FRIDAY, MARCH 3, 2017 SIX TO WATCH FOR FROM FASIG-TIPTON SMITH OUT TO CONQUER by Brian DiDonato This week=s Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale again featured a very >WORLD= WITH ARROGATE promising group of 2-year-olds, including many who turned in extremely strong works. You don=t need me to tell you how good the toppers looked, so here are six prospects under $450,000 (in the bottom 75% or so of those who sold) who might be worth keeping an eye out for. HIP 11, c, Union Rags--Woodford Girl, by Honour and Glory Breeder: Lantern Hill Farm (Ky) Consignor: Eddie Woods, Agent LIII Buyer: Whitehorse & Three Chimneys Price: $435,000 This $195,000 KEESEP acquisition immediately reminded me of his accomplished and precocious sire coming through the lane in his :10 2/5 breeze. He=s fairly compact, but extremely well- muscled and powerful-looking, and looks like he should come to hand pretty early. He got over the ground very fluidly and appears to have some speed. Cont. p5 Mike Smith and Arrogate after winning the Breeders= Cup Classic IN TDN EUROPE TODAY Eclipse Sportswire SPRINTING VETERAN SOLE POWER RETIRED Five-time Group 1 winner Sole Power has been retired at age by Joe Bianca 10. He will spend his retirement at Horse Park Stud in Ireland. In May of 2005, Mike Smith piloted a gray colt by one of his Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. beloved former mounts to a 50-1 upset in the GI Kentucky Derby. Giacomo (Holy Bull) represented the jockey=s first career win in the Run for the Roses, and it should have been the springboard to new heights of success for the New Mexico native. Instead, the Derby score was an outlier during the toughest period for Smith=s business since he left Canterbury Downs to ride on racing=s biggest stages in 1989. AI more or less did it to myself,@ Smith said of the lull in his career. AI thought, >well I=ll just hang out in Kentucky for a little bit,= and thought I=d ease my way back east for a little while.@ Smith, who moved to California in 2000 after riding in New York for the better part of a decade, returned to the Big Apple and rode just 81 winners in 2005, a total that was tied for 250th in the country. It was a conversation with Giacomo=s co-owner, Jerry Moss, that got Smith=s career back on a fast track. Cont. p3 PRESIDENT & CO-PUBLISHER Barry Weisbord @barryweisbord [email protected] SR. V.P. & CO-PUBLISHER Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] V.P., INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] Friday, March 3, 2017 EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN Associate Editors Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Ben Massam @BMassamTDN Assistant Editors Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistants Alexa Reisfield Michelle Benson Versatile Grade I winner Midnight Storm (Pioneerof the Nile) will run in the GI Santa Photo Editor/Dir. of Distribution Anita H. next Saturday, rather than wait for the G1 Dubai World Cup Mar. 25, trainer Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew Phil D'Amato told the Santa Anita press department Thursday. "We're running in the [email protected] Big 'Cap," the conditioner confirmed. "We made the decision yesterday for sure. The Social Media Strategist horse is going well and depending on weather, he could breeze Sunday or Monday." Justina Severni Benoit Photo Director of Customer Service Vicki Forbes [email protected] PAN AMERICAN CONFERENCE PANELS ANNOUNCED 6 Panels for the second Pan American Conference, to be held in Director of Information Technology Washington, DC during Preakness week, were announced Ray Villa Thursday. [email protected] WORLDWIDE INFORMATION International Editor NYRA PARTNERS WITH HOPPEGARTEN 8 Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN The New York Racing Association has entered into a three-year [email protected] partnership with Hoppegarten Racecourse in Berlin, Germany to European Editor host an intercontinental stakes series beginning in 2017. Emma Berry [email protected] 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 8 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • MARCH 3, 2017 Mike Smith cont. from p1 AI was given the opportunity to come back and ride a horse in California and in doing so, I went out to dinner that night with John Shirreffs and Mr. Moss,@ Smith recalled. AMr. Moss said, >What are you doing out there? Why don=t you just come back and ride all my horses?= That was my opportunity. I literally went home, I packed, and I was back in California two days later. Then things just took off. I got back in town, put my nose to the grindstone and have kept it there ever since.@ Smith officially staked his return to racing=s upper echelon with another Moss charge, four-time Eclipse Award winner Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}), and he has been the regular rider of fellow champions Shared Belief (Candy Ride {Arg}) and Songbird (Medaglia d=Oro) in recent years. But it=s his partnership with another gray colt by another one of his beloved former mounts that has the potential to take the 51-year-old Smith=s career to its highest altitude yet. >TDN Rising Star= Arrogate (Unbridled=s Song), a $560,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Juddmonte Farms, missed all of his 2-year-old season, but captured three of his first four starts as a sophomore, signaling considerable promise in each performance. Largely untested in his wins, however, he entered the Aug. 27 GI Travers S. as an unknown commodity. That could explain why Rafael Bejarano, who was in the irons for all three of Arrogate=s victories, opted to ride trainer Bob Baffert=s other entry in the race, the more established stakes winner American Freedom (Pulpit). Smith, who was already at Saratoga that day to ride fellow Baffert trainee Drefong (Gio Ponti) in the GI King=s Bishop S., gladly took the pickup mount. After a breathtaking 13 1/2-length romp in a track record 1:59.36 later, Smith knew he had struck gold. Cont. p4 Arrogate all alone in his Travers romp Jamie Coulter TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 8 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • MARCH 3, 2017 Smith cont. AI remember looking over at the [big screen] and thinking, >Oh man! Did he just open up by that many, that quickly?=@ Smith said. AThen I saw that the time was under two minutes and I was floored. And I still thought that we had room to grow.@ That thought proved correct. Arrogate followed up his Travers romp by besting Horse of the Year California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit) in the GI Breeders= Cup Classic Nov. 5. Then, a week after being crowned champion 3-year-old male for 2016, he scored another devastating, track record-setting victory in the inaugural running of the $12-million GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park. AHe=s incredible,@ Smith exclaimed. AI don=t know if I=ve ever been on this kind of horse, with the speed and stamina that he has. It=s jaw-dropping. On top of all that, I don=t think we=ve gotten to see how good he really is yet, which is crazy. In seven starts, he=s already done things that the greats haven=t done.@ Equally impressive to Smith as Arrogate=s stratospheric talent level is how unflappable and easy-going the colt is. AWhat=s great about him is his mannerisms,@ Smith relayed. AHe=s a big old laid back dude. He doesn=t know how special he is and he really doesn=t care. He just goes out and does his job and is just happy to get a carrot when he gets back to the barn. He=s not a diva, doesn=t need all kinds of stuff, he=s just a cool, laid back horse who=s just happy to hang out.@ Earlier this week, it was announced that Arrogate would ship to the United Arab Emirates to run in the Mar. 25 $10 million G1 Dubai World Cup. The 2,000-meter test is one of the few prestigious dirt races that Smith has yet to land. Cont. p4 Arrogate and Mike Smith after winning the Pegasus World Cup Adam Mooshian Graded Sons of Tapit 2017 Fee Wins 2YO GSW TONALIST $30,000 6 - TAPITURE $7,500 5 KY JOCKEY CLUB S. (G2) FROSTED $50,000 5 - TAPIZAR $15,000 3 - RACE DAY $6,000 3 - CONSTITUTION $25,000 2 - ANCHOR DOWN $10,000 2 - FIRST FOALS IN 2017 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 5 OF 8 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • MARCH 3, 2017 Smith cont. Buyer: Mike Ryan, agent AWithout a doubt,@ Smith said when asked if he=s motivated by Price: $170,000 checking off the World Cup box on his resume. AIt was so He Aonly@ worked in :10 4/5, but if this well-bred colt runs to exciting to hear that news. I=m still jumping around just for the his pedigree, we might be talking about him come this time next opportunity. He=s going have to go there and run his race, but I year.