MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2020 MOON RISES IN ZENYATTA CLOUT HEADING INTO Alice Bamford and Michael Tabor=s Harvest Moon (Uncle Mo), CLASSIC: OLDER HORSES the only 3-year-old in the four-horse field, put away favored Fighting Mad (New Year=s Day) at midstretch and then held off OR UPSTART SOPHS? Hard Not To Love (Hard Spun) in the dying strides to win the GII Zenyatta S. at Santa Anita Sunday and earn an automatic berth in the GI Breeders= Cup Distaff. AI=m absolutely thrilled today, completely over the moon for Harvest Moon,@ said Bamford. AShe=s a homebred and she=s just so deep in my heart and in my family=s heart. It was so good to see her so well ridden today, showing off her beautiful stride. We lost her mother this year, Qaraaba, who was a stunning, stunning filly and each time I tell her, >Harvest Moon, go and do it for your Mama.= And she has.@ Cont. p6 IN TDN EUROPE TODAY BEST IRISH YEARLINGS TO SELL AT DONCASTER Improbable powering clear in Awesome Again | Benoit The best Irish Thoroughbred yearlings will go under the hammer at the upcoming Goffs Orby Sale at Doncaster. Daithi The Week in Review, by T.D. Thornton Harvey has the preview. We're now inside the six-week mark for the GI Breeders' Cup Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. Classic. Is your money on an older horse winning the season-capping dirt route championship race or one of the 3-year-olds? Both divisions have a respectable upper crust of candidates. Neither age group has a dominant, standout star who towers over his peers. Improbable (City Zip)'s last-to-first, 4 1/2-length shakedown of the GI Awesome Again S. field at Santa Anita this past Saturday nudged him into tepid early favoritism for the Classic. The Oct. 10 GI Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park looms as the final Grade I dirt route for males prior to the Breeders' Cup. But this season, the pandemic has given us the unique plot twist of the GI Preakness S. falling five weeks out from the Nov. 7 Classic, and Saturday's concluding Triple Crown event will likely be the more impactful race of the two in sorting out the pecking order for the Breeders' Cup. Older horses have won 24 previous Classics; sophomores 12. In the 21st Century alone, the 2:1 ratio is roughly the same (14-6). Older horses have won the last three Classics (Vino Rosso, Accelerate, Gun Runner). But the three years prior to that were swept by a Bob Baffert-trained soph power trio (Bayern, American Pharoah, Arrogate). 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, September 28, 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] Social Media Strategist Justina Severni The Churchill Downs September Meet concluded with Rigney Racing and Gary and Director of Customer Service Mary West sharing the leading owner title. | Coady Photography Vicki Forbes [email protected] A CRAZY GOOD 10 DAYS FOR DAVID ANDERSON 12 Marketing Manager From a seven-figure sale at Keeneland to success on the track with Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen Standardbreds and Thoroughbreds, it was a great 10 days for Canadian David Anderson. Director of IT/Accounting Ray Villa [email protected] FAMILY TIES PROPEL ARVIN 14 [email protected] Katie Ritz talks to Keeneland President Elect Shannon Arvin. WORLDWIDE INFORMATION International Editor TODAY’S GRADED STAKES Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN EST Race Click for TV [email protected] European Editor 6:55a Prix de Conde-G3, CHY -------------- ------- 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 16 • THETDN.COM MONDAY • SEPTEMBER 28, 2020 The Week in Review (cont. from p1) So let's start with Baffert first, because this year he's holding a balanced hand of both older horses and 3-year-old threats for the Classic. Baffert trainees ran one-two in the Awesome Again, with 9-5 second choice Improbable benefitting from an ideal speed setup that involved stablemate Maximum Security (New Year's Day), the 1-2 favorite, committing to prominent placement behind a 59-1 pacemaker. >Max' was always under pressure and sandwiched between horses while bumping and grinding in stalk mode for most of the trip. But he clearly did not have the requisite gear in reserve to put up a serious stretch battle when confronted by Improbable's quarter-pole surge. Maximum Security | Horsephotos Improbable has now won three straight Grade I routes with triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures in each, and this colt appears to be rounding into form akin to what bettors envisioned when they sent him postward as the 4-1 chalk in last year's GI Kentucky Derby. He was moved up to fourth in the wake of Maximum Security's controversial DQ that day, and has since overcome habitual unruliness in the starting gate to blossom over nine and 10 furlongs after attempts to campaign as a miler didn't pan out. But Improbable hitting the road for the Breeders' Cup at Keeneland might be a different proposition than the Improbable who relishes his home track at Santa Anita. He's three-for-four there lifetime, and Baffert said post-race Saturday that, AThis horse loves this track. He seems to be better in the gate here. That's why we ran him here. Elliott Walden [the president and CEO of Win Star Farm, a co-owner of the colt], it was his idea to keep him here because we don't have to ship.@ Cont. p4 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 16 • THETDN.COM MONDAY • SEPTEMBER 28, 2020 While Maximum Security (10-for-13 lifetime) didn't win, he who picked an ideal time to mature from a colt who had was hardly disgraced in defeat. The colt is now three races into focusing issues into a front-running force capable of carrying his what is widely considered the second phase of his career, and speed over 10 furlongs. Baffert will also send out Thousand the closely watched line of demarcation for this $16,000 Words (Pioneerof the Nile) in the Preakness. That million-dollar maiden-claimer turned 3-year-old champ is his March transfer KEESEP colt was a late Derby scratch after flipping in the out of the barn of trainer Jason Servis, who is facing federal Churchill Downs paddock, and he resonates on paper as the charges for allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs on quintessential "other" Baffert dark horse who could go off at a racehorses. juicy Preakness price with all of the attention focused on The feds have Servis recorded via wiretap allegedly discussing Authentic. (among other things) a 2019 doping regimen for Max, so his performance at age four is unquestionably being viewed through the prism of how much of his past prowess was attributable to illicit pharmaceuticals. The verdict so far since moving into Baffert's barn? Yes, Maximum Security has two wins and a second from three graded stakes starts in SoCal. But his far-turn blast-offs don't ripple with the same raw, kinetic energy that Max flashed so brilliantly at age three. The visual impression he leaves now is of a hard-trying horse who still sustains a high cruising speed without backing away from fights--yet absent the palpable swagger and spark that once enabled him to swat away late-race attacks from A-level competition with ease. On the sophomore side, Baffert also conditions Kentucky Derby victor and Preakness favorite Authentic (Into Mischief), Art Collector | Coady Photography YOU CAN’T WIN IF YOU’RE NOT IN NOVEMBER 6 & 7 KEENELAND BREEDERS’ CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS Championship Races • $31 Million in Purses and Awards • Nov. 6-7, 2020 • Lexington, KY Pre-Entry Deadline: October 26th at 12 noon (EDT) New medication rules in effect for the 2020 World Championships Details provided in the Horsemen’s Information Guide Participants will receive seating at the Championships The Horsemen’s Guide is now available online by visting members.breederscup.com [email protected] • 859•514•9422 MEMBERS.BREEDERSCUP.COM TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 5 OF 16 • THETDN.COM MONDAY • SEPTEMBER 28, 2020 Art Collector (Bernardini) figured to be the second favorite in Looking ahead to the Classic over the Keeneland surface, it's the Derby before being forced to scratch the week of the race worth noting that one of the best races in Art Collector's with a minor foot injury. He should emerge as the second past-performance block is his GII Toyota Blue Grass S. win there favorite in the Preakness betting behind Authentic, and having July 11. the extra time between his last prep (an Aug. 9 win in the Ellis Of course, the top 3-year-old Classic threat from an overall Park Derby) and the concluding jewel of the Triple Crown could body of work standpoint remains Tiz the Law (Constitution).