September 8, 2014 www.PaulickReport.com SPECIAL Jet Lag? Turkish Colt a Long Way From Home By Natalie Voss It’s not unusual for buyers to travel to Keeneland from its high takeout. The business is regulated by the Turkish around the world in September, but it is a little out of the Jockey Club, which is overseen by the Ministry of Agricul- ordinary for a yearling to fly some 19 hours to be here. For- ture. The Jockey Club owns 13 stallions, including Cuvee, tunately, Hip 118, a son of City Zip and Distorted Humor Lion Heart, Powerscourt, Sea Hero, Victory Gallop, and Yo- mare No Dress Code, seems to be taking it all in stride. naguska. Most mares are privately owned. “He is very well-minded,” said Murat Sancal, trainer and Sancal says that many are hoping the influx of good blood- representative for owner Omer Halim Aydin. “He’s so easy lines can help build the Turkish Thoroughbred at home to handle, so smart. He’s very balanced.” and ultimately build a reputation at international classics. With the international goal in mind, many Turkish horses The colt is consigned by Mill Ridge Sales. His dam, No Dress with American pedigrees are growing and training here— Code, shipped to Turkey after being purchased by Aydin at at Elmendorf Farm in Lexington and at Churchill Downs. the 2012 Keeneland November sale for $110,000. At The Jockey Club is working on deals to bring in three more that time, No Dress Code’s best offspring, a filly by City Zip, American stallions for next breeding season; Utopia (JPN) had a Grade 2 win in the Santa Ynez but had finished third is one of them. The other two horses have not been publicly in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. Since then, that filly, Re- announced. PRS neesgotzip, has not finished out of the money and improved to second in the 2013 Turf Sprint for trainer Peter Miller and the Lanni Family Trust. The colt made it into select sessions at other auction hous- es and is nominated to the European Breeders’ Fund, so why bring him to Keeneland? “We really like buying and selling at Keeneland. We shop here a lot. We know it’s a good place to sell and buy,” said Sancal. No Dress Code is the latest in a string of major acquisitions by Turkish buyers. Aydin also purchased Common Hope out of the 2011 November sale for $125,000 just months after she delivered the Candy Ride (ARG) foal who would become Shared Belief. Aydin has a full brother to Shared Belief who could show up in U.S. sales, and a half-brother by Henrythenavigator. In a time when wagering has declined in much of the world, Turkey has succeeded at getting fans to the track despite ASK RAY QUESTION: What do you make of Keeneland’s new dirt track? ANSWER: The new drainage system is fascinat- ing from a technology standpoint. No idea how the track is going to play from a potential speed/closer, in- side/outside bias standpoint, but it can’t be worse than the old dirt track. I think we’ll see much better horses coming in for the Juddmonte Spinster (Close Hatches) and other Fall Stars Weekend stakes. Safety is paramount. 148027-LookfortheStar-cvrBanner-PRS.indd 1 9/5/14 4:40 PM www.PaulickReport.com Page 2 Stallion Spotlight Tapit By Frank Mitchell The leading sire in the country this year, the 13-year-old Tapit was unbeaten at 2, then showed even better form at gray Tapit has gone from strength to strength with each 3 when victorious in the G1 Wood Memorial, and many of crop of racing age. His first included champion juvenile his offspring follow a similar pattern in establishing their filly Stardom Bound, and the current crop of 3-year-olds form. Nearly all the Tapits have speed, that most indispens- has this year’s Belmont Stakes winner Tonalist, as well as able quality of a racehorse, and most can carry it an ex- the star filly Untapable, winner of the Kentucky Oaks and tended mile, which allows them to see out the trip even at Mother Goose. the graded stakes level. The volume of the stallion’s A good-sized horse whose height stakes winners, which cur- and balance place him near the rently number 53, is good, but midpoint of the breed, Tapit has their quality is excellent, and been a positive force for qual- that is the key factor in propel- ity, early maturity, soundness, ling a stallion into the top-level. class and versatility. If there is a As evidence of the quality of surface that the Tapits cannot Tapit’s stock, his horses on the race on, it surely has not been racetrack include more graded invented. stakes winners and Grade 1 winners than the runners of any A survey of his progeny’s suc- other sire this season. cess over the last month shows high-class performances over Tapit currently has 12 stakes dirt, turf and synthetic with rac- winners in 2014, and nine of ers age 2 through 5. those are graded stakes win- ners. And with credentials like these, Tapit has gotten better books of Since the graded stakes are endowed with most of the mares each season, and this year, Horse of the Year Havre money in purses, it is natural that Tapit is the leading sire de Grace produced a filly by Tapit. Last year, Horse of the by earnings, which can be a relatively blunt instrument in Year Zenyatta produced a colt by the leading sire. gauging stallion success. Not so in this case, however, and Tapit’s stud fee in 2014 reflects the measure of his suc- Neither of those elite prospects is likely to go to the sales cess. because their owners like to race, but the buyers at sales have become ever more attentive about buying Tapit’s sons The gray son of Pulpit and the Unbridled mare Tap Your and daughters. There are 47 yearlings by Tapit cataloged Heels stood for $150,000 live foal at Gainesway Farm. The for the first four days of the Keeneland September sale, horse has stood his entire career at that farm, beginning and some of them are guaranteed to light up the board. PRS with a stud fee of $15,000 as a first-year stallion in 2005. 10-70% off MY Up to 28% off Up to 40% off ADVANTAGE Exclusive Member Up to 30% off Up to 30% off Discounts Call us toll-free at 866-678-4289 or visit NTRAadvantage.com. www.PaulickReport.com Page 3 Honor Roll Sweet Reason is not a one-track pony By Ray Paulick on it and have her get better and come back and do it again, it shows how special she is. She might be one of those hors- es that is a once-in-a-lifetime horse for a trainer.” Sweet Reason provided Gyarmati with her first career G1 victory. It was not the first top-class filly raised at the family- owned Bettersworth Westwind Farms of Bowling Green, Ky. In business for more than 100 years and consigning to Keeneland nearly half that time, Bettersworth Westwind is run by brothers Mike, Brent and Kevin Harris (along with Brent’s wife Beth). Their grandfather, J.R. Bettersworth bred and raised My Juliet, the 1976 champion sprinter in NYRA Photo North America. (2011, Bay Filly, Street Sense – Livermore Leslie, by Mt. Livermore Leslie, the dam of Sweet Reason, was purchased Livermore. Consigned by Bettersworth Westwind Farms by Brent and Beth Harris for $26,000, in foal to Eurosilver, to 2012 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, purchased at the 2007 Keeneland January Sale of Horses of All Ages. by Jeff Treadway for $185,000) After Don’t Forget Gil, the mare’s 2006 filly by Kafwain, be- came a graded stakes winner in 2009, Brent Harris started Everyone knows Sweet Reason loves Saratoga. In addition looking for better stallions to breed Livermore Leslie to and to her 2-year-old maiden and Grade 1 Spinaway victories struck a foal-share deal with current WinStar Farm stallion at the Spa in 2013 the daughter of Street Sense won this seasons director Darren Fox, who was then at Darley. “I had year’s G1 Test in sharp fashion. foal-shared the year before with Street Sense (producing stakes winner Sweet Reason) and asked if they would be But Sweet Reason is not a one-track pony. Sandwiched interested because it’s the only way I could afford to breed between those races at Saratoga, among other races, was to anything that good,” Harris said. a good second to G1 Ballerina winner Artemis Agrotera in the G1 Frizette at Belmont Park last fall and a huge win Livermore Leslie produced a 2012 filly by Rockport Harbor over 12 filly rivals in the G1 Acorn at Belmont in June. She’s the Harrises sold for $115,000 at last year’s Keeneland been as consistent and solid as a racehorse can be, since sale and she was pinhooked by Becky Thomas for $420,000 Jeff Treadway picked her out of the Bettersworth West- at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale. The wind Farms consignment at the 2012 Keeneland Septem- mare has a Midshipman filly, Hip 779, in this year’s Keene- ber Yearling Sale for $185,000, then turning her over to land sale, a colt by Shackleford at her side and is in foal to Leah Gyarmati to train.