ftboa.com • Saturday & Sunday • April 17 & 18, 2021 FEC/FTBOA PUBLICATION FLORIDA’SDAILYRACINGDIGEST In This Issue: Pioneerof the Nile Colt Fastest at Day Four of OBS Under Tack Show Monomoy Girl vs. Swiss Skydiver in Eclipse Awards Winners Showdown Fantasioso (Arg) Makes U.S. Debut Independence Hall Heads Californian Hard Love Chases After First Stakes Score in Woodhaven Gulfstream Park Charts Tampa Bay Downs Charts Florida Stallion Progeny List Florida-bred Warrior's Charge (far right, purple silks)/COADY PHOTO Florida Breeders’ List Florida-bred Warrior’s Charge Wire to Wire Business Place Returns to Oaklawn for Featured Advertisers Covert Appraisal Services Oaklawn Handicap Florida Department of Agriculture Fred Burton Paving BY BROCK SHERIDAN _____________ Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap for fil- lies and mares. FTBOA Warrior’s Charge appears to be a horse Two years ago, Florida-bred Warrior’s Journeyman Stud for the Oaklawn course to a degree and his Charge had a break out season as a lightly- Ocala Breeders’ Feed & Supply connections are hoping his fondness for raced 3-year-old at Oaklawn for trainer Ocala Stud the Hot Springs, Ark., oval produces Brad Cox and owners Ten Strike Racing Peterson Smith another big effort in Saturday’s $1 million and Madaket Stables LLC. RiceHorse Stables Oaklawn Handicap (Grade 2). The mile- In his fourth career start, he won a Seminole Feed and-one-eighth Oaklawn Handicap has a $100,000 maiden special weight going a Showcase Properties field of eight 4-year-olds and older and is mile-and-one-sixteenth by six lengths then Six K’s Training & Sales the co-feature on the program with the See OAKLAWN HANDICAP on page 3 Back to Top Page 3 Oaklawn Handicap Continued from COVER improved to another level to win his next race against first-condi- tion, $75,000 optional claiming allowance horses there, again at eight-and-a-half furlongs. Those two performances earned him an opportunity to take a big step up and make his next start against of the best of his class in the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 13. While he didn’t win, he was a very respectful fourth, just two-and-a-half- lengths behind winner War of Will. Last year, he returned to Oaklawn to win the Grade 3 Razorback and finish second to By My Standards in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap before traveling to Belmont to finish fourth in Vekoma’s Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap in July and sec- ond—but placed first through the disqualification of Pirate’s Punch—in the Grade 3 Philip Iselan at Monmouth. His only off-the-board finish of 2020 was still a solid performance when he finished eighth in the Grade 3 Ack Ack, but only three- Brad Cox/COADY PHOTO and-a-half lengths behind winner Mr. Money, who is now in the midst of his first year as a popular stallion at Journeyman Stud in Ocala, Fla. Warrior’s Charge has one start this year, so he is likely to improve Saturday off of a second-place to fellow Oaklawn Handicap entrant Guest Suite in a third-condition allowance race at Fair Grounds over a good and sealed one mile. Warrior’s Charge is by Munnings out of Battling Brook, by Broken Vow and has won five of 13 career starts with two seconds and three thirds. With $857,710 in career earnings, a first or sec- ond-place finish Saturday would make him the third Florida-bred this year to become a millionaire behind Extravagant Kid and C Z Rocket. Elvin Gonzalez will ride Warrior’s Charge for the first time Saturday when they depart from post four. Warrior’s Charge is listed at 6-1 in the morning line. Favored at 5-2 in the morning line of the Oaklawn Handicap is the John Shirreffs-trained Express Train, who ships in from Southern California after a second-place finish, a half-length behind winner Idol in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on March 6 going a mile-and-one-quarter. Owned by C R K Stables LLC, Express Train won the Grade 2 San Pasqual by three-and-a-half lengths going a mile-and-one- eighth at Santa Anita on Jan. 30 after finishing second to the Bob Baffert all-star Charlatan in the Runhappy Malibu Stakes (G1) for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita on Dec. 26. Express Train is by Union Rags out of I’m a Flake, by Mineshaft and he has won three of nine starts with four seconds while earning $373,300. Express Train has post two and Juan Hernandez ships in from Santa Anita to ride. The Todd Pletcher-trained Fearless and Owendale from the See OAKLAWN HANDICAP on page 5 Back to Top Distorted Humor – Delta Princess, by A.P. Indy I Fee $10,000 S & N Florida’s Leading Sire in 2021! Florida’s leading sire in 2020. Florida’s leading 2 year old sire by money in 2020. Florida’s leading sire of stake winners in 2020. Photo by Louise Reinagel Watch for hips 61, 151, 272, 417, 619, 715 & 756 in the April Sale Me and Mr. C Winner of the 2021 Grey Goose Turf Classic at Tampa Bay Downs Me and Mr. C Photo by SV Photography Brent & Crystal Fernung, Owners 5571 NW 100th St., Ocala, FL 34482 Office: 352.629.1200 | Fax: 352.629.2101 [email protected] www.JourneymanStallions.com Back to Top Page 5 Oaklawn Handicap page 3 Continued from Brad Cox barn are co-third choices in the program, each at 7-2. Fearless won the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile by three-quar- ters of a length at Gulfstream Park in his last start on Feb. 27 in his only other race of the year. So he could also improve given the “second start off of the lay-off ” angle. Last year in his only efforts against graded stakes company, he was sixth in the Grade 2 New Orleans Classic won by By My Standards at Fair Grounds in March and sixth again to Tom’s d’Etat in the Grade 2 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs on June 27, which was his last race of 2020. Fearless is by Ghostzapper out of And Why Not, by Street Cry (Ire) and has won four of seven with a second while banking $246,280 for CHC Inc. and WinStar Farm LLC. Express Train/BENOIT PHOTO Irad Ortiz Jr. will ride Fearless Handicap, was second and a length-and-a-quarter better from post three. than Owendale, who had encountered trouble at the eighth Owendale has two starts this year pole that day. Mystic Guide went on to win the $12 million with his last coming when second, just Dubai World Cup Sponsored by Emirates Airlines (Group a head slower than winner Chess 1) at Meydan in his next start on March 27. Chief in the New Orleans Classic at Florent Geroux has the riding assignment on Owendale, Fair Grounds on March 20. His first a son of Into Mischief out of Aspen Light, by Bernardini start of the year came after a four- who has won six of 22 starts with five seconds and four month lay-off, when he was third in thirds with earnings of $1,488,435. the Grade 3 Razorback won by Mystic Owendale has post six. Guide at Oaklawn. The remainder of the field in post order with odds Silver Prospector, who is also includes Silver State (4-1), Guest Suite (15-1), Rated R entered for Saturday’s Oaklawn Fearless/COGLIANESE PHOTO Superstar (10-1) and Silver Prospector (10-1). RICEHORSE STABLE Brandon & Alexandra Rice 12110 N.E. Hwy 315 • Fort McCoy, Fla. 32134 Brandon: (352) 817-0943 Ali: (352) 572-5404 Back to Top Back to Top Page 7 Pioneerof the Nile Colt Fastest at Day Four of Spring Sale’s Under Tack Show BY OBS PRESS OFFICE ______________________________ Summer meet at Gulfstream Park plus the $125,000 Wildcat Heir for older horses run on Sept. 25, also at Gulfstream. OCALA, FL—As horses battled a stiff headwind that increased The series for 2-year-olds begins July 31 with the FTBOA throughout the day, Hip 786, a son of Pioneerof the Nile con- Florida Sire Stakes Dr. Fager for colts and gelding and the FTBOA signed by Eddie Woods as an agent breezed a quarter-mile in Florida Sire Stakes Desert Vixen, both of which offer a purse of :20.80 to post the fastest work at the distance at the fourth session $100,000 and are run at six furlongs. The series continues Aug. 28 of the under tack show for Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s 2021 with the $200,000 FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes Affirmed for 2- Spring Sale of Two Year Olds in Training. The dark bay or brown year-old males and the $200,000 FTBOA Susan’s Girl for fillies, colt is out of Fancy Day (Ire), by Shamardal, a daughter of graded both carded at seven furlongs. The series concludes on Sept. 25 stakes-winner Tizdubai, a full-sister to champion Tiznow. with the $400,000 FTBOA Florida Sire In Reality for colts and Hip 641, a bay colt by Violence consigned by King’s Equine as geldings and the $400,000 FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes My Dear an agent for Aaron and Marie Jones LLC, worked the day’s fastest Girl for fillies, both at a mile-and-one-sixteenth. eighth, clocked in :9.80. He’s out of the Florida-bred mare C’Mon Three horses worked quarters in :21.20.