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FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 2020 MY GIRL RED GIVES TEXAS NEW TURF CHUTE WILL GIVE SANTA ANITA EXTRA SPRINT OPTIONS THE GREEN LIGHT by T. D. Thornton Santa Anita Park has broken ground on a new turf chute adjacent to the main dirt track's seven-furlong chute that will allow sprints up to 6 1/2 furlongs to be conducted on the grass oval. The new configuration won't be ready in time for the upcoming meet that commences Sept. 19. But once the extension is completed, track management is going to consider reopening the currently closed 6 1/2-furlong downhill turf course for select usage. Aidan Butler, the chief strategy officer and executive director of California racing operations for The Stronach Group (TSG), which owns Santa Anita, detailed the plans during Thursday's California Horse Racing Board tele-meeting. Cont. p6 IN TDN EUROPE TODAY My Girl Red winning the Sorrento | Benoit EASY FOR LOVE IN THE YORKSHIRE OAKS Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) has vaulted into favouritism for the by Chris McGrath Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe following a smooth success in the AEverybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.@ Yorkshire Oaks. Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Erich Brehm is quoting Mike Tyson. He knows how it might Europe. look, from the outside: this charmed, clockwork progress from one fairytale to the next. Texas Red (Afleet Alex) cost just $17,000 as a yearling and--racing for Brehm, trainer Keith Desormeaux and a bunch of pals--won the GI Breeders= Cup Juvenile of 2014 by 6 1/2 lengths. Upon his retirement to stud, Brehm bought Texas Red a mare for $21,000. The resulting foal, My Girl Red, pulverized her opponents on debut for Desormeaux at Santa Anita in June; and then, a couple of weeks ago, followed up with an equally emphatic success in the GII Sorrento S. (video). And yes, sure, My Girl Red is the result of a plan. Brehm sat down and drew up a strategy for getting Texas Red some traction in his new career. But nobody should be deceived that its apparently linear fulfillment, to this early point, has been in any way immune to the vicissitudes that must always be expected with Thoroughbreds. AYou could have the greatest plan on earth, and have no idea what a torturous pathway this is,@ Brehm says. 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 Friday, August 21, 2020 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 Assistant/Dir. Of Distribution Rachel McCaffrey Advertising Assistants Amie Newcomb Kristen Lomasson After gearing up for the September 5 GI Kentucky Derby with a five-furlong work in Photographer/Photo Editor Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew :59.03 over Saratoga's main track on Thursday morning, Ny Traffic (Cross Traffic) cools [email protected] off at the barn. | Sarah Andrew Social Media Strategist Justina Severni JUDGE ALLOWS NAVARRO TO MOVE TO OCALA 7 Director of Customer Service The banned trainer Jorge Navarro, one of the most prominent Vicki Forbes targets among 27 individuals facing federal charges in an alleged [email protected] "widespread, corrupt scheme" to dope racehorses, has been granted court permission to leave the Southern District of New York Marketing Manager jurisdiction and move his family to Ocala, Florida. Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen Director of IT & Accounting Ray Villa TODAY’S GRADED STAKES [email protected] [email protected] EST Race Click for TV 9:15a Weatherbys Hamilton Lonsdale Cup S.-G2, YOR -------------- TVG 9:45a Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Gimcrack S.-G2, YOR -------------- TVG WORLDWIDE INFORMATION 10:15a Coolmore Nunthorpe S.-G1, YOR -------------- TVG International Editor Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN 9:00p Rancho Bernardo H.-GIII, DMR 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 | 732-747-8955 (fax) www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 12 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • AUGUST 21, 2020 My Girl Red cont. from p1 AI felt that if we didn=t support Red, he would never have a Brehm continues, AOne of the mares I bought the same day as chance,@ Brehm explains. ASo I laid out some criteria about the My Girl Red=s dam, a beautiful, stakes-winning mare, colicked kind of mares we needed: mares that were nine years or after she had her Texas Red foal. We lost her, had to get a nurse younger; that had made over $100,000, or were stakes-placed; mare. Another mare I bought for the first crop, she=d won the with one or two commercial foals on the ground; and in foal to a Ontario Debutante Stakes as a 2-year-old, we lost her too, along commercial sire. I hoped to keep in a range between $15,000 with her foal. Then there was the first-crop Texas Red foal out of the most expensive mare I ever bought. It was out on the training track, a windy day, something spooked the horse, it flipped, fractured its skull. And to cap it all, earlier this year, we lost a full-sister to My Girl Red. When all that happens, it doesn=t matter how good your plan is. It kind of throws everything out the window.@ But that doesn=t mean you throw up your hands and give up. Brehm believed that the same principles that have served him well in business life could be validly extended even to the volatile fortunes of the horse industry. He knew that Texas Red was in the best of hands, with the McLean family at Crestwood Farm; but he also knew, with the partnership (also comprising Wayne Detmar, Lee Michaels and Dr. Gene Voss) having retained a 75% stake in Texas Red, that a game plan was needed. Forsaking the warmth of Texas, Brehm shivered around the Keeneland barns at the 2017 January Sale to find suitable Erich Brehm (center) with Erich Brehm Jr. and wife Janet dates for the rookie. TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 12 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • AUGUST 21, 2020 enthuses. AAt every stage, everybody thought she had ability. She=s always been correct. She=s very smart, not as spicy as her dad was. But then I=d say, having looked at so many Texas Reds, that they have really good minds. I have one with Steve Asmussen at Lone Star Park, he will nip at you. He has a little personality of his own. But for the most part, the Reds, you can walk up to them. They=re very confident.@ The window of commercial opportunity for a young stallion being so notoriously narrow, it=s hard to overstate the importance of an early flagbearer as stylish as My Girl Red. With just 49 going out to bat for Texas Red in his first crop, some indices are going to be tough in the freshmen=s championship, but he has already had another stakes-placed runner from 10 starters to date. And Brehm is confident that Texas Red, far from overloading on his poster girl, has spread his chips around the roulette wheel. Erich Brehm with son Erich Jr., wife Janet and daughter Christina Poignantly, the filly raised by a nurse mare after the death of her dam is showing plenty of promise for Patrick Biancone, who and $40,000. I did better on some, probably spent too much on also trains her half-brother, the dual Grade III winner Diamond others.@ Oops (Lookin At Lucky). He bought five mares from Book 1. Among these, Morakami AWe named her Viva La Red and I think she=s going to be (Fusaichi Pegasus) was a bespoke fit. A Saratoga debut winner outstanding,@ Brehm says. AShe=s big, strong, gorgeous. Patrick who ran fourth in the GI Spinaway S., she had admittedly just has taken his time, she=s gone through some growth spurts, but turned 12 but was being cheaply culled by Watts Humphrey he says she is just like Diamond Oops. while in foal to Street Boss. The resulting colt, cashed in that AI do think you need two [first-crop stars] because everybody winter for $55,000, became dual stakes winner Gold Street. can say a >onesie= is luck, right? You have two, it=s a different AAnd not only does Morakami produce fast horses, she also deal. But I think we have other horses in the mix, some good produces durable horses,@ Brehm notes. ALast year, Oh ones coming. A couple should have won already, with better Marvelous Me (Bluegrass Cat) won a stakes race aged seven. luck. The good news is I don=t think anybody expected Red to Over Thinking (Overanalyze) has also made over $200,000, and have 2-year-olds. We expected them to be mile-and-eighth, was beaten a neck and a nose in a grass stake at Del Mar only mile-and-a-quarter, coming around as 3-year-olds. But right now last weekend.@ I=m tracking 21 that have had official works.@ That=s an encouraging context for a roll of the dice when Certainly there=s no doubt that Texas Red maintained his form Morakami=s Texas Red filly was sent through the ring at the OBS as a sophomore.

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