ftboa.com • Saturday & Sunday • Jan. 23 & 24, 2021 FEC/FTBOA PUBLICATION FLORIDA’SDAILYRACINGDIGEST In This Issue: Richard E. Hancock Passes Fondness for GP May Propel Shivaree Diamond Ore Looks to Shine Bright Speedy Mr Vargas Heads Clocker’s Corner 70 Supplemental Entries Added Rightandjust Streaks Towards Risen Star Maker Hopes to Work Magic Again Gulfstream Park & Tampa Bay Charts Florida Stallion Progeny List Florida Breeders’ List Wire to Wire Business Place Featured Advertisers Left to right: Randy Hill, trainer Danny Gargan and Dean Reaves/COGLIANESE PHOTO Abbie Road Farms Bobby Jones Equine Coldspring Nurse Mares, LLC Reeves and Hill Try Again Covert Appraisal Services Dream Maker Thoroughbreds Florida Department of Agriculture in Pegasus with Tax Fred Burton Paving BY JENNIE REES, GULFSTREAM headliner four of the five years since the FTBOA PARK PRESS OFFICE______________ stakes was transformed from the Grade 1 Journeyman Stud Donn Handicap into one of the world’s Kaizen Sales HALLANDALE BEACH, FL - No owners most lucrative races for older horses. The Ocala Breeders’ Feed & Supply have supported Gulfstream Park’s Pegasus only year the partners weren’t in the Ocala Stud World Cup Championship Invitational Pegasus, they were represented in the Peterson Smith program more than Reeves Thoroughbred 2019 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Seminole Feed Racing and R.A. Hill Stable. (G1) with Channel Maker. Showcase Properties of Central FL With Tax in Saturday’s $3 million Now, they just need to hit the board for Solera Farm Pegasus World Cup (Grade 1) for the sec- the first time in a Pegasus event. Tax fin- Spendthrift Farm ond straight year, Dean and Patti Reeves ished ninth last year after stumbling badly Stonehedge Farm and Randy Hill will have competed in the See PEGASUS on page 3 The Acorn LLC Back to Top Page 3 Pegasus Continued from COVER at the start. He’s raced only twice since, finishing fifth in the May 2 Oaklawn Handicap (G2) and returning from a seven-and-a- half-month hiatus for a dominating front-running four-and-a- half-length victory in Gulfstream Park’s Harlan’s Holiday (G3) Dec. 12. Luis Saez has the return mount for the Pegasus. “I think he’s as good as anybody in the race, and I think we’ll be very competitive,” Dean Reeves, who campaigns his large sta- ble with wife, Patti, said. “I think this is the best shot for Randy and I, hopefully, to get some of our money back that we put into the Pegasus. Because we’ve had a horse in it every year since they started it, and maybe perseverance will pay off for us.” Trainer Danny Gargan claimed Tax out of a $50,000 maiden claim- ing race in his second career start with owner Hugh Lynch. Gargan offered part of the horse to Reeves and Hill, but they decided they had enough horses and weren’t interested. After Tax finished third in Aqueduct’s 2018 Remsen Stakes (G2), “We called Danny up and said, ‘We just became interested,’” Dean Reeves recalled with a laugh. The gelded son of the late Claiborne Farm stallion Arch has been a terrific acquisition, including winning Aqueduct’s Withers (G3) in his next start for his new owners and taking second in the 2019 Wood Memorial (G2) to land in the Kentucky Derby (G1). While he languished home 15th in a quagmire that day, Tax rebounded to be a close fourth in the Belmont Stakes (G1) and went on to capture Saratoga’s Jim Dandy (G2). If he finishes in the top seven in the Pegasus, he’ll become a millionaire. After the Oaklawn fifth-place performance that Gargan says was deceptively good, Tax was given time off with the goal of pointing to the Breeders’ Cup. A particularly untimely tempera- ture kept him out of a Breeders’ Cup prep race, with the Pegasus then becoming the objective. “It seems like the best thing we did was giving him some time over the summer,” Dean Reeves said. “He ran as good as we’ve ever seen him run in the Harlan’s Holiday.” Gargan, who could win his first Grade 1 race in the Pegasus, agrees. “He’s doing tremendous,” he said. “The time off helped him grow up. He’s a better horse than he used to be. I think this year is going to be the best of his career. He’s bigger, he’s stronger, he’s doing better, eats better. He looks phenomenal. When he was See PEGASUS on page 5 FTBOA Maintains Office Building Drop Box For Official Business While the FTBOA offices remain closed to visitors and mem- bers doing business as a precaution due to the Coronavirus pan- demic, be advised that all services provided by the Association and its related companies remain on going. Most business can be conducted via mail, email or telephone and a drop box has been installed near our side entrance of the FTBOA building at 801 SW 60th Avenue, Ocala, Fla. for mem- bers to use when dropping off time-sensitive documents. Forms may be found at this lo- cation or on our website at www.ftboa.com. Please call us at 352-629- 2160 if you have any questions or contact us at [email protected]. Back to Top Back to Top Page 5 Pegasus page 3 Continued from “I understand how everybody has to a young horse, he had some issues, little look at it financially,” he said of deals things that plagued him through his 3- with stud farms. “But we’re retiring some year-old year that have gone away with of these horses well in advance of them time and the layoff.” reaching their full potential. I think I saw The Reeveses were fairly new to horse that in Mucho Macho Man. He ran well as racing, and definitely new to the sport’s a 4-year-old, finishing second in the top echelon, when they bought into a 2- Breeders’ Cup, but then won it as a 5- year-old Florida-bred named Mucho year-old. Macho Man, whose eventual nine victo- “I see a lot of similarities between ries and $5.6 million in earnings includ- Mucho Macho Man and Channel Maker, ed the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) how as they’ve gotten older—how they’ve at Santa Anita. He also finished third in gotten so much better,” he added. “And I the 2011 Kentucky Derby. think they become so mentally tough.” If the Reeveses quickly were at the top Reeves and Hill finished eighth in the of the sport, they subsequently learned 2017 Pegasus with Breaking Lucky and how difficult that is to achieve. 12th in 2018 with Toast of New York, “I want to say it was five years before while Channel Maker was fifth in the I won a graded stakes again,” Dean 2019 Pegasus Turf, sparking Reeves to Reeves said. “I thought you just go down quip, “I’d have loved to have had Mucho there and buy you another one, and Tax/JOE LABOZZETTA PHOTO Macho Man run in it.” they’re going to be like Mucho Macho Man. It really showed me Mucho Macho Man was sent to stud at what a great accomplishment that horse had in his career, what he age 7 in 2015, his subsequent progeny includes 2020 Pegasus was able to accomplish with [trainer] Kathy (Ritvo) and the work World Cup winner Mucho Gusto. With both Tax and the 7-year- everybody did. I realized five years later, when Classic Rock won old gelding Channel Maker, a leading contender to be voted a Grade 3, just how difficult it was. Looking back, it’s tough to 2020’s male turf champion, Reeves doesn’t have to worry about a win a Grade 1. Those are few and far between.” stallion career. Mucho Macho Man got better with age, and Dean Reeves “Let me tell you: I used to go, ‘Oh, it’s a gelding. I don’t want believes the same is true for Tax. See PEGASUS on page 7 OBS January Sale Consignment • Barn 11 OFFERING YEARLINGS BY: MARES: Hip 41 Filly by Tourist Hip 40 by Warrior’s Reward Hip 70 Filly by Army Mule In Foal to Jess’s Dream Hip 129 Colt by Paynter Hip 53 by Candy Ride (Arg) Hip 158 Colt by Girvin In Foal to Tourist Hip 165 Filly by Outwork Hip 631 Filly by Air Force Blue Hip 547 by Distorted Humor Hip 748 Filly by Awesome Slew In Foal to Enticed Hip 787 Colt by Girvin Hip 557 by Lemon Drop Kid In Foal to Girvin Telephone Hip 772 by Distorted Humor 352-843-8713 In Foal to Awesome Slew Back to Top Back to Top Page 7 Pegasus page 5 earnings, such as Channel Maker’s third in the $4 million Continued from Longines Turf, to the TAA. him,’” Reeves said. “Now, to have a gelding that can run and win "Patti and Dean Reeves have been very successful in money for you for four or five years is great. For Tax, we may run Thoroughbred racing, and they really do care about their horses in the Pegasus three times with him or three more times. We may long term,” said TAA operations consultant Stacie Clark Rogers. go to Dubai or Saudi Arabia with him. A lot of his competition is “Their stable has been very supportive of the TAA and of our retired, so having a good gelding is not a bad deal. TAA accredited organizations." While Mucho Macho Man retired from the track to a palatial Florida consultant Jay Stone and trainer Kathy Ritvo are instru- stud home, first at Adena Springs and now at Hill ’n’ Dale Farms, mental in helping the Reeveses find new homes for their equine most horses don’t have such post-racing guarantees.