SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2015 BEHOLDER PROVES UNBEATABLE ‘BIG’ PERFORMANCE IN TURF CLASSIC After putting in one of the most spectacular With plenty of help from his table-setting stablemate performances of the season when defeating males in Shining Copper (Aragorn {Ire}) the GI Pacific Classic Saturday, Ken and Sarah Aug. 22, Beholder (Henny Ramsey=s Big Blue Kitten Hughes) easily captured (Kitten=s Joy) scurried home in her third straight renewal course-record time of 2:23.39 to of Santa Anita=s GI take Belmont=s GI Joe Hirsch Zenyatta S. in what was Turf Classic, a AWin and You=re the equivalent of a paid In@ qualifier for the GI Breeders= workout. With this Cup Turf Oct. 31. Slumber (GB) Big Blue Kitten victory, the two-time (Cacique {Ire}) completed the NYRA/Coglianese champion earned an all Chad Brown-trained exacta expenses paid trip to Beholder | Benoit Photo narrowly over Twilight Eclipse (Purim). Cont. p3 Keeneland for the GI Breeders= Cup Distaff, which she won in 2013 and was SHALAA INVINCIBLE AT NEWMARKET forced to miss last year due to illness, but she is likely Very few horses can run up a sequence of wins in to face males in the GI Breeders= Cup Classic instead. the G2 July S., G2 Richmond S. and G1 Prix Morny and Cont. p6 still win a G1 Juddmonte Middle Park S. with relative ease, but Al SOARING TO THE BREEDERS’ CUP Shaqab=s Shalaa (Ire) (Invincible Unbeaten >TDN Rising Star= Songbird (Medaglia d=Oro) Spirit {Ire}) was able to do just made easy work of Saturday=s GI Chandelier S. at Santa that in a strong renewal at Anita, a >Win and You=re In= event for the GI Breeders= Newmarket on Saturday. In front Cup Juvenile Fillies, coasting as usual with Frankie Dettori home to a sensational keen to hold on to him, the 4 1/2-length wire-to-wire 1-2 chalk just kept rolling and Shalaa (outside) decision over Land Over Sea was always in charge despite the Racing Post (Bellamy Road). Her final time game effort of Buratino (Ire) of 1:43.79 was just a shade (Exceed and Excel {Aus}). With Dettori dropping his over a second faster than hands near the line with the race in safe keeping, the Nyquist (Uncle Mo)=s final bay had a cozy half-length margin to spare over that clocking in the GI FrontRunner rival. Cont. p25 Songbird | Horsephotos S. held earlier on the card. AIt lived up to the expectations,@ Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith said. AShe opens that stride up and she has such a high cruising speed. Not only does she have the ability, but she has the mind to go with it. There are so many horses with that kind of ability, but a lot can get to them.@ Cont. p9 ‘NY’-CELY DONE IN THE FRONTRUNNER Owner J. Paul Reddam has a pair of Breeders= Cup trophies to his name courtesy of Wilko (Awesome Again), who registered a 28-1 upset of the 2004 Juvenile at Lone Star Park; and Red Rocks (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who orchestrated a 10-1 surprise in the 2006 Turf at Churchill Downs. In the form of Nyquist (Uncle Mo), the affable Reddam will head to Keeneland in five weeks= time Reddam & Mario Gutierrez for the Juvenile with a horse Benoit photo who figures to be among the top few betting choices. Cont. p10 Big Blue Kitten runs fastest mile and a half in Belmont history Seven-year-old Big Blue Kitten notched his fourth Grade 1 and 14th career Stakes win in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic (G1) Stakes, establishing a new course record for the mile and a half in 2:23.39. That’s even faster than Secretariat’s mile and a half time in the Belmont. Big Blue Kitten follows in the footsteps of his sire, Kitten’s Joy, who also won the Joe Hirsch. 6915 Harrodsburg Road | Nicholasville, KY 40356 (859) 887-3200 | Fax: (859) 885-2666 | www.ramseyfarm.com LGB, LLC 2015 / Photo: Horsephotos.com IN THIS ISSUE President & Co-Publisher: Barry Weisbord [email protected] @barryweisbord Sr. V.P. & Co-Publisher: Sue Finley [email protected] @suefinley V.P., International Operations: Gary King Rolling On to Lexington [email protected] @garykingTDN EDITORIAL ‘TDN Rising Star’ Rock Fall (Speightstown) punched [email protected] Editor-in-Chief: Jessica Martini his ticket to the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint at Keeneland Managing Editor: Alan Carasso with a never-say-die victory in the GI Vosburgh S. at Senior Editor: Steve Sherack Belmont Park. "He's blessed with a lot of natural talent, Racing Editor: Brian DiDonato but to go along with that, he's got a lot of fight, which is Associate Editor: Justina Severni Associate Editor: Christie DeBernardis Chelsea Durand great," trainer Todd Pletcher said. Rock Fall | Assistant Editor: Heather Anderson Assistant Editor: Ben Massam Page 4 ADVERTISING [email protected] Cheers to the Beldame Winner! Director of Advertising: Alycia Borer Art Director: Lia Kusch Sr. Ad Coordinator/Dir. of Distribution: ‘TDN Rising Star' Wedding Toast (Street Sense) was backed like she was ready to roll Sarah K. Andrew off the bench in the GI Beldame S., and the Sheikh Mohammed homebred did just that Advertising Designer: Amanda Crelin with another dominating performance. “As good form as she's in, she'll be able to handle Advertising Assistant: Amanda Foster Social Media Strategist: Nichola Henry two turns [in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff],” trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said. Page 5 CUSTOMER SERVICE [email protected] That’s a Wrap Dir. of Customer Service: Vicki Forbes INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Yearlings by Tapit and War Front were in demand. John Ferguson and Ben Glass struck Director of IT: Robert Williams early and often. And there were improvements in the middle and lower sections of the [email protected] market. All in all, it was a successful, and yes, mostly predictable, conclusion to the Director of Internal IT: Ray Villa 12-session Keeneland September Sale Saturday in Lexington. [email protected] Page 21 WORLDWIDE INFORMATION International Editor: Kelsey Riley [email protected] Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing: Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 EST Race Click for TV Red Bank, NJ 07701 9:50a C. L. & M. F. Weld Park S.-G3, CUR (Brisnet.com PPs) ----------- 732-747-8060 | 732-747-8955 (fax) 10:30a Premio Elena E Sergio Cumani-G3, SSI ------------------------ ----------- www.thoroughbreddailynews.com 10:50a Preis von Europa-G1, COL ------------------------ ----------- www.thetdn.com 10:55a Juddmonte Beresford S.-G2, CUR (Brisnet.com PPs) ----------- 11:45a Premio Vittorio di Capua-G1, SSI ------------------------ ----------- 4:46p Miss Grillo S.-GIII, BEL (TJCIS PPs) TVG 6:22p Oklahoma Derby-GII, RP (TJCIS PPs) HR/TVG 7:30p City of Hope Mile S.-GII, SA (TJCIS PPs) HR/TVG Headline News • PAGE 3 of 31 • thetdn.com Sunday • Sept. 27, 2015 AYou're watching the pace, but it's kind of nice to sit FEATURE PRESENTATION • GI JOE HIRSCH TURF CLASSIC back and see the pace unfolding. The pace was sort of 'stop go, stop go' but at the top of the stretch, I said 'go' and he said 'okay.' I had my hands full with him but I thought. 'hey, let them catch us now... When it comes down to it, he's an amazing horse and he deserves to hold a track record. He's done so good that he makes you look good." Big Blue Kitten kicked off his season successfully in the local GIII Fort Marcy S. May 2, and was second to Slumber in the GI Manhattan S. June 6. He took a Cont. from p1 second GI United Nations S. at Monmouth July 5 over Big Blue Kitten settled in well back as rabbit Shining that same runner and Twilight Eclipse, and was last Copper ensured plenty of pace, opening up a double- seen missing by a neck in the GI Arlington Million Aug. digit lead early through impossible splits for the 15--just 3/4 of a length in front of Shining Copper. distance of :23.79, :47.18 and 1:11.45. The 7-year-old "I thought they both ran terrific,@ Chad Brown said of began to advance rapidly as the leader threw in the the top two. A[Saturday], Big Blue Kitten got the better towel approaching the straight, and was stacked four of Slumber at a mile and a half. I'm proud of both or five wide as he asserted past the quarter pole. horses. The race pretty much went the way I expected. Hitting the front in the blink of an eye, he took several Shining Copper has run admirably all summer as the awkward strides approaching the line, but was never in pacemaker for us; nearly won a couple of Grade Is. I serious threat of relinquishing his advantage. didn't want to deter from our plan of him being the Big Blue Kitten=s winning time bested the course pacemaker, and we stuck with that plan. He did his job record of 2:24.36 posted by Fantastic Light in the and set up the race for Big Blue Kitten and his 2001 GI Breeders= Cup Turf. stablemate. Maybe with 70 yards to go, I was a little "He's just such a good horse, so honest and puts you concerned, but he had enough.@ Cont. p4 to it all,@ said veteran pilot Joe Bravo, who was celebrating his latest highlight in what has been a banner year in the saddle.