Tuesday & Wednesday • August 31 & September 1, 2021 FEC/FTBOA PUBLICATION www.wiretowire.net
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In This Issue:
Weight No Issue for Choose Joy in Village of Biscayne Park
Midlantic Fall Yearlings Catalogue Now Online
Sifting Sands Erodes Deep-Stretch Deficit to Win Better Talk Now
Pickin’ Time Rebounds to Win N.J. Breeders’ Handicap
Gulfstream Park Charts Florida-bred Medina Spirit/BENOIT PHOTO Medina Spirit Strong in Return Track Results & Entries Florida Stallion Progeny List
With Shared Belief Victory Florida Breeders’ List BY BROCK SHERIDAN presented by Woodford Reserve at Churchill Downs on May 1. Wire to Wire Business Place Medina Spirit left no doubt as to how Breaking from post one, Medina Spirit dangerous his front-running weapon can be responded to an immediate and strong cue Sunday at Del Mar when the Florida-bred from Velazquez to sprint to the front. sophomore impressively won the $100,500 “[Baffert and I] talked about it before the Shared Belief Stakes while leading five ri- race and [Medina Spirit] had the inside post Featured Advertisers vals from start to finish in the one mile test position and all the speed was outside of us. for 3-year-olds. And you know [the other speed horses] are Big Lick LLC. In his first start since finishing third to going to try to get to the turn [in front],” Ve- winner Rombauer in the Grade 1 Preak- lazquez said on the air to TVG analyst Brit- Florida Department of Agriculture ness Stakes at Pimlico on May 15, the Bob ney Eurton. “But I’m going for it to the Baffert-trained Medina Spirit and jockey turn. If they are going to get to that turn, FTBOA John Velazquez used the same gate to wire they are going to have to really run faster to strategy that took them to a front-running get in front of me. [Medina Spirit] agreed Peterson Smith Equine Hospital victory in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby See MEDINA SPIRIT on page 3 Seminole Feed Page 2
Wire to Wire August 31 & September 1, 2021 Back to Top Page 3 Medina Spirit
Continued from COVER I said ‘okay buddy. We gotta go.’ I had to pat him a few times, but with me and went really fast and didn’t ask permission from me.” that’s him. He’s a fighter and he wanted to fight that’s for sure. Rock Your World, who won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby while “I think we got a really good race out of him. I don’t think we leading from gate to wire with Medina Spirit third on April 3, was got to the bottom of him because down the stretch, he just kinda this time unable to beat Medina Spirit to the first turn and was waited and waited and the gallop out was really good. So I’m happy forced to sit second and just to his outside as they negotiated the the way he did it. Bob had him ready for today obviously.” first quarter-mile in :22.52. Team Merchants was caught three-wide Baffert said he had concerns coming off of the three-and-a-half in third while The Great One and Willy the Cobbler pursued in month layoff but felt Medina Spirit would produce another solid fourth and fifth. performance. “I was a little nervous today. I talked to [owner Amr Zedan] who asked me how he’s doing and I said ‘I think he’s doing really well,” Baffert said on TVG. “He looked great in the paddock and he’s starting to mature. “We were hoping for something like this. You never know off the layoff. I actually threw him in the deep end of the pool here but this horse really shows his class. “I brought him back and he had to run well—you know first or second and get something out of it. But now he’s giving me options. I can go to [the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby at Parx on Sept. 25] or wait and run him in the Awesome Again (G1) [at Santa Anita on Oct. 2]. But we know he likes this track and that is so important with the Breeders’ Cup coming here.” Medina Spirit is by Protonico and is out of Mongolian Changa, by Brilliant Speed and was bred in Florida by Gail Rice. He has now won half of his eight career races with three seconds and a third while earning $2,345,200. Amr Zedan purchased Medina Spirit in the name of his Zedan
Florida-bred Medina Spirit; John Velazquez, Bob Baffert/BENOIT PHOTO Racing Stables at the 2020 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Open Sale in July out of the Whitman Sales consignment for $35,000. Christy Whit- Medina Spirit throttled down into a more relaxed pace down the man purchased him at OBS as a yearling at the 2019 Winter Mixed backstretch while maintaining a half-length advantage on Rock Sale for a bargain $1,000. Your World to his outside as Team Merchants chased from a length back in third through a half-mile split in :46.92. As they raced around the turn, Medina Spirit kept a short lead while racing on the rail but Rock Your World, Team Merchants and Florida-breds longshot Stilleto Boy all began their assaults on his outside while The Great One got within range with an inside trip. Make Florida Racing It appeared for a moment that Medina Spirit was in jeopardy against the four-pronged attack but he suddenly quickened at the Did you know top of the stretch and was a length in front with an eighth of a mile Florida-bred to the finish. Rock Your World remained determined through final thoroughbreds won furlong but Medina Spirit remained persistent and won by a length 31.5% of races run at the in 1:37.29 on the fast track. Rock Your World was second, two-and- recent Gulfstream Park Championship Meet? a-quarter lengths faster than Stilleto Boy in third. They were fol- lowed by Team Merchants and Willy the Cobbler. This demonstrates how vital Florida-breds Medina Spirit was sent to the post as the 4-5 favorite and paid are to the success of Gulfstream Park $3.80 to win. throughout the year—not just during the “[Running down the] backstretch, [Medina Spirit] threw his ears Spring/Summer season. up and began to run very comfortable,” Velazquez continued. “Those other horses came to him and he picked it up on his own so Additional good news for I didn’t have to ask him to do anything until the quarter pole when Florida breeders—66% of those Florida-bred winners during the Gulfstream Park Championship Meet were sired by Florida stallions.
• thefloridahorse Florida-breds: • FloridaThoroughbredBreedersAndOwnersAssociation Race ‘Em or Chase ‘Em!
Wire to Wire August 31 & September 1, 2021 Back to Top Page 4
Wire to Wire August 31 & September 1, 2021 Back to Top Page 5 Weight No Issue for Choose Joy in Village of Biscayne Park BY GULFSTREAM PARK PRESS OFFICE ______when live racing resumes Friday at Gulfstream Park. HALLANDALE BEACH, FL—Trainer Steve Dwoskin’s Choose Joy, The Rainbow 6 went un- a multiple-stakes winner carrying highweight of 125 pounds, rallied solved Sunday for the 16th from off the pace to score yet another thoroughly professional vic- consecutive racing day tory in Sunday’s $60,000 Village of Biscayne Park Overnight Hand- since a July 31 mandatory icap at Gulfstream Park. payout. The burgeoning turf-sprint star, who conceded between eight and The Rainbow 6 jackpot 11 pounds to her five rivals, is a nose and a neck away from being is paid out when there is a undefeated in her six starts on turf following her length victory in single unique ticket sold Sunday’s five-furlong overnight handicap for fillies and mares. with all six winners. On Choose Joy/RYAN THOMPSON PHOTO “She’s a late-bloomer,” Dwoskin said. “She’s been a different days when there is no unique ticket, 70% of that day’s pool goes back to horse since getting on the turf.” those betters holding tickets with the most winners, while 30% is carried Choose Joy rated off a swift early pace set by Cat’s Astray, who over to the jackpot pool. set fractions of :21.87 and :43.98 for a half-mile, before staging a three-wide rally into the stretch and drawing clear under Miguel Vasquez. Sheer Drama Draws 10 Nominations The 4-year-old daughter of Munnings ran five furlongs on a firm Gulfstream Park’s $75,000 Sheer Drama Stakes for Florida-bred turf in :55.65 seconds. Hey High Pockets closed with a rush to finish fillies and mares closed Sunday with 10 nominations led defending second, a neck ahead of a tiring Cat’s Astray. champion Heiressall and stakes-winners Sound Machine and Thiss- mytime. The seven furlong test will be run Sept. 11 and will also Friday’s Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool Guaranteed at $600,000 offer a $25,000 Florida Sire Stakes win bonus presented by the The 20-cent Rainbow 6 Jackpot pool will be guaranteed at $600,000 Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association. Midlantic Fall Yearlings Catalogue Now Online BY FASIG-TIPTON PRESS OFFICE ______Print catalogues will be available beginning Sept. 3. Phone bidding and online bidding services will also be available. Fasig-Tipton has catalogued 500 yearlings for its 2021 Midlantic Fall Yearlings Sale, to be held Oct. 4-5, at the Maryland State Fair- grounds in Timonium, Md. Hips 1-200 will be Florida-breds offered in the Monday session, which will Make Florida Racing begin at 1:00 p.m. EDT. Did you know Florida-bred thoroughbreds Hips 201-500 will be won 36.8% of races run at the recent Tampa offered in the Tuesday Bay Downs season? session, which will begin at 10:00 a.m. “We are very encour- aged by the strength of This demonstrates this year’s catalogue,” how vital Florida-breds FASIG TIPTON PHOTO Midlantic director of are to the success of sales Paget Bennett said. “Sire power has ticked up once again this Tampa Bay Downs. year, with a healthy mix of leading national sires as well as regional sires. Several of the nation’s current leading first crop two-year-old Additional good news for sires are especially well represented, which adds additional interest Florida breeders—72% of those to the catalogue.” Florida-bred winners during the In statistics released by The BloodHorse MarketWatch this past Tampa Bay Meeting were sired May, Midlantic Fall Yearlings ranks highly in numerous perform- by Florida stallions. ance categories, including two-year-old winners. “Midlantic Fall is the top ranked major North American yearling sale by percentage of two-year-old winners from horses sold – an Florida-breds: impressive statistic that should give buyers extra incentive to shop Race ‘Em or this sale,” noted Bennett. The catalogue may now be viewed online: click here and will Chase ‘Em! also be available via the equineline sales catalogue app. Wire to Wire August 31 & September 1, 2021 Back to Top Page 6
Win Bonus The Hollywood Beach Features a $25,000 Florida-bred Win Only Bonus *Further details apply—All terms of the FSS races and FTBOA purse supplements, including number of races, purse levels, race conditions, racing dates and the host track may change from year to year and may change at any point after the FSS FLORIDA THOROUGHBRED BREEDERS’ AND OWNERS’ ASSN. racing schedule for a particular year is announced, as they Lonny Powell, CEO governed by one or more of the following: the separate terms and conditions applicable to each of those programs; any rele- Tammy A. Gantt, Associate Vice President Membership Services & Events vant third-party agreements; the FTBOA’s Bylaws; the annual 352-629-2160 • Fax: 352-629-3603 awards plan submitted by the FTBOA to the Florida Division of 801 SW 60th Ave., Ocala, FL 34474 Pari-Mutuel Wagering; and Chapter 550, Florida Statutes. www.ftboa.com • [email protected] www.facebook.com/thefloridahorse Pending state approval.
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Wire to Wire August 31 & September 1, 2021 Back to Top Page 7 Sifting Sands Erodes Deep-Stretch Deficit to Win Better Talk Now BY NYRA PRESS OFFICE ______besting allowance company on July 24 at Saratoga. The Dubawi (Ire) colt, off at 8-1, returned $18.80 on a $2 win wager. He im- SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY—Peter Brant’s Sifting Sands (GB) ran proved his career earnings to $139,190. down pacesetter Dreamer’s Disease in deep stretch and got up in Brown said Sifting Sands has turned the corner after running a the final jumps to post a head victory in Sunday’s $120,000 Better disappointing seventh in the mile-and-one-sixteenth Woodhaven his Talk Now for 3-year-olds contesting at one mile over Saratoga Race stakes debut in April at Aqueduct Racetrack, where he failed to Course’s inner turf. make an impact after a wide trip with Franco aboard for the first time. The conditioner gave Franco the return call next out, with the move paying immediate dividends. “I really have to compliment Manny. In his last two rides they really worked as a team,” Brown said. “He had a disastrous race down at Aqueduct but we stuck with Manny because we thought we learned something with him and I learned a lot as well. He’s re- ally executed these last two races perfect by just letting him run.” Brown said he could eventually stretch Siftings Sands out even further as he targets the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar. “We’ll see where he goes from here,” Brown said. “I think by the end of this year I could get this horse out to a mile-and-an-eighth in the Hollywood Derby. We’ll see between now and then what we do.” Dreamer’s Disease lost on a bad beat for a second consecutive time, having been bested by a neck last out when Step Dancer got up in the shadow of the wire in the New York Stallion Stakes Series Cab Calloway on July 28. The Laoban gelding, who finished sixth in the Grade 1 TVG Breeders’ Cup Juvenile presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Al- liance won by Essenital Quality last year at Keeneland for trainer Sifting Sands (#8)/SUSIE RAISHER PHOTO Robertino Diodoro, still bested Wolfie’s Dynaghost by two lengths The seventh edition of the Better Talk Now, restricted to sopho- for runner-up honors, earning stakes black type for a second time. mores who have not won a stakes at a mile or over, saw Sifting Danzigwiththestars finished fourth, with Dr Jack, Ranger Fox, Sands win his first career stakes and improve to two-for-two this In Effect and 3-1 favorite Straw Into Gold completing the order of year at Saratoga while extending trainer Chad Brown’s meet-leading finish. win total to 34 with six racing days remaining. Live racing resumes Wednesday with a first post is 1:05 p.m. EDT. Sifting Sands broke well from the outermost post under jockey Manny Franco, tracking in third position as Dreamer’s Disease led the eight-horse field through the opening quarter-mile in :23.79 Buy / Breed / Race / Sell seconds and the half in :47.14 over firm going. Jockey David Cohen kept Dreamer’s Disease tucked inside out Florida-breds! of the final turn and maintained the edge into the stretch, with three quarters of a mile going in 1:10.96. Sifting Sands, who Franco put in the three-path when straightened for home, capitalized on running room by dis- playing an impressive late turn-of-foot, over- taking Wolfie’s Dynaghost to his inside before collaring Dreamer’s Disease in the final sixteenth, completing the course in a final time of 1:35.12. “We learned not to get in his way too early. You can’t grab him right away,” Franco said. “You have to give him his head and then when you get your position, just leave him comfortable. He seems like he likes it like that.” Sifting Sands won for the third time in five starts and for the second consecutive race after also getting his picture taken when
Wire to Wire August 31 & September 1, 2021 Back to Top Page 8
Wire to Wire August 31 & September 1, 2021 Back to Top Page 9 Pickin’ Time Rebounds to Win N.J. Breeders’ Handicap BY MONMOUTH PARK PRESS OFFICE ______OCEANPORT, NJ—It only seemed fitting that a day celebrating New Jersey-bred horses belonged to jockey Paco Lopez, trainer Kelly Breen and breeder-owner John Bowers. Lopez, who tied his own Monmouth Park record by riding seven winners on Saturday, captured two of the three stakes races during Sunday’s New Jersey Thoroughbred Festival, while Breen won the $100,000 New Jersey Breeders’ Handicap with Pickin’ Time, last year’s champion New Jersey-bred 2-year-old. Pickin’ Time, who held off Golden Brown to win by a length- and-three-quarters in the six-furlong New Jersey Breeders’ Handi- cap for 3-year-olds and older, is owned and was bred by John Bowers. Bowers was honored during the day as the 2020 New Jersey Breeder of the Year. “We knew we had our work cut out for us. Our horse was train- ing well and doing well,” Breen said. “I’m just glad he showed up. We talked a lot about the cut back [to six furlongs in the mile-and- an-eighth in the TVG.com Haskell Invitational in his last start]. We sharpened him up with the breezes. We did all I thought we needed him to do to get him ready for a top effort off the shelf. He showed Pickin' Time/BILL DENVER EQUIPHOTO up. They went fast. But he’s a fast horse too.” Ridden by Nik Juarez, Pickin’ Time looped three-wide coming $100,000 Eleven North Handicap, doing so with a rousing stretch out of the final turn while Golden Brown, ridden by Lopez, shot run that saw Alta Velocita get up to win by a nose over Jersey Jewel. the rail. Amatteroftime, trained by Silvino Ramirez, earned his first “It was for the best that I had to go wide coming out of the final stakes win since capturing the 2018 New Jersey Breeders’ Handi- turn,” Juarez said. “The favorite [Golden Brown] was down on the cap. The 6-year-old gelding is now five-for-13 at Monmouth Park rail so I wanted to get the jump before he got through and make during his career. sure I was clear and kick some dirt. We were able to get the jump Amatteroftime paid $5.40 to win, covering the mile-and-a-six- on him and that made a difference.” teenth in 1:44.49. Optic Way finished third, another two lengths Pickin’ Time, making his first start since being elevated to fourth back. in the Grade 1 Haskell won by Madaloun, returned $8.60 to win. Lopez’s victory in the six-furlong Eleven North aboard Alta Ve- The winning time for the son of Stay Thirsty was 1:09.58, with locita wasn’t nearly as easy, with the filly rallying from eighth, Dr. Doyle getting third. seven lengths back, at the quarter pole, finally catching Jersey Jewel The other two stakes races on the 12-race card for state-breds on the wire. The winning time was 1:10.45. belonged to Lopez. Though Alta Velocita has won four of her last five starts, the The track’s leading riding guided Amatteroftime to a four-and- Eleven North marked the first stakes victory in her 15-race career. three-quarters-length victory over Prendimi in the $125,000 Charles Alta Velocita returned $6.20 in the field of 11 fillies and mares, Hesse III Handicap at a mile-and-a-sixteenth and also captured the three and up.
Gulfstream Park Spring/Summer Florida-bred and Florida Sire Stakes Races and Bonuses
Date Race Conditions Distance Purse Sept. 11 Sheer Drama (Fla.) 3yo and older, fillies and mares 7 fur. $75,000* Closed Sept. 18 Armed Forces 2yo 1 mi. turf $100,000** Sept. 5 Sept. 18 Our Dear Peggy 2yo fillies 1 mi. turf $100,000** Sept. 5 Sept. 25 FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes In Reality 2yo colts and gelding 1 1/16 mi. $400,000 Closed Sept. 25 FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes My Dear Girl 2yo fillies 1 1/16 mi. $400,000 Closed Sept. 25 FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes Wildcat Heir 3yo and older 1 mi. $125,000 Closed Sept. 25 Hollywood Beach 2yo 5 fur. turf $100,000** Sept. 12 (Fla.) = Restricted to Florida-breds * Plus $25,000 Florida Sire Stakes Win Bonus ** Plus $25,000 Florida-bred Win Bonus
Wire to Wire August 31 & September 1, 2021 Back to Top
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Sunday Charts Track Entries
Click Here to View Entries for Gulfstream Park & Results
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