19 mares to foal, for a start. Keep that door revolving for Grand Minstrel (Grand Slam), champion sire of Colorado, and his buddies. A bunch of foals and yearlings to nourish. And, like so many people across this industry, she’s short of good help. But remember she only stumbled across this windfall because she wasn’t enslaved by the same manic imperatives as everyone else, who ran screaming from a June cover by an imported sire. Now it’s a question of whether anyone out there might draw Our Rite Of Spring back into the commercial mainstream. At her age, yes, she’d be worth more in foal. But there’s a limit to how far Wood can stretch for the kind of stallion she now merits. So the mare is “open” for now; and Wood is open-minded. It’s still only March. Whatever dividends might yet fall to Wood, you suspect the Noble Mission filly herself has already come out ahead. I don’t say that she gazes at the snowy Rockies and is filled with poetry. But down on the banks of the Uncompahgre, they reckon to have pastures every bit as rich as the Bluegrass–and a better climate, being less humid. As it happens, Our Rite Of Spring and her foal found their way to Colorado from an exemplary Bluegrass farm; one that does the breed nothing but good. But they could easily have been culled into hands far less benign than those that tend them now. Wood turns young stock out at night, gives them “time to be a horse.” Actually she hadn’t even registered the existence of Improbable until told about his Grade I win in December. She’s since grieved those three mares, but reflects on all these dazing ups and downs as a proper horse person. “It’s a rollercoaster,” she says. “All part of the deal. We’re just lucky to be in this business.” But it would be no kind of business without the democracy of chance that allowed this mare, and her daughter, to slip the Bluegrass net. The odds are always somewhat against you, whether you’re in Kentucky or Colorado. But if you don’t fancy a June cover, presumably that’s because you don’t want to end up with a May foal like–oh, War Admiral or Seabiscuit or Northern Dancer. Improbable, yes. But never impossible. View the full article

A Frustrated-Fat Turtle double helped ease any BMW Hong Kong Derby nerves Frankie Lor Fu-chuen had at Happy Valley on Wednesday night.Lor has three live chances in Sunday’s HK$18 million feature – Dark Dream, Furore and Mission Tycoon – and given this is the first time he’s had a runner in Hong Kong’s most prestigious race, it would be understandable if the second-season trainer was a little on edge.But the affable Lor is taking it all in his stride, going about his business as per usual.“It’s… View the full article

Another first-crop sire had a breakout sale early at OBS Wednesday, with bloodstock agent Mike Ryan going to $850,000 to secure a colt by GI Belmont S. winner Palace Malice. Ryan was bidding on behalf of owner Jeff Drown. The colt, consigned by Pick View LLC, is out of Miss Always Ready (More Than Ready), a full-sister to graded stakes winner More Than Real. Purchased for $160,000 by Marquee Bloodstock at last year’s Keeneland September sale, he worked a quarter in :21 1/5 last week. View the full article

THE third day of the Cheltenham Festival holds fond memories for me as it is the day I rode Cole Harden to win what was then the World Hurdle. Now called the Stayers’ Hurdle, it’s a race that is going to be a cracker this year as is the Ryanair Chase, which I think could […] The post Gavin Sheehan Cheltenham Festival Day Three Preview appeared first on RaceBets Blog EN. View the full article

West Point Thoroughbreds, which teamed up to purchase the $2-million record-setting Tapit colt Tuesday, was quick to return to action during Wednesday’s second session of the OBS March sale, purchasing a filly from the first crop of Grade I winner The Big Beast for $850,000 along with an undisclosed partner and with Lane’s End Bloodstock as agent. Consigned and bred by Ocala Stud, hip 302 is out of Lucky Trip (Trippi), a full-sister to multiple stakes winner Dream of Angels and to Grade I placed Candrea. She zipped a quarter during last week’s under-tack preview in :20 4/5. View the full article

New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program has joined forces with the Godolphin Flying Start program to further expand trainee exposure to all facets of the Thoroughbred industry with the addition of an aftercare component. Each trainee enrolled in the Flying Start program will now complete a week-long rotation at the New Vocations’ Lexington facility. The intention of the time at New Vocations is for Godolphin Flying Start trainees to gain insight on the importance of aftercare within the racing industry. They will achieve this understanding by working directly with New Vocations’ team and by having hands-on experiences in the day-to-day operations of the program’s rehabilitation, retraining and rehoming efforts as well as learning about the administration and management of an accredited organization. “The Godolphin Flying Start program is a highly respected and sought-after program, and we were thrilled to be asked to participate by having the trainees spend a week with us,” said Thoroughbred Program Director Anna Ford. “Aftercare is becoming a very important part of the racing industry, so it’s appropriate for tomorrow’s leaders to experience how we rehab, retrain and rehome the retired racehorses in our program.” “Godolphin Flying Start is delighted to partner with New Vocations to add to trainees experiential learning of a major initiative that is integral to the future of the horse racing industry,” said General Manager Clodagh Kavanagh. “Trainees are motivated by their love of the horse during and after its working life. As young leaders, they are expected to be current and relevant with changes in the industry, and in the world around it. They will be part of shaping the future of horse racing and they recognize the importance of welfare now and in years to come.” In addition to being involved in various areas of New Vocations’ operations, each Godolphin Flying Start trainee will work with two horses at the Kentucky facility. To end the week-long rotation, trainees will create a short video to reflect what they learned and took away from their experience with New Vocations. New Vocations will feature this video, dubbed “Flying Start Friday,” on their social media outlets each week. View the full article

Whether its International racing or Uk and Irish action you are after we cover it all and have Daily Horse Racing offers available for you to get involved in. Check out today’s Horse Racing Offers below. UK Horse Racing Offer – Money Back All Losers if the Favourite Wins! On one race every day we […] The post Daily Horse Racing Offers – Wednesday 13th March appeared first on RaceBets Blog EN. View the full article

There are concerns over the welfare of BMW Hong Kong Derby favourite Waikuku after the rising star was found to be lame in his front left leg. The John Size-trained gelding was examined, and treated, for sensitivity to the sole of his left front foot on Sunday, March 10, the Jockey Club announced in a release on Wednesday. Size confirmed to stewards that Waikuku missed a day of work and has “restricted to slow work since the issue arouse”. The trainer said he intends to gallop the horse on… View the full article

There are concerns over the welfare of BMW Hong Kong Derby favourite Waikuku after the rising star was found to be lame in his front left leg.The John Size-trained gelding was examined, and treated, for sensitivity to the sole of his left front foot on Sunday, March 10, the Jockey Club announced in a release on Wednesday.Size confirmed to stewards that Waikuku missed a day of work and has “restricted to slow work since the issue arouse”. The trainer said he intends to gallop the horse on… View the full article

Hong Kong icon Donnie Yen Ji-dan has ridden – and fallen off – plenty of horses while filming his movies, so he has nothing but admiration for what jockeys do on a day-to-day basis.Yen is the ambassador for Sunday’s BMW Hong Kong Derby (the seventh year he has held the role) and a passionate horse racing fan, even sharing a promotional training session with star riders Zac Purton and Vincent Ho Chak-yiu.The 55-year-old martial arts expert has ridden horses in Hong Kong, China, Mongolia and New… View the full article