Tdn America Today More Clairiere Vs
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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2021 MEHMAS FILLY FLIES HOME IN SWEET LIFE MORE CLAIRIERE VS. The Phil D'Amato barn continued its hot streak with European TRAVEL COLUMN imports in turf sprints as Going Global (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) uncorked a powerful rally to take Sunday's GIII Sweet Life S. at RIVALRIES, PLEASE Santa Anita. Fourth in her best of three turf tries for Mick Halford in her native country, the bay broke through over seven furlongs of all-weather at Dundalk Nov. 11 before being acquired privately. She was let go at 8-1 in a full and competitive field despite her trainer's excellent numbers with European acquisitions, including four wins from his last four starts in the category. Finding a foothold at the fence and off the pace as Five Pics Please (Cinco Charlie) sped clear, Going Global made her move into a :44.16 half. She still had work to do as the frontrunner threatened to complete her theft, but Flavien Prat got her out in the clear with a sixteenth to race and she zoomed home to get up in the shadow of the wire. Nimbostratus (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) filled out the trifecta for some of the same owners as the winner. Cont. p4 Clairiere (outside) & Travel Column Hodges Photography/Jan Brubaker IN TDN EUROPE TODAY ARQANA FEBRUARY BEGINS ON MONDAY The Week in Review, by T.D. Thornton The Arqana February Sale starts its two-day run on Monday. Turn the clock back a dozen years and recall when a fledgling Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. filly parlayed a November win in the GII Golden Rod S. into a torrid nine-stakes win streak that culminated in Horse of the Year honors. That filly, of course, was Rachel Alexandra. Now it's 2021, and the Fair Grounds annually honors Rachel Alexandra's brief (one win, one second) tenure in New Orleans with a Grade II stakes race in mid-February. Saturday's edition just so happened to feature the one-two fillies from the Nov. 28 Golden Rod S. at Churchill Downs, a race that stood out as the most visually impressive two-turn stakes of 2020 in the juvenile fillies division. Three months ago, 'TDN Rising Star' Travel Column (Frosted) overcame a slow start and multiple logjams in the stretch to bull past fast-finishing Clairiere (Curlin) in the shadow of the wire. The final clocking of that 1 1/16 miles stakes was .54 seconds faster than Triple Crown-aspiring males ran one race later in the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S., signaling both fillies (separated by only a length) might be worth watching down the road. Cont. p3 MAGNIFICO! Bold. Full-bodied. CLASSIC FIRST FOALS BY "One of the best foals we've had in a long time" -Ned Toffey Colt o/o Coup de Coeur at 9 days old VIEW FOAL GALLERY | $25,000 S&N PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Monday, February 15, 2021 Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN Deputy Editor Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Associate Editors Christina Bossinakis @CBossTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN News and Features Editor In Memoriam: Ben Massam (1988-2019) ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistant/Dir. Of Distribution Rachel McCaffrey Advertising Assistants Amie Newcomb Kristen Lomasson Photographer/Photo Editor Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew Clairiere, winner of Saturday's GII Rachel Alexandra S., is pictured above as a foal in the [email protected] Spring of 2018 at Stonestreet Farm in Lexington, KY. | Mathea Kelley/Stonestreet Social Media Strategist Justina Severni CATCHING UP WITH PPATH 5 Associate Producer Katie Ritz offers an update on the initiatives of the Louisville-based Katie Ritz Project to Preserve African American Turf History (PPAATH). Director of Customer Service Vicki Forbes [email protected] RUNHAPPY COLT DOMINATES IN GANDER RR Bob LaPenta's Nicky the Vest (Runhappy) absolutely dominated Marketing Manager his rivals in Sunday's Gander S. for New York-bred sophomores, Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen becoming the stallion's first black-type winner. Director of IT & Accounting Ray Villa [email protected] RISING STAR MAKES SUCCESSFUL RETURN AT SA RR [email protected] Baoma Corporation's $800,000 KEESEP buy Happier (Street Sense) , WORLDWIDE INFORMATION off since a 'TDN Rising Star' worthy debut at Del Mar in July, International Editor picked up where she left off Sunday in Arcadia. Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN [email protected] European Editor Emma Berry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 8 • THETDN.COM MONDAY • FEBRUARY 15, 2021 Week in Review cont. from p1 drive, a remarkable in-race tactical progression that is unusual Not surprisingly, Travel Column was backed to even-money for a newly turned 3-year-old filly to accomplish so deftly. And it favoritism in the 3-year-old debut for both rivals in the Rachel wasn't like Clairiere was reeling in a tired filly, either. Both Alexandra, while Clairiere went finished well, but Clairiere off as the 2-1 second choice. finished better. Her winning Travel Column, a poised margin of a neck was augmented speedstress, broke running from by a confident gallop-out that her outside stall and asserted kept her rival at bay well past the herself near the head of the field wire. with a three-wide bid into the Clairiere's final time for clubhouse turn. Clairiere, 1 1/16 miles was 1:45.34. She comfortable rating from a touch was initially assigned a farther off the pace than in provisional 83 Beyer Speed previous starts, broke inward Figure (same number as her from the one hole and hit the Golden Rod second), but by gate, so jockey Joe Talamo Sunday that Beyer got adjusted allowed the bay to settle into upward to an 85. Interestingly, stride by her lonesome, eighth the final eighth for the Rachel and last at the fence. Clairiere overtakes Travel Column Late | Hodges Photography Alexandra clocked in at 6.28 Travel Column led the main body of the pack while sitting seconds, slightly faster than the 6.36 final furlong that second down the backstretch, six lengths behind a 25-1 undefeated older male Maxfield (Street Sense) ran in the breakaway pacemaker who would eventually fade to last. The same-distance GIII Mineshaft S. two races earlier on the card. favorite appeared primed to pounce while getting a gift of a trip, Clairiere is owned and bred by Stonestreet Stables and trained but nemesis Clairiere more arrestingly caught the eye as she by Steve Asmussen, the same connections who acquired Rachel began building a wave of momentum five furlongs out with a Alexandra after her 20 1/4-length dismantling of the 2009 well-measured uncoiling from the back of the pack that belied GI Kentucky Oaks field. She then, in succession, won the her two races of experience. GI Preakness S., GI Mother Goose S., GI Haskell Invitational S. Rail-running Clairiere inhaled half the field by the time the and GI Woodward S. pack tightened up at the half-mile pole, but Talamo had to tap the brakes a touch over the next furlong because she was Cont. p4 momentarily hemmed in. When he cued Clairiere to quicken three-eighths out, her response was instant, and the two shot up the reopened rail on the prowl after Travel Column, who by the midway point on the turn had seized first run on the wilting speed and was obviously the filly to beat. Turning for home, Talamo expertly vacated the rail and split foes to avoid getting trapped behind the caving pacemaker, then switched back to the fence in upper stretch to keep from running up on the heels of Travel Column. Initially, the body language of the two fillies and the actions of their riders appeared to favor Travel Column, because the even-striding gray had yet to be fully set down by Florent Geroux while Talamo was already imploring Clairiere for more after she had already given plenty. In fact, Talamo's decision to switch to Clairiere to the outside of Travel Column at the eighth pole initially had a "one lateral move too many" look to it. But when Clairiere clearly saw her target and took off in determined pursuit, it amounted to a fourth distinct move over the course of a prolonged five-furlong TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 8 • THETDN.COM MONDAY • FEBRUARY 15, 2021 Week in Review cont. 2--Five Pics Please, 122, f, 3, Cinco Charlie--No Pictures Please, Clairiere is now on a path that could very well lead to an Oaks by Congrats. O-Desert Sun Stables; B-Larry L. Caudill DVM (KY); berth. She's certainly bred to cover a distance of ground--both T-John W. Sadler. $20,000. her sire, Curlin, and damsire, Bernardini, were Preakness victors 3--Nimbostratus (Fr), 122, f, 3, Wootton Bassett (GB)--Bahama (among other multiple Grade I stakes they won up to 10 Spirit (Ire), by Invincible Spirit (Ire). (,65,000 Ylg '19 GOFFPR). furlongs), and her dam, Cavorting, was a MGISW up to nine O-Altamira Racing Stable, CYBT, Marc Lantzman & Michael furlongs for Stonestreet.