Sire Held out for Second to Street Sense in the Derby, Nearly Six Lengths Clear of the Third (Horse Called Curlin) After Blazing Away Early
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SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 2021 THIS SIDE UP: SWISS SKYDIVER RETURNS TO ARCADIA FOR BEHOLDER MILE RIVER LEVELS RISING Champion Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) crushed her competition on her last trip to the west coast for the GII Santa Anita Oaks last spring and looks to repeat that performance Saturday when she returns to Santa Anita for the GI Beholder Mile. Capturing the GII Gulfstream Park Oaks and GIII Fantasy S. prior to the Santa Anita Oaks last term, the chestnut took on males next out in the GII Toyota Blue Grass S. July 11, finishing a respectable second to Art Collector (Bernardini). Returning to winning ways next out in Saratoga's 10-panel GI Alabama S. Aug. 15, the $35,000 KEESEP buy checked in second to GII Azeri S.-bound Shedaresthedevil (Daredevil) in the GI Kentucky Oaks Sept. 4. Trainer Ken McPeek felt confident enough in his charge to try her against males again in the GI Preakness S. Oct. 3 and she delivered with a gritty defeat of GI Kentucky Derby hero and eventual Horse of the Year Authentic (Into Mischief). Cont. p5 'TDN Rising Star' Caddo River Coady IN TDN EUROPE TODAY by Chris McGrath MARCIALIS ARRESTED; FACING CRIMINAL CHARGES They used to say that when you think you have two Epsom French-based trainer Andrea Marcialis has been indicted on colts in your stable, you don't have any. The axiom has long counts of gang fraud, equine doping and forgery. since been decommissioned, however, by the skills of Aidan Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. O'Brien and his patrons, albeit with the inane complicity of a commercial market that is disastrously diluting competition. And it looks as though it no longer transfers to the GI Kentucky Derby, either. Having (eventually) landed running with champion Essential Quality (Tapit), and with Caddo River (Hard Spun) and Mandaloun (Into Mischief) testing their own credentials over the next eight days, Brad Cox is hoping to win three trials across four weekends. As such, the middle leg of this sequence has the potential to weigh quite significantly in the shifting balance of power at the top of the North American training profession. Because the man who continues to set the standards, for Cox and everyone else, awaits Caddo River in the GII Rebel S. with a staggering record of seven winners, three seconds and a third from 13 starters since he first shipped here in 2010. And a week after producing an Authentic (Into Mischief) imitation, as it were, here comes Bob Baffert with a doppelganger for Nadal (Blame). Cont. p3 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 Saturday, March 13, 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 Project Manager Rachel McCaffrey Advertising Assistants Amie Newcomb Kristen Lomasson Photographer/Photo Editor Foaled on February 21 and owned by Tommy Town Thoroughbreds, a colt by Curlin and out Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] of It Tiz Well soaks in the sunshine last week at Denali Stud. His MGSW dam will be bred back to Into Mischief. | Mikala Bidwell Social Media Strategist Justina Severni FAST TIMES CONTINUE AT OBS MARCH 8 Associate Producer Seven juveniles posted the fastest furlong of :9 4/5 during Friday's under-tack Katie Ritz previews for the OBS March sale. Director of Customer Service Vicki Forbes TRIPLE TAP THE NEW HEIR TO THE THRONE? 10 [email protected] Triple Tap, American Pharoah's half debuts at Santa Anita Saturday. Marketing Manager MILLION DOLLAR MATINGS 14 Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen Katie Ritz takes a look at more high-profile matings in 2021. Director of IT & Accounting TODAY’S GRADED STAKES Ray Villa [email protected] ET Race Click for TV [email protected] 3:03p Azeri S.-GII, OP TJCIS PPs TVG 6:16p Rebel S.-GII, OP TJCIS PPs TVG WORLDWIDE INFORMATION 6:46p San Simeon S.-GIII, SA TJCIS PPs TVG International Editor Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN 7:20p Beholder Mile-GI, SA TJCIS PPs TVG [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 17 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • MARCH 13, 2021 Cont. from p1 In fact, the evolution of Life Is Good (Into Mischief) and Concert Tour (Street Sense) seems so closely aligned to their predecessors in the barn--November maiden at Del Mar/ GIII Sham/GII San Felipe for one; January maiden at Santa Anita/GII San Vicente/GII Rebel for the other--that we have to remind ourselves that these are different individuals, setting their trainer fresh challenges. That said, when Baffert sticks to a formula it's because he has made it work. Certainly he has changed the way trainers think about the Triple Crown trail, having proved that his adolescent racehorses don't need the kind of grounding once considered essential. No doubt that reflects the experience his horses instead derive from the aggressive, speed-oriented works he imported from Quarter Horse training, often giving his better horses the chance to hone their velocity and confidence with a "punchbag." That's exactly what Baffert arranged for Concert Tour the other morning--i.e. an inferior workmate released as a target to run down--and the response was electric. Baffert has a genius for the fast horse that keeps going: precisely the challenge awaiting Cox with Caddo River on Saturday. The signs are promising, so fluidly has this guy maintained his cruising speed in different scenarios for his last two starts; and remember how his sire held out for second to Street Sense in the Derby, nearly six lengths clear of the third (horse called Curlin) after blazing away early. Street Sense and Hard Spun, of course, have long since shared the same stallion barn, so it'll be fun for the Jonabell team to see them carry on their rivalry by proxy here. Effortless speed is also the trademark of Life Is Good, just as it was with Authentic. And while the Horse of the Year has definitively confirmed their sire's eligibility as a Classic influence, in tandem with the upgrading of his mares, Life Is Good has also shown something of the mental immaturity we saw this time last year. Authentic, crucially, was indulged with a September Derby but this time round the race will, we trust, be run at its customary date. Life Is Good was conspicuously granted a clear run last week and, while he took freakish advantage, we'll have to see whether he will know how to respond when stretching out against 19 hostile rivals. Cont. p4 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 17 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • MARCH 13, 2021 Suffice to say that a) Thoroughbreds never cease schooling us in adversity; and b) whatever the rights and wrongs of Maximum Security's Derby, and indeed of his trainer at the time, we can all be grateful to the Wests for the priorities driving their program. Because the two races they most covet are the Derby and the Travers, and their investment in the type of Thoroughbred best adapted to those historic measures of the two-turn sophomore will only serve the breed well. That's why it's always so edifying to review the purchases made by Glass at the September Sale. You won't see him joining the witless stampede for rookie sires whose averages will almost invariably never be so high again. Last year, he bought 15 colts catalogued from 29 to 2186, for between $65,000 and $360,000: two apiece by Blame, Distorted Humor, Flatter, Street Ben Glass with Gary West | Sid Fernando photo Sense and Union Rags; plus one by Candy Ride (Arg), Empire Maker, Ghostzapper, Quality Road and Uncle Mo. Life Is Good, who was sold as a yearling, and the homebred Concert Tour is out of a Tapit mare, giving the Gainesway Concert Tour are both graduates of a program that notoriously phenomenon yet another foothold in this year's Derby quest. has unfinished business with the GI Kentucky Derby. In returning So, again like Nadal, he looks bred to relish this second turn to Oaklawn, Gary and Mary West will remember the day their after showing his raw class sprinting. Certainly the Wests will be whole Turf adventure hit a different key, 28 years ago, with the hoping to efface that nose defeat for their reappearing 108-1 rock-your-world success of Rockamundo (Key to the Mint) champion Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg}) in this race two in the Arkansas Derby. That horse was saddled by Ben Glass, years ago. Game Winner subsequently passed the post sixth in who was fortunately persuaded to stay on as racing manager the Derby, after a messy trip. That kind of thing rather goes with when deciding to quit training a couple of years later. When this the territory, you would say, and let's hope nobody team started out, they were claiming horses for $2,500 at places congratulated his owners on his promotion to fifth.