American Pharoah Archives - Page 8 of 8

July 31, 2015August 4, 2015

Horse Park Happenings

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Time flies! I can’t believe it has almost been a week since I spent a day at the world famous Kentucky Horse Park. On July 25th the park hosted Hats Off Day to salute Kentucky’s Horse Industry and to benefit the Kentucky Horse Park Foundation and the Kentucky Equine Humane Center. Both are fantastic charities.

The KY Horse Park was built in Lexington, KY in 1978. The park is both a horse farm and an educational facility. Many competitions take place here as well. I arrived at lunch and had a nice picnic taking in the views of the last of the white fences. I have fond childhood memories of visiting and even camping at the park. It has always had endless looking acres of white fences with lush green grass and horses everywhere. About 18,000 horses visit the park annually and some live here permanently. Very recently the decision was made to start painting the fences black as the white paint is too expensive to maintain. I could see some of the new fence work in place. It seems a little sad.

After lunch, I began photographing the beautiful statues and plaques in place to honor some of the most famous Thoroughbreds. I also toured some barns and the museum. I could write all year about the things I saw here but a picture is worth a thousand words. Here are some Secretariat pics.

Also, some nice Man O’ War photos.

I got some Alysheba and John Henry pics too.

Then, I saw my favorite part of the day! My parents said it was like taking me to Disneyland. We saw the Hall of Champions featuring Funny Cide, Go For Gin and Da Hoss. The KY Horse Park is the only home of 2 live Kentucky Derby winners. Funny Cide won both the 2003 KY Derby and Preakness as well as an Eclipse Award that same year. Go For Gin won the KY Derby in 1994 and ran 2nd in both other parts of the Triple Crown in 1994 too. He is the oldest living KY Derby winner. Da Hoss won the 1996 and 1998 Breeders’ Cup Mile. I got to see each of theses beauties in the barn and the show presentation.

I had such a great trip last weekend. There was some great racing going on this weekend. Saratoga, in New York, featured several graded stakes including the Grade 1 Diana and Grade 1 Coaching Club of American Oaks. Go For Gin showed 3rd at Saratoga in the Forego in 1994. Forego lived in Funny Cide’s stall until he passed away in 1997. Forego won 8 Eclipse Awards. Funny Cide has a Saratoga race named for him that will take place August 28, 2015. Da Hoss finished 1st place in the Fourstardave Stakes at Saratoga in 1996. The race I am most excited about is this Sunday, 8/2/15, at Monmouth Park, in New Jersey. It is the first time our Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah will race since he won the Belmont Stakes. The race he will be in is the $1.75 Million William Hill Haskell Invitational. Funny Cide showed 3rd in this same race back in 2003. For sure there will be great Thoroughbreds making history this weekend that will someday be memorialized or perhaps even come to live at The Kentucky Horse Park!

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July 18, 2015July 18, 2015

Midterm Musing

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It is hot and sticky here today in Kentucky. There are no live races at Keeneland or Churchill Downs right now and that is certainly a bummer, but I’m using this time to reflect on the Thoroughbred scene on a more national and even international level.

Del Mar in California just got started this Thursday and attending there would certainly be a fantasy vacation for me. Also, we got word this week that California Chrome should heal up nicely as he is moving to Taylor Made Farms in Kentucky soon. Just hours ago, Taylor Made announced that in about 60 to 75 days they will host a Fan Day for Chrome after he rests up. I live nearby and I am hoping I get to see Chrome. Additionally, we are right about in the middle of the year for the 78 international stakes races, or Breeders’ Cup Challenge, that feeds winners into the corresponding 13 Grade 1 races that make up the 32nd Breeders’ Cup World Championships.

I touched on the Breeders’ Cup before in Racing Renaissance. To refresh you, there are 13 countries that come to North America and once in Canada to compete. The race moves annually to different tracks and some with repetition. This is the 1st year Keeneland, in Lexington, KY, will host the event which is the richest 2 days in sport. The purse is $26 million dollars. The richest day is sport happens to be the Dubai World Cup Night. The Breeders’ Cup got its start in 1984. The BC Classic is the best race of the series. The purse for that race alone is $5 million dollars. The other races are the Juvenile Turf, Dirt Mile, Juvenile Fillies Turf, Longines Distaff, Juvenile Fillies, Filly and Mare Turf, Filly and Mare Sprint, Turf Sprint, Sentient Jet Juvenile, Longines Turf, Sprint and finally, the Mile. First, contenders are elected 3 ways. They may enter based on performance in the Breeders’ Cup Challenge, or by a point system, or be chosen by an expert panel. The point system uses Grade 1, 2 and 3 select races to give 10 points to a winner, 6 to place and 4 to show at Grade 1. Grade 2 awards 6, 4, and 2 points respectively while Grade 3 gives 4, 2 and 1 points, in that order. Each of the 13 BC Championship races,except for the Dirt Mile, has 14 horses entered. The Dirt Mile has just 12. Of these half come from the BC Challenge and points and the other half from the panel.

The “Win and You’re In” BC Challenge began gathering contenders January 10th. There were 2 races in January, 3 in April, 2 in May, 9 in June, 8 occurring this July, 15 to take place in August, 22 in September and 16 will finish up in October. We have 21 winners already. The two BC Classic Contenders from the Challenge are Noble Bird And Hard Aces. The 1st of the 7 BC Challenge races, that lead to the Classic, was the Stephen Foster Handicap where Noble Bird won at Churchill on 6/13/15. On 6/27 Victor Espinoza rode Hard Aces in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita. Next we have the Haskell Invitational Stakes on 8/2 in Monmouth Park where American Pharoah will compete for the 1st time since his 2015 Triple Crown sweep. 8/8 will bring the Whitney Handicap in Saratoga, then the Pacific Classic will take place at Del Mar 8/22. On 9/26 the Awesome Again Stakes will be held at Santa Anita and then The Jockey Club Gold Cup will be at Belmont Park on 10/3.

In between and all around these dates a whole lot of other races for the BC Challenge and regular Thoroughbred racing will take place too. I am excited to try and keep up with it all. I am looking forward to the Haskell Invitational. American Pharoah has 7 consecutive wins and Bob Baffert has won the Haskell 7 times. I’m hoping 8 is lucky for the both of them. I have a friend who owns Quiet Force who is racing in the Arlington Million on August 15th. This was suppose to be California Chrome’s next race before the bruise. I wish Quiet Force all the luck. If he wins he will qualify for the BC Longines Turf.

If you can’t make it to the races right now, like me, keep on watching and reading! One reader wants help identifying Willie Shoemaker’s white and black checkered silks with a yellow cap that he won at auction. The Shoemaker Mile, named for this famed jockey, took place 6/13/15. It is a BC Challenge race and the winner Talco may now contend in the BC Mile. Is there anyone that can help my reader out? Please, check out the comments section. I’ve been looking but I don’t have his answer yet. I haven’t quit trying yet but feel free to make it easy on me. Thank you!

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July 10, 2015July 10, 2015

Super Summer Sale

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Yesterday, 7/9/15, I took some time off to catch Fasig-Tipton’s “The July Sale” which was followed by the “Summer Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale” live at their Lexington, KY location. It was a great time and I am looking forward to watching the future of these Thoroughbreds play out on the race tracks!

Fasig-Tipton is a premier Thoroughbred auction company with its Lexington location being established in 1972. The July Sale is the first United States Yearling sale of 2015. Hips 1 through 332 and 401 through 524 were featured in the barns, walking ring and sales pavilion. I came 2 hours early to walk the barns. It was a beautiful, cooler summer morning and fortunately dry to start, though we did get some sprinkles throughout the day. The horses were gorgeous and the grass appeared to be a real treat. Yum, fresh Kentucky Bluegrass! I watched as the horses were brushed and shown to some eager perspective buyers. Then I made a hasty dash to a bar stool, within the entrance to the sales pavilion. I was seated right off the walking ring, to see the sale that started at 10 am. I stayed there until nearly 3 pm watching the horses and people as I enjoyed a nice salad. I am fortunate to have made many great connections and I encountered several of these wonderful horse enthusiast throughout the day.

One of my first such connections of the day stopped by to ask me if I watched the show, “Mad Men”. I do not but I was curious as to why he would ask and he told me that Hip 6 had an interesting back story. His dam is Her Smile. She is a graded stakes winner and showed in the Sentient Jet Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint in 2011. The more interesting fact is that while she is now owned by Frank Stronach, breeder and owner of horses and of prominent racetracks and Adena Springs Farms, Her Smile has been owned by both Bobby Flay, celebrity chef and horse owner, and Bill Backer, ad executive and creator of the Coca-Cola ad jingle, “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” used in a 1971 commercial and as the finale of television show “Mad Men” that ended in May 2015. Her hip #6 colt sold for $280,000 to De Meric Stables.

The rest of my day was full of more exciting stories and people but don’t forget, the focus was those magnificent horses. I was still there to see hip #152, a colt of Scat Daddy, sell for $385,000. Scat Daddy had sired 4 horses listed in the auction. One of those fillies, #220, was marked out but his other filly, #281, sold for $300,000 and his other colt, #105, sold for $110,000. #152 has Starbourne for his mare. Scat Daddy, who stands at Ashford Stud, currently has sired 10 stakes winners including El Kabeir winner of 2014 and 2015 multiple graded stakes.

In all The July Sale ended late but was a success. 205 yearlings were sold for a total of $20,005,000. The sale had 7 yearlings go for $300,000 or more each. 18 others sold for $200,000 or better. The average price was over $97,000 and the median was over $77,000, with both of those figures being up from the previous year, while the buy back rate went down, at 29%. #317 brought in the biggest price at $500,000. She is a filly by sire, Tapit and French Dip, her mare. Bred at Gainesway Farm, she sold to agent Steven Young. Tapit currently stands at Gainesway. He is the leading 2014 and 2015 sire. This filly was the only Tapit yearling at auction. His other offspring include 12 stakes winners. One of these is Frosted, 4th in this year’s Kentucky Derby and 2nd in the 2015 Belmont Stakes.

Before, I had to rush back to work I made a trip out with a friend to see one of the Taylor Made Sales Agency barns. I Saw some nice horses for the later sale there. #421 Mizzen Moon went on to sell for $57,000 and # 503 Seely Rose brought in $40,000.

I was long gone by the time the “Summer Sale Horses of Racing Age Sale” began. Somewhere around 9 pm, the last horse to go through the auction brought in the biggest money. The victor was #524, Temper Mint Patty, for $350,000. In this sale 65 horse sold for $3,996,000. The average price was $61,477 and the median was $48,000. Last year 109 horses were sold with a superior average but a lesser median.

The next Fasig-Tipton Sale is “The Saratoga Sale” in August. I won’t be able to make the trip to New York so please, share with me if you attend. Our 2015 and 12th Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah, was offered as hip #85 in the 2013 Saratoga Sale. You could buy the next winner or at least take a chance. Happy shopping!

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June 27, 2015June 27, 2015

Mother Goose

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I am horsing around today for sure. I got an early start this morning at the Thoroughbred Center watching the horses breeze and petting them and a barn cat. Tonight, I am attending Downs After Dark at Churchill Downs for some live racing, including some graded stakes. In between, I am watching the Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont Park. It is a busy day for this blogger and I will share some trip photos and stories later but now let’s focus on the Mother Goose Stakes.

The Thoroughbred Center

Downs after Dark

The Mother Goose Stakes started in 1957 and was named for Mother Goose, herself. She had the distinction of being the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Futurity in 1924. The Grade 1 stakes race is 1 and 1/16 miles on dirt. It is currently held at Belmont Park in New York, where we recently saw American Pharoah win the Triple Crown. The Mother Goose is for 3 year old fillies. The purse is $300,000. At different periods, in our nation’s history, this race has been considered part of the filly triple crown or triple tiara. The other legs were usually the Acorn and the Coaching Club American Oaks. Those two races and the Alabama Stakes are currently considered the New York Triple Tiara. The fastest and largest margin to win the Mother Goose was Rachel Alexandra. She also won the Kentucky Oaks and the Preakness. She holds the record for the largest win at the Kentucky Oaks too. She was the first filly to win the Preakness in 85 years. She has the record for speed at the Mother Goose and was less than a second from Secretariat’s speed record. Tonight at 5:28 pm, the Mother Goose Stakes will be race 9 at Belmont. The Acorn and Coaching Club American Oaks won’t take place until late July and August. It has only been 3 weeks since the Acorn. Curalina won the Acorn Stakes and she will not be participating in the Mother Goose. In fact, only one horse in this stakes race was entered at the Acorn. The 10 featured horses are:

Embellish the Lace
Include Betty
Hot City Girl
Munasara
Chide
Pleasant Tales
Money’soncharlotte
Danessa Deluxe
Eskenformoney
Wondergal

Embellish the Line won both of her 2 starts this year. This will be her 1st stakes race. Include Betty came in 8th at the Kentucky Oaks and 2nd in the Black-Eyed Susan stakes. She is the horse with the experience to win this, having 9 career starts including 4 graded stakes, 1 of which she won. Hot City Girl is one of only 2 New York bred horses in this race, the rest are from Kentucky. She has 7 starts but just 1 win, back in January, and none of her races have been graded stakes. Munasara is my favorite. She is undefeated but she has had just 2 entries. The last win was at Belmont Park. I like her tainer Kiaran McLaughlin and her jockey John Velazquez. Her jockey won the Mother Goose last year on American Champion 3 Year Old, Untapable. Chide has won 2 of her 3 starts. Her last two races were at Churchill Downs. Pleasant Tales has been in a total of 4 races at Churchill, of her 8 starts, and she won her last race there. Moneysoncharlotte came in lucky 13 in the Kentucky Oaks. That was her last race of 7 career starts. Danessa Deluxe was 4th in the Black-Eyed Susan when she had John Velazquez for a jockey. Tonight, Manuel Franco will ride her. She has not won in 2015 but she has 7 lifetime starts, with the last 3 being graded stakes. Eskenformoney came in 10th in the Kentucky Oaks. She has had 10 starts with 3 of them being graded. In those graded stakes she was third and then 2nd before her Kentucky Oaks race. Finally, Wondergal is considered the favorite. She is the other New York filly. She was 3rd in the Acorn as well as the 14 Hands Winery Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies race. 5 of her 6 starts were graded stakes.

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June 7, 2015June 22, 2015

Fabulous Pharoah!

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It took 37 years but yesterday we finally got another Triple Crown winner! American Pharoah proved he is a champion Thoroughbred winning the Belmont Stakes in just 2:26.65. I watched from the simulcast televisions at Keeneland race track as happy tears streamed down my face. 90,000 fans attended the Belmont. It was exactly what I had been wanting to see but I was just so surprised that it finally happened.

American Pharoah held back for just a second when the gates opened but injust 2 jumps, coming from post #5, he took the lead and kept it. He won this race by 5 and 1/2 lengths. This is the 4th largest margin ever.

The bay colt, Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont stakes winner was born on Groundhog’s day, 2/2/2012 at Stockplace Farm in Kentucky. His sire was Pioneer of the Nile and his dam was Littleprincessemma by Yankee Gentleman. Pioneer of the Nile was 2nd in the 2009 KY Derby. American Pharoah has ran just 8 times and won the last 7 in a row. He was the 2014 Eclipse Award Champion 2 Year Old Colt. He will likely continue to run this year and compete in the Breeders’ Cup but is expected to retire to stud at the end of 2015. His stud rights have already been sold to Ashford Stud in Kentucky.

American Pharoah’s trainer is Robert A. Baffert born 1/13/1953. He was born and raised in Arizona. He became a jockey at a young age. Baffert received a B.S. from University of Arizona’s Track Industry Program. He has trained 4 KY Derby winners, 6 Preakness winners, 2 Belmont winners, 2 KY Oaks winners, 10 Breeders Cup winners and 2 Dubai Cup winners. He won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer in 1997, 1998 and 1999. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 2009.

Victor Espinoza was the jockey. He was born 5/23/72 in Mexico. He became a jockey there and then in California. He has won the KY Derby 3 times and the Preakness 3 times. He was the 1st jockey ever to have a third chance at the Triple Crown and this time it worked out well for him. He is also the 1st Latino jockey to win all 3 legs and at 43 he is the oldest to do so as well.

Ahmed Zayat of Zayat Stables, LCC. is the breeder and owner of American Pharoah. He was born in Cairo, Egypt 8/31/62. He now lives in New Jersey. He has been racing Thoroughbreds since 2005 and has many graded stakes winner and has frequently lead in earnings.

I am hoping that American Pharoah continues to race some more and that I get a chance to see him in the Breeders’ Cup!

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June 6, 2015June 22, 2015

Pharoah’s Crown?

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I am six months in on blogging now and I must say this is the most excited I have been for a race thus far. It is time for The Test Of The Champion, The Run For The Carnations, The Triple Crown, The Belmont Stakes! I’m literally waiting on pins and needles to see if we finally have a Triple Crown winner.

The field of 8 horses is strong but I really just want to see American Pharoah win. Not since Affirmed won it all in 1978, have we had a new champ to add to the list of only 11 horses to win all three parts of the triple crown; The Kentucky Derby, The Preakness Stakes and The Belmont Stakes. The horses who have won it all include Sir Barton, Gallant Fox, Omaha, War Admiral, Whirlaway, Count Fleet, Assault, Citation, Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed. Secretariat holds the record at 2:24.

The Belmont Stakes race is the 147th running for 3 year olds of 1 and 1/2 miles on dirt. It is a Grade 1 race with a purse of 1.5 million dollars. The race is named for 19th century banker and 1st president of The Jockey Club, August Belmont Sr. The Belmont was 1st held in 1867 making it the oldest leg of the Triple Crown. The location of the race has varied but there is a 200 year old white pine in the paddock, at Belmont Park, that marks the original location and it is now held annually at this track in Elmont, New York. The race will take place at 6:50 P.M. EST today, June 6, 2015. The event is a to p attended Thoroughbred race in North America and holds high television viewing as well. It can be seen live on NBC.

In terms of traditions this race too has a song, a drink, a blanket, and a trophy. The song has been changed a few times over the years. Some think all the changes have brought on bad luck but currently they play the theme from “New York, New York”.

The drink has changed too. It used to be the White Carnation, then the Belmont Breeze and now it is the Belmont Jewel. Get the recipe here: Belmont Jewel. The blanket is the same. It is made of 700 white carnations glued to 7 yards of green velvet. The flower represents luck and love. It takes 5 hours to construct this blanket. Personally, I think there should be a real crown too. Perhaps, made of carnations, for the horse, if it is a Triple Crown winner. The trophy is the August Belmont Memorial Cup made by Tiffany and Co. The winning owner gets to keep it for a year. It is silver with a representation of 1869 winner Fenian on top. On the bottom are Herod, Eclipse and Matchem, the grandsons of the original Thoroughbreds; The Byerly Turk, the Darley Arabian and the Godolphin Barb. The owner, jockey and trainer of the winner get to each keep a mini version too.

Only 8 horses are racing to win the Belmont Stakes. Just American Pharoah can compete for the Triple Crown based on his past 2 wins. See what we knew about these horses going into each leg here Derby Dreaming and Preakness Planning. This is our field now:

Mubtaahij
Tale of Verve
Madefromlucky
Frammento
American Pharoah
Frosted
Keen Ice
Materiality

Mubtaahij won the United Arab Emirates Derby which is huge but then he just ran 8th in the Kentucky Derby and skipped the Preakness altogether. Supposedly, the surface at the Belmont will be more his preference than at Churchill. He has got in 6 workouts at Belmont and had more time to adjust to the environment at that track. His best hope is probably that he has Irad Ortiz for his jockey. Ortiz was 2014 leading New York rider. His odds are right about middle 5th off the best end, 4th off the worst. Tale of Verve did not qualify for the KY Derby but popped into the Preakness as the long shot and fetched 2nd place. He only has one win to his name which he got at Keeneland. It might have been the muddy field that helped him out at the Preakness. His current odds have him tied for 2nd to being the long shot once again. Madefromlucky is one of two Todd Pletcher owned horses in this race. He did not participate in either of the 1st two legs of the crown. He did, however, just win at Belmont in the G2 Peter Pan Stakes less than a month ago. His odds are slightly better than Mubtaahij. Frammento ran 11th in the KY Derby, he did not run in the Preakness. He has not raced since the KY Derby and has not won a race this year. He is the long shot for this race. He has only won one time ever and that was at Keeneland last October. American Pharoah…what needs to be said? He won the KY Derby by a length and the Preakness by 7 lengths. In 6 of 7 races he has ran at speeds of 100 or better. The talk is that he appears to be gaining weight and showed no signs of wearing out in his 2 workouts since his Preakness win. He drew a good post position too. My fingers are crossed that he will be our Triple Crown winner. Frosted is the biggest threat. He has the 2nd best odds and I fear he is the major challenger. He had throat surgery that really seemed to help him out. Competing against American Pharoah is about speed and this guy has it. In the G1 Wood Memorial Frosted came in first with a speed of 103. He came in 4th in the KY Derby, clocked at 100. He did not run the Preakness. He has placed at Belmont before. Keen Ice has only one win in 8 starts. He is tied 2nd for worse odds. He came in 7th at the KY Derby and then skipped the Preakness. One advantage, not to discount, is he does have Curlin for his sire. Last but not least, Materiality is ranked with the 3rd best odds. This is our other big threat. He is another Pletcher horse. He ran 6th in the KY Derby and skipped the Preakness. He is a speed horse. Materiality won all 3 off his other races. 2 at speeds of 102 and the G1 Florida Derby at 110.

So what will it take to stop American Pharoah from winning? 13 horses since Affirmed have come into the Belmont with wins in the first 2 legs to lose in the Belmont. The reasons ranged from a safety pin in the foot, a few losses by a nose, a couple of un-explainables, one didn’t take his Lasix, a couple of leg injuries, tumbling at the start, a sloppy track, too much congestion, fatigue, distance and one jockey flat out stopped a horse whom the vets said had no injuries. Anything can happen!

It is all luck and talent from here. Good luck American Pharoah, I hope you get your crown!

Update: My dreams came true. American Pharoah won the Belmont stakes and thus is our 1st Triple Crown winner in 37 years. Frosted placed 2nd, followed by Keen Ice at 3rd and finally Mubtaahij at 4th.

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