(PHOTO above – Snowy and very, very cold at
Woodbine on Sunday April 3 – thank you to
JEFF BOWEN for posting)
DERBY DREAMS
So NYQUIST (named after a Detroit Red Wings) hockey player by Canadian-born J. Paul Reddam, is going to be a big favourite on Kentucky Derby day.
No champion 2yo has done to the Derby unbeaten since Seattle Slew in 1977. There will likely be 19 friends waiting for Nyquist in the gate that day.
The performance was strong in that the son of budding superstar-sire Uncle Mo came all the way from California and led all the way on a drying out track to beat fellow undefeated colt Mohaymen.
It tells us that NYQUIST is a good cold, very good. Any horse that goes unbeaten for this long is one who loves what he does, is keen to please and has a huge heart.
Does that mean the Kentucky Derby is cut and dried? Not by any means. Horses like GUN RUNNER, LANI, BRODY’S CAUSE, DESTIN, SHAGAF..ooo, so many to enjoy still and all waiting for one more Derby prep or one more big training move. It’s fun to have a horse like NYQUIST going into the Derby, and perhaps being 2 to 1 favourite. It’s even more fun finding out the hidden gems who are going to have the best chance to upend him on May 7…
Nyquist rolls to his Florida Derby win – $1 million bonus for being a Fasig Tipton sales grad (2yo) makes for $1.6 million payday – GULFSTREAM PARK PHOTO
FROM GULFSTREAM MEDIA -Nyquist, the 2015 Eclipse Award-winning juvenile, made a most lucrative return to Gulfstream Park, where he was purchased in the 2015 Fasig-Tipton Florida sale for $400,000. In addition to earning the $600,000 winner’s share of the $1 million purse in his first start at Gulfstream, Nyquist also earned a $1 million bonus offered by the sale company to any graduate of the 2015 sale that went on to win the 2016 Florida Derby.
Wagering on Saturday’s 14-race program, which included eight stakes worth $2.4 Million in purses, produced a Florida Derby Day record handle of $32,082,270, eclipsing last year’s total handle of $27,255, 586. The $32.082 Million figure also represented the highest handle ever recorded at Gulfstream other than on Breeders’ Cup Days.
Nyquist became the first West Coast invader to capture the Florida Derby since Empire Maker (2003) and the first Eclipse Award champion to prevail in the important 1 1/8-mile Kentucky Derby prep. As he embarks on the Triple Crown campaign, he will attempt to follow in the footsteps of I’ll Have Another, the 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner who was owned by Paul Reddam, trained by O’Neill and ridden by Gutierrez.
“It’s such a team effort. I had reservations a month or so ago—Mohaymen in his own backyard, do we really want to do something like that? But we all very quickly got on the same page and, you know, I think we just had a very lucky trip. Mario broke great and did a great job riding and everything just went right. This whole trip other than being delayed one day, everything else went right,” O’Neill said. “…It’s a credit to the whole team how he came over, how he looked and how he ran.”
Nyquist broke alertly from the starting gate to lead the 10-horse field into the first turn and into the backstretch under a firm hold by Gutierrez in his second start of 20016. He was rated on the lead along the backstretch, pressed on the inside by Sawyer’s Mickey and on the outside by Chovanes.
“It was always part of the plan (to go to front). It just depends on the break; how the other horses were going to be acting, so coming out of the gate, I broke so clean and so fast so I just had to take the lead,” Gutierrez said.
Junior Alvarado, rider of Mohaymen said:
“I didn’t really have much excuse. I was where I wanted to be the whole race and he didn’t fire this time. That’s all I really can tell you. There’s nothing wrong with him. Something was probably going on with him today, he just didn’t run the race that we were expecting.
“I’m a person that doesn’t like to blame the track all the time. I would say the only difference is that he never took me. He’s a horse that all the time drags me and jump in the bridle right away so when we turn to the backside he’s pulling me. This time he wasn’t pulling me. It got me a little worried. I tried to stay with im and give him a chance to get it all together. By the three-eighths pole I saw Nyquist getting along in front by himself and I had to move my horse. By that point he always drags me there and this time I’m the one asking him. The track could be one little reason but there’s nothing else I really can say. Other than that we were clear on the outside.”
KENTUCKY DERBY POINTS
Rank Horse Points Owner(s) Trainer Non-Restricted Stakes Earnings
1. Gun Runner 151 Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC (Ron Winchell) & Three Chimney Farms (Goncalo Borges Torrealba) Steve Asmussen $849,200
2. Nyquist 130 Reddam Racing LLC (J. Paul Reddam) Doug O’Neill $2,289,000
3. Lani 100 Ms. Yoko Maeda Mikio Matsunaga $1,300,119
4. Mohaymen 80 Shadwell Stable (Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum) Kiaran McLaughlin $807,850
5. Destin 51 Twin Creeks Racing Stables LLC (Randy Gullatt) Todd Pletcher $338,000
6. Cupid 50 Michael Tabor, Mrs. John Magnier & Derek Smith Bob Baffert $540,000
— +Oscar Nominated 50 Ken & Sarah Ramsey Mike Maker $321,360
7. Danzing Candy 50 Halo Farms (Teddy Aroney), Jim Bashor & Diane Bashor Cliff Sise Jr. $240,000 (Career: $308,650)
8. Shagaf 50 Shadwell Stable (Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum) Chad Brown $240,000 (Career: $298,800)
9. Mor Spirit 44 Michael L. Petersen Bob Baffert $416,800
10. Tom’s Ready 44 G M B Racing (Gayle Benson) Dallas Stewart $270,670
— +f-Polar River 40 Valentin Bukhtoyarov & Evgeny Kappushev Doug Watson $700,000
11. Majesto 40 Grupo 7C Racing Stable Gustavo Delgado $190,000
12. Mo Tom 32 G M B Racing (Gayle Benson) Tom Amoss $328,326
13. Fellowship 32 Jacks or Better Farm Inc. (Fred and Jane Brei) Stanley Gold $210,590
14. Exaggerator 26 Big Chief Racing LLC (Matthew W. Bryan) Keith Desormeaux $1,028,000
15. Whitmore 24 Robert V. LaPenta, Harry T. Rosenblum & Southern Springs Stable (Ron Moquett) Ron Moquett $300,000
— Sunny Ridge 23 Dennis A. Drazin Jason Servis $525,600
16. Laoban 22 Southern Equine Stable LLC (Michael Moreno) & McCormick Racing LLC Eric Guillot $92,000
— +Yu Change-JPN 20 K. Aitetsu Hideyuki Mori $377,583
17. Azar 20 Alto Racing LLC Todd Pletcher $273,800
18. Forevamo 20 Brittlyn Stable Inc. (Evelyn Benoit) Al Stall Jr. $230,000
19. Dazzling Gem 20 Steve Landers Racing LLC Brad Cox $100,000
20. Zulu 20 Michael Tabor, Mrs. John Magnier & Derek Smith Todd Pletcher $79,200
21. Outwork 20 Repole Stable (Mike Repole) Todd Pletcher $70,000
22. Flexibility 15 Klaravich Stables Inc. (Seth Klarman) & William H. Lawrence Chad Brown $232,500
23. Brody’s Cause 14 Albaugh Family Stable (Dennis Albaugh) Dale Romans $500,000
24. Greenpointcrusader 14 St. Elias Stable (Vincent Viola), MeB Racing Stables LLC & Brooklyn Boyz Stables (Mary Ellen, Anthony Bonomo) Dominick Schettino $379,300
25. Swipe 12 Big Chief Racing LLC (Matthew W. Bryan) Keith Desormeaux $597,130
26. Adventist 12 Treadway Racing Stable (Jeff Treadway) Leah Gyarmati $65,000
OSCAR NOMINATED JOINS DERBY ACADEMY
So, Ken and Sarah Ramsay did not have enough offspring of their stallion Kitten’s Joy so they claimed one from trainer Bill Mott and breeders Amerman Stable and now they have a Derby horse for 2016. Oscar Nominated won a frantic battle to the wire in the $500,000 Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park and earned a ticket to the big race. He is a chestnut colt out of the Theatrical mare Devine Actress and he was making his first start on a surface other than grass. Robby Albarado rode for trainer Mike Maker.
The colt’s best Beyer Figure on grass had been a 79 from a stakes win at Fair Grounds last time. He took to the loose Turfway Polytrack well but it would be hard to imagine any horse from that race making any kind of noise on Derby day.
Earlier at Turfway Park, Queen’s Plate hopeful SCHOLAR ATHLETE was unplaced in the Rushaway Stakes at 1 1/16 miles under Alan Garcia.
FROM COURIER-JOURNAL – Jonathan Lintner, @JonathanLintner 7:47 p.m. EDT April 2, 2016
FLORENCE, Ky. – Churchill Downs’ all-time leading owners, Ken and Sarah Ramsey, have another shot at winning the track’s signature race after Oscar Nominated scored a 23-1 upset Saturday in Turfway Park’s Spiral Stakes.
This attempt will come at a hefty price.
Under jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., who subbed for Robby Albarado, the Mike Maker-trained son of Kitten’s Joy held off Azar and closing Surgical Strike, a prior winner at Turfway, in the Grade III, $500,000 race.
While Oscar Nominated wasn’t nominated to the Triple Crown series, he can be supplemented for entry to the Derby for $200,000. The 50 points earned by way of his Spiral victory should be more than enough to cement a spot in the 20-horse starting gate.
“He’s going in one way or the other,” said Ken Ramsey, who nominated eight other horses to the Triple Crown series in search of his first Kentucky Derby.
Ramsey’s proposition to anyone listening: “If someone wants to pay the $200,000 supplemental fee, we’ll split whatever I earn out of his next three races, and he’ll go in the Preakness and Belmont assuming everything is OK. I’m pretty optimistic about him.”
Other Spiral finishers picked up 20 points for second, 10 for third and 5 to fourth-place Two Step Time.
READ MORE (AND ANSWER ONE SURVEY QUESTION) AT..
KAIGUN FINALLY GETS ONE – importance of rider getting to know horse leads to big win
KAIGUN ends a 2nd-place streak with a narrow score in the Pan American – Grade 2 under Joe Bravo – GULFSTREAM PHOTO
Gary Barber, Quintessential Racing Florida and Horse’n Around Racing Stable’s Kaigun ($7.60) ended his string of second-place finishes with a determined effort to edge Wake Forest in the final strides of the $200,000 Pan American Stakes (G2). It was the 6-year-old’s first victory since his success in the 2014 renewal of the Seabiscuit Handicap (G2) at Del Mar. He was coming off a runner-up display in the Mac Diarmida Stakes (G2) at Gulfstream Park Mar. 5 for trainer Mark Casse.
The Ontario bred chestnut is by Northern Afleet from the mare Cruising Kirs by Kris S and he was bred by Bill Sorokolit. It was the 6th win in 28 starts for the gelding who was entered in a Horses of Racing Age sale earlier this year but was withdrawn. His earnings stand at about $1.36 million.
Sold by Richard Moylan at the 2011 CTHS yearling sale, Kaigun brought $40,000 at that auction by a group called Lucky Strike.
Patiently ridden by jockey Joe Bravo, Kaigun saved ground near the back of the pack for the opening mile of the 12-furlong Pan American. He took to the outside approaching the homestretch and charged down the center of the course. Wake Forest and jockey John Velazquez rallied up the rail and looked to have the finish line measured, but Kaigun continued on strongly to take it by a head. His final time for the 1 1/2-mile test was 2:29.20.
Grand Tito and St. Albans Boy finished third and fourth, respectively. The Pan American order of finish was completed by Jay Gatsby, Xaverian, Hello Don Julio, O’Prado Ole and Seeking Alpha.
Norm Casse (Assistant Trainer, Kaigun): “I think letting Joe ride him over and over, keeping a regular rider on him, has helped him. Joe said he’s learned a lot about him and a lot of times that can make a big difference. He rode a great race and it was very rewarding to have a horse like him win again. This is our last runner of the Championship Meet. I’m glad we ended it with a bang.”
Jockey Joe Bravo (Kaigun): “Ain’t it great to get out of second position? He makes my job easy. He’s a pretty cool horse. It’s a shame that he’s run second the last few times but each start you learn a little bit more. All those races they were learning experiences for today’s win. They had him ready to run. The last 70 yards, Johnny [Velazquez aboard Wake Forest] came running and I was like, ‘No!’”
CORRECTION – STACKED DECK, training at Woodbine for the Jacques Cartier Stakes on Saturday, wintered in South Carolina at Webb Carroll’s training centre not Florida as I noted (and have got those 2 places mixed up before!)
