Unpacking last weekend

Real Writing on Racing 💯

With so many races to recap…where shall we start?

▪️How about the poor Vosburgh (Gr II) which has been our whipping boy for a few years now? The 2022 running turned out to be a coming out party for who we thought was the most talented member of the field, Elite Power. Never too far behind early leader Jalen Journey, who set pedestrian fraction for a graded sprint stakes (23.66 - 47.68), Jose Lezcano guided Elite Power to the lead at the half mile marker under minimal urging. The Curlin colt kicked away turning for home and was never threatened while being taken in hand late, scoring his first stakes win by 5 3/4 easy lengths. Clearly Elite Power has a ton of ability and he appears to still be on the improve though it’s difficult to know how this performance translates to a legit, high-level stakes like the BC Sprint (Gr I). *sidebar - Strobe, who lit up the timer in the finale on Kentucky Derby day, winning by 4 1/2 in 1:08.71 earning a 92 Beyer, hasn’t raced since but has been ripping off fast works at Churchill, and has been entered to run on Friday in an allowance race (Race 8) at Keeneland. One of the horses left in Strobe’s wake on the first Saturday in May? Elite Power.

▪️The Joe Hirsch Turf Classic (Gr I) was inaugurated in 1977, it’s first running (at Aqueduct ironically enough) went to that year’s Eclipse award winner for Older Turf Male, Johnny D. However the second edition and five out of the next six Turf Classic trophies went to females, champion mare Waya (Fr) in 1978, top French mare Anifa (Fr) in 1980, champion turf filly April Run (Ire) in both 1981-82, and Horse of the year All Along (Fr) in 1983. A handful of fillies have tried the Turf Classic (Gr. I) over the years since but none was successful until Saturday when War Like Goddess became the first five year old mare, and first female of any age in 39 years to win the prestigious fall turf fixture. Trained by Bill Mott (who has won 5 Turf Classics which leads all trainers), the daughter of English Channel (who won the race twice in 2006-07) was prepping for a try at the Breeders Cup Turf since the course configuration at Keeneland is shortening the F/M Turf to a distance (1 3/16) that Mott feels is too short for his mare’s best. Ridden perfectly by veteran Jose Lezcano (notable since her last race was a boondoggle trip of epic proportions -see for yourself Sept 3 - race 10) she seemed to be wildly overbet against a representative group of turf males, in a race with little pace. Yet Lezcano placed her in striking distance, chasing in third, and when he roused her mid-stretch, her strong late kick was too much for Bye Bye Melvin to hold off. To be frank, the older American turf males are the very definition of ordinary though the BC Turf these days always goes through the Euros. I don’t know if WLG can beat the ones sent over the pond, but an on the board placing should give her a leg up for the Turf female Eclipse award that eluded her last season.

▪️In Saturday’s preview of the Woodford (Gr II) we spoke of the strange manner in which Golden Pal was raced in his previous start in the Troy (Gr III) and the odd plan, divulged post-race, that was in store for him this fall, including a start in the Phoenix (Gr II) as a potential prep for the BC Sprint, the dirt version. Apparently a glacial workout over the Keeneland dirt surface kicked that plan to the curb and a decade from now everyone will have forgotten that stuff and just remember the Uncle Mo colt’s brilliant gate speed, which makes him close to unbeatable in American style, one-turn turf sprints. Much has been whispered about his overseas failures but it’s difficult to knock his US record, eight consecutive turf sprint stakes wins, including two Breeders Cups with a short price looming for a third. The Woodford (Gr II) was more of the same, he shot away from the gate and Irad Ortiz was basically a passenger for the rest of the trip (21.25-43.42-55.15-1:01.39) which was good for a 106 Beyer speed figure. Oceanic, who is in great form for KY trainer Jordan Blair closed well to be second over Artemus Citylimits. Cadamosto (Ire), who I thought might improve in his second US start, didn’t and was terrible. I don’t know that Ward has ever run a horse in Hong Kong but the HK Sprint might be a great send off for him. It would expose Golden Pal to the Southern hemisphere breeders (Turf sprints are important down under and I’m sure Coolmore will shuttle him) that closely follow that circuit and give him one final try at a straight race over a firm turf that he relishes.

▪️ Slammed was shipping in from Del Mar after having arrived there a few months back from her home base of New Mexico for trainer Todd Fincher. She had stumbled in her last start in California when second by a neck in the Rancho Bernardino (Gr III), perhaps costing her the win. No such bad luck on Saturday in the TCA stakes (Gr II) as she broke sharp from the gate, went directly to the lead, stole a relatively soft half for this level (46.02) and was never seriously threatened, drawing off to win by 6 1/2 lengths over Happy Soul and Joyful Cadence. Fincher is no rookie trainer, he has won over 1300 races and in excess of $36 million dollars in purses, yet his only graded stakes win before this Fall was with Runaway Ghost in the 2018 Sunland Park Derby. However he has now won graded stakes on consecutive weekends in the Commonwealth, Senor Buscador in the Ack Ack (Gr III) last weekend at CD and Slammed this week. The 4yo New Mexico bred filly is by Marking (stands for 4k in NM at A & A Ranch), who was a decent sprinter for Godolphin, his main claim to fame was running second to Runhappy in the 2015 Malibu (Gr I). She is a great story, perfect proof once again that a good horse can come from anywhere and you don’t need to spend six figures to get one.

▪️ The First Lady (Gr I) came down to Chad Brown and did he want his other entrants, including race favorite Regal Glory, to let In Italian (GB) set an uncontested pace and not really put any early pressure on her. Clearly they didn’t want to get in a speed duel, but letting In Italian (GB) go at her own even pace, essentially giving her a head start, makes her very difficult to beat at the middle distances (she ran the last 1/4 in 22.79). Regal Glory made her usual strong run but it wasn’t enough and she checked in as the runner up, potentially knocking her down a notch in the older female Turf Eclipse race with War Like Goddess beating males in the Turf Classic (Gr I). None of this is a knock on In Italian (GB) as she has now impressively won two grade 1’s in a row, both on the front end (her final time 1:33.22 was faster than the Coolmore Turf mile which went 1:33.29). I have to wonder though, if the year-end voters won’t hold the fact that her stablemates are making life easier for her a factor in their calculations? Presumably Regal Glory and/or In Italian (GB) will be racing in the BC F/M Turf at 1 3/16 next month and clearly a win by either will give them the title, but the Euros loom…

▪️ The Breeders Futurity (Gr I) annually is a huge Breeders Cup Juvenile prep, with its large fields of colts from all over the country plus the first exposure to a second turn for so many promising prospects. This year’s edition was more of the same with 14 horses from Kentucky, New York, California, New Jersey and Minnesota lined up to try to punch their ticket to the Juvy. The favorites coming in were Loggins and Instant Coffee from the Cox brigade, Forte and Lost Ark from the Pletcher army and Newgate and late addition from the AE list, Carmel Road representing the Baffert contingent. Loggins, with the pace setters from the outset, put everyone else away but couldn’t hold off Forte the last 100 yards. Forte angled through traffic on the turn to make a bold bid mid-stretch, before Irad Ortiz put the squeeze on Loggins, pinning him on the rail and straddling the line between legal and DQ, grinding the early leader down and hitting the wire a neck ahead. Despite the obvious incident between the first two finishers (who were 6 lengths clear of the rest of the field), the stewards, who were overly sensitive towards aggressive riding the day before (see Keeneland’s 5th on Friday), didn’t even hang the inquiry sign, it was left to Loggins rider Florent Geroux to claim foul which was disallowed. In my view the result should have been left to stand though in light of Friday’s ruling, I can also understand the scorn directed towards the stewards who clearly aren’t being consistent in their decisions. Both Forte and Loggins proved themselves at viable contenders for the Juvenile though neither will likely be betting favorite as that honor will go to Cave Rock, winner of the American Pharoah (Gr I) at Santa Anita several hours later. Of the also rans in the Breeders Futurity (Gr I), Lost Ark ran sneaky well, finding traffic trouble on three separate occasions, Instant Coffee made a decent run, and Red Route One rallied nicely in his first dirt run to be third.

▪️Cave Rock is the newest in a long line of Bob Baffert star two year olds that broke their maiden at Del Mar, then used the Del Mar Futurity (Gr I) and American Pharoah (Gr I) as a stepping stone toward the BC Juvenile including Eight Rings and last years winner, two year old champion, Corniche. The Arrogate colt has blitzed his competition in all three of his starts, running up the score last Saturday after setting solid if not quick fractions on the lead, yet still drawing away late. He earned a 104 Beyer for his latest destruction, after 101 and 98 in his first two starts (both were TG of 3). To put that in perspective, Forte/Loggins ran a 92 in the Breeders Futurity (Gr I) and last weekend, Blazing Sevens ran a career high (by a lot) 91 in the Champagne (Gr 1). Cave Rock heads into Breeders Cup weekend as the horse to beat in the Juvenile, a win making him the future book favorite for next year’s Kentucky Derby (Gr I) though he won’t be earning any of the 60 points available in next months race due to his trainers continued suspension by CDI. The potential for a veritable circus as to who is going to be listed as trainer next Spring looms if Cave Rock continues to look as dominant as he has so far.

▪️The scratch of Smooth Like Straight changed the complexion of the Coolmore Turf Mile (Gr I) and Annapolis was the horse that took advantage of that subtraction, scoring over older horses in his first attempt. Guided by Irad Ortiz into perfect position, sitting third on the rail behind a reasonable though not overly fast pace set by Masen (GB), he moved him between horses mid-stretch, getting a jump on Order of Australia (Ire) and the late closers, sprinting home to a comfortable win. As we noted in the preview, Annapolis as a progressing three year old was most likely of the group to improve and coupled with a perfect ride, he heads to the Turf mile as one of the top US contenders. We thought that Ivar (Brz) and Set Piece (GB) as deep closers in a bulky field were likely to be traffic compromised which is essentially what happened to both, though they ran well. Order of Australia (Ire) ran a good race though he wasn’t able to quicken enough to hang with the winner and got nabbed for the place spot. Casa Creed offered up a mild closing bid without threatening and Santin looks like a horse who absolutely prefers the Churchill surface to all others as he showed little. Do any of these horses figure to threaten the Euros in the Turf Mile? Probably not.

▪️ Nest and Malathaat both got what I’m sure Todd Pletcher was looking for out of their final BC Distaff preps, dominant wins where neither had to dig really deep. Nest sat third on the outside in the clear down the backside behind slowish fractions in the Beldame (Gr II) over a deep track at BAQ. When Irad Ortiz asked her to go turning for home, she quickly left her overmatched rivals in the dust, not being asked for much as she drew away, out very wide on the track. A few hours later at Keeneland, I’m also sure Pletcher was pleased when he saw both Played Hard and Princess of Cairo weren’t going to let Letruska stroll along on the front end, allowing Johnny Velazquez on Malathaat to simply sit in the garden spot behind those three. Letruska eventually fought her way to the top but pace pressure has always been her kryptonite and she didn’t offer the winner much of a fight when she collared her passing the quarter pole. Johnny V didn’t have to ask Malathaat for too much effort down the lane as she was always a comfortable margin ahead of runner up Army Wife. A heavyweight showdown looms in the Distaff over a surface that both have raced great over. Adding Clairiere, Search Results, Society, Secret Oath and whoever the Japanese may send over to the mix and you have the makings of a classic Distaff.