It's an Instant Breakout for Uncaptured
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TUESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2018 IT'S AN INSTANT BREAKOUT THANKS TO CATHOLIC BOY, THOMAS NO LONGER RACING'S BEST KEPT SECRET FOR UNCAPTURED by Bill Finley He was a valued and respected assistant to Todd Pletcher and was hired by Bridlewood Farm as their trainer, which gives him access to their first-class facility in Florida to train not only their horse but those for outside clients. Jonathan Thomas, just 38, has been busy building the groundwork for a top stable, one that some day could rival that of the premier trainers in the country. What he needed was a marquee horse to put him on the map. That's no longer a problem. Catholic Boy (More Than Ready) is coming off a win in the $1.2-million GI Belmont Derby, has won stakes on both the dirt and grass and has proven to be among the gamest horses in the sport. His next assignment will likely come in the Aug. 25 GI Travers S., where he could be the second choice behind Good Magic (Curlin) and where a win would only further raise Thomas's profile. (Click to cont. to p6) Uncaptured | Louise Reinagel IN TDN EUROPE TODAY by Chris McGrath TATTS OCTOBER BOOK 1 CATALOGUE OUT Catch him if you can. The catalogue for the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale Book 1, Well, actually, Goldencents (Into Mischief) already has--and featuring 519 blue-blooded lots, is now available. others will doubtless be getting their act together soon, as their Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. first juveniles mature and stretch out. But if Goldencents has edged into a midsummer lead in the freshman sires' table, by winners and prize money, in other respects it is Uncaptured (Lion Heart) who leads the way at Ocala Stud in Florida. Four of his nine starters have won. Of these, two have promptly added a stakes success--and one of those is the only one of the crop so far to win a graded race. That was Catherinethegreat, who earned the first black type of the Saratoga summer in the 100th running of the GIII Schuylerville S. Previously a 10 1/4 length maiden winner at Gulfstream, here she blazed an opening quarter of :21.78 before cruising four lengths clear in 1:09.98. Catherinethegreat duly vindicated her status, at $170,000, as the most expensive of the 19 yearlings (from 23 offered) whose $47,880 average and $40,000 median--against a covering fee of $6,000--both qualified Uncaptured as the leading freshman outside Kentucky at the sales last year. She was bought by trainer Mark Casse for John Oxley, just like Uncaptured himself, before they made him Canada's first juvenile Horse of the Year in a generation. Cont. p3 First yearlings of $475,000, $350,000, $350,000, etc. First-Crop Sire 2016 Fee Yearling Avg. Return on Fee 1. American Pharoah $200,000 $601,846 x3 2. Honor Code $40,000 $283,333 x7 3. Carpe Diem $25,000 $212,000 x8.5 Source: TDN Sale Statistics, 8/13 They are beautiful. They are really nice-looking horses. For a first year sire, “they are quite impressive, which is probably why Fasig-Tipton had so many. – Tom Ludt, Phoenix Thoroughbreds” PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] V.P., INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Tuesday, August 14, 2018 Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN News and Features Editor Ben Massam @BMassamTDN Associate Editors Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistants Alexa Reisfield Amie Morosco Advertising Assistant/Dir. of Distribution Rachel McCaffrey Current (Curlin), with his unique blonde mane, stood out in the Saratoga paddock Photo Editor Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew before a maiden special weight on Monday. The $725,000 yearling purchase ran third [email protected] for trainer Todd Pletcher and owners Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Robert Social Media Strategist LaPenta. | Joe Bianca Justina Severni Director of Customer Service Vicki Forbes MONMOUTH OWES $30M TO DARBY DEVELOPMENT 9 [email protected] Marketing Manager An investigative news story in the Asbury Park Press has made Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen public a $30-million debt that the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association owes to Darby Development. Director of Information Technology Ray Villa [email protected] WAR FRONT COLT UP IN TIME IN SPA DEBUT RR2 Bookkeeper Terry May Peter Brant’s Fog of War (War Front) rallied from far back to [email protected] capture his career debut in a driving rain at Saratoga Monday. WORLDWIDE INFORMATION The colt was a $400,000 KEESEP yearling purchase last year. International Editor 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 | 732-747-8955 (fax) www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 10 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • AUGUST 14, 2018 It=s an Instant Breakout for Uncaptured Her son would become one of five GSW among the final (cont. from p1) American foals of Lion Heart. In fact, Uncaptured would win six Casse bought Uncaptured for $290,000 at the Keeneland of seven starts at two, graduating from three black-type races September Sale of 2011, in turn making him the priciest on the synthetic at Woodbine to win the GIII Iroquois S. and the member of the final U.S. crop sired by Lion Heart (Tale Of The GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. on dirt at Churchill Downs. Cat) before his export to Turkey. Lion Heart, an unbeaten Grade I winner at two, had proceeded to finish runner-up in the GI Kentucky Derby--pluckily holding off all bar Smarty Jones (Elusive Quality) after throwing down the gauntlet from the front--and to win the GI Haskell Invitational. He offered breeders class, soundness and lovely motion. But not height. And his stock had only been allowed two seasons on the track before a package deal, also including Dehere (Deputy Minister) and Powerscourt (Sadler's Wells), was agreed between the Turkish Jockey Club and Ashford Stud. The timing of Lion Heart's exit could not have been much worse; or better, I guess, depending which side of the deal you stood. In 2010, their sire's first year in Turkey, Kantharos won the GII Saratoga Special S. by seven lengths in an unbeaten juvenile season; Dangerous Midge, a slow-maturing member of his first crop, won the GI Breeders' Cup Turf as a 4-year-old; Line Of David beat subsequent Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver (Maria's Mon) in the GI Arkansas Derby; and, at Bill Graham's Windhaven Farm in Ontario, an Arch mare named Captivating David O=Farrell| Photos by Z delivered a colt Mar. 19. TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 10 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • AUGUST 14, 2018 Those wins had the look of a Kentucky Derby reconnaissance, but he proved unable to rise from relative shallows at three when his finest moment instead brought domestic prestige, in the Prince of Wales S. (second leg of the Canadian Triple Crown). And though back on an upward curve when beaten barely half a length by Palace Malice (Curlin) in the GII Gulfstream Park H. the following spring, he came out with an injury and that was him done. Still, he retired as a good-looking millionaire and those guys are seldom short of company in the Florida winter. His arrival at Ocala Stud in 2015--Oxley retaining a good stake-- gave its clients an alternative to Kantharos, another son of Lion Heart who would soon be packing his bags for Kentucky after finishing seventh in the national rookie standings with seven black-type performers from 32 starters (moved to Hill 'n' Dale last year). Catherinethegreat | Sarah K. Andrew Florida breeders took their cue, sending Uncaptured no fewer than 137 mares in his first season, 108 for his second and 140 last year. That made him the busiest sire in the state but he has entertained even more this time round: a bumper 173, in fact. That extraordinary fourth book shows how Uncaptured has overcome the usual inclination to "wait and see" a sire's first runners. His debut at the 2-year-old sales can only have helped: of 31 hips, he shifted 28 at an average $114,500 and median $93,500--capped off by a $350,000 filly at OBS April. These are knockout returns for a $6,000 regional cover. "Really, there has been a huge buzz about the horse since day one; since the day we brought him to the farm," said Ocala Stud manager David O'Farrell. "He was very well received by breeders locally--he's a beautiful individual--and the momentum started building from the time his first foals hit the ground. "With the majority of stallions, especially in the regional marketplace, historically you do tend to see a blip in those third and fourth years. But you can see from the size of his third and fourth books the confidence he has been giving breeders." TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 5 OF 10 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • AUGUST 14, 2018 Uncaptured appears an impressive specimen, evidently bigger and scopier than his sire. Just as important, however, is what Casse described as the "mind of steel" he brought to training and racing.