Mucho Gusto Moves Into Top 10 of NTRA 3-Year-Old Poll

Mucho Gusto debuts this week at No. 4 in the NTRA Top 3-year-old poll
Mucho Gusto debuts this week at No. 4 in the NTRA Top 3-year-old poll

BENOIT PHOTO

Kirkwood consigned MUCHO GUSTO brought $625,000 at the Fasig Tipton Midlantic Sale at Timonium in 2018.

An open-length victory in the grade 3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes Feb. 2 at Santa Anita Park was enough to earn Mucho Gusto a place in the top 10 in this week’s National Thoroughbred Racing Association top 3-year-old poll.

Owned by Michael Lund Petersen, Mucho Gusto became the latest sophomore from the barn of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert to stamp himself within the division. He debuts at No. 4 in this week’s poll.

“This is the time of the year when you want to start getting excited about something (on the Triple Crown trail),” Baffert said after the race. “We’re still dreaming in Technicolor, but they have to start performing and they have to move forward from here, but it’s a fun position to be in.”

Baffert trainees make up three of the top four spots in the poll. Eclipse Award winner Game Winner remains in first with 37 first-place votes and 405 points. Improbable is second (3 first-place votes, 350 points) with War of Will, trained by Mark Casse, sitting third (1 first-place vote, 273 points).

Top 3-year-old poll
Rank    horse    points (first-place votes)

1.    Game Winner    405 (37)
2.    Improbable    350 (3)
3.    War of Will    273 (1)
4.    Mucho Gusto    220
5.    Instagrand    163
6.    Knicks Go    135
7.    Hidden Scroll    118
8.    Signalman    102
9.    Gunmetal Gray    88
10.    Tax    66

 

Lavender Chrissie Shines Early at Keeneland Day 2

We are proud of our former pupil!

Lavender Chrissie, a daughter of Scat Daddy in foal to Union Rags , was sold for $400,000 to light up the Keeneland bid board early during the Jan. 8 second session of the January Horses of All Ages Sale.

Agent David Ingordo signed the sale receipt in the name of Montia Holdidngs.

Consigned as Hip 410 by Lane’s End, agent, the 7-year-old mare earned $281,093 and won the Zia Park Oaks. Lavender Chrissie was produced from the Rubiano mare Lavender Baby, an eight-time winner who earned $139,830 and is also the dam of grade 3 winner Baby J, and stakes winner and grade 1-placed Laureate Conductor.

Elser Gearing Up for Gallop Year Two

Kip Elser | Horsephotos

By Jessica Martini

Last spring, consignor Kip Elser and a longtime client came into the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale with five horses and an old idea made new again. The five 2-year-olds bypassed the typical pre-sale breeze and instead galloped down the lane during the auction’s under-tack preview show. The experiment proved enough of a success that the two men have purchased another group of yearlings this year intent on repeating the scenario at the 2019 Gulfstream sale.

“We very happy with the first year,” Elser said. “We were very well received–both in the market, which is most important, and then with the buzz created by the whole thing. It has been very positive to the point where my friend and client is doing it again.”

In addition to the five yearlings purchased this fall for the original client, who has chosen to remain anonymous, a further four yearlings were purchased by a separate group of partners.

“[The original client] decided that he did not want any partners, but he did encourage me to put together another small group,” Elser said. “He thinks there is enough room in the market to expand it somewhat. So that is what we did. We are going with nine horses this year. It’s an exciting project. It’s a lot of fun. We are doing something a little different and we think people are getting a good look at these horses. We’re really looking forward to taking them out in public.”

Three of the five 2-year-olds purchased as yearlings in 2017 under the name Gulfstream Gallop sold at the 2018 Gulfstream auction, led by a Noble Mission (GB) colt who brought $120,000 and a filly by Blame who sold for $100,000 to Dennis O’Neill. The filly, named Splashy Kisses, was a maiden winner at Del Mar in August and finished second in the GII Pocahontas S. at Churchill Downs. She was eighth in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

“We feel great about last year’s results,” Elser said. “That vindicates the project. We have some later-developing horses who ran well first time and look like they are okay. But to have the one filly be graded placed in the first small group of relatively inexpensive horses is very gratifying. I’ve checked with everybody who has one and they are pleased enough. They are going to win their share, they think.”

After putting a toe in the water last year, Elser’s client decided to increase his investment going into the 2018 yearling sales.

“Last year was very much a, ‘Let’s throw a dart,’ experimental thing,” Elser explained. “It went very well and I think we ratcheted it up this year.”

Gulfstream Gallop opened its 2018 yearling purchases with a $50,000 colt by Bayern (hip 284) at the Fasig-Tipton July sale and purchased a colt by Flatter (hip 1756) for the same price at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. It made its biggest purchase of the year with a $65,000 daughter of Street Sense (hip 123), one of three purchased at the Fasig-Tipton October sale.

While most of the horses purchased in the group were signed for under the name Gulfstream Gallop, one who wasn’t is a colt (hip 229) who RNA’d for $100,000 at the Keeneland September sale.

“He is a More Than Ready colt who was in Book 1 at Keeneland,” Elser explained. “We partnered up with Jake Delhomme, who bred him. He’s an old friend who used to play here in Charlotte. So he is the only one in the group who wasn’t bought and signed for by the Gallop group.”

While the Gulfstream sale is still months away, Elser is already feeling positive about the 2019 gallopers.

“I’m very happy with the group,” he said. “They are all up and galloping and putting in the days and the miles.”

The Gulfstream sale will be held Mar. 27 next year and its date on the calendar makes it a perfect spot to sell these prospects, according to Elser.

“I think if you get a little later in the year, you don’t have a reason not to breeze,” Elser said. “These horses are sitting on ready to breeze and I think if you get a little bit later in the year, like for instance at Keeneland where they are already running 2-year-old races, I think people scratch their heads about not breezing.”

Elser stressed these horses will be doing exactly what was intended when they gallop in Hallandale next spring.

“I think it is important that people know what this group is,” he said. “They haven’t been tried and found wanting. Right from the start this was the plan. As we did last year, they will two-minute lick down the lane at Gulfstream. The intent is to go just fast enough that the guys with the motion analysis cameras can get a read on them. That’s it. Whether you call it an open gallop or a two-minute lick, I don’t know. It is not a fast breeze.

Dam of Pioneerof the Nile Dies at Age 24

Kirkwood sold Star of Goshen as a 2 yo at Keeneland  in April of 1996 to Rollin Baugh for $175,000. We are proud of her accomplishments

Star of Goshen wins the 1997 La Troienne Stakes  by 11 lengths at Churchill Downs
Star of Goshen wins the 1997 La Troienne Stakes by 11 lengths at Churchill Downs

Four Footed Fotos

Dam of Pioneerof the Nile Dies at Age 24

Zayat Stables’ first broodmare, Star of Goshen, died of old age.

 Zayat Stables’ Star of Goshen, the dam of Pioneerof the Nile , has died from the infirmities of old age, according to Ahmed Zayat. The pensioned broodmare was 24.

“She was not only our first broodmare, but she has been unbelievable to my family and the industry,” Zayat said. “(A) quality, quality mare with a lot of grace and class. … She has always been highly regarded, and her progeny speaks for itself. It’s a sad day, obviously, for Zayat Stables.”

Racing for Cobra Farm, Star of Goshen broke her maiden on debut by 10 lengths as a 3-year-old in 1997. She followed that performance with a six-length allowance score before stepping into stakes company, where she blew away a field of seven other fillies in the La Troienne Stakes at Churchill Downs by 11 lengths.

The daughter of Lord At War next finished second in Churchill’s Edgewood Stakes but was then pulled up in the Hollywood Oaks (G2) six weeks later and did not race again.

Star of Goshen produced 11 foals with five to race, including grade 2-placed Forefathers, who was purchased by Zayat Stables in the 2005 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearlings Sale for $680,000 and now stands in Louisiana.

“I chased her down,” Zayat explained. “I bought her because I had a horse by the name of Forefathers that I’d bought at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga, and he was a runner, and I wanted to know who his dam was. We ended up buying her in foal to Empire Maker . The resulting baby was Pioneerof the Nile, the first horse we ever bred.”

A grade 1 winner at 2 and 3, Pioneerof the Nile finished second in the 2009 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1). He went on to sire Triple Crown winner American Pharoah , whom the Zayats also campaigned.

Star of Goshen’s other progeny that Zayat Stables lists among its broodmares are Lotus of the Nile, a daughter of Fusaichi Pegasus  who made one start, and Mezinka, an unraced filly by Bodemeister  who was the mare’s last foal.

BERNED scores in the G3 Molly Pitcher on the Haskell Undercard

Courtesy of the BloodHorse

… Robert Masiello, West Point Thoroughbreds, and Chris Larsen’s Berned flew by the leaders at the top of the stretch to win the G3 Molly Pitcher.

The 4-year-old, Graham Motion-trained daughter of Bernardini  has competed at a much tougher level in the past, with off-the-board efforts in the 2016 Starlet Stakes (G1), the 2017 Coaching Club American Oaks (G1), and the June 9 Ogden Phipps Stakes (G1), where she finished sixth.

Although she won the May 12 Serena’s Song Stakes and the 2017 Safely Kept Stakes, she hadn’t finished better than third in graded company since her third start, when she was second in the Tempted Stakes (G3) at Aqueduct Racetrack in 2016.

Jockey Joe Bravo kept Berned near the back of the field while Divine Miss Grey and Unchained Melody battled on the front end, running fractions of :23.51 and :46.80 through a half-mile. Rallying three wide into the stretch, Berned pulled clear of the field early, but Dreamcall, coming in off a three-race winning streak, sprinted from last to close to within three-quarters of a length at the wire.

Final time for the 1 1/16-mile race was 1:44.52. Divine Miss Grey held for third.

Bred by AR Enterprises out of the Giant’s Causeway mare First Passage, Berned was a $550,000 purchase by West Point Thoroughbreds when she was consigned to the 2015 Keeneland September Yearling Sale by Bluegrass Thoroughbred Services.

FUNNY DUCK SPLASHES TO PAT DAY MILE VICTORY

Funny Duck and Brian Hernandez Jr. finish 4 3/4 lengths ahead in the Pat Day Mile at Churchill Downs
Funny Duck and Brian Hernandez Jr. finish 4 3/4 lengths ahead in the Pat Day Mile at Churchill DownsRyan Thompson

Funny Duck Splashes to Pat Day Mile Victory

Distorted Humor colt relished sloppy going at Churchill Downs.

On a wet day more suitable to ducks than people, aptly named Funny Duck posted a major upset in the $300,000 Pat Day Mile presented by LG&E and KU (G3) on the Kentucky Derby Day card May 5 at Churchill Downs.

Longshot Lombo took charge out of the gate while pressured first by Smart Remark and then Greyvitos as the 14-horse field completed the first half-mile in :45.53. The group of 3-year-olds contended with sloppy conditions from a day-long rain that was heavy at times.

New York Central took control rounding the turn for home while Funny Duck, off at odds of 39-1 and stumbling at the start, raced near the rail. Jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. shifted Funny Duck out, split horses with three-sixteenths remaining, and launched a sustained drive that resulted in a 4 3/4-length victory in a final time of 1:37.16.

“We had a great trip,” Hernandez said. “We just went out there. There was no pressure with the horse. He stumbled a bit leaving there. I think it worked to his advantage because when he got up, he turned off for me. We were able to find a nice, smooth rail trip and had to go around only one horse. He traveled like a winner the whole way. It was a great race for him.”

Mask, the 5-2 favorite who was undefeated in two starts, including the Mucho Macho Man Stakes at Gulfstream Park, contended until the turn before tiring to finish eighth.

The winner returned a whopping $81.40, $36.60, and $14.20. New York Central held second at odds of 31-1 and returned $27.80 and $12.40. Givemeaminit paid $10 to show. The top two combined for a $2 exacta of $1,753.60, and a $1 trifecta returned $17,138.50.

“He ran real well. We felt good,” trainer Steve Asmussen said of runner-up New York Central. “He handled an off track real well. He showed a good side of himself. He made a pretty quick move, but (Lombo) was getting out, and I think he wanted to get away from him.”

A chestnut son of Distorted Humor  making his seventh career start for Brad Kelley’s Calumet Farm and trainer Rusty Arnold, Funny Duck improved to 2-2-0 in seven starts, his second on the main track. The victory increased his earnings to $214,040.

Seventh in a dirt debut at Churchill Downs last fall, the colt was unplaced in his first grass start, also at a mile, before finishing second twice on turf. Funny Duck broke his maiden at Gulfstream Park in February in a mile turf test and came into the Pat Day Mile off a seventh-place effort in the Kentucky Utilities Transylvania Stakes (G3T) over a yielding turf course at Keeneland.

Arnold said owner Kelley gets credit for the decision to run Funny Duck on dirt again.

“Mr. Kelley called and said, ‘I would like to try this horse on the dirt again.’ We were set for running him in a turf race, and we said, ‘OK,’ and we tried him on the dirt again. So he gets all the credit because we would have been in the turf race.

“We love the horse. He had really become leaps and bounds better through the winter. His last race (Transylvania Stakes), he had some traffic issues. We liked the horse, but he got good on the turf and some trainers tend to stick with it, and when he said to go to the dirt, we did. He had a great work here last week. We do think he likes the mud, too, so it worked out great. It’s going to open up a whole lot of races, obviously, for him now.”

Bred in Kentucky by SF Bloodstock, Funny Duck was produced from the stakes-winning Seattle Slew mare Slow Down, who has also produced French group 3 winner Slow Pace as well as Segway, who placed in two grade 2 stakes.

Consigned to sales as a weanling and yearling, Funny Duck was bought back for prices of $120,000 and $65,000 before finally being purchased by Calumet for $110,000 from Kirkwood Stables at the 2017 Ocala Breeders’ Sales March auction of 2-year-olds in training.