Throughout the world, horse racing continues to provide excitement for fans from afar and Saturday was no exception. In North America, Gulfstream Park had a card of racing filled with graded stakes, the Hong Kong Cup races were run overnight Eastern time and Barbados unveiled its new lighting system and had its first card of night racing.
Oh, and in Japan overnight, cult heroine SODASHI made history (read on below!).
While Canadians had some tough luck at Gulfstream with Roger Attfield trainee Art of Almost third in the My Charmer Stakes and Ivan Dalos’ Golden Ami last in the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl, the day of racing had some fabulous performances.
R. A. Hill Stable, Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and Hugh Lynch’s TAX (Arch – Toll by Giant’s Causeway) returned to winning form in Saturday’s $100,000 Harlan’s Holiday (G3), scoring a dominating 4 ½ -length victory while stamping himself as a prime candidate for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) at Gulfstream Park Jan. 23.
The Harlan’s Holiday, a 1 1/16-mile stakes for 3-year-olds and up, was one of five stakes on Saturday’s program, which was headlined by the $200,000 Fort Lauderdale (G2), a key prep for the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1).
Tax, a prominent player on the 2019 Road to the Triple Crown, had been winless since capturing the 2019 Jim Dandy (G2) at Saratoga until he broke through with a dazzling front-running score Saturday that threatened the track record for 1 1/16 miles.
“We have really, really been high on him. We really thought he’d run big at Keeneland but he got sick on us and caused him to miss the race. I got really depressed about it because I was waiting to run him. Today, he showed up,” Gargan said. “I think this will be his best year. He’s grown, developed. He’s sound. He’s bigger, stronger than he’s ever been. I couldn’t be happier with him today.”
Unraced since finishing fifth in the May 2 Oaklawn Handicap – his only start since finishing off-the-board in last year’s Pegasus World Cup – Tax went right to the front under jockey Luis Saez after breaking from the No. 1 post position and was never threatened thereafter. The 4-year-old gelded son of Arch completed 1 1/16-miles in 1:41.15 while being under wraps for the final sixteenth of a mile, missing Social Inclusion’s 2014 track record of 1:40.96 by less than a fifth of a second.
“I could feel that he was doing great. He was ready. He was pretty focused in the gate and he broke so sharp. He took the lead and controlled the pace and at the five-eighths, I felt like I had a lot of horse,” Saez said. “When we came to the stretch and he changed leads, he took off. He was very comfortable the whole way. I knew I had a lot of horse. We were just saving him for the next time. I could feel that we were going fast, but he was so comfortable. He loves to run, and we let him run.”
Next time could quite likely come in the Pegasus World Cup, in which he stumbled at the start and wasn’t able to recover last year.
“I’ll have to talk to Dean [Reeves] and Randy [Hill] and Hugh Lynch,” Gargan said. “I’m blessed that they’re been so patient. He’s only run two times this year. We turned him out and had a couple of misfortunes that we didn’t get to run. Having great owners like those guys really helps you develop a horse into a good horse.”
Eye of a Jedi, a son of Queen’s Plate winner Eye of the Leopard, closed from far back to finish second under Marcos Meneses, a half-length ahead of 2-1 favorite Phat Man, who stalked the early pace under Irad Ortiz Jr. but was unable to mount a serious challenge.
SAM-SON FARM breeding was on display when WinStar Farm LLC and CHC Inc.’s PRIME FACTOR (Quality Road – Haylie Brae by Bernardini) crossed the finish line under wraps while scoring by 8 ¾ in the six-furlong maiden special weight race carded as Race 2.
Purchased for $900,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September sale, Prime Factor broke alertly from the starting gate to sit alongside pacesetter Dr. Duke along the backstretch and around the far turn before assuming the lead on the turn into the homestretch. The Kentucky-bred colt quickly accelerated at the top of the stretch under mild encouragement from jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. before completing the final eighth of a mile under wraps.
“It was a very professional debut. He broke well and put himself in a good spot. It looked like he was taking Irad wherever he wanted him to go throughout the race,” Pletcher said. “He’s been training exceptionally well. We were looking forward to a good debut. Honestly, he exceeded expectations.”
Prime Factor ($6.20), who ran six furlongs in 1:10.38, is from the unplaced mare Haylie Brae, who raced at Woodbine for Eugene Melnyk and trainer Mark Casse. The mare is one of 14 named foals for the late DANCE SWIFTLY (Danzig) a full sister to the great DANCE SMARTLY.
Haylie Brae’s daughter FROST DANCE (Shackleford|) raced at Woodbine in 2020.
*In Barbados, history was made when it held its first card of racing at night under the new lights installed by the Barbados Turf Club at the Garrison Savannah.
The ‘David Seale Inaugural Nite of Racing’ had been delayed since November as heavy rain played havoc with the grass course but it was all systems go Dec. 12.
Barbados Turf Club president Sir David Seale was one of the driving forces behind getting lights at the venue, working for some 30 years to see the BTC get night racing and Saturday evening, the well-known horse owner’s dream became a reality.
From the Barbados Advocate which quoted Seale as saying, “…finally the quest has finally ended and the first race night is upon us and this history-making event will bring horse racing in Barbados beaming with pride into the 21st century and I could not be more delighted.”
He thanked the Prime who classified horse racing as an industry and thus be treated the same as all industrial concerns in this island. “By so doing, relieving the club of paying of duties and vat on the lighting equipment imported.”
The winner of the first race under the lights, DA CONKIE MAN, was ridden by Delano Lopez. You can watch this historical first race (in which early leader Dream Society and jockey Anderson Trotman raced a bit too confidently and probably should have won) here:
Read more here .
The Garrison Savannah near Bridgetown, Barbados, shows off its lights – photo by GAYLE SEALE
*SODASHI, an undefeated 2-year-old filly in Japan, became the first registered white-coloured winner of a Group 1 as she took the Dec. 13 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies.
She may be the only Group/Grade 1 winning white horse to ever win such a race in racing history.
Her dam Buchiko, by King Kamehamaha, was also listed as white:
Buchiko, dam of Group 1 winner Sodashi.
The favoured filly extended her unbeaten record to four by winning this year’s Hanshin Juvenile Fillies in a nail-biting photo-finish and has become the first white horse to claim a JRA-G1 race. Sired by Kurofune (gray) and out of Buchiko (white), the filly immediately broke her maiden in July and went on to sweep two graded races, the Sapporo Nisai Stakes (G3, 1,800m) in September and the Artemis Stakes (G3, 1,600m) the next month. Following the triumphs in the 2012 and 2013 versions with Robe Tissage and Red Reveur, respectively, this is trainer Naosuke Sugai’s third Hanshin Juvenile Fillies title, his 12th JRA-G1 title overall and his first since the 2017 Victoria Mile with Admire Lead. Jockey Hayato Yoshida has now captured his second JRA-G1 victory following his 2015 Arima Kinen win with Gold Actor.
The race commenced on the backstretch of the Hanshin course as Sodashi, after being a bit reluctant to enter the gate, made a clear break, settling in fourth to fifth and two-wide while Yoka Yoka set a moderate pace five to six lengths in front. After chasing the front runners into the straight, the white filly secured a good path 300 meters out and powered home, picking off the tired pace-setter running the rails while Satono Reinas loomed up in between in the last 50 meters, but repelled the determined challenge in a stirring duel to the wire to win her first G1 title by a whisker.
“Going into the race as favorite was a bit of a load, but I’m thrilled with the outcome. She hated to even go near the gate but I’m relieved that all went well and that we were able to be positioned just as I hoped. The going affected her good turn of foot but she gave all she had. There is room for improvement, and I hope we can get her ready for next year’s classics,” commented jockey Hayato Yoshida after the race.
*At Sha Tin, the big Hong Kong Cup races included the title featured race and it was won by the grey mare NORMCORE while MOGUL took the Hong Kong Vase.
From Racing.Com – “Stretched in distance from her last visit to Hong Kong, Japanese mare Normcore extended when it counted to win Sunday’s HK$28m (A$4.9m) G1 Longines Hong Kong Cup (2000m) at Sha Tin.
Trained by Kiyoshi Hagiwara, Normcore finished fourth in last year’s Hong Kong Mile behind Admire Mars.
Normcore won her only Grade 1 race in the Victoria Mile under Damian Lane in May 2019 and was stepped up in distance ahead of the Hong Kong Cup, winning the Grade 2 Sapporo Kinen (2000m) in August. She then flopped at her final lead-up run, sixteenth in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup (2200m) at Hanshin for fillies and mares.
Belgian jockey Christophe Soumillon was booked to ride Normcore but failed to gain clearance from the Hong Kong Jockey Club after an unsatisfactory COVID-19 result late this week, paving the way for Australian jockey Zac Purton to gain the ride.
Purton positioned Normcore ($10) sixth in the eight-horse field and in a slugging finish withstood the challenge of fellow Japanese challenger and last year’s Hong Kong Cup winner Win Bright ($10) by three-quarters of a length.”
Normcore – HKJC photo
Vindicating Aidan O’Brien’s long-held faith, Mogul has emphatically underlined claims as heir apparent to Ballydoyle’s throne after claiming victory in the HK$20 million LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m).
Providing Aidan O’Brien’s third triumph in the race, adding to Highland Reel’s 2015 and 2017 wins, Mogul downed Hong Kong champion Exultant and Columbus County to also give Ryan Moore his third Vase success.
Yet another son of Galileo, Mogul has long been touted as the next world-beater to emerge from O’Brien’s yard and proved his class by overwhelming Exultant, a five-time G1 winner and Hong Kong’s reigning Horse of the Year.
While elated at notching his sixth LONGINES Hong Kong International Races victory, Moore was unsurprised by the quality of Mogul’s performance.
“He’s a horse that we always expected a lot from,” Moore said.
“He was a good two-year-old, he won his G2 race (Champions Juvenile Stakes) at Leopardstown. I don’t know, maybe just the way the season unfolded, he took a while to really pull himself together.
“Maybe he was just a bit behind Derby Day (when sixth to Serpentine) and we were always on the back foot. He was super impressive when he won in Paris (Grand Prix de Paris) and his Breeders’ Cup run (fifth behind Tarnawa in the Breeders’ Cup Turf) wasn’t without merit.
“Today, the race worked out nicely for him, he’s beaten a really solid yardstick in Exultant. He (Exultant) always seems to consistently perform to the same level and never seems to run a bad race around here.
“He’s put them away very nicely.
“In reality, I was in front sooner than would have been ideal today but he took me there nicely.
“When he gets in front, he maybe lacks a bit of concentration still but he’s a beautiful looking horse.
“He’s got a fantastic mind and it doesn’t stress him. He’ll be a really nice three-year-old.”
Owned by Coolmore, Mogul’s laidback mindset lends itself to another international campaign as a four-year-old.
“He has a great mind, so travelling won’t stress him. He loves decent ground,” Moore said.
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