Tag: Calumet Farms

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100 Days Till Derby

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Wow!  I still can’t get over the rush of American Pharoah’s Triple Crown and Grand Slam wins.  Meanwhile, today marks only 100 days until the next running of the Kentucky Derby.  Just in time, the early nominees have been announced!  Will we get another big winner?  Will it be Nyquist, pictured above following his undefeated 2015 season after winning the Sentient Jet Breeders’ Cup Juvenile?  He does look nice in the crown!

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On Saturday May 7, 2016 Churchill Downs will host the 142nd running of the Kentucky Derby.  Early nominees for all 3 legs of the Triple Crown were due on 1/16/16.  Early nominees pay a fee of $600 while later nominees can enter until 3/21/16 but that fee is $6,000.  The fee jumps to a large sum of $200,000 if entered after that.  The deadline for the latest entry is 5/4/16.  Today, the 368 select 3 year-old Thoroughbreds were revealed.  Eclipse Award Juvenile Male, Nyquist, tops the list of contenders. He is owned by Reddam Racing, LCC.  His trainer is Doug F. O’Neill and his jockey is Mario Gutierrez.  He won twice at Santa Anita and twice at Del Mar prior to his BC win at Keeneland.  He had a nice workout at Santa Anita on 1/24/16.  Nyquist is preparing for the Saint Vincente Stakes on 2/15/16 at Santa Anita and he is a top nominee for the Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds on 4/2/16.

368 nominees are considered low for an early selection.  Brody’s Cause, Mor Spirit, Greenpointcrusader, Mohaymen, Hit It A Bomb, Ralis and Swipe are some of the other early favorites.  Swipe is seen at the top of the second photo just barely losing to Nyquist at the BC races. Only 3 fillies were nominated.  These little ladies are Northwest Tale, Royal Obsession and Flora Dora.

On the road to the Kentucky Derby, Nyquist leads in points with a score of 30.  He is followed by Exaggerator, Brody’s Cause, Mor Spirit, Flexibility, Swipe, Mo Tom, Airoforce, Mohaymen and Greenpointcrusader for the top 10 of 20 available positions.  Urban Bourbon is nominated from Bourbon Lane Stable.

In regards to trainers, who have nominated horses, Bob Baffert leads with 35 entries.  He was the trainer for our 2015 Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah.  One of his entries this year is Southern Pharaoh, another colt sired by Pioneer of the Nile.  Todd Pletcher, Chad Brown, Mark Casse, D. Wayne Lukas (my favorite with 10 entries) and Mike Maker round out the top trainers, by number of entries.  Kellyn Gorder is entered with Torrontes.

Again we find the American Pharoah connection when we see the owners with the most entries.  It is Zayat Stables that owns 15 entries.  Zayat is followed by Calumet Farm, Charles Fipke and Keeneland’s biggest winners, Ken and Sarah Ramsey.

Following the Kentucky Derby, the 141st Preakness Stakes takes place on 5/21/16 and then the 148th running of the Belmont Stakes is on 6/11/16. The full list of nominees for the Triple Crown is available here: 2016 Triple Crown Nominees

These 100 days are going to be so exciting.  I love watching all of the prep races and the leaderboard on the road to the Kentucky Derby.  Who is your favorite?  Please, share this and share with me.

 

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Phollowing Pharoah

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I have not had the opportunity to make any recent trips but my mom went up to New Jersey for a week recently.  She was kind enough to do a little drive by photography of Monmouth Park during her travels.  This was the site of American Pharoah’s last race.

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American Pharoah won the 48th William Hill Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, New Jersey on August 2, 2015.  There was a huge crowd of 60,983 fans in the stands that day.  There was a large crowd there in 2007, as well, when Monmouth hosted the Breeders’ Cup.  When my mother was on the property, this past Saturday, she said there was a good crowd, despite the negatively slanted media’s opinion.  The fans were there to watch a full race card and the Grade III Monmouth Oaks.  This race first took place in 1871 and is the oldest active Oaks race in America.  This year the race was 1 and 1/16 miles long for 3 year olds with purse money of $100,000.  Paco Lopez won riding Delightful Joy.  She is a Tapit filly and this was her first graded stakes win.  She beat out Eskenformoney who ran in the Kentucky Oaks and the Mother Goose Stakes, which I have previous stories about each of those races on my website.  White Clover owned by Calumet Farms showed 3rd in that race.

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Having Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah participate in the Haskell was great for the track and the community.  Ahmed Zayat, American Pharoah’s owner lives in New Jersey.  The NJ State Senate was so pleased with the excellence in which Monmouth Park handled the Haskell that they honored the track for its success in doing so.  The track has been managed out of three buildings since 1870 with occasional closures.  It is my hope that this track has many years to go and to host some wonderful races.

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Mom quickly spotted her home city posted on a truck at Monmouth Park.  The Horse Capital of the World, Lexington, KY is the headquarters for Sallee Horse Vans.  They have a hub at Monmouth Park.  It is estimated that over 50,000 horses this year will travel by Sallee.  They have over 200 routes that cover over 4 million miles.  This family owned business has been in place since 1963.  In Lexington they even have a nice 16 stall barn.

Monmouth Park was where American Pharoah’s last raced and I have been waiting all this time to see his next race.  Tomorrow, August 29th he will finally run again.  This race is the Travers Stakes, to take place in Pharoahtoga… well Saratoga, NY.   I had a nice story earlier in the month about Saratoga race track.  Check it out on my website.  Secretariat also chose to race at Saratoga following his Triple Crown win.  He ran in the Whitney Stakes.  The Travers, named for William R. Travers, one of the tracks founders, began in 1864.  Some call it Saratoga’s Midsummer Derby.  It is the most popular day of Saratoga’s summer race meet.  The race is Grade I for 3 years olds with a purse of $1,600,000.  The distance is 1 and 1/4 miles on the dirt.  Post time is 5:46 p.m. EST.  It will be covered live on NBC.  Should American Pharoah win he will be awarded the Man O’ War Cup by Tiffany and Co. and he will be blanketed with carnations.

The post positions are:

  1. Upstart
  2. American Pharoah
  3. Mid Ocean
  4. Texas Red
  5. Frammento
  6. Frosted
  7. Keen Ice
  8. Tale of Verve
  9. King of New York
  10. Smart Transition     

As good as American Pharoah is, this is still a tough race.  Any of these horses could win.  Frosted and Texas Red have the next best current odds.  American Pharoah was able to bring his favorite traveling partner along with him to this race, despite a minor injury prior.  Smokey The Pony will not only be there but Donna Brothers, former jockey and current Thoroughbred racehorse reporter, will ride him while doing race coverage for NBC.  Smokey flew with American Pharoah to Lexington,KY where they picked up Funny Cide and then flew on to Albany.  I wish the airport had a fan lot like they sometimes do for the University of Kentucky Basketball team.  I really wanted to see the 3 equines.  I just spent time with Funny Cide at the Kentucky Horse Park recently.  I posted that story to my website the last day of July.  Funny Cide is a Saratoga bred horse who raced there twice and has won both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.  He was on view in Saratoga’s paddock on August 27th.

Keep on following American Pharoah, where I hope he wins the Travers and then the Breeders’ Cup.  I wish everyone a safe and lucky weekend!   Don’t forget, we can watch American Pharoah’s jockey, Victor Espinoza, on the new season of Dancing With the Stars starting 9/14/15.  To see more stories and those I mentioned during this post, follow my page on Facebook or Twitter and you can always go straight to my website, as well.

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Update:  Frosted was third, American Pharaoh was second and congratulations to Keen Ice, the winner of the 2015 Travers!  I am so happy that no jockey or horse was inured during the race and I look forward to all the participants exciting futures.

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