MONDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2020 SPARKS OF BRIGHTNESS SECRETARIAT CENTER OPEN FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON AMID THE WINTER by Katie Ritz For the first time since opening their doors in 2004, the SOLSTICE Secretariat Center at the Kentucky Horse Park will keep its reschooling operation up and running throughout the winter months. Shelley Mann, who stepped on as the program=s executive director this September, spoke on their plans for the upcoming season. ATypically in the past, we have fostered horses out or decreased our numbers for two or three months out of the winter,@ she said. AThis is the first year that we really want to stay open. We have an entirely brand new staff this year and we want to work.@ One reason why the facility has shut down in the past is the lack of an onsite indoor arena. Cont. p6 IN TDN EUROPE TODAY Maxfield | Hodges Photography/Amanda Hodges Weir FRANKEL FOALS HEAD GOFFS MARKET The Week in Review by T.D. Thornton Frankel accounted for the top four foals at Goffs on Sunday, Leave it to one of the darkest days of the year to deliver two including three €440,000 co-sale toppers. glimmering equine efforts that could combust into shining stars Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. for the 2021 racing season. On the cusp of the winter solstice, breakout races book-ended the Saturday Fair Grounds card. One was a smart, step-wise progression by a juvenile colt in a NW2L allowance who now has credible GI Kentucky Derby aspirations. The other was an admirably impressive comeback by a still-undefeated 3-year-old whose own chance at the 2020 Derby got derailed by injuries and untimely setbacks. Both horses are campaigned by Godolphin, which is off to a rip-roaring start at the three-week-old New Orleans meet with a 7-1-5 record and $233,740 in earnings from just 17 starts through Saturday=s racing. Proxy (Tapit) ably made the jump from the maiden-winning ranks to Derby relevancy in the first race Dec. 19. Even though his second lifetime two-turn win came against a short field, don=t hold that against him, as each one of the three rivals gave the Godolphin homebred a serious challenge. Proxy brushed the gate at the break, recovered well, and emerged confidently from between horses to assume command onto the backstretch. 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 Monday, December 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 Photographer/Photo Editor Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] 2020 in Photos: August 6. At Saratoga, ‘TDN Rising Star’ Gamine (Into Mischief) jogs at sunrise with Simon Harris up in preparation for the GI Longines Test S. | Sarah Andrew Social Media Strategist Justina Severni Associate Producer Katie Ritz DADDY LONG LEGS COLT WINS GROUP 1 IN CHILE 8 Director of Customer Service Caso Cerrado (Chi), a sophomore colt by Taylor Made Vicki Forbes Stallions’ Daddy Long Legs, captured Saturday’s G1 Gran [email protected] Premio St Leger at Hipodromo Chile. He is now the second Marketing Manager top-level scorer for the G2 Royal Lodge S. and G2 UAE Derby Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen hero, following up fellow southern-hemisphere Group 1 victor Fallen From Heaven. Director of IT/Accounting Ray Villa [email protected] [email protected] WORLDWIDE INFORMATION International Editor Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN [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 8 • THETDN.COM MONDAY • DECEMBER 21, 2020 Week in Review cont. from p1 The chart doesn=t show it, but he conceded the top spot between calls, giving up the rail and the lead to an eager pace prompter. Proxy re-engaged and swatted away that foe at the entrance to the final bend, then braced for a tag-team attack from the two stretch-running colts who had been held in abeyance. All four horses were within a length of one another three-sixteenths from the wire, and Proxy drifted out three times under left-handed pressure. He appeared to intimidate an outside rival, but being in close quarters only emboldened Proxy, and when asked for another level of torque in deep stretch he dug in and responded, opening up to win by 2 1/4 lengths at 7-10 odds for trainer Michael Stidham and jockey Angel Suarez. Although Proxy=s final time of 1:45.56 was not stellar (76 Beyer Speed Figure), his effort impressed more from a Ahow he did it@ perspective rather than Ahow fast.@ Proxy=s pedigree has a tantalizing, distance-centric slant. In 2007, his dam, Panty Raid, won the GI American Oaks Invitational S. at 10 furlongs on the turf, the GI Spinster S. at nine furlongs on a synthetic track, and the GII Black-Eyed Susan S. at nine furlongs on dirt. Panty Raid | Sarah Andrew Godolphin purchased Panty Raid for $2.5 million at the 2008 Fasig-Tipton November sale, and she most notably produced the Stidham-trained Micheline (Bernardini), who earlier this year was a MSW and GISP Godolphin filly who set a course record for 1 5/16 miles in a $500,000 grass stakes at Kentucky Downs. Proxy, it should be noted, has raced on Lasix for both of his Fair Grounds wins after running second, beaten a neck, without it in his Monmouth Park debut. Cont. p4 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 8 • THETDN.COM MONDAY • DECEMBER 21, 2020 He=ll have to ditch the Lasix in order to stamp himself as a top-tier Derby candidate, because this year=s edition (and the major points-earning Derby prep races) will be conducted without that anti-bleeding drug. >Max= is Back A dozen races and nearly six hours later on Saturday, Maxfield (Street Sense) pranced onto the floodlit Fair Grounds main track for the Tenacious S. If the passage of nearly seven months since his last start made you forget what a sleek and athletically gifted equine specimen he is, the dark bay=s presence in this relatively modest $75,000 nightcap would soon snap you back to those long, warm days of spring, when AMax@ was ranked as high as third on the TDN Derby Top 12 and was last seen professionally dismantling a pretty decent field in the GIII Matt Winn S. even though he was not fully cranked for a prime effort that day. Depending on which prism you choose to view him through, Maxfield is either the most unlucky four-for-four racehorse on the planet right now or the luckiest. On the unlucky side, recall that Max unleashed the most visually impressive juvenile stakes effort of 2019 when he ransacked the GI Claiborne Breeders= Futurity field at Keeneland that October. He loomed as one of the favorites for the GI Breeders= Cup Juvenile, but was forced to scratch the week of the race, and underwent ankle chip surgery in November that kept him sidelined until mid-winter. Godolphin tasked trainer Brendan Walsh with mapping out a slow but steady 2020 comeback for Max. But just when he appeared poised to resurface in the entries, the pandemic hit, halting most racing and knocking the Triple Crown schedule askew. Cont. p5 Maxfield | Coady Photography MUNNINGS ECHO TOWN By Champion Sprinter By Champion Sprinter SPEIGHTSTOWN SPEIGHTSTOWN TDN Rising Star TDN Rising Star on debut at 2yrs on debut at 2yrs Gr.2 winner over 7 Gr.1 winner over 7 furlongs at 3yrs furlongs at 3yrs nd st 2 Dam a Gr.1 winner 1 Dam a Gr.2 winner Proven Gr.1 sire Top sire prospect Fully Booked in 2021 New for 2021, Fee $10,000 PS - Munnings started at a fee of just $12,500 Aisling Duignan, Dermot Ryan, Charlie O’Connor, Adrian Wallace, Robyn Murray or Blaise Benjamin. Tel: 859-873-7088 Email: [email protected] Web: www.coolmore.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 5 OF 8 • THETDN.COM MONDAY • DECEMBER 21, 2020 Yet a few weeks later, this timing change appeared to work in Maxfield=s favor, because that May 23 Winn score would allow the homebred time for a summer prep race or two prior to the rescheduled Sept. 5 Derby. But on June 10, Maxfield suffered a non-displaced condylar fracture in his right front leg while breezing a half-mile at Keeneland. Godolphin immediately issued a press release saying that it was looking forward to a 2021 campaign after the colt healed. But that prospect was hardly etched in stone. So the fact that Max persevered through yet another long-haul rehab has to be considered the lucky part. The icing on the cake is that he thrived in Saturday=s comeback, and we still have yet to see his all-out best. Shadowing the speed, the 1-2 favorite cut an intimidating presence while in stalk mode sitting second for most of an untroubled trip, and watching Max inch forward with metronomic precision down the backstretch gave the impression that he could have inhaled the frontrunner at will.